Moutains of the Moons Essay

The film “Mountains of the moon” which is directed by Bob Rafelson, is talking about an adventure of 2 brave British men. Those men are Captain Richard Burton and Lt. John Speke, their dream is to explore the source of the Nile river which is located in Africa, a whole new world to white people.

 After watching the movie, I have acknowledge many new things about tribal culture and thoughts that relate the movie to anthropology. First of all, talking about the main characters in the movie, Burton and Speke, they both have the same mind set and similar goals. They all have the desire and dedicated to be the first white man to find the source the Nile.  Burton is a scientist and Speke is an aristocrat. However, there are still some paradox in their characters. Because as a scientist, Burton really want to spend time to study about uncharted lands and tribal culture and this expedition is a really rare chance for him to do it. While for Speke, he really want to make his name and fortune by discovering new land. On the long trip to explore new land, they have met a lot of strange things like wild life, tribes, fights and complicated cultures. When passing through a group of natives who are really aggressive with spears and ready to fight at any time. Burton, Speke and their men try to show them the garment which is really rare for the native. They all made friend with each other and spitting milk on faces which is a good sign and Speke did not know about this. Because in his British culture, if he has done this tradition with other white man, it will be very rude. In anthropology point of view, this example is relate to the cultural anthropology field. The society in African tribes are much different from British society, native people have their own way to treat others. Burton and Speke even met a slave which sentenced to be dead, the slave with handcuffs was put in the middle of desert with full of lions and wild animals. The way people getting death sentence is also strange and savage in tribes. Both men have been through a tough time when Burton got wound by speared in his mouth, cracked his legs and Speke got bugs in ears. The bad experiences have taught them how this land working and the way to cope with it. Speke used candle gel to force the bug to go out, he even used needle to kill the bug inside his ear which is really painful. Burton has to cut his feet for him not to be dead by the wound. On the journey, they met with a huge tribe and was harm to be prisoners. Burton save their own lives by gifting the king of the tribe a gun. After that, Speke decided to continue the journey to find the Nile while Burton rested in the tribe. Burton was drugged and killed his own native friend while seeing the king kill his chief minister of the tribe. He was really shocked and I can feel this moment change Burton’s mind set and everything about the Nile expedition. The savage culture and inhuman experiences that Burton has been through really make him a different man. Even when Speke confirmed that he found the source of the Nile, Burton would not believe it and thought it was irrelevant. We can observe that one of the important thing to be success in the long journey is communication. The way Burton and Speke communicate and talk with native people is through another native who can speak both English and native language. Speke did find a good native guy who can speak fluently both languages and willing to follow him on the journey. In the film, Burton and Speke do not try to learn the native language. However, this example can be related to linguistic anthropology. The reason is these explorers can actually do research on the structure and function of native languages, they can totally learn it through the native guy.

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