Film reels (silent, color/black-and-white reversal; 80,000 feet (37 hours), 16mm)
Type:
Archival materials
Film reels
Date:
1952-1953
Scope and Contents:
Full film record shot during an expedition to the Nyae-Nyae region of the Kalahari Desert
in Namibia, sponsored by the Harvard Peabody Museum and the Smithsonian Institution.
Footage documents both the hunting and gathering lifeways of the Ju/'hoansi as well as
aspects of their historical association with Herero and Tswana pastoralists. Locations
include Gam, /Kai /Kai, and /Gautcha waterholes. Documentation of Ju/'hoan subsistence
practices includes: gathering gum, baobab and palm fruit, and mangetti nuts; digging ubee
and khoa water roots; picking oley and !naa berries; collecting salt at a pan; and tracking,
shooting, butchering, and cooking large and small game (including giraffe, eland,
gemsbok, wildebeest, duiker, badger, warthog, ostrich, tortoise, and python). Other footage
documents: technologies (net making and the manufacture of string, arrows, and poison),
distribution of meat and sociability around skerms (shelters), divining with oracle discs,
trance-dancing and curing, nursing babies, making toy cars, "rolling" fire with firesticks,
playing musical instruments (one-string violin and //uashie), and activities around
waterholes. Also included is footage on the Mutues, a Bantu-speaking people of Angola.
The published titles THE HUNTERS, RITE OF PASSAGE, and !KUNG BUSHMEN
HUNTING EQUIPMENT were produced from this project. Footage removed for !KUNG
BUSHMEN HUNTING EQUIPMENT was discovered in the 2005 accession and is
numbered 2005.11.44. Footage primarily shot by John Marshall; additional photography
by Laurence Marshall and Lorna Marshall.
Collection Restrictions:
The John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman Film and Video Collection is open for research. Please contact the Archives for availabilty of access copies of audio visual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Materials relating to Series 6 Production Files are restricted and not available for research until 2048, 2063, 2072. Kinship diagrams in Series 13 are restricted due to privacy concerns. Various copyrights and restrictions on commercial use apply to the reproduction or publication of film, video, audio, photographs, and maps.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use. Information on reproduction and fees available from repository.
Collection Citation:
The John Marshall Ju/'hoan Bushman Film and Video Collection, 1950-2000, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Finding aid has been funded through generous support from the Arcadia Fund.
