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About RAI Film
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Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
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About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
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RAI FILM
Login
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Twitter
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
Menu
About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
Prices
Film Distribution
Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
Teaching resources
RAI Film Festival
About RAI Film Festival
Film Festival 2025
Film Festival 2025 Group passes
Film Festival prizes and awards
Film Conference 2025
Archive of past editions
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Facebook
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Films
found one film
Country
“Colombia”
x
Keywords
“Religion Belief Faith”
x
films with a digital version
1
Region
South America
1
Country
Colombia
1
x
Keywords
Agriculture / Farming
1
Collective / Community identity
1
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
1
Religion / Belief / Faith
1
x
Directors
Moser, Brian
1
Series
Disappearing World Series
1
Country of production
United Kingdom
1
Year of production
1971
1
Film
War of the Gods
1971
52
‘
Directed by
Brian Moser
.
While relying on a polemical stance directed against the cultural genocide wrought by missionaries, ‘War of the Gods’ also contains a wealth of information and detail about Amazonian Indian cosmology, social life and sexual division of labour. Two groups of Indians from the Vaupés region of Colombia are shown, the Makú, who live mainly by hunting and gathering, and the sedentary Barasana, who live mainly by farming. The film contrasts the belief systems and way of life of the Indians, presented by the anthropologists who worked and lived with them, with those of Protestant and Catholic missionaries. The Protestants, North American Fundamentalists from the Summer Institute of Linguistics, are said to have used their organisation as a cover in order to be allowed to work with the Indians, because open Protestant missionary activity would not have been acceptable to the authorities. No attempt is made to gloss over the complexities of contact between Whites and Indians: the Barasana themselves want change, and the missionaries’ influence is undoubtedly more beneficial to the Indians than that of rubber gatherers. Included in this film is an interview — using voice-over — with a Makú shaman, and there are scenes from the Barasana moloka, the communal house which is a centre of social and domestic activity. The climax of the film is a contrasting look at a church service at the S.I.L. headquarters, a Barasana ritual dance (accompanied by the ritual use of the hallucinogen yagé), and a Mass at the Catholic mission attended by some of the Indians who took part in the ritual dance. Some missionaries who have seen this film consider that its editing is unfair to the S.I.L., but the head of another important missionary organisation has said that it should be screened during missionary training courses.
South America
Religion / Belief / Faith
Collective / Community identity
Agriculture / Farming
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing