In return the villagers provide them with farmed produce. They adopt the pygmies, treating them almost as servants, and they rely on them to hunt and bring them meat from the forest. This is heavily influenced by their spiritual beliefs. The villagers are terrified of the forest, and will seldom venture into it, and never go far in. The individual villagers form a bond with an individual pygmy, and thereafter consider them almost their property. This is a particularly interesting aspect, as Turnbull is able to explain the relationship from each side and how far these differ, while it still remains mutually beneficial. In most detail, it examines the interrelationship of the BaMbuti with the African villagers - who are really farmers. The book in general describes the BaMbuti way of life, their culture and their understanding (or lack thereof) of the wider world. He returned later to spend a considerable amount of time with them, publishing this book in 1961. Turnbull made an initial visit in 1951 before returning to the USA and studying anthropology. The BaMbuti are one of the oldest indigenous peoples, living my hunter-gathering deep in the forest, who refer to themselves as people of the forest. As others have noted, Colin Turnbull's book expresses all of the positives of the time he spent with the BaMbuti of Congo, known to most of us as pygmies.
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