Taboo

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 .. show full overview

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.