Wild tribes and their life in the modern world. African women: description, culture. Features of life in Africa

Africa is the “dark continent”, which is considered the most mysterious and mysterious throughout the world. Its extraordinary nature simply attracts researchers and tourists from different parts of our vast planet with its natural and animal diversity. Both are especially attracted to the wild tribes of Africa. As a rule, their unconventional customs and way of life arouse enthusiastic interest. What does Africa hide beyond civilization? We'll talk about this in our article.

Mursi

The Mursi can be confidently included in the list of “The Wildest Tribes in Africa”, because their way of life defies any logic. They are unable to control themselves and can often beat their fellow tribesmen to death, wanting to prove their strength and steadfastness. As a rule, such rash actions are explained by frequent alcohol consumption.

Unconventional way of life

The Mursi are absolutely unfriendly. They meet tourists only with weapons or fighting sticks, trying to demonstrate their dominance on their territory.

Women in particular are distinguished by their morals. To be honest, they look unattractive. Their backs are stooped, their stomachs and chests are sagging, and there is practically no hair. That is why unusual headdresses in the form of material made from dry branches, dead insects, animal skin, or even carrion are often adorned on their heads.

The calling card of the tribe is a huge lower lip, in which a clay plate with a diameter of 15-30 cm is placed. Almost all wild tribes of Africa adhere to this custom. Women, while still very small, insert wooden sticks into it to gradually increase the diameter. And on the wedding day, a plate is placed in the lower lip. The larger the diameter of the lip, the greater the ransom will be given for the bride.

Jewelry for women of the Mursi tribe is even more inexplicable. They are made from... human phalanges of fingers. This “costume jewelry” has an unbearable smell, because it is smeared with human melted fat every day. The source for the jewelry is the fingers of guilty men from the tribe. They are cut off immediately after an offense by order of the priestess.

Men gain their reputation through scarring. Once he kills an enemy, a scar is applied to his body.

Women do it for pleasure. Sometimes, of their own free will, they cut the skin with a knife blade and pour the juices of poisonous plants on the wound, or allow insects to cut. After this, the skin becomes infected and covered with pimples. This is how beautiful “ornaments” appear on women’s hands.

Few people know that many wild tribes of Africa are cannibals. It is this category that the Mursi belong to. They eat their dead tribesmen by boiling them in a cauldron. The tribe uses the remaining bones for decoration.

Even more inexplicable is the Mursi faith. Animism is the name of their religion. In short, in the tribe there is a priestess of love who distributes poisons and narcotic substances to women. The beautiful women of the tribe must give them to their husbands every day. Many people die after taking this drug. In this case, a white cross is drawn on the widow's plate. This means honor and respect for the woman who fulfilled the main mission of the god of death Yamda.

For her, this means eternal respect and an honorable burial. That is, the woman will not be eaten after death, but will be buried in the hollow of a ritual tree. As you can see, the Mursi woman is in a more favorable position. However, at least something connects these people with a civilized society.

Maasai

The Maasai are predominantly found in the Kenyan and Tanzanian regions of Africa. They number more than 800,000 people.

This tribe considers itself to be one of the most powerful wild tribes in Africa. The Maasai do not take into account the opinions of others, they do not care about customs or state borders. They move freely around the country in search of a better life.

Traditions and customs

As a rule, the Maasai feed on livestock, more precisely milk and blood of animals. They are sure that god Engai gave them all the animals of the world. That is why stealing from other tribes is a common activity for them.

The Maasai pierce the arteries of animals and drink their blood. Then the resulting hole is sealed with manure, so that after a while it can be used again.

The Masai are a wild tribe of Africa whose reproduction is quite common. As a rule, many children are born in families of this tribe. Women do everything, including farming, children, raising livestock and even building huts. The men of this tribe are allowed to take as many wives as they wish.

Strong representatives of the Maasai are busy protecting their territory and repelling unwanted guests. In their free time, they talk and wander around the savannah.

The beauty and power of the men of this tribe depends on the size of the earlobe, into which they insert heavy jewelry made of beads and beads. Some have lobes that hang down to their shoulders.

Today, representatives of the Maasai tribe are evicted from their lands, shot or imprisoned. The authorities prohibit them from living there, considering these territories protected areas.

Now, left without a means of subsistence, many wild tribes of Africa, including the Masai, have begun to engage in poaching. In this case, elephants and rhinoceroses are destroyed without exception, because the tusks and horns of these animals are very highly valued on the black market.

