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The Forest People
The Forest People—Colin M. Turnbull's best selling, classic work—describes the author's experiences while living with the BaMbuti Pygmies, not as a clinical observer, but as their friend learning their customs and sharing their daily life.
Turnbull conveys the lives and feelings of the BaMbuti whose existence centers on their intense love for their forest world, which, in return for their affection and trust, provides their every need. We witness their hunting parties and nomadic camps; their love affairs and ancient ceremonies—the molimo, in which they praise the forest as provider, protector, and deity; the elima, in which the young girls come of age; and the nkumbi circumcision rites, in which the villagers of the surrounding non-Pygmy tribes attempt to impose their culture on the Pygmies, whose forest home they dare not enter.
The Forest People eloquently shows us a people who have found in the forest something that makes their life more than just living—a life that, with all its hardships and problems and tragedies, is a wonderful thing of happiness and joy.
Turnbull conveys the lives and feelings of the BaMbuti whose existence centers on their intense love for their forest world, which, in return for their affection and trust, provides their every need. We witness their hunting parties and nomadic camps; their love affairs and ancient ceremonies—the molimo, in which they praise the forest as provider, protector, and deity; the elima, in which the young girls come of age; and the nkumbi circumcision rites, in which the villagers of the surrounding non-Pygmy tribes attempt to impose their culture on the Pygmies, whose forest home they dare not enter.
The Forest People eloquently shows us a people who have found in the forest something that makes their life more than just living—a life that, with all its hardships and problems and tragedies, is a wonderful thing of happiness and joy.
295 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
About the author
Colin M. Turnbull
25 books25 followersColin Macmillan Turnbull (November 23, 1924 – July 28, 1994) was a British-American anthropologist who came to public attention with the popular books The Forest People (on the Mbuti Pygmies of Zaire) and The Mountain People (on the Ik people of Uganda), and one of the first anthropologists to work in the field of ethnomusicology.
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January 4, 2022
As others have noted, Colin Turnbull's book expresses all of the positives of the time he spent with the BaMbuti of Congo, known to most of us as pygmies. The BaMbuti are one of the oldest indigenous peoples, living my hunter-gathering deep in the forest, who refer to themselves as people of the forest. Turnbull made an initial visit in 1951 before returning to the USA and studying anthropology. He returned later to spend a considerable amount of time with them, publishing this book in 1961.
The book in general describes the BaMbuti way of life, their culture and their understanding (or lack thereof) of the wider world. In most detail, it examines the interrelationship of the BaMbuti with the African villagers - who are really farmers. This is a particularly interesting aspect, as Turnbull is able to explain the relationship from each side and how far these differ, while it still remains mutually beneficial. The individual villagers form a bond with an individual pygmy, and thereafter consider them almost their property.
The villagers are terrified of the forest, and will seldom venture into it, and never go far in. This is heavily influenced by their spiritual beliefs. They adopt the pygmies, treating them almost as servants, and they rely on them to hunt and bring them meat from the forest. In return the villagers provide them with farmed produce. The villagers also manage a lot of rituals and ceremonies (such as funerals and weddings, coming of age for male and female, etc) which the pygmies mostly put up with, rather than fully participate in.
For the BaMbuti, they engage in the minimum amount of contact they can in order to still gain maximum benefit of the gifts they receive. Through trickery and deception, they allow the villagers to believe they are controlling more than they do. They use the forest as a natural barrier and happily disappear off when they have had enough. They also readily agree to certain aspects or rules that the villagers' ceremonies require of them, but continue their own way of life unhindered, just making sure the villagers don't find out!
The other aspect Turnbull covers, due to his background in music, is the study of their traditional song and music. An important aspect of this is the molimo which takes on a mythological aspect. I'm not sure if I missed an early explanation, or if Turnbull wrote cleverly, discussing the Molimo, it's appearance and sounds and how they effect forest life without explaining exactly what is is until some 80 pages in, but I found it intriguing. Wikipedia on BaMbuti will quickly explain what it is or the spoiler here:
Other reviewers have mentioned the 'rose-tinted-glasses' view from Turnbull, and that is hard to refute. He explains the power within the tribe and general activities being shared between male and female, but this doesn't really stand up to the descriptions he makes of their life. Women are the harder workers, while men undertake the majority of the hunting. It is however a cooperative rule, rather than being hierarchical in the normal sense - there are no chiefs. The wisdom of the elders is respected, but still weighed by the group. Arguments are frequent, but there simple pathways for reconciliation which generally happens quickly.
There was a great quote on P88 of my edition. Turnbull sat quietly reflecting with an elder, as they were planning an important hunt.
Very enjoyable.
4.5 stars, rounded down.
The book in general describes the BaMbuti way of life, their culture and their understanding (or lack thereof) of the wider world. In most detail, it examines the interrelationship of the BaMbuti with the African villagers - who are really farmers. This is a particularly interesting aspect, as Turnbull is able to explain the relationship from each side and how far these differ, while it still remains mutually beneficial. The individual villagers form a bond with an individual pygmy, and thereafter consider them almost their property.
The villagers are terrified of the forest, and will seldom venture into it, and never go far in. This is heavily influenced by their spiritual beliefs. They adopt the pygmies, treating them almost as servants, and they rely on them to hunt and bring them meat from the forest. In return the villagers provide them with farmed produce. The villagers also manage a lot of rituals and ceremonies (such as funerals and weddings, coming of age for male and female, etc) which the pygmies mostly put up with, rather than fully participate in.
For the BaMbuti, they engage in the minimum amount of contact they can in order to still gain maximum benefit of the gifts they receive. Through trickery and deception, they allow the villagers to believe they are controlling more than they do. They use the forest as a natural barrier and happily disappear off when they have had enough. They also readily agree to certain aspects or rules that the villagers' ceremonies require of them, but continue their own way of life unhindered, just making sure the villagers don't find out!
The other aspect Turnbull covers, due to his background in music, is the study of their traditional song and music. An important aspect of this is the molimo which takes on a mythological aspect. I'm not sure if I missed an early explanation, or if Turnbull wrote cleverly, discussing the Molimo, it's appearance and sounds and how they effect forest life without explaining exactly what is is until some 80 pages in, but I found it intriguing. Wikipedia on BaMbuti will quickly explain what it is or the spoiler here:
Other reviewers have mentioned the 'rose-tinted-glasses' view from Turnbull, and that is hard to refute. He explains the power within the tribe and general activities being shared between male and female, but this doesn't really stand up to the descriptions he makes of their life. Women are the harder workers, while men undertake the majority of the hunting. It is however a cooperative rule, rather than being hierarchical in the normal sense - there are no chiefs. The wisdom of the elders is respected, but still weighed by the group. Arguments are frequent, but there simple pathways for reconciliation which generally happens quickly.
There was a great quote on P88 of my edition. Turnbull sat quietly reflecting with an elder, as they were planning an important hunt.
Moke turning back to his bow and began whittling again.That summed up how Turnbull needed to proceed. He needed to immerse himself in the goings on in the camps. He needed to participate and to engage to be able to see things. If he waited on the perimeter of their lives, things would happen and he would not be aware.
'You will soon see things of which you have never heard, and which you have never seen. Then you will understand things which I can never tell you. But you must stay awake - you may only see them once.'
Very enjoyable.
4.5 stars, rounded down.
November 28, 2019
A beautiful ethnography
Hundreds, if not thousands, of ethnographies have been written since the beginning of the 20th century. As they almost always describe cultures as seen by the anthropologist at the time, all of them have long since turned into social history---the view of a long-lost moment. Sure, they are useful in terms of knowing what “used to be”. But since a very large percent are written in academic language, full of statistics, jargon, or observations according to some pre-planned outline, they, to be frank, are as dry as dust. What is more, the anthropologists often hid behind some cockeyed idea of “academic rigor” and never revealed their own part in the study, or how the people reacted to them.
