Deep in the jungles of the Brazilian Amazon in the remote villbullet1.jpgage of Injuve lives the Satere-Mawe tribe. Several times a year, the Satere-Mawe Indians hold a painful 11-hour ritual in which boys as young as 12 must stick their hands in a specially-made pair of gloves, each one infested with a swarm of angry, stinging giant tropical bullet ants. No initiate can be considered a true Indian, a warrior, until he has worn the gloves not once, but 20 times. Said to be the most painful sting on earth, a stab from the bullet ant’s abdominal spear is 30 times worse than a bee sting. The tribe’s medicine man drugs the ants by soaking them in an herbal solution. Their stupor will only last long enough for them to be thrust one by one, stinger first, into the gloves. According to Satere-Mawe legend, these menaces provide the perfect test of one’s worthiness to take on adult roles. In less than an hour, the ants are awake. Trapped in the woven mitt, they writhe in angry desperation. They’re ready to be inserted in the ceremonial gloves. One by one, each young man steps up to the sacred pole, and submits his hands to the swarm. To help distract them from their blinding pain, the medicine man leads the young men in a dance around the sacred pole. To be seen as a true tribal warrior, each man must endure the punishment for more than ten minutes. With each sting, the bullet ant’s neurotoxin attacks the nerves, causing paralysis and terrible pain. Once the gloves are off, the stinging and burning will only grow more excruciating, though it is discouraged to display any signs of pain. It takes 24 hours for the toxins to dissipate completely. As the chief sees it, the ritual not only marks the initiates’ entrance into adulthood, it makes them better men. As they see it, if you live your life without any pain or suffering, it won’t be worth anything to you.
