If any country has a

reputation for modesty and

manners, it’s Japan. The
Japanese are polite, never
late and constantly bowing,
goes the usual narrative –
and there’s certainly truth
in that. But the reality is a
little more complicated – and
that complexity is on full
view at one of the country’s
most outlandish religious
festivals, the Kanamara
Matsuri, or “Festival of the
Steel Phallus”, held annually
in Kawasaki, just south of Tokyo.

The first Sunday in April marks the celebration of the

Shinto fertility festival, the Kanamara Matsuri or the
“Festival of the Steel Phallus.” Known colloquially as the
“Penis Festival”, these festivities celebrate just that: the
power of the humble penis. And it is an event that is gaining
increasing popularity, especially among foreign visitors, each
year.
 Legend has it that when Shinto goddess Izanami no
Mikoto gave birth to a fire god, she suffered great injuries
on the lower half of her body. It's said that Kanayamahiko-no-
Kami and Kanayamahime-no-Kami, two gods enshrined at the
Kanayama Shrine, healed Izanami's injuries. According to some
sources, Kanayamahiko and Kanayamahime were both originally
gods of mining and blacksmiths. But because of this myth
involving Izanami, those seeking help with venereal diseases,
fertility, safe childbirth, and matrimonial happiness began to
pray to the two gods as well

Another legend has it that sometime back in the Edo

period (1603-1867), there was a sharp-toothed demon who fell
in love with a beautiful woman. The woman, however, didn't
return the demon's affection and decided to marry another man.
Angering the demon, he inhabited the woman's vagina before
their wedding night and when they tried to consummate the
marriage, the demon bit off the groom's penis with his razor
sharp teeth.When the woman remarried, the jealous demon once
again made his feelings clear by biting off her second
husband's penis. Deciding that enough was enough, the upset
villagers concocted a plan to trick the demon. A local
blacksmith forged a steel phallus and upon its insertion, the
demon's teeth were broken and he left the woman's vagina for
good.

Sometime thereafter the legend was commemorated by way of

the Kanamara Matsuri and the enshrinement of the actual steel
phallus at Kanayama Shrine, constructed to honor Kanayama
Hikonokami and Kanayama Himenokami, the Shinto deities of
childbirth and lower abdomen health.
 The Kanayama Shrine then became renowned as a site for
sex workers to pray for protection against STDs. Nowadays the
shrine is said to aid fertility and is often visited by
married couples hoping to start a family. The festival itself
has also become popular with the gay, lesbian and transgender
communities.
They have come up with additional monkeys at this shrine.
The Kanamara Matsuri is often presented to outsiders as yet
another face of “quirky Japan”, but in fact, it’s a serious
religious affair, linked to Japan’s nature-worshipping Shinto
religion.

It’s organised by the priests of Kanayama Jinja, a ‘sub-

shrine’ of the larger Wakamiya Hachimangu that, the rest of
the year, is populated almost exclusively by locals. For
centuries, Kanayama has been a place where couples pray for
fertility and marital harmony; during the Edo era, from the
17th to 19th centuries, sex workers would come and pray to be
rid of the STIs that they picked up in the course of the
job. There was even a festival revolving around fertility and
sexual health during those times – but the tradition was lost
in the late 1800s. In the 1970s, then-chief priest Hirohiko
Nakamura decided to resurrect it.
The Japanese aren’t exactly known for broadcasting their
sex lives and until recently, the Kanamara Matsuri mostly
attracted a smattering of overseas visitors. But five years
ago everything changed when it was name-checked by Matsuko
Deluxe, a Japanese TV personality known for his cross-dressing
and pro-sexuality views. The festival quickly gained domestic
followers – today it attracts around 50,000 visitors.
 The parade consists of three mikoshi, each containing an
enormous disembodied phallus. The first – ramrod straight and
made of shiny black metal – is carried by a troupe of
whistling and chanting shrine-bearers, careering from side to
side down the street as festivalgoers jump out of the way. The
second is an old wooden model, ancient and gnarled. The third
is carried by a joso group: members of a cross-dressing club
called Elizabeth Kaikan whose members are decked out in bright
makeup and colourful wigs as they jiggle the mikoshi in the
air, pouting and preening for the cameras.

But although some see the festival as a joke, Kimiko

Nakamura, former chief priestess at the shrine (and wife of
Hirohiko, who rebooted the festival), stresses that it’s a
legitimate event – politically as well as from a religious
perspective. Groups of people wander by sucking on penis-
shaped lollipops coloured green, blue, purple and pink. The
line at the sweet stand is at least 30 deep. Even local
restaurants are doing their own take on phallic-shaped fare.

Outside the procession, vendors and stores were selling

phallic-shaped candies and goods. The prices were ridiculous,
but that didn't stop people from buying and licking
overpriced, penis-shaped lollipops.

The bottle of sake is sold at the festival as a kind of

play on words with the characters used for this
“Kingyoku/Banko Happy Set” (as Japanese kanji characters can
carry different pronunciations and meaning depending on
context). While the first word could be taken to mean
“testicles”, it's actually in reference to the expression kin-
gyoku ryouen, meaning “flawless jewel.” And while the second
could be mistaken for “vagina”, it's referring to the
expression ban-ko fu-eki, portraying a permanent state of
goodness or quality.

If you can't wait to drink your sake, then the free

tasting from early afternoon might be up your alley. But of
course there is a Kanamara Matsuri twist! You eat a small
dried fish before swallowing the amazake (sweet sake). Why?
The sweet cloudy white sake mixed with the salty fishiness of
the dried fish is said to mimic both the look and taste of
semen.
 There is no stronger celebration of the Japanese joystick
than Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Iron Phallus). The
story goes that in the 1600s, during Japan’s Edo period, local
prostitutes would congregate at the Kanamara Shinto shrine in
Kawasaki, where they’d pray for protection against sexually
transmitted diseases. A more fantastic tale lies in the fabled
“vagina dentata,” or toothed vagina, which supposedly
castrated several poor young men on their wedding nights. The
woman cursed with the toothed vagina (most likely a metaphor
for syphilis, which was common then) went to see a blacksmith,
who forged her an iron dildo in order to break the teeth of
her inner demon, thus protecting the penis of her future
suitor. The Kanamara shrine is dedicated to the blacksmith,
and over the centuries sex workers have paid pilgrimage to the
shrine to seek its powers of protection.

While this festival has a deeper meaning, it’s still a

penis festival—and you won’t be disappointed if that’s what
you came to see (though they won't be the real deal).With all
penis hats, penis puppets, penis floats, penis costumes and
penis lollipops, you'd think it was the biggest bachelorette
party ever. But in Japan during this celebration last week,
nobody shies away from sex or the sex organs; you’ll see
elderly Japanese alongside young couples seeking cures for
impotence and infertility. Penis icons are not in short
supply, with all shapes and sizes made from iron, wood and
inflatable plastic.
 It may be hard for outsiders to understand why the
Japanese, a typically reserved people, go all out with the
male sexual organ on this day, but as far as self-expression
goes, this culture is all about one big release as opposed to
lots of little ones.It may appear to be an outlandish display
of sexuality (and in many ways it does make Western culture
seem quite prudish), but many would argue that the openness of
the festival is a healthy one which celebrates the ability to
reproduce. In fact, many Japanese visit the festival with
their children and happily go about giving them a penis
lollipop or propping their babies up on a phallus for a
picture without “sexualizing” it in any way.
Furthermore, it is also a celebration where people of any
sexuality are welcomed and the festival exudes a kind of
acceptance that I haven't seen so often in Japan, where ideas
of homosexuality and sex change are often ignored and/or
repressed as “not the done thing” by society at large.
 Kanayama Shrine was popular with sex workers from the
local tea houses who prayed for protection from sexually
transmitted diseases. It is where the Kanama Matsuri is
celebrated every first Sunday of April.
The overall atmosphere of the festival is light and
lively, and has become a hit among foreign tourists. If
anything, the event was so crowded that people were lucky just
to make it from the street to the shrine, underlining the
festival’s popularity as a quirky “alternative festival” among
travelers and expats in Japan.

