Modern tribes who still live in the Stone Age. Wild tribes of the world: features of life, rituals and traditions
Small groups of people representing uncontacted tribes are completely unaware of the moon landings, nuclear weapons, the Internet, David Attenborough, Donald Trump, Europe, dinosaurs, Mars, aliens and chocolate, etc. Their knowledge is limited to their immediate environment.
There are probably several other tribes that have yet to be discovered, but let's stick to the ones we know about. Who are they, where do they live and why do they remain isolated?
Although it's a bit of a vague term, we define an "uncontacted tribe" as a group of people who have not had significant direct contact with modern civilization. Many of them have only a brief acquaintance with civilization, since the conquest of the New World resulted in ironically uncivilized results.
Sentinel Island
Hundreds of kilometers east of India are the Andaman Islands. About 26,000 years ago, during the heyday of the last Ice Age, a land bridge between India and these islands jutted out of a shallow sea and then sank underwater.
The Andamanese peoples were nearly wiped out by disease, violence and invasion. Today, only about 500 of them remain, and at least one tribe, the Jungli, is extinct.
However, on one of the Northern Islands, the language of the tribe living there remains incomprehensible, and little is known about its representatives. It seems that these miniature people cannot shoot and do not know how to grow crops. They survive by hunting, fishing and gathering edible plants.
It is not known exactly how many of them are alive today, but there may be anywhere from several hundred to 15 people. The 2004 tsunami, which killed about a quarter of a million people across the region, also hit these islands.
Back in 1880, British authorities planned to kidnap members of this tribe, keep them well captive, and then release them back to the island in an attempt to demonstrate their benevolence. They captured an elderly couple and four children. The couple died of illness, but the young people were given gifts and sent to the island. Soon the Sentinelese disappeared into the jungle, and the tribe was no longer seen by the authorities.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Indian authorities, soldiers and anthropologists tried to establish contact with the tribe, but it hid inside the jungle. Subsequent expeditions were met with either threats of violence or attacks with bows and arrows, and some ended in the death of the attackers.
Uncontacted tribes of Brazil
Vast areas of the Brazilian Amazon, especially in the interior of the western state of Acre, are home to up to one hundred uncontacted tribes, as well as several other communities that would readily establish contact with the outside world. Some tribal members were wiped out by drugs or gold diggers.
As we know, respiratory diseases common in modern society can quickly destroy entire tribes. Since 1987, official government policy has been not to engage with tribes if their survival is at risk.
Very little is known about these isolated groups, but they are all distinct tribes with distinct cultures. Their representatives tend to avoid contact with anyone who tries to contact them. Some hide in the forests, while others defend themselves using spears and arrows.
Some of the tribes, such as the Awá, are nomadic hunter-gatherers, which makes them more resilient to outside influences.
Kawahiwa
This is another example of uncontacted tribes, but it is primarily known for its nomadic lifestyle.
It appears that in addition to bows and baskets, its members may use spinning wheels to make strings, ladders to collect honey from bee nests, and elaborate animal traps.
The land they occupy has received official protection, and anyone who trespasses on it faces severe persecution.
Over the years, many of the tribes engaged in hunting. The states of Rondonia, Mato Grosso and Maranhao are known to contain many dwindling uncontacted tribes.
Loner
One man presents a particularly sad picture simply because he is the last of his tribe. Living deep in the rainforest of Tanaru in the state of Rondônia, this man always attacks those nearby. His language is completely untranslatable, and the culture of the disappeared tribe to which he belonged remains a mystery.
Besides the basic skills of growing crops, he also likes to dig holes or lure animals. Only one thing is certain, when this man dies, his tribe will become nothing more than a memory.
Other uncontacted tribes of South America
Although Brazil contains a large number of uncontacted tribes, such groups of people are known to still exist in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, French Guiana, Guyana and Venezuela. In general, little is known about them compared to Brazil. Many tribes are suspected of having similar yet distinct cultures.
Uncontacted tribes of Peru
The nomadic group of Peruvian peoples have endured decades of aggressive deforestation for the rubber industry. Some of them even deliberately contacted the authorities after fleeing drug cartels.
In general, keeping away from all other tribes, most of them rarely turn to Christian missionaries, who are accidental spreaders of disease. Most tribes like Nanti can now only be seen from a helicopter.
Huaroran people of Ecuador
It is a people bound together by a common language which appears to be unrelated to any other in the world. As hunter-gatherers, the tribe has over the past four decades settled on a long-term basis in a fairly developed area between the Curaray and Napo rivers in the east of the country.
Many of them had already made contact with the outside world, but several communities rejected this practice and instead chose to move to areas untouched by modern oil exploration.
The Taromenan and Tagaeri tribes number no more than 300 members, but are sometimes killed by loggers looking for valuable mahogany wood.
A similar situation is observed in neighboring countries, where only certain segments of tribes such as the Ayoreo from Bolivia, the Carabayo from Colombia, the Yanommi from Venezuela remain completely isolated and prefer to avoid contact with the modern world.
Uncontacted tribes of West Papua
The western part of the island of New Guinea is home to about 312 tribes, 44 of which are uncontacted. The mountainous region is covered in dense, Viridian forests, which means we still don't notice these wild people.
Many of these tribes avoid socializing. Many human rights violations have been reported since their arrival in 1963, including murder, rape and torture.
The tribes usually settle along the coast, wander through the swamps and survive by hunting. In the central region, which is at a high elevation, the tribes are engaged in growing sweet potatoes and raising pigs.
