#video #ed staffords rite of passage s Episode 2 Engsub
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00:22I've never experienced anything even comparable in terms of pain.
00:38This is an extraordinary thing to put yourself through, especially when in order to become
00:43a man in this community, you have to do it 20 times throughout your life.
00:58I'm Ed Stafford. As an explorer and survivalist, I've made a career out of mucking about in the wild.
01:05If I'm honest, I've never really grown up. So now, I've set myself a mission to see how cultures across
01:18the world navigate the messy business of becoming an adult.
01:26I believe many of us in the modern world have lost our sense of identity. But I'm hoping by immersing
01:33myself in the often extreme trials that young people face, I can figure out how these rituals make us better
01:40members of our communities.
01:42I've never experienced anything even comparable in terms of pain.
01:47By joining them on their journey, I hope I'll learn to become a better man.
01:55Maybe even grow up.
01:57Okay, he wants me to jump up. I'm going to jump up.
02:00And successfully pass my own rite of passage.
02:13I'm heading deep into the Amazon jungle to visit a people called the Satare Maui.
02:19I'm on the final leg of my journey, a two-hour boat ride up the Amazon to reach their remote
02:24village.
02:26They live on the Andira River, 80 kilometres from the nearest city.
02:33This community has a unique rite of passage ceremony that involves them putting their hands in gloves full of bullet
02:39ants.
02:42The bullet ant of all insects has the most painful sting in the world.
02:47So the lesson that I can do is to take a looking into the current water on the top of
02:47all tками...
02:50Hello, my name is Adam...
03:00Hello.
03:00I'm Ed.
03:05Good pleasure.
03:07Good pleasure, I'm João.
03:10João, very nice.
03:12I'm waiting for you.
03:17That all felt rather stiff, if I'm honest.
03:20I think the guys knew that I was coming,
03:23but I think they were a little bit nervous.
03:25My name is Edgy.
03:28My name is Adriana.
03:29Adriana?
03:29Yes.
03:30You know, let's face it, it's not every day that a camera
03:34and a man comes into their village wanting to partake
03:37in this sort of ceremony.
03:38So I'm hoping that things relax a little as this day goes on.
03:57Just been given a necklace and officially welcome to the tribe.
04:02That is a good start.
04:03Obrigado.
04:04Obrigado.
04:04Obrigado.
04:04Obrigado.
04:06Obrigado.
04:19Obrigado.
04:20Obrigado.
04:20Obrigado.
04:21Obrigado.
04:23Obrigado.
04:24Obrigado.
04:24Obrigado.
04:28Obrigado.
04:28Obrigado.
04:29Obrigado.
04:32Obrigado.
04:34Obrigado.
04:34Obrigado.
04:34Obrigado.
04:36Obrigado.
04:36of sort of architecture this there's quite a lot of traditional houses and
04:40there's a lot of concrete structures as well
04:46despite their remote location the community's position on the river means
04:50that they are open to the outside world and the modern influences that brings
05:12every time we stop i keep getting bitten by ants but they're these tiny little ones and i'm trying
05:16not to react to them at all because obviously compared to bullet hands they're absolutely
05:19nothing and yet they're infuriating because they're biting at my ankles and these guys are starting
05:23to laugh because i'm like literally picking these tiny little minute ants off my ankles but they
05:29hurt i might be in trouble the centerpiece of the satarema way rite of passage is the incredibly
05:36painful tucandera ritual young men get stung by close to 100 bullet ants on each hand
05:52and they have to do it at least 20 times
06:02and one of those times is about to kick off
06:06okay so this is the um central area where they conduct the ceremony
06:20okay my understanding of the um ceremony today is that these guys are veterans
06:25one of them has done it 34 times it's all becoming a little bit real
06:40it's been likened to walking on hot coves insect venom is scaled in terms of the pain from a one
06:49to four
06:50and the bullet ant is number four which is obviously the highest level of pain
06:55to put that into perspective the sting of an average honeybee is generally just a two
07:01does something to the pain pathways within the body and stops the body combating that pain
07:07so it keeps the pain pathways open longer than you would normally feel pain in any other situation in life
07:32this is an extraordinary thing to put yourself through
07:46what i understand is the dancing and therefore the sweating that allows the toxins to to disperse
07:54and this is to help them manage the pain
07:58what i understand is the feeling is that the grief of an animal is the soul that lacks the fear
08:09they consume
08:09if they hurt them, they're taking towardsч Professionals
08:13surrogments
08:14at life
08:26and now his hands are shaking badly
08:36you've literally got a veteran crying shaking trembling
08:43experiencing a level of pain that i know i have never felt in my life before it's scary
08:57hey okay this is the first time that i've seen him put hands on a glove like this
09:09so the ants have all been sort of secured into this with their abdomen facing inwards and obviously
09:16the stings are on the abdomen and which is why it's on the inside
09:21quantos quantos ten aqui mais ou menos ninguém confere mas tem mais um com mais 80. 80 80 cada um
09:36oh my god
09:37so
09:43tineko has been through the ritual more times than anybody else
09:47and he will be my mentor for the week
10:06do women ever go through the ceremony
10:14they might not have to physically deal with the pain but the women do seem to help the young men
10:19throughout the emotional ordeal
10:26it's an extreme rite of passage
10:32so why do they do it
10:34oh my god
10:39I'm Everything I'm a man
10:43I'm a man
10:44But I'm a man
10:45I were a kid
10:47I were to care
10:52What do we do can I know?
