7 Bizarre Cultural Practices Still Carried Out Today
Some are taboo, some are cringe-inducing, some are downright revolting, and all are
extraordinarily bizarre.
From the weirdest things we put in our bodies to the weirdest things we lop off our bodies
to the weirdest things we do with our dead bodies, here are seven of the strangest cultural
practices from around the world that are still carried out today.
1.
Cutting Off Fingers
The death of a family member in the Dani tribe of Indonesia heralds a vast amount of emotional
and, for women, physical pain.
Aside from the inevitable emotional grief, women of the Dani tribe physically express
that grief by cutting off (by compulsion) a segment of one of their fingers.
Before being amputated, the fingers are tied with a string for thirty minutes to numb them.
Once amputated, the new fingertips are burned to create new scar tissue.
2.
Endocannibalism
The Yanomami tribe lives in villages within the Amazon rainforest, near the border of
Venezuela and Brazil.
They are known for their tradition of endocannibalism: consuming the flesh of a member of one’s
own tribe, usually after they’ve died
The bizarre cultural practices surrounding endocannibalism involve wrapping the corpse
in leaves and allowing insects to pick at it.
30 to 45 days later, the bones are collected, pulverized, and mixed into a banana soup to
be consumed by all.
After a year, the villagers consume the ashes, which are mixed with plantain soup.
According to tradition, the ritual helps ensure that the souls of the dead find their way
to paradise.
3.
Bizarre Cultural Practices: Living With The Dead
The Toraja people of Indonesia practice a truly singular ritual of exhuming the corpses
of their fellow villagers.
But it doesn’t end there: The corpse is draped in special garments and paraded around
the village.
Even the bodies of children and bodies that are decades old are exhumed.
The ritual is mainly carried out in order to clean the corpses, their garments, and
coffins, and to ceremonially return the corpses to their home village.
That is, if someone died outside the village, the corpse will be taken to the spot of death,
then walked back to the village, as an act of returning home.
4.
Ainu Bear Worship
The Ainu people, indigenous to parts of Japan and Russia, have a custom of sacrificing bears.
The sacrifice is religious in nature, as it is believed that bears are gods walking among
humans, and the sacrifice of the bear is said to bless the soul of mankind.
Of course, to outsiders, the practice is rather gruesome.
It 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.
This is followed by villagers drinking the bears’ blood, eating the flesh, and placing
the skull atop a spear wrapped with the bear skin, which is to be worshipped.
Though the practice is no longer widespread, it does still occur in some areas.
5.
Bizarre Cultural Practices: Self-Flagellation
Shiite Muslims are well known for their martyrdom, and Ashura is no exception.
Ashura is an event recognized by many Muslims around the world for various reasons.
For some Shiites, the day is observed in commemoration of the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of
the prophet Muhammad, at the 7th century battle of Karbala.
Hussein, along with his comrades, was repeatedly struck on the head with daggers.
Today, select men join a procession and flagellate themselves with daggers to the head, among
other means, in order to pay tribute and absolve sin; people spill their own blood and those
of their relatives to mourn the fact that they were not being present to save Hussein.
6.
Carrying Your Wife Over Burning Coal
While not wholly specific to China, an interesting traditional Chinese custom says that a husband
should carry his bride over a pan of burning coals before crossing the threshold of their
home as husband and wife.
According to tradition, the ritual ensures that the wife will have an easy and successful
labor.
Firewalking is also performed by some Chinese people as a means to prevent natural disaster.
7.
Bizarre Cultural Practices: The Eskimo Funerary Ritual
A rather well-known fact about Eskimos is their ritual (albeit incredibly rare and seldom
practiced—if at all—anymore) of setting the elderly adrift on a floating iceberg when
facing death or old age.
Eskimos believe in the afterlife for the dead, and this practice is a way of ensuring the
elderly are not a burden on the family by sending them off in a dignified and graceful
manner.