Avatar is Real, Say Tribal People

Winter, 2010 East Meets West
Guest Author: Harald Prins

Subject: VISCOM Digest - 25 Jan 2010 to 26 Jan 2010 (#2010-11) VISCOM Digest - 25 Jan 2010 to 26 Jan 2010 (#2010-11) Table of contents: 'AVATAR IS REAL', SAY TRIBAL PEOPLE (3) 'AVATAR IS REAL', SAY TRIBAL PEOPLE 'AVATAR IS REAL', SAY TRIBAL PEOPLE (01/26) From: Harald Prins Re: 'AVATAR IS REAL', SAY TRIBAL PEOPLE (01/26) From: Cynthia Close Re: 'AVATAR IS REAL', SAY TRIBAL PEOPLE (01/26) From: H Prins Browse the VISCOM online archives. My colleague Mike Wesch just informed me that visual anthropologist and Melanesia specialist Nancy Lutkehaus of USC (in Los Angeles) was consulted by Avatar movie makers. In her blog, she wrote a month ago that movie director "Cameron wanted to consult with an anthropologist who had worked with so-called “primitive” tribal groups about his film project Avatar" A World All Their Own http://uscnews.usc.edu/arts/a_world_all_their_own.html By Nancy Lutkehaus on December 24, 2009 7:59 AM Filmmakers are storytellers, but they are also architects and anthropologists. They must create whole worlds in which their stories can unfold. And the worlds they create must be coherent and believable, be they a representation of our own society or an entirely new universe. Few filmmakers, however, have had the time or resources to do so with such attention to detail as James Cameron, director of such blockbusters as Titanic, Aliens and the Terminator films. During the summer of 2008, I briefly experienced this aspect of Cameron when his associate, producer Jon Landau (a graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts) contacted me. Cameron wanted to consult with an anthropologist who had worked with so-called “primitive” tribal groups about his film project Avatar. Intrigued, I arranged to go to their studios — a sprawling network of offices, rooms crammed with computer monitors and electronic equipment, and a cavernous sound stage housed in a former airplane hangar, part of a complex near Playa del Rey where industrialist Howard Hughes constructed his Spruce Goose airplane. There I met Landau, a short, affable man dressed casually in a Hawaiian shirt and jeans. He proceeded to tell me about the film, Cameron’s sci-fi adventure set on the imaginary planet of Pandora some time in the distant future. One aspect of the project especially caught my attention. Early on, Cameron had hired Paul Frommer, a linguist from USC, to create an entirely new language to be spoken by the Na’vi people, the inhabitants of Pandora. Frommer, who earned his doctorate in linguistics from USC College and is now professor of clinical management communication in the USC Marshall School of Business, told me that Cameron had come to him with a few Polynesian-sounding words he may have picked up in New Zealand. He asked Frommer to incorporate these into a new language — complete with its own phonetic system, morphology and vocabulary — for the Na’vi to speak. Since Cameron envisioned the Na’vi to be a sci-fi version (9 feet tall, incredibly skinny and blue-skinned) of the so-called “primitive” tribes anthropologists once studied in places like Africa and Papua New Guinea (where I had done fieldwork), Frommer said he created a language for them that was “spiced” with what to most westerners’ ears would sound like “exotic elements,” such as ejectives and velar nasals. On my second visit to the studios, I met Cameron, a tall, sandy-haired man not given to small talk. He also had hired L.A.-based choreographer Lula Washington, renowned for her work that incorporates elements of African dance and music. She was choreographing several of the ritual ceremonies performed by the Na’vi. As Cameron, Washington and I discussed aspects of the Avatar script, such as the coming-of-age ceremony that the film’s protagonist, Jake Sully, undergoes, it became apparent to me that Cameron was thoroughly familiar with much basic anthropology and had read widely about non-Western religious beliefs and practices. When I finally viewed the complete film, it made sense to me why Cameron was interested in talking with an anthropologist who specialized in non-Western tribal societies. He is not only obsessed with details but also, not surprisingly, fascinated with expertise — both his own and that of others — especially when it bears directly on his own projects. Cameron is like a collector of fine art who sees himself as a connoisseur, and my function was less that of a dealer who brings rare objects to