Thailand - Pa Dong Tribe

In Thailand, there is a traditional tribe where the women are known as Giraffe women because of their unique necks caused by the coil of the rings. This tribe has taken refuge in the country in order to avoid persecution from the Burmese government. As you watch the video below, you will get to know the details of why they are being persecuted. The Pa Dong tribe are humble and kind people. Their refuge in Thailand has lead them to become a tourist destination, where foreigners are intrigued by their customs. The girls are the only ones who wear the neck rings. They start this process when they are young because their bones are most flexible. The girls do this as they believe that beauty is worth the pain. The long neck look is an illusion. This is because the the heavy rings around their neck pushes the shoulder down, and therefore the neck looks elongated. The rings are a tribal identity for the women. The women don't see that the rings prevent them to who they might be but rather the rings represent who they are. Hope you all enjoy this video.

Marriage in Africa

In today's post we will look at marriage customs within a particular tribe in Africa.

The Wundabi tribe annually hold a beauty contest for men as a custom for the women of the tribe to choose their husbands.

The family hierarchy in the tribe on the male side is not traditional when it comes to monogamy, but rather they are given the chance to try and win over another wife in this contest. From a feminist point of view this might seem outrageous, but surprisingly the women have the upper hand, and are allowed to find a new husband, however have to stay monogamous.

In this beauty contest, as featured in the video below, men must adorn themselves with make up, dance and dress up to show their masculinity and attractiveness. The women are the main audience and they choose who they want to be with.

It makes me think of all the cheesy pick up lines that guys would try to say to girls and how girls try to impress guys with their looks and personality. I think the Wundabi tribes way is much more entertaining and worth the effort.

Beauty in Africa

We'd just like to take note that this post is not aimed at generalizing the idea of beauty in African culture.

Our main focus for this post is on a video that we have come across about the Mursi Tribe of Southern Ethiopia. It features a woman exploring the tribes customs and values where she reveals the ideas behind the lip plate (see video below).

This lip plate is the tribes symbol for beauty, where the bigger the lip plate, the more beautiful you are.

In a way this parallels itself to western culture as well as we go from a simple piercing of the ears to extreme mutilation, for example having surgery to create elf ears, or more so as we know, the famous snake man and tiger man.