Colin Turnbull's The Forest People

"Children of the Forest" is a narrative written by Kevin Duffy. This book is a written testament of an anthropologist's everyday dealings with an African tribe by the name of the Mbuti Pygmies. My purpose in this paper is to inform the reader of Kevin Duffy's findings while in the Ituri rainforest. Kevin Duffy is one of the first and only scientists to have ever been in close contact with the Mbuti. If an Mbuti tribesman does not want to be found, they simply won't be. The forest in which the Mbuti reside in are simply too dense and dangerous for humans not familiar with the area to enter.

The book Wildwood By Colin Meloy, is about young girl living in Portland, Oregon whose baby brother Mac gets abducted by a murder of crows and taken into the impassable wilderness. The next day she manages to slip out before her parents notice she rides into the impassable wilderness she meets Curtis who is weird kid at school he then joins her. Somehow the both of them are able to slip into the forest Prue is set on not being partners with Curtis. They end up making too much noise and some coyote soldiers appear from the trees Curtis is taken away while Prue ran. This is where the story splits in two where it shows Curtis and the Governess and Prue going into the Manor. When Curtis is taken away he is met by Alexandra the dowager Governess

During Equality’s first days in the Uncharted Forest, he starts to realize that perhaps there is more to life than the beliefs of the collective. The simple act of going into the Uncharted Forest was forbidden; however, Equality feels as though the forest is the place he is meant to be. While exploring the forest, Equality notes that “the trees parted before [him], calling [him] forward. The forest seemed to welcome [him]” (Rand 79). In this important part of the novella, Rand utilizes personification of trees to convey the idea that the forest is not as scary as the Council made it out to be. It is, in fact, quite the opposite as the trees welcomed Equality with open arms like a human would do when embracing a newcomer to a community.

that have been compelled to care for their forests by systematic managing. He also says that, “In their natural condition, or under wise management, keeping out destructive sheep, preventing fires, selecting the trees that should be cut for lumber, and preserving the young ones, these forests would be a never failing fountain of wealth and beauty” (360). We can clearly notice that nature is important to him. His writings moved presidents, and congressmen, “Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed—chased and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could get out of their bark hides……-God has cared for these trees…but he can not save them from fools – only Uncle Sam can do that.”

The forest gives them all to they need to survey. For food source they don’t need to cut the forest down to build plantation, because they know how to hunt; they then trade meat for plantation from the villagers. They know how to gather fruits that grows in abundance tree, distinguish innocent looking itaba vine from the other resembles; and follow it until it leads them to sweet testing roots for nutrition. They also know where the bees are hidden and located by the sounds for honey. The pygmies “know the secret langue that is denied all outsiders and without which life in the forest is an impossibility” ( Turnbull 14). This shows how communication is very important inside the forest, without langue inside a forest is just like a one men army; hunting could be impossible for the pygmies. The advantage of communication allows them to make hunting possible and faster; which they can plan strategy and focus different part of the forest to gather food. Comparing the prospective of Bambuti and the villagers on the forest, the villagers believed that no one should go in the forest because of evil spirits but in the other hand, the Bambuti goes around the forest without fear because that believed there are no danger and evil spirits; “for them it is a good world” (Turnbull 14). The average height for the Bambuti are less than four and a half feet, this allow them to have the ability to run swiftly and silently so other animals wont

There was only water and bare, empty land. In the center of this nothingness was a great mountain. This mountain stood tall and proud and it reached all the way into the heavens. At the very top of this mountain lived a pair of every kind of animal. In the center of this heaven grew a tree. This tree was not just any tree, it was the sacred tree of life, and it was not to be harmed in any way.

On a “Trip to Congo” Sir Richard F. Burton writes a story during his exploration to the Yellalla or Cataracts of the Congo leaving some detail insights of the customs and behavior of the African communities. He only gives his point of view from an imperialist position and sometimes denigrates and diminishes the people and their culture. Even though Burton had a translator throughout his trip the language barrier prohibits interaction with the communities and the ability to empathize with the natives. Interaction and understanding is the key to appreciate their behaviors, instead Burton

All aboriginals are linked to the Dreamtime through their totemic creation ancestors, whose stories are passed on through generations. Just as they would care for their family or tribe, they are obliged to care for their ancestral spirits existing in their land. It is important to remember that ancestral spirits are not necessarily ‘Gods’, but instead they are natural features of the land. As the Ancestor Spirits travelled the land, they taught the Law. When Aboriginals say they have a spiritual connection to the land, this relationship exists through the Law developed at the period of formation that includes a system of totemism. A totemic being represents the original form of an animal, plant or other object as it was in the Creation Period. The Kumbumerri Yugambeh people’s totem is the Eagle. ‘What is meant by totemism in Aboriginal Australia is always a mystical connection, expressed by symbolic devices and maintained by rules, between living persons, whether as individuals or as groups or as stocks, and other existents—their ‘totems’ —within an ontology of life that in Aboriginal understanding depends for order and continuity on maintaining the identities and associations which exemplify the connection.’ (5.3) Totems not only create a sense of belonging and spiritual connectedness to the land and others in the tribe, but they also offer hints to the person's

