The Ax Fight (1975)

Duración: 30
Idioma: English
Pais: U.S.
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0321347/

Director: Timothy Asch, Napoleon Chagnon

Synopsis: The film has four parts and operates on a number of analytical levels. It opens with a map of the region where the village is located and then proceeds to about ten minutes of virtually unedited film footage of combat among multiple participants armed with clubs, machetes, and axes. This represents the entirety of the film shot of the fight, which lasted about half an hour. Many of the shots and accompanying audio reflect the fact that the Westerners were taken by surprise and that they remained in ignorance about the cause of the fight until some time later.
The fight, which occurred on the second day of Asch and Chagnon's arrival to the village on February 28, 1971, is presented to the viewer as it was experienced by the anthropologist and filmmaker, as chaotic and unstructured violence. The second part of the Ax Fight, however, replays the events in slow motion while Chagnon explains who the combatants are and describes their relationship to one another. Although they initially believe the fight occurred because of an incestuous relationship, the anthropologists learn that this is not the case and that the fight is the latest manifestation of long standing hostility between a faction that lives in the village and a faction that is among a party of visitors. The fight is explained as "a ritualized contest, not a brawl" in which combatants make a relatively orderly progression from less lethal weapons to more lethal ones and people choose sides in the dispute on the basis of kinship obligations and shared histories. Eventually, elders (who tend to have conflicting loyalties) step in to help end the conflict.
The third part of the film uses a number of kinship diagrams to further elaborate on these family bonds and explains how kinship and political systems are often interchangeable in Yanomamo life.
The final part of the film replays an edited version of the fight, intended to illustrate the effect that the process of editing has on the construction of anthropological knowledge.
In 2007, The Ax Fight was re-examined by filmmaker Adam Curtis in his documentary program The Trap. Curtis interviewed Chagnon and put to him the assertion of Professor Brian Ferguson and others that much of the Yanamamo violence, and particularly its intensity, was in very strongly influenced by the presence of Westerners giving individuals goods, which were then fought over - in this case the goods were highly prized and useful machetes. Chagnon, however, insisted that his presence had had no influence whatsoever on the situation.
Curtis then asked, "You don't think a film crew in the middle of a fight in a village has an effect?" Chagnon replied, "No, I don't," and immediately walked out of the interview.

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From the series: Studies in Visual Culture (A series edited by Anthony Shelton)

Timothy Asch (1932–1994) was one of the best-known anthropologists of his generation and was among a small group of gifted ethnographic filmmakers who defined visual anthropology in the latter twentieth century. He worked with Margaret Mead, John Marshall and Napoleon Chagnon, lived and filmed on every continent except Antarctica, and won numerous international prizes. His work, which includes The Ax Fight and The Feast and more than fifty additional films of Venezuela’s Yanomamö Indians, and filming from Indonesia and Afghanistan, comprises the most widely used resource in the teaching of anthropology today. Timothy Asch and Ethnographic Film combines a biographical overview of Asch’s life with critical perspectives, giving a definitive guide to his background, aims, ideas, methodologies and major projects. Beautifully illustrated with sixty photographs, and featuring articles from many of Asch’s friends, colleagues and collaborators as well as an important interview with Asch himself, it is an ideal introduction to his work and to a range of key issues in ethnographic film.

Contributors: Douglas Harper, Nancy Lutkehaus, Peter Loizos, James J. Fox, Greg Acciaioli, Faye Ginsburg, Linda H. Connor, Patsy Asch, John P. Homiak, Wilton Martínez, Bill Nichols, Peter Biella, E. D. Lewis.

Edited by E. D. Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at The University of Melbourne, Australia. He is author of People of the Source (1988), and co-producer with Timothy and Patsy Asch of the award-winning film A Celebration of Origins (1993).

Contents:
1. Introduction: Timothy Asch in America and Australia -- E. D. LEWIS
2. An ethnographic gaze: scenes in the anthropological life of Timothy Asch -- DOUGLAS HARPER
3. Man, a course of study: situating Tim Asch’s pedagogy and ethnographic films -- NANCY C. LUTKEHAUS
4. At the beginning: Tim Asch in the early 1960s -- PETER LOIZOS
5. Efforts and events in a long collaboration: working with Tim Asch on ethnographic films on Roti in eastern Indonesia -- JAMES J. FOX
6. From event to ethnography: film-making and ethnographic research in Tana 'Ai, Flores, eastern Indonesia -- E. D. LEWIS
7. The consequences of conation: pedagogy and the inductive films of an ethical film-maker -- GREG ACCIAIOLI
8. Producing culture: shifting representations of social theory in the films of Tim Asch -- FAYE GINSBURG
9. Subjects, images, voices: representations of gender in the films of Timothy Asch -- LINDA H. CONNOR AND PATSY ASCH
10. Timothy Asch, the rise of visual anthropology, and the Human Studies Film Archives -- JOHN P. HOMIAK
11. Tim Asch, otherness, and film reception -- WILTON MARTÍNEZ
12. What really happened: a reassessment of The Ax Fight -- BILL NICHOLS
13. The Ax Fight on CD-ROM -- PETER BIELLA
14. Person, event, and the location of the cinematic subject in Timothy Asch’s films on Indonesia -- E. D. LEWIS

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The Ax Fight - Tim Asch (1975)

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