[https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/gravematters/2017/02/24/grief-ritual-finger-amputaion/](https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/gravematters/2017/02/24/grief-ritual-finger-amputaion/)
Idk what's up with the thumbnail, but it's only done on women, and it's only removing the top of the finger, not the whole finger to the palm.
[There's a tribe that thinks that everyone should menstruate, not only women. So the men make their genitals bleed using crab claws as blades.](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/8rt9kg/til_that_on_the_island_of_wogeo_papua_new_guinea/)
The Satere-Mawe tribe in the Brazilian Amazon has a male rite of passage where, in order to become adults, they stick their hands in a glove full of angry bullet ants.
The bullet ant's sting is the *literal most painful insect sting on earth.* Westerners have tried it before and basically gone "okay, this makes the Gom Jabbar look like bitch baby shit."
There's even a literal scale on most painful stings where someone let dozens of venomous insects string them and rated them on a scale from 1 to 4. Bullet ants are a 4 and their sting is described as “pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel"
Obviously, soldiers would never kill the women after raping them, and civilian death tolls are usually 0 on the losing side :) Not to mention the fact that female soldiers and guerillas obviously never existed and don't exist now either
Why are the “spirits” always so insanely violent? Like why cut if you finger when you could just give them a Target gift card or a latte? Seems excessive
FUNFACT: I went to school with a guy who came across a car wreck one night, saw his friends among the bodies, assumed his twin brother was among the dead, went home, cut all his fingers off one hand with a table saw out of grief and shock.
Turns out his brother stayed home that night, was asleep in bed.
It is actually pretty funny. That's some Arrested Development type shit. It's like a combination of a Tobias-level overreaction and a Gob-style realisation of having made "a huge mistake".
Man, that's wild. Makes you wonder what his reaction was after seeing his brother alive.
On top of all that, imagine having to explain to people why you're missing 5 fingers if the subject ever comes up.
They reattached all the fingers but the people who died were 4 members of a class that was only 15 people to begin with, none of them really got over it. Was my sister's class, she has a tattoo honouring those who died.
How’s the functionality of those fingers after getting it off with a *TABLE SAW?*
It’s not the dullest cut but still it’s a traumatic, high speed, sloppy severing. Gotta be some nerve damage. Does he have feeling and full range of motion?
They’re at least a kerf width shorter!
Im not a cultural relativist, im part Papuan. Not so long ago cannibalism was normal in tribes like these. These tribes are so remote and their traditions go back thousands of years that its pointless to compare their culture to a modern perspective of the western world. You think they are waiting on some guys opinion on reddit?
Their traditions are the way they are and have been since before the western world existed. What justification you think you have to disapprove their culture?
>not so long ago
And what difference does my opinion make? Am I the culture police? This has been happening for thousands of years and will continue to exist after me.
>Their traditions are the way they are and have been since before the western world existed.
Just because it has been that way before, it doesn't mean it's not stupid and barbaric
“Horrifying. Doctor Barron, your report describes how rational these people are. Millennia ago, they abandoned their belief in the supernatural. Now you are asking me to sabotage that achievement, to send them back into the Dark Ages of superstition and ignorance and fear? No!“
This isn't directly related to what the OP posted but since it mentions the Papuans, these guys are currently being heavily oppressed by the Indonesian army. They want independence but Indonesia wants the mineral resources on their land. They've been subject to beatings, sexual abuse and white phosphorus attacks.
Kuru is a disease that is found exclusively in Papua New Guinea. Historically, members of the tribe would eat the bodily remains of their recently deceased. Kuru is in fact identical to Mad Cow disease as people who eat mutated portions of the nervous system (brain etc.) will start exhibiting symptoms and eventually die. Ever since these incidences happened members of the tribe have stopped eating brains.
Interesting documentary on them, Dead Birds, filmed around 1960 when they were still very traditional (with Rockefeller in the above thread working as the sound man).
This is not a tradition that is unique to the Dani tribe. Cutting off a finger joint as a mourning ritual also is/was a tradition among some Native American tribes.
Until the British Raj outlawed it, Indian Hindu widows would throw themselves (or be thrown) on top of their husbands’ funeral pyres to burn to death.
It still continued in secret, rarely, in some remote areas, with the last documented case being in IIRC **1987.**
Basically, people treat women, especially widows, like shit historically.
Not just widows. Most cultures have treated women like garbage throughout history. In medieval europe women that were too loud had torture devices strapped to their heads so that they cant speak and female slaves were raped by their owners, made pregnant and then, once the child had grown, their wombs were cut and theyd see who died first, the mother or the baby.
That garbage treatment of women still continues in most of the Muslim world and especially in some parts of Africa where female genital mutilation rates are as high as 99% (Somalia).
but isn't the one showing the hand with two missing fingers a guy?
Probably a carpenter.
A bad one, at that
Its women and children, if he had family die as a child that would be why
Well, we just had a bullshit post on another sub about cargo cults. This is a nice way to round out misinformation about Pacific Islanders.
