Anthropology 315 “Third World Cultures”
Dr. Siemens
Study questions for Week 3
Turnbull, Colin M.
2002 (1983) The Mbuti Pygmies: Change and Adaptation. Belmont, California:
Wadsworth/Thompson.
Questions for the textbook “The Mbuti Pygmies” (Introduction and Chapter 1)
- Who are the Mbuti?
- What features do Mbuti groups share?
What feature of Mbuti culture makes them important to anthropology?
Tell one way that Mbuti are like Sangoans (ancient central African foragers) and two ways that Mbuti are different from Sangoans.
- What is the evidence that Mbuti have remained very similar to their ancestors of 4500 years ago?
Why did Turnbull find the Mbuti so appealing?
- According to Turnbull, what accounts for the apparent stability of Mbuti culture?
- According to Turnbull, what are two reasons the Mbuti so highly moral?
- Hint, one is ecological, the other spiritual.
- Tell the Mbuti myth that links killing to human mortality.
- How did Mbuti react to the arrival of cultivators?
- What was the arrival of the first white people like for the Mbuti?
- What European explored the Ituri Forest in the 1880's? What was his purpose?
- What followed the arrival of Europeans in the Ituri forest?
(Hint, Congo Free State)
Who was Tippu Tib?
- How do the subsistence techniques of the East, South and North Ituri differ?
Ichikawa, Mitsuo
2001 The Forest World as a Circulation System: The impacts of Mbuti Habitation and Subsistence Activities on the Forest Environment. African Study Monographs 26 (Supplement, March.): 157-168.
- How does the idea of a wildlife sanctuary show a lack of understanding?
- How is secondary vegetation important to the Mbuti?
- How can the presence of a tall canopy tree indicate that there was once sunlight on the forest floor?
- How do gaps in the forest occur naturally? How might Mbuti cause one?
- How do Mbuti camps enrich the soil?
- How do humans participate in the circulation of forest material?
- Which has more fruit trees, primary or secondary forest?
- What does satellite photography reveal about the Ituri forest?
Turnbull, Colin
1968 (1961) The Forest People. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Questions for “The Making of Camp Lelo”
- Where has Turnbull’s group of Mbuti been staying?
- What happened a few days before the decision to leave?
- Why do women use tumplines?
- Why does the forest lack underbrush?
- Why are Mbuti noisy in the forest?
- Why do women carry embers?
- How is camp Lelo different from the surrounding forest?
- Why did Turnbull and Kenge gather mongongo leaves?
- According to Kenge who usually fixes a leaky roof?
- Why do Mbuti change the direction of the doors of their huts?
- About how many huts were at camp Lelo? Is that a large or small camp?
- How did Amabosu collect food from each hut?
- What did he do with the food?
- What is a kumamolimo? How does it depend on cooperation?
- Who brings a molimo?
Turnbull, Colin M.
2002 (1983) The Mbuti Pygmies: Change and Adaptation. Belmont, California:
Wadsworth/Thompson.
Questions for the textbook “The Mbuti Pygmies” (Chapter 2)
- How do the Mbuti survive with limited technology?
- How are Mbuti camps related to Mbuti bands? How are Mbuti bands related to villages?
- Tell two food items gathered by Mbuti and two kinds of animal hunted.
- How do Mbuti camp composition and shape reflect social relationships?
- What is the meaning of ‘one camp, one family?’
- Considering the Mbuti kinship terms presented by Turnbull, which is the more pervasive distinction made in Mbuti society: Age or gender? How can you tell?
- What kinds of marriage do Mbuti prohibit?
- What do Mbuti value in choice of mate?
- How do Mbuti understand the relation of sex and babies?
- How do Mbuti regulate their fertility?
- What gives Mbuti babies and toddlers a sense of security?
- How is the forest related to the personal sense of security of the Mbuti?
- How are the concepts of ekimi (‘peace’) and akami (‘noise’) related to the developmental phases of Mbuti?
- Explain fluctuations in Mbuti camps throughout the year.
- (Economic reason for larger camps, political and economic reasons for small camps.)
- How does hunting depend on children?
- What kind of Mbuti have jural authority and how do they exercise it?
- How do Mbuti elders and Mbuti youth cooperate? Tell two ways.
- In what ways does Mbuti subsistence (food-getting) depend on cooperation?
- How do Mbuti net hunters hunt? How do sex and age organize the hunt?
- What is the connection between the Mbuti hunting song and hunting?
- What do Mbuti do when a girl first menstruates? How is her separation from her old status expressed? How is her aggregation to her new status expressed?
- How is the Mbuti elima ritual related to Mbuti marriage?
- Explain how Mbuti tug-of-war is a ritual rather than a contest.
- Tell two ways husbands and wives cooperate outside the hunt.
- What qualifies a Mbuti boy for marriage?
- What do Mbuti do during a molimocamp?
- Describe the ending of the molimo.