By Tammy Law (Photoessay)
Males are often given more freedom when compared to females. Girls are expected to assume a role of servitude, while young men are free to do as they please. Photograph © Tammy
One of the oldest countries in the world, Ethiopia is often referred to as “the cradle of civilization” – a country with a tumultuous past, present and future, and yet at the same time, a place of unparalleled beauty. In the Northeastern region of Ethiopia earlier this month, a team of scientists recently unveiled their latest findings, Ardi, a revolutionizing fossil that pre-dates the infamous 3.2 million-year-old skeleton of Lucy.
A landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia is bound by its bordering neighbors Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Sudan and Eritrea. For outsiders, famine, war, poverty and drought are the things most synonymous with the Ethiopia. Even now, it’s still one of the least developed countries in the world, so those preconceptions wouldn’t be entirely baseless.
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The Afar have a deeply paternalistic attitude, which is obvious from birth to burial. At the birth of a baby boy, two celebratory gunshots are fired into the air while female births go unacknowledged. Seven-year-old girls are expected to assume a role of servitude within the household and conduct daily tasks alongside the women, while males are free to do as they please. At the end of their lives, male graves are more distinguishably marked and revered. The Afar have a traditional saying that seems to embody much of what I saw: “One should give an ear to a woman but not take seriously what is said.”
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