Synopsis
Want to support this channel and help us preserve old films? MIS was founded in 1945 by the Moody Bible Institute and Irwin A. Moon as an evangelical group that used scientific methods to promote certain religious viewpoints to viewers. This film uses the fall of great civilizations such as the Incas, Mayas, Aztecs and Romans as a case study to warn against moral decay and its ability to cause even the mightiest of civilizations to collapse. Composed of footage of Mayan ruins, Machu Picchu, and from the villages of Inca and Mayan descendants, the film tries to paint these people in a “primitive” light who have fallen off course from the glory days of their ancestors. When it was released, the film was roundly condemned in the academic press, with a reviewer in "American Anthropologist" stating that in her opinion,"... It combines psychologically questionable scare tactics with an outdated mid-nineteenth century premise, inaccuracies of omission and commission, with a smattering of fact to give an aura of scientific accuracy. And all of this to ‘prove’ an untenable, ridiculous, ethnocentric interpretation of cultural adaptation.” Aerial view African mud houses (0:24). Montage customs, medicinal practices, agriculture remote tribes in Africa, Central and South America (0:44-4:07). Mayan baby head flattening ritual (1:13). Women preparing Chicha fermented corn drink (1:45). Woman rom Surma tribe of Ethiopia with lip plugs/ plates (2:07). Aerial view from cockpit of plane,…
Uploader's description on archive.org
Details
- Running time
- 22 minutes
- Collection
- Ephemeral Films
Subjects on the Internet Archive
- 1972
- Moody
- Bible Institute
- Maya
- Inca Civilization
- Primitive Man
- Stock Footage
- Periscope Film
