A look at some traditions that you would probably consider strange, but are perfectly normal to the believers and practitioners.

The Eunuchs of India (Hijras)

The eunuchs, also known as the “impotent ones'' or Hijras, are men and boys who have been castrated through a genital reassignment surgery where the penis and testes are removed. This process is usually done through unsophisticated means, without the use of anesthesia or antibiotics. Some of the Hijras go through this process voluntarily while others are forced into it. The “lucky” ones are the intersexual ones, who do not have to go through any surgery to become Hijras.

This tradition has been in India for generations and as of 1990, studies say there were 50,000 Hijras. Their exact number today is unknown but they still live in some parts of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Modernization of the Indian society has, however, reduced their chances of getting decent jobs and some have turned to prostitution as a means of livelihood.

Another similar tradition occurred in China, before the Sui Dynasty, where eunuchs worked with the Imperial Service and gained a lot of power in the society.

The Fulani Sharo Tradition

“Sharo” means flogging. It is a public ceremony that demonstrates to the society that a young man has come of age, and may take a wife. The young participant is continuously whipped by someone else, called a challenger, but he must show no signs of pain. Blood and injuries are usually sustained. Many have died in this ceremony and survivors are deemed courageous.

The tradition is common amongst a group of people known as the Fulanis and they can be found in Mali, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and some other parts of Africa.

The Sati Culture in India

Sati is an ancient culture that existed amongst the Hindus in India, where a woman would burn herself on her dead husband's funeral fire. It was considered an honorable act and the widow was believed to enter straight into heaven, as a reward for her sacrifice. She became a goddess and statues were built in her honor.

The act was banned by the British Government, but in the late 1980s, an instance was reported. Another case was also reported in 2002.

The Prevention of Sati Act now makes it illegal to aid, glorify or commit Sati. All offenses are punishable under the law.

Chinese Foot Binding

This was an ancient and extremely painful tradition practiced by the Chinese. An estimated 5 billion Chinese women were subjected to excruciating pain in a bid to make their feet look elegant.

From as little as the age of four, a young girl would have her feet bound tightly with bandages by elderly women. These bandages were kept on, but were changed regularly and increasingly tightened. The general aim of foot binding was to keep the foot at a desired size of 3-4 inches.

After years of agonizing pain, toe deformation and tight bandages, the girl would end up with a pair of tiny, folded feet.


Some of the women, who didn't die in the process from infections like gangrene, lost the convenient use of their toes.

Despite the fact that walking and running were almost impossible for these women, those who didn't take part in the tradition were deemed disrespectful. They were ostracized and it was difficult for them to find husbands. Their toes were considered ugly and unattractive.

Even though the tradition was outlawed, it still continued until the 1930s.

ttp://www.trifter.com/Africa/Strange-Traditions-of-the-World-You-Probably-Didnt-Know-About.91665

Damn!

It's scary what some people do in the name of tradition oh, the foot binding

Well, I should just be glad that my older Kru relativs didn't get the chance to put pepper in my eyes, nose, and throat when I was a baby.

aye da na true mehn e...they break their toe for designer's shoes? :D

Edina wrote:

those who didn't take part in the tradition were deemed disrespectful. They were ostracized and it was difficult for them to find husbands. Their toes were considered ugly and unattractive. Too painful to imagine!!!!!!!! But nowadays some women break their big toes to fit into designers shoes... so

How many of your attended the informal school of the Poro and Sande society? Candy and krazzy are these schools still in existence in Liberia. I learned that because of the war everybody that radical now. No traditional circumcision oh..

