SILENT film clip from William O. Field's Footage of Samoa 1963 showing a group of Samoan men plaiting coconut sennit or 'afa. . This material has cultural significance in Samoa and the rest of Oceania as throughout history it had a multitude of uses. The cord or rope-like plaited strands could be used for functional as well as decorative purposes and was used in almost every aspect of Samoan material culture including thatching of boats, houses and tools as well as for adornment and clothing. William O. Field was an accomplished glaciologist, as well as a skilled photographer and filmmaker. This film is housed in the National Anthropological Film Collection (formerly the Human Studies Film Archives) in the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. For further information the catalog record can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/y9493qjt
Video Duration:
1 min 38 sec
YouTube Keywords:
archival historical educational film video anthropology archeology parks ethnographic history culture "cultural geography" "heritage sites" 16mm architecture transportation