THE FOREST PEOPLE is one of those rare books of anthropology that has lasted. The reason is not that the Pygmies or BaMbuti have remained the same in their deep forest of the northeastern Congo. No, the modern world has treated them to a full menu of horrors---war, genocide, cannibalism, and deforestation. The world described by Colin Turnbull, who lived with them in the 1950s, has no doubt nearly vanished. But he provides us a picture of a unique people, living happily in the forest full of rivers, the dim light created by 100 foot tall trees, and hunting and gathering the gifts of the forest. As a former ethnomusicologist, Turnbull brings their music and dance to the pages in most vivid fashion. Touching on all the standard anthropological topics---kinship, law, economics, religion, world view, marriage and divorce, technology, and relations with other peoples---he manages to avoid a lecture or dry lists, weaving the whole into the story of his year-long stay with a group of Pygmies in the Ituri Forest. Pundits may say that he concentrated on beauty and freedom while neglecting conflict, but choices like that are always in the eye of the beholder in any society. Turnbull shows that the inter-relationship between Pygmies and African village farmers was mutually beneficial, but hardly the feudal one written up by some others. The Pygmies remained independent, their relations with the Africans contained a lot of trickery and posing. The Pygmies adopted some rituals and beliefs, but changed them to suit themselves. They did not take the malignant magic practiced by the Africans, nor did they use severe punishments. In small groups, dependent on each individual for cooperation in hunting and gathering, retribution for evil or anti-social acts has to be measured, no matter how people feel. [*You can watch “Atarnajuat: The Fast Runner” an Inuit film from 2001 for another take on the same situation.]
At the end, Turnbull comes to love the forest and the Pygmy way of life. He takes his closest friend, informant and helper on a trip outside the forest with some very interesting results. Almost lyrical descriptions abound throughout and some of the individuals come alive. If you like learning about other cultures, other ways of life, or knowing about cultures that must have been changed beyond all recognition, this is your book.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of ethnographies have been written since the beginning of the 20th century. As they almost always describe cultures as seen by the anthropologist at the time, all of them have long since turned into social history---the view of a long-lost moment. Sure, they are useful in terms of knowing what “used to be”. But since a very large percent are written in academic language, full of statistics, jargon, or observations according to some pre-planned outline, they, to be frank, are as dry as dust. What is more, the anthropologists often hid behind some cockeyed idea of “academic rigor” and never revealed their own part in the study, or how the people reacted to them.
THE FOREST PEOPLE is one of those rare books of anthropology that has lasted. The reason is not that the Pygmies or BaMbuti have remained the same in their deep forest of the northeastern Congo. No, the modern world has treated them to a full menu of horrors---war, genocide, cannibalism, and deforestation. The world described by Colin Turnbull, who lived with them in the 1950s, has no doubt nearly vanished. But he provides us a picture of a unique people, living happily in the forest full of rivers, the dim light created by 100 foot tall trees, and hunting and gathering the gifts of the forest. As a former ethnomusicologist, Turnbull brings their music and dance to the pages in most vivid fashion. Touching on all the standard anthropological topics---kinship, law, economics, religion, world view, marriage and divorce, technology, and relations with other peoples---he manages to avoid a lecture or dry lists, weaving the whole into the story of his year-long stay with a group of Pygmies in the Ituri Forest. Pundits may say that he concentrated on beauty and freedom while neglecting conflict, but choices like that are always in the eye of the beholder in any society. Turnbull shows that the inter-relationship between Pygmies and African village farmers was mutually beneficial, but hardly the feudal one written up by some others. The Pygmies remained independent, their relations with the Africans contained a lot of trickery and posing. The Pygmies adopted some rituals and beliefs, but changed them to suit themselves. They did not take the malignant magic practiced by the Africans, nor did they use severe punishments. In small groups, dependent on each individual for cooperation in hunting and gathering, retribution for evil or anti-social acts has to be measured, no matter how people feel. [*You can watch “Atarnajuat: The Fast Runner” an Inuit film from 2001 for another take on the same situation.]
At the end, Turnbull comes to love the forest and the Pygmy way of life. He takes his closest friend, informant and helper on a trip outside the forest with some very interesting results. Almost lyrical descriptions abound throughout and some of the individuals come alive. If you like learning about other cultures, other ways of life, or knowing about cultures that must have been changed beyond all recognition, this is your book.
January 20, 2020
Turnbull’s book is a beautifully written account of the time he spent with the BaMbuti in their forest camp.
It’s not simply a description of Pygmies and their traditions. The author constantly aims to understand the BaMbuti, to feel their love for the Forest.
Turnbull successfully transports his fondness of the Pygmies to the reader, making his book lively and descriptive. While reading it, I “saw” everything he was depicting as if I was there, in the camp.
From hunting to ritual dances, everything in the work was expressed through a close insight into the importance which Pygmies’ attach to it.
I was especially impressed by the unique way in which the BaMbuti society operates. Unliked their neighbors, the African villagers, the Pygmies don’t have chiefs and juries. All the matters were discussed by the whole tribe, including the women and even children, who participate in all the ceremonies except the Molimo.
This cooperative way proved surprisingly successful for settling disputes and punishing perpetrators. When a quarrel a occurred, the whole tribe engaged in bringing the arguing Pygmies to sense. The universal argument “You are making too much noise” expressed their veneration of the Forest and their reluctance to disturb its sacred silence.
“The Forest People” broadens the reader’s outlook on life, filling him with respect for a unique culture and with love for the Pygmies.
It’s not simply a description of Pygmies and their traditions. The author constantly aims to understand the BaMbuti, to feel their love for the Forest.
Turnbull successfully transports his fondness of the Pygmies to the reader, making his book lively and descriptive. While reading it, I “saw” everything he was depicting as if I was there, in the camp.
From hunting to ritual dances, everything in the work was expressed through a close insight into the importance which Pygmies’ attach to it.
I was especially impressed by the unique way in which the BaMbuti society operates. Unliked their neighbors, the African villagers, the Pygmies don’t have chiefs and juries. All the matters were discussed by the whole tribe, including the women and even children, who participate in all the ceremonies except the Molimo.
This cooperative way proved surprisingly successful for settling disputes and punishing perpetrators. When a quarrel a occurred, the whole tribe engaged in bringing the arguing Pygmies to sense. The universal argument “You are making too much noise” expressed their veneration of the Forest and their reluctance to disturb its sacred silence.
“The Forest People” broadens the reader’s outlook on life, filling him with respect for a unique culture and with love for the Pygmies.
March 2, 2019
"You will soon see things of which you have never heard, and which you have never seen. Then you will understand things I can never tell you. But you must stay awake - you may see them only once."
- Moke, Bambuti elder
As the Leakeys trained Jane Goodall in the 1950's, Turnbull lived as a Bambuti that same decade... in a vast, pristine Africa. It's an uncensored account of their lives... or ours, tens of millennia ago.
Notes :
--------
"At night, in the honey season, you hear a weird long-drawn-out, soulful cry high up in the trees... you wonder what kind of creature can cry for so long without taking breath. The people of the forest say it is a chameleon, telling them that there is honey nearby. Scientists will tell you that chameleons are unable to make any such sound. But the forest people of faraway Ceylon also know the song..."
"They know the secret language that is denied all outsiders..."
"The Bambuti roam the forest at will... They have no fear, because for them there is no danger... there is little hardship, so they have no need for belief in evil spirits. For them, it is a good world."
"How long they have lived in the forest we do not know, though it is a considered opinion that they are among the oldest inhabitants of Africa... the original inhabitants of the great tropical rain forest."
"No matter how hot it is, there always has to be a fire."
"Every woman, when moving camp, carries with her a burning ember wrapped heavily in fire-resistant leaves. None of these Pygmies knows how to make a fire."
"The first thing they do when they stop on a trail for a rest is to unwrap the ember and, putting some dry twigs on it, blow softly once or twice and transform it into a blazing fire. I have never learned what the knack is. Many a time I have been blowing and fanning... when a boy almost too young to walk has come along, knelt down, and given two puffs that have sent the flames leaping upward."
"I was the only one whose feet made any noise; the others ran so lightly that they barely touched the ground but rather seemed to skim along just above it..."
