Ethiopia’s Omo Valley | Africa’s Last Frontier, National Geographic Magazine: Mursi woman licks beer off lip plate

A Mursi woman licks the last drop of beer off of her lip plate in a bar in Kibbish, the last village at the end of the last road in the upper Omo Valley.  Outside, police are walking up and down the town’s main dirt road with megaphones, telling men to check their AK-47′s at the police station.  Obviously the man facing away in the background of this photo is ignoring their message. Years of stretching a chin incision that was made during teenage years allows this woman to wear a lip plate.  The origin of this tradition is debated, but current belief is that it is purely for adornment.  Women don’t wear their lip plates while in their home village.  So when in remote areas of Ethiopia, only accessible by boat on the Omo River, women wander their villages feeling safe with their lip plates off. Without the plate, a ring of flesh hangs across their chins.