Mbuti Pygmy Film Study
odd: label: General
content: Local Numbers: HSFA 1991.13.5
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Towles, Joseph A.
label: Collection Creator
content: Turnbull, Colin M.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Colin Turnbull and Joseph Towles films
physdesc: label: Extent
content: Film reels (color silent; 3,059 feet, 16mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1971-1972
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: Footage shot in and around the BaNdaka (Bantu) village of Epulu, Ituri forest in northeast Zaire. Footage documents various aspects of village subsistence and the initiation rituals which bring villagers and the Mbuti Pygmies into contact. Sequences include house types, harvesting and pounding rice, activities around a local market, and digging and kneading clay for use in house construction. Documentation of a village initiation features the first Nkumbi circumcision ceremony held in this area of the Ituri since the Simba Revolt. Included are the Nkumbi camp, training of initiates, masked Nkumbi dancers, initiates in line dance, and an initiate's head being shaved. Also included is a flag raising ceremony at a nearby government post commemorating Zairean independence. See also [Joseph Towles Zaire Film Study: Nkumbi and Elimina Initiations: Mbuti, Bandaka, and BaBira, 1970-1972], [Mbuti Pygmy Film Study, 1954: Edited Version], and [Mbuti Pygmy Footage: Forest Camp, Bira and Ngwana Villages, and Station de Chasse, 1954].

Supplementary materials: associated texts and annotations (recorded narratives).

Legacy keywords: Subsistence activities pounding rice Bandaka Zaire ; Housebuilding clay Bandaka Zaire ; Markets Bandaka Ngwana Zaire ; Initiation rites phases of nkumbi Mbuti Zaire ; Masks dancing of initiation rites Mbuti Zaire ; Dancing line dance initiation rites Mbuti Zaire ; Liminality head shaving Mbuti Zaire ; Ceremonies Independence Day Zaire