A typical Mursi woman
It is said that, Ethnic Mursi women with a Lip plate or lip cup carrying a small pot and holding her baby with one hand are seen at the Omo Valley in Ethiopia.
According to the sources, women of the Mursi tribe usually have their lips cut at the age of 15 or 16 and a small clay plate is then fixed into the lip.
Through the years, bigger plates are also fixed into the lips causing it to extra stretch. Hence, the larger the clay plate, the more the woman is valueable before she gets married.
It is said that the clay plates were initially used to avoid capture by slave traders. Although it is very unique and part of their tradition, the Mursi women only keep the plates for a short time because they are much heavy and painful.
It was said that this practice was 1st carried out to make them look horrible when Arab traders continually searched their villages in hunt of slaves.
So,that explanation has been banned as studies expose that the plates are a symbol or look of social status.
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