Mentawai Teeth Sharpening Ritual- Kilali

Kilali Latter

Mr. Roddy

IHSS

9/13/20

Mentawai Teeth Sharpening

In the Mentawai Tribe in Indonesia, a coming of age ritual for girls is teeth sharpening. This is done from ages 10 to 14, so whenever a girl is starting puberty. Teeth sharpening is done by taking a chisel and rock and filing the teeth down to sharp points. This procedure is done without any anesthesia or pain killers and is extremely painful. The only pain relief these girls are given is a green banana for them to bite on. Sharpened teeth are considered to be beautiful in their culture. It is also supposed to attract men, which is why they sharpen their teeth at the age they are supposed to get married. The other reason this ritual is done is to make their inner spirits content. The Mentawai people believe that their souls will leave if they are not content with their body, so this teeth sharpening is done to please their souls and to prolong death. This ritual is very interesting to me. I have never heard of sharpening teeth before. It’s amazing and quite scary the amount of pain these girls have to put themselves through for this ritual and to meet their cultures beauty standards. The Mentawai tribe's beauty standard for teeth is definitely very different from anything I’ve heard of before. It's interesting how different beauty standards are in every culture. 


Sites:

https://fieldworkrayna2015.weebly.com/blog/mentawai-teeth-sharpening 

https://www.news24.com/parent/Teen_13-18/Development/7-lesser-known-coming-of-age-rituals-around-the-world-20181114

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