The Tradition of Beating Women in the Hamar Tribe of Ethiopia

Note: Most of what is written here is culled from various websites. The reference list can be found at the end.

The Hamar people live on the eastern side of the Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia. What interested me in this tribe is their queer tradition of whipping their young women for them to prove their love for their kinsmen.

(Photo by Ngaire Lawson from www.flickr.com) (Photo by Ronnie Dankelman from www.flickr.com) 
Some Facts About the Hamar
Marriage requires ‘bride wealth’, a payment made to the woman’s family and generally made up of goats, cattle and guns. Although it’s paid over time like instalments of a bank loan, it’s so high (30 goats and 20 head of cattle) that it can't usually be paid back in a lifetime.

Because men tend to be older than their wives, they often die first. Lots of Hamar households are headed by women who have survived their husbands – one study found an amazing 27 out of 39 married women were widows. A widow also has power over her husband’s younger brothers (and their livestock) if their parents are already dead.

A Hamar man comes of age by leaping over a line of cattle. It’s the ceremony which qualifies him to marry, own cattle and have children. The timing of the ceremony is up to the man’s parents and happens after harvest. As an invitation, the guests receive a strip of bark with a number of knots – one to cut off for each day that passes in the run up to the ceremony. They have several days of feasting and drinking sorghum beer in prospect.
On the afternoon of the leap, the man’s female relatives demand to be whipped as part of the ceremony. The girls go out to meet the Maza, the ones who will whip them – a group of men who have already leapt across the cattle, and live apart from the rest of the tribe, moving from ceremony to ceremony. The whipping appears to be consensual; the girls gather round and beg to be whipped on their backs. They don’t show the pain they must feel and they say they’re proud of the scars. They would look down on a woman who refuses to join in, but young girls are discouraged from getting whipped.

                                        (Cattle leaping ceremony: from www.frankfocus.com)

It doesn’t stop there. Wife beating is an accepted part of life rather than a taboo, and the convention is that a man will not generally tell his wife why she is being whipped. On the other hand, if a beating is severe then family or neighbours will step in; and after a couple have had two or three children, beating stops.
Here's a short video clip of some whipping:

REFERENCES
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tribe/tribes/hamar/

Photos and Video
http://www.frankfocus.com/2010/08/11/hamar-bull-jump-a-photo-series/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eriagn/6618451961/in/pool-1691821@N21
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ronniedankelman/5499362223/in/pool-1691821@N21
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ__mPwhPcU