“I’d never even heard of the festival before my foreign friend

told me about it,” said Marie, a female attendee in her late
20s. “Many Japanese don’t even know it exists.”
This could be due to history. During the Edo period, Kawasaki
was one of the final stops along the Tokaido en route to Edo
(now Tokyo), where merchants would stop at the city’s tea
houses, which doubled as brothels. According to a salacious
legend, which can be read about here, the prostitutes visited
Kanayama Shrine to pray for protection against venereal
diseases (framed as demons).

Over time, other people began to frequent the shrine to

pray for fertility and abundance. Similar festivals sprouted
up across Japan, geared towards conception and a good harvest.
While all of this is lighthearted, healthy – albeit very
quirky – fun for Japanese and tourists today, there is an
underlying irony and more serious message to note. As the
festivities move along, it would appear that many Japanese
remain blissfully unaware of the nation’s own impending
crisis, which is closely linked to the original intent of the
festival.

Put bluntly, Japan desperately needs its people to make

some babies. Seiko Noda, a legislator from Japan’s house of
representatives since 1993, even called for Japan to ban
abortion in the Asahi Shimbun this February, according to the
Washington Post. Given Japan’s abysmally low birthrate and
looming demographic disaster, maybe now is a good time to
reconnect with its fertility festivals.

https://notesofnomads.com/kanamara-penis-festival-japan/

https://www.everfest.com/magazine/videos/celebrate-all-things-
penis-kanamara-matsuri-2014

http://thediplomat.com/2013/04/kanamara-matsuri-fertility-
festivals-relevance-for-japan/
 The Sambia are a tribe of
mountain-dwelling, hunting and
horticultural people who inhabit
the fringes of the Eastern
Highlands Province of Papua New
Guinea, and are extensively
described by the
American anthropologist Gilbert
Herdt. The Sambia —
a pseudonym created by Herdt
himself — are well known by
cultural anthropologists for their acts of "ritualized
homosexuality" and semen ingestion practices with pubescent
boys. In his studies of the Sambia, Herdt describes the people
in light of their sexual culture and how their practices shape
the masculinities of adolescent Sambia boys.
The primary focus of the initiation ritual is to transform
“boys” who are considered feminine persons of women houses
into fierce, strong, male warriors. This process of initiation
from boy to man is also known as masculinization. In actuality
men are “reborn” from men and are taught many important things
such as that woman are dangerous and emasculating. Strangely
enough the women are placed in a situation where they are
isolated by their husbands, who are much older than them. The
youths are now the targeted ones who the women want to use to
fulfill their sexual desires. The men however, are not
concerned about falling for these women. They have been taught
well about how women can be dangerous to men, especially the
younger adolescent men who can even die from heterosexual
intercourse.

The isolationism they encounter not only prevent the

youth from having any sexual activities with women, but also
from seducing, or being seduced by married women - which would
later create chaos by enemies. This certainly teaches the boys
that they can indeed live without their mothers and certainly
without any females around them. What the boys need is semen
in order to mature. In some cultures such as this one in Papa
New Guinea a homosexuality ritual takes place. Ironically the
homosexual practice is not a feminizing ritual, but rather the
beginning of a fierce and brutal warrior. The Sambia
initiatory cycle starts when the boy is between the ages of 6
and 10, and proceeds to 6 stages until he becomes the father
of one child, some 10 to 15 years later. The following six
initiations take place over time where the boys are isolated
from women. They are killed as boys and reborn as men.

The first stage is when the boys are removed from their
mothers and are then inducted into the men’s cult. This
ceremony last for seven days, 18 rituals, or ordeals, to which
these young boys are subjected. They are being harden, tested,
and united into a group of leaders as well as being started on
their way to becoming fierce warriors soon after they reach
puberty. On the first day they are taken from their mothers,
they are then walked for several hours to the dance grounds of
the last friendly hamlet, also known as a "small village."
These boys are about to go through arduous and painful
rituals. "A crowd of men hem the boys in beside a pool in the
brook. A war leader picks out a sharp stick of cane and sticks
it deep inside the boys nostrils until he bleeds profusely
into the stream of a pool, an act greeted by loud war cries.
The men repeat the war chant for each boy. Here if the
initiate tries to escape he will be treated worst then the
others - this brutality is certainly overwhelming and
astonishing. Older men now tell the boys that the bachelors
are going to copulate with them orally in order to make them
grow. The whole purpose of this is because several elders
testify that boys are unable to mature into men unless they
ingest semen and that all men have, “eaten the penis”. After
formal ceremonies end, the bachelors make erotic advances to
the boys and homosexual activity takes place outside on the
darkened dance ground. "Not all initiates will participate in
this ceremonial homosexual activity, but in about five days
later several will have perform fellatio several times. It is
quite astonishing to see the men who are known to be so
prudish to participate in homosexual activity so openly and
welcoming. Boys would even seek out their favorite bachelors
by openly stimulating their genitalia. There is no doubt that
the first and second stage initiates have developed an erotic
attraction toward their inseminators.

The second stage does not change the boy’s status at all.
It is in a way a continuation of the first stage. The boys
continue to take in as much semen as possible which will later
make them strong, fierce warriors and leaders. All of the
foods that the initiates were now supposed to eat are not
severed in a wonderful feast, which the boys gather around and
eat. This is a time to reward the boys of their efforts to of
becoming men while still not being able to be around women
because they are considered emasculating in several ways. The
second stage has no great significant difference from the
first initiation other than the reward that is given to the
boys from the food taboo. "They are certainly beginning to get
the hang of what is going to happen to them in the future and
hopefully they will be able to continue the process and hold
on for this crazy ride from boy to man.

The third stage, in contrast, brings about a very

important change in the youth’s status and activities. It is a
puberty rite that marks adolescences. The boys become
bachelors and shift from being inseminated to becoming
inseminators. The adolescents are severely beaten and nose
bled. They are taken to certain trees where they are whipped
and purified from any female contamination that could have
possible taken place between the times that they left. "After
the boys are thrashed with quill bones and are violently and
unexpectedly subjected to another nose bleed, another step in
this initiation is to capture a women foe in the hamlet and
kill an enemy warrior. After the warrior must ingest his
semen, the semen in essence of the masculine spirit, would
transfer to the enemy and slower and strengthen the dying
enemy."

The forth stage occurs when he is married, usually to a

bride obtained by his father or older brothers. A youth will
not start living with this bride until short before or after
her menarche, the first menstrual period, occurring during
puberty. However, he is now told how to protect himself from
women’s genital odor. While having intercourse he must not
penetrate too deeply because if it enters her urethra it might
make him ill. "A ceremony now links the youth’s growth,
strength, as that of a specific tree. This is where the youth
is now exposed to the women after he has been forewarned about
every dangerous thing that a women can posses against a man.

The fifth stage of initiation now takes about at the time

of his wife’s menarche. His nose is now bled once more by
himself and he learns in great detail how to protect himself
from his wife’s pollution in greater detail. In certain cases
he must place mint leaves in his nostrils and chew a certain
branch while having intercourse will this wife so he will not
smell his wife’s genital odor. After this, he must bathe in a
bath of mud and bleed his nose each time his wife menstruates.
He begins to be hostile with his wife because he is upset that
he has to nose bleed each time she menstruates because she
pollutes him and endangers his life. "The initiate is now a
man who has been isolated from women for a 12 years; he has
practiced homosexual fellatio, and has even had the dangers of
vaginal intercourse readily. His young wife has been taught to
practice fellatio before they even attempt to vaginal
intercourse. She must ingest the semen given to her by her
husband to later be able to provide him with child. It is
believed that breast milk is transformed semen and therefore
it is the men who indirectly nourish the baby.

The sixth stage of initiation bestows the full rights of

manhood and takes place after the man has proven that he has
achieved masculinity by having a child, and preferable two.
"The man is instructed to refrain from any intercourse with
the new mother and keep away from the child until it is
weaned, a matter of several years. He does not need to bleed
his nose anymore unless he has another wife to attend to.He
must keep all his secrets of the male cult and be sure never
to tell anyone about it, not even his wife because if that was
to happen he will be castrated and killed.

