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Table of Contents
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Africa
A Kalahari Family (2002)
"A Kalahari Family is a five-part, six-hour series documenting 50 years in the lives of the Ju/'hoansi of southern Africa, from 1951 to 2000. These once independent hunter-gatherers experience dispossession, confinement to a homeland, and the chaos of war. Then as hope for Namibian independence and the end of apartheid grows, Ju/'hoansi fight to establish farming communities and reclaim their traditional lands. The series challenges stereotypes of "Primitive Bushmen" with images of the development projects Ju/'hoansi are carrying out themselves" (description from
the DER website.
The class has been able to view some parts of this series, but no part was more controversial and more relevant to the study of foraging groups today than the last of the five, "Death By Myth." It depicts the degradation of the Foundation originally started by John Marshal, into nothing more than a development group, who has interests that lay outside those of the Ju/'Hoansi around Nyae Nyae. The farmer's cooperative would not be listened to for concerns, goals, or advice. The major flaw in the plans of the developers was that the Ju/'hoansi have always been and still are hunter-gatherers. In fact, the Ju'hoansi have had land taken away and farming labor imposed upon them on settlers' compounds. The plans for Ju/'hoansi to survive within an animal refuge by hunting with bows and arrows was very far off from where they now stood. The once hunting people were now stationary, and in denser populated areas, with little opportunities to be found other than inadequate government handouts.
View the trailer for A Kalahari Family.
The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)
Written and directed by Jamie Uys, this film tells the story of a Bushmen band in the Kalahari Desert whose world is turned upside down when a Coke bottle falls from the sky and lands in their small community. The bottle is believed to be a gift from the gods and it becomes a useful tool for the group, who lacks modern technology, until people start fighting over it. Xi, the main character, volunteers to walk to the end of the earth to destroy it.
There are several sequels to the original film, which was hugely successful. Check out The Gods Must Be Crazy for more information. You can view sections of the film on YouTube.
Critics have labeled the film racist, and Keyan Tomaselli wrote an article, "Rereading the Gods Must Be Crazy Films", published in Visual Anthropology in 2006, that examines this issue.
N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman (1978)
This documentary from John Marshall portrays a !Kung woman named N!ai who shares her experience from 1951 to 1978. In 1970, the South African government restricted the subsistence area of 800 !Kung to less than half it's original size making their traditional lifestyle of hunting and gathering impossible. View a preview of the film.
The Hunters (1957)
This film is an educational documentary about the Ju/'hoansi or !Kung. It provides an ethnographic account of hunting strategies among this foraging society. Made by John Marshall View the first nine minutes of the film.
The Babongo People
The Babongo are hunter-gatherers who live in the forest of Gabon, Western Africa. The Babongo number around 2,000, live alongside several other pygmy tribes in the heavily forested Congo basin. They have no formal system of government or chiefs, and traditionally, each small group within the tribe had rights to the territory where they lived and hunted. They know the forest intimately, and are expert trackers - they can find a bee hive by following the flight path of a single bee. The countries they live in give them no legal right over their territory, and their way of life is in danger because of deforestation (source). Click here to view a segment on the Babongo from the television show Going Tribal.
Here is a clip of the Babongo immitating animal sounds. This footage is provided by Afrique Profonde, a non-profit organization working to preserve the traditional culture and rights of the Pygmies of central Africa.
An Urban Woman Marries Into A Rural Family And Wonders If She Made The Right Decision
This short video clip from National Geographic features a woman in Tanzania. She struggles with the idea of living in a foraging society without the amenities from her urban upbringing.
The Hadza: The Last Hunter Gatherers
Directed by Stefano Cassini, this documentary depicts the Hadza - an ancient Tanzanian tribe and follows them as they struggle with the modern world.
Baka: People of the Forest
Produced by National Geographic, Baka People of the Forest follows the everyday lives of a Baka family. View a short clip of the film here.
Another clip can be found here. This clip is of the Baka "yodeling."
The Arctic
Nanook of the North (1922)
Directed by Robert J. Flaherty, Nanook of the North has been called "the first documentary" by Robert Gardner. It follows Nanook and his nuclear family as they hunt for walrus and seal, fish for salmon, and build igloos. The main critique on the film is that most of the scenes have been staged and do not accurately reflect the live and livelihoods of the Inuit at the times of the filming. It is a form of salvage ethnography. Nevertheless, there are some wonderful scenes that show the ingenuity of Inuit technology, for example, when the kayak arrives at the trading post and not one but four people and a small dog emerge from the kayak.
