The Twilight of the Primitive
odd: label: Local Number
content: HSFA 1985.11.4
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Cotlow, Lewis, 1898-1987
setName: label: See more items in
content: Lewis Cotlow films
physdesc: label: Extent
content: Film reels (50 minutes, color sound; 1800 feet)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1969
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: Edited film by explorer Lewis Cotlow of the Matto Grosso region of Brazil shot in 1968. Film begins with a visit to Orlando Villas Boas who escorts Cotlow and party to the settlements of the upper Xingu people. Ethnographic footage includes village dwellings, body painting, ritual dances, and a wrestling match among unidentified neighboring groups. Other footage of indigenous people includes the Shavante, their village settlements, and the initiation rituals of young men. The filmmakers also visit the Shuar (Jivaro) of the Morona River area and film a simulated "hostile encounter" with male members of the group and the reenactment of a headhunting raid, head shrinking, and tsantsa dance. Included are scenes of women harvesting and preparing manioc and plantains, bathing children, and making clay pots. Footage shot among the men includes gathering, spinning, and weaving of cotton; harvesting of sugarcane; making of blow guns, poison darts, and spears; and gathering of achiote plants for body painting.