James Woodburn interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 2nd June 2005 - Second part

0:00:05 Memories of post-graduate seminar;  Edmund Leach's disagreement with Meyer Fortes over data analysis;  Jack Goody supervised my PhD for a while; very influenced by 'Death, Property and the Ancestors' which contrasted with attitude of Hadza to property; sharing a moral obligation among the Hadza; disagrees with idea that reciprocity is fundamental in human societies

0:09:09 Own work on equality in society developed from fieldwork but also a prevalent idea in Britain at that time; among Hadza, differences of power, status and wealth systematically subverted; these mechanisms promote equality; not possible to do this among peasant farmers where there is a need for control over land and labour

0:15:00 Differences between hunter-gatherers; distinction between immediate return systems and delayed return systems; control of ritual "property" among Australian aborigines creates delayed return; in Africa most striking delayed return hunter-gatherers are the Okiek of Kenya through honey; very similar to African peasants and many have become such; immediate return hunter-gatherers are not effective farmers and typically work as labourers on the farms of peasants

0:24:56 Attraction of working and living among the Hadza; highly distinctive group linguistically and socially; importance of language; enduring challenge to understand them; Hadza have been under increasing threat; land stolen and discrimination; feel an obligation to try to help them by publishing articles on their plight; Hadza feel angry and let down by everyone, including me; feel that it is a fundamental human right that hunter-gatherers are allowed to work out their own future on their land which may include some agriculture or other exploitation but by them

0:31:39 Interest in film in anthropology; feel most important role is for the people who were filmed; to preserve an archive of their way of life; also film valuable in teaching and at the R.A.I. from the 1960's started a library of ethnographic films; preoccupation in making films available now much easier with digitisation; there was a conflict between doing field research and filming because of the difficulties of using 16mm equipment; at that time better to do research first then go back to make film applying knowledge learnt earlier; little knowledge even now about making ethnographic film and the many techniques that have been developed; feel that film should be based on ethnographic knowledge; much that is produced for television is disgraceful

0:39:21 Taught at L.S.E. for many years; early on very impressed by Raymond Firth, also Maurice Freedman; respect the work of Jonny Parry, particularly his work on the gift; in conclusion, would like people to read my work on hunter-gatherers; plea for respect for hunter-gatherers' way of life; in the past did not want to criticize Africans, but their behaviour towards hunter-gatherers is a breach of human rights which should be addressed by African governments