"The Forest People"

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses Turnbull's book "The Forest People" and describes the culture of the BaMbuti. The paper relates that although the BaMbuti lived in a very remote area of Congo's rain forest, by the time Turnbull arrived for a long stay, modern culture had already begun to affect their way of life. The paper explains that the push to settle the BaMbuti in villages as farmers shook their culture to its core, but they managed to preserve their way of life. The paper concludes that the BaMbuti culture survived because it knew to accept what was good and useful, such as crutches for someone with a bad leg and to quietly reject the rest.

From the Paper:

"Throughout the book, Turnbull describes a trait of the BaMbuti that may have helped them preserve their way of life as well as they had. Although they interacted with other cultures, in particular other non-BaMbuti tribes in the area, they affected the other culture's customs in that other tribe's presence so long as it did not make any important difference to them. But when the issue was an important one, they chose their own customs. Turnbull gives an example of this on p. 43 when telling about a child's death."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Turnbull, Colin M. The Forest People. New York, Simon & Schuster, 1961.

More papers on "The Forest People":

• Essay # 63490 : "The Forest People" by Colin Turnbull"
• Book Review # 21052 : "The Forest People: A Study of the Pygmies of the Congo" by Colin Turbull"
• Essay # 13182 : " The Mbuti Pygmies" & "The Forest People" ( Colin Turnbull )"

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