10:53What do we do
10:54We're trying to create a huge amount of research
11:02I know
11:03We've been making a lot of research
11:04We've been making a lot of research
11:08I've been making a lot of studies
11:09is an incredible number why have you done it so many times
11:22while there's no scientific evidence to show that repeated bullet ant stings improve the immune
11:27system i can see how it could make the boys understand and manage pain much better
11:34is it okay with both of you that i take part in a ceremony in a few days
12:03oh i can't believe this is day one
12:07i feel like i've experienced so much already the truth is the auntie's been hooked i'm under no
12:17illusions just quite how painful this is going to be i've never experienced anything even comparable
12:53in terms of pain
12:55it's a mix of emotions it's a blender of butterflies and knives and all sorts of things going around my
13:01chest i feel like the next few days are vital for me to nuance exactly my approach to how i'm
13:09going to
13:09conduct myself during the ceremony but um it's occupying every part of my being right now
13:17i'm so aware of something coming that is enormous absolutely enormous i guess my spidey senses were
13:27tingling as a morning storm quickly engulfs the area so while we wait for it to pass adriana
13:33asked me to help prepare some food for their meals foreign is a carbohydrate made of manioc root
13:56and is a staple part of the amazonian diet when there is no fish or meat to eat it's quite
14:02flamboyant
14:03isn't it is it always the women that do this kind of job is it always the women that do
14:22this kind of job
14:23okay we're done
14:34excellent
14:40golden nuggets of pure joy
14:46i took the moment with adriana to find out what she thinks about the right of passage
15:01how painful do you think it is for the moon
15:02i guess this ritual is basically the big equalizer
15:29you didn't want him to do it initially and you've now decided that you do want him to do it
15:34why why
15:57have you changed your mind
16:13i am touched by adriana's promise to help me through the ceremony at this point
16:19with the bullet ant ritual only four days away i'm going to take all the help i can get to
16:24overcome the pain
16:47jose
16:49is helping to teach me the steps needed during the right as a way to help deal with the pain
16:58you'd think that would be easy wouldn't it
17:03it's because it ends on a right foot and then it starts with the right foot
17:09and so i'm like i want to do left foot
17:22i know it's not complicated but that's quite imbalanced
17:30i'm not really renowned for my dancing i think i've got it
17:43you were really stamping hard was there a reason for that
17:47não é porque no momento que eu meti minha mão na luva
17:52porque eu além dela a dor maior que eu já senti foi só dela
18:01aà da feita que o primeiro mete é o que primeiro fica com tudo lÃquido dela com tudo veneno na
18:07mão
18:07por isso que a dor é mais forte
18:10i watched him almost come apart you know tears streaming down his face body convulsing and
18:19shaking that obviously it's somewhat intimidating to say the least
18:27there's no rules or expectations surrounding crying
18:31she does well when we cry it's not a shame it's not a shame it's not a shame it's not
18:36a shame
18:37it hurts it has to jump
18:46there is no hiding the fact that this is going to be extraordinary
18:51more powerful than anything i would have ever felt through my nervous system before
18:58i'm aware that my mind state is will make all the difference
19:02i think i just need to reset recharge sleep will give me the resilience that i need
19:07it's going to be a rain on fire
19:15morning
19:17and traditional preparations are in full swing for tomorrow's right of passage
19:28Do the work.
19:53It's all, it's making the gloves sort of making it at home.
19:58Yeah.
19:59Yeah.
19:59Yeah.
20:00That's right.
20:05To do this, you can do this here.
20:11Here.
20:13And here.
20:16That's it.
20:24So what I'm doing is cutting the little strips that end up being woven together in order
20:28to make the inner gloves, the ones that the ants are actually woven into.
20:38The outer gloves are permanent and they're held within the village hall.
20:51Gloves woven, the boys' night also need to get ourselves prepared.
20:55And it's suddenly all becoming very real.
21:19The boys being painted will do the right with me.
21:22Because I've always wanted to know the pain they feel.
21:26Because my grandfather said that if we're doing anything that we want, we have to do it.
21:36Uh-huh.
21:37To Nikko's grandson, Esau, is 12 years old.
