"I find it hard to describe the transition from feet on the floor to feet off the floor as I wasn't even aware of hearing [the] music or the applause as I became airborne. I can, however, attempt to describe that most amazing feeling that I got shortly after I left the ground. It's the point at which my consciousness switched from there being only two other people in the world - the person holding my hands and the person pulling the ropes ... to becoming aware of everything else. It's like the whole process of getting my feet off the ground was done inside my internal world and then this buzz hit me, my whole skin felt the same... an intense buzzing sensation and, this I find hard to comprehend, but my mind seemed to be a part of my skin. I felt a physical sensation running through my mind. It's like mind and body became fused together instead of being separate. It was so weird [sic]. Then I became aware of everything externally." (Badhairdo, "Hanging Around At The Beach"). This could describe an ancient ritual from prehistory, a Native American Sun Dance, a Hindu ritual known as kavadi, or even a modern-day suspension. Although religious practices from prehistory are largely unknown, there is much documentation concerning Sun Dance rituals and kavadi, as well as rituals in many other religions, including the Maori religion in New Zealand, many tribal religions in Africa, and the phenomenon of stigmata in the Christian religion. Body modification has a lengthy history in religion, spanning the world and the ages to intensify the religious experience.
Religious rituals from prehistory are in no way certain. Much of the knowledge of prehistoric religion has come from site studies by archeologists, as well as artifacts. The elaborate burial rituals discovered suggest that the prehistoric man had a concept of an afterlife, but there are no primary sources of factual information. Preserved corpses show evidence of tattoos, piercings, and scarification. Complex burial sites, as well as artifacts concerning daily life, suggest that the prehistoric society had a well-defined concept of religious ideas.
The Sun Dance was practiced yearly by most Plains North American indigenous tribes, including the Sioux, Crow, Nez Perce (which means "pierced nose" in French), Hidatsa, and the now-extinct Mandans. Each tribe has a specific way for celebrating the Sun Dance, but there are significant similarities between them. The Sun Dance is "the dance to restore balance to Mother Earth" (Erdoes 105) and is generally four days long. First, a cottonwood tree would be found and chopped down and carried to the dance ground (Erdoes 105-106). The ground was prepared and the pole erected in the center. Then, the Dance began. Ball dancing consisted of balls, or buffalo skulls being hung from piercings in the body (Erdoes 106). Another dance would have rawhide thongs attached to the tree and through piercings in the body. They would dance until they broke free, or fainted from exhaustion (Erdoes 105). This dance thanked the Great Spirit for providing help in battles or in sickness (Erdoes 106).
For many years, the government declared the Sun Dance illegal. After protests declaring the government had taken away the natives right to freedom of religion, the Sun Dance was allowed to be practiced again, in public in 1936 (Erdoes 106). Modern day celebrations include all tribes, and even white spectators are encouraged to observe and participate in the feast afterwards.
One of the most well-known Sun Dance rituals comes from the Mandan tribe from present-day North Dakota, popularized by the movie A Man Called Horse. Although the Mandan tribe is now extinct, falling victim to smallpox and other diseases brought by the expanding society of the white man, the O-keep-a ritual was documented by many observers, including painter George Catlin. The O-keep-a ritual involved a grueling physical task, generally including staying awake for many days. The second part of the ritual is clouded in secrecy, as it was not generally revealed to outsiders, or the women of the tribe. The tribal leaders, and the young men participating in the ritual would go into a separate building, and they would be "hung up." This would consist of hooks being pierced into the young man's chest, and being hanging from the ceiling until the hooks tore free from the flesh. This ritual both served as a coming-of-age ritual for the young men, as well as a renewing ritual for the world itself.
In The Children of First Man, a historical fiction novel by James Alexander Thom, the Mandan tribe are said to be descended from Madog (also spelled Madoc) ap Owain Gwynedd, a prince of Wales who came to the New World fleeing corruption in his birth country. Over seven centuries, the Welsh people were integrated into the indigenous tribes, creating lighter-colored natives, known as the "White Indians" (Thom 4). His conjecture: after a brutal war against natives, Madog was tortured and executed by the Chiroki Indians to avenge the deaths of their relatives after the twelve years of war. In later generations, after the exact facts of the execution had passed out of the tribe's oral history, the Mandans would begin to emulate his death through the O-keep-a ritual.
The tribal religions in Africa, most notably the Maasai, have always had a strong base in body modifications, both as a cultural tool and as a religious tool. Scarifications and tattoos define who you are, what tribe you are from, and what your status in the tribe is. When you are marked as a member of the tribe, you can then participate in the tribal rituals, leading to an increased status among the tribe members.
