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Dress and Presentation

Traditionally men wore a bark-cloth, called a dobi (see image), but from the late 60's and 70's a cotton cloth, called jodi (after the Amharic "abujedi") came to replace it. Today, only the youngest boys might go without any cloth, but generally each boy and men have a large piece of Chinese fabric in bright colours which they tie around their waist or tied at one shoulder. Men are increasingly wearing underwear and older men usually have shorts, a shirt or waist-coat.

Girls traditionally had one goats skin tied around their waist, until they had their first child, when they received a second skin in a ceremony called 'tying the mother' (jonê chibin). Now, cloth has replaced the skin for all but a few older women. Over the skirt, women traditionally wore striking ‘leather skin’ (sai), made from lesser Kudu, with markings scrapped into the leather. However, with a shortage of lesser kudu, these skins are increasingly rare, and if a family has one, it is saved for special ritual occasions. Now, a cloth is tied over the right shoulder, to cover a woman's breasts in public.
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