Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Catalog Data

Collection Creator:
National Anthropological Film Center (U.S.)  Search this
Johnson, Barbara  Search this
Dorjee, Ragpa  Search this
Reinhard, Johan  Search this
Extent:
1 Film reel (color sound, 16mm)
Type:
Archival materials
Film reels
Date:
1978
Scope and Contents:
Film footage shot by Barbara Johnson among the Jyapu subcaste of the Newars of Tawnany Tole, Thecho village in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal; August 30, 3 to 5 PM, children playing in the Tawnany Tole courtyard. Older girls entertain themselves by walking with one girl's younger brother who is just learning to walk. A favorite activity of girls in their early teens is to entertain a crawling age baby. They talk about their siblings as "my little boy" and "your little girl" to each other. See camera log page 7, CR 40, for filmmaker's speculations about the engaging personalities of the children who have the benefit of older siblings who lavish this kind of attention on them. This footage includes a circle game and noisy group play, and ends with views of old men in the courtyard. August 31, 7 to 10 AM, courtyard early morning activities. Quiet vignettes show small fairly quiet groups of both children and adults before they go inside to eat the morning meal of rice. There is a shot of a bicycle belonging to a man named Bailal, son of the sister of the head of one of the better off households in the courtyard. Bailal and his wife occupy a poor back house off of the main house, presumably because his father, from another village, did not leave him any house or land. He holds a menial job in Kathmandu, and the bicycle is his means of transportation. Just before the shot of the bicycle was filmmed Bailal's cousin Godi, the only son of the head of the household, walked up to the bicycle, kicked it, and went inside his house and started yelling at someone outside, presumably Bailal. His yelling can be heard during l or 2 shots after the bicycle shot. Later film shows a group of children focusing around a pit openning activity. A girl in a gold color print dress had just done something to a little boy in the background to make him cry. Film shows a variety of touching and small interactions. September 1, more courtyard activities, a mother and girls in doorway pleasurably socializing, another mother, Tulushimaya, grooming one of her daughters in the open way house building in the center of the courtyard, children play with kites.
General:
Local Numbers: HSFA 1986.13.1-14
See more items in:
National Anthropological Film Center films of Nepal
National Anthropological Film Center films of Nepal / Newari Film Project (1986.13.1)
Archival Repository:
Human Studies Film Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/pc9c4c0cb21-c918-4fb7-9211-c4ea485bdeb8
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-hsfa-1986-13npl-ref15