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The Tribal Eye: Man Blong Custom

The Tribal Eye is a seven-part BBC documentary series on the subject of Tribal art, written and presented by David Attenborough. It was first transmitted in 1975.

6. “Man Blong Custom”

This program takes us on a perilous journey to the jungle-covered mountains of the New Hebrides to witness the sacred ceremonies performed in the village cult house. Life size effigies, the heads of which are human skulls fleshed out with clay, dance as cavorting puppets in funeral ceremonies. Then we journey to the neighboring Solomon Islands and examine their magnificent war canoes, their sea spirit dances, and an anthropological phenomenon, Moro.
This island mystic arose to say that the gods of the island wished the people to send the foreign Christians back home and once again worship the ancients.

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