Science Expedition Goes to Africa To Record Bushmen on Film, Tape

The "pepper-corn" haired bushmen of remote Africa will receive a visit this year from members of an expedition sponsored jointly by the Peabody Museum and the Smithsonian Institute.

The visitors plan to live in Africa from mid-November to May. They are making the last of six expeditions to the Bushmen who live in the Kalahari desert. The scientists are especially interested in the Kung tribe, and they have already made records of native scenes, music, and language on 250,000 feet of colored motion picture film and hundreds of feet of tape recordings.

Laurence K. Marshall of Cambridge will lead the group for the sixth time. With him will be his son, John Marshall '55, Robert Gesteland, of the University of Michigan and M.I.T., and Robert G. Gardner '48.

The Bushmen are one of the few social groups in the world today showing little sign of contact with higher civilization. It is feared, however, that the distinctiveness of their culture will soon be lost, as they come into increasing contact with surrounding tribes of Bantus.

Numbering about 6,000, the Bushmen are short in stature with extremely curly "pepper-corn" hair. Their skin is dark but with unique reddish hues. Their language and religion are also distinctive.

A member of Mr. Marshall's family stated that the Kung tribe "thinks that two wives are a very good idea." There are not enough women to go around twice, so only about 10 per cent of the Kung tribesmen are polygamous.