The Ax Fight

197? (25 min.)

Filmmaker: Timothy Asch

Anthropologist: Napoleon Chagnon

The film represents an important innovation in how it describes the conflict that arises between visitors and hosts in a Yanomamo village. The visitors are related to the hosts, and they once lived together, but after an earlier conflict, the group split apart. Now they are tentatively getting together again to see whether the advantages of alliance can offset old resentments. However, a local woman accuses a visiting man of doing something wrong (the story that is told to Asch and Chagnon changes). Her menfolk then begin the confrontation, which gets larger and more serious, despite the attempts of one leader to mediate.

In the first sequence, we see the unedited footage that Asch shot as the fight was unfolding. The second sequence, heavily narrated, adds information about what Asch and Chagnon learned about the true story of the fighting. Then a series of kinship diagrams give us a picture of how all the principals are related to each other. Finally, we see the entire sequence again, without narration but with English subtitles translating the Yanomamo speeches.

At first glance, the fight looks merely chaotic. But as we come to understand it, we see how carefully calibrated the escalating violence really is. There are no institutions to resolve the conflict peacefully beyond mediation, which fails. (Heider 1997: 226).

Setup Questions

1. Why does the fight start? (whom do you believe?)

2. What roles do the women play in the violence?

3. What attempt is there to resolve the violence?

4. What, in the end, seems to calm things down?

5. You hear Asch, the filmmaker, and Chagnon, the anthropologist, on the sound track. What does this exchange tell you about them?

6. What is the emotional tone during the fight? What sorts of evidence allow you to think that?