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Private Notes
Profiling individuals whose jobs entail handling human remains in Manila; Los Angeles; and Bangkok.
"Extreme Kids" explores child kickboxing matches in Thailand and a self-mutilation ritual for Shi'a Muslims in India.
A look at religions that measure devotion by physical suffering.
A thriving black market for human organs is examined in the Philippines. Also: a look at an intimate bond between humans and pigs in Papua New Guinea; an Australian health therapist who uses urine as a topical medicine is profiled.
Exploring cultures where people entrust their health to faith rather than modern medicine in Venezuela, Arizona and the Philippines.
Dangerous initiation rituals are spotlighted. Included: a fire dance in Papua New Guinea; riding untamed bulls in India.
Spotlighting extreme cuisine, from duck embryos to spiders.
Profiling outcast individuals in different societies. Included: rat catchers in India; leprosy sufferers in Nepal; scavengers in Australia.
Some cultures incorporate mind-altering drugs into social and religious life.
Exploring societies that recognize more than two genders in India, Indonesia and Albania.
When laws are broken, human society demands justice. But who decides which punishment best fits the crime? Taboo travels the globe to discover what lengths some societies go to to punish a crime.
Profiling people who've gone to extreme lengths to change their looks. Included: a man with surgically attached horns; a woman said to have the world's smallest waist.
Rituals that mark the passage from one phase of life to another are examined. Included: boys leap headfirst from a 70-foot-tall tower on an island in the South Pacific; a young girl tattoos her face before marriage in Papua New Guinea; a man in West Africa participates in a bloodletting ceremony that will ready him for priesthood.
Western culture hides the spilling of animal blood behind closed doors, but other places its a public event. In Nepal, animals are sacrificed daily to appease a bloodthirsty goddess. Nearly 1,000 whales are slaughtered every year near Denmark in a 1,200-year-tradition called the Grind. Banned in most European countries and the U.S., cockfighting still takes place in Bali to appease evil spirits. Taboo: Spilling Blood takes viewers on a trip to experience animal bloodletting traditions.