The Maori people are the Polynesian indigenous people of New Zealand, maori meaning "ordinary people" in their language (Larratt). They have been heavily tattooed in the past, including the chief's mokos. The mokos were intensely personal facial tattoos, having significant meaning to the one person alone. Maori chiefs used to draw their moko for their signature on legal documents (Larratt). The Maori tribe has retained their culture throughout the years. The language is alive, with an estimated number of 130,000 speakers, and is being taught to each new generation, keeping the Maori culture thriving.
Hinduism is also strong in body modification practices. A Hindu woman, in recent times, would have her left nostril pierced the evening of her marriage (Larratt). Malaysian Hindus celebrate the festival of Thaipusam, using a ritual called kavadi. The kavadi consisted of a six mile walk through the city, leading to the Batu Caves outside of Kuala Lumpur. The walk would be undertaken supporting a bamboo arch, decorated with tinsel, peacock feathers, and images of deities, most importantly the god Murugan. After chanting into a trance-like stage, the devotees would piercing their bodies with hooks, and skewer their tongues and cheeks, and continue the march to the Caves, where they would be removed by Hindu priests � often with no blood coming from the wounds.
"Kavadi puts you under stress so that you can draw on God, draw on the power of God, to relieve the difficulties in your life. You have no other place to turn but God, because you imposed the penance on yourself. Nobody did it to you, you did it yourself so that you could come closer to God" (Subramuniyaswami).
The practice of kavadi has been banned in India, but is practiced in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Singapore.
In historical religion, the practice of body modification has been less accepted. In Leviticus 19:28, God says "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD." Evidence shows that this refers to an ancient pagan cutting-and-ash-rubbing mourning ritual, but many Jewish people prefer to abstain from any body modifications in order to prevent breaking the laws of kashrut. However, it is now considered acceptable for women to have pierced ears, for "who are we to judge one for intentionally changing their body to fulfill their own desires?" (Larratt).
The Christian faith is not bound to the laws from Leviticus, as the covenant of law was replaced with Jesus' covenant of faith after his death on the cross. The phenomenon of stigmata mimics Jesus' execution. Visible stigmata expresses both the sufferings and the marks for the Passion of the Christ, while invisible stigmata expresses only the sufferings (Poulain). St. Catherine de'Ricci was an ecstatic who suffered from stigmata. When she came out of her ecstasy, she was covered in wounds similar to those that would be produced by whips and cords (Poulain). St. Francis of Assisi was also a stigmatic. "In the wounds of feet and hands were excrescences of flesh representing nails, those on one side having round back heads, those on the other having rather long points, which bent back and grasped the skin" (Poulain). The stigmata phenomenon is documented and "no longer disputed by unbelievers" (Poulain).
In the religions of the world, there has nearly always been a history of modifying one's body to better serve the Ultimate Value. Ranging from prehistory to modern-day, the human body has been used as a canvas to worship with. "My Judaism and my body modification go hand in hand for me. They are both part of who I am and how I represent myself. I am a tattooed Jew. I am proud of both of these facets of my life" (Polay-Wettingel, The Art of Being a Modified Jew). The act of modifying your body can add another dimension to an already rich spiritual experience.
Works Cited
Badhairdo . "Hanging Around At The Beach." BME Aug. 2004. 10 Nov. 2004
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Erodes, Richard. The Sun Dance People: The Plains Indians, their past and present. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1972.
Larratt, Shannon. 27 Nov. 2003. The BME Encyclopedia. 14 Nov. 2004 .
Lev. 19-28.
"Malaysian Hindus begin festival of atonement and thanksgiving." International CustomWire. 04 Feb. 2004. EBSCOhost. WHL Library. 16 Nov. 2004. Keyword: kavadi.
Polay-Wittingel, Liz. "The Art of Being a Modified Jew." BME. 19 Aug. 2004. 08 Nov. 2004 .
Poulain, Aug.. "Mystical Stigmata." Trans. William G. Bilton. 18 Aug. 2004. The Catholic Encyclopedia. 17 Nov. 2004 .
Subramuniyaswami, Satguru S. "Stress... Makes You Strong!" Hinduism Today. Jan. 2004: 44-49. SIRS Knowledge Source. WHL Library. 16 Nov. 2004. Keyword: kavadi
Thom, James A. The Children of First Man. New York, NY: Ballentine Books, 1994.