Tanna Island (1975.1.2 - 12)
odd: label: General
content: Local Numbers: HSFA 1975.1.2 - 12
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Müller, Kal, 1939-
setName: label: See more items in
content: Kal Muller films and photographs of Vanuatu (New Hebrides)
label: See more items in
content: Kal Muller films and photographs of Vanuatu (New Hebrides) / Series 2: Tanna Island films
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Film reel (color sound; 1,048 feet, 16mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1973-1974
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 on Tanna Island during 1974 in the Yoohnanan village area. Footage includes sequences of traditional toka and nao dances performed within the revitalization atmosphere of the John Frum cargo cult. One of the principle aspects of cult belief is that the millennium will be ushered in only when the Tannese return to the traditional practices which have either been formally outlawed or negatively sanctioned by missionaries and the French Condominium government. These include the resumption of dance traditions, kava drinking, and traditional dress such as the wearing of penis wrappers by males. Shots of various communal dance sequences of men and women, two young boys dancing with ceremonial swords; a mass of naodancers with tall dance staffs of wild cane moving in circular maypole fashion. Adult men and boys riding astride tusker pigs as they are carried onto the ceremonial ground tied to palequin of poles; women dancing in colored grass skirts; tuskers sacrified by being clubbed to death; troupe of female dancers moving around the pigs and "riders" as they are carried onto the dance ground. (An essential reference for background information on activities depicted is: Guiart, Jean 1956 Un Siecle et Demi de Contacts Culturels a Tanna, Publications de la Societe des Oceanistes, No. 5, Musee de l'Homme: Paris.)