Wayan Aparai tribe

Today my IHSS class visited the Houston Museum of Natural Science. I had never been before and I was extremely excited to learn about some cultural anthropology. Over all, it was an incredible experience, we mostly learned about the Amazon river. I learned that it is over 40,000 miles long and is the biggest river in terms of volume. There are also 700,000 tribes living there currently, such as the Yoakuka, the Kuwama, the Duawear, the Shuar, and the Wayan Aparai. An interesting fact about the Shuar tribe is that they make animal masks used during ritual ceremony. These masks had specific ranks including bears, rodents, spiders, and the highest rank which was the peacock, which is the most sacred creature to them.  Next, we learned a lot about the Yoakuka tribe, in the picture you will see this peculiar type of headdress. In fact this is a ritual item made entirely of multiple birds feathers, though they would not kill the birds, just pluck the feathers. What they believed about this headdress, was that once it was used during ritual, it could never be worn again and was discarded. This is because they believed that once it was used, all of the spiritual powers would vanish, therefore making it no longer significant. This tribe are also very skilled fishers, it was their primary way to get food, and also the only type of meat they would eat. Other than fish they did not kill any animals. The last tribe and my personal favorite is the Wayan Aparai. The most intriguing custom about them, was their ritual when one must enter adulthood. When a teenager becomes the age of when he must become an adult, a very interesting ceremony takes place. The Aparai chief would go collect bullet ants, and wasps, by using a smoke that makes them drowse, next the tribe would weave the sleepy insects into baskets. Finally, once the bugs are awake and mad they would release them upon all of the children stinging them causing intense pain. If a specific child where to flinch or even make a sound, they would not be considered an adult and would have to do the process the next time that ritual happened. If the child does in fact succeed and not move during the ceremony they would then be promoted to the men's hut. This ritual may seem cruel and unjust, but to these tribes, they have been involved with these types of rituals for a very long time. Actually this specific tribe have been training the young children for this very early on. They would do the same thing, but on a much smaller scale. For example, they would perhaps tap the kids with the bullet ants to build up an immune system, rather than releasing the insects upon their entire naked body. In conclusion, I had a fascinating time at the HMNS and seeing all of the cool exhibits, and am very excited to return which I’m confident that I will.