Reterdeen Staff
Humans have postulated various ideas, theories, inventions etc, since the very beginning in a bid to ensure peaceful coexistence.
Some of these traditions are quite unusual from the normal ones, as they carry bizarre forms and representations; incredibly strange cultural practices like cutting off fingertips, living with the dead, etc.
Thanks to civilization, a lot of these practices have been stopped, while some still remain.
Below are five of the weirdest, most disturbing cultural practices still being carried out.
Bear Worshiping.
The Ainu people, who have tied origins to Japan and Russia, have a custom of sacrificing bears.
The practice involves slaughtering a hibernating mother bear in her cave, raising her cubs in captivity for two years, then choking or spearing them as a sign of religious devotion. Quite gory!
Then villagers drink the blood of the bear, eat the flesh, while placing the skull atop a spear wrapped with the bear skin, which is to be worshiped.
The sacrifice is religious in nature, as they believe that bears are gods walking among humans, and that bear sacrifice blesses the soul.
Cutting Off Fingers.
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In the Dani tribe of Indonesia, the demise of a relative brings about immense amount of emotional and, for women, physical pain. Of course, emotional affected too, the women of the Dani tribe physically express their grief by cutting off (by compulsion) a segment of one of their fingers.
The fingers are tied with a string for about thirty minutes so as to numb them, before being amputated. After which the new fingertip is burnt to create a new scar tissue.
It is done to satisfy their ancestral ghosts, and is rarely, but sporadically practiced in the tribe.
Endocannibalism.
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The Yanomami tribe are known for their tradition of endocannibalism. They live in villages within the Amazon rain forest, close to the border of Venezuela and Brazil.
The bizarre cultural involves the consumption of the remains of a dead person, after some rites have been carried out. The corpse is wrapped in leaves and insects are allowed to pick at it. After a period of 30 to 45 days, the bones are collected, pulverized, and mixed into banana soup, which is to be consumed by all.
It doesn’t end there:after a year, the villagers gather together again to consume the ashes, which is mixed with plantain soup.
The significance of the tradition is said to help ensure that the soul of the deceased find its way to paradise. How disturbing!
Carrying Your Wife Over Burning Coal.
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There is a traditional marriage custom in China that says a groom must carry his bride over a pan of burning charcoals before crossing the threshold of their home to become husband and wife.
It is believed that the ritual is done to ensure that the wife has an easy and successful labor.
Living With The Dead.
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Next up is the culture of the Toraja people of Indonesia. They conduct a ritual which involves exhuming the corpses of their dead villagers.
But it is not just that: The corpse is clothed in special garments and paraded around the village. Mind you, the bodies of children and bodies that are decades old are exhumed.
The ritual is done in a bid to clean the corpses, their garments, and coffins, and to ceremonially return the corpses to their home village.
That is, if a person died outside the village, the corpse will be taken to the place where he or she died, then walked back to the village, as an act of returning home.
Quite interesting, all of these!
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