Magical Death
Encyclopedia
Magical Death is a documentary film by anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon
and ethnographic filmmaker
Tim Asch
that explores the role of the shaman
within the Yanomamo culture, as well as the close relationship shamanism shares with politics within their society.
The filmmakers allegedly disputed over the content of the film when Asch objected to Chagnon's inclusion of graphic depictions of the Yanomami engaging in symbolic death and cannibalism.
The film was awarded the American Film Festival Blue Ribbon.
Napoleon Chagnon
Napoleon A. Chagnon is an American anthropologist and retired professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was born in Port Austin, Michigan...
and ethnographic filmmaker
Visual anthropology
Visual anthropology is a subfield of cultural anthropology that is concerned, in part, with the study and production of ethnographic photography, film and, since the mid-1990s, new media...
Tim Asch
Tim Asch
Timothy Asch , was a noted anthropologist, photographer, and ethnographic filmmaker. Along with John Marshall and Robert Gardner, Asch played an important role in the development of visual anthropology...
that explores the role of the shaman
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
within the Yanomamo culture, as well as the close relationship shamanism shares with politics within their society.
The filmmakers allegedly disputed over the content of the film when Asch objected to Chagnon's inclusion of graphic depictions of the Yanomami engaging in symbolic death and cannibalism.
The film was awarded the American Film Festival Blue Ribbon.