The discovery of fossilized human footprints in White Sands New Mexico dating to 23,000 years ago is revolutionary for a lot of reasons and one really important one is that it thoroughly obliterates the settler colonial notion that the indigenous peoples of the America’s never had extensive contact with horses prior to the introduction of domesticated feral populations descended from the horses that came over with the Spanish in the 1400′s. It’s currently believed that horses went extinct in North America between 12,000 and 11,000 years ago which gives us an at least ten thousand year window where humans and horses coexisted in North America.
If you want to hear about this incredible archaeological evidence from someone who isn’t white (you should) here’s an excellent article that both talks about the discovery itself and the colonialist way in which it’s been framed by news sources so far.
The Himba (singular: OmuHimba, plural: OvaHimba) are indigenous peoples with an estimated population of about 50,000 people living in northern Namibia, in the Kunene Region (formerly Kaokoland) and on the other side of the Kunene River in Angola. The OvaHimba are a semi-nomadic, pastoralist people, culturally distinguishable from the Herero people in northern Namibia and southern Angola, and speak OtjiHimba, a variety of Herero, which belongs to the Bantu family within Niger–Congo. The OvaHimba are considered the last (semi-) nomadic people of Namibia.
The Himba often cover themselves with otjize paste, a cosmetic mixture of butterfat and ochre pigment, to cleanse the skin over long periods due to water scarcity and protect themselves from the extremely hot and dry climate of the Kaokoland as well as against mosquito insect bites. The cosmetic mixture, often perfumed with the aromatic resin of the omuzumbashrub, gives their skin and hair plaits a distinctive orange or red-tinge characteristic, as well as texture and style. Otjize is considered foremost a highly desirable aesthetic beauty cosmetic, symbolizing earth’s rich red color and blood the essence of life, and is consistent with the OvaHimba ideal of beauty. The OvaHimba are also accustomed to use wood ash for hair cleansing due to water scarcity.
Hairstyle and jewelry play a significant role among the OvaHimba, it indicates age and social status within their community. An infant or child will generally have his head kept shaven of hair or a small crop of hair on his head crown. This soon is sculptured to one braided hair plait extended to the rear of the head for young boys and young girls have two braided hair plaits extended forward towards the face often parallel to their eyes. This style is called ozondato, the form of wear being determined by the oruzo membership (patrilineal descent group). The style remains during preadolescence until reaching puberty. Some young girls, with exception, may also have one braided hair plait extended forwards, which means they are one of a pair of twins.
OvaHimba girl
OvaHimba girl dancing
OvaHimba boy
OvaHimba girl, one of a set of twins!
OvaHimba children, both boys and girls, removing ticks from goats.
From pubescence, boys continue to have one braided hair plait.
A young man wearing a braid known as ondatu. Namibia. Photo by Nigel Pavitt
Once they reach puberty, OvaHimba girls will have many otjize textured hair plaits, some arranged to veil the girl’s face.
This girl is going through puberty, a fact made plain by her hairstyle, which has been designed to cover her face and help her avoid male attention. The puffs at the bottom are either goat hair or synthetic.
(In daily practice, the hair plaits are often tied together and held parted back from the face.)
This girl’s braids are arranged to reveal her face, indicating that she’s ready to be married.
Women who have been married for about a year, or have had a child, wear an ornate headpiece called the Erembe, sculptured from sheepskin, with many streams of braided hair, coloured and put in shape with otjize paste.
Married women wearing erembe
Unmarried young men continue to wear one braided hair plait extended to the rear of the head.
When Himba men marry, they start wearing turbans, which they never take off unless someone in the village dies. After a death, their heads are shaved.
Because the turbans are never removed, things can get a little itchy underneath, so men carry pointed arrow-like instruments to scratch it with.
Married OvaHimba men. #s 1 and 3 wear a scratching implement in their turbans.
Widowed men will remove their cap or head-wrap and expose un-braided hair.
Himba widower. The habit of using a head-scratching implement is hard to break.
@ white people who think wearing eagle feather headdresses is just a costume and doesn’t offend natives, I was at a powwow yesterday and one of the dancer’s who was a war veteran accidentally dropped an eagle feather while dancing and we had to stop the entire powwow, the head man and some other elders had to stop and pray over the feather before picking it up. The guy who dropped the father gave a speech, while almost in tears, about how sorry he was to have dropped the feather and how it represented the choices he had to make in combat and the lives of people that were taken, and he ended up passing the feather on to another young dancer instead of keeping it because he felt so ashamed. This is how much eagle feathers mean to a lot of our nations, and that’s how important it is to native veterans. Wearing eagle feathers as a costume or without having to go through combat is disgusting and you ARE offending our traditions and values. Stop. You cannot understand the importance of our customs and you do not deserve to wear eagle feathers.
serre-la-lumiereserre-la-lumiere
Here’s a secret for some of y'all: this post isn’t controversial.
Man at the bar on Saturday night, Craigville, Minnesota in 1937