There are very few true Maasai left who are in harmony with nature and animals. Many are hired to guard luxury hotels.

Hamer

It’s not for nothing that the Hamer occupies a place on the list of “The Wildest Tribes in Africa.” They have stopped developing for quite some time. Representatives of this nationality know neither feelings, nor love, nor affection. Men contact their women only to conceive another child.

Tribal lifestyle

Hamers do not sleep in their huts, but in specially dug holes that resemble graves. They are “covered” with a layer of earth to experience a mild form of asphyxia. This is what they experience great pleasure from.

The rite of initiation into men is also considered unusual among the Hamers. To do this, all young people must run along the backs of 4 animals. They must be naked. The wild tribes of Africa are distinguished by this - almost all of their rituals and ceremonies must be performed without any clothing.

A benyar (a leather and metal collar with a handle) is placed around the newly-made wife’s neck. He is needed to take her daily for a bloody flogging using a reed rod.

Both newlyweds experience tremendous pleasure from this ritual.

Due to the fact that husbands rarely have contact with their wives, the Hamers have developed sexual relationships between women.

Today, the Hamers are considered the most unsociable and undeveloped.

Bubal

This tribe is known to everyone as having the largest genitals. In men who have reached puberty, the scrotum grows up to 80 cm. This is explained by the unusual lifestyle and beliefs of these people. They are convinced that by eating the menstrual fluid of cows, they will cope with scurvy, leukemia and rickets.

From a scientific point of view, regular licking of cow genitals causes hormonal changes in the human body, which make the scrotum of cows enormous in size. Oddly enough, this does not prevent men from copulating, but it does interfere with moving and dancing.

Every nation has its own inexplicable customs. The wild tribes of the Amazon and Africa, Australia and Asia are not important, the main thing is that they all have one thing in common - a complete rejection of civilization.

Many people consider Africa to be a very beautiful continent, home to many tribes with interesting and sometimes quite strange traditions. Life in Africa for modern people who use mobile phones and know what medicines, nanotechnologies, etc. are, seems primitive and ridiculous. But these tribes honor the memory of their ancestors, follow their advice, instructions and teachings. Today we will talk about African women and their plight.

Dance while you're young

Many tribes have a tradition of gathering for so-called bridal gatherings. Girls who will soon be married off come to a general “bachelorette party”. During it, they prepare a dowry, share their plans for the future and undergo a virginity test. If a girl had sexual relations before marriage, she may be burned at the stake.

The girls are also tested for endurance. This is quite logical, considering that African women have to do heavy lifting every day. physical work under the scorching sun. But the test takes place in a rather interesting form of disco. The girls are forced to dance and sing. The dance of African women undergoing testing lasts for 10 days. Of course, there are short breaks for sleep, but only for a couple of hours. You are given only a couple of bananas to eat, which you are allowed to wash down with a few sips of water. In the evening, a large fire is lit in the center of the dance floor.

If a girl does not pass this test, she is kicked out of her parents' house forever. No one will marry her anymore, and there will be no “retake” either.

Another test is for offspring. Women who have not become pregnant within 3 years after marriage are considered inferior. In the best case, such an unfortunate woman is returned to her parents, but some tribes prefer to kick them out of the village.

The explanation is so strange tradition There is. It is believed that such African women pass on their infertility to the earth, gardens, men and animals. The consequences can even affect the neighbors of an infertile woman.

But there is one tribe that treats this tradition very softly. African women of the Rundu tribe can feign pregnancy, while carrying. After 9 months, childbirth is staged, then a newborn from a large family is adopted. At the same time, no one has the right to talk about the secret of a small child, since the leader prohibits it.

African beauty

Most likely, African women have not heard about the model parameters 90 × 60 × 90. Each tribe has its own ideals of beauty. For example, in the Bantu tribe they are considered very beautiful women with a narrow and long face, and in the Akan tribe, beauties with long and straight noses are especially popular.

Mendi women whiten their facial skin throughout their lives using special clay.

Those who have many scars on their bodies, earned not in battles, but at home, are considered very attractive. To do this, beauties specially cut their bodies, rub the wounds with ash or sand so that the scars remain as visible as possible.

African fashion

Even at school, probably every student wondered why African women needed rings on their necks. For representatives of the Ndebele tribe, this is a kind of decoration that indicates the wealth of the husband. Accordingly, the richer the husband, the more rings his wife has on her neck. These decorations are removed only in the event of the death of the spouse.