Written at the turn of the 20th century, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle took place in an era of unprecedented advancement in civilization where the American economy had risen to become one of the wealthiest on the planet. However, Sinclair asserts that the rise of capitalist America resulted in the virulent corruption and competition that plighted society into an untamed “jungle.” Shown by the corruption of the Chicago meatpacking industry, Sinclair highlights the repulsive filth of human greed that was created as a byproduct of the economic boom. The effects of industrialism and the rise of untamed capitalism is what raped the superfluity of workers, like Jurgis Rudkus, of the opportunity to uncover prosperity in America. Not only does The Jungle capture the brutality and acceleration of corrupt capitalism and ruthless Darwinism during the Progressive Era, it also prompts resistance and displacement of the existing political system in favor of a socialist revolution. Through the novel, Sinclair demonstrates how the deterioration of the American Dream was exacerbated by the capitalist greed and corruption that eventually drove Jurgis and his family into mental degeneration and despair.

Before science is introduced to the human society, people always use religious beliefs to describe the mysterious phenomenon. However, as science becomes advanced, people gradually lost in the relationship between it and religious beliefs. In the essay “In the Forest of Gombe”, Jane Goodall spends long time with chimpanzees in the forests to recover from her husband’s death. During this period, she learns new ideas from the chimps and finds herself back, and understands the complicated relationship between scientific ideas and religious beliefs. Thus, to uncover peace, people have to understand themselves first instead of focusing on problems permanently.

The twenty-first century fills itself with fast improving technology that alters people’s lives. The world adapts to technology as a normal way of life and without it, people are considered “out of this touch” or unknown. Society has become too reliant on their smartphones, televisions, and video games that they seem to be delusional about the world around them and tend to go outside less and stay inside more hiding themselves from humanity. Statistics say that technology keeps friends, family, and co-workers in touch, but it does not keep them in touch with nature. Today, civilians are separated from reality by new advancements that are supposed to enhance people’s lives for the greater good, yet what all of these new advancements do is

Calvinists also believed that “men were directed to transform the earth according to the divine will of God” (Champagne 1992:15); therefore, men were given complete freedom for environmental domination in order to transform this world that is full of flaws and sins and to appease God. From this perspective, nature is an object to be struggled against and overcome. Furthermore, Christianity, more specifically Calvinist belief, teaches the radical dualism of sacred and profane. From this perspective, this world characterized by sins, flaws, and suffering is profane, drawing comparison a comparison to the sacred afterworld. Native Americans, on the other hand, had less tension in this dichotomous relationship between this-worldliness and otherworldliness. Most Native cultures believed that their institutional and cultural elements, such as ceremonies, kinship, villages, and clans were given as gifts by the “Great Spirit”-- a benevolent and ubiquitous life force of the world. The Great Spirit communicates with humans through intermediaries that reside in nature, which makes Native Americans to live harmoniously with the earth. Everything on earth is considered a spiritual being that needs to be respected to keep the world in balance.

Chapter one, “Fieldwork among the Maisin”, describes how anthropologist John Barker, author of Ancestral Lines, goes to Uiaku New Guinea to study the Maisin people. His specific goals were to study how a people can maintain a cultural identify in a modernizing world and how they can live without destroying their environment. Barker first arrived in New Guinea in 1982 where he examined “how the Maisin make a living, organize social interactions, conceptualize the spiritual world, and meet the opportunities and tragedies of life” (Barker 2016:2). He studied the tapa cloth, a fabric made from bark, that the Maisin use as a connection to their ancestral past and to help define their culture. Barker discovered that the Maisin have faith in traditional methods and do what they can to preserve that lifestyle. Barker‘s work went

In the City of Philadelphia, there are many places that qualify as Cosmopolitan Canopies. These Canopies are “settings that offer a respite from the lingering tensions of urban life and an opportunity for diverse peoples to come together” (Anderson, XIV). Although, as you walk through the city, you may see a vast amount of diversity, there are certain places where the diversity is signified as a canopy. A canopy must have certain characteristics that say whether it is one or not. Characteristics involve comfort, the best behavior, peaceful relations and an abundance of racially, ethnically, and socially diverse people (Anderson, XV). After reading the novel The Cosmopolitan Canopy by Elijah Anderson, these areas of acceptance become very clear to you and the reasons they exist stand out more than ever. Observing LOVE Park for myself, I found out the true meaning to a Cosmopolitan Canopy and could now understand it from personal experience.

“Ancestral lines” by John Barker is a book about the anthropologist’s experience in the Uiaku village located in Papua New Guinea. In the first chapter, Barker tells his readers briefly about him and his education, his and his wife’s experience with the Maisin community, and talks in great detail about the Maisin and their culture in the Uiaku village.