Series Disappearing World Series
Director Leslie Woodhead, David Turton
Country/Production UK
Release 1974
Length 52 mins
Format Colour / DVD or VHS / PAL / All region
Location Ethiopia / Africa
Ethnic Group Mursi
Order No RAI-200.36
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The Mursi, an unadministered tribe living in remote south-west Ethiopia, are a cattle-keeping and agricultural group without chiefs or leaders. This film, made under extremely difficult conditions, focuses on the way decisions are made in this society at a time of crisis. The crisis occurs when a shortage of grazing land, during a draught in 1974, led to warfare with their neighbours, the Bodi. The greater part of the film is concerned with a debate over the Bodi peace proposals. The Mursi reach their political decisions in formal debate at which point each warrior who rises to speak is heard patiently until all the important issues have been raised and a measure of agreement has emerged. The Mursi is a serious and important film, both ethnographically and as a contribution to the understanding of political systems. K. Fukui and D. Turton (eds.) 1979. Warfare among East African Herders. Senri Ethnological Studies 3, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan. W. James and T.B. Selassie, 1976. Review of the film. RAIN, 16, pp. 6–7. D. Turton, 1971. `Mursi Tribe on the Plain of Death'. Geographical Magazine, September. D. Turton, 1975. `The Relationship between Oratory and the Exercise of Influence among the Mursi'. In M. Bloch (ed.), Political Language and Oratory in Traditional Society. Academic Press, London. D. Turton, 1977. `Response to Drought: The Mursi of Southwestern Ethiopia'. In J.P. Garlick and R.W.J. Keay (eds.), Human Ecology in the Tropics, Symposia of the Society for the Study of Human Biology, Vol. XVI. Taylor and Francis, London. (Reprinted in Disasters, Vol. 1, No. 4, 1978.) D. Turton, 1978. `Territorial Organisation and Age among the Mursi'. In P.T.W. Baxter and U. Almagor (eds.), Age, Generation and Time: Some Features of East African Age Organisations. Hurst, London. Woodhead, Leslie 1988. A Box Full of Spirits - Adventures of a film-maker in Africa. Heinemann (pbk), London
