NUTS

[Nick]

Saw a report today on those Filipino people who actually go thru crucifixion each year on Good Friday.  What a crazy thing to do.  The odd thing is they think they are reenacting the death of Jesus when in fact the are just crucifying themselves for no reason other than an imaginary person.

[Quesi]

The same thing is done in Mexico too.  Masochists get a religiously sanctioned outlet for their kink.  I try not to be judgmental about other people's fetishes.  But it is hard. 

[nogodsforme]

I saw one year the government in the Philippines issued a health warning for all crucifixion participants to be sure to use sunscreen. I cracked up. These people are whipping themselves bloody and getting nails beaten into them but they are going to be concerned about sunburn? How about a health warning saying don't be crucified?

I think the warning was issued because there has been an increase in white folks from places like Australia joining the festivities. Don't want the tourists to get sunburned while they are getting nailed, hammered, whatever.

[kin hell]

...white folks from places like Australia joining the festivities. Don't want the tourists to get sunburned while they are getting nailed, hammered, whatever.

....back in the day (70s) as a wild young white folk from Oz I regularly went out and got hammered.
Mostly at night though, so sun screen was redundant.
I must admit too, the motivation was more often than not (in the surf crew un-pc parlance of the day) to nail some chick.
I will say in my defence that the alternate gender specific motivation was also apparent, although I do not know what un-pc phrase the girls used to describe their own looking for a root.

regarding the OP
I think it is a public service they are performing.
 Everyone of these cretins conveniently hung high, loudly advertising their idiocy and thus making themselves so much easier to avoid.

[kindred]

Its pretty much a social institution here. It's strengthens community bonds. Seriously, if crucifying yourself and taking on the imaginary burden of a christ-like figure(in this case the original christ himself), doesn't strengthen ties I don't know what will.

It doesn't feel stupid to me though. Like most traditions and customs, even stupid ones, if you were born in the culture that made them up, its feels natural and "right."

You wouldn't make fun of the slave driving culture of Japan, right? If a country that has the social phenomena of "suicide by over work", isn't ridiculed, I don't know why'd you'd make fun of this particular aspect of filipino culture, considering that there are far worse cultural aspects here in the Philippines. Take for example, a representative of the filipino tribal nature, our former President Erap who funneled the entire country's money into his barrangay(equivalent of a town) which pretty much screwed an entire country so his "tribe" could get a leg up.

[nogodsforme]

Cultural anthropologists understand the importance of rituals and traditional practices for strengthening community bonds and reinforcing cultural values. However, just because a practice is widely accepted in a given culture does not make it immune to analysis and criticism.

And when the practice is physically damaging or dangerous, I think it definitely deserves critical scrutiny. We should not shrink from asking "why" and "who benefits" and "where does this practice derive its momentum" about cultural practices. Nobody should be able to say, "well, it's cultural, so we can't question it."

Whether it is circumcising young boy babies or young girls; upper-middle class teen girls in the US getting surgical breast implants[1]to get a boyfriend; young Asians having surgery to make their eyes look "less sleepy" ie like European people; women of African descent burning their hair straight so they can get promoted at work; pale-skinned people tanning to the point of melanoma. Why do human beings have to do painful, even disfiguring things to their bodies for social acceptance?

And it is so often religion encouraging this behavior: young Muslim men whipping themselves bloody for Ashura, the aforementioned circumcision, Christians emulating Christ's physical suffering, Hindu mystics and others piercing their bodies with hooks and hanging things from them. Seems to fly in the face of god as a kind, loving parent figure. Why do we want our beloved children to be in pain?

1.	in Latin America it is butt implants!

[sun_king]

<snip>... Hindu mystics and others piercing their bodies with hooks and hanging things from them and sometimes on them.

Minor update (in bold), Google "Garudan Thookkam" for the gory details (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garudan_Thookkam). I have talked to a few of the "eagles", they say 'with great pain comes great blessings' or something to that effect. But then Kali is a blood thirsty goddess...

[kindred]

Cultural anthropologists understand the importance of rituals and traditional practices for strengthening community bonds and reinforcing cultural values. However, just because a practice is widely accepted in a given culture does not make it immune to analysis and criticism.

And when the practice is physically damaging or dangerous, I think it definitely deserves critical scrutiny. We should not shrink from asking "why" and "who benefits" and "where does this practice derive its momentum" about cultural practices. Nobody should be able to say, "well, it's cultural, so we can't question it."

