Kai Muller Robert Gardner Land Divers of Melanesia (1972)

On the island of Pentecost in the New Hebrides archipelago, Melanesians maintain a traditional life thanks to their geographic isolation and to the leaders who have resisted Christianity, schools and cooperatives. Bunlap, where this film was shot, is the largest and most important community of these people. To ensure a good yam crop, men of Pentecost Island in Melanesia attach vines to their ankles and dive headlong from a wooden tower over 100 feet tall, a ritual referred to as Naghol or landdiving.