The Forest People seems like an unbiased book when you read it, but is it really? The answer is a resounding “NO”. There are many reasons including the conditions Colin Turnbull was in and where he was when he wrote the book, his history, and his views as an ethnographer being subpar from what is considered an accurate ethnographer. There are many reasons that methodology and ethical choices are questioned when it comes to Colin Turnbull’s The Forest People and they are all not unfounded. Colin Turnbull faced many challenges while growing up, including never being given emotional nurturing and emotional stability he needed as a child (15, In The Arms of Africa, Grinker). His mother was too demanding of him and his father too distant (118, Grinker). He also faced the …show more content…
challenge of being gay and it was condemned and considered immoral and wrong to be so. He was never quite accepted into society. He brought this past with him to the Mbuti. He saw how caring and loving the relationships were within the Mbuti and how every child was accepted regardless of gender and none struggled to fit in because it was within their culture to work together and be as one (17, Grinker). Turnbull saw the Mbuti as superior to the world he grew up in and by such comparison it swayed his views on the Mbuti, making them seem even better in his tainted lens of a difficult past. To the untrained eye, The Forest People seems like a simple ethnographic book, but when you look closer with a deeper understanding, you will realize that it is biased.
Firstly, when did he write this book? At the time of writing the book, he was among another culture he was studying. The Ik, the focus of another ethnography. Turnbull expressed a deep dislike of the Ik calling them “sub-humans” as well as claimed the Ik did not possess generosity, compassion, charity, hospitality, kindness, or honesty. (156, Grinker). Turnbull couldn’t connect with the Ik like he did with the Mbuti. Turnbull couldn’t connect with the Ik while he was writing the book The Forest People. Writing a book about a culture while being among another creates a conflict of interest especially when Turnbull was surrounded by a harsher culture than the Mbuti. It put things in perspective and it translated into bias that the Mbuti were much more civilized and overall better than they were. Had he written the book while immersed in their culture or even in his home, it would’ve had a much different theme and feeling to it than how he wrote it while observing the Ik, whom he wished would die and cease to exist (173,
Grinker). An argument could be made by asking if any ethnographer is ever completely unbiased. This is a valid statement because it isn’t possible to ever be completely biased. However, it is possible to be less biased. Rather than taking things at face value and comparing it to a deeply understood past, one could push further to understand what they are viewing. Instead of seeing the rash and violent ways of the Ik, one could push away the initial visceral feelings of disgust and analyze why this culture is the way it is. Why these people act in a way so different from modern countries that are developed. By understanding reasons behind things, it is easier to be less biased but also on the flip side, even more biased. It is up to the discretion of the ethnographer. More bias or less? Colin Turnbull’s past, present and bias shaped how The Forest People was written. He based his views of the Mbuti off his past by seeing it as better than how he grew up. He placed the Mbuti on a pedestal while writing the book in the middle of the rough and difficult to understand culture of the Ik. Lastly, he chose to be biased by surrounding himself with a culture he couldn’t understand and writing a book about a culture he could so well connect with and relate to. All of these things shaped The Forest People and made it the book it is now, flaws and all.
During his research Barker utilizes a series of methods in his quest to understand these indigenous people, from this he was able to capture his readers and make them understand issues that surround not only people form third worlds; but how these people and their struggles are related to us. By using ethnographic methods, such as: interviews,participant observation, key consultants/informants,detailed note-taking/ census, and controlled historical comparisons. In these practices Barker came to understand the people and their culture, of which two things became a big subject in his book. The first being Tapa, “a type of fiber made from bark that the Maisin people use as a stable for cloths and other cloth related uses. Defining both gender roles and history; proving income and also a symbol of identity to the people” (Barker 5-6). And the other being their forest, of which logging firms the Maisin and Non Government Organizations (NGO’s), had various views, wants and uses for the land. Logging firms wished to clear the area to plant cash crops such as oil palms, while the NGO’s wanted the land to remain safe; all the while the Maisin people were caught in the middle by the want to preserve their ancestors lands and the desperate need to acquire cash. With these two topics highlighted throughout Barkers ethnography the reader begins is journey into understanding and obtaining questions surrounding globalization and undeveloped
Eddie Mabo’s success at land rights has reshaped and rewrote Australian society and history. Mabo was born a Torres Strait Islander and a member of the Meriam people on Murray (Mer) Island, 1936. He went on to be an Indigenous community leader and human rights activist after marrying Bonita Nehow in 1959 and joining the Torres Strait Islander community, consequently becoming director of the Townsville Black Community School in 1973. Patrick Hatch, reporter for Herald Sun Newspaper 2013, reiterated Mabo’s reaction once told his land on Mer belonged to the Crown and not his family by Professor’s Noel Loos and Henry Reynolds, co-workers from James Cook University where Mabo worked as a gardener in 1974. “Everybody kn...
Wade Davis’ article, Among the Waorani, provides much of the content brought to light in Nomads of the Rainforest. His article delves deeper into their culture and motivations allowing one to more fully understand their beliefs, relationships, and savagery. Both the documentary and article attempt to create a picture of their close-knit relationships and their desire f...
