Wayward Servants: The Two Worlds of the African Pygmies

by Colin M. Turnbull

1966. First Edition Thus. 390 pages. Illustrated dust jacket over brown cloth boards. Gilt lettering. Contains black and white illustrations. Clean pages and illustrations with light tanning and mild foxing throughout. Binding remains firm. Boards have mild edge-wear with slight rubbing to surfaces and bumping to corners. Gilt lettering is darkened. Minor wear marks to boards. Unclipped jacket. Panels and spine have moderate edgewear with chips, tears and creases. Moderate tears to panels. Moderate tanning and wear marks to flaps, panels and spine.

Genres: Anthropology

390 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Colin Macmillan Turnbull (November 23, 1924 – July 28, 1994) was a British-American anthropologist who came to public attention with the popular books The Forest People (on the Mbuti Pygmies of Zaire) and The Mountain People (on the Ik people of Uganda), and one of the first anthropologists to work in the field of ethnomusicology.

Reviews

[VK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I would go crazy if my life depended on harmonious interaction with 30-100 people who sometimes wake me up in the middle of the night yelling from midcamp. No wonder “noise” is considered so bad.

In all seriousness, this book does a good job of describing a culture very different from my own, while avoiding the trap of “we’re all human beings and so of course everyone acts like a 21st century American” and its opposite “observe this unusual culture, that is totally alien to your life”.

I understand there’s some disagreement about the accuracy of Turnbull’s description of Mbuti life - and I agree it’s good to take it with a grain of salt, given that we’re only getting the perspective of a single outsider. But it’s the best we’re going to get, so I’ll take it!