Related Guides
Find Films
- Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window Academic Video Online delivers more than 67,000 titles spanning a range of subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more. It includes documentaries, films, demonstrations, and other content types. Films in the Boston University Libraries catalog are licensed to Boston University for educational and research use only, for BU students, faculty, and staff.
- Ethnographic Video Online, Volume I-II: Foundational Films This link opens in a new window Ethnographic Video Online, Vol. I-II: Foundational Films contains classic and contemporary ethnographies, documentaries and shorts from every continent, providing teachers visual support to introduce and contextualize hundreds of cultural groups and practices around the world.
- Ethnographic Video Online, Volume III: Indigenous Voices This link opens in a new window Ethnographic Video Online, Vol. III: Indigenous Voices contains documentaries, feature films and shorts made by and for indigenous people and communities. Topics are simultaneously local and global, with particular emphasis on the human effects of climate change, sustainability, indigenous and local ways of interpreting history, cultural change, and traditional knowledge and storytelling.
- Ethnographic Video Online, Volume IV: Festivals and Archives This link opens in a new window Ethnographic Video Online, Vol. IV: Festivals and Archives contains award-winning titles from contemporary ethnographic film festivals. The collection also includes field recordings and edited films by students and faculty from universities and institutions around the world, including Berkeley Media and Manchester's Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology.
- Ethnographic Video Online, Royal Anthropological Institute Teaching Edition This link opens in a new window Ethnographic Video Online, Royal Anthropological Institute Teaching Edition contains a curriculum-aligned collection of videos and segments curated to support the teaching of introductory anthropology courses. Each video and segment within this collection are accompanied by a teaching guide providing background information, lesson plans, and classroom exercises and activities.
- BU Libraries Search (BULS) This link opens in a new window BU Libraries Search provides a single place to search for a wide variety of academic material provided by the library. The material covered by the search includes books, journals, scores, video and audio recordings, and other physical items held by the library. The search also covers ebooks and ejournals owned by the library, as well as online material provided by the library from a variety of sources.
- EVIA Digital Archive Project The EVIA Digital Archive Project is a collaborative endeavor to create a digital archive of ethnographic field video for use by scholars and instructors.
Browse Films
- Shamans of the Blind Country, Part 1 (streaming, Academic Video Online) Shamans of the Blind Country is an epic documentary on faith healing in a remote region of North West Nepal. Over a period of eighteen months the film follows the basic traits of a local religious practice, kindred in spirit to the many variations of the great inner-Asian tradition of shamanism characteristic for the Siberian part of Northern Asia and the entire Himalayan region. Part I pursues the various types of healing rituals enacted by the shamans of the northern Magar of the Dhaulagiri region (in North West Nepal) for the benefit of their clients.
- Shamans of the Blind Country, Part 2 (streaming, Academic Video Online) Shamans of the Blind Country is an epic documentary on faith healing in a remote region of North West Nepal. Over a period of eighteen months the film follows the basic traits of a local religious practice, kindred in spirit to the many variations of the great inner-Asian tradition of shamanism characteristic for the Siberian part of Northern Asia and the entire Himalayan region. Part II of the film is focussed mainly on the transmission of shamanic knowledge from master to pupil. This is a long process of increasing intensity.
- Shamanism in Korea (AM Explorer) A documentary about traditional religious practices in South Korea with footage of rituals, including exorcism.
- Between Two Worlds: The Hmong Shaman (streaming, Academic Video Online) Between Two Worlds: The Hmong Shaman in America powerfully exposes the struggle of Hmong refugees in America. This classic documentary traces the lives of three Hmong families displaced thousands of miles from their villages in Northern Laos and alienated in American cities.
- Is there a shaman in the tribe? (streaming, Academic Video Online) In one of the last remote areas of the Philippines, on Palawan island: Medsinu - an old shaman, healer and judge of customary law - takes care of his own, often invoking the spirit of his father, former shaman. Tirelessly, he combs the forest, from hamlet to hamlet, at the bedside. Overtaken by the disease Medsinu dies.A foreign mining company is considering settling on Palawan land of which the earth abounds with nickel. An open cast mine means large scale deforestation and a large use of
- The Split Horn: The Life of A Hmong Shaman in America (streaming, Academic Video Online) America has become the testing ground for the enduring strength of Hmong culture. The Split Horn documents the journey of Hmong shaman Paja Thao and his family from the mountains of Laos to the heartland of America: Appleton, Wisconsin. This poignant film shows a shaman's struggle to maintain his ancient traditions as his children embrace American culture. The evocative narrative captures the daily struggle of Paja Thao's family between two worlds.
