The Dani tribe in Indonesia is known for the practice of finger amputation in mourning. Cutting portions of fingers off when a loved one dies.

Would suck to be born into a large family.

I would mourn the loss of my finger so much, I would need to cut off another one

Cave art throughout the world show that many early tribes had missing or mutilated digits. At first anthropologists thought that was just the cost of living in a tough time, but this tribe’s modern practice has led some anthropologists to believe that it may have been linked to some kind of spirituality.

Here’s a link for anyone interested

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/dec/23/prehistoric-handprints-finger-missing-ritually-removed

Increasing your likelihood of death to show tribute the ones who died…. Interesting.

Well this is fucking dumb

The finger amputation ritual is typically performed by a female elder of the tribe. The elder will use sharp tools, typically made of stone, a sharp axe or a knife to cut off the top joint of the woman’s finger. The wound is then cauterized with a hot stone or piece of metal to stop the bleeding. The process is painful and can lead to infection but, the women of the Dani tribe typically endure the pain without complaint.

Author Harari in his book Sapiens, writes about the power of myth in human cultures. The power can be positive or negative. Here we have a negative example.

Harari (and now me) believes that myths became widely used as fictive language was developed about 10,000 years ago. People could buy into myths as a tribe or group to form a more attractive and productive society. All religions are based on myths invented by newly-capable sapiens leading to today’s five main religions, 10,000 lessor religions and the over 30,000 Christian sects/spinoffs.

As we can see, some myths work harshly against a population of believers, many more less-harshly against and some work positively for a population or segments within a population.

All done without anesthesia, of course. Or any way to prevent horrible infections of the wound. Kinda badass, but in tyool 2024, really fucking stupid

Why not toes

Isn’t it yet another proof that humans are fucked up in the head ?

As you lose people disable yourself more so you rely more on the people you’ve lost.    

Smart. 

Imagine what they would say when told that people cut off part of their childrens’ genitals to make an invisible skydaddy happy.

Good reason not to have big families, I guess.

Talk about population control. Woof.

so if you lose 10 members are you out of fingers?

😨

Imagine the fucking badass immune system these people have that they don’t die of septicaemia or something. Unless of course we only get to see those who survive this self mutilation practice.

Don’t try this it hurts

Some of these traditions are so ridiculously stupid.

Nope.

someone should give them a ha….. they no longer have it

Now there’s a sensible thing to do, cut off the very things that make us useful, genius👍🏻

I wouldn’t say it to their face, lest I’d get my ass beaten. But it’s okay to disrespect tradition. Especially due to dumb stuff like this.

Just the women do this.