The 5 Strangest Social Rituals In The World

It is not easy to make a selection of the strangest social rituals in the world. If you delve into the subject a little, you will notice that the planet is populated by customs that are very different from what you are used to. Many peoples perform curious and even frightening rituals.

Social rituals fulfill the objective of celebrating the most transcendental moments of community life. Mainly births, deaths, the passage from childhood to adulthood and marital union. These are moments that change everything and, therefore, end up being the object of ritualization.

There are also Western rituals that might seem very foreign to these communities we’ll talk about next. In reality, we are more alike than we might first appear. The form changes, but not so much the background.

With that caveat, let’s look at the 5 strangest social rituals in the world below, at least in our Western eyes.

The 5 strangest rituals in the world

1. The Satere-Mawé Tribe Initiation Ritual

Initiation rituals, especially those related to boys, often include practices that are cruel or very difficult to overcome. One of the strangest social rituals in the world is precisely that of initiation. It takes place in the Satere-Mawé tribe, a community that is located in the Amazon and was known to our Western civilization not long ago.

Perhaps you have never heard of the Satere-Mawé, but you probably know the “guaraná”. They were the ones who discovered its properties and spread guarana in the accident. Well then, in this community there is a ritual for a child to be accepted as a man. She must go through a very difficult test. You have to put on, 20 times in a row and for a period of time of 10 minutes, gloves full of bullet ants.

Bullet ants give very painful stings, which some compare to touching a hot iron. During the ritual, many people pass out. Recovery takes several weeks. The prize, however, is being accepted as an adult within the tribe.

2. The Yanomami have one of the strangest social rituals

Death is another of the circumstances that give space to the formation of very strange social rituals around the world. The Yanomami, people who live in the wild regions of Venezuela and Brazil, have a very curious ritual. When someone dies, the corpse is exposed for a day. The next morning, women must paint their faces black to express their pain. They must also cry.

Next to the dead person all their things and belongings are placed, and then they set fire to everything. If things don’t burn out completely, it means that the person has done something that cannot be forgiven. The following month the person’s family must return, collect the ashes and place them in banana soup. Everyone must eat the soup. It is a way for the dead person to remain within those who are still alive.

3. A ritual of death in the Valle de Baliem

In Papua New Guinea inhabits the Dani tribe. It is another of the communities that maintain one of the strangest social rituals in the world, and this one is also related to death. It turns out that when a man dies, the women and children in his family are expected to have one or more of his fingers amputated. The one 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 and don’t show much pain, don’t amputate one but several fingers. With the amputated pieces they make a necklace, which is placed on the dead person before burying him. They still haven’t managed to get the Dani to abandon this cruel ritual.

4. Babies and good luck

Birth is another of the times when there are often strange social rituals. One of them takes place about 700 years ago, in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, in India. It is related to a superstition that there will be health and prosperity if we throw babies from a height of 30 feet to be picked up by an extended sheet.

Authorities have obviously already banned this ritual, even though the locals guarantee that there is no risk for the little ones. Despite the restriction, the ritual continues to be performed in many places. Superstition is stronger than the laws of reason.

5. An interesting wedding ritual

The conjugal union also gives rise to several very strange rituals all over the world. One of the most curious happens in some places in Scotland. Just before the wedding, both the bride and groom are involved in sticky food. Other people bathe them in tea and put raw eggs on top, as well as butter, pudding and local foods.

Afterwards, the newlyweds must go out and walk around the village, fully covered and smelling bad. As they say, this public humiliation prepares them so that no problem of marriage is worse than this ritual.

All these rituals, in one way or another, are intended to celebrate or mark the most important moments in life. It may seem difficult to understand, but for each society they have a special value, whose role is to make sense of the most striking experiences we live.