Material Life and Culture in Mbuti Society - Book Report/Review Example

Material Life and Culture in Mbuti Society Introduction Colin Macmillan Turnbull was an upper Oxford-educated Englishman, who devoted his life to study and understanding of the African Pygmies. Turnbull gained fame with his books "The Forest People", which was about the Mbuti Pygmies of Zaire; "The Mountain People", which was about the Ik people of Uganda; as well as with his work on ethnomusicology, which was one of the first anthropological works of its kind. Based on writings by C. Wright Mills, Turnbull actually used his sociological imagination to understand the Mbuti tribe. This imagination enabled Turnbull to take into account how the Mbutis, with their daily life experiences formulated their own culture with their peculiar beliefs and rituals.1 This paper focuses on Turnbull's story about the Mbuti tribe in "The Forest People." In this book Turnbull describes his experiences while living among the Mbuti Pygmies, not as an observer but as somebody sharing their daily life and learning their customs. In turn, he shares with his readers his interpretation of the lives and feelings of the Mbuti and why they have come to be so. The Mbuti are one of several indigenous hunter-gatherer groups in the Congo region of Africa. They live in bands of around 15 to 60 people, sustaining themselves by hunting and gathering in the Ituri tropical rainforest. In his book, Turnbull talks about the Mbuti and how their existence is centered on their love and understanding of the forest world in which they live in. He goes on to say that in return for this love and understanding, the forest provides the Mbuti with everything they need to live. This symbiotic relationship has shaped the Mbuti culture with its traditional rituals such as the Molimo, when they praise the forest as provider, protector and deity; the Elima, when young girls come of age; and the Nkumbi circumcision rites, when non-Pygmy villagers in surrounding communities impose their culture on the Pygmies. This paper juxtaposes cultural values against material needs of the Mbuti people and analyzes how one affects the other, whether positively or negatively. Material Needs The vegetation at the Ituri forest is highly diverse with over 500 plant species recorded, and with very high tree density. Aside from high plant diversity, the Ituri ecosystem also has very rich animal populations with over 300 species of birds, more than 50 species of mammals, and a large population of forest elephants, recorded. According to Turnbull, this diversity of the Ituri forest provides everything that the Mbutis need for their daily lives. "They do not have to cut the forest down to build plantations, for they know how to hunt the game of the region and gather the wild fruits that grow in abundance there, though hidden to outsiders"2. Turnbull describes how the Mbutis can distinguish different plants from one another even if they look quite similar to the eye, such as the Itaba vine, which if you follow where it originates from the ground, one would find a cache of sweet-tasting roots. Another account talked about how the Mbutis recognize the kind of weather that spawns mushrooms from the ground, as well as the kinds of woods and leaves that disguise them. Yet another story that Turnbull relates regarding the Mbutis oneness with the forest is about the honey season. During this time the Mbuti sets up a camp and conducts a song and dance ritual, wherein they believe that their song is "a song of magic that would travel with the smoke of the honey fire to call the bees to come and make more honey"3. Aside from the honey, the Mbutis also eat the grubs and bee larvae as part of their diet. There are more instances which Turnbull has described about how the forest seems to provide everything that the Mbutis need for their sustenance. He also corrects the impression created by the Father Schebesta "that the Pygmies were dependent on the Negroes both for food and for metal products"4. Since the Mbutis were not farmers, who had no desire to cut down trees to build plantations, it was only a matter of convenience that they have chosen to trade the produce of the forest, consisting of meat, with the produce of the plantations, but there is no actual dependence by the Mbuti on the non-Pygmies. Culture The song and dance rituals during the honey season are part of Mbuti culture. They believe in the power of their ritual to guide them to where honey may be had as well as to influence the bees into making more honey. This may not have been scientifically proven by Turnbull but his story shows that the ritual seems to be effective, thereby contributing to the Mbuti's material welfare. The Molimo is a major ritual in Mbuti life. It is celebrated to give thanks to the forest or to put Mbuti life in order after a bad event such as a death. The Molimo itself is a trumpet made out of hollowed material. Turnbull describes that during his stay, the Molimo that was used came from a metal drainpipe. The sound it produces imitates animal sounds and the Mbutis regard the Molimo as the song of the forest. In times of hardship or if the Mbutis felt something was out of balance, a Molimo festival would be held to "make the forest happy again"5. Turnbull recounts how Moke, an elder Mbuti explained to him the reason for the Molimo ritual. Moke said that normally, everything is well in the Mbuti world but occasionally things go wrong, especially when the Mbutis are asleep. Ants may invade the camp or