Little is known about those who have not yet made formal contact. In addition to the challenging terrain, researchers, human rights organizations and journalists are also prohibited from exploring the region.
West Papua (the far left side of the island of New Guinea) is home to many uncontacted tribes.
Do similar tribes live in other places?
There may be uncontacted tribes still lurking in other forested parts of the world, including Malaysia and parts of Central Africa, but this has not been proven. If they exist, it might be best to leave them alone.
Outside world threat
Uncontacted tribes are mostly threatened by the outside world. This article serves as a cautionary tale.
If you want to know what you can do to prevent their extinction, it is recommended that you join a rather interesting non-profit organization, Survival International, whose employees work around the clock to make sure that these tribes live out their unique lives in our colorful world.
Do you dream of visiting African national parks, seeing wild animals in their natural habitat and enjoying the last untouched corners of our planet? Safari in Tanzania is an unforgettable journey through the African savannah!
The bulk of the peoples of Africa include groups consisting of several thousand and sometimes hundreds of people, but at the same time they do not exceed 10% of the total population of this continent. As a rule, such small ethnic groups are the most savage tribes.
The Mursi tribe, for example, belongs to this group.
The Ethiopian Mursi tribe is the most aggressive ethnic group
Ethiopia is the oldest country in the world. It is Ethiopia that is considered the ancestor of humanity; it was here that the remains of our ancestor, modestly named Lucy, were found.
More than 80 ethnic groups live in the country.
Living in southwestern Ethiopia, on the border with Kenya and Sudan, settled in Mago Park, the Mursi tribe is distinguished by unusually strict customs. They can rightfully be nominated for the title of the most aggressive ethnic group.
Prone to frequent alcohol consumption and uncontrolled use of weapons. In everyday life, the main weapon of the tribal men is the Kalashnikov assault rifle, which they buy in Sudan.
In fights, they can often beat each other almost to death, trying to prove their dominance in the tribe.
Scientists attribute this tribe to a mutated Negroid race, with distinctive features such as short stature, wide bones and crooked legs, low and tightly compressed foreheads, flattened noses and pumped-up short necks.
Mursi women's bodies often look flabby and sickly, with sagging bellies and breasts, and hunched backs. There is practically no hair, which was often hidden under intricate headdresses of a very fancy type, using as material everything that could be picked up or caught nearby: rough skins, branches, dried fruits, swamp shellfish, someone's tails, dead insects and even incomprehensible stinking carrion.
The most famous feature of the Mursi tribe is the tradition of inserting plates into the lips of girls.
The more public Mursi who come into contact with civilization may not always have all these characteristic attributes, but the exotic appearance of their lower lip is the calling card of the tribe.
The plates are made of wood or clay in different sizes; the shape can be round or trapezoidal, sometimes with a hole in the middle. For beauty, the plates are covered with a pattern.
The lower lip is cut in childhood, and pieces of wood are inserted there, gradually increasing their diameter.
Mursi girls begin wearing plates at the age of 20, six months before marriage. The lower lip is pierced and a small disc is inserted into it; after the lip is stretched, the disc is replaced with a larger one, and so on until the desired diameter is reached (up to 30 centimeters!!).
The size of the plate matters: the larger the diameter, the more the girl is valued and the more cattle the groom will pay for her. Girls must wear these plates at all times except when sleeping and eating, and they can also take them out if there are no males of the tribe nearby.
When the plate is pulled out, the lip hangs down in a long, round rope. Almost all Mursi have no front teeth, and their tongue is cracked and bleeding.
The second strange and terrifying decoration of Mursi women is the monista, which is made from human phalanges of fingers (nek). One person has only 28 of these bones in his hands. Each necklace usually consists of phalanges of five or six tassels; for some lovers of “costume jewelry,” the monista is wrapped around the neck in several rows
It glistens greasyly and emits a sweetish rotting smell of melted human fat; every bone is rubbed daily. The source for beads never runs low: the priestess of the tribe is ready to deprive the hands of a man who has broken the laws for almost every offense.
It is customary for this tribe to do scarification (scarring).
Men can afford scarring only after the first murder of one of their enemies or ill-wishers. If they kill a man, they decorate the right hand, if they kill a woman, then the left.
Their religion, animism, deserves a longer and more shocking story.
Short: women are priestesses of death, so they give their husbands drugs and poisons every day.
The High Priestess distributes antidotes, but sometimes salvation does not come to everyone. In such cases, a white cross is drawn on the widow's plate, and she becomes a very respected member of the tribe, who is not eaten after death, but is buried in the trunks of special ritual trees. Honor is due to such priestesses due to the fulfillment of the main mission - the will of the God of Death Yamda, which they were able to fulfill by destroying the physical body and freeing the highest spiritual Essence from their man.
The rest of the dead will be collectively eaten by the entire tribe. Soft tissues are boiled in a cauldron, bones are used for amulets and thrown in swamps to mark dangerous places.
What seems very wild for a European is commonplace and tradition for the Mursi.
Bushmen tribe
African Bushmen are the most ancient representatives of the human race. And this is not speculation at all, but a scientifically proven fact. Who are these ancient people?
The Bushmen are a group of hunting tribes in South Africa. Now these are the remains of a large ancient African population. Bushmen are distinguished by their short stature, wide cheekbones, narrow eyes and much swollen eyelids. It is difficult to determine the real color of their skin, because in the Kalahari they are not allowed to waste water on washing. But you can notice that they are much lighter than their neighbors. Their skin tone is slightly yellowish, which is more common among South Asians.
