Taboo (2003)
TV Show

Savor the forbidden taste off taboo meals from around the globe, some hilarious others deadly serious. Find out why eating habits--like language--are a key definer of culture.

Go beyond science to examine the mysterious powers of healers who derive their strength from what other cultures may consider illegitimate or unproven.

Explore the art of tattoos from the deadly serious markings of headhunters to bloody scarification rituals in Africa, and on to Western artists who use their bodies as a canvas.

Experience the dark side with religion's ultimate outcast. Trace how voodoo has grown in diversity and become taboo, even in cultures where it is widely practiced.

Take a secret look at our darkest ritual - black magic. Explore the nature of power itself, and how it both elevates and corrupts our species.

Attend and elaborate--yet illegal--ceremony in India, watch as one man's two wives prepare him for a third bride, and witness same-sex partners exchange vows in Europe.

Take a trip from traditional acceptance to modern rejection, exploring how drugs are used in ancient cultures and why they are prohibited in modern ones.

Confront the presence of good and evil and explore the ways some cultures take on evil spirits directly.

Cross the line of defined gender and plunge into the lives of people living in the gray area of sexuality.

Delve into the ultimate unknown that awaits us all. Experience how different cultures deal with death by preparing lavish funerals, bonfires, and ancient rituals.

Watch as religious beliefs are put to the extreme test through taboo practices that display a common belief: the stronger your faith, the more you can ask of your God.

Explore the human fascination with violence as sport, and see how it taps into hidden corners of our common heritage.

Systems of justice in different cultures are examined. Included: tribal justice in the West African nation of Togo and revenge killings in Albania.

In Iceland's traditional Thorrablot celebration in February, a chef prepares rotting shark meat, goat's head and other hard to swallow dishes for their traditional buffet. And in India, an Anglo-indian lady prepares a special luncheon that features a goat foetus stew called kutti pi. In Togo, the cameras follow hunters out into the hot wilderness to hunt a rat to be used in a stew and voodoo ritual. And finally in Taiwan, a chef prepares bull's penis soup to boost his diner's virility.

Unusual medical procedures include bee stings for arthritis; putting maggots in open wounds; medicine made from baboon claws; therapy with leeches.

Death ceremonies from around the world are examined. Included: the Aghori sect in India embraces corpses in an effort to break the cycle of reincarnation; in Taiwan, bones are exhumed and cleaned before being reburied. Also: embalming bodies in the U.S.

On the island off the coast of Indonesian Sumatra, the wife of the Mentawi tribe chieften, undergoes a teeth filing ritual to beautify herself. Her teeth are sharpen with a machete. In Los Angeles, California, Jay wants to have buttock implants, and undergoes a 2 hour long surgery by Dr. Sinclair. Next, a man receives eye lifting surgery by Dr. Griffin to improve his looks. And in Chongqing, China, a short man has the bones in his legs broken, stretched, then healed to make himself taller. The 'bone breaking' and 'leg stretching' procedure is a painful and lengthy process and the recovery takes years.

Taboo examines how cultures sometimes use pain in religious rites including tongue boring in Nepal, self stabbing and possession rites in Indonesia, and extreme body piercing and self-mutilation in Thailand.

Taboo looks at rites of passage around the world including a boy's circumcision in South Africa, an Apache's girls ritual of womanhood, and American couple's journey into old age.

Taboo examines how people in different cultures raise children including young gymnasts in China, India children raised in prison, and unsupervised children in Indonesia.

Entertainment in different cultures. Included: the training of a Japanese geisha; cross-dressing cabaret performers of Thailand; American circus sideshow performers who pierce their bodies with skewers and chew glass.

Taboo looks at different family arrangement around the world including the matriarchal Mosuo tribe in China, criminal gang families in South Africa, and polyandry in northern India.

Ritualistic body modification in different cultures around the world is examined. Included: neck stretching in Thailand; samurai body tattoos in Japan; branding scarification in the U.S.

Some rites of initiation may seem bizarre and extreme, but many cultures believe they are worth the pain.

Social pariahs are observed in a variety of cultures, including a village in Ghana where all the residents are witches banished from their home villages; lepers in Bangalore; gypsies in Romania; and a man who has undergone extreme plastic surgery.

