The Logic Of Painful Rituals
Some mad examples and a wonderful explanation
Hello,
All of us want to be part of our close-knit groups and communities: think of your family or close friends circle. But what if you had to go through a torturous test to become a part of the community? Would you take it?
Think of the test as a painful episode that can last a few hours (or a few days) and leads to feelings of pain that you’ll probably never experience- scars, permanent body marks, burns. It’s even worse than a 3-hour HR orientation session.
Would you do it?
You may be thinking that only a fool would sign up for that crap. I mean, why would one go for it when life already has such intense pains- like having no plans for the weekend or not having enough cash to make a down payment for a limousine?
But that’s where you’d be missing an important insight about humanity.
We have been going through these rituals for, perhaps, all of human history and they have been observed across all human cultures.
Here are a few mind-blowing examples of rituals that are still found all over the world:
The Bullet Ant Sting
Members of an Amazonian tribe have a bullet ant ritual of inserting their hands in a glove full of bullet ants. These ants have the most painful sting in the world- don’t feel too smart if you guessed where the name “bullet” comes from.
It’s that bad.
The pain from these stings causes screaming, intense agony, sweating, shivering, and a 24-hour nightmare in most cases. Watch this video to get a glimpse of a citizen of the modern world attempting this local ritual. It’s funny and scary.
Mafia Rituals
Mafia gangs all over the world have some particularly gruesome rituals that have to be completed to secure entry.
Candidates have to murder someone and then get a brutal beating from existing members. They may also be sexually abused, or smeared with feces- I’m not kidding. Some of these acts have been captured on CCTV cameras but I’m not privileged enough to have access to the wonderful footage.
Beyond traditional societies, this is a fine example of a painful ritual being used in the modern world.
Scarification
This tribe in Papua New Guinea believes that to be a man, you have to go through a process of getting crocodile-style scars- which are carved out throughout the body using sharp blades.
If you find Crime patrol scary, don’t watch this video (even though it’s fascinating).
I know- all of these may sound unreal.
So why do people take part in these painful rituals?
The fact that these have been going on for millennia and haven’t been kicked out of our lives and minds by natural selection implies that they confer certain benefits on their practitioners.
There’s a beautiful logic behind this. Think of it like a hefty membership fee.
Sign-Up Costs
Human communities can survive when their members are well-bonded and learn to cooperate, especially in times of distress. When faced with an existential threat- like war with a neighboring tribe- the only way to win is for the members to band together and put up a brave fight.
Now, from an individual member’s perspective, it makes sense to just chill the eff out and let his tribe members do the hard work of waving their lances and ripping out intestines during the war so that their side wins.
I mean you might just die fighting, so it’s better to pretend like you’re all angry and fighting when in reality you’re hiding behind a tree and watching your bros do all the skull-bashing, right?
But if too many boys in the hood start thinking with this free-loader mindset, most members will be busy saving their asses and the tribe would end up losing- because instead of fighting as a ferocious & united group.
So the whole thing boils down to this: if you want to win as a group, you must have utterly loyal members who can never think of playing it easy when everyone’s asses are on fire.
This means the group must develop a technique to admit only the most loyal members and weed out the potential slackers and freeloaders.
Now, it’s hard to assess someone’s loyalty by looking at their face or listening to their words- or else we wouldn’t have so many “loving husbands” who spend their married lives loafing around on every new dating app that hits the market.
But hey, there’s a great way to guarantee someone’s loyalty. Just make the upfront cost of joining the tribe so goddamned high that only the truly committed would even try.
The costly ritual, therefore, acts as the perfect filter and weeds out a future freeloader because they don’t have the gall to participate in something so demanding.
And that, friends, is why so many cultures around the world have such painful initiation rites. The personal cost of going through them is a signal that the person truly values the group and will continue to be loyal- or else they’d rather head elsewhere than go through the painful ceremony!
There’s a lot to learn from the indigenous cultures of the world.
The larger point, though, is to harbor a sense of curiosity every time we encounter age-old traditions and practices instead of hastily pronouncing them as “old school” and “unscientific”. Without understanding how they evolved, how they work, and the purpose they save, such judgments are the things that, ironically, end up being unscientific.
Next time you spot a ritual, the correct 3-letter response is “Why?”, not “Wtf!”.
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