About this title: In "The Mountain People," Colin The Forest People" - describes the dehumanization of the Ik, African tribesmen who in less than three generations have deteriorated from being once-prosperous hunters to scattered bands of hostile, starving people whose only goal is individual survival.
Forbidden by the Ugandan government to hunt game in the Kidepo National Park, the Ik are compelled to farm and forage for food in the barren mountain heights adjoining the park. Drought and starvation have made them a strange and heartless people, mistrustful of their own kind - their days occupied with ...
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Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 1974
ISBN-13:9780671217242ISBN:0671217240
Description: Poor. No dust jacket as issued. Signed by previous owner. some pages breaking away from spine, but all there. cover worn. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date Published: 1974
ISBN-13:9780671217242ISBN:0671217240
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Clean and tight. Nicely illustrated copy with pages unmarked, no stains, tears or folds. Cover has edgewear and scratches plus a bit of discoloration. Sound book. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books
Date Published: 1974
ISBN-13:9780671217242ISBN:0671217240
Description: Good. Unmarked and clean with mildly toned pages. Crease on top front cover and light soiling to back cover. For reading and study. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. Enjoy reading with a real book in your hands. read more
Description: Good. 0330241621 Condition: GOOD. (Book may have one or a combination of the following characteristics: former library book, dust jacket missing, cover wear, name written inside cover, considerable underlining/highlighting, remainder mark, binding loose, binding slants, pages tanning / curling, etc. Overall, the book is in decent shape. This is a blanket description. Please e us if you require a specific, detailed description of the book condition. We will typically respond within one week of ... read more
"This is a very strange anthropological study of the Ik people in Uganda, based on field work done by Turnbull in the mid 60's. The Ik apparently lost all their humanity when faced with starvation and horrible conditions of living. The examples of what most people would call pure cruelty are many, letting old relatives die, taking food from others and practising ruthless egoism to name a few. But to me it does not really seem that strange, of course the Ik are unfriendly to Turnbull when they know that he has the extreme advantage of material wealth, sitting in his Land Rover while eating and sleeping, protected from the others.
What strikes me with this account is that it is to a large degree rather modern as an anthropological account in that Turnbull criticises his own work. But on the other hand there are a lot of comparisons made to animal behaviour, especially primates, that is reminiscent of the worst kind of anthropological works from the 1900th century. For example he once wrote a letter back home comparing the Ik to a "singularly well-ordered community of baboons" (p. 236). This goes as far as Turnbull hoping for their complete isolation so they as a group can die out completely, a very crude remark in my eyes. To his defence one might note that he really sees this development as something coming out of the biological need to survive (in his theory by abandoning the hunting and gathering for mainly agriculture due to displacement by the government), not particularly evoking any racial traits or issues.
Interestingly enough he uses the last chapter of the book to criticise the modern "Western" world with its obsession with technology and luxury items. Urging for change so as not to end up as the Ik did, in Turnbull's view, like incurable egoists and individualists doomed to extinction. It is very well written and easy to read and I would recommend it to any anthropologist or sociologists, mostly because its rather extreme and controversial content."
"this book shows what happens to a small tribe of people when their basic needs are not being met. i'm sure it changed the way i think about basic human nature. i love this book."
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