I find this heartbreaking but at the same time satisfying. I’m assuming these brave women of the Dani Tribe from the central highlands of western New Guinea (Indonesian Province of Papua) feel that way when they do this to themselves.
It‘s a part of their custom. While most of us mourn for the death of our family members, the women of the Dani Tribe suffer not only emotional pain brought by the death of their loved ones but physical pain as well. The women of the Dani tribe amputate one or two joints of their fingers when a close relative dies and burn it together with the body of the deceased.
Brave? Hell yes, they are! These women carry out the amputation themselves! So, aside from losing fingers, they are also the ones responsible for cutting them off. They tie joint with a piece of rope, hit it with a stone to make it numb, then chop it off. They do this practice to satisfy ancestral ghost.