Young Bushmen are considered the most beautiful among the female population of Africa.
But once they reach puberty and become mothers, these beauties are simply unrecognizable. Bushmen women have overdeveloped hips and buttocks, and their stomachs are constantly swollen. This is a consequence of poor nutrition.
To distinguish a pregnant Bushwoman from the rest of the women of the tribe, she is coated with ash or ocher, since this is very difficult to do in appearance. By the age of 35, Bushman men begin to look like octogenarians, due to the fact that their skin sagging and their bodies become covered with deep wrinkles.
Life in Kalahari is very harsh, but even here there are laws and rules. The most important resource in the desert is water. There are old people in the tribe who know how to find water. At the place that they indicate, the representatives of the tribe either dig wells or drain water using plant stems.
Each Bushman tribe has a secret well, which is carefully blocked with stones or covered with sand. During the dry season, the Bushmen dig a hole at the bottom of a dry well, take a plant stem, suck water through it, take it into their mouths, and then spit it into the shell of an ostrich egg.
The South African Bushmen tribe is the only people on Earth whose men have a constant erection. This phenomenon does not cause any discomfort or inconvenience, except for the fact that when hunting on foot, men have to attach the penis to their belt so as not to cling to it. branches.
Bushmen do not know what private property is. All animals and plants growing in their territory are considered common. Therefore, they hunt both wild animals and farm cows. For this they were very often punished and destroyed by entire tribes. Nobody wants neighbors like this.
Shamanism is very popular among the Bushmen tribes. They do not have leaders, but there are elders and healers who not only treat diseases, but also communicate with spirits. Bushmen are very afraid of the dead, and firmly believe in an afterlife. They pray to the sun, moon, stars. But they are not asking for health or happiness, but for success in hunting.
The Bushman tribes speak Khoisan languages, which are very difficult for Europeans to pronounce. A characteristic feature of these languages is clicking consonants. Representatives of the tribe speak very quietly among themselves. This is a long-standing habit of hunters - so as not to spook the game.
There is confirmed evidence that a hundred years ago they were engaged in drawing. Rock paintings depicting people and various animals are still found in the caves: buffalos, gazelles, birds, ostriches, antelopes, crocodiles.
Their drawings also contain unusual fairy-tale characters: monkey people, eared snakes, people with the face of a crocodile. There is an entire open-air gallery in the desert that displays these amazing drawings by unknown artists.
But now the Bushmen do not paint; they are excellent in dance, music, pantomime and stories.
VIDEO: Shamanic ritual healing ritual of the Bushmen tribe. Part 1
Shamanic ritual healing rite of the Bushmen tribe. Part 2
The people who will be discussed in this article manage to ignore the civilized world and live as if there had never been anyone else in the whole world besides them...
The Sentinelese tribe settled on North Sentinel Island, which is nominally part of India. These people are usually called the same as the island, because no one has any idea what these people call themselves.
In truth, nothing else is really known about them either. After a terrible tsunami hit the island in 2004, several helicopters were sent there to take photographs and make sure that the island was still inhabited. 
How did they manage to avoid contact with modern civilization for so long?
This is explained very simply. Take a look at this photo taken from a helicopter:
The rest of the tribe members are also aggressive. They don’t make contact, and as soon as they do, they immediately grab their bow and arrows.
In 2006, a boat with two fishermen was carried by the current into shallow waters near the island. The Sentinelese killed them and buried them on the shore. The helicopters identified the burial place of the unfortunates, but were unable to land, because at the sight of the helicopter, the local population, as you may have already noticed, immediately “opened fire.” Despite the fact that the natives obviously have no idea what a helicopter is, they stubbornly tried to reach the strange giant iron bird with their arrows. Well, they don’t like guests and that’s all.
The police, who in theory should go and pick up the bodies of the unfortunate fishermen, flatly refuse to do this, declaring that as soon as they approach the island, they will immediately be bombarded with poisoned darts and arrows - which, in general, can be considered a good reason.
Even our ancestors, who were more courageous than you and me, believed that getting involved with these unsociable people would cost themselves more: Marco Polo described them as “the most cruel and bloodthirsty people, always ready to grab and eat anyone who falls into their hands.”
In other words, for hundreds of years, when the whole world was busy conquering each other's lands, these guys earned such a bad reputation that they discouraged all sorts of conquerors from going there. In the end, all of “progressive humanity” decided to leave these crazy cannibals alone.
2. Korowai
This tribe lives in southeastern Papua. They first learned about the existence of other people in the 1970s, when they were discovered by a group of archaeologists and missionaries. At this time, they still used stone tools and built their dwellings in trees. However, since then, nothing has changed for them, one might say. 
All guests from the civilized world of the Korowai are told that if ever one of them changes their traditions, then the entire Earth will inevitably perish from a monstrous earthquake. It’s not clear whether this is such devotion to tradition, or just a way to get rid of the smart guys from the “mainland” who are always trying to teach them about life.
Be that as it may, they manage to remain in their previous state simply excellent. The missionaries came around a couple of times with their enlightenment, but then decided to leave them alone. What if, who knows, the earthquake isn’t completely nonsense after all?
The Korowai live in such an impenetrable area, literally behind high mountains and dark forests, that even their own villages have virtually no contact with each other, let alone the outside world. When the census service decided to visit the tribe in 2010, they had to travel for two weeks on foot and then by boat from the nearest (and in fact very remote) villages.
