The Agnicayana Ritual in India
Staal, Frits
Full film record of the twelve-day Nambudiri Agnicayana ritual performed in Panjal, India, the world's oldest surviving ritual, a Vedic sacrifice to Agni, the god of fire. Filmed in Kerala, southwest India, this 12-day ritual was performed in 1975 for perhaps the last time. Footage documents the material and spatial preparations …
Curt Maury Papers
The Curt Maury papers, dating from 1953 to circa 1985, measure 12.7 linear feet and include writings and notes for planned and published books; travel files and expense ledgers for trips to India; photograph ledgers; and extensive photographs and slides of India.
Joan Mencher papers
bulk 1956-1993
This collection contains the professional papers of anthropologist Joan Mencher. The files from her extensive career as a field researcher make up the majority of the collection. These materials include field notes, diaries, charts, tables, maps, interviews, questionnaires, scholarly papers and publications of other scholars, genealogical charts, sets of analyzed data, computer printouts, and digital files. The collection also contains copies of most of Mencher's published writings.
Phillip Zarrilli films of South Indian martial and performing arts
Full film record documents a number of martial arts forms found in south India. Included are the velakali, martial dance of Kerala; the oacchirakali, mock-combat ritual enactment of Kerala; the kalarippayattu, Kerala martial art; and alternate styles of south Indian martial arts including the "southern style" kalarippayattu and silambam. Please …
Clifford Reis Jones films
Four edited films made in 1974 and 1975 by Clifford Reis Jones in India. Originally filmed in 35mm. Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds …
Lynn McLaren Photographs
10 Photographic prints (black and white , 8 x 10 inches.)
38 Transparencies (color , 120mm.)
The collection consists of 38 color transparencies, 648 color slides and 10 black-and-white photographic prints taken by Lynn McLaren Demarest while on assignment for various news outlets in the 1950s and 1960s. A majority of the slides and transparencies were taken in East Africa and document indigenous peoples, agriculture (cotton in particular), health and nutrition education, UNICEF activities, architecture, natural landscapes, animals, fishers, coffee plantations and the sisal industry. Locations include Mobassa, Lamu Island, Zanzibar, Dar es Saalam, Lake Victoria, Mount Kilimajaro, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara and Mikumi National Park (Tanzania). The black-and-white photographs depict East African leaders, such as Julius Nyerere, and prominent international visitors to the region, including Robert Kennedy. A small number of slides and transparencies were taken in India.
Aschwin Lippe Collection
Aschwin Lippe was a research fellow and later curator in the Department of Far Eastern Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The collection includes his early research and writings on East Asian art, particularly Chinese paintings. It has substantial material on his involvement in selecting the paintings and writing the catalog for the 1961 Chinese Art Treasures Exhibition. He later shifted his research focus to medieval Indian sculpture. The collection includes journals kept during several years of field research in India as well as his extensive photo-documentation of Indian temples and religious sculpture.
John W. Moyer films
Linear feet
Amateur film footage shot in India ca. 1965, amateur edited film on India from footage, amateur edited film, YELLOWSTONE (1938). Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may …
Education and Research Project Records
This accession consists of materials documenting the planning, development, and installation of the exhibition "Celebration: A World of Art and Ritual." This exhibition was created by the Office of Folklife Programs in conjunction with the Renwick Gallery and contained six hundred objects all chosen from the collections of nine Smithsonian …
Gus Van Beek papers
This collection consists of the professional papers of Dr. Gus Van Beek, Curator of Old World Archaeology, Division of Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution. Included is the overall body of field logs and notebooks, correspondence, administrative work, research for and about exhibits, photographs, drawings, work on a variety of Departmental committees, and work leading toward the publication of a number of manuscripts and papers. These materials cover roughly the period from 1959 when Dr. Van Beek was hired as an Associate Curator in the Department until 2008 when he actively ceased work in his office at NMNH.