The envisioned social concern Bennett has raised is coming from an aboriginals’ perspective & how aboriginals have always been fighting for themselves from white man but always end up getting killed. Thousands of intelligent & caring indigenous beings were lost and killed when white beings invaded Australia, Gordon is raising the concern of this through his
Misery, trauma, and isolation all have connections to the war time settings in “The Thing in the Forest.” In the short story, A.S. Byatt depicts elements captured from both fairy tale and horror genres in war times. During World War II, the two young girls Penny and Primrose endure the 1940s Blitz together but in different psychological ways. In their childhood, they learn how to use gas masks and carry their belongings in oversized suitcases. Both Penny and Primrose suffer psychologically effects by being isolated from their families’ before and after the war. Byatt depicts haunting effects in her short story by placing graphic details on the girls’ childhood experiences. Maria Margaronis, an author of a critical essay entitled “Where the Wild Things Are,” states that “Byatt’s tales of the supernatural depend on an almost hallucinatory precision for their haunting effects.” The hallucinatory details Byatt displays in her story have an almost unbelievable psychological reality for the girls. Penny and Primrose endure the psychological consequences and horrifying times during the Blitz along with the magical ideas they encounter as children. As adults they must return to the forest of their childhood and as individuals and take separate paths to confront the Thing, acknowledge its significance in their childhoods, and release themselves from the grip of the psychological trauma of war.
Anthropology is the study of the development of humankind within their different cultures. When one looks inside a culture, they can see the true aspects and meanings behind a societies behavior and traits. By following the principle that is cultural relativism, one can also determine that no culture truly surpasses another culture, and that each society has key differences that are important to its culture and location. This is a method that can also be seen in many intriguing films from this semester, one in particular being The Emerald Forest. Throughout this essay, this film will be analyzed around one character who greatly represents what it means to truly immerse oneself into a different culture to gain a new perspective, and many key terms in anthropology will be explored through 4 different films from the semester.
The book From the Deep Woods to Civilization is the story of Charles Eastman's journey from school and college to his careers in public service and as a medical practitioner. The book takes place from the 1870s to the early 1900s and portrays an important time in Native American history. An essential theme relates to how Eastman struggles with his identity in the way of having influences from two different cultures. Throughout the book, Eastman's identity shifts from being very different from his traditions, to being more in tune with his Dakota side.
In the book Nature, Emerson writes in a way that deals with the morals we have in our lives and how these things come from nature at its’ base form. Emerson says that nature is the things that are unchanged or untouched by man. When Haskell writes his journal entries in the book The Forest Unseen he refutes Emerson a good bit of the time. He does this by the way he focuses in on things too much and looks past their importance in the macrocosm we live in. Emerson says these things should not be zoomed in on but should just be looked at in awe. I feel that although Haskell refutes Emerson a good bit, Haskell is not trying to refute Emerson and at one point in his book he actually confirms a few of Emerson’s ideas.
Upton Sinclair exposed the exploitation of Immigrants working in Chicago’s meatpacking industry during the early twentieth century. Many people believed his book “The Jungle” helped with the exposure of the corruption in the government during the twentieth century. The book focused mainly on the poor living and working conditions of Immigrants during the early twentieth century. Sinclair wanted to prove that labor unions and Progressive reform had little or no impact on improving the working conditions of Immigrants. He felt that capitalism, with or without unions or reform, would be bad for workers, especially immigrant workers who were even lower on the socioeconomic ladder than native-born workers. Sinclair 's book is meant to reject the capitalist system and bring in its place a socialist system. In this critical portrait of capitalism and its exploitation of immigrants and other workers, unions are in fact shown to be tools for the capitalist bosses, used as another means to control and mislead immigrants.
*Chris has decided to go on a journey of self- reflection. It's believed by Jon Krakauer that Chris had no real reflection from college, but needed a further journey to actually build himself to the character he is now. Into the Wild are the steps Chris McCandless took to reflect and truly express himself within many themes. After my graduation, I want to explore more into materialism vs. idealism and “raw, transcendent experience” because these themes would help me build my character.
1. Temperate deciduous forests are among the biomes most extensively disturbed by human activities because of their location relative to humans. Temperate deciduous forests are scattered throughout temperate areas of globe and many of them are close to where humans live. They are the most convenient and valuable type of forests for humans. These forests contains animal species such as wolves, foxes, wildcats, white-tailed deer, squirrels, rabbits, opossums, and mice, and a variety of bird species. Many of these species act as vital food sources for humans. Also, temperate deciduous forests have a variety of trees species such as oak, hickory, maple, aspen, and birch. Humans cut down these trees and use them to build agricultural and urban development.
There is a three-part definition of Aboriginal identity in Australia – decent, self-identification, and community recognition.
Forest governance is the organizations, people, rules, instruments and processes through which decisions are made where forests are involved. Key elements of good forest governance include the existence of effective institutions, transparency, low levels of corruption, consistent and clear legislation, secure forest tenure and access rights, and political stability. The absence of these often lies at the root of illegal logging. This includes arrangements found in cultural traditions, laws, markets, and bureaucracies, which can influence how forests are managed, protected, and used. In recent years, additional efforts have been focused on assessing quality of governance of countries and organizations, as these elements are seen as critical to ensure sustainable forest management, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce illegal activity.
It was a calm, overcast day, and I found myself resting at the side of a large oak tree, admiring the beauty of the woods that surrounded me.
We can see why this is so. The tribal economy and forests are interlinked to each other. The forest regions are generally inhabited by tribals especially primitive tribes who are at an earlier stage of economic d...