Amazon head-hunters ; Theory of flight

SEGMENT 1: Amazon Head-Hunters. Harry Tschopik, ethnologist at the AMNH, discusses the custom of head-hunting as a means of vengeance practiced by the Jivaro Indians in the Montana region of Peru and Ecuador (near the headwaters of the Amazon River). Tschopik attributes the rapid decimation of the Jivaro to that custom. In the studio, Tschopik observes shrunken heads and narrates a film depicting a Jivaro raid of reprisal against their enemy. A man is killed and his head is taken, shrunk and mounted in this dramatic film by Lewis Cotlow. The program discusses governmental attempts to establish punitive actions for this custom, as well as the threat of Jivaro extinction. SEGMENT 2: Theory of Flight. In a remote broadcast from the Naval Air Base at Floyd Bennett Field, associate producer Robert Northshield shows the ways in which man has exceeded birds in flight, both in speed and motionless suspension. Robert Cushman Murphy, AMNH ornithologist, is interviewed. The broadcast traces the history of man's attempts to fly, from his unsuccesful imitation of birds to his most recent achievements in supersonic aircraft. The film was provided by the U. S. Air Force.