Finger-Lopping
Anthropologist Holly Wardlow did extensive fieldwork among the Huli people of Papua New Guinea. She offers this account of a curious way that Huli women get the upper hand (so to speak) in marital disputes:
Source: Wayward Women: Sexuality and Agency in a New Guinea Society
many women when falsely accused [of adultery by their husbands] will lop off their index or pinky fingers at the first or second joint. This practice is quite common: of the fifty women with whom I conducted life history interviews, ten of them had one or two finger joints missing. Indeed this practice by Huli women is so pervasive that children say they make a point of hiding all knives and axes whenever their parents argue, not only to prevent them from injuring each other, but to prevent their mothers from lopping off their fingers. Like suicide, finger-lopping is motivated by anger and indignation, but it is highly performative as well; for example, one is supposed to maintain enough presence of mind to hurl the finger at one's accuser and yell something like, "keba biba haro, inaga ki bi pugu ngerogoni" (In order to cut off/finish my anger, I'm cutting off my finger and giving it to you.)
Source: Wayward Women: Sexuality and Agency in a New Guinea Society
Comments
A whole new dimension of giving one the finger.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 03/16/12 at 10:00 AM
Darn it Expat, you beat me to it!!! n!m (that's me giving you the finger 😉 )
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 03/16/12 at 01:02 PM
It's that male superiority thing you womens like to discredit. 💋
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 03/16/12 at 01:11 PM
They could learn a thing or two about what to do with knives from Loreena Bobbitt.
Posted by tadchem on 03/16/12 at 03:04 PM
I find this especially shocking since I've long held the belief that those who accuse their partner of infidelity are likely to have been considering (or doing) it themselves.
Posted by Miles on 03/16/12 at 03:22 PM
"In order to cut off/finish my anger, I'm cutting off my finger and giving it to you."
Add a guitar and a harmonica and that could be a song right there. Continue on with other body parts as the song progresses.
Add a guitar and a harmonica and that could be a song right there. Continue on with other body parts as the song progresses.
Posted by KDP on 03/16/12 at 03:38 PM
Just a flesh wound.
Posted by Chris B. on 03/16/12 at 03:49 PM
KDP, similar to the hokey-pokey?
Posted by ScoutC on 03/16/12 at 06:45 PM
That's what its all about! :lol:
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 03/16/12 at 10:30 PM
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Category: Body | Body Modifications | Domestic | Misbehavior, Rebellion, Acting-out and General Naughtiness | Foreign Customs