" 'The forest is a father and mother to us," he said, "and like a father or mother it gives us everything we need - food, clothing, shelter... and affection.' "
"It was at times like this I found myself furthest removed from the Pygmies. They stood around in an excited group, pointing at the dying animal and laughing... At other times I have seen Pygmies singeing feathers off birds that were alive... And the hunting dogs, valuable as they are, get kicked around mercilessly from the day they are born to the day they die."
"The elders - the mangese, the Great Ones - formed a tight cluster of their own, apart from the hunters."
"For the soil which can support the primeval forest with luxurious ease refuses to bear fruit to the crops of (Congan) villagers for more than three consecutive years."
"The Pygmies in the forest consciously and energetically reject all village values... There is an unbridgeable gulf between the two worlds and the two peoples."
"The bees began to come in droves after their stolen honey. All day long they buzzed angrily around, so that we kept smoky fires in our huts night and day."
"... That night I think I learned just how far away we civilized human beings have drifted from reality... There, in the tiny clearing, splashed with silver, was the sophisticated Kenge, clad in bark cloth, adorned with leaves, with a flower stuck in his hair... I came into the clearing and asked, jokingly, why he was dancing alone. He stopped, turned slowly around and looked at me as though I was the biggest fool he had ever seen. 'But I'm not dancing alone' he said. 'I am dancing with the forest, dancing with the moon.' Then, with the utmost unconcern, he ignored me and continued his dance of love and life."
.
- Moke, Bambuti elder
As the Leakeys trained Jane Goodall in the 1950's, Turnbull lived as a Bambuti that same decade... in a vast, pristine Africa. It's an uncensored account of their lives... or ours, tens of millennia ago.
Notes :
--------
"At night, in the honey season, you hear a weird long-drawn-out, soulful cry high up in the trees... you wonder what kind of creature can cry for so long without taking breath. The people of the forest say it is a chameleon, telling them that there is honey nearby. Scientists will tell you that chameleons are unable to make any such sound. But the forest people of faraway Ceylon also know the song..."
"They know the secret language that is denied all outsiders..."
"The Bambuti roam the forest at will... They have no fear, because for them there is no danger... there is little hardship, so they have no need for belief in evil spirits. For them, it is a good world."
"How long they have lived in the forest we do not know, though it is a considered opinion that they are among the oldest inhabitants of Africa... the original inhabitants of the great tropical rain forest."
"No matter how hot it is, there always has to be a fire."
"Every woman, when moving camp, carries with her a burning ember wrapped heavily in fire-resistant leaves. None of these Pygmies knows how to make a fire."
"The first thing they do when they stop on a trail for a rest is to unwrap the ember and, putting some dry twigs on it, blow softly once or twice and transform it into a blazing fire. I have never learned what the knack is. Many a time I have been blowing and fanning... when a boy almost too young to walk has come along, knelt down, and given two puffs that have sent the flames leaping upward."
"I was the only one whose feet made any noise; the others ran so lightly that they barely touched the ground but rather seemed to skim along just above it..."
" 'The forest is a father and mother to us," he said, "and like a father or mother it gives us everything we need - food, clothing, shelter... and affection.' "
"It was at times like this I found myself furthest removed from the Pygmies. They stood around in an excited group, pointing at the dying animal and laughing... At other times I have seen Pygmies singeing feathers off birds that were alive... And the hunting dogs, valuable as they are, get kicked around mercilessly from the day they are born to the day they die."
"The elders - the mangese, the Great Ones - formed a tight cluster of their own, apart from the hunters."
"For the soil which can support the primeval forest with luxurious ease refuses to bear fruit to the crops of (Congan) villagers for more than three consecutive years."
"The Pygmies in the forest consciously and energetically reject all village values... There is an unbridgeable gulf between the two worlds and the two peoples."
"The bees began to come in droves after their stolen honey. All day long they buzzed angrily around, so that we kept smoky fires in our huts night and day."
"... That night I think I learned just how far away we civilized human beings have drifted from reality... There, in the tiny clearing, splashed with silver, was the sophisticated Kenge, clad in bark cloth, adorned with leaves, with a flower stuck in his hair... I came into the clearing and asked, jokingly, why he was dancing alone. He stopped, turned slowly around and looked at me as though I was the biggest fool he had ever seen. 'But I'm not dancing alone' he said. 'I am dancing with the forest, dancing with the moon.' Then, with the utmost unconcern, he ignored me and continued his dance of love and life."
.
October 6, 2024
I am really torn about this book.
On the one hand, it does read like an adventure book, and by the end of it you feel like you too went and lived with the Pygmies. Even I eventually managed to more or less remember who was who (I'm really bad at following names and many characters) and get this feeling of knowing them closely enough. It was also very interesting to read about all the animals they've met, and of course different cultures even within "the neighborhood" (for example, the BaMbuti v.s. the villagers).
On the other hand, it is for some reason uneasy. I don't know what it is, because it's not boring or anything, the language isn't hard... but I just could barely get through it. It took me 3 months, I even considered returning the book half way through. Maybe it's all the forest in the way.
I wish I had more knowledge about colonialism and post-colonialism, as this book clearly draws a curious picture. It wasn't really focused on the economics of it all, but there was enough to be analysed... if I could.
What I can do, however, is point out two things that made me feel weird.
One, is the author's unfair analysis of gender-roles and complete numbness to violence. He claims that there are basically no activities that are strictly "male" or "female", that if someone wanted to they could intersect. Like a man could pick up a mushroom and a woman could talk about hunting. And yet, of course no one does that much, and talking about hunting is not the same as hunting, and literally 90% of the events and activities he describes are gendered. Males have clear superiority as they use "healthy beatings" on their wives and sisters, command where the family goes, and get the food served to, the house built to, etc. Molimo is gendered, elima and nkumbi are gendered (that's the literal point of it - coming of age rituals, separated by gender as they get taught different things cuz their role in society is different) and those are the main three things the book is about. One sentence he says that everything is a partnership, the next they divide for some activity.
And the violence of course. I want to give him the benefit of a doubt and assume that, as he mentioned at some point, he assimilated, to write about them he needed to look at the world like them. And interfering, of course, would have lead for them not to want him there. But in the later writing... People say he wasn't supposed to analyze, only observe and describe. But he did analyze, more or less obviously. Kenge was a very good brother, according to him, and yet he beat the crap out of his sister cuz she had a mind of her own. Another guy said that he was pleased with his wife and didn't need to beat her that often, and everyone was pleased. The descriptive words given to such beatings were "healthy", "sound", "good" etc. Framing the events like that is analyzing them and giving them a positive or a negative description.
Second thing, was that I feel that the book was supposed to make us feel inspired by the spirituality, and how we've been too modernized to be happy and grateful for simple things, as people should. And it's such bullshit, pardon my French. It reeks of exotification and how simple but wise they are and how we all should learn. That faux- spirituality aspect really annoyed me, to be honest.
Also, btw, last chapters were repeating large portions of the beginning or was I losing my mind?
I'm not going to speculate whether or not they are good people. I was much more interested in the scholar aspect of it and if Turnbull was reliable enough... and I'm still not sure. Also, none of them are probably alive anymore, how's that for a dark ending?
On the one hand, it does read like an adventure book, and by the end of it you feel like you too went and lived with the Pygmies. Even I eventually managed to more or less remember who was who (I'm really bad at following names and many characters) and get this feeling of knowing them closely enough. It was also very interesting to read about all the animals they've met, and of course different cultures even within "the neighborhood" (for example, the BaMbuti v.s. the villagers).
On the other hand, it is for some reason uneasy. I don't know what it is, because it's not boring or anything, the language isn't hard... but I just could barely get through it. It took me 3 months, I even considered returning the book half way through. Maybe it's all the forest in the way.
I wish I had more knowledge about colonialism and post-colonialism, as this book clearly draws a curious picture. It wasn't really focused on the economics of it all, but there was enough to be analysed... if I could.
What I can do, however, is point out two things that made me feel weird.
