Bullet Ants
Trying not to sensationalize or monsterize the ants in the glove ...
The most recent Wild Episode podcast is all about the Bullet Ant, the agony it causes those it stings, the Pain Index it occupies the top spot on, and the whole question of what pain is, how it’s caused and why it’s caused by ants, bees and wasps.
There are, as ever, links to a load of detailed information about all of that in the show notes for that episode. Here, what I want to talk about is a bit more specific.
All ants are extraordinary, obviously, but the Bullet Ant is most infamously extraordinary for one basic reason, when you really get down to it: it has evolved one of the most extreme venoms on the planet. Venom that exists largely not to cause actual physical harm, but specifically to cause pain. Which is very cool, if you ask me.
One thing I mention but do not talk about much in the episode is the famous (infamous?) initiation rituals involving bullet ant gloves that go on amongst the Sateré-Mawé people of the Brazilian Amazon.
Boys and young men can go through this many times as they grow and age. Donning mittens made of leaves or straw into which dozens or hundreds of bullet ants have been woven, sting-end facing inward, towards the victim’s flesh. The gloves are kept on for a few minutes, masses of stings are delivered, and then the victim has to tough out a day or more of the consequent agonizing pain, paralysis, disorientation and so on. It’s a deeply ingrained cultural tradition with long-established communal meaning.
Examples of Westerners participating in the Sateré-Mawé bullet ant ritual make me kind of uneasy - make me wonder what’s motivating that participation, what impression it creates of the animals involved, and so on - but at the end of the day it’s up to the people whose ritual it is whether they want outsiders to participate. Hopefully they profit from it.
Worth noting, a Brazilian website concerned with the history, culture and rights of indigenous groups in the country has a load of fascinating information about the Sateré-Mawé. Interesting stuff about their language, history, agricultural innovations, social organization, cosmology. Honestly well worth a read. And the bullet ant ritual gets precisely one paragraph, out of dozens.
Anyway, all that said, no getting away from the fact that the ritual is fascinating. So here’s the best video I know of showing it. ‘Best’, because no outsider is getting stung for likes and subscribes, the ants don’t get monsterized, and it shows the whole process, right from the collection of ants: