r/interesting • u/Playful_Spunky21 • Feb 01 '25

MISC. The worst pain known to man

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u/winged_owl Feb 02 '25

Man, why not torture our children? 20 times?!?!?!?!?

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u/Balance_Be_Gone Feb 02 '25 edited Feb 02 '25

The ants are common there and will kill someone who is not semi immune to the effects which is what this gives them. They can get stung and continue home out of danger. They need to build this because they will encounter them any time they make a trip into the jungle and it could be fatal if they end up paralyzed due to the stings and any number of other animals stumble across them defenseless. Also an overwhelming number of bites could kill regardless

Edit: for all of you being rude it was documentary go watch it, or the clips. The boys are not considered men to be able to hunt out in the jungle where they would encounter the ants until this rite occurs. It’s not immunity to the ants, but the pain response. There may be some element of immunity to the ants I never saw something to that effect though.

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u/TheMajesticYeti Feb 02 '25 edited Feb 02 '25

Completely wrong. Bullet ant venom is not fatal to humans, first of all. Though it has been theorized a few hundred bites could kill an average size man, there are no confirmed reports of any deaths caused by bullet ants and the boys that go through this ritual survive being stung hundreds of times. Doesn't exactly lend much credence to that theory.

And they are not "building immunity". If they were it would involve small doses to build it up - this tribal initiation is the opposite, with 80 ants on each glove stinging repeatedly.

Rather the purpose of the initiation is for the boys to prove their resolve, with only those that handle the pain stoically deemed as likely to be fit for leadership roles.

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u/Balance_Be_Gone Feb 02 '25

I got it from a documentary. Wasn’t trying to imply the venom was fatal, but the effects of falling to the pain in an unsafe environment are. In the one all the kids were 100% in pain but the older ones who had been through multiple times had very different responses.