The Shock of the Other

Discussion guide

Be sure to preview these questions in order to prepare for a meaningful discussion of the film: The Search for the Other (D. Mayberry Lewis, 1996) The Millennium Series. Tribal Wisdom in the Modern World.
 

The film you will see is actually an account of scenes behind the scenes. It is the opening in a series of approximately 12 full length TV films made for Public Television.
 

The author Mayberry-Lewis is a long time anthropologist, with his own web site, who in the film  is providing leadership to a number of organizations dedicated to preserving the wisdom of the tribal way of life. He uses his skills as ethnographer to take us on a journey.
 

The journey is as much about Mayberry-Lewis as it is about a lost tribe of indigenous people living in the Amazon rain forest.

The women of this tribe have been sighted, and the film you watch is about the struggle of the producers to make a film about a difficult topic. The topic is difficult to film for a number of reasons.

You of course are going to be asked to detect the difficulties at many levels.

You are also asked to find the analogies that are there that liken the preparation for a field based expedition to a field based study. They are there, and we learn much from the film about our own predicaments.
 

The connections with Geertz are also very important. Geertz's guidance in how to discover the Other in an authentic and credible way is found implicitly throughout the commentary that supports the video.

Prepare to watch the film with these questions in mind.
 

• What is the importance of the physical setting to the direction of the research?

 
• What are the ethical problems faced the producer/researcher in the pursuit of his objectives.

 
• How many different kinds of barriers to the study present themselves throughout the film?

 
• How does Mayberry-Lewis confront the Other?  What sources of insight does he draw upon?

• Is it reasonable to see his relationship with Atawe as a parallel or foil to the problem of discovery of a lost people?

• Mayberry-Lewis goes into the Amazon basin with a team.  How broadly defined must the team membership be?

 
• What is learned from the team members?

• How does the biography and presence of the researcher play a role in this film?

• What elements of Marshall and Rossman's directives for a conceptual model appear in the film?

 
• What elements of grounded theory could be identified in the film as well?

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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