Feeding the Pigs # 42

Feeding The Pigs (Fidim Pikpik)

09:15, Friday 14th June, Museum Auditorium

rai 42 feeding-the-pigs

  • Director/Anthropologist: Peter I. Crawford, Jens Pinholt
  • Year of Release: 2012
  • Duration: 5 mins
  • Country of Production: Denmark
  • Location: Reef Islands, Solomon Island
  • Ethnic Group: Aiwoo (Reef)
  • Language: Aiwoo (No Subtitles) Intertitles and credits in English

In some of the diverse cultures of the Pacific, especially in Melanesia, the pig is the most important domesticated animal. It is predominantly used for ceremonial purposes such as in funerals, weddings, and age-set rituals. Several of the films in the long-term Reef Islands Ethnographic Film Project thus show the killing of pigs in conjunction with such events, at times giving a somewhat disturbing impression of human-animal relationships, particularly for audiences used to only seeing meat wrapped in cellophane at the local supermarket. In this short film a mummy, daddy, and their little son go out to feed their pigs, conveying the impression of an altogether different human-animal relationship, one of tenderness, care, and love, whilst also showing how children learn through awareness of animals, nature and technology.

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Organised by the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain & Ireland (RAI) since 1985, it is an itinerant festival that moves biennially from one university host to another, in association with local community and cultural organisations.

The festival will be held from Thursday 13 June to Sunday 16 June 2013 in Edinburgh, hosted by National Museums Scotland and the STAR consortium. Scottish Training in Anthropological Research (STAR) is a collaboration between the Universities of Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and St. Andrews. Over 60 new films will be screened alongside a conference 'New Observations' and a selection of special events and workshop about art & anthropology and the use of archival film.

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