Forest People

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This study of the BaMbuti Pygmies of the Congo has become a classic work in the finest tradition of literate anthropology. Turnbull lived among the BaMbuti for three years, not as a clinical observer, but as a friend, learning their customs and sharing their daily life. Turnbull describes their hunting parties and nomadic camps, their love affairs and ancient ceremonies--the molimo, in which the Pygmies praise the forest as provider, protector, and deity; the elima, in which the young girls come of age; and the nkumbi circumcision rites, in which the villagers of the surrounding non-Pygmy tribes attempt to assert their authority over the Pygmies, whose forest home they dare not enter.