Whether it is circumcising young boy babies or young girls; upper-middle class teen girls in the US getting surgical breast implants[1]to get a boyfriend; young Asians having surgery to make their eyes look "less sleepy" ie like European people; women of African descent burning their hair straight so they can get promoted at work; pale-skinned people tanning to the point of melanoma. Why do human beings have to do painful, even disfiguring things to their bodies for social acceptance?

And it is so often religion encouraging this behavior: young Muslim men whipping themselves bloody for Ashura, the aforementioned circumcision, Christians emulating Christ's physical suffering, Hindu mystics and others piercing their bodies with hooks and hanging things from them. Seems to fly in the face of god as a kind, loving parent figure. Why do we want our beloved children to be in pain?

1.	in Latin America it is butt implants!

My point wasn't that such a practice should be above scrutiny but rather your scrutiny ought to be focused somewhere else because there are far worse aspects of the filipino culture I have grown up in. Believe me, there are much much worse aspects of filipino culture.

On another point altogether, why are you so hung up with other people doing self-destructive things? If a person is already of adult age, why do you care that they do stupid stuff to feel accepted? So what if there are idiots out there that undergo extensive surgery without understanding the full consequences of what they're doing? The freedom to do anything just as long as you don't hurt anybody except is yourself is sort of a big deal to me, so I am genuinely curious about this.

[nogodsforme]

My main concern about people doing culturally accepted things that hurt themselves is that often times they have not analyzed why they are doing these things. I just want people to be aware of what they are doing and why. Once people think about it, they might reconsider doing it. Maybe they never think about it until something goes wrong or they have to try to explain the practice to someone from a different culture.[1]

Or not. Most of the time, people say, screw it, I'm still going to wear a long blonde weave, get butt implants or circumcise my daughter. But at least, with information, they have the option of doing it or not doing it.

When I was living in a third world country for several years, I started wearing makeup, dressing in a more "feminine" manner, got my ears pierced and even straightened my hair. It was all to fit in better with the women there. Most of the women there behaved in stereotypically female ways--that is what women did.

There were many, many things that I was not willing to do to fit in, like tattooed eyeliner, (and of course butt implants!)but there were some compromises I decided to make. I analyzed the situation and decided that fitting in better was worth it. And it was.

I am in favor of informed decision making. That's it.

1.	I am not even getting into social theory stuff like how black women straightening their hair or wearing straight weaves and wigs is rooted (ha!) in a racist historical narrative.

[kindred]

^

But isn't analyzing the pros and cons of a decision sort of the decision makers responsibility? Nobody should be chewing up information for them and spitting it out with neat bullet points. People should make these decisions on their own.

I could understand wanting to spread knowledge about cancer, tendonitis in joggers or other technical stuff  that are completely alien to a normal human being but something that normal people CAN understand and SHOULD try to understand, shouldn't be spoon-fed into them.

[nogodsforme]

Maybe you are right and nobody should be spoon feeding people information. In a world where all information was objective and readily available, you would have a valid point. But we live in a world where religious goups, global corporations and governments are already predigesting the information and spitting it out in neat bullet points.

Why else would authorities in places like Saudi Arabia and China try to control the internet? Why else would religious people come here and demand that atheists shut up? Why else do US fundamentalists battle so hard to have their ideas about science, etc. taught in public schools?

The crucifixion stuff is just an example, not necessarily the most serious or vital issue in everyday Filipino life. But people's decisions, about cultural practices like re-enacting Christ's crucifixion, don't come out of nowhere, and often don't even originate with the people themselves.

Powerful institutions try hard as they can to control and slant the info people get. If much of the information people in a given country get about say, birth control, is controlled by the Catholic Church, how are people supposed to make an informed decision about it? If a conservative government controls all information about (and access to) alcohol or cannabis, how are people supposed to make informed decisions about them?

If most of the info people get about what they should smoke, eat and drink, comes from companies trying to sell them harmful or unhealthy products, can you say that people are actually making decisions "on their own"? Critical thinking has to be taught-- it doesn't just appear out of nowhere. And there are many who benefit from people not thinking critically, just going along with what others are doing.

I just heard a report about a miracle shrine place in Mexico where thousands of people travel on foot in a yearly pilgrimage. Whatever, right? But when they interviewed the townspeople, turns out that a major part of the local economy is based on selling religious stuff to the pilgrims.

Who in that town would dare say that the shrine was bogus and people should not spend their money on useless religious stuff? So much for objective information.