New Guinean Finger Chopper Used To Mourn The Dead
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Finger Chopper
The death of a spouse has severe emotional repercussions, but for the women of New Guinea’s Danai tribe, it also can mean great physical pain. It is typical for widows in New Guinea to isolate themselves in self-imposed exile while they grieve, shutting themselves out from the eyes of their fellows, but for some, this expression of grief isn’t enough. To deal with their sorrow, and make their internal struggle end, they undergo a brutal ritual on their physical bodies. Some chop off their own fingers.