- Death of a Shaman (streaming, Academic Video Online) As her father lay dying in a hospital bed, Fahm Saeyang and her siblings gathered around to watch over him. The family's tradition on many occasions, both big and small, was to record everything on video, and this was no exception. Her father's final words were about walking through the mountains in his home country of Thailand. After his death, Fahm grieved for the unfulfilled promise of her father's life.
- Holy man (streaming, Academic Video Online) Holy Man: The USA vs. Douglas White is the story of Douglas White, an 89 year old Lakota Sioux medicine man from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, who spent 17 years in federal prison for a crime he did not commit. During the making of this film, filmmakers uncovered new evidence of White's "actual innocence" and brought the case back to federal court. Holy Man offers a rare glimpse into the mysterious world of Lakota religion, their intimate connection to the land, and a provocative expose of the systemic injustice that Native Americans face in the criminal justice system.
- Ladakh Oracle Curing Possession (streaming, Academic Video Online) This video, filmed by Barrie Machin, shows a Ladakhi oracle performing an exorcism.
- The Shaman and His Apprentice (streaming, Academic Video Online) In a world where there are no hospitals or doctors, the shaman cures the sick using supernatural powers. Jose is a master shaman of the Yaminahua tribe in the Peruvian Amazon. His apprentice Curaka only came into contact with the outside world five years ago, when his group of Yaminahua were decimated by a flu epidemic. 'Just a few of us survived. So now when Jose has prepared me, I want to learn to cure.' But does Curaka have the strength and determination?
- Call for Grace (streaming, Academic Video Online) During Mongolia's seventy years of domination by the Soviet Union, shamanism, like many aspects of Mongolian tradition, was forbidden by the Communist authorities, and went into decline. Since the early 1990s, however, it has been undergoing a revival, and is rapidly regaining its place in Mongolian cultural identity.
- Indo Pino (streaming, Academic Video Online) The small ethnic group of the Wana Wewaju live in Indonesia in the eastern part of Sulawesi (Celebes Island) among the dense equatorial rain forest of the Tokkala Mountains. The film documents the traditional healing practices of the Wana shamans. This film is the result of fifteen years of research and constitution of ethnocinématographic archives about the shamanism of Wana People from Sulawesi (Indonesia).
- Mama Irene: Healer of the Andes (streaming, Academic Video Online) This is a film about Mama Irene, a remarkable 86-year-old woman Shaman (healer) from Peru who draws upon indigenous knowledge and traditions in danger of being lost forever.
- The Opaqued God (streaming, Academic Video Online) The aged Guan Kouni is the last Shaman of Oroqen. She hopes to find a Shaman heir in her lifetime. On the 1st or 15th day of the lunar calendar, Guan Kouni would place a tribute on the spirit tablet and worship the God in a traditional way. Due to the government, she has not been a Shaman since liberation. Because of the government as well, she is miraculously given a ceremony to pass on her Shaman identity. Guan Kouni hopes to find a Shaman to inherit this ancient religious culture in her life
- The Sacred Science (streaming, Academic Video Online) The Sacred Science is a groundbreaking documentary that captures an unprecedented glimpse into the ancient healing practices of the Amazon rainforest's medicine men, or shamans, whose unique knowledge of indigenous plants and rituals is threatened by deforestation, modernization and ecotourism.
- The Reindeer People (streaming, Academic Video Online) In Northern Mongolia, there exists a sacred alliance between people, ancestor spirits and reindeer. This film is an intimate portrait of a family of Dukha reindeer nomads following their migration through the forests of Mongolia's Hovsgol province. The oldest Dukha, is a divine seer, a 96-year old shaman, called Tsuyan. She is the link between the healing songs of the forest ancestors, her people and their reindeer. To live in harmony with them, people had to learn to respect nature and
- Ritual Journeys (streaming, Academic Video Online) The film is an intimate portrait of Merayk, an 80 years old Lepcha shaman or Padim. Merayk lives with his family in Dzongu, a Lepcha reserve in North Sikkim. He performs healing rituals for individuals as well as rituals for the well-being of the household, the clan and his village community. Cameraman Dawa Lepcha followed Meyrak and recorded his daily life and rituals between 2003 and 2007.