This is certainly a very tough and long initiation

process that takes place in Papa New Guinea. Unfortunately
many boys have gone through this and have not been able to
survive this tedious initiation. Those who have, are
considered great warrior and are then the initiators of the
next generation of initiates. The Sambia tribe is a very
strict tribe when it comes to male masculinization. Most of
the time the male’s life is spent in his ritual of initiation
where he dies as a boy and is reborn as a man in a society
where feminization is a degradable characteristic.
 To become a man in the primitive tribe Papua, New Guinea,
boys are removed from the presence of all females at the age
of seven, living with other males for ten years. During the
ten years, the skin is pierced to remove any contamination
brought upon by women. For the same reason, they also
regularly incur nose-bleeding and vomiting caused by consuming
large amounts of sugarcane.

The Sambians top off their bizarre rituals by requiring

the boys to ingest the semen of their elders, which is thought
to sustain growth and strength. When they are finally
introduced back into the tribe, they continue to engage in
nose-bleeding at the same time as their wives’ menstrual
cycles. This highly unusual ceremony is essentially one that
is designed by the tribe to induct adolescent boys into
manhood. Various cultures around the world have different
masculinisation practices, such as bar mitzvahs where young
Jewish boys become men in the eyes of their communities, but
none stand out as much as the one the Sambia tribe practice.
The whole thing kicks off when the boys are between 6 and 10
years old and consists of 6 separate stages. First off they
are taught that women can be a danger to men so the boys are
instructed to detach themselves from their mothers and other
women in the tribe so they can learn to live without them.
Next a sharp cane stick is stuck into their nostrils causing
them to bleed… alot. This is designed to teach them about pain
and learn the ability to withstand it. Finally the boys are
then instructed to perform fellatio on the elders in the tribe
and consume their semen. This ingestion of semen is seen as
integral to becoming a man, as according to their belief, a
man’s semen contains the masculine spirit which the young boys
can only attain through its consumption.

While pedophilia is seen as a disturbing problem in many

industrialized countries, there are still parts of the world
that allow and accept pedophilia as part of their culture. For
example, while countries such as the United States, Canada,
and Britain ensure that no minor is taken advantage of by an
adult and that the rights of children are protected through
government laws, this is sadly not the case everywhere within
the world. A sad reality of this can be seen in the Sambia
tribe in Papua New Guinea. In the Sambia tribe, older men
force young boys outside of their homes to begin their
“masculinization process.” The young boys are taken away from
their mothers at very young ages (from the age of 6 to 10) and
forced to perform oral sex on much older men. Rather than
denouncing pedophilia, the Sambia culture promotes and openly
practices acts of pedophilia. I am shocked and disgusted that
such appalling behaviour is allowed. No matter what arguments
one may make about “culture” or “tradition,” this practice is
a gross violation of these young boys’ bodies. I would even
say that it is a form of rape – these young boys are taken
from their homes and forced to perform oral sex acts on much
older men. They do not choose this. Moreover, any boy that
tries to escape this dehumanizing and inhumane practice of
forced sex is cruelly punished. Sadly, allowing such practices
to exist means that they are repeated again. The young boys
who were essentially raped by the older men become adults
themselves and go on to practice the same ritual on other
young boys. The victims become the rapists and perpetuators of
this barbaric act which violates the basic rights of the poor
young boys. You may be wondering where the women stand within
this culture – well they have as little rights as the young
boys. They are seen as subordinate to the Sambia men and have
little to no voice.

https://everythingtourism.blogspot.com/2016/09/semen-drinking-
sambia-tribe.html
http://canadianlegalsystem.blogspot.com/2013/06/papua-new-
guineas-sambia-tribe.html
http://www.askmen.com/top_10/dating/crazy-nsfw-sex-
cultures_5.html
 The Samburu, a
subdivision of Masais living in the
semi-arid North Central Laikipia,
are very community minded with
several practices that foster
cohesion. There is a circumcision
ritual Muratare e Layiok about
every 14-15 years; all older boys
not in the previous group (usually
from 11-25 ) are circumcised
together, marking the onset of
their Moran (warrior) period. Girls
as young as seven-years-old are sexually active and sometimes
with their parents’ blessings.

In this land, girls get circumcised anytime after

reaching 10-years-of-age, a brutal yet culturally important
rite of passage. In this beautiful land, the ‘female cut’
determines maturity in girls after which the next ‘stage of
honor’ is forced marriage and motherhood. Samburu girls are
circumcised (clitoris removed) but individually either when
young, as a teen, or right before marriage. Unless she has
had the procedure, termed by others FGC (female genital
cutting) she is still considered a girl and an unsuitable
sexual partner. The samburu beading practice is a practice
which ALL Samburu girls MUST go through either partially (for
educated girls during their FGC or as they wed) or completely
(for illiterate girls who have never gone to school other than
the Shepherds School that started recently). Beads are a part
of their lives as they grow up. The practice is normally
initiated by parents around puberty, but possibly
earlier. Morans (warriors) buy beads for a specific girl and
she qualifies as his legal girlfriend , accepted by the
community, now usually with her assent. This tradition of
morans buying beads for girls is slowing down, but remains a
special indication of a Samburu girl’s beauty, as do the beads
given by parents and uncles. All beaded Samburu girls MUST
undergo FGC and marriage for a bride price at any age decided
by the parents especially the father and uncles. The girls are
often married by 12-14, their youth and naivety preventing
them from doing anything about it.
As young Morans [warriors] are not allowed to have sexual
intercourse with circumcised girls they seek out younger girls
who are not circumcised to quench their sexual desires. Young
girls are not allowed to say no to a Moran let alone look him
in the eye, something which goes for all women. When a Moran
fancies a girl, he beads her – meaning he gives her a gift of
beads, which she wears and which marks her as the Moran’s
property. When this happens, the girl’s parents will go an
extra mile and build a small manyatta [dwelling] for the girl,
which she moves into to provide her and her Moran with privacy
whenever the Moran chooses to visit her. A girl can be beaded
by more than one Moran and this is a symbol of pride to her.
However, once circumcised, the beads come off; the girl is now
a ‘young woman’ and will not continue with the Moran.
 The possibility of getting pregnant especially when
engaging in unprotected and unsafe sex is often very high,
thus it is not unusual to see girls as young as nine or ten
getting pregnant. When this happens they are forced to undergo
abortions. These forced abortions are carried out in the most
inhumane and brutal manner and not only result to the death of
the fetus but sometimes that of the mother too.
Pregnant girls are given local herbs which they drink to expel
the pregnancy. Sometimes, if the fetus is breathing when it is
expelled or if it is almost full term and born alive it is
given a mixture of tobacco and water to drink which kills it.
Alternatively, young girls in their first and second trimester
are ‘kneed’ to remove the fetus. Here, a girl lies down and an
older woman presses the girl’s tummy with her knee in
strategic places. It is like kicking someone on the stomach
and it is very painful. This procedure can not only result to
hemorrhaging but also death to the young girl.

In very rare instances a girl can be allowed to give

birth. If she gives birth to a boy it will be killed by being
given the tobacco mixture to drink. A girl can sometimes be
left to live because it will earn the family dowry. A Moran
can sometime intervene and ask to marry the girl and when this
happens, the girl undergoes female circumcision and is then
married off to the Moran when she gives birth.

To these girls, anyone who is not circumcised is looked

down upon and considered a child despite her age.
Surprisingly, although they are aware of the dangers and risks
associated with female circumcision and forced marriage, they
do not see their rights as being infringed. When told that
these actions are against the laws of the land they argue
otherwise, because to them the only law they follow is their
cultural law, traditions and beliefs.
Are they aware of HIV? Yes, they know. But they have been
told it only affects uncircumcised girls. They are aware and
they attest to the fact that the female circumcision procedure
is painful but they are not aware that it can cause lifelong
problems such as fistula, complicated pregnancies and other
related health problem. Nevertheless, traditionally many do
welcome it as a culturally sanctioned rite of passage into
womanhood.
 Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all
procedures that involve partial or total removal of the
external female genitalia, or other injury to the female
genital organs for non-medical reasons. The practice is
mostly carried out by traditional circumcisers, who often
play other central roles in communities, such as attending
childbirths. In many settings, health care providers
perform FGM due to the erroneous belief that the procedure
is safer when medicalized1. WHO strongly urges health
professionals not to perform such procedures.