Tribal Mursi women strive to become fashionable from the age of 12. It is at this age that girls are allowed to insert a plate made of baked clay or a smooth disk from wood into their lip. To do this, a small incision is made in the lower lip. First, a small plate is inserted, which is changed over time. The desired disc size that girls strive for reaches 12 cm in diameter.

Kenyan women decorate their faces with designs that are fashionable among them. Residents of the Mwila tribe prefer to focus on a stylish hairstyle. To do this, a special oncula paste is applied to the hair. It is made from red stone by grinding it. Then oil, manure, plants and tree bark are added.

Female circumcision

If male circumcision is considered a tribute to religion and a way to prevent the development of many infections, then female circumcision is a rite that every representative of the fair sex must endure. It is considered humane by more than 30 For their residents, this ritual is a kind of cleansing. They believe that a woman is called to give birth to children, and there is no place for pleasure.

The circumcision procedure has not changed for hundreds of years. A ritual knife is used for this. There is no way to avoid the ritual. Moreover, with early childhood the girls are told that this procedure will improve her life.

Although many activists have raised the issue of eradicating this tradition, the problem has not been resolved. If circumcision is introduced into the medical mainstream, the tradition will take root even more, but if nothing is done, unsanitary conditions during operations will continue to provoke the occurrence of sexually transmitted infections.

Weekdays

Women in Africa work constantly. They carry water themselves, cook food, work in the fields, clean, wash, trade in the market and still have time to look after their children. Therefore, when they see a woman with bales in her hands and a child on her back, only tourists are surprised. Men's responsibilities include only financing their family.

If the housewife has a surplus of any crops, she can freely dispose of them. For example, sell. At the same time, he can spend his finances at his own discretion.

African women who live in villages are tied to their plot of land because it is the only thing they have.

African city life

All village residents want to move to the city and work. But it is very difficult for illiterate people to find a job. In addition, although there are positive changes in legislation, it is still visible in all spheres of life. Active and purposeful ladies become entrepreneurs and try to develop their small businesses.

The financial injections that many countries provide practically do not change big picture economic and social development continent. Legislation is trying to make changes that will make life in Africa simpler and easier, but, unfortunately, these changes are happening too slowly.

Hot water, light, TV, computer - all these items are familiar to modern man. But there are places on the planet where these things can cause shock and awe like magic. It's about about the settlements of wild tribes that have preserved their way of life and habits since ancient times. And these are not the wild tribes of Africa, who now wear comfortable clothes and know how to communicate with other peoples. We are talking about Aboriginal settlements that were discovered relatively recently. They do not seek to meet modern people, quite the contrary. If you try to visit them, you may be met with spears or arrows.

The development of digital technology and the exploration of new territories leads a person to meet unknown inhabitants of our planet. Their habitat is hidden from prying eyes. Settlements may be located in deep forests or on uninhabited islands.

Tribes of Nicobar and Andaman Islands

On a group of islands located in the Indian Ocean, 5 tribes live to this day, the development of which stopped in stone age. They are unique in their culture and way of life. The official authorities of the islands look after the aborigines and try not to interfere in their lives and everyday life. The total population of all tribes is about 1000 people. The settlers are engaged in hunting, fishing, farming and have virtually no contact with the outside world. One of the most evil tribes is the inhabitants of Sentinel Island. The number of all settlers of the tribe does not exceed 250 people. But, despite their small numbers, these natives are ready to repel anyone who sets foot on their lands.

Tribes of North Sentinel Island

The inhabitants of Sentinel Island belong to the group of so-called uncontacted tribes. They are distinguished by a high level of aggression and unsociability towards strangers. It is interesting that the appearance and development of the tribe is still not fully known. Scientists cannot understand how black people could begin to live in such a limited space on an island washed by the ocean. There is an assumption that these lands were inhabited by inhabitants more than 30,000 years ago. People remained within their lands and homes and did not move to other territories. Time passed, and water separated them from other lands. Since the tribe did not develop in terms of technology, they did not have contacts with the outside world, therefore any guest for these people is a stranger or enemy. Moreover, communication with civilized people is simply contraindicated for the Sentinel Island tribe. Viruses and bacteria, to which modern humans have immunity, can easily kill any member of the tribe. The only positive contact with the settlers of the island was made in the mid-90s of the last century.