One, is the author's unfair analysis of gender-roles and complete numbness to violence. He claims that there are basically no activities that are strictly "male" or "female", that if someone wanted to they could intersect. Like a man could pick up a mushroom and a woman could talk about hunting. And yet, of course no one does that much, and talking about hunting is not the same as hunting, and literally 90% of the events and activities he describes are gendered. Males have clear superiority as they use "healthy beatings" on their wives and sisters, command where the family goes, and get the food served to, the house built to, etc. Molimo is gendered, elima and nkumbi are gendered (that's the literal point of it - coming of age rituals, separated by gender as they get taught different things cuz their role in society is different) and those are the main three things the book is about. One sentence he says that everything is a partnership, the next they divide for some activity.
And the violence of course. I want to give him the benefit of a doubt and assume that, as he mentioned at some point, he assimilated, to write about them he needed to look at the world like them. And interfering, of course, would have lead for them not to want him there. But in the later writing... People say he wasn't supposed to analyze, only observe and describe. But he did analyze, more or less obviously. Kenge was a very good brother, according to him, and yet he beat the crap out of his sister cuz she had a mind of her own. Another guy said that he was pleased with his wife and didn't need to beat her that often, and everyone was pleased. The descriptive words given to such beatings were "healthy", "sound", "good" etc. Framing the events like that is analyzing them and giving them a positive or a negative description.
Second thing, was that I feel that the book was supposed to make us feel inspired by the spirituality, and how we've been too modernized to be happy and grateful for simple things, as people should. And it's such bullshit, pardon my French. It reeks of exotification and how simple but wise they are and how we all should learn. That faux- spirituality aspect really annoyed me, to be honest.
Also, btw, last chapters were repeating large portions of the beginning or was I losing my mind?
I'm not going to speculate whether or not they are good people. I was much more interested in the scholar aspect of it and if Turnbull was reliable enough... and I'm still not sure. Also, none of them are probably alive anymore, how's that for a dark ending?
July 10, 2011
Turnbull's memoir of his time living among the BaMbuti pygmies of the Congo. Not an ethnography or academic work in any sense, it is instead an earnest account that humanizes the BaMbuti and sells their delightfully cheerful worldview and lifestyle. The BaMbuti live in the forest, depend on it and their souls are nourished by it.
I read the book incidentally; it was one of the most appealing in the Friends of the Richland Public Library store during the time I was unable to get a library card. I wouldn't have chosen to read it otherwise, but I'm glad I did. It served as a very nice illustration, above all, of the indigenous land ethic and oral-culture mode of perception advocated in David Abram's The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World. The pygmies know nothing but the forest and the small clearings made by the villagers at the edges of the forest. Their psychological intimacy with the forest is made quite clear when Turnbull takes Kenge out of it, into the mountains. He struggles a long time with the treelessness of the plains and the mountains, is baffled by snow, etc, but ultimately comes to this realization, which is quite nice:
"I was wrong. This is a good place, though I don't like it; it must be good, because there are so many animals. There is no noise of fighting. It is good because the sky is clear and the ground is clean. It is good because I feel good; I feel as though I and the whole world were sleeping and dreaming. Why do people always make so much noise? . . . If only there were more trees. . . ."
It's of some interest to note that the pygmies don't have any kind of central authority system at all. Problems just sort of work themselves out because people soon tire of fighting, and in general there's nothing very serious to motivate those fights to last long. Incidentally, Turnbull constantly describes the pygmies as foraging for mushrooms, more than roots or berries or other such things. That's pretty cool.
Ultimately, it would have been cooler if Turnbull had focused on some interesting aspects of the pygmies' cultural knowledge of the forest, but it was still nice to just sense this intimacy grounding the pygmies' character and actions.
I read the book incidentally; it was one of the most appealing in the Friends of the Richland Public Library store during the time I was unable to get a library card. I wouldn't have chosen to read it otherwise, but I'm glad I did. It served as a very nice illustration, above all, of the indigenous land ethic and oral-culture mode of perception advocated in David Abram's The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World. The pygmies know nothing but the forest and the small clearings made by the villagers at the edges of the forest. Their psychological intimacy with the forest is made quite clear when Turnbull takes Kenge out of it, into the mountains. He struggles a long time with the treelessness of the plains and the mountains, is baffled by snow, etc, but ultimately comes to this realization, which is quite nice:
"I was wrong. This is a good place, though I don't like it; it must be good, because there are so many animals. There is no noise of fighting. It is good because the sky is clear and the ground is clean. It is good because I feel good; I feel as though I and the whole world were sleeping and dreaming. Why do people always make so much noise? . . . If only there were more trees. . . ."
It's of some interest to note that the pygmies don't have any kind of central authority system at all. Problems just sort of work themselves out because people soon tire of fighting, and in general there's nothing very serious to motivate those fights to last long. Incidentally, Turnbull constantly describes the pygmies as foraging for mushrooms, more than roots or berries or other such things. That's pretty cool.
Ultimately, it would have been cooler if Turnbull had focused on some interesting aspects of the pygmies' cultural knowledge of the forest, but it was still nice to just sense this intimacy grounding the pygmies' character and actions.
July 21, 2013
Popular anthropology, descriptive, certainly a bit dated. In fact, its idealizing picture is probably quite false and a reflection more of the author's own neurotic obsessions than of his scholarly habits.
Turnbulll, though a student of the great E. E. Evans-Pritchard, was quite an eccentric. There is a now a biography of Turnbull, by Roy Grinker, called In The Arms Of Africa.
Here is a review if Grinker, plus thebfirst chapter
http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/12/10...
Turnbulll, though a student of the great E. E. Evans-Pritchard, was quite an eccentric. There is a now a biography of Turnbull, by Roy Grinker, called In The Arms Of Africa.
Here is a review if Grinker, plus thebfirst chapter
http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/12/10...
August 7, 2024
This book has been in my life since I can remember, sitting on a bookshelf. When I was very young my parents took some classes at the local college and this was required reading. When I got older the book somehow migrated to my personal bookshelves. Safe to say this will be the oldest book I owned unread until now.
I expected this to be a dry academic book but was pleasantly surprised that is not the case. This is a very readable, well written book.
The author, Colin Turnbull, lives with the Pygmies in Congo for many years. They are his friends, they accept him as one of them, and let him observe all of their rituals and ways of living, even sometimes going outside of tradition. This book is of how they lived their lives and how they interact with the villagers nearby that work plantations.
They are called Forest People, as that is their home, their life and it contrasts to the villagers who are afraid of the forest, who would rather cut it down than live within it. The people Turnbull lives with are the BaMbuti who live in the Ituri Forest. The villagers and BaMbuti live symbiotic lives, the villagers tend to believe they “own” certain Pygmies, but this is truly not the case. The relationship is more complicated. The BaMbuti know how to hunt and get meat, which the villagers are not skilled at, so the rely on the BaMbuti for this and in return they are given other types of food that is grown on the plantations. Sometimes the villagers need extra labor to help with he planation and if willing some BaMbuti will help out his “master”, but he cannot be forced to do so. There are some rituals the villagers want the BaMbuti to carry out in certain times, such as in marriages, for a death, or for the ceremonies when the children are adults. If it suits the BaMbuti they will go along with these rituals, but a village wedding is not accepted until the man gives meat to his in-law family.
The BaMbuti are generally a happy people, and sing seemingly all the time. Of course certain songs are sung for particular ceremonies. One of the strangest ceremony is the with the molimo, an trumpet but also a ceremony to the forest. The molimo cannot be seen by women, so it comes out of hiding from the forest and played when all the women and children are inside their huts for the night. The men dance and sing all night, or nearly, until the early hours when they get a few hours sleep before being awaken by the molimo from the younger bachelors. This ceremony goes on for weeks or months, until the elders believe the forest is happy again and they can hide the molimo away. The one used here ends up being a long steel pipe about fifteen feet long. Turnbull is surprised by this, thought it would be a bamboo trumpet elaborately carved but was told this one sounded good. Besides wood rots and then you’d need to make another one. What counted was the sound it made.