- Gods and Satans (Dieux et Satans) (streaming, Academic Video Online) Among the Wana people, semi nomads from the Indonesian (Sulawesi) forest, Indo Pino is a shaman recognized by everybody. Her Nephew, who is also a shaman’s son, converted to Christianity some months ago and is now preaching the visions. And for him, if the visions come from God, the visions of the shamans inevitably must come from Satan. Through the Christian concepts of sin and original fault, good and evil notions are revised, The traditional healing practices of the shamans are heavily
- Tribe. Season 1, episode 6, Sanema (streaming, Academic Video Online) Former Royal Marine officer and expedition leader Bruce Parry, sheds the trappings of a western existence and lives alongside tribes, such as the forest people of central Gabon, adopting their methods and practices. Taking adventure into a whole new realm, Parry dares to go where other presenters fear to tread: hunting, cooking and eating like a native and even trying the local recreational and ritualistic poisons. He also examines the way in which western influence is encroaching on these
- The Heavenly Court in Song Family Village: Gender, Hierarchy and Religious Power in a North China Village (streaming, Academic Video Online) Religious life in the village is highly gendered, with female shamans dominating most religious activities. These shamanesses and their gods are organised as a 'court', which expresses a hierarchy of power and prestige analogous to the traditional Chinese imperium focused on the emperor and his ministers.
- Daba / Na Shaman (streaming, Academic Video Online) After more than a quarter of a century without any form of religious ceremony, the Na, an ethnic group living on the Himalayan plateau, began openly practising their religion again in the early 1990s. Their priests are called daba. Among the few old shamans who are still living today, Dafa Luzo is the most remarkable. As the main character in the film, we see him looking after his farm and his family, as well as performing rituals to expel all unclean spirits and demons and honour the
- Misek - The Spark (streaming, Academic Video Online) MISEK explores traditional wisdom surrounding the spirit of Misek, “the spark” or God of Fire, in a Limbu community in eastern Nepal. It weaves together a conversation with an old shaman, traditional Mundhum singing, a rare ritual, and mis en scene.
- Growing up in Ecuador (streaming, Academic Video Online) Travel to the banks of the Napo River in the Ecuadorean jungle with 13-year-old Juan and his family. He goes to school in canoe, picks larvas in the trees to enjoy them with his family, sells banana with his grandmother, gets cured by his grandfather the shaman, dives and fishes in the Napo river with his friends.
Find Images
- ARTstor This link opens in a new window ARTstor is a database of images from museums, artists, libraries, colleges and universities, scholars, private collections, and photo archives available for teaching, education, and scholarship, with all images cleared for educational use.
- Associated Press Images Collection This link opens in a new window Associated Press Images Collection is a searchable collection of recent and historical photos from the Associated Press, plus AP graphics, articles, and brief sound clips.
Browse Audio
- Zer sanr 'spirit guardians' chanted by pirma Gavq Lavq A .wav recording of the third chant performed when carrying out a funeral rite and its accompanying text translated and glossed into contemporary Akha and English. This is a sample of collection of recordings, videos, and texts related to Akha Zanr, the indigenous religion of the Akha (ahk) of northern Mainland Southeast Asia. It includes over ten hours of .wav recordings of Pirma Gavq, an Akha Shaman, reciting the religious text “Buffalo Knowledge One”.
- Lavq khoer mr 'inner ceremony' chanted by Pirma Gavqlavq .wav and .mp3 versions of audio file and .txt transcription Documentation of Archaic Akha, the register of the Akha shaman / Jacob A. Terrell.This is a sample of collection of recordings, videos, and texts related to Akha Zanr, the indigenous religion of the Akha (ahk) of northern Mainland Southeast Asia. It includes over ten hours of .wav recordings of Pirma Gavq, an Akha Shaman, reciting the religious text “Buffalo Knowledge One”.
- Gee Jm 'the ancestor alter' chanted by Pirma Gavq Lavq .wav and .mp3 versions of audio file, and .txt transcription A .wav recording of the second chant performed when carrying out a funeral rite and its accompanying text translated and glossed into contemporary Akha and English. This is a sample of collection of recordings, videos, and texts related to Akha Zanr, the indigenous religion of the Akha (ahk) of northern Mainland Southeast Asia. It includes over ten hours of .wav recordings of Pirma Gavq, an Akha Shaman, reciting the religious text “Buffalo Knowledge One”
