The residents of this village cannot walk normally; they can only crawl on all fours, and even the children do the same.
This peculiar “Crawling Village” is located in a remote mountainous area of Ethiopia (Africa), far from the center, making it largely unknown to the outside world. One day, a visiting tourist discovered the unusual way of moving exhibited by the locals. They move using both hands and feet on the ground, rather than walking upright like most people.
Residents of the “Crawling Village” cannot walk upright like normal people.
Initially, tourists assumed that the crawling was a way to attract attention from outsiders. However, after a prolonged observation, they realized that all the people here moved in this manner, including the children.
Due to crawling frequently on the ground, the bodies of the residents here are unlike those of normal people. Their spinal columns and waists have become deformed, and their hips are wider.
Residents here move using both hands and feet on the ground.
Their hands are also larger than normal and rough due to frequent crawling without protective gear like gloves. Despite crawling, their speed of movement is not significantly slower than that of normal people.
In addition to the differences in posture, researchers have also discovered that the lifespan of people in the “Crawling Village” is shorter than that of normal individuals. Those with good health may live about 10 years less than those who walk upright, while those with poorer health might have a lifespan only half that of a typical person.
Many believe that the crawling phenomenon here is a result of inbreeding.
Some believe that the crawling phenomenon here is a result of inbreeding. Because the village is located in a remote area, outsiders are unwilling to marry into the community, and the villagers are also reluctant to marry non-locals, leading to intermarriage among the residents without awareness of the serious consequences. As a result, many children born here have congenital disabilities, cognitive impairments, and difficulty walking.
Moreover, some experts have noted that the way people move in the “Crawling Village” closely resembles the clinical symptoms of cerebellar ataxia. This condition impairs a person’s ability to maintain body balance due to long-term cerebellar dysfunction, but it does not fully explain the changes in their hips.
Some say that the residents of the “Crawling Village” exhibit symptoms similar to cerebellar ataxia.
Have the residents been crawling this way since birth? Experts have conducted separate studies on this issue. Ultimately, the most likely explanation remains a genetic mutation due to inbreeding, although there is still a small percentage of children born completely healthy.
However, this group of healthy children has never witnessed normal walking, as the village is located in a remote, isolated area with poorly developed transportation, separating it from the outside world for a long time. They can only learn from their parents, crawling on the ground to move, which gradually becomes a habit. The exact truth of the situation, however, has yet to be definitively established.
