***Trigger warning. This article contains graphic content**
I gulped when I read the list of ‘content warnings’ sent to me before I watched the BBC’s reboot of Tribe with Bruce Parry.
They were, but not limited to: goat strangulation, circumcision and children’s teeth being knocked out. I gulped for the second time.
I suppose I can’t say I wasn’t aware of what I was getting myself into when flicking on the first episode of Tribe. I certainly wasn’t expecting The One Show.
In the docuseries, much like the original programme, which ran from 2005 until 2007, Parry lives with indigenous communities in far-flung corners of the globe and mucks in to learn about their customs and way of life. To that end, (nearly) nothing is off-limits.
In fact, you could only describe Parry’s approach to various eye-opening tribal rituals as ‘wholehearted.’ Not long into the first episode, which follows the 56-year-old filmmaker living with The Waimaha deep in the Amazon, he gulps down yagé, also known as the psychoactive drug ayahuasca.
The intention of consuming the drink is to vomit to cleanse the stomach and Parry knows this. Despite the threat of spewing his guts up everywhere looming over his head, Parry accepts the cup of yagé. He is a stronger person than I, although maybe not of a stronger constitution, as he immediately starts projectile vomiting for what seems like minutes (and in vomiting time, hours) on end.
I was, I’m afraid, cursing the BBC for not editing the scene to relieve me of seeing Parry’s breakfast, lunch and dinner cascading into the Amazon, so I turned away.
Now, though, I’m disappointed I didn’t keep my eyes on the screen. Not because I have a blossoming morbid fascination with watching a middle-aged man vomiting, but because it means I missed the point of Tribe entirely.
Tribe, and I think Parry would agree, is not just a bit of entertainment on a Sunday night. It’s part of a new wave of programming that seeks to hold a mirror up to society and its flaws, like, to a certain extent, but not to the same degree, ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office and Netflix’s Adolescence.
Here, the lesson is that we’re too judgmental. And who am I to judge a sacred ritual when I’ll happily neck pints on the weekend and occasionally with the same results anyway?
Who am I to judge Parry strangling a goat with the Mucubal tribe in Angola? Particularly when the Mucubal tribe have practically zero carbon footprint and I’ve already booked flights for my summer holiday?
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And it’s not just the hypocrisy, either. We should respect Indigenous communities and their practices, regardless, as they are increasingly under threat, from forced assimilation to land dispossession.
Most of all, though, Tribe teaches us that tolerance and acceptance go a long way; a vital takeaway in this ever-polarised and divided world. As the TV show, what makes the world so wonderful is that it is a patchwork of cultures, languages and ways of living. And there are lots we can learn from others.
Next time I watch Tribe, my eyes will be glued to the screen.
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Tribe with Bruce Parry continues on Sunday on BBC Two at 9pm and is available to stream on iPlayer.
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