The Ability to Inflict Pain Beware! Stinging ants!
A grasshopper is brought down by a large ant.		Anyone who observes insects will see that they are amazingly strong and resilient for their size. Impressed by this, humans devised various rituals to help them claim some of that power for themselves. Among the Kayapo of Brazil, ants are respected and admired for their tenaciousness. The men pound stinging ants into a paste which they paint on their hunting dogs in the hope that it will make them hunt with ferocity and determination as do the ants.

This is going to hurt!
Another ritual involves the ability of insects to inflict pain. As part of a reenactment of an ancient myth describing their fight with the giant rhinoceros beetle god, Kayapo warriors strike the nests of the aggressive Polybia species of wasp with their bare hands and receive their stings until they become unconscious from the pain and venom. To test the courage of their warriors, the Roucouyenne Indians of French Guiana capture and place wasps in a wicker framework so that their sting-bearing abdomens protrude from one side. The framework is then pressed onto the skin.		Wicker framework with trapped wasps.

Stingers and initiation
The terrible ordeal of mortification of the flesh by ants.		The most cruel initiation rite is probably the ordeal young Arawak Indians of both sexes must undergo upon reaching puberty. This initiation consists of a wicker framework similar to the one used by the Roucouyennes, but the wasps are replaced by large black ants of the genus Dinoponera. The young initiates must endure the pain without complaint. Being bitten by one of these ants is like being hit with a hammer. Invariably the venom causes a violent fever and breathing difficulties. The ordeal is so severe that some do not survive it.