The Korowai do not particularly show that they do not like outside visits. And in order for the uninvited guests to get away as quickly as possible, they come up with all sorts of tricks. In addition to scaring people with a terrible, terrible earthquake, which will definitely happen as soon as the first Korowai puts on his pants, they love to scare people by talking about their bloodthirsty traditions.
But the Australian newsmakers who approached the Korowais in 2006 were fooled in the most elegant way. The tribe sent a boy to the annoying strangers, who told reporters a heartbreaking story about how cannibals were chasing him, and that at the next meal he should become the main dish of the tribe.
After the story was recorded on film and the film crew hastily retreated, the next journalists arrived, for whom exactly the same performance was staged with the rescue of the “poor boy.”
Scientists who have studied the tribe assure that these people simply have a good sense of humor and that there is no smell of cannibalism here. Just funny people who live in trees and love pranks.
3. The loneliest man in the world
This man has been living in complete isolation in the Brazilian forest for at least fifteen years.
He builds himself palm huts and digs rectangular holes one and a half meters deep in the ground. Why he needs these holes can only be guessed, because with any attempt to establish contact, he abandons his familiar place and finds a new one in order to build exactly the same hut and dig exactly the same hole.
No one in the area is building anything like this, from which scientists have concluded that this is the last surviving representative of some disappeared tribe.
How has he managed to ignore the modern world for so long?
In 1988, the new Brazilian Constitution granted local Indians rights to their ancestral lands. In theory, the idea seemed simply wonderful. But in practice... When, according to the law, it became prohibited for tribes to be “forced to relocate” to other places, they began to simply be exterminated.
Apparently, this is precisely the fate that befell our hero’s fellow tribesmen: his first meeting with the modern world ended for him with the death of everyone he knew. Who wants to make contact with monsters who have come up with the perfect tools to destroy your family and friends?
4. Old Believers
In 1978, Soviet geologists searching for iron ore deposits in remote parts of Siberia stumbled upon a log cabin. The family that lived there had no idea about the existence of civilization; they dressed in matting and ate from homemade dishes. When they saw the members of the expedition, they were horrified and began shouting something like “This is all for our sins!”
Later it turned out that the Lykov family (as they called themselves) were not the only Siberian hermits. A similar group of people lived in complete isolation in the taiga, at least until 1990.
All these people turned out to be Old Believers. In the 17th century, during the schism of the Russian Church, they fled from the massacre and settled away from the outside world. And they lived like this for several centuries. Siberia is too vast and inhospitable - no one would think of combing it to find a couple of dozen fugitives.
Agafya Lykova, 2009
5. Tribe Mashko-Piro
People from the Mashco-Piro tribe, half naked and generally looking like settlers from the prehistoric era, recently began to appear in the area of one of the Peruvian rivers popular with Western tourists.
Previously, any attempts to approach them were stopped by a hail of burning arrows. No one knows why they suddenly decided to discover their existence on their own. According to the assurances of specialists who have been in contact with them, for now their keenest interest is mainly in metal pots for cooking and machete knives.
How did they manage to stay away from civilization for so long?
The Peruvian government itself tried to limit contacts with the tribe and prohibited tourists from going ashore near the habitats of savages. The idea was to protect these people from annoying anthropologists and greedy businessmen who are ready to make money on anything.
Unfortunately, there were and are still cunning private travel companies offering clients “human safari”.
6. Pintubi Aboriginals
In 1984, a small group of people from the Pintubi tribe met a white man in the desert. This would not be unusual except for the fact that no one from this tribe had ever seen a white person before, and that the first white settlers arrived in Australia in 1788. Later, one of the Pintubi explained that at first he mistook the “pink man” for an evil spirit. The first meeting did not go very smoothly, but then the natives softened and decided that the “pink ones” might even be useful.
Needless to say, they were very lucky to be found so late. They wandered through the deserts all those years when it was easy to fall into slavery or straight to the next world, and met Western culture exactly when it was already ripe to take them for a ride in a jeep and treat them to Coca-Cola.
How did they manage to avoid civilization for so long?
There are two reasons for this: 1) they are nomads and 2) they roam the deserts of Australia, where it is generally quite difficult to meet people.
This group might never have been discovered. Shortly before their first meeting with the white man, the Pintubi accidentally met with the “civilized” aborigines. Unfortunately, the appearance of the nomads with loincloths made of human hair and two-meter spears was too exotic even for indigenous Australians. One of the “civilized” ones fired into the air and the Pintubi ran away.
In our society, the transition from the state of a child to the state of adulthood is not specifically marked in any way. However, among many peoples of the world, a boy becomes a man, and a girl a woman, only if they pass a series of severe tests.
For boys, this is initiation; the most important part of it among many nations was circumcision. Moreover, it, naturally, was not done in infancy, as among modern Jews. Most often, boys aged 13-15 were exposed to it. In the African Kipsigi tribe living in Kenya, boys are brought one by one to an elder, who marks the place on the foreskin where the incision will be made.
The boys then sit down on the ground. In front of each one stands a father or older brother with a stick in his hand and demands that the boy look straight ahead. The ceremony is performed by an elder, who cuts off the foreskin at the marked place.
During the entire operation, the boy has no right not only to cry out, but also to show at all that he is in pain. It is very important. After all, before the ceremony, he received a special amulet from the girl to whom he was engaged. If now he screams in pain or winces, he will have to throw this amulet into the bushes - no girl will marry such a man. For the rest of his life, he will be a laughing stock in his village, because everyone will consider him a coward.