Dah TRUE! Look:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9400E0DF133DF934A35751C1A9659C8B63

Excerpt:

With vanity always in fashion and shoes reaching iconic cultural status, women are having parts of their toes lopped off to fit into the latest Manolo Blahniks or Jimmy Choos. Cheerful how-to stories about these operations have appeared in women's magazines and major newspapers and on television news programs.
But the stories rarely note the perils of the procedures. For the sake of better ''toe cleavage,'' as it is known to the fashion-conscious, women are risking permanent disability, according to many orthopedists and podiatrists

.............
But an increasing number of doctors are performing delicate and expensive operations to allow women to continue to wear their favorite shoes.
Dr. Levine's Park Avenue office, called Institute Beauté, is decorated with cream and rose-colored wallpaper, pictures of Dr. Levine with celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer and Joan Lunden, and framed copies of articles in which she is quoted. Dr. Levine has medium-length blond hair, a striking resemblance to the singer Deborah Harry, and often wears fashionable high heels. A public relations firm schedules her media appearances.
Sitting with a brown Yorkie in her lap, Dr. Levine explains that she is ''simply fulfilling a need, a need to wear stylish shoes.'' Although she would not provide specific numbers, Dr. Levine said that this year she will undertake 40 percent more cosmetic foot surgeries than she did three years ago. Among the most common are operations to shorten toes, at a cost of $2,500 per toe, and collagen injections into the balls of the feet -- to restore padding lost from years of wearing high heels -- about $500 per injection, she said.
Her business is taking off, Dr. Levine explained, because shoes are an increasingly indispensable fashion accessory. ''These women come in and say, 'Listen, I just came from my other podiatrist who told me to stop wearing high heels, and I don't want to hear that,' '' she said.
Many of her patients are youthful, beautiful women who want to look their best, she said. To prove her point, she walked into an examining room where Jennifer Cho, a 27-year-old Manhattan lawyer was waiting to have the stitches on her right toes examined.
Wearing high heels caused her discomfort, Ms. Cho said, and her toes had begun to curl downward and develop corns. She saw Dr. Levine on NBC's ''Today'' program and decided to have the problem fixed. On Monday, Dr. Levine shortened the toes on Ms. Cho's right foot, and she is scheduled to operate on the left toes on Friday.
''This will help me wear the shoes that I want to wear,'' Ms. Cho said happily.
Dr. Levine and her partner, Dr. Everett Lautin, said that critics do not understand that when doctors tell their patients not to wear high heels, patients do so anyway. ''People say, 'why do toe surgery if they work just fine?' '' Dr. Lautin said. ''Well, 'why do a nose job when your nose is working just fine?' It's the same thing. People want to look their best.''
The answer, Dr. Positano said, is that ''you don't walk on your face.'' The foot is a complex network of 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments and 19 muscles that must support more than 100,000 pounds of pressure for every mile walked. Even small changes can unexpectedly undermine the foot's structural integrity and cause crippling pain, Dr. Positano and others said.
Even collagen injections have risks. Simone Levitt's toes are numb because collagen injections into the pads of her feet damaged nerves. Ms. Levitt was persuaded to get them because she thought they would allow her to walk freely in high heels. ''Like a dope, I let this happen,'' said Ms. Levitt, 74, who lives in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Now Ms. Levitt said that she is unable to wear anything but sneakers and that her feet hurt constantly.
These risks explain why many foot doctors advise patients to try everything -- including never wearing high heels again -- before risking surgery. There are no solid figures for cosmetic foot procedures, so the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society is beginning a study to measure how common the operations have become.
Critics say that one factor compelling the increase they are seeing in such procedures is a push by doctors to expand their practices in areas not covered by managed care. ''People are making a lot of money off of this, because patients pay in cash,'' said Dr. Dreeben, the California surgeon.

krazzy wrote:

aye da na true mehn e...they break their toe for designer's shoes? :D Edina wrote: those who didn't take part in the tradition were deemed disrespectful. They were ostracized and it was difficult for them to find husbands. Their toes were considered ugly and unattractive. Too painful to imagine!!!!!!!! But nowadays some women break their big toes to fit into designers shoes... so

da na true o, my brother. the beat goes on. it should have been listed with the chinese and indians, i agree.

bellah wrote:

How many of your attended the informal school of the Poro and Sande society? Candy and krazzy are these schools still in existence in Liberia. I learned that because of the war everybody that radical now. No traditional circumcision oh..

"toe cleavage" WTF?????????????

WOW!

Ouch! Read about this practice and others unique to Chinese culture in the fictional Snow Flower and the Secret Fan...The girls were very young, between 5 and 7, when their feet were initially bound...So sarrayful but mos def a very good read! The things women go thru!

To each his own, but just looking at it makes my feet hurt!