The 5 Strangest Social Rites In The World
It is not easy to make a selection from the strangest social rites in the world. If you delve a little deeper into the subject, you will realize that the planet is populated by customs very different from those around you. Many of them are curious and even overwhelming.
The social rites fulfill the objective of celebrating in community the most transcendental moments of life. Mainly, births, deaths, the passage from childhood to adulthood and the conjugal union. These are moments that change everything and that is why they end up being the object of ritualization.
In the West there are also rituals that might seem strange to these communities. We are actually more alike than might appear at first glance. Change the shape, but not so much the background. Making that reservation, let’s look at five of the strangest social rites in the world, at least in the eyes of Westerners.
1. The initiation ritual in the Satere-Mawé tribe
Initiation rituals, especially for men, often include cruel practices or very difficult to overcome. One of the strangest social rites in the world is precisely initiation. It takes place among the Satere-Mawé tribe, a community that is settled in the Amazon and has barely come into contact with Western civilization.
You may not have heard of the Satere-Mawé, but you probably do know “guarana”. They were the ones who discovered its properties and brought it to the West. Well, in this community for a boy to be accepted as a man he must go through a very difficult test. He has to put on, for 20 times in a row, and for a period of about 10 minutes, gloves full of bullet ants.
Bullet ants cause very painful stings, which some liken to touching a hot iron. During the ritual, many people faint. And the recovery takes several weeks. However, the prize is that they are accepted as adults within the tribe.
2. The Yanomami have one of the strangest social rites
Death is another of the circumstances that give rise to the strangest social rites in the world. The Yanomami, who live in the jungle areas of Venezuela and Brazil, perform a curious ritual. When someone dies, their corpse is left exposed for a day. The next morning, women should paint their faces dark to express their grief. They must also cry.
Together with the deceased person, all their belongings are placed and everything is set on fire. If things don’t burn out completely, it is because the person did something that cannot be forgiven. The following month the family must return, collect the ashes and pour them over a banana soup. Everyone eats from it. It is a way for the deceased person to remain within those who survive him.
3. A death ritual in the Baliem Valley
In Papua, New Guinea, the Dani tribe inhabits. They are another of those communities that maintain one of the strangest social rites, and it also has to do with death. It happens that when a man dies, the women and children of his family are expected to have one or more fingers amputated. The person in charge of doing this is a priest.
The priest observes the reaction of the women and children at the time of the amputation. If they resist or show a lot of pain, they do not amputate one, but several fingers. A necklace is made from the amputated pieces and the dead person is put on before burying him. At the moment, the Dani have not been able to abandon this cruel ritual.
4. Babies and good luck
Birth is another one of those moments that gives rise to the strangest rituals in the world. One of them has been taking place for about 700 years, in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, in India. It has to do with an old superstition, according to which there will be health and prosperity when babies are thrown from a height of 30 feet to be picked up on a spread sheet.
The authorities have prohibited this ritual, despite the fact that the locals assure that it does not cause any harm to the little ones. Despite the restriction, the ritual has continued to be practiced. Superstition has been stronger than laws or reason.
5. An interesting wedding ritual
The nuptial union also gives rise to several strange rituals around the world. One of the most curious takes place in some places in Scotland. Shortly before the wedding, both the groom and the bride are smeared with sticky food. They bathe them in tea and put raw eggs on top, as well as butter, pudding, and the like.
Afterwards, the bride and groom have to go out and walk around the town, totally smeared and smelling bad. They say this public humiliation prepares them so that no marriage problem will be worse than this ritual.
All these rituals, in one way or another, are intended to celebrate or mark the most important moments in life. Sometimes they are difficult to understand, but for each society they have a special value, whose role is to give meaning to life experiences.
