What is the meaning of a lip plate?

What is the meaning of a lip plate?

The lip plate, also known as a lip plug or lip disc, is a form of body modification. Increasingly large 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.

What is the tradition of this lip plate?

Lip plates or saucers are generally considered to be a “rite of passage” from adolescence to womanhood. According to tradition, a lip plate is evidence of each woman’s fertility and proof that she is ready for marriage. It is meant to show that a girl has reached marriageable age and is ready to become a wife.

Can you eat with a lip plate?

People often ask me if the women wear the lip plates all the time and how can they eat with them. The answer is no, they don’t wear them all the time. That means they eat without the plate, meaning their stretched lip hangs down, sometimes even under their chin.

What is the trend characteristics of lip plates?

The lip-plate (dhebi a tugoin) has become the chief visible distinguishing characteristic of the Mursi and made them a prime attraction for tourists. A girl’s lower lip is cut, by her mother or by another woman of her settlement, when she reaches the age of 15 or 16.

What are lip plates made of?

Lip plates are usually made of clay or wood and range between 4 and 25 centimeters. To be placed on the lip, two or four teeth are removed before the lower lip is cut to fit the lip plate. This lip plate process is usually done by their mother when they attain puberty.

Who is the guy with the lip plate in Black Panther?

Although he didn’t say one line in the entire movie as the River Tribe Elder, Ivorian actor Isaach de Bankolé had one of the most distinctive appearances in Black Panther, wearing a flashy turquoise suit and traditional lip plate to accompany it.

Why do Africans put plates in mouth?

Mursi women are famous for their wooden lip plates – a symbol of beauty and identity. A girl’s lower lip is cut (sometimes by her mother) when she reaches 15 or 16, and held open by a sodden plug until it heals. Unmarried girls, especially those with large labrets, might wear them whenever they are in public.

Why do Africans put discs in their mouth?

Women of the Mursi tribe may have their lips cut at the age of 15 or 16. A small clay plate is then inserted into the lip. Through the years, larger plates are inserted into the lip causing it to stretch. It is said that the clay plates were originally used to prevent capture by slave traders.

Is the Black Panther lip plate real?

The River Tribe is Nakia’s tribe. The Elder wears a lip plate and ear gauges. Lip plate is prosthetic that took hours to put on every day.

How do tribes eat with lip plates?

Eating involves using the lips a lot, so, understandably, people wonder how this basic function is possible with a lip plate in the way. Lip plates are not permanent. They can be taken out at any time. Therefore, when Mursi women want to eat, they take the lip plate out, then put the plate back in after they are done.

Why is lip stretching exercises in Africa?

In Africa, more precisely Ethiopia and tribes of the Mursi, Chai and Tirma, lip stretching or lip-plates (dhebi a tugoin) is seen as beautiful, denoting female maturity. Even though the process is very painful, inserting a disc or a plate in the lower lip represents beauty in this part of the world.

What is the mingi curse?

Mingi — a concept so taboo that the word is rarely spoken aloud in the Omo Valley — is the belief that a baby is “cursed” if it is born out of wedlock or, even more bizarrely, if the child’s top teeth appear before the bottom teeth.