FREE ESSAY ON THE FOREST PEOPLE

THE FOREST PEOPLE

In his book, The Forest People, Colin Turnbull achieves the taste and feel of life inside
a Mbuti community, but in doing so offers a skewed anthropological look at the peoples of
the African Congo. When reading the book, I did truly feel a part of the Mbuti world, but
I also noticed a lack of anthropological accuracy when it came to portraying effect had
on Pygmies by the lives and cultures of surrounding natives. Not only does Turnbull lack
respect non-Pygmy culture, but he also doesn't much account for the possibility of change
as he idealizes the Mbuti belief and living system in the state it currently exists. As
illustrated quite early in the book when Cephu's daughter dies of dysentery, the Mbuti
people copy some of the patterns of ritual grief used by their villager Negro neighbors.
It is clear from their behavior that the Pygmies hold little stock in the cultural
beliefs of the villagers, and play along simply to not upset the good food source they
can use the Negroes as. However, the way that Turnbull portrays this relationship is
extremely one-sided, often times not even giving the Negroes the dignity of a tribal
name. His treatment of their beliefs is similar, and gives only the vaguest reasons for
their behavior, citing belief in spirits and fear of the forest. Since Negro customs
obviously affect pygmy behavior, it seems curious that Turnbull should come so close to
completely ignoring cultural reasons driving it. 
Forces moving culture are much clearer and completely defined when Turnbull follows the
pygmies into the forest and away from the influence of surrounding villages. 
Here, the ritual of the molimo is seen in its pure state, as are other rituals such as
marriage and the elima. From the Mbuti (and therefore Turnbull's) point of view, it is
there in the middle of the forest that everything is right with the world, and no
polluting influence of the villagers or of change can approach them. However, this is a
false view, because change is inevitable in any culture, and even though not always
accepted, changes will occur. Turnbull sees the using of a length of pipe as the Molimo
trumpet, a man-made material replacing the traditional bamboo, and in this at least he
understands that is not so much the ritual that is important, but the idea behind the
ritual. But even in the understanding of this concept, Turnbull still argues for the
non-changing Pygmy way of life, which is really not possible. I will not call the older
style of Pygmy culture isolated, because no group of people is really cut off completely
from surrounding groups. 
Because of his immersing style of writing, Turnbull captures the spirit and heart of the
Mbuti Pygmies with just the basic knowledge of how changes from the outside world affect
the cultural activities of the group. He assumes the Pygmies are impervious; they may try
a new activity, like raising plantations, for a while, but in the end they will always
return to the forest and the hunter-gatherer way of life, because that is what they have
always done and what is right for them. Herein lies the biggest error made by Turnbull in
The Forest People: he doesn't give the Pygmy culture enough credit for what it is. The
Mbutis are changing, dynamic piece of humanity being fueled by not only age-old
traditions and customs, but also the very real beliefs and values of the tribes that they
share the Congo with.