Face Values. Part 5: Moving Through Life

Synopsis: The series attempts to present social anthropology to a wide audience and aims to show the basic similarities between people of different cultures and to suggest, through the deployment of material from Britain, that anthropological concerns apply as much to ‘ourselves’ as to other peoples.
This film shows the ceremonies surrounding people who are moving from one social state to another. The programme is structured around the ideas of Van Gennep concerning the functional role of rites on passage for individuals and society. Contains footage from a circumcision ceremony on Chole Island, a gypsy marriage in Los Angeles, a ‘banging-out’ ceremony at a Birmingham printers as a young man finishes his apprenticeship and a funeral in Bali. The religious belief and practices of the Balinese are discussed by anthropologist Anthony Forge *RAI
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Medium: Film; Film. 16mm. sd. col. 50 min.
Technical information: Black-and-white / Sound
Year of production: 1978
Availability: Hire
Notes: Not on RAI list published Jan 1995.
Documentation: 'Face values’, edited by Anne Sutherland (BBC Publications, 1978), contains ethnographic accounts of each of the relevant societies, written by anthropologists who have worked with the people concerned and who collaborated on the film series.
Keywords: Bali; ceremonies; gypsies; social anthropology; Tanzania

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