There’s so much more to say, but these notes are getting long. It was a fascinating book, glad I finally took the time to read it after all these years.
I expected this to be a dry academic book but was pleasantly surprised that is not the case. This is a very readable, well written book.
The author, Colin Turnbull, lives with the Pygmies in Congo for many years. They are his friends, they accept him as one of them, and let him observe all of their rituals and ways of living, even sometimes going outside of tradition. This book is of how they lived their lives and how they interact with the villagers nearby that work plantations.
They are called Forest People, as that is their home, their life and it contrasts to the villagers who are afraid of the forest, who would rather cut it down than live within it. The people Turnbull lives with are the BaMbuti who live in the Ituri Forest. The villagers and BaMbuti live symbiotic lives, the villagers tend to believe they “own” certain Pygmies, but this is truly not the case. The relationship is more complicated. The BaMbuti know how to hunt and get meat, which the villagers are not skilled at, so the rely on the BaMbuti for this and in return they are given other types of food that is grown on the plantations. Sometimes the villagers need extra labor to help with he planation and if willing some BaMbuti will help out his “master”, but he cannot be forced to do so. There are some rituals the villagers want the BaMbuti to carry out in certain times, such as in marriages, for a death, or for the ceremonies when the children are adults. If it suits the BaMbuti they will go along with these rituals, but a village wedding is not accepted until the man gives meat to his in-law family.
The BaMbuti are generally a happy people, and sing seemingly all the time. Of course certain songs are sung for particular ceremonies. One of the strangest ceremony is the with the molimo, an trumpet but also a ceremony to the forest. The molimo cannot be seen by women, so it comes out of hiding from the forest and played when all the women and children are inside their huts for the night. The men dance and sing all night, or nearly, until the early hours when they get a few hours sleep before being awaken by the molimo from the younger bachelors. This ceremony goes on for weeks or months, until the elders believe the forest is happy again and they can hide the molimo away. The one used here ends up being a long steel pipe about fifteen feet long. Turnbull is surprised by this, thought it would be a bamboo trumpet elaborately carved but was told this one sounded good. Besides wood rots and then you’d need to make another one. What counted was the sound it made.
There’s so much more to say, but these notes are getting long. It was a fascinating book, glad I finally took the time to read it after all these years.
April 9, 2012
I read this book years ago in a college Anthropology course but could never remember the name of it, until seeing it on Goodreads tonight!
This was the first true Anthropology book I'd ever written. I was blown away by the vividness of the BaMbuti world, captivated by their reverence for nature, and impressed with their structure and ritual. I've thought about this book many times over the years and have always wondered if we've done the forest people a disservice by entering their world. Nevertheless I was grateful for this brief glimpse in to it.
This was the first true Anthropology book I'd ever written. I was blown away by the vividness of the BaMbuti world, captivated by their reverence for nature, and impressed with their structure and ritual. I've thought about this book many times over the years and have always wondered if we've done the forest people a disservice by entering their world. Nevertheless I was grateful for this brief glimpse in to it.
October 12, 2013
I begrudgingly read The Forest People in my cultural anthropology intro course my freshman year of college. This was the book and the class that lead me to receiving a minor in anthropology. At first, I thought it was going to be a dry, clinical ethnography with confusing language and theories. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how lively the book actually was.
One of the things I loved most was the vibrant, humorous, and detailed life of the Bambuti pygmies that Turnbull paints for his readers. The further you get along, the more the individual pygmies start to become part of your life, celebrating with them through the good times, and mourning during periods of turmoil. Turnbull describes the ups and downs of life for the Bambuti in such detail that you can't help but become captivated by the story.
All in all the book stresses how precious life really is, and how the Bambuti make the most of what they have in the world around them. At the end, you will be left wondering what has become of many of the individuals described, because you'll truly feel as if you have been living with them too. One of my favorite ethnographies, so glad my professor made me read it!
One of the things I loved most was the vibrant, humorous, and detailed life of the Bambuti pygmies that Turnbull paints for his readers. The further you get along, the more the individual pygmies start to become part of your life, celebrating with them through the good times, and mourning during periods of turmoil. Turnbull describes the ups and downs of life for the Bambuti in such detail that you can't help but become captivated by the story.
All in all the book stresses how precious life really is, and how the Bambuti make the most of what they have in the world around them. At the end, you will be left wondering what has become of many of the individuals described, because you'll truly feel as if you have been living with them too. One of my favorite ethnographies, so glad my professor made me read it!
December 13, 2019
Nothing I can say off-the-top-of-my-head, to improve any upon what Bob Newman has already vouchesafed in his fine review. It's a wonderful book; that's all.
Read
April 28, 2019I have mixed reactions to this book, on one hand it is a really outstanding account of life in the forest that makes the reader feel he is sharing in the scents and sights and experiences of the Mbuti people. On the other hand, the author writes so many sweeping judgements and generalizing pronouncements like 'the Negroes are very lazy', despite presumably meeting only a few villager individuals for a non-appreciable amount of time, which smacks of the colonial tendency to decide, divide and classify who is 'good' and who is 'bad' among other peoples, who will win their doleouts of approval and who will not. The author injects many judgments that make it clear he thinks the Mbutu pygmies are 'the noble', and the villagers are the terrible ones. The best way to put it is that this book is very much a product of its age in anthropology and ethnography
March 23, 2015
Colin Turnbull’s book The Forest People takes us on a fascinating voyage into the world of the Mbuti Pygmies, who live in the Ituri rainforest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Turnbull (1924-1994) was an anthropologist who spent several years with the Pygmies, beginning in 1951. He came from a wealthy English family, but he found life among the Pygmies to be so satisfying that he had to resist strong urges to remain with them.
Instead of using the standard scholarly format for anthropology books, Turnbull described these people in a series of stories. These stories included descriptions of the important cultural components of the Pygmy way of life, and introduced us to the personalities of various individuals in the band.
They were hunter-gatherers, and they enjoyed an exceedingly low tech way of life in their tropical rainforest home. They had little need for clothing, blankets, or warm shelters. They hunted with nets, spears, and bows and arrows. They did not garden or herd animals. Consequently, they had an abundance of leisure time. They loved singing, dancing, storytelling, and visiting kinfolk. They would laugh until they were too weak to stand, then sit down and laugh.
In 2500 BC, Egyptian explorers discovered the Pygmies. Their report to the Pharaoh described “a people of the trees, a tiny people who sing and dance to their god, a dance such as had never been seen before.” When Turnbull arrived 4,500 years later, he found a similar scenario. They had a way of life that worked, and it was quite enjoyable. Yes, daily life included normal personality conflicts, but their society did not suffer from chiefs, priests, thieves, chauvinists, inequality, or individualism.
The hunting way of life required cooperation, so the Pygmies were highly skilled at conflict resolution. One of their proverbs proclaimed that “a noisy camp is a hungry camp.” Disputes promptly led to active discussion by the group. Shunning and ridicule were common tools, and annoying offenders were sometimes beaten.
Everything about the forest was sacred to the Pygmies. “They were a people who had found in the forest something that made their life more than just worth living, something that made it, with all its hardships and problems and tragedies, a wonderful thing full of joy and happiness and free of care.”
In another book, Turnbull mentioned Father Longo, a Catholic missionary who refused to preach to the Pygmies, because they had no word for evil. “In order to convert them, then, he would first have to teach them the concept of evil, and that he was not prepared to do.”
Moke, a wise elder, said: “The forest is a father and mother to us, and like a father or mother it gives us everything we need — food, clothing, shelter, warmth, and affection. Normally everything goes well, because the forest is good to its children, but when things go wrong, there must be a reason.”
Alas, sometimes the forest fell asleep, and failed to take care of the Pygmies, leading to illness, death, or bad hunting. Army ants might move in, or a leopard might snatch a child. When these problems occurred, the Pygmies would sing to the forest, to wake it up and make it happy. They sometimes performed the molimo ceremony, during which animal noises were made using a long hollow wooden instrument.
