5494 x 3661 px | 46,5 x 31 cm | 18,3 x 12,2 inches | 300dpi
Aufnahmedatum:
28. Februar 2005
Ort:
Palau, Micronesia
Weitere Informationen:
A medicine woman gives a young mother a hot medicinal bath during her ngasech, her first childbirth ceremony, in Palau, Micronesia. The mother has been anointed with coconut oil and yellow turmeric and the water is thrown at her with a cup made of a coconut shell. The purpose of the bath is to heal her skin, remove stretch marks and blemishes, and also to clean the inside of her private parts. Practically every Palauan woman goes through the ngasech ceremony, begun one to three months after she has given birth to her first child. The ceremony consists of hot baths, taken twice daily for five to ten days, depending on the clan of the new mother, and then a sweat bath on the day of her coming out ceremony when she is dressed up and shown to the family of the father of her child.
