“Centuries ago, Inuit hunted the bowhead whale. At that time, whale hunting undoubtedly was part of a complex and very important ritual, if only because of the size of the catch. The position that the ancestors of today's Inuit occupied in the living world involved a relationship with the spirit that inhabited each animal but also their species”. (Photo by Robert Frechette/2014 Sony World Photography Awards)

A Pasola rider reacts after throwing his spear during the Pasola war festival at Ratenggaro village on March 22, 2014 in Sumba Island, Indonesia. The Pasola Festival is an important annual event to welcome the new harvest season, which coincides with the arrival of “Nyale” sea worms during February or March each year. Pasola, an ancient ritual fighting game, involves two teams of men on horseback charging towards each other while trying to hit their rivals with “pasol” javelins and avoid being hit themselves. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

Revellers continue to party and dance through the night and day during the second day of the San Fermin Running Of The Bulls festival, on July 7, 2014 in Pamplona, Spain. The annual Fiesta de San Fermin, made famous by the 1926 novel of US writer Ernest Hemmingway “The Sun Also Rises”, involves the running of the bulls through the historic heart of Pamplona. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Women dressed in folk costumes take part in a traditional wedding ceremony in the village of Galicnik, west of Macedonia's capital Skopje, July 12, 2014. The Galicnik Wedding, a three-day traditional Macedonian wedding celebration held each “Petrovden” or St. Peter's Day, involves traditional customs, costumes, and rituals and dances that have been passed down over the centuries. (Photo by Ognen Teofilovski/Reuters)

A petitioner with her grievances written on her clothes walks along a street in Beijing Tuesday, December 22, 2015. After months behind bars, Pu Zhiqiang, one of China's most prominent human rights lawyers, left a detention center Tuesday after receiving a suspended prison sentence in a case involving online comments critical of the ruling Communist Party. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

A woman poses for a picture as bunches of paprika hang on the walls of her house to dry in the village of Donja Lakosnica, Serbia October 6, 2016. Donja Lokosnica is the Serbian “capital of paprika”, since almost all of the 1300 inhabitants are involved in growing paprika. As autumn approaches, the whole village turns red, because of many threads of dried peppers, that hang around Lokosnica, waiting for their winter use. Each of these paprika threads is handmade, still dried according to traditional techniques, assisted solely by the sun and fresh air. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

People paly with fireworks during Parrandas de Camajuani, Cuba on March 22, 2025. Two neighborhoods of the city, San Jose, represented by a toad, and Santa Teresa, represented by a goat, fight with carnival shows that involve the whole town in a party with bands, huge floats and fireworks. The Parrandas de Camajuani with more than 130 years, are recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2018. (Photo by Yamil Lage/AFP Photo)

Skeleton involves a person riding a small sled down a frozen track while lying face down. The sport is a more intense form of luge because skeleton competitors leap onto the sled and slide downhill head first. Skeleton athletes can reach up to 80 mph on straightaways, causing forces up to 5g, so the helmet is a critical component for attitude as well as safety.