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Clip description
Men are walking in line through the landscape carrying carved pieces of wood. Ru explains that the spirit goddess Amb Kor had appeared to him before but he and his supporters had done nothing and problems ensued. After he returns to his homeland, she appears to him again and they decide to perform the ceremony to avoid what happened before. Ritual experts are hired to guide them. One of them from the Kimke tribe speaks to the group about the procedure.
Curator’s notes
Anthropologist Professor Andrew Strathern has explained earlier in the film that the Kawelka tribal group had been driven from their tribal lands (Kuk) through warfare in pre-colonial times. They eventually return to Kuk for the better land for coffee and the rich pasture for their pigs. When Ru finally moves back, later than most of the others, the goddess Amb Kor finds him again. He seeks advice from experts 'experienced in the cult’.
In Bridewealth for a Goddess, the word ‘cult’ is often used as well as ‘ritual’. Cult originally denoted a system of ritual practices like the ones in this film, whereas now the word can have a negative tone referring to a group whose beliefs or practices might be considered sinister.