FGM is recognized internationally as a violation of the

human rights of girls and women. It reflects deep-rooted
inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form
of discrimination against women. It is nearly always carried
out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children.
The practice also violates a person's rights to health,
security and physical integrity, the right to be free from
torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the
right to life when the procedure results in death. However,
there are certain tribes whom the World Health Organization
and other government and nong-government organizations forbids
these traditions to be stopped but they just can’t because of
what their tradition is long before and that is what they
believe. It is considered a cultural tradition, which is often
used as an argument for its continuation.

Traditions practiced by the Indigenous people, like the

Samburu, can be very questionable to us foreigners. After this
weeks readings and videos, I feel that I can relate and
understand them more though. What I found most intriguing were
the rites of passages between the Samburu. Although I cannot
emphasize with the men and women of the tribes, I understand
their devotion to the community’s traditions and culture.
There are different sides as to whether or not the government
should encourage pastoralist to be more sedentary and I hope
to come to my own conclusive thoughts by the end of the essay.
The rites of passages for boys and girls of this indigenous
tribe are cruel and harmful, but they also come with a much
greater reward. Boys who go through circumcisions are taught
that it is the only way to become a man and a full member of
the indigenous society. Girls are treated much differently in
the Samburu culture. Girls think that they have no choice and
no power when it comes to their family and tradition. In the
circumcise traditions we can blatantly see the gendered
divisions. I understand the traditional sense of circumcision
for males and females, but I never knew about female
circumcision. In the Philippines, male circumcision is much
more common therefore it makes sense why I understand it more.
The one aspect I do not agree with in the tradition of
circumcision is the pain that both boys and girls have to go
through. While the actually process is only a couple of
minutes, post procedure seems unbearable and disturbing. I
dont think a tradition should be followed if death is
possible, but maybe that is what makes it worth it in the
indigenous culture.
 Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting -FGM/C is recognized
internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls
and women. Despite the fact that FGM is illegal in Kenya; it
is still widely practiced in Samburu, Isiolo, Marsabit and
Laikipia counties. Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting can be
defined as the practice that involves the partial/total
removal of the external genital organs of a female for
“customary or any other non-therapeutic reason”.

Although female genital mutilation (FGM) has been

outlawed in Kenya since 2001, a majority of girls of semi-
nomadic tribes like the Maasai and Samburu still undergo this
painful and damaging ritual. According to the Kenya
Demographic Household Survey of 2014, some 78 percent of
Maasai women and 86 percent of Samburu women between the ages
of 15 and 49, have been mutilated, while for Kenya's general
population the figure for FGM stands at 21 percent.

The law in Kenya is very clear in that it prohibits girls

from obtaining circumcision. However, in many communities
these practices continue in broad daylight. In marginalised
areas such as some parts of Samburu, female circumcision is
done with the blessing of local administrators who also have
their girls cut. But Section 14 of the Children’s’ Act of 2001
directly states: “No person shall subject a child to female
circumcision, early marriage or other cultural rites, customs
or traditional practices that are likely to negatively affect
the child’s life, health, social welfare, dignity or physical
or psychological development.”

The Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act of 2011

also prohibits the ‘female cut’. It provides that anyone found
practicing female circumcision and convicted will be sent to
jail for seven years or fined 500,000 Kenyan shillings (KShs)
[US $6,000]. Anyone who causes death in the process of
carrying out female circumcision will be liable to life
imprisonment. Those convicted of aiding, abetting or carrying
out female circumcision will be liable to imprisonment for a
term of between three and seven years or a fine of between
KShs 100,000 and 500,000.

Due to these laws and education on some Samburu women,

girls now may not opt to practice the tradtion. A group of
young educated Samburu women founded Samburu Women Trust in
2009. The local organisation fights against the human rights
violations towards Samburu women and girls, which origin from
traditions and believes of the Samburu culture. The research
by SWT found, that many of these harmful cultural practices
are intertwined.

https://changeinsights.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/samburu-rites-
of-passage-beading-female-and-male-circumcision/
http://www.fuambaisiaahmadu.com/blog/female-circumcision-
tradition-and-change-in-kenya
http://www.keycorrespondents.org/2012/05/08/female-
circumcision-in-samburu-kenya-where-culture-is-above-
the-law/
 Two decades ago, an
intensifying civil war between
Karenni separatists and the
Burmese army caused Kayar
residents to flee Myanmar.
Thailand granted the Kayan
temporary stay under “conflict
refugee” status. Now, the 500 or
so Kayans (also known as Padaung
people) live in guarded villages
on the northern Thai border.

The tribe has a custom where some women wearing rings to

create the appearance of a long neck. This exotic tradition
inspired the creation of tourism villages in 1985. Some
Padaung moved to these artificial hill tribe residencies with
work permits to make a living on tourism. But without
citizenship, Kayans have limited access to utilities such as
electricity, roads, health care and schools for
education. Furthermore, Thai authorities refuse to allow
Kayans to resettle outside tourist villages, claiming they are
economic migrants and not real refugees. Kayan long neck women
wear the rings from childhood, starting with four or five, and
adding more annually as they acclimate to the increased
weight. Coils weighing up to 25 pounds depress the chest and
shoulders. This creates the illusion of disembodied head
hovering over a shimmering pedestal of gold rings. Contrary
to popular belief, the coils don’t lengthen the neck itself
and thus can be removed without the neck snapping. Yet, women
still wear these coils year round with few exceptions, even
while sleeping.

The origin of the tradition mystifies even the Kayans. An

ancient legend claims rings protected villagers from tiger
attacks, since the cats attack victims at the neck. Another
theory said the rings helped ward off men from rival tribes by
lessening the women’s beauty. Today, people believe the
opposite– the longer their neck, the more beautiful the woman—
and Kayans wear the golden coils as an accessory. According to
the Silent Hopes documentary, some women enjoy upholding this
tradition but others feel pressured to endure the painful
custom to make a living. Human rights groups claim the refugee
status exploits women who can’t find other work.

An estimated 40,000 tourists per year pay between $8-16

to stop by these hill tribe villages to gaze upon the women’s
unusual appearance and take pictures. Unfortunately, the entry
fee is rarely dispensed to the villagers directly. Instead,
neck-ring-wearing-women sell trinkets, crafts and photo-ops,
essentially working in a live-in gift shop. Residents receive
an allowance of food and toiletries and profit from handicraft
sales, and women wearing brass rings earn an extra salary.
Village owners decrease wages if women discuss their plight
with visitors or use anything modern, like cell phones or
computers.
 While some say the villages give Kayans a paid
opportunity to retain their culture, others condemn this
arrangement for exploiting stateless women and children in
exchange for tourist dollars.

Although the ethics of this arrangement makes some

travelers uncomfortable, each day, vanloads of curious
foreigners still visit long neck villages. Many foreign-run
companies discourage these trips but most Thai-based companies
don’t discriminate. Over a half-dozen hill tribes exist in
North Thailand and the Chiang Mai province.
 The Kayan tradition of wearing a brass coil around their
neck has attracted tourists, anthropologists, and Journalist
alike. Because of this tradition, the Shan people called this
long-neck tribe ‘Yan Pa Doung’ meaning ‘Karen brass wound
people’, this name was adopted by burmans and Thais who refer
to the people as Padoung.

The advantages of wearing neck rings is that it improves

tourism and according to Kayan women wearing brass coils
around your neck signifies beauty. This can also preserve
their culture while they are in exile as well as to help
generate income. The disadvantages on the other hand is that
brass coils are also worn around the legs. The rings rubbing
around the skin can cause discomfort and abrasions over a
period of time. The appearance of longer neck pushes down the
muscle around the collar bone which can cause bruising and
later on suffocation.

