Day: June 15, 2009

Vidéothèque: Videos on Cross-Cultural Health, Sickness and Healing

The Vidéothèque : Santé, Maladie, Malheur is an absolutely incredible video archive on medical anthropology, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa. I started exploring it when it was mentioned as part of the trance video links, but it’s so rich it deserves its own post – well over 100 video clips that are freely available in Real Media packaging.

Alain Epelboin
Alain Epelboin

The collection has been put together by Alain Epelboin, who has also contributed the lion’s share of footage. Other film makers include Beatriz Soengas, Sylvie Heslot, Susanne Fürniss and Claire Lussiaa-Berdou. The collection is hosted through Réseau Académique Parisien.

Alain Epelboin is a doctor and anthropologist who runs the Labotoire Eco-anthropologie et Ethnobiologie, which is part of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. You can see a video of Alain discussing his work, as well as this informative article – both in French, as are most of the videos.

Some of the videos you can see include Ebola in Congo, this narrated documentary on the Aka of the Central African Republic and the Congo, Traditional Medicine, Culture and AIDS, and Mort et naissance de Masiki.

And here’s the entire list of the Santé, Maladie, Malheur videos.

Trance Captured on Video

A great discussion on the Medical Anthropology listserve focused on good films for trance. I’ve provided the list below, complete with links to the films, extra notes in brackets, and some YouTube clips.

Joshua Moses asked:

Dear colleagues, I was wondering if people could recommend film footage of trance states of various kinds–rituals, dance, shamanic, church based etc.
The geographical region is not important. I would be grateful for you assistance. Thank you.

The Replies:

Sheila Cosminsky (Rutgers): A classic film on trance is Margaret Mead’s Trance and Dance in Bali, which shows dancers with knives under trance [also recommended by Beverly Bennett of Cultural Ideas].
Also, Jero on Jero, a Balinese Trance Seance Observed [also Balinese Trance Seance, included in the DVD, was recommended by Geraldine Moreno at Oregon].
Other films are: N/um Tchai: the Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen, and Macumba, Trance, and Spirit Healing.

Michelle Ramirez (University of the Sciences in Philadelphia): There’s always the classic “Holy Ghost People” by Peter Adair, which shows folks in Appalachia (in what very much looks like trance-like states) handling snakes.
[You can also get this documentary in a series of six YouTube clips starting here; I’ve embedded below another clip that contains some of the most relevant footage]

Continue reading “Trance Captured on Video”