Nigeria

Anthropologist Francis Paine Conant made this film as part of his dissertation for Columbia University. The film documents the use of the tools Conant collected for the AMNH from the peoples of northcentral Africa. Conant filmed Fulani (i.e. Fulbe), Hausa, and the "pagan" Dass (i.e. Maguzawa) people performing various tasks. Two men build a cone or cylinder house; a bow is made by bending a straight branch, one end of which is anchored in a tree hole as the other is tugged until the desired curve is made; arrows are made of sticks that have been smoked in a mound of ashes to dry and harden them, after which they are polished with a stone. A man operates a double treadle loom weaving a narrow strip of cloth; a blacksmith shapes an arrowhead, axhead, and small saw (his hand-pumped bellows are also filmed); a woman demonstrates potmaking, by the coil method, through all stages of construction and firing; and men and women harvest corn and grain, and the corn is then pounded and winnowed. Conant created a large grid and found volunteers to participate in an effort to show body movements involved in the use of implements. White stripes were painted down the volunteers' backs, arms, and legs; then they were filmed performing tasks in front of the grid. A man using a hoe, and the same man with a bow and arrow, pretending to stalk game and poising to shoot, appear in front of the grid in the film. The last part of the film examines music-making. Rocks beaten together and upturned bowls hit with sticks act as percussive instruments; some men play small bowed instruments; others play small skin drums; men and women dance and sing alone and in groups. One dancer wears a costume made of straw while another holds a pole ornamented with a mirror in a dance that is probably a harvest celebration.