Auteur: Aures
Date: 2008-10-24 21:34:02
THE PEOPLE OF THE AURES MASSIF ( suite & fin)
-II-DISCUSSION
Before the paper the PRESIDENT (the EARL OF RONALDSHAY) said:
"" There is in North Africa, on the way to Biskra, a tract of country which rises like a rugged island from a sea of sand. It is known as the Aures massif, and, cut off by its geographical surroundings iron the rest of the world, its inhabitants, ancient tribes of the Berbers, have remained for long centuries of time practically isolated from the main currents of the world's progress. Here, then, was a fertile field for the investigations of a scientist interested in obscure races and in ancient civilizations and modes of life. And the scientist was forthcoming in Mr. Hilton-Simpson, who, with his wife, has been devoting his time and his abilities for a number of years past to penetrating the veil of darkness behind which these Berber tribes, the Shawiya, have for long sheltered from prying eyes.
During his last period of residence amongst them, Mr. Hilton-Simpson had the company of a young and enthusiastic American student from Oxford, Mr. Haeseler, whose ambition it is to form by degrees what may be described as a library of educational films depicting those races of the world which are gradually dying out, and so, before it is too late, placing on record their practices and customs.
We shall be favoured this evening with a view of what may be described as the first volume in Mr. Haeseler's library of films. We shall see, first of all, what Mr. Hilton-Simpson rather injudiciously, I think, described to me as the dull part of the lecture, namely, the geographical part!
Having seen something of the geography of the region, which surely is interesting enough in itself in view of the fact that the northern half of the region possesses all the characteristics of Southern Europe, while the southern half possesses all the characteristics of North Africa-having seen that part of the film we shall pass on to what the lecturer regards as the important and interesting part of the film, namely, a description of the people, their modes of agriculture, their methods of marketing and their special industries, in particular the industries of weaving and of pottery.
It will give you some idea of the profound interest attaching to this film and to the explanations of it which Mr. will give us, when I tell you that he is convinced that the method of weaving of which we shall be shown pictures this evening, goes back probably to 2000 B.C., while the methods of making pottery go back probably to 5000 B.C.
(Ce sont deux moyens, parmi tant d’autres, qui sont utilisés par les ethnologues afin de démontrer l’originalité et la CONSERVATION d’un quelconque procédé de fabrication et par ricochet l’estimation de l’ancienneté historique d’un peuple, de ses coutumes, etc. En d’autres mots, les analyses et les commentaires IMPLICITES de M. Hilton-Simpson et du Président se résument en: les aurésiens en particulier et les amazighs en général ont plus de 7000 ans d’histoire! ndlr)
That gives one an idea of the geographical isolation of the people who have carried on these early and primitive methods of industry through such a long series of centuries. I shall now have great pleasure in asking Mr. Hilton-Simpson to give us his comments upon the films which will very shortly be shown to us.""
Mr. Hilton-Simpson then showed the films with a running commentary which is summarized above and a discussion followed.
The PRESIDENT: I am sure you would like a word or two from Mr. Haeseler, who is the author of the film which we have seen this evening.
Mr. J. A. HAESELER: I thank you very heartily for your reception of the films. They are naturally very dear to me, for I have been planning and working in this connection for over five years and this is the first presentation of my results. Five years ago I spent a year travelling in China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. The diversity of peoples and customs that I encountered in those countries interested me immensely, and aroused in me at that time a desire to give students generally the same wealth of experiences I had undergone. But the presentation of such experiences was a difficult problem, for obviously travel could not be at all general. Finally the kinematograph appealed to me as being next to reality in vividness, and I decided to adopt that as my medium. Since then I have been laying a scientific foundation for my work by a study of ethnography, and besides this I have learned the technique of the kinematograph.
Tonight you have seen the results of my maiden voyage into the realms of that machine as a scientific and educational instrument. The films, I hope, are an indication of what the film may be in the future along lines different from those that have been followed in the past. We are apt to confuse the technique of the kinematograph with the ends to which it has been generally employed and I might even say perverted. And just as a pen in the hand of one man may produce a twopenny novel and in that of another a scientific work or a fine piece of literature, so can photography be turned to the ends of degenerate entertainment or to the creation of scientific and artistic productions.
