Franz Boas film of Northwest Coast Indian dance
odd: label: Local Number
content: HSFA 1987.17.4
name: label: Creator
content: Boas, Franz, 1858-1942
place: label: Place
content: North America
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Transferred from the National Anthropological Archives in 1987.
creator: label: Creator
content: Boas, Franz, 1858-1942
culture: label: Culture
content: Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl)
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Film reel (15 minutes, black-and-white silent; 345 feet)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1930
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: Boas shot this footage in 1930 on his final trip to the Kwakuitl of British Columbia, a people among whom he had worked for 40 years. During this trip he shot 16mm motion picture footage of dances, games, some methods of manufacturing as well as recording songs and music on wax cylinders. Boas, who was interested in motor behavior and rhythm, never compled his analysis of this data, possibly in part because the wax cylinders were later stolen. In 1961 the original film was given by Franziska Boas to the Burke Museum of the University of Washington. Bill Holm of the Museum later edited the footage into a two-part film and annotated it with appropriate citations from Boas' publications. The films together with Holm's notes are available from the University of Washington Press. The 345 feet of silent black-and-white footage now in the HSFA collection was given to the National Anthropological Archives by Columbia University and transferred to the HSFA on December 10, 1987. This footage may have been in the possession of Dr. David Effron, a former student of Boas' and professor at Columbia. Valeria Pinsky identified the film for John Homiak on 8 June 1993. She was a Postoral Fellow in the Smithsonian Department of Anthropology and the granddaughter of Franz Boas.

Previously titled "Nortwest Coast Indian Dance."
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
identifier: label: Identifier
content: HSFA.1987.17C
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Film reels
label: Type
content: Silent films
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Titles are supplied by the archivist for untitled films.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: silent films
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Incomplete edited film shot by Franz Boas on his last field trip to the Northwest Coast. Documented are various Kwakiutl dances which were staged for the camera at the site of Fort Ruppert, Vancouver, British Columbia. Dances demonstrated by women include the Summer, Salmon, Paddle, Bird, and Woman's War dances. Men demonstrate the Cannibal dance. The Salmon dance is demonstrated by Agnes Hunt, the daughter of Boas's principal informant. Dances were performed outdoors, in some cases before emblematic Kwakiutl house fronts.

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.