Among the Australian Aborigines, circumcision is a complex, multi-stage operation. First, a classic circumcision is performed - the initiate lies on his back, after which one of the elderly people pulls his foreskin as far as possible, while the other cuts off the excess skin with a quick swing of a sharp flint knife. When the boy recovers, the next main operation takes place.
It is usually held at sunset. At the same time, the boy is not privy to the details of what is about to happen. The boy is placed on a kind of table made from the backs of two adult men. Next, one of those who perform the operation pulls the boy’s penis along the abdomen, and the other... rips it apart along the ureter. Only now can the boy be considered a real man. Before the wound heals, the boy will have to sleep on his back.
Such open penises of Australian aborigines take on a completely different shape during an erection - they become flat and wide. However, they are not suitable for urination, and Australian men relieve themselves while squatting.
But the most peculiar method is common among some peoples of Indonesia and Papua, such as the Batak and Kiwai. It consists of making a hole across the penis with a sharp piece of wood, into which various objects can subsequently be inserted, for example, metal - silver or, for those richer, gold sticks with balls on the sides. It is believed here that during copulation this creates additional pleasure for the woman.
Not far from the coast of New Guinea, among the inhabitants of the island of Waigeo, the ritual of initiation into men is associated with copious bloodletting, the meaning of which is “cleansing from filth.” But first you need to learn... to play the sacred flute, and then clean your tongue with sandpaper until it bleeds, since in deep childhood the young man sucked his mother’s milk and thereby “defiled” his tongue.
And most importantly, it is necessary to “cleanse” after the first sexual intercourse, which requires making a deep incision in the head of the penis, accompanied by copious bloodletting, the so-called “male menstruation.” But this is not the end of the torment!
Among the men of the Kagaba tribe, there is a custom according to which during sexual intercourse, sperm should under no circumstances fall to the ground, which is regarded as a grave insult to the gods, and therefore can lead to the death of the whole world. According to eyewitnesses, the “Kagabinites” cannot find anything better to avoid spilling sperm on the ground, “like placing a stone under a man’s penis.”
But young men of the Kababa tribe from Northern Colombia, according to custom, are forced to have their first sexual intercourse with the ugliest, toothless and ancient old woman. It’s no wonder that the men of this tribe experience a persistent aversion to sex for the rest of their lives and live poorly with their legal wives.
Among one Australian tribe, the custom of initiation into men, which is carried out with 14-year-old boys, is even more exotic. To prove his maturity to everyone, a teenager must sleep with his own mother. This ritual means the return of the young man to the mother's womb, which symbolizes death, and orgasm - rebirth.
In some tribes, the initiate must pass through a "toothed womb." The mother puts a mask of a terrible monster on her head, and inserts the jaw of some predator into her vagina. The blood from a wound on the teeth is considered sacred; it is used to smear the face and genitals of the young man.
The young men of the Vandu tribe were much more fortunate. They can become a man only after they graduate from a special sex school, where a female sex instructor gives the boys extensive theoretical and, later, practical training. Graduates of such a school, initiated into the secrets of sexual life, delight their wives with all the power of the sexual capabilities given to them by nature.
EXCORIATION
In many Bedouin tribes in the west and south of Arabia, despite the official ban, the custom of ripping off the skin from the penis has been preserved. This procedure consists of cutting the skin of the penis along its entire length and peeling it off, just like skinning an eel while cutting it.
Boys from ten to fifteen years old consider it a matter of honor not to utter a single cry during this operation. The participant is exposed and the slave manipulates his penis until an erection occurs, after which the operation is performed.
WHEN TO WEAR A HAT?
The youths of the Kabiri tribe in modern Oceania, having reached maturity and undergone severe trials, receive the right to place on their heads a pointed cap, coated with lime, decorated with feathers and flowers; They stick it to their head and even go to bed in it.
YOUNG FIGHTER COURSE
Like many other tribes, among the Bushmen, the initiation of a boy is also carried out after his preliminary training in hunting and everyday skills. And most often young people learn this science of life in the forest.
After completing the “young fighter course,” deep cuts are made above the bridge of the boy’s nose, where the ashes of the burnt tendons of a pre-killed antelope are rubbed. And, naturally, he must endure this entire painful procedure in silence, as befits a real man.
BATTLE BUILDS COURAGE
In the African Fulani tribe, during the male initiation ceremony called "soro", each teenager was struck several times on the back or chest with a heavy club. The subject had to endure this execution in silence, without betraying any pain. Subsequently, the longer the marks of beatings remained on his body and the more terrible he looked, the more respect he gained among his fellow tribesmen as a man and a warrior.
SACRIFICE TO THE GREAT SPIRIT
Among the Mandans, the rite of initiation of young men into men was that the initiate was wrapped in ropes, like a cocoon, and hung on them until he lost consciousness.
In this unconscious (or lifeless, as they put it) state, he was laid on the ground, and when he came to his senses, he crawled on all fours to the old Indian, who was sitting in a doctor’s hut with an ax in his hands and a buffalo skull in front of him. The young man raised the little finger of his left hand as a sacrifice to the great spirit, and it was cut off (sometimes along with the index finger).
LIME INITIATION
Among the Malaysians, the ritual of entering into the secret male union of Ingiet was as follows: during initiation, a naked elderly man, smeared from head to toe with lime, held the end of the mat, and gave the other end to the subject. Each of them took turns pulling the mat towards himself until the old man fell on the newcomer and performed sexual intercourse with him.