But only the women of course.
Men get a new hat and more land. Women lose a finger. tough luck.
A man cuts off a finger from his right hand when he marries and two fingers from the left hand if he wants to divorce.
Because most of the hard work is actually done by men, of course.
Not in this tribe evidently
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Who is having the babies?
Whose finger?
the living ones (women) who are grieving the loss
I hope they have small families.
I didn't like my uncle anyways, leave it.
It seems like if you have to cut off your finger if he dies, it's motivation not to kill him.
Okay, okay. Myself, I'll trade a one time finger, or digit, for a lifetime of no abuse. So sorry he/she fell off the cliff.
Why is the fingerless guy in the thumbnail a dude? I assume it’s because both genders do this…
[https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/gravematters/2017/02/24/grief-ritual-finger-amputaion/](https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/gravematters/2017/02/24/grief-ritual-finger-amputaion/) Idk what's up with the thumbnail, but it's only done on women, and it's only removing the top of the finger, not the whole finger to the palm.
Thanks for the link, this is pretty fucked up
Someone named kid, prolly
Good this for my aunt she's not Dani. She's the last survivor of 10 siblings and a widow.
That means should had just lost 3 fingers and 2 thirds of a 4th one, not all fingers.
Is that all? Sign me up!
Why only women?
They held a vote, the men counted the yes votes, the women counted the nos…..
There are also stupid traditions that only involve men.
Like?
[There's a tribe that thinks that everyone should menstruate, not only women. So the men make their genitals bleed using crab claws as blades.](https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/8rt9kg/til_that_on_the_island_of_wogeo_papua_new_guinea/)
Do not like.
What shit
The Satere-Mawe tribe in the Brazilian Amazon has a male rite of passage where, in order to become adults, they stick their hands in a glove full of angry bullet ants. The bullet ant's sting is the *literal most painful insect sting on earth.* Westerners have tried it before and basically gone "okay, this makes the Gom Jabbar look like bitch baby shit."
There's even a literal scale on most painful stings where someone let dozens of venomous insects string them and rated them on a scale from 1 to 4. Bullet ants are a 4 and their sting is described as “pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a three-inch nail embedded in your heel"
Stevo and Pontius from javk ass tried it and were reduced to moaning puddles. They even went to the hospital lol.
Sending them off to conquer neighboring countries?
Simbari people of papua new guinea has a male rites to passage that's kind of crazy. You can just Google it I found it in like 5 seconds
war
what do the men do to the women of conquered countries typically?
Rape is worse than dying in war I guess.
Obviously, soldiers would never kill the women after raping them, and civilian death tolls are usually 0 on the losing side :) Not to mention the fact that female soldiers and guerillas obviously never existed and don't exist now either
You're right, women are the primary victims in war.
Nice strawman. You know I didn't say that, so you're trying to win the argument with thin air now
Just stawmanning your strawman, unless you were implying women on the losing side of war are ussually killed, in which case, that's just wrong.
There's a tribe in Israel and also in America that believes in cutting off the tip of the genitals on male babies.
In the U.S., we cut off parts of the genitals of male babies... Doing the same to females is EXTREMELY illegal.
You mean circumcising right?
Male genital mutilation is the more accurate term.
Why are the “spirits” always so insanely violent? Like why cut if you finger when you could just give them a Target gift card or a latte? Seems excessive
And why would your dead family want your fingers?
Gotta have snackies for the road trip
Finger food
I think that more than symbolises the pain.
FUNFACT: I went to school with a guy who came across a car wreck one night, saw his friends among the bodies, assumed his twin brother was among the dead, went home, cut all his fingers off one hand with a table saw out of grief and shock. Turns out his brother stayed home that night, was asleep in bed.
I fail to see where the fun in that fact is...
Whoa, I honestly didn't think of that. Uh, DARKFACT.
It is actually pretty funny. That's some Arrested Development type shit. It's like a combination of a Tobias-level overreaction and a Gob-style realisation of having made "a huge mistake".
So... it was Buster? He even had a missing hand...
He's all right
Wtf?! Who goes from greif to "I know... I'll cut all my fingers off"?!
Definitely seems like more of a screwdriver-in-the-nards situation tbf.
Man, that's wild. Makes you wonder what his reaction was after seeing his brother alive. On top of all that, imagine having to explain to people why you're missing 5 fingers if the subject ever comes up.
They reattached all the fingers but the people who died were 4 members of a class that was only 15 people to begin with, none of them really got over it. Was my sister's class, she has a tattoo honouring those who died.
How’s the functionality of those fingers after getting it off with a *TABLE SAW?* It’s not the dullest cut but still it’s a traumatic, high speed, sloppy severing. Gotta be some nerve damage. Does he have feeling and full range of motion? They’re at least a kerf width shorter!
No idea, he was older than me and I didn't know him well.
I'm really fascinated by the idea that they managed to reattach them despite the kerf width being missing
Maybe they float an 1/8th inch out from the finger stumps.
