Shelton, Kim
1998 Lost Borders: Coming of Age in the Wilderness. Oley, Pennsylvania: Bullfrog Films.
Notes: VHS color, 56 mins.Reviewed 25 May 2004 by:
Raymond A. Bucko <bucko@creighton.edu>
Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USAMedium: Film/Video Subject
Keywords:Teenagers, Counseling of
Adolescent psychology
Vision quests
Survival skills
ABSTRACT: This work documents a recreated vision quest for adolescents held in California relating the experiences of those undergoing the rite of passage with some commentary on the importance of primal religion and the revival of ritual in contemporary society. The film does not make any mention of conflicts over precisely these types of ritual by Native American and other indigenous peoples who consider this to be cultural appropriation. The mode of analysis and approach to this ritual is more self/psychological than group/cultural.
This piece, from Bullfrog Films, chronicles an 11-day ôrite of passageö created for a group of eastern California adolescents in the late 1990s by Steven Foster and his partner Meredith Little. These two adult mentors prepare teens for a ôvision quest." We listen to the youths talk about their troubled lives during the preparation period before the quest begins. The actual 3-day quest is not filmed, but there is plenty of nature footage, and soothing music underscores the youngstersÆ voices as they describe their experiences. Upon their return, they relate their own experiences while on the quest (including some who came back early and went back out again) and listen to Foster and Little give earnest if banal advice: rely on yourself, be yourself, tell your story, and itÆs your dance and no one elseÆs. The final phase of the ritual is described by the leaders as reincorporation into the world and society but one does not have a sense that there is really anything to be reincorporated into except rugged American individualism and self-sufficiency. The film concludes with participants rejoined with some family members and tearfully telling their tales.More like reality TV than a documentary, the film solemnly shows us ritual fires, feathers, obsidian arrow heads, four directions, a talking stick (the colored rod with feathers on it held in the film while individuals speak), use of the circle, smudging, rattles and drumming, and medicine names. Everything is vaguely Native American, but Foster and Little claim these elements belong to some sort of pan-primal past, supposedly lost to the present save for its re-creation at events like this. They explain that vision quests are of great antiquity and found in a variety of primal cultures, while blithely ignoring the protests of Native communities over exactly this kind of co-option and exploitation of indigenous religious rituals by non-Natives (Brown 1994; Butterfield 1990; Churchill 1990; Churchill 1992; Donaldson 1999; Emerson 1991; Green 1988; Hagan 1992; Hall and Couch 1992; Johnson 1993; Johnson 1994; Johnston 1993; Little Eagle 1991a; Little Eagle 1991b; Little Eagle 1991c; Little Eagle 1991d; Little Eagle 1991e; Little Eagle 1991f; Little Eagle 1992a; Little Eagle 1992b; Magnuson 1989; Michel 1994a; Michel 1994b; Michel 1995; Porterfield 1990; Rose 1992; Schweidlenka 1993; Shaw 1995; Smith 1991; Smith 1994; Sowers 1993; Spektor 1989; Taylor 1997; Taylor 2001; Welch 2002; Wernitznig 2003; York 2001; Ziff and Rao 1997).
The ritual we see in the film is more anchored in the writings of Mirceau Eliade (Eliade 1954; 1969; 1985; 1996; 2004), Victor Turner (Turner 1967; 1974; 1979; 1982; 1986; 1995; Turner and International African Institute. 1968; Turner and Turner 1985; 1992), Joseph Campbell (Campbell 2002; 2004; Campbell, et al. 2003; Campbell and Moyers 1988) and Arnold Van Gennep (Gennep 1960) than in the lived experience of any specific community with a particular culture, primal or otherwise. Clearly this invented ritual assembles a group of non-related people to create a ômomentaryö community based on individual interest and need rather than a genuine community whose rituals create continuity as well as transformation of communal roles and relations with more of a balance between self and society.
All of this is rather intriguing and iconic of the postmodern world we live in. While genuine rites of passage are integral to many contemporary cultures and perform a variety of social and religious functions, only post-modern society self-consciously creates rituals from the theoretical structures and individual needs, rather than using rituals that remain viable within the culture that are related more to communal needs. It is on this level that the film would be very useful in the anthropology classroom beyond its obvious psychological, therapeutic, and developmental appeal. In the same genre as the sociological work æBowling AloneÆ (Putnam 2000), this documentary serves as an ethnographic example of post-modern approaches to ritual and a sincere attempt at social reconstruction and integration rather than an analytical treatment of the dilemmas of contemporary society itself.
I have always been an advocate of DurkheimÆs caveat that the psychological answer is the incorrect one. Although the film itself provides little of its own context, the credits at the end provide the ômissing linkö to the historical and cultural realities of this retreat movement by providing a web link to the School of Lost Borders (http://www.schooloflostborders.com/lb/fasts/index.cfm) as well as a list of similar wilderness ritual experiences. The School was founded in 1981 by Meredith and Steven. Steven died in May 2003 and Meredith shifted her focus from rites of passage to mourning rituals. The School of Lost Borders continues to sponsor vision fasts for youth and adults as well as variety of other rituals and training experiences. Additionally there are a variety of books and events around the concepts of ôecotherapyö, ôecopsychologyö and neo-shamanism produced by Lost Borders Press (a href="http://www.schooloflostborders.com/lb/press/index.cfm">http://www.schooloflostborders.com/lb/press/index.cfm) as well as other publishers.
The film lasts 84 minutes with a 56 minute version also available. The complete film can be a bit tedious but may help to teach ôfield patienceö to students who prefer to get down to issues. Bullfrog Films provides a study guide (pdf) geared more to recreating experiential moments in the film than to analyzing the filmÆs cultural context. Nevertheless, given the above caveats and contexts, the film is recommended for social anthropology classes.
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To cite this review, the American Anthropological Association recommends the following style:
Bucko, Raymond A.
2004 Review of Lost Borders: Coming of Age in the Wilderness. Anthropology Review Database. May 25. Electronic document, http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=1727, accessed February 9, 2010.© Anthropology Review Database
(available online: http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/)