It is, as the President has said, my ambition to build a library of films along the lines of geography, history, and ethnography. Tonight you have seen on the screen very primitive methods of weaving, pottery-making, and milling. Among other films that I have recently made, in Hungary, are a series of spinning and weaving showing the use of the spinning-wheel and mediaeval handloom that are still employed in the homes of the Hungarian peasants ; a series on pottery in which the potter's wheel is used ; and another series on windmills and water-mills. These, together with the films from Algeria, will go to make up pictures on the history of these industries which now only lack their modern chapters. So it is that the library is developing, each group of pictures fitting in with and supplementing those that have gone before.
The first volume of this collection we owe not only to the long years of detailed research of Captain and Mrs. Hilton-Simpson, but also to Captain Hilton-Simpson's perseverance. Shortly after I arrived in Algeria he suffered an accident; but regardless of pain and discomfort he travelled all through the mountains and carried the work through to a finish. I cannot express my gratitude to him, for had he given up the expedition, as might have been expected, the films you have seen to-night would not have been taken.
The PRESIDENT: One of the most interesting portions of the film we have seen tonight was the primitive form of weaving which still persists in the Aures massif.
We have with us one of the leading authorities upon the history of weaving, Mr. Ling Roth, the Director of the Halifax Museum. I am sure you would like to hear him on the subject.
Mr. LING ROTH: As a student of primitive spinning and weaving I may say that I have been very charmed with what I have seen to-night. My studies in primitive spinning and weaving, where I have not been to the actual countries, have been limited to a collection of looms at Bankfield Museum, and the illustrations to be seen in books of travel.
One of the great difficulties with travellers' illustrations is that the traveller wishes to show everything he has seen, and to get it all into one picture he mixes up the carding and the spinning and weaving and any other little process, so that it is impossible to make head or tail of it. Then again, so many of our travellers -I do not know if it is because they are not sufficiently taught before they go out- have brought home photographs which they cannot explain.
Tonight we have had a very good explanation indeed; in fact, although I have been a student of these industries for many years I am certain I could not have explained them better than Mr. Hilton-Simpson has done.
There are one or two points to which I would like to call attention:
1) I think the upright loom has been in Africa from the very earliest times, but I do not believe that the horizontal loom is Egyptian, as my friend appears to think.
I am inclined to think that it was introduced from the East, and not only that, but that it was introduced both via Madagascar and probably the Red Sea.
Altogether there are about seven different forms of looms in Africa. One is an upright Egyptian loom which we saw, and which is therefore, I think we may say, indigenous. But further south there is a mat loom which I think has also had its origin in Africa.
With regard to the upright loom, I had no idea that the weft could be put in so deftly with the fingers as we saw that woman do it; in fact, it reminded me of a modern mill, for there you can rarely trace the shuttle in the loom on account of the speed. One could hardly follow the fingers of the woman when putting the weft through, so smartly did she do it. Although she worked so quickly it naturally takes a long time to complete a piece, but then amongst primitive peoples time is no object.
2) Another excellent film was that showing the spinning. I cannot spin in that way, although I know how it is done. It was really very interesting to me to see how deftly the woman could draw a thread, both thick and thin, and I must congratulate Mr. Hilton-Simpson and Mr. Haeseler on the great success they have achieved with these films.
If some of them could be taken round to the schools they would do much to open the eyes of the children as to the history of the textile industry. In Halifax we have a large collection of primitive looms, but although I give many demonstrations, I cannot possibly do it as well as has been shown by the films you have seen tonight.
Mr. HENRY BALFOUR (Keeper of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford): I think we must all have appreciated thoroughly the amazing excellence of the films which we have seen. They appealed very forcibly to me as an ethnologist, because of the detail which comes out in regard to the industrial processes which we saw being practised before us. I think Mr. Haeseler has performed wonders in kinematographic photography on what may be described as his "maiden voyage."
All ethnologists, at any rate, will thank him very heartily indeed for having provided a permanent record of arts, industries, and customs which inevitably must die out when the Aures Mountains become opened up.
