Picador Books

2 total works

The Forest People

by Colin M Turnbull

Published 1 December 1961

The bestselling, classic text on one anthropologist's incredible experience living among the African Mbuti Pygmies, and what he learned from their culture, customs, and love of life.

In this bestselling book, Colin Turnbull, a British cultural anthropologist, details the incredible Mbuti pygmy people and their love of the forest, and each other. Turnbull lived among the Mbuti people for three years as an observer, not a researcher, so he offers a charming and intimate firsthand account of the people and their culture, and especially the individuals and their personalities. The Forest People is a timeless work of academic and humanitarian significance, sure to delight readers as they take a trip into a foreign culture and learn to appreciate the joys of life through the eyes of the Mbuti people.

The Mountain People

by Colin M Turnbull

Published 1 January 1972

This companion volume to anthropologist Colin Turnbull's "The Forest People" tells the gruesome tale of what happens to a tribal people - the Ik of Uganda - who have been dispossessed of their land. It describes the dehumanization and social collapse of a people who, a few decades ago, were a society of hunters and gatherers; they are now on the verge of extinction. The author draws parallels with western society, coming to the conclusion that our much vaunted civilized values are not inherent in humanity but are a luxury all too readily cast aside.