Archive record · Historical photographs & visual records
Untitled 31, Two Suri Warriors Engaged in Ritual Combat, Suri Village, Omo Valley, Ethiopia
February 2011
African history · place not specified
Source catalog description
This description refers to material held by Smithsonian Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art. Visual details below describe the original material.
Description provided by Doggett: "Two Suri warriors engage in ritual combat. Stick fights, held during harvest time, are sport and spectacle for the Suri. This popular tradition allows men to show off their agility and brute strength; broken bones often follow, sometimes even death. The results help determine how men and women within the tribe will pair off. A Suri boy starts carrying a donga (or wooden staff) during adolescence when he becomes a warrior and will rarely go anywhere without it.".
- Collection
- Drew Doggett Photographs
- Catalog date
- February 2011
- Cataloged creator or photographer
- Doggett, Drew
- Format and extent
- 1 Photographic print (color; matted, 12 x 18 in. (print); 18 x 24 in. (matted))
Explore Smithsonian Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art ↗
About this record
This is a catalog record for historical archival material, not a biography. Catalog wording reflects the source record. Metadata reuse does not grant permission to reproduce restricted photographs or documents.
Sources & collection details
Smithsonian Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art — original record ↗
Catalog metadata · CC0 · Source checked 2026-10-20
Catalog reference: EEPA.2015-009, Item EEPA.2015-009-0013
Collection: Drew Doggett Photographs