Stephanos Stephanides videos of Hail Mother Kali
odd: label: Local Number
content: HSFA 1991.1.1
name: label: Creator
content: Stephanides, Stephanos
place: label: Place
content: Caribbean Area
label: Place
content: Guyana
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Received from Stephanos Stephanides in 1991.
creator: label: Creator
content: Stephanides, Stephanos
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 9 Videocassettes (U-matic) (9 hours, color sound)
label: Extent
content: 15 Videocassettes (VHS) (15 hours, color sound)
label: Extent
content: Linear feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1988
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: Previously titled "Hail Mother Kali: Indo-Guyanese Video Project 1988."
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: HSFA.1991.01
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Videocassettes (u-matic)
label: Type
content: Videocassettes (vhs)
label: Type
content: Video recordings
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Titles are supplied by the archivist for untitled films.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Video recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Full video record of an annual three-day Kalimai (Mother Kali) puja held in Berbice, Guyana. Footage documents various aspects of the worship of the Hindu Mother which was brought to Guyana by predominatly south Indian indentured laborers (known as Madrasi) from the mid 19th to early 20th century. In contemporary Guyana this Creolized tradition continues to be known as Madrasi religion. Documentation features invocatory chants sung in Tamil and bhajans (devotional songs) and kathas (stories) in Hindi and English. Included are interviews with the pujaris (principal ritual specialists) who direct the event; preparations in the temple; and drumming, dancing, and chanting which leads to devotional possession of various participants. The video also depicts the religious sacrifice of goats and the ritual flagellation of and fire-eating by devotees and includes an ethnohistory of the pujari who helped establish the Mother Kali tradition in Guyana.

Supplementary material:  monograph; glossary of Hindi/Tamil/Creole terms used by devotees and bibliography of related materials

Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or Anthropology Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.