Dead Birds is an informative and affecting ethnographic film that records the culture of the Dani people of New Guinea. The most striking characteristic of this group is a highly ritualized warfare. Daily life is depicted with great empathy. The scenes of the children emulating their elder's ways are particularly memorable. This film was a favorite of my elementary school class in the late 60's, and I searched for a copy for years. It has recently been released on DVD (with extra footage) by Documentary Education Resources in Massachusetts. This film should be seen by anyone who enjoyed 'Nanook of the North'. The same debates about "real" vs. "staged" events exist about both films. Both have been selected to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Both depict cultures that have been altered permanently by contact with the outside world (during and after the filming).
4 Reviews
The way we were?
evening16 July 2024
Warning: Spoilers
This intriguing film takes us into the Stone Age culture of the Dani of Papua New Guinea, whose existence centers on warfare and revenge.
The men of a small village live for one thing alone -- eye-for-eye battle, by arrow or spear, with the tribe just across the "frontier" -- seemingly mirror images of themselves.
Virtually naked, Dani men and boys wear an elaborate codpiece, while their women don long, netted snoods. A viewer is impressed with the fitness of a people who do everything by hand, down to clawing the earth during planting, or scooping the entrails of slaughtered swine. This is the human body as God intended it -- entirely devoid of fat.
We mainly follow the perambulations here of Wayag, a watchman whose post is crucial, as it borders a stream shallow enough for the enemy to ford. A cacophony of ducks may be his only warning of the adversary's approach.
Through the lens of director Robert Gardner, we join these field dwellers at a time of high tension. Wayag's clan had killed one of the other side two weeks earlier, and, "according to the way these people live, each killing must be avenged," states the script masterfully written by Peter Matthiessen.
We're told the Dani don't kill for power or spoils, but rather "to avenge the ghosts of the slain...To be successful, a raid must come when unexpected, and at a place that is unguarded."
I found out about this documentary through my reading about Michael Rockefeller, the wealthy scion who served as sound recorder. From what I've gleaned, it was during his work on this film that he heard about other native peoples in the region, whom he later visited and from whom he acquired elaborate wood-carved art that to this day graces a wing of New York's Metropolitan Museum. In these endeavors, Michael frequented a region known for headhunting and cannibalism. Tragically, he disappeared two years before the release of "Dead Birds," and his fate remains unknown.
Meanwhile, we find a fascinating protagonist in Wayag, whose name means "Wrong," as he'd had "terrible rage as a young person," before he "learned to govern his temper." While not waging war, Wayag hand-weaves bark string into cowrie-shell bands to commemorate such milestones as birth, marriage, and death. (His nimble crafting has inspired me to return to my own love of the fiber arts!)
At one point, we observe Wayag scanning the shifting skies, and "the sight never ceases to please him, even when his thoughts turn to the enemy and what they must be planning." How true of nature's power to soothe and amaze...
Along the way, we observe a number of local rituals, from the poignant yet terrifying slaughter of pigs, to battlefield surgery, sans anesthesia.
"A friend applies a wand of grass and murmurs magic words," as a stolid warrior lays wounded, and soon he's experiencing "four punctures in the belly's wall to let out the blood turned dark by the enemy's arrow.." We hope he survives.
The movie ends with community-wide mourning after the other guys have met with success -- killing a young boy who'd wandered down to the river for a drink, while the rest of the village, including Wayag, enjoyed a celebratory barbeque.
How Gardner gained access to the Dani isn't explained at all, an unfortunate omission. I can imagine many communities with a lot more familiarity with technology shying away from such exposure.
The men of a small village live for one thing alone -- eye-for-eye battle, by arrow or spear, with the tribe just across the "frontier" -- seemingly mirror images of themselves.
Virtually naked, Dani men and boys wear an elaborate codpiece, while their women don long, netted snoods. A viewer is impressed with the fitness of a people who do everything by hand, down to clawing the earth during planting, or scooping the entrails of slaughtered swine. This is the human body as God intended it -- entirely devoid of fat.
We mainly follow the perambulations here of Wayag, a watchman whose post is crucial, as it borders a stream shallow enough for the enemy to ford. A cacophony of ducks may be his only warning of the adversary's approach.
Through the lens of director Robert Gardner, we join these field dwellers at a time of high tension. Wayag's clan had killed one of the other side two weeks earlier, and, "according to the way these people live, each killing must be avenged," states the script masterfully written by Peter Matthiessen.
