The Origins of Self-Loathing Part 3

Today, we see all sorts of disfigurements of one’s body being made voluntarily by people. Other tribal groups elongate necks, lips, ears, scarring tissue.....vaginal mutilation......tattoos, piercings - are not these all examples of our self-loathing?

 

Is there a direct link between ancient people’s survival guilt and modern body modifications?The idea that practices like tattoos, piercings, scarification, or extreme cultural rituals (like neck elongation or genital mutilation) stem from self-loathing is worth understanding.

 

Body modification has deep roots across cultures, often tied to identity, status, or belonging rather than self-hatred. For example, scarification among some African tribes or lip plates in the Mursi of Ethiopia are rites of passage, signalling beauty, strength, or social rank. Same with neck elongation in the Kayani people—it’s a cultural ideal, not a rejection of self. These practices, while extreme to outsiders, are often embraced with pride, not shame. But are they just developed ritualisations which mask their origins just as todays innocuous wafer and wine offered during Christian communion is a sanitised celebration of a man’s crucifixion’.