2. Stretched Lips (Mursi women of Southern Ethiopia)
Lip plates or lip disks are the most widespread fashion trend worn for centuries in different African and South American communities. Usually, only women wear these accessories that are very popular among tribal groups of Ethiopia. Mursi knows that the size of a dinner plate fits the best and girls rock them from their teenage years. This is the way they mark a girl who’s going to be a woman. At age 13 they start the process of stretching their lower lips. It’s a painful and unpleasant thing. After healing the wound, they replace one peg with a larger one, and stretching process starts over again. When the hole gets big enough, they put the first wooden plate, and it’s about 4cm across. Women have a right to choose how far they wish to stretch their lips. If a plate is more than 20cm, women have to remove some of their lower teeth (Ouch) Married women put some food on their plates when serving their husbands a meal. Also, it’s an important part of their wedding ritual.
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