INITIATION AT ARANDA
Among the Aranda, initiation was divided into four periods, with gradually increasing complexity of the rituals. The first period consists of relatively harmless and simple manipulations performed on the boy. The main procedure was to throw it into the air.
Before this, it was coated with fat and then painted. At this time, the boy was given certain instructions: for example, not to play with women and girls anymore and to prepare for more serious challenges. At the same time, the boy's nasal septum was drilled.
The second period is the circumcision ceremony. It was carried out on one or two boys. All members of the clan took part in this action, without inviting outsiders. The ceremony lasted about ten days, and throughout this time the tribe members danced and performed various ritual actions in front of the initiates, the meaning of which was immediately explained to them.
Some of the rituals were performed in the presence of women, but when they started circumcision, they ran away. At the end of the operation, the boy was shown a sacred object - a wooden tablet on a cord, which the uninitiated could not see, and its meaning was explained, with a warning to keep it secret from women and children.
The initiate spent some time after the operation away from the camp, in the forest thickets. Here he received a whole series of instructions from leaders. He was instilled with moral rules: not to do bad things, not to walk on the “path of women,” and to observe food prohibitions. These prohibitions were quite numerous and painful: it was forbidden to eat opossum meat, kangaroo rat meat, the tail and rump of a kangaroo, the entrails of an emu, snakes, any water bird, young game, and so on.
He didn’t have to break bones to extract the brain, and he didn’t have to eat a little bit of soft meat. In a word, the most delicious and nutritious food was forbidden to the initiate. At this time, living in the bushes, he learned a special secret language, which he used to speak with men. Women could not approach him.
After some time, even before returning to the camp, a rather painful operation was performed on the boy: several men took turns biting his head; it was believed that after this hair would grow better.
The third stage is the initiate’s exit from maternal care. He did this by throwing a boomerang towards the location of the maternal “totemic center”.
The last, most difficult and solemn stage of initiation is the engvur ceremony. The central place in it was occupied by the trial by fire. Unlike previous stages, the entire tribe and even guests from neighboring tribes participated here, but only men: two to three hundred people gathered. Of course, such an event was organized not for one or two initiates, but for a large party of them. The celebrations lasted for a very long time, several months, usually between September and January.
Throughout the entire period, religious thematic rites were performed in a continuous series, mainly for the edification of the initiates. In addition, various other ceremonies were held, partly symbolizing the initiates' break with women and their transition to a group of full-fledged men. One of the ceremonies consisted, for example, of the initiates passing by the women's camp; at the same time, the women threw burning brands at them, and the initiates defended themselves with branches. After this, a feigned attack on the women's camp was carried out.
Finally the time came for the main test. It consisted of building a large fire, covering it with damp branches, and the young men being initiated lay down on top of them. They had to lie there, completely naked, in the heat and smoke, without moving, without screaming or moaning, for four to five minutes.
It is clear that the fiery test required from the young man enormous endurance, willpower, but also uncomplaining obedience. But they prepared for all this with long previous training. This test was repeated twice. One of the researchers describing this action adds that when he tried to kneel down on the same green floor above the fire for an experiment, he was forced to immediately jump up.
Of the subsequent rituals, an interesting one is the mocking roll call between the initiates and the women, which takes place in the dark, and in this verbal duel even the usual restrictions and rules of decency were not observed. Then emblematic images were painted on their backs. Next, the fire test was repeated in an abbreviated form: small fires were lit in the women’s camp, and the young men knelt on these fires for half a minute.
Before the end of the festival, dancing was again held, wives were exchanged, and, finally, the ritual offering of food to those dedicated to their leaders. After this, the participants and guests gradually dispersed to their camps, and that was where it all ended: from that day on, all prohibitions and restrictions on the initiates were lifted.
TRAVELS… TOOTH
During initiation rites, some tribes have a custom of removing one or more of a boy's front teeth. Moreover, certain magical actions are also subsequently performed with these teeth. Thus, among some tribes of the Darling River region, a knocked-out tooth was stuffed under the bark of a tree growing near a river or a hole with water.
If a tooth became overgrown with bark or fell into water, there was no reason to worry. But if he protruded outside and ants were running over him, then the young man, according to the natives, was in danger of having an oral disease.
Murring and other tribes of New South Wales first entrusted the custody of a knocked-out tooth to one of the old men, who passed it on to another, who passed it on to a third, and so on until, having gone around the whole community in a circle, the tooth returned to the young man’s father and, finally, to himself. to a young man. At the same time, none of those who kept the tooth should have put it in a bag with “magical” objects, since it was believed that otherwise the owner of the tooth would be in great danger.
YOUTH VAMPIRISM
Some Australian tribes from the Darling River had a custom according to which, after the ceremony on the occasion of reaching manhood, the young man did not eat anything for the first two days, but drank only blood from the veins opened in the hands of his friends, who voluntarily offered him this food.
Having placed a ligature on the shoulder, a vein was opened on the inside of the forearm and the blood was released into a wooden vessel or into a piece of bark shaped like a dish. The young man, kneeling on his bed of fuchsia branches, leaned forward, holding his hands behind him, and licked the blood from the vessel placed in front of him with his tongue, like a dog. Later, he is allowed to eat meat and drink the duck's blood.
