Satere-Mawe Trive

The Satere-Mawe Trive is a tribe in the Amazon. This tribe has a ritual that they do, or rite of passage, for young boys to enter into manhood. This initiation ritual is where young boys place their hands into mittens filled with hundreds of bullet ants. These ants bite is said to be about 20 times more painful than being stung by a wasp. The tribal men will gather the ants and then submerge them into a solution that temporarily knocks them out. Then the ants are woven into the mittens, and when they wake up the men will place their hands into the mittens and dance around for 10 minuets. The ants stings prevent the body from protecting itself from pain. The body will then begin to convulse and the pain can last up to 24 hours hours. Once completed the boys are now men, and throughout their life will continue to complete this ritual many times to prove their manhood.