Suri People and Their Body Art
Please see this page for background on this southern Ethiopia tribe and their beautiful body art. This collection is under development.
Image titles in this collection are the names of the Suri people the images feature. Captions provide translations of the names and glimpses of Suri culture. (The Suri alphabet has two special characters that are not in the English alphabet: ‘ɛ’ is a variant of ‘e’ and ‘ɔ’ is a variant of ‘o’.
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Ngaturɛ
Turɛ: a horn used to call cows. Cattle are integral to Suri life, their most prized possession and the main repository of their wealth.
Body painting is also a deeply held Suri tradition, but mainly for special occasions. Suri body art has various social functions, including attracting a partner.