Faces of Culture Series

206) Alejandro Mamani: A Case Study in Psychological Anthropology -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 6)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

This program features a case study of Alejandro Mamani, an elder Aymara Indian whose village is located in the mountains of Bolivia. The episode focuses on Alejandro's experiences with an unexplained mental illness diagnosed as spiritual possession by Alejandro, his family and the members of his village. Ethnographers trace the man's suffering as he and his family try to cope with the unpredictability of the illness and the inevitability of death. The filmmakers are challenged to move from acting as observers to actively participating in the study, offering medicine to the suffering man. They describe, in detail, the effects Alejandro's illness has on him personally, as well as the effects his death will have on his property and family. The student is able to observe the progression of illness as Alejandro deteriorates from a respected leader in his community, to one whom is totally dependent on his family for survival. The program offers insights into the methods different cultures use to cope with both illness and death.

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207) Patterns of Subsistence: Food Foragers and Pastoralists -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 7)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

This program describes food foraging and pastoral societies, and explores several ancient patterns of subsistence, some of which are still followed today. The program describes how many societies adapt to their environment. For example, the African !Kung gather nuts, fruits, berries and roots in their arid climate [cf., The Hunters], and the Mbuti pygmy hunt large game in the African rainforest. Another segment shows the Netsilik Eskimos as they hunt seals in their harsh Arctic environment. Other segments include the Nepali sherpas as they herd zomo, a hybrid of a yak and a milk cow, and the Iranian Basseris as they search for fertile grazing land for sheep and goats. The program also features a modern forager as he searches among the discards of an urban area.

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208) Patterns of Subsistence: The Food Producers -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 8)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

This program examines several different models of food production and various features of food-producing societies. First shown are the Yucatec Maya employing the "slash-and-burn" technique of soil preparation. Rituals associated with food production are illustrated with film of Melanesian farmers practicing the hazardous land-diving ritual originally intended to ensure a good yam harvest. The program also looks at several examples of intensive agriculture, including that practiced by the Khmer in Angkor and by North Americans on the Great Plains. Other societies featured in the program are the Taiwanese and wet rice cultivation and the Balinese.

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209) Economic Anthropology -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 9)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

From the generalized reciprocity among the !Kung [cf., The Hunters] to the balanced reciprocity of the Yanamamö and the Trobriand Islanders, this program explains that the economies of many non-Western societies are based on principles other than currency. In the highlands of New Guinea, the Mendi are shown engaging both in balanced reciprocity when they barter a bride price in pearl shells, and in redistribution when they engage in a cassowary contest in which they give away their holdings to gain prestige [cf., Dead Birds]. A third system of distribution — the marketplace — is illustrated with scenes of Assante women in Ghana and of nomads in Afghanistan.

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210) The Highland Maya: A Case Study in Economic Anthropology -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 10)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

This episode explores the complicated "cargo system" of the Mayan Indian populations of Southern Mexico and Northern Guatemala. The cargo system has evolved over time into an amalgamation [syncretism] of ancient Mayan Indian pagan culture and Catholicism present since Spanish involvement in the region in the seventeenth century. The social system involves a series of four levels each man is expected to pass through in his life during which he is obligated to a period of service to his community. At each step he pays his village a certain percentage of his earned income. In return, as a man progresses through each level, he attains a greater degree of responsibility and gains greater prestige in his community.

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212) Family and Household -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 12)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

This program focuses on the organization of the family as it exists and is defined in different cultures throughout the world. Cultural differences such as marriage and naming customs, inheritance lines and the differences between the nuclear and extended family are discussed. The impact of patrilineal versus matrilineal descent, polygamy and female heads of household are explored, as well as the impact these customs have on children and future generations. The Mbuti tribe of Zaire are used to illustrate division of labor between the sexes and the methods by which traditions and responsibilities are passed down from mother to daughter and father to son. The program also shows examples of problems within the Yanamamö and !Kung [cf., The Hunters] culture when their traditional families come in contact with the elements of modern societies. Guns, industrialization, access to education and the loss of historical land all have lasting effects on families and entire societies. A family in India is used to illustrate the problems that can arise in a large extended family where the group is dependent on all its members for labor and wealth. In this case, one member of the family chooses a non-traditional role for himself.

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213) The Yucatec Maya: A Case Study in marriage and the Family -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 13)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

The lives of two extended Yucatec Maya are the subjects of this program. Film footage and commentary by Hubert L. Smith, whose field research spanned many years in the Maya community, follow the family of Prudencio Colli Canche, a traditional extended-family group as its members share the daily chores, teaching the youngsters in a never-ending cycle. The second family, that of Reymundo Colli, is experiencing change and stress because two sons want to break out of the farming lifestyle, seek more schooling, and move to the city. The "dependency" training of extended families is revealed by this challenge, and one of the sons, unable to cope with a new environment, returns home.

