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There are marked differences in the marketing of the show “Tribe” in the UK and America. The most obvious example is the title. In the UK, the show’s title is “Tribe”, which is simple, memorable, and carries far less associated baggage than the US title. Furthermore, “Tribe” is in the singular, and it implies that all of humanity belongs in one tribe, which the narrator and host, Bruce Parry, demonstrates when he stays with each group of people. The UK website is overflowing with links, slideshows, statistics, and maps about the groups featured on the show, including information about what the viewer can do to learn more about the changes the people are experiencing as well as links to Bruce Parry’s personal website and his various projects. The DVD set, which is made and sold in the UK, has different episode titles than the US episodes. The titles on the DVD are very short and consist of the triibe’s name, whereas on the US website, the titles are exotic and exciting. For instance, on the DVD, one episode is called “The Suri of Ethiopia”, but on the US website, the same episode is called, “Dangerous Game: the Suri”. Another example is “Babongo” versus “African Vision Quest”. It’s not hard to guess which title was found where. The way that the show is marketed in America is completely different. The name of the show is “Going Tribal” instead of “Tribe” which implies a radical change, a huge difference, and a degeneration for a “civilized” person to become tribal. It also sounds eerily similar to the colonial British phrase, “Going native,” a tight encapsulation of racism and ethnocentrism. The US website on the Discovery Channel has comparatively very little factual information on any of the groups featured in the show. It does, however, have a lot more “fun” content like jigsaw puzzles of still images from the show, a triva quiz, and a slideshow of 10 pictures that is supposed to encompass all three seasons of the show. As mentioned above, the US episode titles are also very different. See the end of this article for a full comparison of UK and US episode titles. Bruce Parry exhibits attempts to transcend cultural and linguistic barriers by living with select rural indigenous people. His goal is to see “how the people’s lives are changing” and accomplishes this by spending time with them. Specific amount of time varies and is not always specified, but is never less than 3 weeks. Aside from the introduction of episode, which consists of a montage of scenes from episodes in the season, the word “tribe” is rarely used. Bruce can be compared to Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider films in his constant transition from culture to culture. Throughout the episode, however, the difficulty of his task becomes obvious. Often, Bruce is the subject of a lot of laughter and ends of making a fool of himself in front of the villagers. This is shown by subtitles providing translations of conversations around him (that Bruce clearly doesn’t understand), his need to rely on a translator (sometimes two translators are necessary), and his difficulty in keeping up with the daily activities of his hosts. At the end, however, he usually ends up making friendships with the people he stays with, and they often express admiration at his willingness to try anything to fit in with them (even though he sometimes fails). Towards the end of an episode, the narration leads to discussion about change (ecology for the Babongo, or guns for the Suri), and the music changes. Sound from scene is eliminated and Bruce’s narrative voice takes over while the camera makes large sweeps of wide-shot images of the issue in discussion. For ecology and the Babongo, aerial shots of vast stretches of trees are shown and then the image changes to brown, dusty, empty clearings where the loggers have cleared trees. For the Suri, we see images of Suri men with guns, some sitting around, some practicing their stick-fighting. Most of the images are wide-shots showing groups, but sometimes, the camera zooms in s that the frame shows an individual very close up and also includes all or part of the gun he carries. What’s at stake in making a private event public? In “Tribe” Bruce Parry spends time living with a specific group of people to see the ways that their lives are changing. He tries to experience and participate in every part of their lives, from initiation ceremonies for young men, to religious cleansing rituals. By allowing Bruce to take part in their ceremonies and lives, the people are integrating an outsider into their communities for no apparent reason than for the sake of his knowledge and curiosity (although he does pay his hosts with food, money, and sometimes chickens or goats). In addition to the entrance into the people’s lives of Bruce, the individual, there is also a way in which the show provides a mechanism for the entire world (or, to be more realistic, the people in the Western world who watch the show) to enter into the people’s lives as well. Thus, experiences and rituals that were usually performed by and for people who had a specific understanding of them are taken out of context and performed for a (largely Western) audience who does not share that understanding. For example, before Hamar initiation ceremonies, the women of the male to be initiated are to provoke a certain group of men, who then whip them. The women closest to the young man are whipped the most. Bruce is absolutely horrified at the beating of the women, and equally amazed that they desire it. He fully acknowledges how his upbringing and worldview causes him to be disturbed by the whipping. He spends a lot of time during that episode to talk to the women and men about the whippings and also puts forth theories that “some anthropologists” have proposed to explain the whippings. For the Hamar, the ritual is perfectly normal, but for the audience, despite the interviews and explanations, it carries the same horror that it did for Bruce. Another example is Bruce’s initiation into the religion of the Babogno. The process was very time consuming and it involved taking a highly powerful hallucinogenic drug. For the Babongo, a man undergoing the process was only allowed to speak to his mentor of his experiences and feelings while under the influence of the drug, and no one else. Clearly, the experience is highly private and personal, even within that society. Although the cameras left Bruce during this time, they did spy on him from farther away. And although he didn’t describe his experiences directly, he did describe the feelings that he felt and the ways in which the experience changed him. The implications of the open broadcasting of these private experiences to any viewer with a TV ought to be carefully questioned. What happens when the private becomes public? RATING: 4/5 See a list of all the episodes you can watch!