21:41And like me, he's doing the bullet ant ritual for the first time.
22:07I can see it in your eyes.
22:15It's a big thing, right?
22:18Uh-huh.
22:19Uh-huh.
22:20Uh-huh.
22:26Uh-huh.
22:36I see your mom or your dad giving you any last minute advice.
22:39They gave me a message.
22:41They gave me a message that they didn't cry in the mud and cry.
22:45Because this makes the cantor sick.
22:51She can only cry when she's already without the mud.
23:10My body is ready and for the first time I'm starting to feel more confident about the
23:15rite of passage but Taniko is asked to meet
23:45and we don't have any conditions for anything.
23:51With the pressure of the pain, we don't have to force it.
23:57We have to relax, just hold it.
24:00If it's slow, then the blood comes down.
24:07Then it's going to be mannered with the pain.
24:12But if the pain is alive, you want to be more than her, she will cry.
24:20In terms of the order of the ceremony, Jose indicated to me that the reason he was in so
24:26much pain was because he went first.
24:28Obviously, I'm only going to do this once in my life.
24:31Would it be okay if I went first?
24:59That's it. There's no bucking down now.
25:02I just hope I don't live to regret it.
25:12It's my last meal with the family.
25:16And Adriana has made sure we're all well fed for the ceremony.
25:19There's the rice, the macaroni, and the flour.
25:26But it also feels a bit like a condemned man's final meal.
25:32It's hot.
25:34It's hot.
25:35It's hot.
25:37It's hot.
25:37It's hot.
25:47It's hot.
25:49It's hot.
25:50It's hot.
25:52It's hot.
25:53It's hot.
25:55It's hot.
25:57It's hot.
25:59It's hot.
26:01It's hot.
26:03It's hot.
26:09It's hot.
26:11It's hot.
26:14It's hot.
26:15It's hot.
26:16It's hot.
26:16It's hot.
26:17It's hot.
26:18like I'm there and it may well be the last time in my life that I ever
26:23experienced that sensation so I want to experience it I want to relish in it I
26:28want to revel in it I want to explore it and dare I say it I don't want it to
26:36be
26:36over
26:42it's the day of my rite of passage and it wouldn't be much of a ceremony without
26:50the star of the event Chinico is blowing a musical instrument at the front which is
26:56part of the ceremony in terms of attracting the ants and drawing them out of their home
27:15the tobacco smoke and rubbing of the tree aggravates the ants
27:19and drives them out of their nest ready to sting
27:34wow that's quite a lot on the pole
27:40there's a lot of ants going into this tube
27:45huge amount every one of them has a sting considerably worse than a scorpion
27:56back in the village while the boys and I steal our nerves
28:02Tinico sedates the ants using leaves from the tapabera plant
28:24it's a skillful art and Tinico must work fast to weave the ants into the gloves before they wake up
28:47this is it the sedative has worn off and ants are ready to attack anything and anyone that goes near
28:53them
28:55this is it the sedative has worn off and ants are ready to attack anything and anyone that goes near
29:00them
29:00and that is rising in my body
29:07it's kind of a mesh of excitement and elation and fear
29:20I think actually in my life the closest I've come to this is a boxing match
29:25somewhere where there's nowhere to hide somewhere where if you mess up it's going to be very visible to a
29:30lot of people
29:43once the gloves go on
29:44I'll be entering a world of pain that I've never felt before
29:50so the ants are going into the gloves now being tied up
29:54and there will be nothing I can do to stop it for over 12 hours
30:00ok
30:02ok
30:05ok
30:07ok
30:08ok
30:08ok
30:09ok
30:09ok
30:09ok
30:10ok
30:14ok
30:14ok
30:15ok
30:18ok
30:20ok
30:20way
30:21ok
30:23ok
30:24ok
30:25ok
30:25ok
30:26ok
30:26ok
30:26ok
30:27ok
30:27ok
30:27ok
30:59I may look composed but the pain is excruciating somehow it's almost making
31:08me feel high I'm charged with the adrenaline and completely focused on the
31:13dance the repetitive steps are giving me something to focus on but the searing
31:24pain is like nothing I've ever felt before
31:43but the pain is like nothing I've ever felt before
31:48And I'll ask for a question
31:53I'll ask for that question
32:09take a look
32:26I've never experienced anything to this intensity in my physicality.
32:33Literally, like, my hands are on fire, right in the heart of a fire.
32:37I've never experienced anything to this fight, right in the heart of a fire, right in the heart of a
32:50fire, right in the heart of a fire.
33:05The preparation was very good.
33:14If you were to spiral into a panic with this level of pain, it would be awful.
33:28It would be then unmanageable by definition.
33:45If it's this hard for me, a grown man, I have no idea how the boys are going to cope.
