Timothy Asch
2021A Balinese Trance Seance
Timothy Asch, Patsy Asch
Bringing offerings of rice, flowers, and woven coconut leaves, clients visit Jero in her household shrine to determine the cause of their son's death. Jero lights an incense brazier, sprinkles holy water, and recites mantras as preliminaries to trance. Several ancestors and finally the young son speak through her voice, revealing the nature of his premature death (witchcraft) and his wishes for cremation. In contrast to other films about Balinese trance which focus on spectacular, community performances, this film provides an intimate view of a fascinating process of communication between Jero, the spirits, and her clients who are at one point moved to tears. (der.org)
A Balinese Trance Seance
The Ax Fight
Timothy Asch, Napoleon Chagnon
The Ax Fight (1975) is an ethnographic film by anthropologist and filmmaker Tim Asch and anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon about a conflict in a Yanomami village called Mishimishimabowei-teri, in southern Venezuela. It is best known as an iconic and idiosyncratic ethnographic film about the Yanomamo and is frequently shown in classroom settings.
The Ax Fight
The Feast
Timothy Asch, Napoleon Chagnon
Yanomamo feasts are ceremonial, social, economic, and political events. They are occasions for men to adorn their bodies with paint and feathers, to display their strength in dance and ritualized aggression; for trading partnerships to be established or affirmed; and for the creation or testing of alliances. In the feast filmed in 1968, the Patanowa-teri had invited the Mahekodo-teri to their village. The two groups had been allies until a few years before this event, when they had fought over the abduction of a woman. They now hoped to renew their broken alliance, which they did successfully. Soon after the filmed feast, the two villages together raided a common enemy. A detailed discussion of this feast, and of the significance of feasting among the Yanomamo, is found in chapter 4 of Chagnon's Yanomamo: The Fierce People. The film's graphic representation of reciprocity and exchange may enrich (and be enriched by) a reading of Marcel Mauss' The Gift.
The Feast
A Man Called Bee
Timothy Asch, Napoleon Chagnon
This is one of the few ethnographic films in which the anthropologist appears as one of the subjects, and as such it is a lively introduction to the nature of fieldwork. Napoleon Chagnon, who lived among the Yanomamo for 36 months over a period of eight years, is shown in various roles as "fieldworker": entering a village armed with arrows and adorned with feathers; sharing coffee with the shaman Dedeheiwa who recounts the myth of fire; dispensing eyedrops to a baby and accepting in turn a shaman's cure for his own illness; collecting voluminous genealogies; making tapes, maps, Polaroid photos; and attempting to analyze such patterns as village fission, migration, and aggression.
A Man Called Bee
Jero on Jero: A Balinese Trance Seance Observed
Timothy Asch, Patsy Asch
In 1981, anthropologist Linda Connor and filmmakers Tim and Patsy Asch returned to Bali with video cassette recordings of A Balinese Trance Seance. The resulting film presents some of her reactions to Connor as she watched and listened to herself for the first time. Jero had a unique opportunity to spontaneously and consciously react to and reflect upon the experience of possession. Her comments provide insight into how she feels while possessed, her understanding of sorcery, and her humility in the presence of the supernatural world. More mundane thoughts are revealed as well, for example the importance of the fine appearance of her house. Jero On Jero could most fruitfully be used as a companion to A Balinese Trance Seance, which would be shown first and followed by a discussion, before screening Jero Tapakan's own response.
Jero on Jero: A Balinese Trance Seance Observed
Yanomamo: A Multidisciplinary Study
Timothy Asch, Napoleon Chagnon
This film illustrates the field techniques used by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Michigan in collaboration with their Venezuelan colleagues. The film also includes a brief sketch of Yanomamo culture and society.
Yanomamo: A Multidisciplinary Study
Jero Tapakan - Stories from the Life of a Balinese Healer
Timothy Asch
Jero, who know sustains a lively practice as both medium and masseuse, recalls her earlier poverty and despair as a farmer, and how she fled her home and wandered briefly in the countryside as a peddler. After serious illness and mystical visions, she returned to her husband and underwent a consecration ceremony as a spirit medium. Here she talks with Linda Connor about these experiences.
Jero Tapakan - Stories from the Life of a Balinese Healer