View the Slideshow>>

There are marked differences in the marketing of the show “Tribe” in the UK and America. The most obvious example is the title. In the UK, the show’s title is “Tribe”, which is simple, memorable, and carries far less associated baggage than the US title. Furthermore, “Tribe” is in the singular, and it implies that all of humanity belongs in one tribe, which the narrator and host, Bruce Parry, demonstrates when he stays with each group of people. The UK website is overflowing with links, slideshows, statistics, and maps about the groups featured on the show, including information about what the viewer can do to learn more about the changes the people are experiencing as well as links to Bruce Parry’s personal website and his various projects. The DVD set, which is made and sold in the UK, has different episode titles than the US episodes. The titles on the DVD are very short and consist of the triibe’s name, whereas on the US website, the titles are exotic and exciting. For instance, on the DVD, one episode is called “The Suri of Ethiopia”, but on the US website, the same episode is called, “Dangerous Game: the Suri”. Another example is “Babongo” versus “African Vision Quest”. It’s not hard to guess which title was found where.

The way that the show is marketed in America is completely different. The name of the show is “Going Tribal” instead of “Tribe” which implies a radical change, a huge difference, and a degeneration for a “civilized” person to become tribal. It also sounds eerily similar to the colonial British phrase, “Going native,” a tight encapsulation of racism and ethnocentrism. The US website on the Discovery Channel has comparatively very little factual information on any of the groups featured in the show. It does, however, have a lot more “fun” content like jigsaw puzzles of still images from the show, a triva quiz, and a slideshow of 10 pictures that is supposed to encompass all three seasons of the show. As mentioned above, the US episode titles are also very different. See the end of this article for a full comparison of UK and US episode titles.

Bruce Parry exhibits attempts to transcend cultural and linguistic barriers by living with select rural indigenous people. His goal is to see “how the people’s lives are changing” and accomplishes this by spending time with them. Specific amount of time varies and is not always specified, but is never less than 3 weeks. Aside from the introduction of episode, which consists of a montage of scenes from episodes in the season, the word “tribe” is rarely used.

Bruce can be compared to Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider films in his constant transition from culture to culture. Throughout the episode, however, the difficulty of his task becomes obvious. Often, Bruce is the subject of a lot of laughter and ends of making a fool of himself in front of the villagers. This is shown by subtitles providing translations of conversations around him (that Bruce clearly doesn’t understand), his need to rely on a translator (sometimes two translators are necessary), and his difficulty in keeping up with the daily activities of his hosts. At the end, however, he usually ends up making friendships with the people he stays with, and they often express admiration at his willingness to try anything to fit in with them (even though he sometimes fails).

Towards the end of an episode, the narration leads to discussion about change (ecology for the Babongo, or guns for the Suri), and the music changes. Sound from scene is eliminated and Bruce’s narrative voice takes over while the camera makes large sweeps of wide-shot images of the issue in discussion. For ecology and the Babongo, aerial shots of vast stretches of trees are shown and then the image changes to brown, dusty, empty clearings where the loggers have cleared trees. For the Suri, we see images of Suri men with guns, some sitting around, some practicing their stick-fighting. Most of the images are wide-shots showing groups, but sometimes, the camera zooms in s that the frame shows an individual very close up and also includes all or part of the gun he carries.

What’s at stake in making a private event public? In “Tribe” Bruce Parry spends time living with a specific group of people to see the ways that their lives are changing. He tries to experience and participate in every part of their lives, from initiation ceremonies for young men, to religious cleansing rituals. By allowing Bruce to take part in their ceremonies and lives, the people are integrating an outsider into their communities for no apparent reason than for the sake of his knowledge and curiosity (although he does pay his hosts with food, money, and sometimes chickens or goats). In addition to the entrance into the people’s lives of Bruce, the individual, there is also a way in which the show provides a mechanism for the entire world (or, to be more realistic, the people in the Western world who watch the show) to enter into the people’s lives as well. Thus, experiences and rituals that were usually performed by and for people who had a specific understanding of them are taken out of context and performed for a (largely Western) audience who does not share that understanding. For example, before Hamar initiation ceremonies, the women of the male to be initiated are to provoke a certain group of men, who then whip them. The women closest to the young man are whipped the most. Bruce is absolutely horrified at the beating of the women, and equally amazed that they desire it. He fully acknowledges how his upbringing and worldview causes him to be disturbed by the whipping. He spends a lot of time during that episode to talk to the women and men about the whippings and also puts forth theories that “some anthropologists” have proposed to explain the whippings. For the Hamar, the ritual is perfectly normal, but for the audience, despite the interviews and explanations, it carries the same horror that it did for Bruce. Another example is Bruce’s initiation into the religion of the Babogno. The process was very time consuming and it involved taking a highly powerful hallucinogenic drug. For the Babongo, a man undergoing the process was only allowed to speak to his mentor of his experiences and feelings while under the influence of the drug, and no one else. Clearly, the experience is highly private and personal, even within that society. Although the cameras left Bruce during this time, they did spy on him from farther away. And although he didn’t describe his experiences directly, he did describe the feelings that he felt and the ways in which the experience changed him. The implications of the open broadcasting of these private experiences to any viewer with a TV ought to be carefully questioned. What happens when the private becomes public?

RATING: 4/5

See a list of all the episodes you can watch!