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About RAI Film
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Watch on demand
Ethnographic Film Catalogue
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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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Films
found one film
with a digital version available
x
Region
“South America”
x
Keywords
“Ritual”
and
“Social Organisation”
x
Directors
“Pasini, Carlos”
x
Series
“Disappearing World Series”
x
Country of production
“United Kingdom”
x
films with a digital version
1
x
Region
South America
1
x
Country
Brazil
1
Keywords
Collective / Community identity
1
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
1
Ritual
1
x
Social Organisation
1
x
Directors
Pasini, Carlos
1
x
Series
Disappearing World Series
1
x
Country of production
United Kingdom
1
x
Year of production
1974
1
Film
The Mehinacu
1974
52
‘
Directed by
Carlos Pasini
.
The Mehinacu live near the head-waters of the River Xingu in Central Brazil, in a single village within the protective confines of the Xingu National Park. Although the film concentrates upon the most exotic aspects of Mehinacu life, focusing on a series of rituals concerned with the planting and harvesting of the piqui tree, these rites are firmly located in their social context: relations between the sexes in this society are formalised in an astonishing abundance of ritual, celebration, dances and games, performed to ensure fertile soil and good crops. Many sequences deal with the daily life of the Mehinacu, showing, for example, the sexual division of labour, with men fishing and women preparing manioc. The use of subtitled interviews provides a depth and sensitivity in the film’s approach which helps to underline the concern with the fact that these Indians are seriously threatened by a road which is being cut through their territory. One of the highlights of the film is an interview with a Mehinacu elder who tells of the origin myth of the sacred flutes, a myth which is part of a complex belief system that will be lost if the Mehinacu, who are such a small group, are not able to survive under the pressures of the outside world. The film could be used to stimulate discussions of sex role differences, sexual division of labour in particular societies, and the connection between ritual and social relationships. S. Hugh-Jones, 1975. Review of the film. RAIN, 6, p.9.
South America
Social Organisation
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
Collective / Community identity
Ritual