This means that modernization has no place in the lives of most Africans, primarily because they have learned to survive and live despite the inconveniences that forest life presents. From this realization, readers are shown how development is interpreted from the point-of-view of those who have remarkably survived early forms of living, such as the life of hunting-gathering that the forest people have known ever since they have become part of the Ituri forest.
Apart from their lifestyle, the BaMbuti's social organization is radically different from the one established under a capitalist economic system (which is the prevalent social structure for most developed and developing nations in the 20th century). In Turnbull's study of the tribe's social structure and organization, it became apparent that the tribe had no established social system, be it political or economic in nature. He claims that "...the BaMbuti were a single cultural unit...There was no form of chieftainship, and no mechanism for maintaining law and order, and it was difficult...to see what prevented these isolated groups from falling into complete chaos" (19). This account highlights the fact that there exists an almost egalitarian society in Ituri, a state of society wherein there is no social stratification. In fact, the lack of any established law within the tribe is indeed a mark of the egalitarian nature of the tribe's life, an almost utopian society wherein harmony with nature and among the BaMbuti are the most important pursuits in life.
Though food is an essential item for the BaMbuti, this is so only because they need food to survive forest life. Otherwise, forest life is a simple life consisting of daily conduct of activities that makes communal life harmonious and enjoyable.
Of course, the most significant insight shared by the author is how modernization is affecting the life of the forest people. The author himself expresses his apprehension with the emergence of the plantations in nearby locations at the Ituri forest, for these plantations had, evidently, detrimentally affected the life of the forest people. Turnbull best expresses his dismay over the dominance of modernization in Ituri...
..for them it is a good world" (Turnbull 14). And although small in stature, Turnbull writes, they are able to kill elephants single-handed with only a short handled spear and blend so well with the forest foliage that one could pass right by without noticing them. Turnbull relates the BaMbuti customs, such as marriage rites, rituals and celebrations. His accounts of these people rings a magically encounter. Turnbull is so taken by
On the other hand, this return to a people made largely more recognized by Turnbull's first ethnography does suggest something about the ethnography itself where anthropological purpose is concerned. Namely, the degree to which the people of the Mbuti tribes may have been exposed to the larger intersection with the modern world as a result of Turnbull's first work is illustrative of the way that research can actually interfere
It is thought that the forest imbues the semen of a married man with its own vital essence. In this way, Mosko argues, the children born of married unions are products of "the joyful intermingling of several simultaneous influences of mother, father, and forest" (899). The forest is not only the source of the individual's sense of identity, but also defines the communal sense of identity as well. Bands see
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