The Books of Colin Turnbull: The Forest and Mountain People - Book Report/Review Example

The Books of Colin Turnbull: The Forest and Mountain People Introduction The books of Colin Turnbull revealed the basic and elementary nature of human race. Human race is historically known to evolve from being forest people and they were hunters and gatherers in the beginning. The trend of hunting and gathering remained notable way of making a living for number of centuries. The human nature was of a predator when they were living in the jungles of Africa round about 2.5 million years ago (Woodcock, 1). The lifestyle changed and modified in order to incorporate agriculture roughly 10,000 years ago when humans finally learned the important and valuable art of sowing a seed (Turnbull, 55). The simple sowing of a seed led to development of agriculture and therefore, humanity was divided into two distinct groups. One of them remained committed to old ways of life and kept on hunting and gathering in order to make a living (Woodcock, 3). The second group moved to other geographical locations and started to adopt modern methods of living. The people of the second group build houses and plow their lands so that they can grow food for themselves(Woodcock, 5). The second group’s contributions are identified as significant in terms of leading the modern humanity towards industrialization that became a defining attribute of economies in the modern era of the 21st century. Analytical Summary of “Forest People” The “Forest People” duly revealed the fact that human race was not only divided into two groups but these factions developed divergent cultural values with the passage of time as well and therefore, a lot of friction was caused by the normative differences in the societies (Woodcock, 5). The forest people remained close to the nature and followed animal’s way of life. They became divided in various clans and groups and fought amongst each other in order to mark their territories. The youngsters stepping into the adulthood were supposed to kill their first prey to prove their capability of feeding the family that they will have soon after becoming a man (Woodcock, 2). The young females who tend to enter the period of adultery are treated as new potential mothers and they do not have to face doubts about their character from the society. Additionally, the forest people do not consider death as a natural phenomenon and therefore, an individual’s death is supposed to be the act of his or her enemies The people living a primitive life are called pygmies and they are known to follow simplistic ways of life as their decision making was based on the need to fulfill their necessities of life whereas, youngsters had to prove to people their manhood by killing a first prey (Woodcock, 7).. The villagers on the other hand were described as much sophisticated people as compared to the abovementioned group. The newly adult boys and girls are celebrated as new able members of the society. The entry of adult life was celebrated by a feast in order to mark the start of a new phase of life. The youngsters did not face any challenges for proving their manhood in the society (Woodcock, 8). The death was identified as the logical conclusion of life and that was why, nobody had to be blamed for any natural death (Woodcock, 6). The villagers in the various parts of the world had been characterized as civilized people while, they followed more sensible way of life. The forest people did not choose to become more than themselves and remained contented with fulfillment of their basic needs and wants which were well served with the help of hunting and gathering (Bailey, 63). The writer is absolutely right, when he states that two divergent cultures emerged in the human race. The primitive culture remained limited and preserved in the jungles of Africa and it is still there in the modern times where people hide their bodies with leaves and hunt and gather in the old fashioned methods. They are at rest with finding new areas to live and they are very satisfied with meeting their basic needs when they can have much more than that by just stepping out of the forest. However, they do not want to do this because they will have to leave their home and humans always do not abandon their natural habitat easily unless provided by incentive. No anthropologist and psychologist are willing to exert their energies into developing forest people into modern individuals because it is almost impossible to achieve. The psychologists and anthropologists work in order to study the behaviors and attitudes of simplistic human beings so that they can enable themselves of understanding modern humanity in better ways. It is often argued that humans have failed to control their basic instincts of greed that lead them to accumulate unnecessary amounts of money in the current times and this behavior is pretty much same to that of primitive culture’s need to hunt and gather. The humanities’ scholars can gain the power to impress people in the modern world to keep what they need and give the remaining to the needy and suffering by studying the behaviors of those who are living in a primitive setting. The writer has logically argued that forest people had a powerful sex drive and they were ruthless in seeking and performing mating. The sex roles were defined and the males were responsible for hunting and gathering while, the females were accountable for cooking and raising children. In this way, the writer’s viewpoint which led him