The Fascinating Art Of Mexico’s Bone-Cleaning Culture
Women clean the bones and skulls of their deceased relatives from the Uitz Poot family at the cemetery of Pomuch, Campeche state, Mexico, on Oct. 22, 2022.
Each year, members of the Pomuch community in Mexico’s Campeche state on the Yucatán Peninsula carefully extract bones from their loved ones’ burial niches and clean them by hand. The ritual, known as Choo Ba’ak, dates back to ancient Mayan times and is done after a person has been dead for three years.
The ritual is done in preparation for Hanal Pixán, which translates to “food for the souls,” also known as the Mayan Day of the Dead. The holiday is celebrated throughout the Yucatán Peninsula and lasts from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 — the same days as Día de Muertos (Mexico’s national Day of the Dead).
Though the art of cleaning the bones may seem to be a grim custom to outsiders, for those involved it’s a way to reconnect with relatives who have died. After they are cleaned, bones are placed in boxes that are usually decorated with colorfully embroidered patterns that also display a family’s name. “[It is] an ancestral tradition seen as a gesture of love and a way to get closer to deceased family members,” noted photographer Bénédicte Desrus, who captured this process recently.
Pomuch and a small number of existing Mayan communities are thought to be the only ones still practicing this custom. Since 2017, this tradition has been officially designated as a cultural heritage of the state of Campeche.
Don Venancio Tuz Chi, one of the administrators of the Pomuch cemetery, cleans the bones and skulls of a deceased relative of the Colli Ycauch family at the cemetery on Oct. 22, 2022. He has been a hired bone cleaner for more than 20 years, and he is paid $1.50 per skeleton.
Dried-up skulls and bones are seen wrapped in embroidered white tablecloths bearing the names of the deceased, and placed in wooden crates inside a niche at the cemetery in Pomuch on Oct. 22, 2022.
José Alfredo Yam Vargas cleans the bones and skull of his brother-in-law, who died in February 2019, at the cemetery of Pomuch on Oct. 22, 2022.
A man arranges and paints a grave at the cemetery of Pomuch on Oct. 22, 2022.
A dried-up skull and bones are seen wrapped in an embroidered white tablecloth bearing the name of the deceased, and placed in a wooden crate inside a niche at the cemetery in Pomuch on Oct. 22, 2022.
The entrance of the Pomuch Cemetery on Oct. 22, 2022
