Edited footage shot in West Africa (1931), Haiti (1934) and Georgia (U.S. ca. 1930) for/by Melville Herskovits.
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 As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today.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.
Provenance:
These films and related papers were transferred to the National Anthropological Film Center by the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University in 1977.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Melville Herskovits films, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Preservation supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the National Film Preservation Foundation. Cataloging supported by Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.
Herskovits, Melville J. (Melville Jean), 1895-1963 Search this
Extent:
Film reels (71 minutes, black-and-white silent; 1900 feet)
Type:
Archival materials
Film reels
Date:
1931
Scope and Contents:
Footage shot during fieldwork in Dahomey (Benin), Nigeria, and the Gold Coast (Ghana). Documentation of Yoruba, Hausa, Ashanti, and Dahomean culture includes: elegbara dancers and an Igun (Egungun) ceremony in Abeokuta, Nigeria; Hausa drummers and praise singers of the Emir of Kano, Nigeria; court scenes and Kwasidei ceremony in Asokore (Gold Coast) honoring a chief's ancestors; market scenes in Abomey, Dahomey; a dokpwe (communal work group); Dahomean chief with wives and praise singers; legba dancers and drummers and Nesuhwe ceremony honoring ancestors; and various subsistence and craft activities including iron-forging, brasswork, woodcarving, weaving, hoeing and planting.
Local Number:
HSFA 1977.1.1
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Melville Herskovits films, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Preservation supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the National Film Preservation Foundation. Cataloging supported by Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.
Herskovits, Melville J. (Melville Jean), 1895-1963 Search this
Extent:
Film reels (52 minutes, black-and-white silent; 1400 feet)
Type:
Archival materials
Film reels
Date:
1934
Scope and Contents:
Footage shot during a three-month field study in the valley and village of Mirebalais, central Haiti. Documentation of Haitian culture includes various subsistence and craft activities (hoeing, planting, marketing, and rope making); a combite or communal work group (known elsewhere in Haiti as the Société Congo) clearing a field; the heading, "dressing," and consecration of an ensemble of rada drums by a pret savanne (bush priest); sequences from a Vodun ceremony including a rada altar with chromolithographs and the action de grace (preliminary segment) of the ritual; and short sequences of social dance styles, including a banda, Congo, and Martinique, performed for the camera.
Marketing market women transportation of produce to market (38-107, 127-200 roll 1) ; Marketing mode of produce transportation donkey baskets, loads on head (38-200 roll 1) ; Markets peasants market women selling makeshift enclosures (227-330 roll 1) ; Dwellings field shelters thatch wattle and daub (1-33 roll 2) ; Agriculture tillage men hoeing fields women planting seed(40-121 roll 2) ; Agriculture tillage use of hoe on tropical soils African retention ; Cooking yard context fire hearths utensils woman tending pots (122-144 roll 2) ; Agriculture tillage communal labor for clearing field "combite" (149-243 roll 2) ; Drumming tillage, rhythmic accompaniment to "combite" (157-243 roll 2) ; Music palliative to work "combite" (157-243 roll 2) ; Cordage braiding fiber cordage lashings for drumheads (301-385 roll 2) ; Musical instruments drummaking three-part vodum drum ensemble(1-72 roll 3) ; Ritual libations drums baptising the vodun drums (64-80, 185-199 roll 3) ; Ritual religious practices drawing "veve" around tree (201-225 roll 3) ; Ritual pictures of saints (233-240 roll 3) religious practices vodun altar candles ; Ritual religious practices vodun altar flagwaving dancing prostration houngan twirling woman (241-301 roll 3) ; Dancing demonstration man illustrating dance steps kinesics (1-80 roll 4) ; Communication gestures two men talking (81-121 roll 4) ; Games gambling men playing "wari" streetside African retentions (122-201 roll 4) ; Music drumming vodun ; Musical instruments snare and drum (211-216 roll 4) ; Musical instruments hoe blade and metal snare accompaniment to drums (249-52 roll 4) ; Communication gestures kinesics two elite males (283-322 roll 4)
Local Number:
HSFA 1977.1.2
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Melville Herskovits films, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Preservation supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the National Film Preservation Foundation. Cataloging supported by Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.
Herskovits, Melville J. (Melville Jean), 1895-1963 Search this
Extent:
Film reels (37 minutes, black-and-white silent; 900 feet)
Type:
Archival materials
Film reels
Date:
circa 1930
Scope and Contents:
Footage depicting a Shouter service typical of the Georgia coast and Sea Islands. Footage was taken around the house and yard of a Shouter leader with dances staged for documentation. The dances and movements are part of the Ring Shout tradition, also known as the Saturday night frolic. The elevated wood floor on which some dances are performed is used instrumentally to carry the sound of the dancers' feet. Scenes include members of the group engaged in "seeking" or "getting saved," a "prayer band" singing and dancing at the threshold of a house, and a harvest dance with women "picking crops" and putting them into their aprons and men "shoveling" or "hoeing." The absence of children in the footage probably reflects the fact that the dancers were recreating movements from an earlier period.
Footage was shot by Ralph Steiner.
Local Number:
HSFA 1977.1.3
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Melville Herskovits films, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Preservation supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the National Film Preservation Foundation. Cataloging supported by Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.