Wild tribes in the Amazon forests

Are there wild tribes today that have never been contacted? modern people? Yes, there are such tribes, and one of them was recently discovered in the dense forests of the Amazon. This happened due to active deforestation. Scientists have long said that these places could be inhabited by wild tribes. This guess was confirmed. The only video filming of the tribe was carried out from a light aircraft by one of the largest US television channels. The footage shows that the settlers' huts are made in the form of tents covered with leaves. The inhabitants themselves are armed with primitive spears and bows.

Piraha

The Piraha tribe numbers about 200 people. They live in the Brazilian jungle and differ from other aborigines in their very weak development of language and the absence of a number system. Simply put, they can't count. They can also be called the most illiterate inhabitants of the planet. Members of the tribe are forbidden to speak about what they do not know from their own experience or to adopt words from other languages. In Piraha speech there is no designation of animals, fish, plants, colors or weather. Despite this, the natives are not malicious towards others. Moreover, they often act as guides through the jungle.

Loaves

This tribe lives in the forests of Papua, New Guinea. They were discovered only in the mid-90s of the last century. They found a home in the thickets of forests between two mountain ranges. Despite their funny name, Aborigines cannot be called good-natured. The cult of the warrior is widespread among the settlers. They are so hardy and strong-willed that they can feed on larvae and pasture for weeks until they find suitable prey while hunting.

Loaves live mainly in trees. By making their huts from branches and twigs like huts, they protect themselves from evil spirits and witchcraft. The tribe reveres pigs. These animals are used like donkeys or horses. They can be slaughtered and eaten only when the pig becomes old and can no longer carry a load or a person.

In addition to the aborigines living on islands or in tropical forests, you can meet people who live according to old customs in our country. This is how the Lykov family lived in Siberia for a long time. Fleeing persecution in the 30s of the last century, they went into the remote taiga of Siberia. For 40 years they survived by adapting to the harsh conditions of the forest. During this time, the family managed to almost completely lose the entire crop of plants and recreate it anew from a few surviving seeds. Old Believers were engaged in hunting and fishing. The Lykovs made their clothes from the skins of killed animals and coarse home-woven hemp threads.

The family has preserved old customs, chronology and the original Russian language. In 1978, they were accidentally discovered by geologists. The meeting became a fatal discovery for the Old Believers. Contact with civilization led to diseases of individual family members. Two of them died suddenly from kidney problems. Died a little later youngest son from pneumonia. This once again proved that contact between modern man and representatives of more ancient peoples can become deadly for the latter.

In our age of high technology, various gadgets and broadband Internet, there are still people who have not seen all this. Time seems to have stood still for them, they do not really make contact with the outside world, and their way of life has not changed in thousands of years.

In the forgotten and undeveloped corners of our planet live such uncivilized tribes that you are simply amazed that time has not touched them with its modernizing hand. Living, like their ancestors, among palm trees and feeding on hunting and pasture, these guys feel great and do not rush to the “concrete jungle” of big cities.

OfficePlankton decided to highlight the wildest tribes of our time that actually exist.

1 Sentinelese

Having chosen the island of North Sentinel, between India and Thailand, the Sentinelese have occupied almost the entire coast and greet with arrows anyone who tries to establish contact with them. By hunting, gathering and fishing, and intermarrying, the tribe maintains a population of approximately 300 people.

An attempt to contact these people ended in shelling by the National Geographic group, but only after they had left gifts on the shore, among which red buckets were especially popular. They shot the abandoned pigs from afar and buried them, without even thinking about eating them; everything else was thrown into the ocean in a heap.

An interesting fact is that they anticipate natural disasters and retreat en masse deep into the jungle when storms approach. The tribe survived both the 2004 Indian earthquake and numerous devastating tsunamis.

2 Maasai

These born pastoralists are the largest and most warlike tribe in Africa. They live only by cattle breeding, not neglecting to steal cattle from other, “lower”, as they consider, tribes, because, in their opinion, their supreme god gave them all the animals on the planet. It is the photograph of them with their earlobes pulled back and discs the size of a good tea saucer inserted into their lower lip that you come across on the Internet.

Maintaining a good fighting spirit, considering as men only all those who killed a lion with a spear, the Massai fought back against European colonialists and invaders from other tribes, owning the ancestral territories of the famous Serengeti Valley and the Ngorongoro volcano. However, under the influence of the 20th century, the number of people in the tribe is declining.

Polygamy, which was once considered honorable, has now become simply necessary as there are fewer and fewer men. Children herd cattle almost from the age of 3, and women handle the rest of the household, while men doze with a spear in their hand inside a hut in peacetime or run with guttural sounds on military campaigns against neighboring tribes.