- One thing that struck me very much was the fact that the movements of the people, either when walking or performing any of the operations which we saw, were slow and dignified. There was nothing of that sort of high-speed clockwork-toy movement that spoils so many of the motion pictures. That is very satisfactory, and it all goes to show how successful Mr. Haeseler already is in the manipulation of the machine. It is unusual in primitive life for people to allow themselves to be photographed without noticing what is going on, and usually they become self-conscious and unnatural. But in all the pictures we have seen there was a total absence of self-consciousness on the part of the people. That, I think, is due almost entirely to Captain and Mrs. Hilton- Simpson's work in the Aures Mountains. During their prolonged visits to the Shawiya people they have established relations with them that have made them always welcome. Wherever they go they seem to have friends amongst the kaids, and they have won the confidence of the people completely.
Had it not been for this I do not think that we would have had the pleasure of seeing pictures of native life reproducing faithfully the native manner free from that taint of self-consciousness, I do not think that even Mr. Haeseier, with all his skill, could have obtained the results he did had it not been the case that Mr and Mrs. Hilton-Simpson had already won the confidence of the people through their tactful and sportsmanlike treatment of them.
- As regards the value of these films, it is very great indeed as a permanent record of the customs and arts of a people who eventually will, no doubt, become affected, I was going to say tainted, with civilization from the outside. ( Justement l’intérêt des aurésiens d’aujourd’hui, pour ce film, réside entre autres dans ces valeurs. C'est-à-dire: le film fait connaître, tout en sauvegardant d’une manière permanente, les faits et les gestes des aïeux. Il en est de même pour les photos prises par G. Tillion et autres ethnographes, ndlr)
It is not only that these films have an intrinsic interest as giving us a faithful picture of the people as they are today, but there is also the further interest that almost everything that we have seen this evening as performed by the natives seems to reflect events that are more or less dimly recorded in the past.
- Whole passages of the Classics can be illustrated by means of moving pictures of this kind, and it is here that the ethnologist comes to help the archaeologist, by endeavouring through a study of the primitive present to fill up gaps in the archaeological record. The two sciences come together with excellent effect, and there is a very great future, it seems to me, for further study in this direction.
Take, for example, that water-clock which you saw in operation just now. That is about the most primitive, the most rudimentary form of water-clock existing today. It also occurs in India, Ceylon, Burma, Malay States, and so on, but elsewhere it has been improved upon. In China modifications of it were made which eventually led up to such high-falutin water-clocks as that in the celebrated clock-tower in Canton, which is quite an elaborate structure.
The Greeks and Romans knew and improved the water-clock and used it habitually. Aristophanes and Demosthenes constantly referred to its use.
It was used in Mediaeval times in quite elaborate forms; but in the films you saw it surviving among the Shawiya in its most rudimentary form. That is very interesting. Whereas nearly all the complex descendants of water-clocks have died out, in the Aures massif we find the embryonic form still existing at the present time.
That film struck me as being one of the most interesting of all. I had not previously seen photographs of the water-clock in action, though I knew that such a time-measurer was still used in certain parts of the world.
There are a great many points of detail on which one would have been only too glad to have enlarged, but the time is getting on. The geographical side of the lecture has, perhaps, been a little in the background. We were shown in the first instance scenery which gave us a very good idea of the environment under which these people have lived, and it is very important to study the geographical background in connection with the ethnological aspect. It is owing to that rather severe environment that these people have been able to remain isolated and have been able to keep up their primitive industries, which have been so admirably illustrated in the pictures we have seen. I, for one, feel that I would like those people long to remain isolated, in order to give ample time for further research work by, we will hope, Captain and Mrs. Hilton-Simpson, which may result in an absolutely exhaustive study of this most interesting people. Personally, I would like to congratulate Captain Hilton-Simpson and Mr. Haeseler and to thank them for an extremely interesting and, I think, a highly profitable evening.
The PRESIDENT: It is almost superfluous, I think, for me to assure Mr.Hilton-Simpson and Mr. Haeseler of the appreciation which this Society feels of the instruction which they have given us this evening. We hope that Mr. Haeseler's ambitions will, as time goes on, be fulfilled, and that he will live to add many films to the library which he has started this evening. We hope also that Mr. Hilton-Simpson's work, which he is still carrying on in the Aures massif, will make as excellent progress in the future as it clearly has done in the past. We congratulate them both on the success which they have achieved, and offer them our heartiest good wishes for the future.
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