We're told the Dani don't kill for power or spoils, but rather "to avenge the ghosts of the slain...To be successful, a raid must come when unexpected, and at a place that is unguarded."
I found out about this documentary through my reading about Michael Rockefeller, the wealthy scion who served as sound recorder. From what I've gleaned, it was during his work on this film that he heard about other native peoples in the region, whom he later visited and from whom he acquired elaborate wood-carved art that to this day graces a wing of New York's Metropolitan Museum. In these endeavors, Michael frequented a region known for headhunting and cannibalism. Tragically, he disappeared two years before the release of "Dead Birds," and his fate remains unknown.
Meanwhile, we find a fascinating protagonist in Wayag, whose name means "Wrong," as he'd had "terrible rage as a young person," before he "learned to govern his temper." While not waging war, Wayag hand-weaves bark string into cowrie-shell bands to commemorate such milestones as birth, marriage, and death. (His nimble crafting has inspired me to return to my own love of the fiber arts!)
At one point, we observe Wayag scanning the shifting skies, and "the sight never ceases to please him, even when his thoughts turn to the enemy and what they must be planning." How true of nature's power to soothe and amaze...
Along the way, we observe a number of local rituals, from the poignant yet terrifying slaughter of pigs, to battlefield surgery, sans anesthesia.
"A friend applies a wand of grass and murmurs magic words," as a stolid warrior lays wounded, and soon he's experiencing "four punctures in the belly's wall to let out the blood turned dark by the enemy's arrow.." We hope he survives.
The movie ends with community-wide mourning after the other guys have met with success -- killing a young boy who'd wandered down to the river for a drink, while the rest of the village, including Wayag, enjoyed a celebratory barbeque.
How Gardner gained access to the Dani isn't explained at all, an unfortunate omission. I can imagine many communities with a lot more familiarity with technology shying away from such exposure.
a great film -- not just a great ethnographic film
brumble@pitt.edu27 February 2005
DEAD BIRDS is about the Dugum Dani, one of the many peoples in the Highlands of New Guinea. The 1961 Harvard/Rockefeller expedition came upon the Dani at a time when they had had virtually no contact with the modern world. And so the film is able to show us a kind of life that is now no where to be seen. A man forms a spear with a sharpened bone. Men and women make magic. Women go off on a salt journey. The village is swept clean of ghosts -- and all the while, this village must guard against the warriors from the other side of the valley -- and the villages on the other side of the valley must guard against Dugu Dani warriors. And we see warfare.
I am puzzled at the suggestion that there is anything racist in all of this -- especially since the point the film wants to make is that warfare and killing are there deep down at the core of our human nature. This idea is certainly controversial, but it is not racist. Quite the contrary; the film is asserting that the Dugum Dani are essentially like ourselves.
But it is provincial to assume that we have to agree with the movie's "point" in order to appreciate it: Peter Matthiessen wrote the voice-over narrative -- and it is beautiful; the photography is stunning, especially given that fact that it was done in 1961 -- under difficult circumstances. The people -- the individuals -- you'll meet in this film you will not soon forget.
I am puzzled at the suggestion that there is anything racist in all of this -- especially since the point the film wants to make is that warfare and killing are there deep down at the core of our human nature. This idea is certainly controversial, but it is not racist. Quite the contrary; the film is asserting that the Dugum Dani are essentially like ourselves.
But it is provincial to assume that we have to agree with the movie's "point" in order to appreciate it: Peter Matthiessen wrote the voice-over narrative -- and it is beautiful; the photography is stunning, especially given that fact that it was done in 1961 -- under difficult circumstances. The people -- the individuals -- you'll meet in this film you will not soon forget.
An ethnographic classic
Doug13117 November 2004
This ethnographic film has become a classic, and rightfully so. It captures the feel of the Dugum Dani culture in the western half of the New Guinea highlands more than 40 years ago. Perhaps in another 40 years from now, they will be watching TV and listening to their DVD players, but "Dead Birds" will remain, both the good and the bad, a document to the uniqueness of their culture which lasted relatively unchanged for thousands of years until the 21st century. It also shows us both the security of cultural identity and the dark side of human nature in its depiction of ritual warfare. From lopping off two fingers on small girls with the death of a relative, to jumping out of the way from barbed-tipped arrows, to fear of attack at night by ghosts, life among the Dugum Dani is not easy. But there is a strong sense of security in living in a close-knit community with a common enemy.
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