Caleb Cyr
Professor Crouse
ANT 102
11 Oct. 2017
The Forest People by Colin M. Turnbull shows his experiences with two different cultures coexisting in the Ituri Forest region of Democratic Republic of the Congo (7). The BaMbuti Pygmies interact with the villagers, trading goods as well as cultural customs. The BaMbuti and village people have very different cultures from each other, often disagreeing on what to do and what not to do. The villagers are very superstitious, but the Pygmies aren’t for the most part (228). Although they differ on their views, they still must live together and cooperate when the Pygmies leave the forest and come to the village.
A big difference between the villagers and BaMbuti cultures is how they treat ceremonies. The villagers tend to be more concrete about how a ceremony will happen, giving specific rules and guidelines to follow (222). For example, in the case of the boys’ initiation ceremony in the village (the nkumbi), there were a lot of rules the boys had to follow. “To get wet… was sure to bring death. To eat certain foods was strictly prohibited. The boys had to eat without using their hands directly, spearing the food with sticks. They were forbidden to eat with their initiated relatives” (222). For the Pygmies, however, “it is not so much the act itself that counts, or the manner in which the act is performed, but the thought that goes into it” (145). The molimo for example, is a very sacred mourning ceremony for the BaMbuti people (91). Although it’s one of their most important ceremonies, “There seemed to be no specific length of time that it should run, and it was just a question of convenience” (155). One molimo lasted for months in the book, while another only lasted days. Another example using the molimo is the trumpets they use. Instead of traditional, wooden trumpets, the Pygmies just used some drain pipes they found (75). When Turnbull asked about why they used metal pipe instead of traditional materials, the Pygmies replied with, “What does it matter what the molimo is made of? This one makes a great sound, and, besides, it does not rot like wood” (76). The villagers also use rituals more than the BaMbuti. Although they participate in the nkumbi, the BaMbuti don’t think that their boys have become men after it, they think they’re still boys (226-227). While the villagers use this as a clear cut ceremony to manhood, the Pygmies believe a boy “proves himself capable of supporting a family when he kills his first real game, and proves himself a man when he participates in the elima” (227).
The Pygmies use the villagers’ ceremonies to help themselves. Particularly, indulging in the closing feasts of the ceremonies. After someone dies, the villagers have a week of mourning ending with a big feast (47). So when a Pygmy dies, after the molimo the Pygmies go into the village to celebrate the closing feast in which most of the food is supplied by the villagers (47). The same is true with weddings for the Pygmies. Often times, the BaMbuti people would get married in the village for the perks (201-202). They’d get gifts and a feast, as this was the way the villagers married (203). Most of these weddings were an act just to get the perks, however. In The Forest People, Moke, one of the BaMbuti, shows this. He says, “‘After all… you are not married properly until you give your in-laws a forest antelope. If you don’t like your village wedding, don’t give the antelope’” (216). The Pygmies call the village weddings “bule” (empty).
The villagers are more superstitious than the Pygmies, believing more in witchcraft, sorcery, and curses (228). Usually Pygmies don’t think seriously about witchcraft, unless they’re in the village or villagers are visiting their camp. They believe that “A single villager visiting a hunting camp can bring his evil with him, but when he departs it departs with him” (228). The Pygmies use the villagers’ superstitions to their advantage. Cephu tells a story about telling his master that a spirit took the meat he was bringing for him (135). He tells the master he fought to get the meat back, but the spirit got away with his basket containing the meat as well as his own food (136). His master believes him, and gives him rice since supposedly the spirit took his (136). Asofalinda tells a similar story, where she stole plantains but was discovered by the owner (136). She hides them in a hole, and when covering the hole she’s asked what’s in it (136). She tells the owner that a dangerous spirit animal in the hole that was coming to attack him (137). She tells the man to get his spear to kill the animal. He leaves and she hides the plantains. Then she kicks him into the hole when he returns to kill the animal, leaving with the plantains (135-137).
As described by Turnbull and the general ideas of a band, the BaMbuti don’t look down on their women since they’re egalitarian. The villagers think of women as basically field workers, while the Pygmies see their women as partners that are basically needed to live. There are rarely gender specific tasks, and the women make nets and help with the hunt alongside the men, as well as building the huts, cooking, and gathering fruits and vegetables (154). On the other side of the spectrum, men have no problem gathering mushrooms or even helping clean and take care of a baby (154). In fact, one of the very few male controlled activity in BaMbuti culture is the molimo (154, 206). However, the hut is usually considered to be the woman’s property, since she built it (132). Pygmy women use the hut as a form of collateral when having an argument with their husbands. Turnbull talks about one instance where he saw a woman take all of the leaves off of her hut because she was fighting with her husband and he would not give in. He eventually gave in when she started pulling out the sticks, saying to the others that they were washing the leaves in the river not to be humiliated (132-133).
Although the BaMbuti Pygmies live alongside the villagers sometimes, the don’t let them take away their culture. At times, they borrow ideas from the villagers, changing them to meet their own needs. They also adopt the villagers’ customs and values when they’re in the village, so they don’t taint their own forest customs. The two groups hold differing views on certain things, making for some interesting cultural interactions.
Works Cited
Turnbull, Colin M. The Forest People. Simon & Schuster Inc., 1968.
The purpose of this piece I wrote for cultural anthropology was to compare and contrast the cultures of the villagers and the BaMbuti pygmies in The Forest People by Colin M. Turnbull. I found myself using ideas and processes I had learned in English 110 while writing this paper. For starters when reading the book as well as when I looked over it again, I found myself using active reading strategies. I took notes down and found myself trying to at least somewhat plan my essay while reading the book. Before English 110 I never really took that approach, I’d just read it over half paying attention. I also found myself paying more attention to MLA than in former papers.
I definitely used a more “recursive” approach than I had before English 110. Before this class, all of the peer edits and revisions I had experienced were more focused on local revisions, not global revisions. In high school we used revising to polish up our papers, not make big changes. I found myself moving around paragraphs that I had originally just wrote as I thought of them in really no thought out order. Moving these paragraphs around helped make the paper flow better. Instead of jumping from topic to topic, I tried to make the paragraphs flow better by putting similar or related topics near each other (I don’t have specific examples, I never saved a seperate copy of my first draft). Before English 110 I probably would’ve left it jumping from topic to topic. I never really focused on organization, just the content.
I also used quotes in different ways than I had before English 110. When finding quotes from the book to use, I found way more than I needed in the paper. When looking over my paper, I took out some of these unnecessary quotes. I found that there were a good amount that could be either taken out entirely, or that needed to be incorporated into the text differently to really be effective.
Going forward, I know I’ll use these themes learned in English 110. Seeing how the recursive writing process has made my papers better, I know I’ll continue to use it. Even Steven Pinker’s piece “Why Academics Stink at Writing” will stick with me and help me to write better essays. One main thing I’ll use is to not fill the paper with jargon to sound like I know more what I’m talking about. I had never really thought of it, but it really does make papers hard to follow and just more dull.