And when the forest was happy, they would sing and dance to share their happiness with it. They lived in a heavenly place, in constant direct contact with everything they held to be sacred. They had absolute reverence for the forest, their ancient home, and they were some of its many children.
The Pygmies enjoyed at least 4,500 years of relative stability, and this was made possible by their primitive technology. If they had become farmers or herders, their journey would have been far more destructive and turbulent. They would have seriously damaged themselves and their sacred forest.
Change has been increasing in Pygmy country, requiring them to adjust the way they live. Maybe 400 years ago, Bantu people moved into the forest and began slash-and-burn farming. They had been herders from the grasslands of East Africa, but they were driven off their home by other tribes. Their cattle died in the jungle, so they traded food with the Pygmies for meat.
In the 1880’s, the Congo became a colony of Belgium. Since then efforts have been made to “liberate” the unfortunate Pygmies and convert them into hard-working tax-paying farmers. This plan has not enjoyed great success. At one farm, 29 Pygmies died of sunstroke in a single day. They thrive in the cool shade of their ancient forest, and they harbor an intense hatred of miserable backbreaking field work — what could be more idiotic?
In the twentieth century, the Ituri has been ravaged by road-builders, loggers, miners, ivory poachers, bushmeat hunters, missionaries, and a bloody parade of trigger-happy rebels, terrorists, goon squads, psychopaths, and freedom fighters. There have been numerous armed conflicts. The Second Congo War began in 1998, and resulted in 5.4 million deaths, mostly from disease and starvation. Many displaced people were driven into the Ituri Forest. Pygmies were hunted down and eaten like game animals.
Much deforestation has been caused by the continuous expansion of slash-and-burn farming. Jungle soils are rapidly depleted by agriculture, and the Congo’s birthrate is one of the world’s highest. Almost half of the population is younger than 15.
When The Forest People was published, it soon became popular. Turnbull thought that the book had impact “because the near-Utopia described rang true, and showed that certain voids in the lives of many of us could indeed be filled.”
Ah yes, the voids in our lives. How often do we sing and dance to keep our forest happy? Turnbull has given us a precious gift — a taste of what a healthy and joyful life could be like, living in harmony with the land, singing and dancing in a balanced ecosystem, century after century after century. His book offers us a brief enchanting escape from our world of madness, and a beautiful vision of what life could be like for our descendants.
Instead of using the standard scholarly format for anthropology books, Turnbull described these people in a series of stories. These stories included descriptions of the important cultural components of the Pygmy way of life, and introduced us to the personalities of various individuals in the band.
They were hunter-gatherers, and they enjoyed an exceedingly low tech way of life in their tropical rainforest home. They had little need for clothing, blankets, or warm shelters. They hunted with nets, spears, and bows and arrows. They did not garden or herd animals. Consequently, they had an abundance of leisure time. They loved singing, dancing, storytelling, and visiting kinfolk. They would laugh until they were too weak to stand, then sit down and laugh.
In 2500 BC, Egyptian explorers discovered the Pygmies. Their report to the Pharaoh described “a people of the trees, a tiny people who sing and dance to their god, a dance such as had never been seen before.” When Turnbull arrived 4,500 years later, he found a similar scenario. They had a way of life that worked, and it was quite enjoyable. Yes, daily life included normal personality conflicts, but their society did not suffer from chiefs, priests, thieves, chauvinists, inequality, or individualism.
The hunting way of life required cooperation, so the Pygmies were highly skilled at conflict resolution. One of their proverbs proclaimed that “a noisy camp is a hungry camp.” Disputes promptly led to active discussion by the group. Shunning and ridicule were common tools, and annoying offenders were sometimes beaten.
Everything about the forest was sacred to the Pygmies. “They were a people who had found in the forest something that made their life more than just worth living, something that made it, with all its hardships and problems and tragedies, a wonderful thing full of joy and happiness and free of care.”
In another book, Turnbull mentioned Father Longo, a Catholic missionary who refused to preach to the Pygmies, because they had no word for evil. “In order to convert them, then, he would first have to teach them the concept of evil, and that he was not prepared to do.”
Moke, a wise elder, said: “The forest is a father and mother to us, and like a father or mother it gives us everything we need — food, clothing, shelter, warmth, and affection. Normally everything goes well, because the forest is good to its children, but when things go wrong, there must be a reason.”
Alas, sometimes the forest fell asleep, and failed to take care of the Pygmies, leading to illness, death, or bad hunting. Army ants might move in, or a leopard might snatch a child. When these problems occurred, the Pygmies would sing to the forest, to wake it up and make it happy. They sometimes performed the molimo ceremony, during which animal noises were made using a long hollow wooden instrument.
And when the forest was happy, they would sing and dance to share their happiness with it. They lived in a heavenly place, in constant direct contact with everything they held to be sacred. They had absolute reverence for the forest, their ancient home, and they were some of its many children.
The Pygmies enjoyed at least 4,500 years of relative stability, and this was made possible by their primitive technology. If they had become farmers or herders, their journey would have been far more destructive and turbulent. They would have seriously damaged themselves and their sacred forest.
Change has been increasing in Pygmy country, requiring them to adjust the way they live. Maybe 400 years ago, Bantu people moved into the forest and began slash-and-burn farming. They had been herders from the grasslands of East Africa, but they were driven off their home by other tribes. Their cattle died in the jungle, so they traded food with the Pygmies for meat.
In the 1880’s, the Congo became a colony of Belgium. Since then efforts have been made to “liberate” the unfortunate Pygmies and convert them into hard-working tax-paying farmers. This plan has not enjoyed great success. At one farm, 29 Pygmies died of sunstroke in a single day. They thrive in the cool shade of their ancient forest, and they harbor an intense hatred of miserable backbreaking field work — what could be more idiotic?
In the twentieth century, the Ituri has been ravaged by road-builders, loggers, miners, ivory poachers, bushmeat hunters, missionaries, and a bloody parade of trigger-happy rebels, terrorists, goon squads, psychopaths, and freedom fighters. There have been numerous armed conflicts. The Second Congo War began in 1998, and resulted in 5.4 million deaths, mostly from disease and starvation. Many displaced people were driven into the Ituri Forest. Pygmies were hunted down and eaten like game animals.
Much deforestation has been caused by the continuous expansion of slash-and-burn farming. Jungle soils are rapidly depleted by agriculture, and the Congo’s birthrate is one of the world’s highest. Almost half of the population is younger than 15.
When The Forest People was published, it soon became popular. Turnbull thought that the book had impact “because the near-Utopia described rang true, and showed that certain voids in the lives of many of us could indeed be filled.”
Ah yes, the voids in our lives. How often do we sing and dance to keep our forest happy? Turnbull has given us a precious gift — a taste of what a healthy and joyful life could be like, living in harmony with the land, singing and dancing in a balanced ecosystem, century after century after century. His book offers us a brief enchanting escape from our world of madness, and a beautiful vision of what life could be like for our descendants.
February 8, 2015
Altogether fascinating and readable account of an anthropologist's time spent with the BaMbuti people -- Pygmies -- though certainly by now outdated and perhaps written with inadequate scientific distance.
Turnbull tells of a culture by and large isolated from modern society, with a complex relationship with non-BaMbuti villagers and a deep identification with the forest. He presents a sort of 'us vs. them' treatment of the villagers and the BaMbuti, delighting in the latter's flexible application of tradition and subversion of village beliefs and expectations. (Frankly, if he'd stuck solely to the question of BaMbuti relations to the village, he still would have had a surfeit of material.)
Although Turnbull clearly had an unusual level of access to and comfort with the BaMbuti, at times I question whether that works against him in his writing. Most strikingly, he tells of a young woman resisting an arranged marriage. She's known to like the intended groom, Turnbull tells us; she's rejected his proposals again and again, so now her family -- literally -- beats her into submission. Not that I expected outraged discourse from Turnbull, exactly (that would be a lack of distance in another sense), but he seems to accept all this at face value and go with it, even as the woman acts so clearly defeated. I'm left wondering how much interaction with, and understanding of, he had with the women of the culture. He describes that culture, explicitly, as pretty equal -- women have a role in hunting; men share in childcare duties -- but, well, this was the 50s, and...'equal' seems a bit relative.
