THE AX FIGHT

30 minutes Colour 1975 
Film maker: Timothy Asch
Anthropologist: Napoleon Chagnon

The film focuses on a brief single event, a fight among the Yanomamo of Venezuela, giving three views of the event, each view increasing insight into both the event itself and the process of film making. The first view is an unedited version of a surprise occurrence complete with unfocused camera shots, and the voices of the film makers as they try to understand what they are seeing. The second version combines some of the initial footage with a detailed structural analysis of the kinship and residence complexities linking the participants in the fight. This view also places the fight in its ritual context. The final view is an edited version that expresses cinematic art rather than ethnographic depth. The combination provides a multi-tiered image that is provocative for discussion and analysis. The innovative style of The Ax Fight has made it a classic for courses both in anthropology and film-making. It is even more valuable because of the availability of written material and other films in the same series (see film entries The Feast and Magical Death in Part One of this catalogue). A study guide for this film is available that gives a scene by scene description and an in-depth discussion of the film. The study guide would be of value for filmmakers and anthropologists alike and can be obtained from Documentary Educational Resources, 101 Morse Street, Watertown, Mass. 02172, USA. (16mm) 3RA144 £9.

1. T. Asch, 1979. `Making a Film Record of the Yanomamo Indians of Southern Venezuela'. Perspectives on Film, No. 2, pp. 4-9.

2. E. Biocca, 1971. `Yanomamö. E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc., New York.

3. N.A. Chagnon, 1968. Yanomamö: The Fierce People. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.

4. N.A. Chagnon, 1968. `Yanomamö Social Organisation and Warfare'. In M. Fried, M. Harris and R. Murphy (eds.) War: The Anthropology of Armed Conflict and Aggression. Natural History Press, New York.

5. N.A. Chagnon, 1974. Studying the Yanomamö. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.

6. N.A. Chagnon and T. Asch, 1975. `Using Film in Teaching Anthropology'. In P. Hockings (ed.) Principles of Visual Anthropology. Mouton, The Hague.

7. P.A. Klein and J.F. Klein, 1977. Review of the film. American Anthropologist, Vol. 79, p. 747.