33:51I've never experienced anything to this fight, right in the heart of a fire, right in the heart of a
34:21fire.
34:22Now it's all about withstanding the incredible pain.
34:31Taniko warned me there would be intense peaks to this pain.
34:37It feels like I'm hitting the first of these now.
34:41I guess this is now the phase where there's no abatement.
34:44You know, the pain is, if anything, it's growing slightly.
34:50If anything, it's getting more painful.
34:53And it's managing that.
34:55It's getting more painful.
35:03It's been very painful.
35:11I'm dying, isn't it?
35:13I'm dying at the last part.
35:20You've been crying.
35:21It's been a very difficult time.
35:22It's been a difficult time.
35:23If any of you have given up the last days.
35:24After the phase of the day of the day of a fire, I've never wanted to see you.
35:37An hour after the ritual, and the pain is only increasing.
35:43The decision is made to move us to the village hall
35:46so that we can be closely monitored.
36:03But it's as close to as unbearable as I can contemplate right now.
36:10Hats off to these people who do it 20 times.
36:13Crikey.
36:13What an extraordinary way of facilitating them
36:20to turn from young boys into adults.
36:24A little bit of panic that the pain is still as bad as it is.
36:29That I'm just trying to calm within myself.
36:38This is kind of the darkest part for me now.
36:52As I put my hand in the gloves first, and for a longer time,
36:55I received more venom.
36:58Now I'm struggling to cope, and my team are concerned.
37:02Hello, Eiji.
37:04Hello.
37:05How are you?
37:06How are you?
37:11How are you?
37:12How are you?
37:15How are you?
37:25How are you?
37:28A minute you see your kidneys.
37:42So I'm going to go to Cepis, so if you keep me concerned, yes?
37:47OK.
37:50So, my concern was that he was entering a form of dehydration,
37:54which is common in this moment of exposure,
37:56and by the ritual itself and the toxin itself.
38:11After taking in fluids and being carefully monitored by the doctor,
38:15I'm finally back on my feet.
38:19But the pain was way more traumatic than I had ever anticipated.
38:25It's kind of changed from burning fire
38:30to they've been smashed with a sledgehammer.
38:39In the dance, I just sort of found myself next to another guy
38:43whose hands were completely messed up, so we couldn't kind of link arms.
38:49And this quite young girl called Fran came up and linked arms.
38:55There was just something so special about the fact that she'd noticed
39:00and that she cared enough.
39:03I think their role is vital, absolutely vital.
39:07And it's funny, isn't it, you go through all that pain
39:10and the thing that makes you close to tears
39:13is the care that you've been presented with and offered.
39:26Adriana, I mean, literally constantly helping me,
39:30feeding me, binding my hands.
39:41She's innocent!
39:41Is this your only fault, Emil?
39:46Thank you!
39:49Please pray.
39:50Please pray.
39:52Please pray, Emil.
39:54Please pray, Emil.
39:55Please pray, Emil.
39:55Please pray.
39:57Please pray.
39:57Please pray, Emil.
40:05I've never been presented with so much care and love, and I would never have got through
40:11that ceremony if it wasn't for you all, and I'll never forget it.
40:35It's very good you and Eric, to resgatar our culture, to lead us in front of the
40:45world.
40:45It's very good what we are doing here, okay?
40:51I don't have any words anymore, but I thank you very much, from the bottom of my heart,
40:56and my family who is united here.
41:02I came here thinking that this ceremony was all going to be about proving how tough it
41:08was, proving how I could do this on my own.
41:14And it's not true, is it?
41:16It's not true of the ceremony, but it's also not true in general.
41:19It's like, you don't have to do it well on your own.
41:22You can let people in.
41:26You can let them help you.
41:33It's beautiful.
41:35It's absolutely beautiful.
41:56I feel a bit buttered and bruised this morning, if I'm honest.
42:01That level of pain, for that amount of time, just almost doesn't feel natural.
42:09I think I'm starting to get an understanding of how rites of passage are really essential
42:13to communities, because on the face of it, they look like things that allow young boys
42:17to show off, to prove that they're tough, so they can become a man.
42:20Ah, it's the last one.
42:26Thank you very much.
42:27And maybe we'll see you in the future.
42:30Yes.
42:34The ceremony last night changed my opinion on that.
42:38It was about the community coming together.
42:40It's the very soul of the community, and it's what pulls everything together.
42:46I've been fighting my whole life, fighting to prove that I'm tough enough to survive on
42:51my own, and the inherent epiphany of last night seemed to be that you don't have to.
42:57You can come into a village, and seven days later, they're calling you part of their family
43:01and giving you so much love and support that you're reduced to tears.
43:06I mean, that's...
43:06I don't know of many things in life more powerful than that, really.
43:21Sounds like a cartoon anvil falling from the sky.
43:34See you next time.
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