The Melon Tossing Game
name: label: Collection Collaborator
content: McElwee, Ross
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Blitz, Daniel
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Bishop, John Melville
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Baker, Peter
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Ritchie, Claire
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Young, Robert
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Terry, John
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Galvin, Frank
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Bestall, Clifford
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Gardner, Robert
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Asch, Timothy, 1932-1994
label: Collection Creator
content: Marshall, John, 1932-2005
label: Collection Collaborator
content: Marshall, Lorna
setName: label: See more items in
content: John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman film and video collection
label: See more items in
content: John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman film and video collection / Series 2: Published Films and Videos
physdesc: label: Extent
content: Film reels (sound, color reversal; 548 feet (15 minutes), 16mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1970
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: HSFA.1983.11, File 2005.11.32
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Film reels
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This short film, shot in 1957-58, documents an intense game in which under-tones of
social and personal tensions become apparent. The game itself is simple: women form a
semi-circle which moves counter-clockwise as each woman, in turn, runs to the center of
the circle where she dances several steps and tosses the melon to the next woman at the
proper moment in the song. Men intrude and dance spectacularly and an old woman,
N/aoka, goes into a trance-like state. The game begins to disintegrate when N!ai, the
wife of the male dancer /Gunda, taunts and teases N/aoka.