Included: a priest in India and his wife who live with thousands of rats in a temple. Also: Christmas is celebrated in a Florida nudist resort; Filipinos sleep in graveyards and share their homes with corpses.

A look at the spirit world, and how it's represented in different cultures. Included: The Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia, where participants pierce themselves with steel skewers and hooks. Also: an exorcism in India; Santeria rituals in Cuba.

Unusual cuisine includes live octopus; bat with sago grubs; boiled and pickled duck fetus in the egg; tarantula tempura with crackling cockroach.

An 8-year-old trains as a boxer in Thailand; a 4-year-old becomes a virgin goddess in Nepal; a 13-year-old plants dynamite in Bolivian mines.

Body modifications include metal chest implants, tongue splitting, scarification and suspension on fishing hooks.

Tattooing around the world. Included: a tattoo festival in Thailand; a young girl undergoes a painful full facial tattoo in Papua New Guinea; criminal record tattoos in Russia.

A look at unusual eats around the world, including rotten fish heads; grilled guinea pig; and cheese with maggots.

Tests of manhood, including a scarification ritual, are examined.

"Possessed" profiles trance dancers in Indonesia; a witch-hunting exorcist in Nepal; and Pentecostal Christians in the Appalachian region of the U.S.

The use of mind-altering drugs is examined.

People who push gender boundaries are profiled, including transvestites and eunuchs.

Initiation rites and religious ceremonies involving blood include Muslims who flail themselves and a ritual of male adulthood in New Guinea. Also: vampirism in America.

Included: a medical examiner autopsies human corpses. Also: a professional crime-scene cleaner in the Baltimore/Washington area; the Body Farm in Knoxville, where trainees observe human decomposition.

Jobs involving death, disease and pestilence.

Different cultures' initiation rituals. Included: a Brazilian tribe's bullet-ant glove; an urban Australian subculture's practice of suspension from fishhooks.

Spotlighting the Latmul tribe of Papua New Guinea and a coming-of-age ritual that requires teenage boys to have their skin repeatedly cut so that it resembles crocodile skin. Also: Maori tattoos.

Profiling people who push gender boundaries. Included: transsexuals in San Francisco; Thai katoey or “ladyboys”; Samoan fa'afafine.

Profiling young women of Ethiopia's Hamar tribe who voluntarily submit to brutal beatings to show loyalty to male relatives as they participate in a coming-of-age ceremony. Also: the Japanese horimono; branding.

How do men prove their manhood? Often, by enduring pain. In an American Fight Club, successful, educated males engage in physical combat to test their manhood. Hundreds of men taking part in a time-honored event known as the Pasola charge toward each other on horseback, hurling spears. Young men of the Fulani tribe must whip an opponent twice during a large public demonstration, then be whipped.

Why would people choose to radically reshape their bodies? Some women wear heavy brass rings that push down on their collarbones, giving the appearance of elongated necks, a sign of beauty. Elsewhere, an estimated one in four girls undergo a practice known as breast ironing. See how some men—for vanity’s sake—are augmenting their bodies through plastic surgery.

For some, shedding clothes is an act of expression, of liberation, even a means of worship. Wiccan witches perform rituals in the nude, or “skyclad,” to express their truest form and bring themselves closer to the natural world. Some devout Christians worship together naked in the name of the Lord. In a unique festival, one man is chosen to be the spirit man and must run naked to the shrine.

Exploring how far some people will go to test their faith. Included: Christians who subject themselves to suffering similar to that of Jesus Christ in the Philippines; Thai believers who impale their flesh with various objects to get closer to Chinese gods that watch over their land; a group of U.S. Christians that put their lives at risk to affirm their faith.

Examining when extreme pet devotion crosses the line into an obsessive fixation.

A look at food customs that are practiced in some cultures but rejected in others. Included: the lethal fugu in Japan; a six-course insect meal in rural Vietnam; tarantulas and bear claws at a dining club in Manhattan; deadly serpents in Hanoi.