a leopard may steal a hunting dog or a child or there may be death or simply unfruitful hunting. To the Mbutis this would mean that the forest was asleep and was not watching over them. The Molimo wakes up the forest, so everything will be well again. Since the Mbuti are dependent on the forest, the Molimo ritual is an expression of their serious regard for the forest. The ritual may seem like a senseless religious activity honoring their forest god, but it most probably also reminds the Mbutis that they have to take care of their habitat in order to sustain it and in turn provide sustenance to them. In this way, the Molimo contributes to the Mbutis material welfare. Both the Nkumbi and the Elima activities are based more on practical concerns rather than ritual related to religion. Both these activities have parallel rituals with the non-Pygmies but Turnbull says, the Mbuti point of view is entirely different from the villagers. The Nkumbi is an initiation ritual for boys to signify their passing from boyhood into manhood. The villagers impose this ritual on the Mbuti boys because they believe that the Mbuti initiate becomes bound to the village for life and even after death. Although a Mbuti boy participates in the ritual, the Mbuti definition of manhood is more practical, that of supporting a family by killing his first game and participation in the Elima. Elima means coming of age for a young girl, with the first appearance of menstrual blood. For the Mbuti, Elima means life, with the girl becoming a potential mother. The activity involves the seclusion of the girl in order to prepare her at the Elima House where she is given motherhood lessons. After which, interested young men partake in the Elima to present themselves for selection as a husband for the girl. Both these rituals, although introduced by the villagers are based on practical considerations from the point of view of the Mbutis and therefore contribute positively to their material welfare. An adult male becomes another provider for the tribe, and an adult female becomes another source of life as well as a partner for caring for a Mbuti family. Conclusion As related by Turnbull, the Mbuti people are in quite an ideal position for living their lives and enjoying the process. They are one with their environment. The Mbutis respect and care for the forest and it does seem that the forest takes complete care of them. The aspects of culture described in the book all seem but naturally developed practices because of how they live in the forest and interact with the villagers around them. There seems to be nothing in the cultural ways of the Mbutis that actually make life difficult for them. Turnbull's book about the Mbuti shows the intimate relationship between the hunter-gatherers and the forest ecosystem which they inhabit. The manifested expression of this is how the Mbutis utilize the resources around them - wild game, fruits, mushrooms, honey and bees. However, there is also the spiritual connection between the Mbutis and the forest, in that the forest is regarded as provider and protector, much like the modern concept of a deity. "We are the people of the forest. The forest, the great provider, is the one standard by which all deeds and thoughts are judged; it is the chief, the lawgiver, the leader, and the final arbitrator"6. Turnbull described how the Mbutis related to the villagers around them. Despite some assimilation of words in their language as well as ritualistic practices, the Mbuti on the whole have kept to their own beliefs and ways of life. They have not been influenced to cut down the forest and build plantations of their own. They saw reason for the Nkumbi and Elima rituals but decided to practice them from their own viewpoints, those most practical and supportive of their ways and beliefs. C. Wright Mills, in his book, The Sociological Imagination, asserts that "what ordinary men are directly aware of and what they try to do are bounded by the private orbits in which they live"7 The ways in which the Mbutis lived and functioned within their forest was limited by their visions and powers as related to the scenarios for the tasks at hand, their families and their immediate neighborhood. At the time of Turnbull's stay with the Mbutis, the forest environment was sufficient for all the needs of the tribe and no drastic reasons were presented by their environment that would necessitate any changes in how they lived, nor in abandoning any of their ways. As related by Turnbull, even if they had contact with the plantation villagers, the Mbutis' reaction to them was only a peaceful tolerance of the villagers' existence with quite minor influence in their everyday ways. They agreed to trade plantation produce and tools for game and practiced Nkumbi and Elima, but with their own Mbuti interpretation. As Mills said, ordinary men who are put in another milieu behave vicariously and are mere expectators.6 According to Turnbull, "to be alone was as though you were daring to look on the face of the great God of the Forest himself, so overpowering was the goodness and beauty of the world all around. Every trembling leaf, every weathered stone, every cry of an animal or chirp of a cricket tells you that the forest is alive with some presence"8. It would truly be a pity then, if as Moke said, when the forest dies, the Mbuti dies. Bibliography Turnbull, Colin. The Forest People. Simon & Schuster, 1968. Mills, C. Wright. The Sociological Imagination. Oxford University Press, 1959, (reprinted 2000). Read More