3 Nicobar and Andaman tribes


An aggressive company of cannibal tribes lives, as you might guess, by raiding and eating each other. The Korubo tribe holds the lead among all these savages. The men, disdainful of hunting and gathering, are very skilled in making poison darts, catching snakes with their bare hands to do this, and stone axes, grinding the edge of the stone all day long to such an extent that blowing off their head becomes a very doable task.

Constantly fighting among themselves, the tribes, however, do not raid endlessly, since they understand that the supply of “people” is very slowly renewed. Some tribes generally reserve only special holidays for this - the holidays of the goddess of Death. Women of the Nicobar and Andaman tribes also do not hesitate to eat their children or old people in case of unsuccessful raids on neighboring tribes.

4 Piraha

A rather small tribe also lives in the Brazilian jungle - about two hundred people. They are notable for the most primitive language on the planet and the absence of at least some kind of number system. Holding primacy among the most undeveloped tribes, if this can be called primacy, of course, the Pirahã have no mythology, no history of the creation of the world and no gods.

They are forbidden to talk about what they have not learned from their own experience, to adopt the words of other people and to introduce new designations into their language. There are also no shades of colors, weather symbols, animals or plants. They live mainly in huts made of branches, refusing to accept gifts of all kinds of objects of civilization. Piraha, however, are quite often called as guides into the jungle, and, despite their inadaptability and lack of development, have not yet been noticed in aggression.

5 Loaves


The most brutal tribe lives in the forests Papua New Guinea, between two chains of mountains, they were discovered very late, only in the 90s of the last century. There is a tribe with a funny Russian-sounding name that sounds like something from the Stone Age. Dwellings - children's huts made of twigs on trees, which we built in childhood - protection from sorcerers, they will find them on the ground.

Stone axes and knives made from animal bones, noses and ears are pierced with the teeth of killed predators. The loaves hold wild pigs in high esteem, which they do not eat, but tame, especially those weaned from their mother at a young age, and use as riding ponies. Only when the pig gets old and can no longer carry the load and the little monkey-like people that loaves are, the pig can be slaughtered and eaten.
The entire tribe is extremely warlike and hardy, the cult of the warrior flourishes there, the tribe can sit on larvae and worms for weeks, and despite the fact that all the women of the tribe are “common”, the festival of love occurs only once a year, the rest of the time men should not pester to women.

Lives on the banks of the Meikhi River wild tribe Pirahu, numbering about three hundred people. The natives survive by hunting and gathering. The peculiarity of this tribe is their unique language: it contains no words denoting shades of colors, no indirect speech, and also interesting fact, it does not contain numerals (Indians count - one, two and many). They have no legends about the creation of the world, no calendar, but despite all this, the Pirahu people have not been found to have the qualities of reduced intelligence.

Video: Amazon Code. In the deep jungle of the Amazon River lives the wild Pirahã tribe. Christian missionary Daniel Everett came to them to bring the word of God, but as a result of becoming acquainted with their culture, he became an atheist. But much more interesting than this is a discovery related to the language of the Piraha tribe.

Another known wild tribe of Brazil is the Sinta Larga, numbering about one and a half thousand people. Previously, this tribe lived in the rubber jungle, however, due to their deforestation, the Sinta Larga became a nomadic tribe. The Indians engage in fishing, hunting and farming. There is patriarchy in the tribe, i.e. a man can have several wives. Also, throughout his life, a Cinta Larga man receives several names, depending on individual characteristics or certain events in his life, but there is one special name that is kept secret and only those closest to him know it.

And in the western part of the Amazon River valley lives a very aggressive Korubo tribe. The main occupation of the Indians of this tribe is hunting and raids on neighboring settlements. Moreover, both men and women, armed with poisoned darts and clubs, take part in the raids. There is evidence that cases of cannibalism occur in the Korubo tribe.

Video: Leonid Kruglov: GEO: Unknown world: Earth. Secrets of the new world. "The Great River of the Amazons". "Korubo Incident".

All these tribes represent a unique find for anthropologists and evolutionists. By studying their life and culture, language, and beliefs, one can better understand all stages of human development. And it is very important to preserve this heritage of history in your in its original form. In Brazil, a special government organization (National Indian Foundation) has been created to deal with the affairs of such tribes. The main task of this organization is to protect these tribes from any interference of modern civilization.

Adventure Magic - Yanomami.

Film: Amazonia / IMAX - Amazon HD.