anorthodox

Kukeri

Kukeri is a traditional Bulgarian ritual to scare away evil spirits, with costumed men performing the ritual. The costumes cover most of the body and include decorated wooden masks of animals (sometimes double-faced) and large bells attached to the belt. Around New Year and before Lent, the kukeri walk and dance through the village to scare evil spirits away with the costumes and the sound of the bells, as well as to provide a good harvest, health, and happiness to the village during the year.

sources: 1, 2

Some call me Hermes

Thomas Gandharas, also known as "the Black Bandit", came from Akri Elassonas, became an outlaw in July 1918, was a partner of Georgios Velonis and having deserted the army, was planning to kill a landowner who had raped his wife.

A little later, Gandharas and Velonis were caught and on July 21st 1919 the court martial of Larissa sentenced them to 14 years imprisonment. On November 21st 1921 Thomas Gandharas escaped from the prison of Larissa and a year later a bounty was given for his head. Thomas Gandharas had a brother who was also a bandit, Georgios Gandharas, who was killed in February 1920 in Koumaria Elassonas, in a conflict with a pursuit squad. With him, the Bandit Manatsas was also lost.

One night, the outlaw Gandharas wore his foustanela (greek kilt) and his silver tsaprazia (greek male jewelery) and went secretly to the home of the famous photographer from Trikala, Athanasios Manthos. He descended quietly from the roof, came in and woke Manthos to come photograph him with his bandit gang, because he understood that their end was near.

Thomas Gandharas was killed on August 5th 1923. He was killed in Oxia of Deskati Grevenon, near Mavreli, by the mavrelite hunter Georgios Siakavaras, who participated in the pursuit squad that hunted him. Gandharas' head was cut, was transferred to Gerakari and then exposed to public view in Kalambaka on August 6th 1923, as an example to all.

Thomas Gandharas left a son and two daughters, Eleni and Vasiliki. He had time to give Eleni, as an infant, to be guarded by the mayor of Kalambaka, Rammides. The two women met for the first time in 1998.

Vagina Dentata

Rape has been violating women since the dawn of humanity. Even before that, evolutionarily. Our Great Ape relations – chimpanzees and gorillas – are rapists, and approximately 50% of orangutans are the result of rape. Gang rape, war rape, prison rape, date rape, serial rape, spousal rape, incestuous rape... hundreds of millions of females have been terrified, humiliated, injured and scarred.
Rape has to be halted, but how? Is there a transhumanist remedy? A technological solution?

The “Rape Capital of the World” is currently South Africa, with a University of South Africa study estimating 2,777 rapes per day, for a total of 1 million a year. The South African Law Commission asserts the figure is considerably higher: 1.69 million per year. Journalist, rape survivor, and anti-rape activist Charlene Smith claims that a South African woman is raped every 26 seconds; 40% of the victims are children, and 65% are gang-raped, aka “jackrolled.” Human Rights Watch reports that 28% of South African males has admitted to sexual assault, in this nation where 16.9% of the adult population is HIV/AIDS infected.

To combat this atrocity, the citizenry invented two retaliatory devices. A “killer tampon“, developed by 72-year-old Jaap Haumann in 2000, sports a guillotine blade attached to a hollow cylinder that, if sprung, decapitates any intruding penile head. Haumann estimated that 1 million women would arm their crotches with his contraption, but he was ridiculed in the media and sales never materialized.

“Rape-aXe” was next. Unveiled in 2005 by medical technician Dr. Sonnet Ehlers, this simple latex sheath transforms the female orifice into a shark-like vagina dentata. 25 razor sharp barbs, facing inward, serve as a “rape trap” that painfully hooks the penetrator. The snared assailant, claims Dr. Ehlers, “cannot pee or walk when it is on, and if he tries to remove it, it will clasp even tighter.” The vengeful fangs can only be
removed surgically, a procedure that would alert police and imprison the rapist.

Taken from ANARCHO-TRANSHUMAN: A Journal of Radical Possibility & Striving

Rat King

"Rat kings are phenomena said to arise when a number of rats become intertwined at their tails, which become stuck together with blood, dirt, ice, excrement or simply knotted. The animals reputedly grow together while joined at the tails. The numbers of rats that are joined together can vary, but naturally rat kings formed from a larger number of rats are rarer. The phenomenon is particularly associated with Germany, where the majority of instances have been reported. Historically, there are various superstitions surrounding rat kings, and they were often seen as an extremely bad omen, particularly associated with plagues."

Leviathan

La Fábrica de Muñecas

A kiln in an abandoned doll factory. Creepy dismembered dolls after the leap of faith (and in spanish here).

What Is To Be Undone

The hate and the violence in my heart, you put it there. All I am doing is trying to get rid of it. Every stone, every hit, every smashing thing, every barricade on fire carries a little hate with it. A tiny bit of violence that you gave me without asking me if I wanted it. So now you're getting it back.

And one day, when it has all left me. I will realise that I have no more hatred to give. No more violence to return to you. I'll probably cry.