Hill Tribes of the Deccan (1960) – Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf

Koya palm tapper – ‘Hill Tribes of the Deccan’ (1960)

29 mins, b&w, voice-over in English, some post-synchronised sounds. Production: BBC Television

Source : this film may be viewed on-line here

This is a television programme based on footage shot by Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, “presented” by Brian Branston – that is, organised editorially – and fronted, as well as voiced-over by a youthful David Attenborough. The programme begins with a sequence in which Attenborough interviews Haimendorf and his wife, Betty, in a studio and, in general, this film emphasises the Haimendorfs’ expedition much more than both Land of the Gurkhas (broadcast earlier in 1960), and also the later film Land of Dolpo (broadcast 1965), even though all three films were screened as part of the the same BBC television series, Travellers’ Tales. An archival version of the BBC television schedule for 1960, available here, indicates that Hill Tribes of the Deccan was broadcast in August of that year.

This film chronicles what appears to be a series of very brief visits to the Chenchu, the Reddi and ‘the following year’ to the Koya, the Bondo and Gadaba. Haimendorf carried out extensive fieldwork in the Deccan over the period 1940-48, but it is not made clear exactly when these visits shown in the film took place. Although the voice-over commentary suggests at some points that the visits were recent, at other points, it is said that material being presented was shot ‘twenty years ago’.

There are quite a number of clearly posed shots of both Christoph and Betty conducting the expedition, indicating that at some point, there was certainly a cameraperson with them. This raises the possibility that the film may consist of footage shot in the 1940s by Haimendorf combined with more recent footage shot specifically for the television programme in which old and new material are presented together as if they were recorded around the same time.

The voice-over is very dated, emphasising the primitiveness of the various groups, at one point even comparing the Chenchu to monkeys. But the film also contains some interesting sequences of cultural traditions that are no longer practiced.

Some of the rushes on which this film is based are available in the playlist of Haimendorf’s films on Alan Macfarlane’s ayabaya website accessible here. See particularly nos. 3-5, 15, 22.

Text : Macfarlane 2010.