Film short abstract:

An educatonal documentary about an aging anthropologist presenting materials she collected during her initial fieldwork to the village where she worked 45 years previously. The film explains an anthropological approach and its advantages for understanding society to a non-specialist audience.

Film long abstract:

This film was made when I returned to the village in Kyushu, Japan, where I did one year's fieldwork (in the old style) 45 years ago. At that time I collected family trees and much other information about the people living in the 54 houses, and I also made a villagewide chart showing how people in different houses were (or were not) related to each other. I have returned several times over the years, and written many books and articles using the material I gathered here and elsewhere, but the villagers don't read English and a BBC film made in the village was more interesting for them than my written work. When I was given a grant to take back the family trees and other materials written in Japanese, I was delighted therefore that my son agreed to come and make a film of the process. The film also explains the work I have done over all these years to anyone who cares to watch it so that the anthropological endeavour is made clear. In this way I have fulfilled a responsibility I felt both to the people who helped me to put my career together, and to a wider public who I think might thereby gain an understanding of the advantages of some of the work we anthropologists do.