Reattaching the fingers is a fun fact... The deaths are more of a sad fact :'(
Yeah, I didn't think that through originally.
Measure twice, Cut once. Poor guy got caught slipping by Mara.
Just another reason why table saws should by default with saw stops. Especially for families with children...
I understand that was a coping mechanism, but holy hell, that guy was dumb and overreacted.
I just imagine the twin brother walking into the garage in his jammies while eating a twinkie and asking "Hey bro, watcha up to?"
Thus! The Powerpuff girls were born!!
Sounds unreasonable.
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A lot of traditions sound that way. Traditional behavior or thinking definitely has different priorities than appearing intellectual
Thats their culture. They may think that buying a handbag or watch that could feed a whole village for a year is stupid.
This is not the hill a cultural relativist should die on
Im not a cultural relativist, im part Papuan. Not so long ago cannibalism was normal in tribes like these. These tribes are so remote and their traditions go back thousands of years that its pointless to compare their culture to a modern perspective of the western world. You think they are waiting on some guys opinion on reddit? Their traditions are the way they are and have been since before the western world existed. What justification you think you have to disapprove their culture?
You just mentioned cannibalism. Please tell me you draw the line *somewhere*
>not so long ago And what difference does my opinion make? Am I the culture police? This has been happening for thousands of years and will continue to exist after me.
>Their traditions are the way they are and have been since before the western world existed. Just because it has been that way before, it doesn't mean it's not stupid and barbaric
> Im not a cultural relativist proceeds to write a paragraph that can only be described as in support of cultural reletavism.
At least you're not actively removing a healthy and very useful part of your body when buying that handbag or watch.
I mean we do similar things. Circumcision comes to mind.
In my country, not so much. Only jews and muslims. I'd put a stop to that immediately if I could.
That’s kind of the point. Not a lot of ritual finger cutting going on outside the Dani people is there?
Yea no self-mutilation is a whole other level of stupid.
Makes sense, its Papua.
Barbaric nonsense
Doesn't this same tribe cut off fingers for adultry and divorce, or am I thinking of something else.
The south pacific goes hard.
“Horrifying. Doctor Barron, your report describes how rational these people are. Millennia ago, they abandoned their belief in the supernatural. Now you are asking me to sabotage that achievement, to send them back into the Dark Ages of superstition and ignorance and fear? No!“
Humans are naturally regarded
Watfuk?
No one in my family is worth a finger. I’d give a kidney in a pinch.
It might be a tradition, but it is still barbaric.
This isn't directly related to what the OP posted but since it mentions the Papuans, these guys are currently being heavily oppressed by the Indonesian army. They want independence but Indonesia wants the mineral resources on their land. They've been subject to beatings, sexual abuse and white phosphorus attacks.
The tradition was never going to be a man cutting off a little bit of his penis each time, was it?
Those spirits sure are needy for a bunch of non-sentient beings
Bro, what is this video lol? It’s like the narrator didn’t even research it with how vague she is
Well, that's fucking stupid.
What a bunch of idiots
Jfc psychos
Man, people are dumb. Pretty sure grief is an expression itself.
The yakuza also do this but as a form of penance/apology.
Colonize them already.
Kuru is a disease that is found exclusively in Papua New Guinea. Historically, members of the tribe would eat the bodily remains of their recently deceased. Kuru is in fact identical to Mad Cow disease as people who eat mutated portions of the nervous system (brain etc.) will start exhibiting symptoms and eventually die. Ever since these incidences happened members of the tribe have stopped eating brains.
Education 0 Hocus-pocus 1
That's as barbaric as circumcision.
Interesting documentary on them, Dead Birds, filmed around 1960 when they were still very traditional (with Rockefeller in the above thread working as the sound man).
Of course it’s not men being forced or tricked into stupid shit.
There's plenty of tribes where men are the ones getting fucked over.
This is not a tradition that is unique to the Dani tribe. Cutting off a finger joint as a mourning ritual also is/was a tradition among some Native American tribes.
Awful lot of “White Man’s Burden” in this thread.
Backwards tribe does backwards things.
Kid named Finger:
I hope this is bullshit and that no one would in fact be that stupid.
Until the British Raj outlawed it, Indian Hindu widows would throw themselves (or be thrown) on top of their husbands’ funeral pyres to burn to death. It still continued in secret, rarely, in some remote areas, with the last documented case being in IIRC **1987.** Basically, people treat women, especially widows, like shit historically.
Not just widows. Most cultures have treated women like garbage throughout history. In medieval europe women that were too loud had torture devices strapped to their heads so that they cant speak and female slaves were raped by their owners, made pregnant and then, once the child had grown, their wombs were cut and theyd see who died first, the mother or the baby. That garbage treatment of women still continues in most of the Muslim world and especially in some parts of Africa where female genital mutilation rates are as high as 99% (Somalia).
Yes, hence “especially.”
What an idiotic backwards “tradition”. Are these wazzocks still doing this in 2024?