Keenan,+Ramirez,+Januzzi,+LeVan-notes

These days, it appears that Mursi girls of age 13 to 16 just decide for themselves whether they want to wear a lip plate or not. The initial piercing is done as an incision of the lower lip of 1 to 2 cm length, and a simple wooden peg is inserted. After the wound has healed, which usually takes 2 or 3 weeks, the peg is replaced with a slightly bigger one. At a diameter of about 4 cm the first lip plate made of clay is inserted. Every woman crafts her plate by herself and takes pride in including some ornamentation. A final diameter of about 10 to 15 cm seems common, although sizes of up to 25 cm are reported and can be seen on recent tourist photographs.[|[][|2][|]][|[][|3][|]][|[][|4][|]] Many recent sources (Beckwith and Carter for example)[|[][|5][|]] claim that, for Mursi and Surma women, the size of their lip plate indicates the number of cattle paid as bride price. However, anthropologist Turton, who has studied the Mursi for 30 years, denies this.[|[][|6][|]] In some Amazonian tribes, young men traditionally have their lips pierced when they enter the men's house and leave the world of women.[|[][|7][|]][|[][|8][|]] Lip plates there have important associations with oratory and singing, and the largest plates are worn by the greatest orators and war-chiefs, like the well-known environmental campaigner Raoni[|[][|9][|]] of the [|Kayapo] tribe. i got this info from Wikipedia []