Colin Turnbull

Colin Macmillan Turnbull (November 23, 1924 - July 28, 1994) was a famous British anthropologist who gained prominence with his book The Forest People (1962), a detailed study of the Mbuti Pygmies. In 1972, he wrote his most controversial classic, The Mountain People, which portrayed Uganda's hunger-plagued Ik tribe. Turnbull was an unconventional scholar who rejected objectivity. He idealized the Mbuti and reviled the Ik, whom he recounted as so coldly self-absorbed that they allowed their children to die if they could not surviveafter kicking them out at the age of 12 and refused to share food with anyone, even gorging on the occasional excess of food until they got sick rather than save and/or share.

External links

• African Pygmies Culture and music of the forest People, with photos and ethnographic notes