Malekula films
odd: label: Local Numbers
content: HSFA 1975.1.1
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Müller, Kal, 1939-
setName: label: See more items in
content: Kal Muller films and photographs of Vanuatu (New Hebrides)
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 22 Film reels (silent color; 20,400 feet, 16mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1970-1974
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: HSFA.1975.01, Series 1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Film reels
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Full film record shot of the interior of Malekula, Vanuatu; the "Small Nambas" of the Lendombwey region; and the "Big Nambas" of Amok village. 

Small Nambas footage documents various daily and ceremonial aspects of Nambas culture. These include scenes of casual domestic activities around residential hamlet complexes and subsistence practices relating to gardening and food preparation; various "custom" practices including male ritual activities enacted in and around the ceremonial ground or bunsar; nevimbur (funerary rituals to appease and invoke the spirits of the dead which are directed principally by a male gerontocracy) featuring male dancing and drumming, ceremonial display, and exchange of yams, pigs, and lap-lap (taro pudding); and artistic creation of temesnevimbur (funerary sculptures) in a ritually circumscribed area of the male ceremonial ground and the display of these and related rhambarab (life-size effigies) in ritual contexts. Also depicted are ogases (women's grade-taking rituals) including ritual purifications, adornment, dancing, tooth extraction, and pig sacrifices. 

Big Nambas footage depicts daily life in the compound of the chief of Amok village and women working in a recently burned swidden garden.