Grade Level: SrH-Adult
Producer: BBC
Closed Captioned: No |
Running Time: 50 mins
Country of Origin: Great Britain
Study Guide: No |
Copyright Date: 2005
Available in French: No
|
Explorer Bruce Parry is deep in unexplored jungle as he travels to West Papua to meet a tribe rumoured to be cannibals. The Kombai people are hunter-gatherers, with no history of living in villages, and who still use stone tools. They're not bad with bows and arrows either, as Bruce discovers when he is suddenly surrounded by locals, all with arrow tips pointing at him. A gift of tobacco, helped by Bruce joining them in getting naked, soon makes them more at ease. Bruce is soon living in a tree house with a family, joining in with their hunts, attempting to go barefoot through the thorny jungle and extracting pulp from a sago palm – the Kombai's staple diet – which Bruce likens to eating chalk. Despite communication difficulties, they are all soon sharing jokes, as the Kombai family push grubs into Bruce's ears and giggle at his tears when he has a sago thorn pushed through his nose. But his biggest surprise is listening to the calm description of how one of his hosts killed and ate “witches” from another clan, to end the terror of evil spirits. “I've never before been able to see beyond the horror of the act,” says Bruce of this cannibalism. “I equated that custom with aggression. But you wouldn't find people more welcoming, gentle and loving.” |