Profiling performers who engage in extreme entertainment. Included: bullfighters in Mexico; members of a North American sideshow; a transsexual beauty pageant in Thailand.

Spotlighting less-than-desirable professions. Included: a man cleans up violent death scenes; a forensic anthropologist works with rotting corpses; an Indonesian miner extracts sulfur from an active volcano.

A look at ancient and modern rituals humans use to demonstrate love and devotion.

An exploration of ritualistic body markings, such as branding and scarification, and the sociological effects of these practices.

An examination by experts on human ritual practices of extreme initiation rituals, including handling snakes and voodoo ceremonies.

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.

A look at how love and sex are expressed in different societies. Included: swingers in Australia; a Chinese ethnic group that encourages sexual boldness.

Profiling sex workers in Bangladesh, Sydney, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Washington, D.C.

In much of the West thin is beautiful, and fat is taboo. But a new health epidemic is sweeping the planet: obesity. We follow the story of Alan, who at 650 pounds is imprisoned in his own bedroom. In Mauritania mothers risk the health of their daughters by force-feeding them to fatten them for marriage. In the U.S.A., Deidra, a 450 pound model is fat, proud and happy. And 24 “plus size” women push the ideals of beauty when they compete in the Miss Plus America Pageant.

Misfits are people who live outside of their cultural norms. Some are born into that situation, while others seek it. Meet Dave, an Australian man convinced his right leg didn't belong on his body, so he deliberately froze it beyond recovery, forcing doctors to amputate. In Bangladesh, river nomads make their living with snake charming and traditional healing. Viewed as sorcerers and sham artists by many, they are shunned and often not welcome on land.

Throughout human history, narcotics have been used as medicine and for pleasure, but those who use them can be stigmatized. When drug use is legal or accepted, is it still taboo? More than a century ago, Queen Victoria is said to have used marijuana to alleviate cramps. Today, patients in California are smoking it to relieve pain and other chronic symptoms. Deep in the Brazilian Amazon, a congregation gathers to drink a powerful hallucinogenic drug. Even children participate in the ritual.

Human relationships can bring safety, security and love - but sometimes they can also be taboo. Witness a real-life "Lars and the Real Girl" relationship, when a man in the United States falls in love with a sex doll. In Australia, meet a couple who stay faithful by having sex with strangers. In poverty-stricken Nepal, innocence is lost when a 7-year-old child is sold as a bride. Then, in the United Kingdom, a man defies one of his country's strictest taboos by marrying seven women.

In an effort to cope with death, we shroud it in ritual and surround it with taboos. And what one culture sees as a normal way to deal with the dead, for another might be forbidden. In Nepal, a body is burned beside a sacred river. In America, a corpse is beautified for an open casket funeral. In Germany, human bodies are sometimes put on public display.

In a youth-obsessed Western culture, some feel the need to obsessively diet, exercise and partake of beauty treatments or plastic surgery. However, some have taken these to fatal extremes. In Paris, we'll meet a young model with extreme anorexia, so fixated on her weight that at 55 pounds she died from the disease. In Texas, a woman feels the need to continually increase her breast size, all the way to a triple K cup.

People obsessed with their fantasy lives are profiled. Included: a grown man in California pretending he's a baby; a Japanese kickboxer dressing up as animated characters in the ring; a Florida father engaging in cybersex in his spare time.

Delve into the lives of those haunted by addiction. Meet a 15-year-old South Korean boy in rehab because he’s hooked on video games. It’s an addiction shared by millions of Koreans, even spurring the government to intervene with a specialized rehab facility. In California, a woman is addicted to anonymous sex meeting countless partners in parking lots to satisfy her insatiable appetite.

In every city, there are hoarders. A Florida woman shares her house with nearly 400 pigs, as they continue to multiply. In Pennsylvania, a man's obsession with vinyl records has driven him to collect around two million records, with thousands more purchased every month. In England, we meet a male hoarder whose apartment is filled with clutter piled three feet high, and a female hoarder forced out of her home due to her inability to throw items away.

