Rituals of the World

Anthropologist Anne-Sylvie Malbrancke goes to meet Jenny, a young Peruvian who has crossed the whole country to ask the sacred lakes to heal her health problem. For more than 700 years, shamans have drawn their power to heal from the Huaringas, sacred lagoons located on the border of Peru and Ecuador.

The tattooing practiced in Samoa is not comparable to the fashionable trend in Europe. In Samoa, tattooing is above all a rite signifying that the individual belongs to a group, and it is extremely painful. The more painful it is, the more Stivi approaches the state of a real, accomplished man.

Every year in Jacmel, on the south coast of Haiti, festivities take on an intensity that is not found elsewhere. The Haitians do not depict dream-like characters in their parades, but instead monsters or specters. This is a way for them to deal with the difficulties of the past, and also those of the present.

Colored powder breaks down the barriers between people. Since Antiquity, to mark the spring equinox, the whole of India celebrates Holi, the festival of colors. During this celebration, Indians of all castes throw colored powder in the faces of those they meet.