This particular form of body modification has likely been

a Kayan tradition for over a thousand of years. This improves
tourism while preserving culture. However, post consequences
and health problems are carried by women wearing neck rings.
Once the coil is worn, it is seldom removed, as the uncoiling
is a lengthy procedure. It is usually removed to be replaced
by a new or longer coil. The muscles covered by the coil
become weakened. Many women prefer to wear the rings once
their clavicle has been lowered, as the area of the neck and
collarbone often becomes bruised and discolored. Additionally,
the collar feels like an integral part of the body after ten
or more years of continuous wear. Wearing of those neck rings
doesn’t really look attractive at all for me. Aside from women
wearing those looks very different from other women, they just
look like human-giraffe wearing those golden neck rings which
doesn’t look appropriate.

In 2006, some of the younger women in Mae Hong Son

started to remove their rings, either to give them the
opportunity to continue their education or in protest against
the exploitation of their culture and the restrictions that
came with it. In late 2008, most of the young women who
entered the refugee camp removed their rings. One woman who
had worn the rings for over 40 years removed them. After
removing the rings, women report discomfort which fades after
about three days. The discoloration is more persistent.

The government of Myanmar began discouraging neck rings

as it struggled to appear more modern to the developed world.
Consequently, many women in Myanmar began breaking
the tradition, though a few older women and some of the
younger girls in remote villages continued to wear rings. In
Thailand, the practice has gained popularity in recent years,
because it draws tourists who bring revenue to the tribe and
to the local businessmen who run the villages and collect an
entry fee of 500 to 600 baht per person. The Karenni National
People's Liberation Front (KNPLF), an armed cease-fire group,
have made attempts to invite the Kayan to return to Kayah
State to set up their own tourist villages.

In January 2008, the UNHCR expressed reservations about

tourists visiting the Kayan villages in Northern Thailand due
to the provincial government’s refusal to allow registered
Kayan refugees to take up offers of resettlement in developing
countries. It is believed this policy was linked to their
economic importance to the area. This policy was relaxed in
late 2008 and a small group of Kayan have left for New Zealand
in August 2008. Others entered the main Karenni refugee camp
(which is not open to tourists) in September 2008 and they are
now eligible for resettlement.

According to U Aung Roe (1993:21ss) Kayan number about

40,000 in Shan State (around the Pekon Township area) and
20,000 in Kayah State (around Demawso and Loikaw). A 2004
estimate puts the population at approximately 130,000. About
600 Kayan reside in the three villages open to tourists in Mae
Hong Sorn, or in the Ban Mai Nai Soy refugee camp.
There are three Kayan villages in Mae Hong Son province
in Thailand that still practice the tradition. The largest
is Huay Pu Keng, on the Pai river, close to the Thai Myanmar
border. Huai Seau Tao is a commercial village opened in 1995.
Many of the residents of Ban Nai Soi Kayan Longneck
village moved into the Karenni refugee camp in September 2008,
but 20 families and 104 residents remain there, according to
the sign at the entrance as of February 21.
CNNGo (2012) Gallery: Thailand’s ‘longneck’ women, a
controversial tourist attraction Retrieved from:
travel.cnn.com/Bangkok/life/gallery-thailands-longneck-
women-controversial-tourist-attraction-154136

Eden Phan, Khon (2004), The Narratives, Beliefs and customs of

the Kayan People, Mae Hong Son: Kayan Literacy and
culture Committee Retrieved from:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayan_people_(Myanmar)

Foote, K. (2014) Ethical Travel: Should You Visit Thailand’s

Long Neeck Women Villages? Retrieved From:
epicandculture.com/Thailand-long-neck-women/
 Close to the Sudanese
border in the lower Omo Valley
in Ethiopia live a nomadic tribe
who number only 10,000 people.
Known as the Mursi, they live in
the most isolated area of
Ehiopia, surrounded on three
sides by rivers.
Until a decade ago they were a
completely oral tribe as not one
of the members could read or
write.

Lip plate, a form of body

modification that’s still
practiced in Africa among a few
indigenous tribes, particularly in the central and southern
part of the continent, as well as among some tribes in the
Amazon rain forest. Women from the Mursi tribe in southwestern
Ethiopia are particularly notable for this practice because
their village has turned into a tourist attraction for
Westerners to come and get their gawk on. This tradition is
customarily performed from 6 months to a year before a young
girl is to marry, usually around the age of sweet sixteen.
 The lip plate is made out of wood or clay and is also
known as a lip disc or a lip plug. The term “labret” is
associated with any kind of lip piercing ornament, including
lip plates. Archeologists have discovered evidence of women
adorned with labrets in Sudan and Ethiopia (≈8700 bc) and in
various countries in South America (≈1500 bc), including
coastal Ecuador (≈500 bc).It is uncertain how this bizarre
custom came into being. One theory is that lip plating
originated as a deliberate disfigurement designed to make
women and young girls less attractive to slave traders. Some
researchers claim that the size of the lip plate (the bigger
the better) was a sign of social importance or wealth within
the tribe. Another analysis indicated that the bigger the
size of the lip plate, the bigger the dowry a bride would
receive on her wedding day. For example, the larger the lip
plate, the greater number of cows the bride’s father can
demand in his daughter’s dowry. But some researchers dispute
this theory, arguing that marriage of most tribal girls, as
well as the size of their dowries, is prearranged long before
their lips are cut. Others suggest that lip plating is simply
an ornamentation meant to symbolize a woman’s strength and
self-esteem. The practice is also described as being a sign of
social maturity and reaching reproductive age, thus indicating
a girl’s eligibility to become a wife.

The objectification of African tribal women wearing lip

plates marks an unfortunate practice in the history of the US.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, African woman wearing
large lip plates were brought to Europe and North America for
exhibit in circuses as sideshow freaks. In the 1930s, for
example, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus promoted
the viewing of female members of a tribe originating from near
the Ubangi River in central Africa, popularizing the
derogative term "Ubangi lipped."

In actually, most tribes consider an enormous lip plate a

traditional sign of beauty. It’s a different story for tribal
men. For example, in some Amazonian tribes, young males
traditionally have their lips pierced as a rite of passage and
to indicate status and prestige. In the Kayapo tribe, an
indigenous Brazilian group from the plain islands of the Mato
Grosso and Pará in Brazil, senior tribal men wear saucer-like
discs up to 8 inches wide; the largest lip plate is worn by
the tribe’s great orator and leader, Chief Raoni.

The lip-plating ritual varies from tribe to tribe. The

Mursi of Ethiopia adorn their lower lips; some tribes insert
lip plates in their upper lips, while other tribes insert lip
plates in both the upper and lower lips.
Here’s how it works for women. In some tribes, an initial lip
plate is inserted at puberty. In other tribes, the first lip
plate is inserted 6 to 12 months prior to the girl’s marriage.
Other tribes perform the inaugural insertion when a tribal
girl reaches the age of 15 or 16. The ritual is performed by
the girl’s mother, a kinswoman, or another woman in her
settlement. The process is quite simple but it’s really not so
much fun for the girl. A small hole is cut into the girl’s
lip. Typically, 2 lower teeth are removed as well; some tribes
extract 4 lower teeth. A small circular wooden or clay disc is
inserted into the hole in order to stretch it. After the cut
heals, the initial disc is replaced with increasingly larger
discs, making the hole in the lip bigger and bigger until a
desired size is reached and the final plate is put in place.
For tribal woman, it’s usually a little over 4 inches wide.
The lip-stretching process could last a year, depending on how
wide the final plate is; this technique is similar to earlobe
stretching (also known as gauging). The girls often craft
their own plates and include personal ornamentation. The tribe
typically celebrates the installation of the first plate with
a feast.

It’s rumored that in contemporary culture, Mursi girls 13

to 18 years of age may make their own decision as to whether
or not to wear a lip plate. Recently, some tribal women have
been refusing to have their lips pierced because the process
of removing their lower teeth can be traumatizing.
 To an outsider, a lip plate may be viewed as a form of
body mutilation rather than body art but to a Mursi woman, it
is an expression of female maturity and a sign that she has
reached child-bearing age. It is also a distinguishing trait
that ensures she is not mistaken for a member of neighboring
rival tribes who either do not pierce their lips (Kwegu tribe)
or only wear small plugs inserted into their lower lips (Bodi
tribe). Although labial plates were also traditionally worn by
Suya men of Brazil, Sara women of Chad, the Makonde of
Mozambique, and the Botocudo of coastal Brazil (quite a
mouthful, even without a lip plate), the only tribes that
still follow this tradition are the Mursi and Suri tribes of
Ethiopia.