AIR INITIATION
The Mandan tribe, a group of North American Indians, has perhaps the most brutal initiation rites. It happens as follows.
The initiate first gets down on all fours. After this, one of the men, with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, pulls back about an inch of flesh on his shoulders or chest and, holding a knife in his right hand, the double-edged blade of which is jagged and notched to intensify the pain caused by the other knife, pierces the pulled skin. His assistant standing next to him inserts a peg or pin into the wound, a supply of which he keeps ready in his left hand.
Then several men of the tribe, having climbed in advance to the roof of the room in which the ceremony takes place, lower two thin ropes through holes in the ceiling, which are tied to these pins, and begin to pull the initiate up. This continues until his body rises above the ground.
After this, the skin on each arm below the shoulders and on the legs below the knees is pierced with a knife, and pins are also inserted into the resulting wounds and ropes are tied to them. For them, the initiates are pulled even higher. After this, on stiletto heels protruding from the bleeding limbs, the observers hang a bow, shield, quiver, etc. belonging to the young man undergoing the ceremony.
Then the victim is pulled up again until he hangs in the air so that not only his own weight, but also the weight of the weapons hanging on his limbs, falls on those parts of the body to which the ropes are attached.
And so, overcoming immense pain, covered in dried blood, the initiates hung in the air, biting their tongues and lips, so as not to utter the slightest groan and triumphantly pass this highest test of strength of character and courage.
When the tribal elders leading the initiation believed that the young men had adequately endured this part of the ritual, they ordered their bodies to be lowered to the ground, where they lay without visible signs of life, slowly coming to their senses.
But the torment of the initiates did not end there. They had to pass one more test: “the last run”, or in the language of the tribe - “eh-ke-nah-ka-nah-pik”.
Each of the young men was assigned two older and physically strong men. They took places on either side of the initiate and grabbed the free ends of the wide leather straps tied to his wrists. And heavy weights were hung from the pins piercing various parts of the young man’s body.
On command, the attendants began to run in wide circles, dragging their charge along with them. The procedure continued until the victim lost consciousness from blood loss and exhaustion.
ANTS DETERMINE...
In the Amazonian tribe Mandruku there was also a kind of sophisticated torture-initiation. At first glance, the tools used to carry it out looked quite harmless. They looked like two cylinders, blind at one end, made from the bark of a palm tree and had a length of about thirty centimeters. Thus, they resembled a pair of huge, crudely made mittens.
The initiate put his hands into these cases and, accompanied by onlookers who usually consisted of members of the entire tribe, began a long walk around the settlement, stopping at the entrance to each wigwam and performing a kind of dance.
However, these gauntlets were actually not as harmless as they might seem. For inside each of them there was a whole collection of ants and other stinging insects, selected on the basis of the greatest pain caused by their bites.
Other tribes also use a pumpkin bottle filled with ants during initiation. But the candidate for membership in the society of adult men does not go around the settlement, but stands still until the wild dances of the tribe take place to the accompaniment of wild cries. After the young man has endured the ritual “torture,” his shoulders are decorated with feathers.
TISSUE OF GROWING
The South American Ouna tribe also uses the "ant test" or "wasp test". To do this, ants or wasps stick into a special mesh fabric, often depicting some fantastic quadruped, fish or bird.
The whole body of the young man is wrapped in this fabric. From this torture the young man faints, and in an unconscious state he is carried into a hammock, to which he is tied with ropes; and a weak fire burns under the hammock.
It remains in this position for one or two weeks and can feed only on cassava bread and a small variety of smoked fish. Even in the use of water there are restrictions.
This torture precedes a magnificent dance celebration that lasts several days. Guests come wearing masks and huge headdresses with beautiful feather mosaics, and various decorations. During this carnival, a young man is beaten.
LIVING NET
A number of Caribbean tribes also used ants to initiate boys. But before this, the young people used a boar's tusk or a toucan's beak to scratch their chest and skin of their arms until they bled.
And only after that they began to torture with ants. The priest who carried out this procedure had a special device, similar to a net, in the narrow loops of which 60-80 large ants were placed. They were placed so that their heads, armed with long sharp stings, were located on one side of the mesh.
At the moment of initiation, the net with ants was pressed to the boy’s body and kept in this position until the insects stuck to the skin of the unfortunate victim.
During this ritual, the priest applied the net to the chest, arms, lower abdomen, back, back of the thighs and calves of the defenseless boy, who was in no way supposed to express his suffering.
It should be noted that in these tribes girls are also subjected to a similar procedure. They must also endure the bites of angry ants calmly. The slightest groan or painful distortion of the face deprives the unfortunate victim of the opportunity to communicate with elders. Moreover, she is subjected to the same operation until she bravely endures it without showing the slightest sign of pain.
PILLAR OF COURAGE
Young people from the North American Cheyenne tribe had to endure a no less cruel test. When the boy reached the age when he could become a warrior, his father tied him to a pole that stood near the road along which the girls walked to fetch water.
But they tied the young man in a special way: parallel cuts were made in the pectoral muscles, and straps made of raw leather were pulled along them. It was with these belts that the young man was tied to the post. And they didn’t just tie him up, but left him alone, and he had to free himself.
Most of the boys leaned back, pulling on the belts with the weight of their bodies, causing them to cut into their flesh. After two days, the tension of the belts weakened, and the young man was freed.
The more courageous ones grabbed the belts with both hands and moved them back and forth, thanks to which they were released within a few hours. The young man, freed in this way, was praised by everyone, and he was looked upon as a future leader in the war. After the youth had freed himself, he was led into the hut with great honor and looked after with great care.
