The TLV media list features a thoughtfully curated selection of influential books, documentaries, channels, and websites that have sparked critical reflection and paradigm shifts throughout a wide-ranging anthropological journey. Inclusion does not imply full endorsement of every perspective; rather, each entry is recommended for those with an anthro-curious mind seeking to explore meaningful ideas. This is an evolving collection, expanded as further discoveries and recollections arise.
Reading List
Arabian Sands – Thesiger, Wilfred. Arabian Sands. London: Longmans, 1959. (Penguin Classics edition, 1991)
Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture – Hemenway, Toby. Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture. 2nd Edition. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009.
Guns, Germs and Steel – Diamond, Jared M. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997
Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective – McElroy, Ann & Townsend, Patricia K. Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective. 6th Edition. New York: Routledge, 2015.
One River – Davis, Wade. One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
Websites
Watch List
From the Heart of the World: The Elder Brothers’ Warning
Director: Alan Ereira
Originally broadcast as a BBC TV film in 1990. This film presents the Kogi’s urgent message to ‘Younger Brother’ (the rest of humanity).
* Available to stream free on YouTube ([YouTube full documentary, 1:26:54])
The Great Dance: A Hunter’s Story
Directors: Craig Foster, Damon Foster
Year: 2000
The documentary follows three San (Bushman) hunters in the Kalahari Desert, focusing on their extreme endurance, hunting traditions, and deep connection with the natural world.
Life And Debt
Director: Stephanie Black
Year: 2001
This documentary explores the economic and social situation in Jamaica after globalization, focusing especially on how the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank’s structural adjustment policies impacted the country.
The Midwife’s Confession
Director/Journalist: Amitabh Parashar (BBC Eye Investigates)
Year: 2024
Thirty years ago, Indian journalist Amitabh Parashar uncovered the shocking confessions of rural midwives in Bihar who admitted to routinely murdering baby girls at birth, coerced by families burdened by cultural and economic pressures. This BBC Eye documentary follows these midwives’ journey to becoming lifesavers, chronicling a transformative grassroots campaign and the ongoing fight against female infanticide and abandonment in India
Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
Director: Matt Wolf
Year: 2019
This documentary chronicles the extraordinary life of Marion Stokes, a reclusive activist who secretly recorded American television news 24 hours a day for over 30 years, amassing more than 70,000 VHS tapes and preserving an unparalleled archive of media history. Stokes’ lifelong commitment—viewed as both madness and brilliance—offers profound insight into one woman’s quest to safeguard the truth and document how television shaped public consciousness
The West: The People (1500-1806)
Producer: Ken Burns
The episode explores the transformation of North America with the arrival of Europeans, the resulting clash of cultures, and the experiences of Native peoples from the 1500s to the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1806.