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Hamer Tribe
Bull Jumping
African
Tribe Culture
The Hamer (or Hamar) tribe
has a famous ceremony involving bull jumping by young men about to marry.
Other African tribes in the Omo Valley such as the Aari, Bashada, Tsamai,
and Banna also practice this ritual. The bull jumping ceremony also involves
his sisters and young female relatives being whipped with sticks before the
actual jumping of the bulls takes place. The women willingly take part in
the ceremony, even though they will be scarred for life. The ceremony tends
to unite the family as if the woman ever falls upon on hard times, she can
rely upon the man to help her. The scars on her back are said to be proof of
her sacrifice for the man and it is therefore impossible for the man to
refuse her needs in times of emergencies. Interestingly, the more scars that
a woman possesses, the greater is her status in the Hamer tribal society by
proving just how dedicated she is to her family. During the bull jumping
ceremony, the bulls are held in place by men who have successfully completed
the ceremony on previous occasions (the "Maza"). The "Maza" are responsible
for holding the bulls in place and preventing serious injury to the man if
he might fall. The man is required to transverse the bulls four times (two
round-trip journeys). He must perform the bull jumping ceremony naked as is
the tradition of the Hamer African tribe. If he should fail to jump over the
bulls without falling, he will not be permitted to marry the woman of his
choice and must wait another year to make another attempt. Moreover if the
young man should fall, he will be whipped by the women. In addition to
jumping bulls, the Hamer African tribe requires that the man pay the bride's
family a dowry in the form of cattle. The bride and groom will then drink
the blood of the cows mixed with milk. This African tribe is polygamous and
one Hamer man can marry as many as four Hamer women.
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