Considered a sign of beauty in the Mursi tribe of

Ethiopia Africa, the lip plate is worn by women daily who seek
acceptance and to appear desirable to men. When the women are
ready to marry, they begin the process of the lip plate by
making a hole in the lower lip with a wood stick which is
expanded a little everyday. Eventually, when the hole is big
enough, women insert a plate and gradually the plate is
replaced by a bigger plate until it has reached its full size.
It is a very painful process which girls have to undergo for
months, where somtimes the teeth have to be broken to insert
the plate, but once suceeded, they are seen as the epitome of
beauty! also, the bigger the plate, the more beautiful the
woman.
While lip-plates are primarily a form of aesthetic
expression, there are also issues of strength and weakness
associated with them. For example, a woman who has not had her
lip cut or does not wear her lip-plate in certain situations
becomes more vulnerable in the presence of men. Mursi women
and men often refer to her as being lazy and as someone who
does things in a hasty and clumsy manner, especially in the
presence of men. A woman who has chosen not to have her lip
cut is said, for example, to be one who will rush to set down
her husband’s garchu (basket used for carrying sorghum
porridge), or kedem (gourd with either coffee, sour milk or
boiled leaves) because she feels uncomfortable and self-
conscious around men. In short, she lacks the graces
associated with womanhood, namely, to be calm, quiet, hard
working, and above all, proud.

Issues of strength and weakness structure the Mursi

woman’s life and the passage from girlhood to womanhood,
whether this is reflected in the way she brings food to her
husband or in the health of her calves. Someone who has had
her lip cut is considered to be able to walk tall and proud.
She will not feel the same degree of self-consciousness in the
presence of men as someone without a lip-plate. Failure to
choose the lip-plate represents a breach in expectations
regarding how a Mursi woman should behave. When discussing
what would happen if a young woman were to serve her husband
and his guests coffee, sorghum, or milk without wearing her
lip- plate, for instance, the reply is almost always: K
adakto! (to hit). In other words, such inappropriate behavior
may result in the woman being hit (typically with a whip) by

her husband once his guests have gone13. Thus, a woman who
does not wear her lip-plate when she is expected to is more
prone to reproval and subject to scrutiny by men and women.

The lip-plate serves as both a major component of one’s

sense of pride and identity in the ‘private’ world of Mursi,
and as a tool for mediation the potential conflicts that can
arise when crossing over the periphery of the public world.

After looking into researcherches about lip plating, I

find it disturbing and dangerous at first. But after reading
about it, I realized that these people are still living in a
third world country, maybe in a completely isolated village
somewhere where the people haven’t been exposed to the modern
world much, making them keep their old traditions. Girls
probably don’t know that not wearing the lip plate is normal
in the rest of the world cause their trapped in this little
society and grow up with the belief that poking a hole in your
lip and stretching it to unnatural lengths is beautiful. This
just shows the lengths people will go to be and feel
beautiful, or simply to be admired by the people around them.
 Although labial plates were also traditonally worn by
Suya men of Brazil, Sara women of Chad, the Makonde of
Mozambique, and the Botocudo of coastal Brazil (quite a
mouthful, even without a lip plate), the only tribes that
still follow this tradition are the Mursi and Suri tribes of
Ethiopia.
The Mursi people are the most popular in Ethiopia's Omo
Valley. They are well known for their unique lip plates. Mursi
are a Nilotic pastoralist ethnic group that inhabits
southwestern Ethiopia. They principally reside in the Debub
Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's
Region, close to the border with South Sudan.

According to the 2007 national census, there are 7,500

Mursi, 448 of whom live in urban areas; of the total number,
92.25% live in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and
People's Region (SNNPR).

There are pressures on Mursi women from the Muslim-

dominated Ethiopian Government to give up this practice.
Another indirect pressure comes from the realization by the
tribe itself that they will be excluded from social and
economic benefits as long as they are perceived to be backward
by outsiders. They recognize that the tradition affects other
people's perception of their limitations and stands in the way
of future development.

Tourists, on the other hand, are keeping the tradition

alive. They travel great distances to see and photograph these
lip-plated women that they presumably perceive as freaks in a
freak show. The Mursi have, however, realized that they can
earn a living by posing for these tourists and this in itself
may be sufficient motivation for them to continue the
tradition. The practice of stretching their lips has become an
economic asset to the entire community.
The Mursi tribe will probably eventually have to heed the
Govenrment's warnings, but until then, the tourists will keep
coming.

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/entertainment/Lifestyle-
Why-the-Mursi-women-have-a-lip-plate-481284

https://culturalbeauty.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/the-lip-plate/

http://www.medicalbag.com/body-modification/pucker-up-lip-
plating-still-in-vogue-in-remote-tribal-
villages/article/472684/

https://tatring.com/piercing-types/Have-Mursi-on-the-Lip-Plate

http://www.mursi.org/introducing-the-
mursi/pdf/latosky.pdf/view/
 Papua New Guinea
(PNG) is the second largest
island in the world.
Incredibly, over 800
indigenous languages are
spoken in Papua: a
statistic that accounts for
1/5 of the world’s total.
Just as Papua is
linguistically diverse, it
is also an ecological and
geographical wonder. But
for the adventure of a
lifetime, one only needs to
head inland and cruise the
mighty Sepik River.

The tribes living along the Sepik river in Papua New

Guinea have used the tradition of scarification to mature
their boys into men for decades. The ceremony requires the
youth to be cut along his back, chest and buttocks in
elaborate patterns, to mimic the coarse skin of a crocodile.
It is thought that this reptilian divinity consumes his youth
during the bloody process, leaving behind a man in his place.
 Initiates may be anywhere from twelve to thirty-five
years of age, especially since the ritual is very expensive
and families sometimes pool together their financial resources
for many years to pay for it. Initiation practices require
removing any traces of the mother’s postpartum blood from the
initiates’ body by skin-cutting. Symbolically speaking, this
act is necessary to utterly divorce young men from the world
of womenfolk, and to fill them with the power of the crocodile
spirit. Usually it is the maternal uncle of the initiate who
inflicts the wounds. In this way, the mother’s blood is
spilled back to her line as the uncle makes a man for his in-
law’s clan.

But in order for the initiate to become a full member of

their father’s clan, they must not only get skin-cut; they
must also endure a two-month long seclusion in the spirit
house prior to the cutting ritual itself. During this time,
their father’s and mother’s brothers instruct them in
whispered tones about clan genealogies, song cycles, and other
spiritual information.

Initiates must also observe numerous taboos during their

seclusion. including, but not limited to, the following: they
must never look at or speak to women passing by the Spirit
House; they must remain on the west side of the Spirit House

at all times (the east side is only for “men” and the

initiated); when an initiate needs to use the bathroom

outside, he must completely cover himself so that women and
children cannot see him; when eating, the young man must use
tongs or a fork and never his fingers (moreover, he may not
touch himself to itch or scratch unless he uses a stick or
other kind of scratcher); also when eating, he must face the
wall at all times and never look or speak to others; when he

sits, he cannot use a stool or bench as these are for “men”

only; an initiate cannot smoke or chew betel while in

seclusion and he can only wear his underwear while inside the
spirit house; he must always walk barefoot during his
seclusion; and he may only eat a diet of fish, sago, greens,
and the occasional banana since other meats, fruits, and
vegetables are forbidden.