Asia
Children of the Forest- India
This is a documentary about the Chenchu, a tribe of hunter-gathers living in India. They are under pressure to adapt farming techniques and move out of a tiger reserve. This film was made by Sathya Mohan, an anthropologist and film maker from Hyderabad, India. It can be viewed here on Youtube.
Japanese Genetic Roots: Ainu and Native South Americans
This video is the first part of an hour-long show in Japanese with excellent subtitles. It takes the reader on the journey of Mr. Kano Oki - from the Ainu people in Hokkaido all the way to the Quechua in South America, tracing his own roots, those of the indigenous Ainu people, and those of the Japanese majority people (Yamato culture) through the use of DNA. Oezi - "the Ice Man" - also makes an appearance. Here is the link to the full video: http://oniazuma.wordpress.com/2007/10/09/idenshi/
Other videos of interest about the Ainu include:
Japan - The Despised Ainu people
This is a 12-minute documentary including interviews with the late Shigeru Kayano (former member of the Diet representing the Ainu people) regretably without English subtitles for the Japanese interviewees.
Traditional Ainu House
This is a 23-second walk-through from the Historical Mueseum of Hokkaido, just outside of Sapporo.
Ainu Museum
This is a walk-through of the Ainu Museum at the Botanical Gardens in Sapporo, complete with some English dialogue, but lots of stunning dioramas.
Australia
Rabbit Proof Fence (2002)
Rabbit Proof Fence is a critically acclaimed Australian film based on the book Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara. The story takes place in 1931 and follows three girls - Garimara's mother, aunt and cousin - who are of mixed Aboriginal and white heritage. At the time when the story takes place it was governmental policy to separate Aboriginal girls from their mothers to teach them how to perform domestic chores and otherwise become integrated into white society. The girls, part of what would later be termed the "Stolen Generation," escape and begin a 1,500 mile trek across the Australian Outback in search of the fence that bisects the content and will lead them back to their families. This film powerfully addresses the culture clash between white colonists, who honestly believed their lifestyle was ultimately best, and the Aboriginal peoples that had called the continent home for tens of thousands of years. This clash of cultural beliefs the proper way of utilizing a region's resources is a common theme in discussing the interaction of foraging societies with the state-level agriculturalists, and this film poignantly reveals the personal repercussions of cultural conflict.
Internet Movie Database information on the film
North America
Shoshone-Paiute Singing
This video shows the Yerington Nevada Shoshone-Paiute Native American Indian singing Great Basin Round Dance songs as Paiutes, Shoshones, and Washoes dance the Round Dance. This is the old style of Great Basin singing. The second song is about a "Shoshone Boy". Walter Hansen 1997.
Northwest Coast Indians: The Potlatch
Art and Identity of the Kwa Kwaka'Wakw: Box of Treasures
Produced by the U'Mista Cultural Society
Filmmaker: Dennis Wheeler
Narrator: Gloria Crammer Webster
This film focuses on Kwa Kwaka'Wakw identity as expressed in their art and ceremonies. In this short film clip you will hear perspectives of loss as a result of the Canadian governments ban on potlatching from an old woman, a mask carver, a fisherman, politicians and Gloria Crammer Webster. The film centers on Alert Bay, where many Kwa Kwaka'Wakw now reside and have "begun the task of reclaiming all that was lost"
South America
The Ona People: Life and Death in Tierra del Fuego (1977)
Documentary by Anne Chapman and Ana Montes de Gonzales following Anne Chapman's work with two Selk'nam (Ona) women in the 1960s. Chapman first spent 3 months with Kiepja, a shaman woman over ninety, recording 100 shamanic and mourning chants and other rituals. Upon Kiepja's death in October 1966, Chapman began working with Angela Loij, the last surviving Selk'nam, to record the tragic history of the Selk'nam and reconstruct their past beginning with the arrival of European settlers in the 1880s.
Chapman stated in 1977, "All of us who participated in the making of this film intend that it serve the interests of peoples the world over who are presently menaced by the same sort of destruction the Onas suffered so relentlessly. With the destruction of the Selk'nam not only did we annihilate our fellow human beings, enemies of no one, but we also lost a part of our heritage forever." DER Documentary: The Ona People
The Ache: Natives of Paraguay
This is a clip about the folklore of Paraguay. However, it is spoken in their native language and no subscribes have been added.
It is still beneficial to get a visual description of who the Ache are.
[http://youtube.com/watch?v=1ydoOTfop6Y]