The 10 most shocking male initiation rituals (With Pics)

4. Sepik Scarification

via anthrocentric.tumblr.com

In the tribes along the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea, boys become men by being carved like a holiday turkey. A young man is given cuts all over his body in the pattern of the scales of a crocodile. The members of the tribe believe that the reptilian divinity consumes the boy’s immaturity, spitting him out as a man. All the while, the boy is subjected to humiliation rituals, including being referred to and treated as a woman. This is meant to toughen him psychologically, although it is hard to imagine how being cut up all over your body wouldn’t do that on its own…