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About
About RAI Film
Meet the team
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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
RAI FILM
Login
Facebook
Instagram
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
Login
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Films
found one film
Region
“South America”
x
Country
“Venezuela”
x
Keywords
“Indigenous peoples First Nations peoples”
x
Directors
“Nairn, Charlie”
x
Year of production
“1970”
x
Status
“A”
x
films with a digital version
1
Region
South America
1
x
Country
Venezuela
1
x
Keywords
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
1
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples
1
x
Informant-researcher relationship
1
Directors
Nairn, Charlie
1
x
Series
Disappearing World Series
1
Country of production
United Kingdom
1
Year of production
1970
1
x
Status
Film
A Clearing in the Jungle
1970
52
‘
Directed by
Charlie Nairn
.
Like that of many other Indian groups in South America, the culture of the Panare Indians of Venezuela is threatened by their almost daily contact with neighbouring creoles, Spanish-speaking peasants. However, in spite of nearly fifty years of interaction, their culture has remained distinctively Indian. The film focuses on activities of their daily life, such as making cassava, preparing blow-darts, hunting and gathering. The Indians strongly resented the presence of the camera-crew; indeed, as Dumont points out early in the film, they were loath to reveal details of their belief-system even to him, although he had been living with them for eighteen months. This was the first and the shortest of the films in the Disappearing World series. Although useful and interesting, it is relatively superficial and its commentary contains some anthropological oddities: it cannot be compared with the much more sophisticated films made later in the series. J.-P. Dumont, 1976. Under the Rainbow: Nature and Supernature among Panare. University of Texas Press, Austin. J.-P. Dumont, 1979. The Headman and I: Ambiguity and Ambivalence in the Fieldworking Experience. University of Texas Press, Austin.
South America
Hunting / Gathering / Fishing
Informant-researcher relationship
Indigenous peoples / First Nations peoples