Cultural Anthropology

March 8, 2015

Turnbull’s The Forest People

Turnbull’s The Forest People, is a book written about the Pygmy’s culture and how people living in this tribe survived. Colin Turnbull decided to evoke on a journey where he analyzes this interesting lives of the Pygmies. Throughout the story we find several key components that give us more of an understanding about each valuable thing that the Pygmies do everyday. This can be found from the way they eat with portions to the way they raise their children with tender and love. Even though each component is extremely different then what we do in today’s society, there are definitely some valuable lessons that can be learned through reading and understanding the Pygmies culture. The Pygmies have one rule to follow when thinking about gathering food, “No one goes to bed hungry”. This quote is interpreted exactly the way it is written. When the men and women typically go out to hunt, which is normally one time every week or two weeks, they always keep the amount they are feeding in mind. Unlike Americans, who normally go out and prepare food for just their family or household, the Pygmy’s make sure that every single individual in their tribe is fed. It is very rare to hear about women helping the men hunt but it is a refreshing thing to hear that they take part in this responsibility. The job of the women is not actually to kill the game but they simply put the net around it. This is also important because it minimizes the amount of animals being killed for no reason. The Pigmy’s respect both the animals and their landscape, so anytime they can improve both of these attributes they will do so. The way they don’t abuse their landscape, and not let anyone go to bed hungry is truly an admirable trait and should be portrayed in American society. There are thousands of people in America that not only go to bed hungry but do not obtain any nutrients for days. This is a growing epidemic that is increasingly not getting the recognition it deserves. How is it possible that a country so wealthy and powerful has citizens living in it that don’t get at least one proper meal a day? This is a disgrace and simply embarrassing. We should aspire to be like the Pygmy’s and never let one of our own ever go hungry, In the Pygmy culture, each mother took care of the other mothers’ children. In today’s society, parents worry about their own children and that is all. It is actually slightly insulting for another parent to try to act as a parental figure for others children. You will find mothers today talking about other children saying things such as “Well that’s not my kid so I don’t care.” However, no one stops to think about how this may benefit their children. The Pygmy mothers all band together and take care of every child. Basically, every child learns different things from each mother. All mothers are different, and they each have something different that they can teach their children and open up their minds too. By learning from a wide range of mothers, children can find out easily what interests them by observing the mothers interests and deciding for themselves what they enjoy and what they do not. Also, some mothers are more educated in things than others. Where one mother may struggle, another will prosper. In the Pygmy’s culture there is a ceremony called the “Alyma Ceremony”, through this after the celebration of a young women’s period they are taught to be inspiring mothers and wife’s. They are taught from raising a child to being an amazing life partner. To base it off today’s society, if a mother does not have the patience to teach her young one how to read, another mother who is a better teacher could help the child. Having a lot of mothers care for a variety of children and being taught the way of motherhood can be compared to a school. Each mother can teach a child something new, and a child can learn from experiences that they have with each. They can also decide what kind of parent they want to be by deciding what they like about each mother and applying it to themselves and their own families. They also gain more loving relationships and a bigger family because so many people were there to help raise them. Today, if a child was brought up by their parents but their uncle was around often and helped their parents out, the child will grow close to this uncle. For the Pygmy’s, each other does equal part on taking care of the child so it will feel close to them all. Basically, each child will learn more, be taken care of better, and have a bigger family with strong relations. The Pygmies had “no chiefs, no formal councils, no judge, no jury, no court”(110). This gives an overall picture of what the government or lack off government looked like for the Pygmies. When someone first hears this they may assume that this tribe would never have any social structure, but in actuality this is the complete opposite. The Pygmies live a very carefree and subtle life, so when a member of the tribe does something that is frowned upon they simply ignore them. Cephu is one member of the tribe that committed the worst crime of all, which was the stealing of meat. Meat is sacred to the Pygmies so when they hear that someone stole their precious meat it is almost equivalent to murder. They stopped all communications to Cephu in its entirety. There was complete isolation, even through there were no actual prison to be brought to there was still mental punishment. This may not sound like a punishment but “for those few hours when nobody would speak to him he must have suffered the equivalent of as many days solitary confinement for anyone else”(109). The men ignored him while the women starred at him and just laughed. Even the younger children gave him no respect, which is extremely disrespectful when referring to an older male. Mental punishment is worse than physical punishment. I think that if Americans turned to mental punishment instead of so much physical punishment we may have more of a calm society just like the Pygmies. This would take away the rebel factor when committing a crime. In most instances people commit crimes just for “the chase”. They want that thrill of living in danger and taking the risk of getting in trouble. If there were no “danger” or “risk” there would be little to no crime in the United States. Living in America like most places has both its pros and cons. There are many things that if it was up to me I would change, but overall it is a place where true justice is trying to be served in many different ways. One thing that is mainly lacking in America is true appreciation and love. Those two emotions are what is lost in being an American. The Pygmies hold these two emotions very closely to their hearts, such as through teaching, preparing food, and even the way they control their people. Through all of these components I realize how important understanding the lives of the Pygmies really is. They are beautiful people with big hearts. They truly care about one another and that is the key component to remember when analyzing this different yet amazing culture. Works Cited
Turnbull, Colin M. The Forest People. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961. Print