Crazy Rituals Performed All Over The World
#1: Masai Spitting
Among the Masai tribesmen of East Central Africa, spitting is considered an act of respect and friendship. A newborn Masai child is spit upon by friends and relatives wishing to give the child good luck. Masai tribesmen spit at each other when they meet, just as we say "Hello," and spit again to say "Good-bye." When two Masai make a trade in business, they spit at each other to seal the bargain. Â
#2: Yanomamo Ash Eating
Located in Venezuela and Brazil, the Yanomamo tribe forbids keeping any part of the body of a deceased person. When a person dies, the body is cremated and the crushed bones are added to the ashes. The ashes are then given to the family and must be eaten.
#3: Human Sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual. Human sacrifice has been practiced in various cultures throughout history with the Mayans and the Aztecs being most notorious for their ritual killings. Victims were typically ritually killed in a manner that was supposed to please or appease gods, the spirits or the deceased. Victims ranged from prisoners to infants to Vestal Virgins who suffered such fates as burning, beheading and being buried alive.
#4: Seppuku
Seppuku (or as it's commonly known "harakiri") is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. As part of the samurai bushido honor code, seppuku was used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies (and likely suffer torture), as a form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed serious offenses, or performed for other reasons that had brought shame to them. The last time this ritual was performed was during the end of the World War 2 when Japan surrendered to Allied Forces. Pictures of an officer performing this ritual can be seen here: Japanese officer commits Seppuku
#5: Dueling
sword or pistols). The duel usually developed out of the desire of one party (the challenger) to redress a perceived insult to his honor. The goal of the duel was not so much to kill the opponent as to gain "satisfaction," i.e., to restore one's honor by demonstrating a willingness to risk one's life for it. To decline a challenge was often equated to defeat by forfeiture, and sometimes regarded as dishonorable.
#6: Eunuchs
A eunuch is simply a man who has been castrated. Typically the man was castrated in order to perform a specific social function, as was common in many societies of the past. In ancient China castration was both a traditional punishment (and a means of gaining employment in the Imperial service.
#7: Concubinage
A concubine is generally a woman in an ongoing, matrimonial-like relationship with a man, whom she cannot marry for a specific reason. The reason may be because she is of lower social rank than the man or because the man is already married. Generally, only men of high economic and social status have concubines. Many historical rulers maintained concubines as well as wives.
#8: Foot Binding
Foot binding was a custom practiced on young girls and women for approximately one thousand years in China, beginning in the 10th century and ending in the first half of 20th century. Multiple theories attempt to explain the origin of foot binding: from the desire to emulate the naturally tiny feet of a favored concubine of a prince, to a story of an empress who had club-like feet, which became viewed as a desirable fashion.
#9: Sati
Sati is a religious funeral practice among some Hindu communities in which a recently widowed Hindu woman either voluntarily or by use of force and coercion throws herself on her husband's funeral pyre in order to commit suicide. The act of sati was supposed to take place voluntarily, and from the existing accounts, most of them were indeed voluntary. Â
#10: Self-Mummification
It's an act performed by Buddhist monks. They would starve themselves and then lock themselves in a small tomb slowly allowing the bodies to die and eventually turn themselves into mummies. They only had a small breathing tube in the tomb and a bell to ring every day until they die.
#11: Tibetan Sky Burial
Sky burial or ritual dissection was once a common funerary practice in Tibet wherein a human corpse is cut in specific locations and placed on a mountaintop, exposing it to the elements or the mahabhuta and animals especially to birds of prey. To Tibetans, many of whom adhere to Buddhism; their belief is in the rebirth of soul. Therefore to them, there is no need to preserve the body, as it is now an empty vessel.
#12: Cannibalism
The Aghori Babas, who live in the city of Varanasi, India, are famous for eating the dead. They believe that the greatest fear human beings have is the fear of their own deaths, and that this fear is a barrier to spiritual enlightenment. So by confronting it, one can achieve enlightenment. Â
#13: Self-Flagellation
Followers of the Shi'a sect of Islam carry out the ritual of mass self-flagellation every year during the Holy month of Muharram, in order to commemorate the martyrdom of Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad. In what can only be described as a gruesome display, the men whip their bodies with blades attached to chains. In their state of religious trance, they apparently do not feel the pain.
#14: Spiritual Possession
Vodun is a religion in parts of West Africa. One of its rituals involves making someone into a kind of vessel, or medium. The person in question is taken into the forest in order to connect with the Earth Spirit, Sakpata. The spirit lays claim to the body, overcoming the person so that he or she becomes unconscious. They remain in this state for three days without food or water, until finally they are brought back to consciousness after another set of rituals.
#15: Scarification
An initiation ceremony which recognizes their transition to manhood, an expert cutter marks their bodies with sharp pieces of bamboo. The resulting patterns resemble the skin of a crocodile; this is based on the notion that crocodiles are the creators of humans. The marks symbolize the tooth marks left by the spirit of the crocodile as it ate the young boy's body and expelled him as a grown man.