After the cutting is over, the initiates are washed off

one by one with a sponge and cool water from a bucket. Some
celebrate their passage into manhood while others are simply
too exhausted to express any feelings at all. The initiates
receive their first cuts on the chest inside the Spirit House.
Some almost go into shock while others grin and bear it. Once
the cutting has been completed, the initiates are led back
into the spirit house to mend their wounds. But first, oil
from the kaumever tree, which is used to make war canoes, is
applied to the cuts with a feather. Then, river mud is applied
to the cuts, and the young men are told to rest and dry their
wounds by the fires.
 The process of becoming a man, ceremony or not, does not
happen in a single moment. But rites of passage are important
in delineating when a boy should start thinking of himself as
a man, when he should start carrying himself as a man, when
the community should start respecting him as a man, and when
he should start shouldering the The skin-cutting ritual of
Kaningara tribe is a form of official closure to childhood and
welcoming to manhood, a male can become caught in a
subconscious life long quest to have that affirmation that he
is indeed a man. Ideologically it is a vehicle for the
creation and re-creation of Sepik men. This excruciating
process - which occasionally ends in death - is meant to
demonstrate discipline, focus and dedication, and the only way
the boys are allowed to numb the pain is by munching on a
plant with healing qualities. Sepik men, through the skin-
cutting ritual, believe they have the sole power to “make

men” by attempting to turn the world upside down and inside

out. However, the river mud also promotes infection and

results in large raised scars or keloids.

Nowadays the importance of the skin-cutting ritual is

beginning to lose its spiritual meaning, because modernity and
economic relations are propelling it away from its mythic
past. For example, initiation is no longer obligatory to

“become a man” and it is very expensive in local economic

terms: a family must pay for two months of food, water,

cooking, and then the cutting itself. Moreover, the Kaningara
and other Sepik peoples have for some time encouraged their
children, especially their sons, to seek education and work in
urban centers on the coast. Indeed, a major reason why
initiation is no longer obligatory is that competence as a
good earner or breadwinner itself qualifies one as a fully
adult clan member (e.g., without having to get cut). Thus, the
youth are coming of age in a world where adult status is
defined and dictated by an adult who can be effective
economically in Kaningara.

Although most Kaningara say that a father should initiate

his sons and that all young men should be scarified, many only
do so if they have enough money. Furthermore, many boys know
that the ritual is extremely painful so they find excuses like
“I don’t have enough money” to get out of it. Thus, because
scarification is unrelated to success in life in the towns,
meaning it is unrelated to the capacity to earn money, it has
become optional for the Kaningara and other Sepik groups. It
takes place no longer as a ceremony essential to the making
men, but in some sense as one of a number of opportunities for
a father or family to display their affluence.

However, there are still Sepik men who are willing to

experience the pain from skin cutting initiation to honor
their ancestors. They believe that skin cutting ritual makes
them who they are today and through this ritual, a masculine
bond of association will be developed that lasts for a
lifetime; since it is only with the help and encouragement of
the other initiates that you are able to pass through this
bloody and painful ordeal.

http://listverse.com/2010/07/17/10-incredibly-painful-rites-
of-initiation/

http://www.larskrutak.com/making-boys-into-men-the-skin-
cutting-ritual-of-the-kaningara-tribe-of-papua-new-guinea/
 There are many suggestions
for the origin of “Foot
binding”. One story relates
that during the Shang Dynasty,
the concubine Daji, who was said
to have a clubfoot. He asked the
Emperor have a Foot binding
mandatory for all girls in court
so that her own feet would be
the standard of Beauty and
Elegance.

Foot binding was the custom of applying tight binding to

the feet of young girls to modify the shape of the foot.The
practice possibly originated among Five Dynasties and Ten
Kingdoms period in Imperial China (10th / 11th century), then
became popular during the Song Dynasty and eventually spreads
to all social classes.

Foot binding became popular as means of displaying status

(women from wealthy families, who did not need their feet to
work, could afford to have them bound) and was correspondingly
adopted as a symbol of beauty in Chinese culture. It’s
prevalence and practice however varied in different parts of
the country. Feet altered by binding were called “Lotus Feet”.
Foot binding usually tried to make the feet about 3 inches
(7.6 cm) long, at most. Some drastic things were done at times
to try to do this. Because of this, women who had their feet
bound would usually be impaired, or damaged, for the rest of
their lives. The physical consequences (or results) of foot
binding stayed in Chinese society until very recently,
especially for women in their 70s and 80s (according to a
study published by the University of San Francisco).

When the Manchuria created the Qing dynasty, the

Manchurian emperors wrote many laws banning foot binding.
However, the laws did not work very well. In 1874, the first
anti-foot binding committee (meeting of people) was held in
Shanghai by a British priest. After the collapse of the Qing
dynasty, the republican government kept trying to stop foot
binding. They gave fines (orders to pay money) to women who
still had their feet bound after 1915. During the early 20th
century, western fashion was affecting China more and more.

The People's Republic of China eventually outlawed foot

binding, although this was not very successful in actually
ending the practice. According to Xinhua News Agency, the last
factory to make shoes for bound-feet women stopped making
those shoes in 1998, in Harbin, China.
 Foot binding is a tradition passed on from mothers to
their daughters, usually done at age four to seven. It is a
long, arduous process, preventing the feet from growing no
more than three inches. In the process, feet’s bones are
broken and deformed, flesh grows atypically and toes are
folded in and flattened beneath the sole. What’s left is a
remnant of what used to be feet but has transformed into one
clump of knotted flesh and bones, which makes walking an
agonizing thing to do.

As an outsider, foot binding is an act of cruel practice

of mutilating the feet of young girls. It was once pervasive
in turn of the century China, where it was seen as a sign of
wealth and marriage eligibility. For a millennium from the
10th to 20th centuries the practice flourished on and off,
deeply ingrained in Chinese society.
Small feet were more desirable. I suppose that's still
carrying on today. I hear lots of girls complaining that they
wish they had size 4 or 5 feet instead of size 9. A weird
thing to complain about, in my mind, but whatever floats their
boat. Also, apparently, binding a woman's feet meant she had
high status or was rich for a while. That is, until it became
a fad and everyone wanted to do it. If a woman wanted to marry
into money, she had better have her feet bound! It also
apparently made her a bit helpless and less likely to be in
power. It made a man necessary for her to be taken care of,
and therefore she would always be loyal. It was a painful
process, and some researchers say that it immobilized the
woman, but 70 and 80 year-olds were found who could still
climb up mountains and work in the rice fields after the
process. It causes a lot of health problems like gangrene and
fungus. Also, the toe nail would keep growing. It would grow
into the skin causing an infection and making a very bad
odour.

Advantages
Foot binding will make your feet smaller and prevent from
growing up.
Family honour.
To be able to dominate women.
To be more beautiful.

Disadvantages
The practice of foot binding not only physically crippled
women, but also crippled them mentally.
This forced a woman to focus her weight on her lower body
putting pressure on her pelvis and eventually lowering it
The girls could barely walk straight.
The toes would be curled downwards and inwards.
Infection was the most common ailment of bound feet.
Inevitably disease followed infection.
 Foot-binding ended in stages that involved imperial
edicts and campaigns by Western Christian Missionary
organizations starting in the late 19th Century. The former
Republic of China (1911-1925) outlawed the practice of binding
the feet of women (although many women and girls still had
their feet bound anyway). The practice also decreased as
social opportunities for women arose via economic development,
and finally the Communist Party under Mao Zedong eliminated
the practice during the Great Leap Forward (1958-1960).

Today in some countries in Africa, the practice of female

genital mutilation (FGM) remains popular as a cultural
practice that causes grave harm to the women and girls who
undergo it in their efforts to attain socio-cultural goals.
The reasons for the practice of FGM are almost identical to
the reasons for foot-binding in China.

However, the practice of FGM has a longer history and

also has spread to other groups, even within modern times and
even in industrialized countries. Foot-binding didn’t spread
to other nations or empires like Japan and Vietnam, which were
heavily influenced by Chinese civilization.

The places where FGM is commonly practiced have not been able
to create the conditions necessary for the practice to cease,
unlike China. However, if socioeconomic conditions can
improve, female genital mutilation might become less common as
time goes on.

Even though China can’t claim by democratic countries’

standards to have the best sociopolitical human rights model
in the world, at least it was able to end foot-binding, a
practice that caused great suffering to women seeking to
adhere to socio-cultural standards in a male-dominated social.

Chinese Girl with Bound Feet. The Virtual Museum of the City
of San Francisco http://www.sfmuseum.org/chin/foot.html.

