Himba Research Film
odd: label: Local Number
content: HSFA 1983.5.1
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Gibson, Gordon D.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Gordon Gibson films
physdesc: label: Extent
content: Film reels (1 hour 40 minutes, black-and-white color sound; 4000 feet, 16mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1972-1973
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Film reels
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Full film record of a research film project documenting the Himba, a pastoral Bantu people of southwestern Angola and northwestern Namibia. Footage features documentation of a rainmaking ceremony with animal sacrifices to the ancestors and the annointing of ombale stones (rain shrines), the tending of cattle herds and the problems of drought, various musical performances, a baby-naming ceremony, and techniques of female hairdressing and braiding. Edited films THE HIMBA and HIMBA WEDDING were produced from this project.  Includes associated texts, sound recordings, and production logs.

Legacy Keywords: Language and culture ; Ritual propitiation rainmaking ; Rainmaking magic sympathetic rocks water ; Animal sacrifice divination entrails ; Ritual annointing stones sacred ; Rainmaking ceremony descent group ancestors animal sacrifice ; Animal sacrifice suffocation blood ; Singing males praise songs cattle ; Shrines sacred rocks "ombale stones" ; Adornment women hair styles ; Clothing traditional leather sheepskin ; Hair styles sex status life cycle social identity ; Pastoral activities seasonal migration ecology ; Musical instruments horn pluriarch ; Music songs cattle praises oral history ; Naming infant rites of passage ; Ceremony naming annointing clan ; Inheritance cattle ceremony baby naming ; Milk purification sacred cattle ritual tasting ; Curing singing women trance ; Adornment necklaces wristbands women ; Adornment hair styles women braiding ; Hair styles hair dressing braiding grease wood ash red ochre ; Tillage division of labor by sex hoe ; Hair styles boys clan membership ; Animal husbandry division of labor by sex herding milking ; Seasonal migrations ; Rites and ceremonies