It's been almost fifty years since this work was first published; I wonder how things have changed -- and how much -- for the BaMbuti in the interim.
Turnbull tells of a culture by and large isolated from modern society, with a complex relationship with non-BaMbuti villagers and a deep identification with the forest. He presents a sort of 'us vs. them' treatment of the villagers and the BaMbuti, delighting in the latter's flexible application of tradition and subversion of village beliefs and expectations. (Frankly, if he'd stuck solely to the question of BaMbuti relations to the village, he still would have had a surfeit of material.)
Although Turnbull clearly had an unusual level of access to and comfort with the BaMbuti, at times I question whether that works against him in his writing. Most strikingly, he tells of a young woman resisting an arranged marriage. She's known to like the intended groom, Turnbull tells us; she's rejected his proposals again and again, so now her family -- literally -- beats her into submission. Not that I expected outraged discourse from Turnbull, exactly (that would be a lack of distance in another sense), but he seems to accept all this at face value and go with it, even as the woman acts so clearly defeated. I'm left wondering how much interaction with, and understanding of, he had with the women of the culture. He describes that culture, explicitly, as pretty equal -- women have a role in hunting; men share in childcare duties -- but, well, this was the 50s, and...'equal' seems a bit relative.
It's been almost fifty years since this work was first published; I wonder how things have changed -- and how much -- for the BaMbuti in the interim.
January 29, 2018
Leído hace mucho, es entretenidísimo y además tiene mucha info original e interesante que hace seguir leyendo. El autor vivió un tiempo en una aldea de pigmeos africanos y cuenta sobre la organización social, las costumbres y demás aspectos de la vida cotidiana en la aldea.
February 9, 2019
Impressive the way the author lived among the pygmies and embraced their lifestyle, apparently for years. The contrast between the pygmies and the villagers is interesting.
January 5, 2018
This book led me to the understanding of the world that I could never imagine before. The more I read it, the more I was immersed in it. Having antropology background, I fell into the mirage of how interesting, challenging and fascinating it was. To live in with the people who literally had different culture, yet I also realise it is not as easy as it is written hence you are an outsider. BaMbuti Pygmies are also just people. They are just perceived wrongly by the people who don’t live in the forest—People who don’t understand them. For me, M. Collin Turnbul successfully delivered the world of the forest people (Pygmies’ way of life), as well put himself as part of them and pulled out the ethnocentrism by understanding their way of lives from their point of view.
September 5, 2021
I was a bit wary of reading an anthropological study written in the 1950s by a white British man in Africa....I was worried there would be lots of opportunities to hear the more blatant racism of the times. However, this was just a JOY to read, Turnbull's deep love and respect for the land and people he studied shines through this highly readable book on the BaMbuti people, the forest pygmies of central Africa and the oldest indigenous people of the Congo region. Their way of life is neither romanticised or simplified, just observed in detail and appreciated for what it is. I've never read anything like this before and it made me realise how little I knew about a hunter/gatherer way of life, and also how deeply interesting it is. The symbiosis between villagers and the BaMbuti and the BaMbuti and the forest is a complex web of alliances and interdependencies unravelled by the author. He unpicks myth from fact, appearances from reality and custom from true feeling within the community. I was interested to see what the BaMbuti were up to these days...and HOLYSHIT a quick google revealed they were slaughtered en masse (70,0000 killed) in the early 2000s by a cannibalistic rebel group determined to eliminate them as they considered them 'Subhuman.' The most depressing and shocking post script I've ever discovered. The leader responsible Jean-Pierre Bemba was acquitted in 2018 and still remains a powerful political force in the area. Fucking. Hell.
January 11, 2015
Last year I heard a really interesting radio documentary about the author Colin M Turnbull; educated at Westminster school he then served in the navy during the war, in the 1950's he spent three years living with the Bambuti pygmy's of the Belgian Congo before moving to America and lecturing, he lived with his African American partner in a American town where interacial gay relationships were unheard of, his partner died of aids and he buried his soul in a grave next to him before becoming a budhist, he died in 1994 of aids related illness. I was so fascinated that I ordered the book and it came duly dog eared with lots of underlining and margin notes of I presume an anthropology student. It's a wonderful book. The book is less a text , more a story of a mans love of the forest tribe. He humanises the people and their fascinating rituals associated with their worship of the forest. Some of these rituals are so brilliantly portrayed particularly the molimo where the men sing and play instruments as the sounds of the forest. It also shows these people as mischevious and full of humour with vivid images of them falling around laughing in the forest clearings and joking with Turnbull about his size. The relationship with the villagers as well was fascinating, the villagers feeling they own the pygmy's who then dissapear into the forest to hunt and then come back and 'steal' from the villagers. Other aspects include how tribesmen who steal are disciplined, what happens when girls reach maturity ( comically seeing Turnbull being chased through the forests) and the horrendous circumcision ceremony. The last few chapters are poignant as Turnbull's friend Kenge is taken by him ito the grasslands where he is astounded by the spaces, mountains and animals. Overall this is a moving picture of a people who perhaps 50 years on are probably significantly changed, by a writer who clearly loves these people and writes in a manner that focuses on the Bambuti and puts himself modestly in the background.Brilliant.
August 7, 2010
I just finished a wonderful book, Colin Turnbull’s The Forest People. Turnbull lived ‘a while’ (pygmies don't measure time with a watch or a calendar) with African pygmies to understand their life, culture, and beliefs. As he relays events of his visit, he doesn’t lecture, or present the material as an ethnography. It’s more like a biography of a tribe. As such, I get to wander through their lives, see what they do, how they do it, what’s important to them, without any judgment or conclusions other than my own.
One point that became clear early on is that pygmies have no leaders. How can that be, you might ask? Doesn’t somehow just assume that mantle? Well, until I read this book, I would have agreed whole-heartedly, but that doesn’t seem to happen. A tribe member might demand everyone go hunting with him (it takes a large group to capture/kill the forest animals) and people may go, or they may not. Whatever they feel like. When they move to a new camp, houses and furniture must be built. People may start full of energy and ambition, promising to help neighbors and build big houses with multiple rooms. And then the builders dwindle away as some other adventure grabs their attention. They might finish, maybe not. Often, they'll use some of their neighbor’s roof leaves, or even his house until their own house is built.
Most surprisingly, I have yet to discover if they have a belief in a god. They don’t pray for help, for food or safety, for anything. If life doesn’t seem quite right, the closest they get to wishing it was better is to return to the forest where life is always good, to a camp surrounded by the depths of the jungle, where outsiders are afraid to go. But the forest isn’t their god, it’s merely where life is always good.
Hmmm. I have to ponder this…
One point that became clear early on is that pygmies have no leaders. How can that be, you might ask? Doesn’t somehow just assume that mantle? Well, until I read this book, I would have agreed whole-heartedly, but that doesn’t seem to happen. A tribe member might demand everyone go hunting with him (it takes a large group to capture/kill the forest animals) and people may go, or they may not. Whatever they feel like. When they move to a new camp, houses and furniture must be built. People may start full of energy and ambition, promising to help neighbors and build big houses with multiple rooms. And then the builders dwindle away as some other adventure grabs their attention. They might finish, maybe not. Often, they'll use some of their neighbor’s roof leaves, or even his house until their own house is built.
Most surprisingly, I have yet to discover if they have a belief in a god. They don’t pray for help, for food or safety, for anything. If life doesn’t seem quite right, the closest they get to wishing it was better is to return to the forest where life is always good, to a camp surrounded by the depths of the jungle, where outsiders are afraid to go. But the forest isn’t their god, it’s merely where life is always good.