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214) Kinship and Descent (Part I) -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 14)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

The program begins with a brief examination of kinship and descent considerations in the United States, including inheritance patterns, children's names, married names, and important family names in business and government. The main focus of the program is on ways in which other cultures are organized around descent patterns. These include the matrilineal pattern of the Trobriand Islanders and the economic and religious importance of the Mendi clans [cf., Dead Birds]. Methods of determining descent are illustrated in ethnographic film footage and with the use of interesting graphics. [kinship and descent] [geneology]

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215) Kinship and Descent (Part II) -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 15)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

This program begins by defining "kindred" and looking at the role of kindred in food-foraging societies. The program then examines the various types of kinship and descent groups in horticultural societies and how such groups handle larger political and economic functions and domestic and social activities. Next, the program describes how societies based on intensive agriculture or industrialization have developed such institutions as centralized government to assume the organizing functions handled by kinship and descent groups in other societies. Illustrative examples in the program include the kinship terms of the Baruya, the Navajo matrilineal villages organization and terminology, and the social patterns in Greek villages [Kypseli: Women and Men Apart -- A Divided Reality] that reflect both patrilineal and matrilineal descent practices. Some of the six major systems of classifying kin are diagrammed and illustrated in this program. [kinship and descent] [geneology]

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216) Age, Common Interest, and Stratification -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 16)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

Human beings require interaction with one another. It is for this reason that in most large societies, people form groups and relationships with other people. This program looks at the existence of groups in society based on age, common-interest association and social stratification. It examines the role these groups play in helping to organize and structure the larger culture, as well as how they help to preserve or change the existing society. It also looks at the value set the group operates within and how these values do or do not reflect the values of the larger society. Among the groups the program looks at are the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, a group of African-Americans formed around a common-interest.

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217) The Aymara: A Case Study in Social Stratification -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 17)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

Through footage made in northern Bolivia, where the heterogeneous population is socially and economically stratified, this program provides a close look at the inequities of a sharp class division between the Spanish-speaking mestizos and the subordinate Aymara Indians. The class system depicted, typical of much of Latin America, is apparent not only in the fields, but in religious practices, the celebratory fiestas, and even in the classroom. The economic subordination of the peasantry is battled by the mestizo teacher who, in one scene, seeks medical help for a child of an impoverished family. Although a revolution in 1952 brought some changes in Bolivia, this program show that the Aymara are still bound by many of the economic and social patterns that existed before the revolution.

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218) Political Organization -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 18)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

All societies need a system of leadership, authority and cooperation in order to operate successfully and survive. These systems are called political organization. This program explores the four major types of political organization that exist in the world today: bands, tribes, chiefdoms and states. It describes the how these systems developed; the types of societies for which they are most well suited; the characteristics that form each type of political organization; and, the ways they differ from one another. The program explores the cultures of the !Kung [cf., The Hunters], the Mendi [cf., Dead Birds], and the Kpelle as examples of the band, the tribe and the chiefdom respectively. Finally, it traces the development of the state as a political entity characterized by centralized power, a code of law and the authority to use coercion to impose that law. In addition, explores the concept of legitimacy and coercion as they apply to the state. Through an examination of the theocratic government of Tibet, it describes some of the complications inherent in the survival of the modern state.

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219) Social Control -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 19)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

This program describes the processes and methods societies use to establish and maintain social control. It mainly emphasizes interaction among members of the same group, but some attention is given to disputes between societies. The program describes the differences between internal control (i.e., religious dictates) and external control (i.e., code of law), methods of enforcement and why one type of social control might best serve the society's needs. It explores the various functions law might serve in different cultures, as well as the concepts of formal and informal dispute settlement, negotiation, adjudication and mediation. Finally, the program explores the phenomenon of war and explains how the concept of world view is integral to explaining why and how war occurs.

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220) Religion and Magic -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 20)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

All societies incorporate some way to provide meaning and explain the unknown into their culture. These structures are called religion. This program illustrates and describes various examples of religion around the world and defines the difference between religion and magic. It includes footage of American Indians practicing animism, demonstrating their belief in the Great Spirit and attempting to restore the balance between good and evil by the ritualistic carvings of a medicine mask. Also shown are scenes of religious practices among the Highland Maya, who have combined ancient beliefs and Roman Catholicism [religious syncretism -- cargo cult -- Appeals to Santiago]; the ritual of the Eka Dasa Tudra, a complicated ceremony celebrated by the Balinese that links the worlds of gods, people and demons; and modern Hare Krishnas in Los Angeles. Revitalization movements, such as those of the Mormons, also are depicted. The program concludes with a look at modern industrial nations where religious practices have been separated from the secular aspects of life and culture. Finally, there is a brief discussion of the role science plays in modern societies and its relationship to religion.

This detailed study of the Asmat, a cannibalistic society of western New Guinea, shows their use of religion and magic as tools for survival in a world they perceive as hostile and threatening. The centrality of trees in their religion is shown by scenes in which the Asmat carve a sacred bis pole from a mangrove tree to release spirits of the dead, and butcher and skin a sago palm as if it were human to release the starch that is the mainstay of their diet. The program explores many facets of the Asmat society linked to religious beliefs. Games the children play are designed to teach them skills of headhunting; during a feast, the coconut is consumed to symbolize eating the brains of one's enemy. Concluding segments of the program consider how economic development and modernization, including the government's ban on headhunting, will affect the Asmats' religious beliefs and practices, which are such an integral part of their total culture.

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222) The Arts (Revised) -- PBS (VC 2466, pt. 22)
~ transcript -- Honolulu Community College, University of Hawaii

This program focuses on different forms of artistic expression as they exist in all cultures. It presents the many kinds of art and explores the variety of functions served by the arts: fulfillment of the need for individual creative expression; expression of peoples' conceptions of the unknown or spiritual world; and reflection of cultural values and ideas. Among the arts and cultures featured in the program are body painting among the tribes of the Amazon River basin in Brazil; the link between arts and religion as shown in the monuments of the Egyptian Empire; the sand painting of Buddhist monks in Tibet; and the music of Mexican-Americans in the southwestern United States as an expression of ethnic heritage. Also shown in the program are several contemporary Western artists and various artistic creations, including a performance artist, the AIDS quilt, and Christo's "Running Fence."