the collector, but rather that of a curator whose expertise provides the imprimatur of authenticity. The lush primal world of Pandora and the exotic culture of the Na’vi revealed in the film include many of the basic elements of what used to be called “primitive” societies — animism, a coming-of-age ceremony and test of manhood, a religion based on a supreme (maternal) tree spirit. It is truly a 21st-century elegy to a lost world — as well as Cameron’s warning to our own. Nancy Lutkehaus is professor of anthropology, gender studies and political science, and chair-elect for the Department of Anthropology at USC College. http://uscnews.usc.edu/arts/a_world_all_their_own.html > From: "Survival International" > Date: January 25, 2010 7:30:12 AM GMT-03:00 > To: "" > Subject: 'AVATAR IS REAL', SAY TRIBAL PEOPLE > Reply-To: "Survival International" > > > SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE > > 25 January 2010 > > > 'AVATAR IS REAL', SAY TRIBAL PEOPLE > > > Avatar's story is being played out > in real life.(c) 20th Century Fox > Following the film 'Avatar''s win at the Golden Globes, tribal people > have claimed that the film tells the real story of their lives today. > > A Penan man from Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, told > Survival International, 'The Penan people cannot live without the > rainforest. The forest looks after us, and we look after it. We > understand the plants and the animals because we have lived here for > many, many years, since the time of our ancestors. > > 'The Na'vi people in 'Avatar' cry because their forest is destroyed. > It's the same with the Penan. Logging companies are chopping down our > big trees and polluting our rivers, and the animals we hunt are > dying.' > > Kalahari Bushman Jumanda Gakelebone said, 'We the Bushmen are the > first inhabitants in southern Africa. We are being denied rights to > our land and appeal to the world to help us. 'Avatar' makes me happy > as it shows the world about what it is to be a Bushman, and what our > land is to us. Land and Bushmen are the same.' > > Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, known as the Dalai Lama of the Rainforest, > said, 'My Yanomami people have always lived in peace with the forest. > Our ancestors taught us to understand our land and animals. > We have used this knowledge carefully, for our existence depends on > it. My Yanomami land was invaded by miners. A fifth of our people died > from diseases we had never known.' > > Director James Cameron received his Golden Globes awards for 'Avatar' > last week, and revealed one of the central ideas of the film. > > 'Avatar asks us to see that everything is connected,' he said in his > acceptance speech, 'All human beings to each other, and us to the > earth. > > Cameron was inspired by the Maori language of New Zealand when > devising the language spoken by the Na'vi. > > Survival's director Stephen Corry says, 'Just as the Na'vi describe > the forest of Pandora as 'their everything', for most tribal peoples, > life and land have always been deeply connected. > > 'The fundamental story of Avatar - if you take away the multi- > coloured lemurs, the long-trunked horses and warring androids - is > being played out time and time again, on our planet. > > 'Like the Na'vi of 'Avatar', the world's last-remaining tribal peoples > - from the Amazon to Siberia - are also at risk of extinction, as > their lands are appropriated by powerful forces for profit-making > reasons such as colonization, logging and mining.' > > 'One of the best ways of protecting the our world's natural heritage > is surprisingly simple; it is to secure the land rights of tribal > peoples.' > > * * * > A feature article about 'Avatar' and tribal peoples is available for > publication from Survival International. Contact Miriam Ross (details > below). > > > To read this story online: http://www.survivalinternational.org/ > news/5466 > > > For more information and images, or to use the attached image, > please contact Miriam Ross: > > T (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504543367 > E mr@survivalinternational.org > W http://www.survivalinternational.org/ > > Survival International > 6 Charterhouse Buildings > London EC1M 7ET > United Kingdom -- Cynthia Close Executive Director Documentary Educational Resources 101 Morse Street Watertown MA 02472 www.der.org ********************************************* 617-926-0491 800-569-6621 Fax: 617-926-9519

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