Ritual self-castration generated mass devotion that rivaled early Christianity

Evidence

For a historical example of an extreme form of extravagance, we have the charismatic priests of the Anatolian goddess Cybele who ritually castrated themselves, and subsequently took on female identities. These public self-castrations often led to waves of popular devotion to Cybele in the early Roman Empire, and Cybele religion attracted a large following, often competing with the inroads made by early Christianity. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 327

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• SEED: Angle: costly-signaling theory’s most extreme real-world case — the Anatolian Cybele priests — as the limiting test of whether self-harm can credibly signal devotion, and what modern analogies (or lack thereof) follow.
• CANDY: Fun fact for conversation: ecstatic Cybele priests castrated themselves publicly, and it built a following that competed with Christianity.

Related

• Extreme public self-costing rituals attract devoted mass followings (similarity 0.93)
• Self-castration sects attracted up to 100,000 followers across class lines (similarity 0.82)
• Publicly costly acts of devotion serve to convert nonbelievers, not just reassure fellow believers (similarity 0.81)