Catalog Search Results
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For the Canela, peace is more important than justice, and sharing-especially of sexual partners-means survival and prosperity. By putting the good of the tribe first, the Canela have retained their tribal identity for centuries, thanks both to the bonding that occurs through ritualized, extramarital, multiple-partner sex and to their ability to maintain communal harmony via their intricate family relationships. But can they survive the outside influences...
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Nganampa Anwernekenhe is a cultural series made by Aboriginal people for both Aboriginal and mainstream television audiences. It tells three stories from the Central Australian region: "Bushtucker" shows the traditional way of cooking the Perentie, the giant monitor lizard; "Uluru Story" (Ayers Rock) illustrates the cooperation between Park and Wildlife Rangers and the traditional owners of the Rock in caring for the environment; and "Traditional...
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What is left of Africa's hunter-gatherers, and do they have a future? This program enters the lives of the San bushmen of the Kalahari and the Hadzabe people of Tanzania in a way that may soon become impossible. Examining their crafts and customs, the film studies intriguing methods of making fire, cooking, building huts, and crafting jewelry. Viewers will witness detailed preparations for a hunt, including close-ups of poison carefully applied to...
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An elderly traditional Aboriginal and his kinfolk recall the impact of their tribe's first contact with white people in the 1930s. Using extensive archival footage, this program traces the reactions of a people whose culture had survived for 40,000 years to the dramatic and irreversible changes brought by the early white settlers.
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This compelling documentary examines efforts to promote and safeguard peace in the 20th century, a century defined by its wars. Even today, more than a dozen wars are raging, many of them in Africa. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan discusses the history and the role of the United Nations, using the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea as an example. Other scholars explore the purpose of the state, what it requires to function, and what happens when...
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Thousands of ethnic Padaung have fled Burma (Myanmar) and now try to maintain their society and culture in Thailand. This program examines their customs and their dire circumstances-specifically, their economic dependence on western tourists, who come to see the elongating neck ornamentation of their women. Highlighting an ongoing struggle to preserve their heritage, several Padaung interviewees describe life without dignity, privacy, land, higher...
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In the Himalayas of northern India, the Ladakhi and their exiled Tibetan cousins follow a nomadic lifestyle that is on the verge of disappearing, their sole livelihood shepherding and the making of cashmere wool. This program combines location footage and interviews to present an intimate portrait of the daily life of the Ladakhi people, as well as their rituals, customs, and history.
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This program featuring sociocultural anthropologist James Eder-author of On the Road to Tribal Extinction-travels to the island of Palawan in the Philippines archipelago to document the Batak tribe's eco-friendly hunter/gatherer way of life. Repeatedly displaced by immigrants and increasingly driven to take part in the island's growing cash economy, the tenacious Batak struggle to maintain their cultural and spiritual identity while attempting to...
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Beginning at Port Said, Egypt-a busy gateway from the Middle East into Africa-this program explores the many national and cultural identities found along the eastern face of the continent. Journeying down the Suez Canal, through the Red Sea, and into the Indian Ocean, the program documents apparently healthy relations between Sunni Muslims and Orthodox Christians in Massawa, Eritrea; khat distribution and addiction in the Republic of Djibouti; the...
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Award-winning filmmaker Phil Agland returns to the African rainforest to find the pygmy family who captivated viewers around the world as the stars of his acclaimed documentary Baka: People of the Rainforest. Twenty-five years on, Agland is back in Cameroon to chart the experiences of the Baka family's next generation. Discovering that pressures beyond their forest world are irrevocably changing their centuries-old way of life, Agland witnesses the...
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The people of the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea have a rich history of rituals and war that has inspired study and intrigue for over 70 years. Western explorers discovered the islands in 1793, and the British came to the area in the early 20th century, seizing the southern portion of New Guinea. When their new settlement was established, many traders, anthropologists, and missionaries followed. As seen in this documentary, the missionaries...
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The Cape of Good Hope-and a stop in thriving Cape Town, South Africa-begins this eye-opening fact-finding voyage up the western edge of the continent. Presenting information and perspectives on a wide range of cultural and economic landscapes, the program explores the history and aftermath of civil war in Luanda, Angola; bustling street life, including an enterprising witch doctor, in Douala, Cameroon; voodoo fetish and secondhand car trafficking...
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This program profiles the warriors of the White Nile, a tribe that others call Dinka but that calls itself Moinjang: Man of the Men. Wedding negotiations, which involve a bride price usually paid in cattle, are highlighted, along with a traditional high-stakes contest to be the fattest man in the land. The impacts of Sudan's civil war and of a thriving slave trade, intensified by famine and extreme poverty, are also discussed. Can the Dinka devotion...
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Swahili or English? Extended or nuclear family? Cattle or camel herding? For the proud, pastoral Masai tribe of Africa, Western culture's advance brings decisions in every area of an ancient lifestyle. Filmed over the course of seven years, this program follows one family as it contends with the challenges of modernity facing the Masai people as a whole. Through interviews and an extremely detailed depiction of Masai daily life, the program explores...
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Savor a taste of wild Australia! This program will extend students' knowledge, cultural awareness, and understanding as it explores the relatively recent culinary move toward Australian bush food. It looks at the different fruits, herbs, and spices that have been part of the Australian Aboriginal diet for thousands of years, explains traditional uses of some indigenous foods, and shows how some cooks are combining them into modern meals. A native...
20) A Dead Song
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The word Celt first appeared in 1707, the year that Scotland and England formed a union, leaving this Celtic band of rovers once again fighting to survive both physically and spiritually. This film examines the two conflicting sources drove the Celts wherever they settled - to be absorbed or to retain their own identity. The future of the Celts is seen best through their remaining images and the influence the have on modern society?