N/um Tchai: The Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen
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From the !Kung series
by John Marshall
(study guide available)
black and white, 20 min, 1969
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Tchai is the word used by Ju/'hoansi to describe getting together to dance and sing; n/um can be translated as medicine, or supernatural potency. In the 1950's, when this film was shot, Ju/'hoansi gathered for "medicine dances" often, usually at night, and sometimes such dances lasted until dawn. In this film, women sit on the ground, clapping and singing and occasionally dancing a round or two, while men circle around them, singing and stamping rhythms with their feet. The songs are wordless but named: "rain," "sun," "honey," "giraffe," and other "strong things." The strength of the songs is their n/um, or medicine, thought to be a gift from the great god. N/um is also in the fire, and even more so in the "owners of medicine," or healers. Most Ju/'hoan men would practice as healers at some point in their lives, and in this film we see several men in various stages of trance. A light trance gradually deepens, as the medicine grows "hot," and eventually some men will shriek and run about, falling on hot coals, entering the state Ju/'hoansi call "half-death."
The film opens with a brief introduction to the role of n/um tchai in healing and in warding off evil, followed by scenes from one all-night dance. The dance begins with a social gathering and becomes increasingly intense as the night wears on, finally concluding at dawn.
This film is also available as part of the !Kung Short Films 2-disc set.
Other films in the series:
- An Argument about Marriage
- Baobab Play
- Bitter Melons
- Children Throw Toy Assegais
- A Curing Ceremony
- Debe's Tantrum
- First Film
- A Group of Women
- The Hunters
- A Joking Relationship
- A Kalahari Family
- !Kung Bushmen Hunting Equipment
- The !Kung San: Traditional Life
- The !Kung San: Resettlement
- Lion Game
- The Meat Fight
- The Melon Tossing Game
- Men Bathing
- N!ai, The Story of a !Kung Woman
- Playing with Scorpions
- Pull Ourselves Up or Die Out
- A Rite of Passage
- To Hold Our Own Ground: A Field Report
- Tug-Of-War, Bushmen
- The Wasp Nest