Hmmm. I have to ponder this…
August 20, 2013
British researcher Turnbull's classic account of life among a tribe of Pygmies in the 1950s. The book is written for a popular audience and is very accessible and quite engaging. The level of intimacy and understanding that Turnbull achieved through extended stays with the tribe is striking; he got to know them both as a group and as individuals. Perhaps most importantly, he did his research at a time when, although the Pygmies had more and more contact with the world of civilization, many traditional ways still held sway. (And Turnbull, again through careful observation, is especially good at disentangling Pygmy behavior among the villagers with whom they have a longstanding symbiotic, but not terribly respectful, relationship, with how they comport themselves in the forest.) Also striking: Although its members emerge as individuals, with discrete personalities, the tribe is truly a collective, and members recognize its survival as more important than the wishes of any one individual -- just as they credit their well-being to the beneficence of "the forest," which/who is essentially indistinguishable from their god. For extra credit, seek out "Mbuti Pygmies of the Ituri Rainforest," the amazing Smithsonian Folkways CD that compiles Turnbull's classic field recordings of the tribe's music, which is central to their culture.
January 10, 2015
Although written by an anthropologist, Colin Turnbull described the life of the Mbuti pygmies with such color, exuberance, detail and a healthy dash of humor that you cannot help but be entranced by this book. It reads like a novel, not a diary or journal. The author lived for three years with them in the Ituri Forest in northwestern Belgian Congo (later Zaire, now DR of Congo). His affection for them is immediately apparent, and his intimate descriptions of individuals allow the reader to enjoy the characters in the book and their lives.
However, there are times when either the author is taking the mickey out of you, or else the Mbuti are taking the mickey out of him. When he takes a few of them on a drive out of the forest into the savanna where buffalo are grazing they wonder what kind of ants are those animals. The animals are far far away, but the people have never ever seen an open vista, so they assume the animals are very close. Good for a few chuckles, but not believable.
In any case, you won't be disappointed reading this book. Instead, you will feel like your are eating a delicious meal with a fine wine, a trip into another world that is almost certainly gone by now, 60 years on.
However, there are times when either the author is taking the mickey out of you, or else the Mbuti are taking the mickey out of him. When he takes a few of them on a drive out of the forest into the savanna where buffalo are grazing they wonder what kind of ants are those animals. The animals are far far away, but the people have never ever seen an open vista, so they assume the animals are very close. Good for a few chuckles, but not believable.
In any case, you won't be disappointed reading this book. Instead, you will feel like your are eating a delicious meal with a fine wine, a trip into another world that is almost certainly gone by now, 60 years on.
June 24, 2016
I'm so glad I got to read this book for my Cultural Anthropology class. It was extremely interesting and well written. I feel like all these people are my friends now, especially Colin (the author/anthropologist/narrator) and Kenge.
There are so many good quotes I want to be able to share, but for now, here's just one to try and make you understand why I love these people so much.
"There, in the tiny clearing, splashed with silver, was the sophisticated Kenge, clad in bark cloth, adorned with leaves, with a flower stuck in his hair. He was all alone, dancing around and singing softly to himself as he gazed up at the treetops.
Now Kenge was the biggest flirt for miles, so, after watching a while, I came into the clearing and asked, jokingly, why he was dancing alone. He stopped, turned slowly around and looked at me as though I was the biggest fool he had ever seen; and he was plainly surprised by my stupidity.
'But I'm not dancing alone,' he said. 'I am dancing with the forest, dancing with the moon.' Then, with the utmost unconcern, he ignored me and continued his dance of love and life."
There are so many good quotes I want to be able to share, but for now, here's just one to try and make you understand why I love these people so much.
"There, in the tiny clearing, splashed with silver, was the sophisticated Kenge, clad in bark cloth, adorned with leaves, with a flower stuck in his hair. He was all alone, dancing around and singing softly to himself as he gazed up at the treetops.
Now Kenge was the biggest flirt for miles, so, after watching a while, I came into the clearing and asked, jokingly, why he was dancing alone. He stopped, turned slowly around and looked at me as though I was the biggest fool he had ever seen; and he was plainly surprised by my stupidity.
'But I'm not dancing alone,' he said. 'I am dancing with the forest, dancing with the moon.' Then, with the utmost unconcern, he ignored me and continued his dance of love and life."
September 9, 2012
This book was recommended in a world music class, and may be one of the best takeaways I have from that class. Turnbull lived with the BaMbuti pygmies and gives a detailed and intimate look at their world. He was one of the few people at that time who was able to live with and study the BaMbuti without being chaperoned by the neighboring non-pygmy villagers, and was able to learn much about the pygmies without viewing them through their neighbors' biases. The portrait he paints is of a people who are intimately entwined with the forest they live in, and of the complexities of a small group society. He never falls into the trap of painting them as "noble savages" or of demeaning them as unsophisticated children. More than once Turnbull is shown that what initially seems simplistic is hiding a deeper meaning that most of the outside world will never be privy to. Ritual is balanced with practicality, sometimes to his dismay. This is the most honest anthropological study I've ever read, revealing as much about the ethnographer as it does the people he is studying.
March 13, 2015
Only once in my recollection have I ever put a book aside unfinished (Tristram Shandy), but I nearly made it twice with this one. The only thing that kept me reading till the end was the fact that it was for a book club I've just joined and I felt compelled to finish - especially as it's my first book with them.
What didn't I like? I can't really put my finger on it to be honest. I am always interested in other cultures etc so this should have been one I'd enjoy, but I simply found it dull. Nothing inspired me to turn the next page and I found myself skim-reading chunks of it.
That said, I didn't hate it and the odd chapters made me smile, but I just couldn't muster much enthusiasm for the book as a whole sadly.
What didn't I like? I can't really put my finger on it to be honest. I am always interested in other cultures etc so this should have been one I'd enjoy, but I simply found it dull. Nothing inspired me to turn the next page and I found myself skim-reading chunks of it.
That said, I didn't hate it and the odd chapters made me smile, but I just couldn't muster much enthusiasm for the book as a whole sadly.
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June 10, 2009Turnbull was a good publicist for the BaMbuti, and made sure their view of things was given a fair hearing. One interesting point is that the neighboring BaNtu farmers believed that the Pygmies had cursed the forest land so that it lost fertility if converted to farmland. Of course, forest land is always nutrient-poor. A forest is a bootstrapping system that supplies its own nutrients, mostly, so naturally the land lost fertility if you removed the nutrient sources. But it served the BaMbuti's purposes to encourage the 'curse' idea--they apparently became quite masterly at keeping outsiders out of their forest.
March 5, 2017
This was amazing! It gave me a real feel for being in the forest with the Mbuti; I am now nostalgic for what I haven't had.
What's distinctive about this ethnography is that Turnbull lived in the forest with the people and talks about them as individuals, as neighbors, not as a scholar would about a culture he's inspecting like a bug. I loved getting to know them (of course, through Turnbull's eyes and biases), seeing the variation in their behavior just as I would if I were looking at my own neighbors, my own town.
Crucial to read! Axiomatic!
What's distinctive about this ethnography is that Turnbull lived in the forest with the people and talks about them as individuals, as neighbors, not as a scholar would about a culture he's inspecting like a bug. I loved getting to know them (of course, through Turnbull's eyes and biases), seeing the variation in their behavior just as I would if I were looking at my own neighbors, my own town.
Crucial to read! Axiomatic!
September 29, 2015
This book read like a memoir instead of a scientific ethnography WHICH I LOVED
But I can't help but keep in mind the criticisms of this book when I read contemplating the fact that turnbull was romanticizing the Pygmies and their culture. And that's a problem when looking at an ethnography.
With that being said, great book! I still highly recommend!
But I can't help but keep in mind the criticisms of this book when I read contemplating the fact that turnbull was romanticizing the Pygmies and their culture. And that's a problem when looking at an ethnography.
With that being said, great book! I still highly recommend!
August 25, 2021
This recounts the author's stay with the BaMbuti Pygmies of the Ituri forest in the eastern Congo. It is lovingly told. The BaMbuti don't just live in the forest, they are OF the forest, which provides all their needs and watches over them. The book was written in 1962. I wonder how much of their way of life has remained over the intervening years.
February 27, 2010
An anthropology about the authors experiences when living with a Pygmy tribe. Very interesting and informative.
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