- Bilad Chinqit: The Land of Chinguetti (Mauritania, 59 min) (DVD quality)
- A Forgotten Place: The History of an Abandoned Farming Community (North Carolina, 52 min.) (DVD quality)
- The Greatest Good (United States, 124 min.) (High Definition)
- In Vivid Color: Voices from Shiloh’s Mound (Tennessee, 22 min.) (DVD quality)
- Signs Out of Time: The Story of Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas (Worldwide, 59 min.) (DVD quality)
I chose to take a look at the Marija Gimbutas video, because I've always been fascinated by this controversial and eclectic scholar. To watch the video, you must download and install the VIRCAS software, and to do that you must provide a working email address. The software checks your bandwidth and, based on that, plays a version of whichever video you choose that fits your bandwidth.
The image quality is excellent and the software easy to install and play. And, as an aside, the video was worth the look--it gave a fairly balanced viewpoint of Marija Gimbutas, although as is usually the case in things about Gimbutas, archaeologists wear the black hats. Gimbutas was a grand synthesizer, using 20th century folk traditions to explain deep prehistory. She took a lot of criticism from archaeologists for doing so, for authoritatively stating her understanding of past as The Truth. The goddess notion she developed is a truth, for sure, but is it The Truth? I guess we really have no way of knowing. The video does provide some reasonably favorable comments from archaeologists Colin Renfrew, Ruth Tringham and Margaret Conkey amongst the completely supportive artists, poets and historians whose names I didn't recognize.
All in all, I think this is an interesting experiment, so take a look if you can. I'm not sure how long this experiment will be available--I received the email on September 1, and the program was described as a ten-day trial, so try to get a look in before September 11.
Comments
I just watched the Greatest Good in HD. Wow! I wish they had more documentaries available…
just tried watching them… too late… sigh…
Fascinated by the accounts of this “peaceful” period of human history. I decided to read some of Marija’s stuff. I started with “The language of the Goddess” and was very much taken aback when I got to chapter 13. I then read in Marija’s own account, “During the Late Glacial and early Post-Glacial periods, c. 20,000-12,000 B.C., the hunting people of northwestern Europe sacrificed young by weighing them with stones and throwing them into the waters. Such a practice was observed at the Melendorf and Stellmoor sites near Hamburg, Germany (Rust 1937,1943)At Stellmoor 45 such buried carcasses were found”. In summation Marija comments, “Perhaps Mother Doe, the great life giver, required sacrifices of young life each year to strengthen her powers to create anew?” So I learned that this civilization and belief system was not without it’s down side. I don’t know, am I being unfair to suggest that perhaps a little more balance would have been in order in Marija’s conjectures of the effects of this belief system on the society of the time?
@ m.m. nielsen:
The videos are still available for watching. I tried yesterday and it worked great.