Disappearing World

The Panare of Venezuala still live the same way of live they have always known, and refuse to accept outside influences. There are no laws, and everyone is equal. But how long can they survive the onslaught of the developed world?

There are only 600 Cuiva, a group of nomadic hunters left in Columbia, with perhaps another 400 across the border in Venezuela. They once roamed the plains, but now are restricted to a small strip of land.

There are around 10,000 Embura river people living in Colombia, but the government are about to drive the last of the Pan-American highway right through their territory. They also face constant threat from descendants of former Negro slaves

Protestants and Catholics compete to enforce their religion on the traditional Maku and Barasana people of the forests of Colombia.

The Tuareg live in the Sahara dessert at the foot of the mountains of Algeria. After a couple of invasive visits by white troops, very few remain living the traditional life of status veils and tea drinking.

Originally Aborigines in North and Central China, the 250 000 remaining Meo have been forced southwards, and now live in villages around Southern China and South East Asia.

At the shrine of the god Kataragama in the jungle of Ceylon, there is a festival of payment for help received. This film focuses on one family who need his help to find their missing 11-year old son.

The Dervishes are a group of Kurds, a people who have no homeland, who are being allowed to live in Iran.

The Mursi are a tribe in Ethiopia who, when not worshipping Allah, are at constant war with their neighbours, the Bodi.

In the Shinghu National Park in Central Brazil live the 70-strong Mehinacu, a tribe in which men and women have distinctly different roles, almost like two communities sharing the same land.

The Masai live along the Rift Valley near the Kenya-Tanzania border. They keep large amounts of cattle, for whom they have great respect, and the men have many wives, who they also see as a form of wealth.

High up in the Andes of Peru, live the Quechua, who breathe the thin air and grow potatoes far away from the rest of the world.

The influential leader of New Guinea's Kawelka tribe spends five years amassing an abundance of valuable items including 600 pigs and a motorbike only to give them away in a festive ceremony called the Moka.

The Sakuddei are a small clan of traditional people living in the rain-forests of Siberut in The Mentawai Islands off the west coast of the mainland of Sumatra. But modernized Indonesians want to inflict their culture and religion upon them.

In east Africa, across the borders of Kenya and Tanzania is Loita, where we now follow the Masai men during their ritual in preparation for mandatory moranhood, which means serving as a warrior.

Presents the role of witchcraft among the Azande in spite of their acceptance of Christianity. Focuses on its usage in adjudicating disputes, curing illness, assuring success in the hunt, and purification of the newborn.

Examines the matrilineal and polygamous Asante society of Ghana through interviews with women, who exercise complete authority in the wholesale produce market, and with their husbands and children.

Documents life among the Kayapo Indians of central Brazil, a fiercely independent tribe, who were forced to become "businessmen" or see their traditional way of life destroyed.

Documents the opposition of the Kayapo Indians of central Brazil to the construction of a hydroelectric dam at Altamira.

A description of a village on Kiriwina Island, in the Trobriand Group, including their yam cult, fishing, life, traditions and, especially, the position of women in Trobriand society.

In a Muslim/Catholic village near Sarajevo, rumors fly and suspicions spread. When Catholic Croats assert control, Muslim businesses are attacked, villagers arrested and harassed, and homes threatened.