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Where did it originate
It originated within the tribe -
Where do the Mawe people live
they are the indigenous people of Brazil living in the state of Amazonas with a population of around 13,350 -
What is the bullet ant gloves
The bullet ant gloves is a ritual created by the Mawe people for boys to become men -
Why do they do it?/ Their belifes
They do it because it believes it makes the boys into men through experiencing the worst pain in the Brazilian jungle and that it prepares the boys to live the traditional life of the Mawe people, they also dance during the ritual because they believe it quells the pain of the stings the boys have to endure -
When did it start
It is not known when the ritual was created, but it is likely to be old as it has been done for many generations and is extremely ingrained into their society -
What happens in the bullet ant glove ritual
In the ritual, young boys put on gloves woven with leaves to be filled with 80 bullet ants and once they boy puts the gloves on, they are to wear the gloves for 5 minutes and deal with the excruciating pain from the ants, this ritual has to be performed 20 times for the boy to be recognized as a man in the Mawe tribe -
How many times is the ritual preformed for each boy
each boy must preform the ritual 20 times to be considered a man -
How are the ants captured
The Mawe people first use natural sedatives to put the ants to sleep in order to capture them, then they weave the ants into the gloves stinger down so the ants will sting the boys after they wake up in the gloves -
How dangerous are the ants
the bullet ants have a pain rating of 4 on the Schmidt's sting pain index, being the highest pain possible and similar to the pain of being shot hence the name bullet ant, after 5 minutes of wearing the gloves the boys arm is usually paralyzed due to the ants painful venom and they will experience the pain coming and going for up to 24 hours where they may shake uncontrollably due to the pain -
Symbols
Symbols include the gloves themselves which are a symbol of ascending to manhood, the charcoal they wear on their hands is also a symbol that apparently confuses the ants -
Has the ritual changed over time
the ritual has not changed much over time as the Mawe are quite independent people not influenced much by the outside world