See the tribe where women fingers are chopped off when the husband dies

In Indonesia the Dani tribe when their loved one dies the women of that tribe have there upper fingers amputated in a ritual to ward off spirits. They believe that when they cut off the fingers it keeps the spirit of the dead person away and to show the pain of griefing, even the mothers can bite the baby’s fingers off.

This practice of chopping fingers is called Ikipalin and it was banned by Indonesian Government . But you can identify the women who were chopped in those old days but it’s believed to continue in secret. The tribe lives deep in Papua New Guinea.

They amputate the fingers by using a method called Stone Blade. It is not known when the method started and why they only target the women. However it’s a ritual practice done during griefing and stone blade method is used to chop the top fingers of the women.In this case they chew at the knuckles to weaken them then use the rope tied around the finger to cut them. It can be done without tools because others can chew the knuckles to weaken them before amputation.

Another method is by tying the joint to stop the blood flow to the area causing the nerves and muscles to die due to deprivation of oxygen and the finger will fall off. The remaining part left open will be cauterized to stop bleeding and it’s only the older women whose fingers were chopped off. The part of the finger which is cut off its burried somewhere special.

Another Wierd ritual the mothers practiced is they could bite their babies fingers as a way to make them live longer and to make them different from other babies and that is still a belief.