For example, if a relative pays a visit after an absence, they greet by taking ash from the fire and running it down the side of their forehead and then the forehead of their kin they also throw some ash to the right and left. Here, clays are used like vaccinations or antibiotics or soaps, to strengthen and cleanse a community.Ĭontact between relatives is also mediated through earthy substances. These collective ceremonies show how aware the Mursi are that illness and disease are community issues, with a clear understanding of contagion through proximity and contact. There are also smaller and more intimate ceremonies held by a family and neighbours if an individual is struggling to recover from an illness. There are big communal ceremonies when everyone from an area comes together and anoints with the same clays, morning and night, in order to send disease fleeing back into the earth from where it came. They speak of earth ‘hitting’ people, and of clays having ‘customs’, and just as one ‘eats’ food, people speak of ‘eating’ earths and clays by body painting. Earths and clays are known to have ‘active’ qualities, which people try to use to their advantage.
However, the most important reason the Mursi paint is as a medicine, either preventive or curative. Older boys and men often cover their mouth or entire head with ash from the cattle-bryre (burnt cattle-dung), or with fresh cattle-dung, since this deters flies.
Young boys who stay with the cattle all day, are taught to rub moist mud or clay all over their body to protect themselves from sun-stroke or from scratches from the thorny undergrowth.