to fantasize about romantic nature of forest life is plausible and it indeed highlights the need to have more lively sex for humans. The sex is getting dull in the modern era as people are getting more and more engaged in their professional lives and because of this reason, they do not have sufficient time for their partners. The energetic sex is something that can be learned from forest people by so-called modern humans. The sex is important because it gives pleasure and energy to get on with life. Drawbacks of “The Forest People” The book entitled “The Forest People” is considered as a classic work but it lacked the linkages with the modern world. The village and forest people were not very different after all because the females of both the groups were responsible for cooking and raising children and the males were there for making a living and it really does not matter that by which means they did that. However, the book provided great level of insight in humanity’s past as humans were in fact hunters and gatherers at one point in time. In the current times, it is also hard to claim that humans have become evolved because still they are engaged in gathering money like they did gather raw food in the past. The dedication towards society’s betterment is the real essence of humanity and it is a total rarity to observe even in the updated world of today. Analytical Summary of “The Mountain People” The book “The Mountain People” tells a very different story about a culture that was living in the area located at the Uganda-Kenya border. The society was extremely individualistic in nature and nobody was supposed to take care of the young (Heine, 9). The kids having ages between eight and thirteen years had to live in the form of groups where they learn from each other how to survive in the mountains. The book is primarily composed on the basis of data collected by Turnbull in 1950s. However, the work was finally published in the year of 1972. The culture was an isolated one and therefore, it had only 10,000 members. The study revealed the ruthlessness of people living in the mountains and their mindset was believed to be significantly shaped by the tough conditions in which they had to live. The social system was weak and the people did not care about each other. Sex was occasional as mountains were not able to house increasing population. The food supply was not enough and therefore, people had to die with hunger. The population growth was controlled and children who possibly cannot gather food were left out of the community to die or survive on their own. The people were not willing to let anyone become a burden on anyone else and the rule of survival of the fittest was being applied. In this way, the latter mentioned communal setup was much worse than the former one because the people living in the forest did care about their children and family. They fed their women well and held ceremonies of one sort or another. They dispose of their dead in a respectable way but the latterly studied society was engaged in the application of animal way of life with no regard for human life. The sex was prohibited and there was little social life. Additionally, there was nobody to care about the young children. The idea was to let the unworthy die so that the shortage of the food can be managed. The latterly analyzed book was written in a better fashion because it did not compare the groups but reported factual information about the lifestyle of a very inhuman culture. Based on the information provided in the book, government of the area is strongly suggested to take proper action in order to eradicate the diseased society. The children should be put into the rehab programs and the elders must be convinced to be relocated because humans are dying in significant numbers due to the featured way of life. The further loss of life can be prevented by relocation of population to more suitable geographical areas. Analytically Summarizing Both Works Both of the analyzed works provided great insights into primitive cultures but the latter one is more realistic in nature. The former has failed to quote the deep seated similarities in forest and village life. Villagers were initiating to gather agricultural goods and the forest people were doing so with the raw food. Surprisingly, the concern for others was higher amongst the forest people whereas, in villagers, the capitalistic mindset was already being established. The latter work was closer to reality in terms of reporting the conditions of living in mountains and how they made the people more like animals. Conclusion This paper reviewed and analyzed the classic works of Colin Turnbull and found them most illuminating in terms of providing the valuable insights about the basic human psyche and how it is based on the need to survive without any concern for others. The books collectively studied two primitive cultures and one is called forest people and other is titled as mountain people and the latter is much worse as compared to the former one. The “Forest People” is more detailed but less logical because both of the featured societies are rather similar than being dissimilar to each other. Secondly, the work “The Mountain People” is less detailed but more logical in nature because it successfully linked ruthlessness of people living in mountains with their living conditions. They are concerned with the need to survive and therefore, they train their children to learn to live on their own in small groups. Works Cited Read More