A digital archive showcasing the extensive collection of jewellery and adornment images shared on the former Ethnic Jewels Ning site over the years. These images have significantly enriched discussions on cultural adornment and its global dispersion.
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I really love ethnical jewellery, I love the differences of the peoples of the world, but everything that goes further (things that destroy natural behaviour, e.g. this lip plate (how can she eat, how can she talk?), or the long necks in Asia (if removed, they might die from collapse of the muscles/bones), female sexual mutilation (hope this is the correct word in English), etc. - I don't like it. She can paint her body, she can wear jewellery all over, buth why these lips? Must have been terribly painful to get there, and what for? Some of our fashions are also terrible, but pleeeeease do not change what nature or God has given you. There are many mysteries in Africa, I have discovered many, that please but also others, which are frightening (e.g. Voodoo and similar practices - which DOES work! Never try it !!!!)! I am sure that the African continent and its people would proceed in prosperity, if these practices would be abandoned. Anyway, the photo is impressing and certainly not everyday-stuff. It must be from Ethiopia.
@ Eva.
There are a few concepts as to why the lip plates were worn, some are tied to animalworships, and the look is to emulate an animal which is held in spiritual esteem. Another theory which is often heard is that the practice made the women less pleasing to slave traders, and as such they may avoid being taken.
There are many diverse cultural choices, and freedom of expression for me is something to celebrate... The gun is something I find more unsettling than the lip plate!!
S x
@I know the story, that they used the lip plates (the Ethiopian Mursi) in order to be safe from slave traders... I agree that a gun is more terrible. Nevertheless, I feel it is not a good custom. Ok, I do not know their religion, that is true... but sometimes advancing is necessary.
Wise words, Sarah. I wonder what the point of the ipod in one hand and the gun in the other is though...
An interesting topic. Wikipedia starts its article on "lip plates" as follows:
"A lip plate, also known as a lip plug or lip disc, is a form of body modification. Increasingly larger discs (usually circular, and made from clay or wood) are inserted into a pierced hole in either the upper or lower lip, or both, thereby stretching it. The term labret (pronounced LAY-bret) denotes all kinds of pierced-lip ornaments, including plates and plugs.
"Archeological evidence indicates that labrets have been independently invented no less than six times, in Kamchatka (8700 BC), Iran (6400 BC), the Balkans (5000 BC), Sudan (3700 BC), Mesoamerica (1500 BC), and Coastal Ecuador (500 BC).[1] Today, the custom is maintained by a few groups in Africa and Amazonia. Some scholars have argued that in Africa, labret fashion boomed because slave traders refused to purchase slaves whose appearance was not considered "pristine" for the prospective buyers.[citation needed]"
The question arises, I feel, what ORIGINALLY drove people to adopt lip plates, and to do so independently in several different places. One supposes it can hardly have STARTED with the thought that one would make oneself unattractive as a potential slave, or so I would surmise. The custom goes back so far in time that the answer to this question may well be forever lost. It is conceivable, for example, that the reason for using this form of adornment (if that is what it was universally taken to be) was not the same in each place. A most curious matter.
@Joost: thanks, an interesting article!
Very interesting, also why they might wear them, I know they are very proud to have them and the bigger the better, it looks ever weirder when the plug is taken out.
I agree on the gun, wonder why she is carrying it, thought mostly the men carry guns. The ipod or radio is modern times catching up I guess......
Let me tell you about the lip plates of the Mursi,Ethiopia,Cambella. The lips plate are started in small size and enlarged in time. The two bottom teeth are removed in order to carry these plates. When the plates are not in it is not a pretty sight, the lower lip hangs there and when talking the tong slips out because of the removal of the two lower teeth. The fashion of the lip plates of the Mursi came in because the women of that group are considered to be good looking and were often abducted by other groups around to marry them. So to make them less attractive this came in use.
I think this woman is more from the Southern Sudan and most probably a fighter with of a liberation group.