Climbing the Peach Palm

The ingenuity of Yanomamö technology is revealed in the climbing frame used to scale the spiny trunk of the peach palm tree. Here a young man collects the fruit for his in-laws by means of two frames, each constructed of two crisscrossed poles. As he perches on one frame, he raises (or lowers) the other, onto which he carefully steps, continuing in this manner up (or down) the entire tree.

This film is part of the Yanomamö series, a collaborative project undertaken by filmmaker Timothy Asch and anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon between 1968 and 1971 to film the Yanomamö Indians of southern Venezuela and northern Brazil.

Climbing the Peach Palm was restored by DER with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation.

This film is available on the Yanomamö Shorts compilation two-disc DVD set. 

Disc One: Arrow Game, Children's Magical Death, Climbing the Peach Palm, A Father Washes His Children, Firewood, A Man and His Wife Make a Hammock, Tapir Distribution,Tug-of-War and Weeding the Garden.

Disc Two (Slopticals): Dedeheiwä Rests in His Garden, Children Roasting Meat, A Woman Spins, Children Make a Toy Hammock, Sand Play, Playing in the Rain, Mouth Wrestling, and Young Shaman.