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Excess Baggage

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Rites of Passage - Mexico

Duration:
30 minutes
First broadcast:
Saturday 02 July 2011

Sandi Toksvig looks at rites of passage with Anders Ryman who spent seven years photographing the ceremonies associated with key events in human life; birth, coming of age, marriage and death from Micronesia to Madagascar and Norway to Nepal. They are joined by author Sarah Murray who has travelled the world looking at rituals associated with death and Lucy Neville whose memoir of her time in Mexico includes her experiences of the Day of the Dead festival and the Saint of Death religious cult.

Producer: Harry Parker.

  • Sarah Murray

    is a journalist and author and a long-time contributor to the Financial Times. Sarah has travel extensively worldwide. Sarah’s father’s surprising funeral wishes set her on a quest to find out about death ceremonies or rituals associated with death. In her latest book Making an Exit, she recounts some of the journeys she made to look at rites and funerals in various part of the world.

    Making An Exit: From the Magnificent to the Macabre. How We Dignify the Dead
    Publisher: Coptic
    ISBN-10: 095587713X
    ISBN-13: 978-0955877131

    Find out more about Sarah Murray

  • Anders Ryman

    is a Swedish photographer and writer. Anders spent seven years travelling the world on this project to photograph some of the ways humans celebrate or mark the important turning points in life. Some of his photographs of rites of passage are currently on display at an open air exhibition in London. The accompanying book Rites of Life has just been published.

    Rites of Life: Les rites de la vie – Lebensrituale
    Publisher: Evergreen
    ISBN-10: 3836518678
    ISBN-13: 978-3836518673

    Exhibition: Rites Of Life
    1 July – 6 September 2011
    An open air photographic exhibition
    More London Riverside, London SE1 2DB

    Find out more about Anders Ryman

  • Lucy Neville

    is an Australian travel writer. Having graduated from university Lucy went to Mexico City to learn Spanish. She has published her memoir of living there, Oh Mexico, recounting how she fell in love with a Mexican and Mexico with its confusing mixture of ancient and modern, friendliness and murderousness, life and death.

    Oh Mexico! Love and Adventure in Mexico City
    Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing
    ISBN-10: 1857885724
    ISBN-13: 978-1857885729

    Find out more about Lucy Neville

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    Excess Baggage

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