Love behind bars with some of the most dangerous criminals on earth. In Texas, an inmate in solitary confinement gets married with the help of a radio host as surrogate groom, while the prisoner listens over the radio. In California, a pregnant woman has a white wedding at the county jail, with a glass wall separating the couple as they say their vows. In Tennessee, a man serving life for murder marries a woman he met over the Internet, but the marriage has little hope of being consummated.

Love can come in many different and bizarre forms. In Washington State, we meet a man with objectum sexual, who has an emotional, romantic and often sexual attraction to his car, named Vanilla. In Germany, we'll introduce you to the founder of the Objectum Sexual International Forum, who is in a loving relationship with the Berlin Wall. And we'll meet a married couple in California whose concept of monogamy has an odd twist she works as a professional sex surrogate.

Do we really know who our co-workers, loved ones, and friends are? Maybe not as well as we think. Taboo opens a window into the lives of individuals leading a double life with surprising secrets.

Unconventional relationships are the focus. Included: a three-way marriage; a woman who dates a man nearly three times her height; a gay man who's married to a woman.

"Extreme Fighting" looks at different cultures' interpretations of acceptable violence.

Unconventional medicines are examined. Included: a treatment for asthma that entails swallowing a whole, live animal.

Though many people are disturbed by the sight of dead bodies, there are those who deal with death as a matter of course—for occupational, cultural, and sometimes questionable reasons.

People with uncontrollable medical conditions share their stories. Included: a father whose Tourette's syndrome makes him an outcast; a 17-year-old stigmatized by self-harm.

It's mankind's oldest intoxicant. But alcohol is also the drug that kills more people than any other. From Labor Day weekend parties in Arizona to binge-drinking resorts in Spain, alcohol shapes the lives of those who drink it in ways that can be heart-breaking and deadly.

Whether we like it or not, teenagers are having sex. How their families – and their societies – deal with the sexual development of young teens, in particular, their daughters, varies wildly according to their culture and beliefs.

Since ancient times, humans have expressed their passions and their personalities through their collections. But when a collection crosses the line from passion to obsession, ignoring legal, moral and taste boundaries, then it becomes taboo.

Taboo shines a light on where the beauty/ugly dichotomy originates from, and what it means to be deemed “ugly” in a society that scorns it.

People from around the world who spend their working lives up to their necks in filth.

Nontraditional weddings; a naked wedding in Jamaica; dog wedding; a young man kidnaps his bride.

``Baba'' Dez Nichols claims he's had sex with nearly 2,000 women; love of balloons; 40-year-old virgin.

Examining the devastating effects of alcohol abuse.

Body modification that has been taken to the extreme.

In one married couple, each partner has switched gender; one person self-refers as a hybrid -- neither male nor female.

People who take collecting into bizarre territories.

Unique matches include a fruitarian couple who live off the fruit they find in dumpsters.

Challenging the perceptions of what it means to be a child; a teenage girl who wants to become a male; a 9-year-old who drives race cars; Nepal girls who are worshiped as living goddesses.

A profile of people living with conditions beyond their control that make them outsiders.

The various ways that societies commemorate their loved ones' passing.

Many cultures believe that evil can manifest in demonic spirits that enter a person's body.

The Season 9 premiere includes reports of a Pittsburgh man who believes he's a dog, a pair of Satanists in California and a dominatrix who trains ponies.

In America, it is not uncommon to turn to the knife for aesthetic improvements.

American society places great value on physical beauty and those who achieve a firm and fit body. In Hollywood, Fla., Rajee is a transgender woman who took part in black market plastic surgery. In Massachusetts, Moustafa ("Mo") is known as the real-life Popeye; he has an obsession with growing his biceps. In Texas, Patrice has a condition that causes her to have severe reactions to chemicals, which forces her to wear a mask in public.

In Florida, a man known as Dada 5000 is the self-proclaimed “King of the Ghetto.” Living in one of the most poverty-stricken and crime-ridden areas in America, he has turned his backyard into a savage fight club, and his bare-fisted business into an opportunity for glory and for survival. In Las Vegas, 500 miles of flood tunnels provide shelter for many of the Nevada homeless. These tunnel dwellers constantly face crime, violence and even the risk of deadly floodwaters.

In America, it is not uncommon to turn to the knife for aesthetic improvements.