Lip Plates and Stick Fights: Structuring the Suri Society
“Lip
Plates
and
Stick
Fights:
Structuring
the
Suri
Society”
Hillary
Hubert
Indigenous
Religions:
Sub‐Saharan
Africa
Professor
Adogame
November
15,
2010
Hillary Hubert 1 Lip Plates and Stick Fights: Structuring the Suri Society Rituals and beliefs are often thought of as complete opposites. While rituals focus on what a person is doing, the latter depends on a person’s thinking. However, it is commonly underestimated how innately linked these two concepts are. Rituals can be viewed as a way of teaching beliefs, and beliefs give the guidelines for rituals. The dynamic relationship between both are overwhelming and interesting. Questions can be posed such as: should not beliefs be embodied in the person both internally and externally, and does each culture abhor change in order to minimize the affects on their beliefs? One thing is certain within the indigenous African religions; the religious cultures share and communicate ideas to create a unique and communal experience. In the plains of southwestern Ethiopia, the Suri tribe has flourished for the past two hundred years.1 Their homeland is remote, which has forced them to become a highly self‐sufficient society. The tribe worships a sky deity, Tuma, and also uses medicine men to communicate with spirits and send their messages to the deity. One male in the tribe is chosen through a hereditary line to hold the vital position of the rainmaker, a man who carries ambivalent powers to control the weather.2 The men of the villages are divided into four groups according to age: children, young men (tegay), junior elders (rora), and senior elders (bora). All of the particular groups have certain duties that they must perform in order for the society to function. Ceremonies that are held to facilitate the men in the tribe from one stage to the next are held once every twenty or thirty years and include extreme violence.3 Beatings, fights, and intense
Hillary Hubert 1 Lip Plates and Stick Fights: Structuring the Suri Society Rituals and beliefs are often thought of as complete opposites. While rituals focus on what a person is doing, the latter depends on a person’s thinking. However, it is commonly underestimated how innately linked these two concepts are. Rituals can be viewed as a way of teaching beliefs, and beliefs give the guidelines for rituals. The dynamic relationship between both are overwhelming and interesting. Questions can be posed such as: should not beliefs be embodied in the person both internally and externally, and does each culture abhor change in order to minimize the affects on their beliefs? One thing is certain within the indigenous African religions; the religious cultures share and communicate ideas to create a unique and communal experience. In the plains of southwestern Ethiopia, the Suri tribe has flourished for the past two hundred years.1 Their homeland is remote, which has forced them to become a highly self‐sufficient society. The tribe worships a sky deity, Tuma, and also uses medicine men to communicate with spirits and send their messages to the deity. One male in the tribe is chosen through a hereditary line to hold the vital position of the rainmaker, a man who carries ambivalent powers to control the weather.2 The men of the villages are divided into four groups according to age: children, young men (tegay), junior elders (rora), and senior elders (bora). All of the particular groups have certain duties that they must perform in order for the society to function. Ceremonies that are held to facilitate the men in the tribe from one stage to the next are held once every twenty or thirty years and include extreme violence.3 Beatings, fights, and intense
Bibliography: 150/152 (1998): Self‐Esteem(2004), 384‐394, 20, 2010). (1982): 111‐130. 2010). Press, 1992.