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Lip Plates

What is it?

A lip plate is a form of body modification that is traditional among women in the Omo Valley of Ethiopia in Africa.

What is a lip plate?

What is it made out of?

Lip plates are typically made out of wood or clay

Where are lip plates

from?

Lip plates are worn by women in the Omo Valley in Ethiopia in Africa. They are worn by the Mursi, Sara and Suma tribes.

Where is it from?

Who wears lip plates?

  • Between the ages of 15 and 16, women first start wearing the traditional lip plate
  • Lip plates are worn until a woman's husband dies
  • They are worn by the women of the Mursi, Suma and Sara tribes in Ethiopia

Who typically wears them?

What is its purpose?

What is it's purpose?

  • Symbolize the beauty and identity of a woman
  • May also mark the commitment to a husband (it is worn while serving him food)
  • Major markers of one's tribe
  • Rite of passage from adolescence to womanhood
  • Symbol of fertility
  • Identifies when a woman is ready for marriage

How are lip

plates worn?

How are lip plates worn?

Traditional:

  • Worn by women in their lower lips to symbolize beauty and fertility
  • The lower lip of the girl is cut and then stretched until the desired size

Modern:

  • Women may choose not to wear the lip plate
  • Lip plates are only worn on special occasions (women are often seen walking around with their bottom lips dangling)

Traditional

Traditional

Modern

Where is Ethiopia Located?

Maps

Eastern Africa

Omo Valley Location

Omo Valley

Southwestern Ethiopia

Values/ideas/norms/beliefs

Reflection

Lip plates reflect the tradition of acknowledging when a girl becomes a woman. They are not only used as symbols of fertility and readiness for marriage, they also show the beauty of a woman.

Lip plates were also said to become popular when the men of Ethiopia wanted to make their women unappealing to the eyes of colonizers (prevent slavery)

If a woman does not want her lip cut to fit for a lip plate, she is deemed lazy. It would also result in the loss of goods for the family of the girl from the family of the husband to be.

Lip plates are traditionally worn more frequently by unmarried women and newly weds. They are also worn during four main occasions; serving meals, ritual events, duelling competitions and dances.

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