Herskovits, Melville J. (Melville Jean), 1895-1963 Search this
Extent:
Film reels (black-and-white silent; 1438 feet, 16mm)
Type:
Archival materials
Film reels
Date:
1928
Scope and Contents:
Footage shot during a field trip in Dutch Guyana (Surinam). Included are: Maroons poling boats up the Saramacca River, negotiating rapids and shallows; shots in Parimaribo of Creole Blacks in yards; aspects of Creole dress; Saramacca woman winnowing grain; man working on a dugout canoe; natives playing wari (a West African game widely distributed in the New World); portaging of large canoes over shallow rapids; village with thatched houses; a gudu wosu (man's personal house) with distinctive carving on door and frontice; natives posing with carved paddles; Maroon playing the apinti drum used to telegraph messages from village to village; Lombe village; chief posing in traditional dress; Saramacca crafts--man carving paddle; shrines in Lombe; and the medicine man of Gandya Village.
Local Number:
HSFA 1977.1.4
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Melville Herskovits films, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Preservation supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the National Film Preservation Foundation. Cataloging supported by Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.
Herskovits, Melville J. (Melville Jean), 1895-1963 Search this
Extent:
Film reels (2 minutes, black-and-white silent; 41 feet)
Type:
Archival materials
Film reels
Date:
1931
Scope and Contents:
Outtakes from [Herskovits Film Study of West Africa, 1931]. Footage is fragments of scenes including carving, metalworking, women on market day, and dances.
Local Number:
HSFA 1977.1.5
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Please contact the archives for information on availability of access copies of audiovisual recordings. Original audiovisual material in the Human Studies Film Archives may not be played.
Collection Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Collection Citation:
Melville Herskovits films, Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Preservation supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the National Film Preservation Foundation. Cataloging supported by Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.
Harold K. Schneider was an economic anthropologist specialized in Africa. He was trained at Northwestern University (Ph.D., 1953) and taught at Lawrence University (1953-1970) and Indiana University (1970-1987). The Schneider papers comprise mainly sets of documents relating to fieldwork in East Africa. The collection includes a few original fieldnotes, complete copies of expanded typscript versions of the notes, collations of data on subject categories, lexicons and other linguistic material, indexes, maps, and a few photographs. Also among the material are translations of German sources and copies of notes based on archival material, particularly material produced in colonial district offices. A small quantity of material concerning Africa generally reflects Schneider's broad interest in Africa and African pastoral economies.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Harold K. Schneider are primarily comprised of documents relating to his fieldwork in East Africa. One part concerns the Pokot (Suk), a pastoral people of Kenya, among whom Schnieder conducted fieldwork in 1951-1952 and about whom he wrote his dissertation. Another part concerns the Turu, a pastoral people of Tanzania, whom Schneider visited in 1959-1960.
The collection includes original fieldnotes, complete copies of expanded typescript versions of the notes, collations of data by subject categories, lexicons and other linguistic material, indexes, maps and a few photographs. Also among the materials are translations of German documents, copies of archival items, and notes from archival research, especially in records of colonial district offices. A small quantity of material concerning Africa in general reflects Schneider's broad interests in Africa and African pastoral economies. There are also a number of sound recordings, mainly recordings of Schneider's own lectures but also including a lecture by historian George Stocking.
There is also an alphabetical file based on personal names that includes correspondence, obituaries and publications. Notable contacts include William R. Bascom, G. Boulogne, John Bucklew, Stephan Borhegyi, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Father Delbert Ewing, Lloyd A. Fallers, George Fathauer, William N. Fenton, Daryll Forde, Meyer Fortes, H.A. Fosbrooke, Padraic Frucht, Alexander Galloway, James Gibbs, Maurice Godelier, J.R. Good, Melville J. Herskovits, Hubert H. Humphrey, Father Raymond F. Kelly, Edward E. LeClair, Jr., Alan P. Merriam, James Moody, Joseph G. Moore, Leonard Moss, Raoul Narroll, Maxine Nimitz, J. Peristiany, Nathan M. Pusey, Audry I. Richards, Chandler W. Rowe, Aidan W. Southall, Kathleen Stahl, Roy Swanson, Curtis W. Tarr, Sol Tax, and E.H. Winter.
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 National Anthropological Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 6 series:
1. Personal name file (includes correspondence); 2. Pokot Material; 3. Turu Material; 4. Other Materials (comprising draft manuscripts, conference papers, lecture notes and typescripts of Turu fieldnotes; 5. General Africa Materials; 6. Sound recordings.
Biographical Note:
Harold K. Schneider was an economic anthropologist who specialized in Africa. He began his undergraduate studies at Macalester College, attended Seabury-Western Theological Seminary (1946-48), then returned to Macalester to complete his degree, majoring in sociology with a minor in biology (B.A., 1949). He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Northwestern University (where he studied with Melville Herskovits) in 1953. Following his fieldwork among the Pokot of Kenya, Scheider accepted a position as instructor of anthropology at Lawrence University (1953-1970). He conducted fieldwork among the Turu of Tanzania in 1959-60, from which he further developed his theories in economic anthropology. He served as the president of the Central States Anthropological Society (1965); as founding president of the Society for Economic Anthropology (1982-84); and as associate editor for American Ethnologist (1980-84). In 1970, he joined the faculty of Indiana University, where he remained until his death on May 2, 1987.
1925 -- Born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, on August 24, 1925
Dissertation- "The Pakot (Suk) of Kenya with Special Reference to the Role of Livestock in Their Subsistence Economy" 1953; Northwestern University [abstract, preface, Pages 1-78]
