Jaguar: A Yanomamo Twin Cycle Myth As Told by Daramasiwa
The richness of Yanomamo mythology is again revealed in this film (compare Moonblood and both Myths of Naro ), as is the remarkable skill of another Yanomamo storyteller. The myth in this case is that of Jaguar, a prominent figure throughout South A...
Jero Tapakan: Stories from the Life of a Balinese Healer
Jero, who know sustains a lively practice as both medium and masseuse, recalls her earlier poverty and despair as a farmer, and how she fled her home and wandered briefly in the countryside as a peddler. After serious illness and mystical visions, s...
Tug-Of-War, Yanomamo
The playful side of Yanomamo life is shown on a day during the rainy season when women and children of the village play a game of tug-of-war.
Bride Service
In this vignette from daily life, Dedeheiwa's son returns from hunting and brings a wild turkey and a basket of fruit for his father-in-law. He dumps the goods on the ground, since avoidance rules prohibit him from delivering them directly. Dedeheiw...
Dodoth Morning
Dodoth Morning was the first film by the pioneering filmmaker, Timothy Asch who is best known for his collaborations with anthropologists such as Napoleon Chagnon, Linda Connor, Patsy Asch, and E. Douglas Lewis. Shot in northeast Uganda in 1961, a y...
Firewood
The strenuousness of women's work is revealed as a woman patiently chops a large log for firewood one evening, enough to last one day. Her two children play nearby, and she occasionally stops to nurse the younger. The wood is loaded into a basket an...
The Yanomamo Myth of Nero As Told by Dedeheiwa
This film presents a version of a myth, different from the Myth of Naro as Told by Kaobawa, in narrative detail and also in the individual raconteur's style. The myth concerns the jealousy of Naro the Ugly toward his brother Yanomamo, who is fragran...
Spear and Sword: A Ceremonial Payment of Bridewealth
This traditionally ethnographic sequence film focuses on the negotiations betwen representatives of two families during a payment of bridewealth. In the past the husband's group would carry a spear and a sword to hang in the wife's house. Now, a pay...
Releasing the Spirits: A Village Cremation in Bali
Cremation rites are the most elaborate rites of passage performed by Balinese householders. Poor families may wait years before accumulating enough resources to cremate their dead, who are buried in the meantime. In 1978 many more cremations than us...
Ocamo is My Town
This film describes the work of an extraordinary Salesian priest, Padre Cocco, who has headed a mission on the Ocamo River since 1957. The mission's goal, he explains, is to soften the inevitable impact of "civilization" on the Yanomamo of this area...