Mayan peasants tear apart a dried-up torso of a deceased family member to separate bones during the bone cleansing ritual in Pomuch, Mexico.

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Mayan peasants tear apart a dried-up torso of a deceased family member to separate bones during the bone cleansing ritual at the cemetery in Pomuch, Mexico, 29 October 2019. Every year on the Day of the Dead, people of Pomuch, a small Mayan community in the south of Mexico, visit the cemetery to take part in a pre-Hispanic tradition of cleaning of bones of their departed relatives (“Limpia de huesos”). People who die in Pomuch are firstly buried for three years in an above-ground tomb then the dried-up bodies are taken out, bones are separated, wrapped in a decorated cloth, put into a wooden crate, and placed on display among flowers for veneration.

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Size: 5316px × 3544px
Location: Pomuch, Campeche, Mexico
Photo credit: © Jan Sochor / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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