"But back to being serious again. It sounds like an interesting culture and I wonder how this particular ritual came about"
Just to speculate, it's an Ethiopian tribe, so these few months of gorging could correspond to a time of plenty (eg their harvest season), the time of judging a winner could be the start of droughts/food shortages. Thus it'd be an advantage to be fat for such a time of scarcity, so obesity would be considered desirable?
Just a guess, but it seems like a likely origin. no matter what the origin, it's always interesting to see another perspective on what attractiveness is in a culture!
13 years
