A Rite of Passage

This film, shot in 1952-53, documents the scarification ceremony called "marking," which was traditionally held for Ju/'hoan boys after they had killed their first large animal. Here, /Ti!kay, a boy of thirteen, shoots his first wildebeest with an arrow. /Ti!kay's father, Kan//a, and Crooked /Qui help the young hunter track, skin, and butcher the animal. 

After the meat is brought back to the village, a scarification ceremony takes place, symbolizing the importance of hunting and /Ti!kay's passage into social manhood. He is now considered an acceptable son-in-law by the parents of the girl to whom he has long been betrothed.

A Rite of Passage was filmed on a 1952/53 expedition to the Kalahari Desert, led by Laurence K. Marshall and sponsored by the Peabody Museum of Harvard and the Smithsonian Institution.

This film is part of the John Marshall !Kung Collection which includes a total of thirty titles documenting a Ju/hoansi (!Kung) community in Namibia and produced between 1951 and 2002.

This title is available on the !Kung Shorts DVD. This compilation DVD includes a selection of the short sequence films documenting the Ju/hoansi community as Marshall experienced it in the 1950s. This collection combines fourteen of Marshall's short !Kung films onto two DVDs, complete with a full-color booklet containing photos, writings, and additional information about the series.

Disc One: 

A Curing Ceremony (bw) (9:00)

A Group of Women (6:00)

A Joking Relationship (3:00)

N!owa T'ama: The Melon Tossing Game (15:00)

N/um Tchai: the Ceremonial Dance of the !Kung Bushmen (bw) (20:00)

Lion Game (5:00)

An Argument about Marriage (18:00)

Men Bathing (14:00)

Disc Two: 

Playing with Scorpions (5:00)

A Rite of Passage (15:00)

Debe's Tantrum (9:00)

The Wasp Nest (13:00)

The Meat Fight (14:00)

Baobab Play (8:00)

Orthography Note

The group of people depicted in these films are the Ju/'hoansi, speakers of the Ju/'hoan language. Ju/'hoan is part of the !Kung language group; the term !Kung was previously used by the Marshall family and others to refer to Ju/'hoansi. Although the term is outdated, it has been retained here for the sake of consistency with John Marshall's previously published work. The films and their related printed materials also employ antiquated spellings of names and places. For current Ju/'hoan orthography, please see the Ju/'hoan - English Dictionary, compiled by Patrick Dickens and the Ju/'hoan Peoples Literacy Committee.