On the contrary, while he remained tied, women passing by him with water did not speak to him, did not offer to quench his thirst, and did not provide any help.
However, the young man had the right to ask for help. Moreover, he knew that it would be immediately given to him: they would immediately talk to him and free him. But at the same time he remembered that this would be a lifelong punishment for him, for from now on he would be considered a “woman”, dressed in a woman’s dress and forced to do women’s work; he will not have the right to hunt, carry weapons or be a warrior. And, of course, no woman would want to marry him. Therefore, the overwhelming majority of Cheyenne youths endure this cruel torture like Spartans.
WOUNDED SKULL
In some African tribes, during initiation after the circumcision ritual, an operation is performed to inflict small wounds over the entire surface of the skull until blood appears. The original purpose of this operation was clearly to make holes in the cranial bone.
ROLE GAMES ASMATS
If, for example, the Mandruku and Ouna tribes use ants for initiation, then the Asmats from Irian Jaya cannot do without human skulls during the ceremony of initiating boys into men.
At the beginning of the ritual, a specially painted skull is placed between the legs of the young man undergoing initiation, who sits naked on the bare floor of a special hut. At the same time, he must constantly press the skull to his genitals, without taking his eyes off it for three days. It is believed that during this period all the sexual energy of the owner of the skull is transferred to the candidate.
When the first ritual is completed, the young man is led to the sea, where a sailing canoe awaits him. Accompanied and under the guidance of his uncle and one of his close relatives, the young man goes in the direction of the sun, where, according to legend, the ancestors of the Asmats live. The skull at this time lies in front of him at the bottom of the canoe.
During a sea voyage, the young man is supposed to play several roles. First of all, he must be able to behave like an old man, so weak that he is not even able to stand on his own feet and constantly falls to the bottom of the boat. The adult accompanying the young man lifts him up each time, and then, at the end of the ritual, throws him into the sea along with the skull. This act symbolizes the death of the old man and the birth of a new man.
The subject must also cope with the role of a baby who cannot walk or speak. By playing this role, the young man demonstrates how grateful he is to his close relative for helping him pass the test. When the boat reaches the shore, the young man will already behave like an adult man and bear two names: his own and the name of the owner of the skull.
That is why it was very important for the Asmats, who gained the infamous popularity of ruthless “skull hunters”, to know the name of the person they killed. A skull whose owner's name was unknown was rendered useless and could not be used in initiation ceremonies.
The following incident, which occurred in 1954, can serve as an illustration of the above statement. Three foreigners were guests in one Asmat village, and the locals invited them to a meal. Although the Asmats were hospitable people, they nevertheless looked at the guests primarily as “carriers of skulls,” intending to deal with them during the holiday.
First, the hosts sang a solemn song in honor of the guests, and then asked them to say their names in order to supposedly insert them into the text of the traditional chant. But as soon as they identified themselves, they immediately lost their heads.
Photos from open sources
There are still untouched places on the planet where the way of life is the same as it was a couple of thousand years ago.
Today there are about a hundred tribes that are hostile towards modern society and do not want to let civilization into their lives.
Off the coast of India, on one of the Andaman Islands - North Sentinel Island - such a tribe lives.
That’s what they were called – the Sentinelese. They fiercely resist all possible outside contacts.
The first evidence of the tribe inhabiting the North Sentinel Island of the Andaman archipelago dates back to the 18th century: sailors, who were nearby, left records of strange “primitive” people who do not allow them to enter their land.
With the development of navigation and aviation, the ability to monitor the islanders has increased, but all the information known to date has been collected remotely.
Until now, not a single outsider has managed to find himself in the circle of the Sentinelese tribe without losing his life. This uncontacted tribe allows a stranger no closer than a bow shot. They even throw stones at helicopters that fly too low. The last daredevils to try to get to the island were fishermen-poachers in 2006. Their families are still unable to claim the bodies: the Sentinelese killed the intruders, burying them in shallow graves.
However, interest in this isolated culture does not decrease: researchers are constantly looking for opportunities to contact and study the Sentinelese. At different times, they were given coconuts, dishes, pigs and much more that could improve their living conditions on the small island. It is known that they liked the coconuts, but the representatives of the tribe did not realize that they could be planted, but simply ate all the fruits. The islanders buried the pigs, doing it with honor and without touching their meat.
The experiment with kitchen utensils turned out to be interesting. The Sentinelese accepted metal utensils favorably, but separated plastic ones by color: they threw away the green buckets, but the red ones suited them. There are no explanations for this, just as there are no answers to many other questions. Their language is one of the most unique and completely incomprehensible to anyone on the planet. They lead the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers, obtaining their food by hunting, fishing and collecting wild plants, while over the millennia of their existence they have never mastered agricultural activities.
It is believed that they do not even know how to start a fire: taking advantage of accidental fires, they then carefully store smoldering logs and coals. Even the exact size of the tribe remains unknown: figures vary from 40 to 500 people; such a scatter is also explained by observations only from the outside and assumptions that some of the islanders at this moment may be hiding in the thicket.
Despite the fact that the Sentinelese do not care about the rest of the world, they have defenders on the mainland. Organizations advocating the rights of tribal peoples call the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island “the most vulnerable society on the planet” and remind that they have no immunity to any common infection in the world. For this reason, their policy of driving away strangers can be seen as self-defense against certain death.
