N/um tchai : The Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen

Year Published: 1973

Creator: Somerville Mass. Documentary Educational Resources

Complete Record: by Anthropologist John K. Marshall Shows the medicine dance of the Kung Bushmen. It is the one activity in kung life that draws people together in groups of considerable size, not shaped by family, band, or close friendship. Documents a formalized Bushman curing ceremony in the Kalahari Desert area of Southwest Africa by showing an all-night "medicine dance" in which a number of men go into trance and exercise special curing powers. Divided into two parts: the first reviews and explains typical dance scenes; the second shows the ceremony without subtitles or narration.