Jackson, B. 1997. Splendid slippers. 1997. Berkeley: Ten Speed

Press. USA. https://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy-
ab&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-
US:official&channel=np&biw=1366&bih=621&noj=1&q=foot+bindi
ng+stillpracticed&oq=foot+binding+stillpracticed&gs_l=serp
.3...2216.20211.1.20423.16.15.0.0.0.0.464.464.4-
1.1.0....0...1.1.64.serp..15.1.464...0i22i30k1.Ycm-
Rnl7zlU&gfe_rd=cr&ei=xUg1WdOXArLK8gfXzK3ICQ

Kam, N. Golden Lilies. Honolulu Star Bulletin 06 November 2000

http://www.starbulletin.com/98/03/features/story1.html.

Miles, N. Foot binding. UCLA Asia Institute

http://www.international.ucla.edu/shenzen/2002ncta/miles/i
ndex.html.

Smith, K. Chinese Foot Binding: The Truth Behind the Beauty

http://www.cds.charlotte.nc.us/History/China/05/smithA/ind
ex.html
 Two decades ago, an
intensifying civil war between
Karenni separatists and the
Burmese army caused Kayar
residents to flee Myanmar.
Thailand granted the Kayan
temporary stay under “conflict
refugee” status. Now, the 500 or
so Kayans (also known as Padaung
people) live in guarded villages
on the northern Thai border.

The tribe has a custom where some women wearing rings to

create the appearance of a long neck. This exotic tradition
inspired the creation of tourism villages in 1985. Some
Padaung moved to these artificial hill tribe residencies with
work permits to make a living on tourism. But without
citizenship, Kayans have limited access to utilities such as
electricity, roads, health care and schools for
education. Furthermore, Thai authorities refuse to allow
Kayans to resettle outside tourist villages, claiming they are
economic migrants and not real refugees. Kayan long neck women
wear the rings from childhood, starting with four or five, and
adding more annually as they acclimate to the increased
weight. Coils weighing up to 25 pounds depress the chest and
shoulders. This creates the illusion of disembodied head
hovering over a shimmering pedestal of gold rings. Contrary
to popular belief, the coils don’t lengthen the neck itself
and thus can be removed without the neck snapping. Yet, women
still wear these coils year round with few exceptions, even
while sleeping.

The origin of the tradition mystifies even the Kayans. An

ancient legend claims rings protected villagers from tiger
attacks, since the cats attack victims at the neck. Another
theory said the rings helped ward off men from rival tribes by
lessening the women’s beauty. Today, people believe the
opposite– the longer their neck, the more beautiful the woman—
and Kayans wear the golden coils as an accessory. According to
the Silent Hopes documentary, some women enjoy upholding this
tradition but others feel pressured to endure the painful
custom to make a living. Human rights groups claim the refugee
status exploits women who can’t find other work.

An estimated 40,000 tourists per year pay between $8-16

to stop by these hill tribe villages to gaze upon the women’s
unusual appearance and take pictures. Unfortunately, the entry
fee is rarely dispensed to the villagers directly. Instead,
neck-ring-wearing-women sell trinkets, crafts and photo-ops,
essentially working in a live-in gift shop. Residents receive
an allowance of food and toiletries and profit from handicraft
sales, and women wearing brass rings earn an extra salary.
Village owners decrease wages if women discuss their plight
with visitors or use anything modern, like cell phones or
computers.

While some say the villages give Kayans a paid

opportunity to retain their culture, others condemn this
arrangement for exploiting stateless women and children in
exchange for tourist dollars.

Although the ethics of this arrangement makes some

travelers uncomfortable, each day, vanloads of curious
foreigners still visit long neck villages. Many foreign-run
companies discourage these trips but most Thai-based companies
don’t discriminate. Over a half-dozen hill tribes exist in
North Thailand and the Chiang Mai province.
 The Kayan tradition of wearing a brass coil around their
neck has attracted tourists, anthropologists, and Journalist
alike. Because of this tradition, the Shan people called this
long-neck tribe ‘Yan Pa Doung’ meaning ‘Karen brass wound
people’, this name was adopted by burmans and Thais who refer
to the people as Padoung.

The advantages of wearing neck rings is that it improves

tourism and according to Kayan women wearing brass coils
around your neck signifies beauty. This can also preserve
their culture while they are in exile as well as to help
generate income. The disadvantages on the other hand is that
brass coils are also worn around the legs. The rings rubbing
around the skin can cause discomfort and abrasions over a
period of time. The appearance of longer neck pushes down the
muscle around the collar bone which can cause bruising and
later on suffocation.

This particular form of body modification has likely been

a Kayan tradition for over a thousand of years. This improves
tourism while preserving culture. However, post consequences
and health problems are carried by women wearing neck rings.
Once the coil is worn, it is seldom removed, as the uncoiling
is a lengthy procedure. It is usually removed to be replaced
by a new or longer coil. The muscles covered by the coil
become weakened. Many women prefer to wear the rings once
their clavicle has been lowered, as the area of the neck and
collarbone often becomes bruised and discolored. Additionally,
the collar feels like an integral part of the body after ten
or more years of continuous wear. Wearing of those neck rings
doesn’t really look attractive at all for me. Aside from women
wearing those looks very different from other women, they just
look like human-giraffe wearing those golden neck rings which
doesn’t look appropriate.

In 2006, some of the younger women in Mae Hong Son

started to remove their rings, either to give them the
opportunity to continue their education or in protest against
the exploitation of their culture and the restrictions that
came with it. In late 2008, most of the young women who
entered the refugee camp removed their rings. One woman who
had worn the rings for over 40 years removed them. After
removing the rings, women report discomfort which fades after
about three days. The discoloration is more persistent.

The government of Myanmar began discouraging neck rings

as it struggled to appear more modern to the developed world.
Consequently, many women in Myanmar began breaking
the tradition, though a few older women and some of the
younger girls in remote villages continued to wear rings. In
Thailand, the practice has gained popularity in recent years,
because it draws tourists who bring revenue to the tribe and
to the local businessmen who run the villages and collect an
entry fee of 500 to 600 baht per person. The Karenni National
People's Liberation Front (KNPLF), an armed cease-fire group,
have made attempts to invite the Kayan to return to Kayah
State to set up their own tourist villages.

In January 2008, the UNHCR expressed reservations about

tourists visiting the Kayan villages in Northern Thailand due
to the provincial government’s refusal to allow registered
Kayan refugees to take up offers of resettlement in developing
countries. It is believed this policy was linked to their
economic importance to the area. This policy was relaxed in
late 2008 and a small group of Kayan have left for New Zealand
in August 2008. Others entered the main Karenni refugee camp
(which is not open to tourists) in September 2008 and they are
now eligible for resettlement.

According to U Aung Roe (1993:21ss) Kayan number about

40,000 in Shan State (around the Pekon Township area) and
20,000 in Kayah State (around Demawso and Loikaw). A 2004
estimate puts the population at approximately 130,000. About
600 Kayan reside in the three villages open to tourists in Mae
Hong Sorn, or in the Ban Mai Nai Soy refugee camp.
There are three Kayan villages in Mae Hong Son province
in Thailand that still practice the tradition. The largest
is Huay Pu Keng, on the Pai river, close to the Thai Myanmar
border. Huai Seau Tao is a commercial village opened in 1995.
Many of the residents of Ban Nai Soi Kayan Longneck
village moved into the Karenni refugee camp in September 2008,
but 20 families and 104 residents remain there, according to
the sign at the entrance as of February 21.

CNNGo (2012) Gallery: Thailand’s ‘longneck’ women, a

controversial tourist attraction Retrieved from:
travel.cnn.com/Bangkok/life/gallery-thailands-longneck-
women-controversial-tourist-attraction-154136

Eden Phan, Khon (2004), The Narratives, Beliefs and customs of

the Kayan People, Mae Hong Son: Kayan Literacy and
culture Committee Retrieved from:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayan_people_(Myanmar)

Foote, K. (2014) Ethical Travel: Should You Visit Thailand’s

Long Neeck Women Villages? Retrieved From:
epicandculture.com/Thailand-long-neck-women/