Colin Turnbull
Encyclopedia
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
.
and educated at Westminster School
and Magdalen College
, Oxford
where he studied politics and philosophy. During World War II
he was in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve after which he was awarded a two year grant in the Department of Indian Religion and Philosophy, Banaras Hindu University
, India
, from which he graduated with a master's degree in Indian Religion and Philosophy.
(present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo
) with Newton Beal, a schoolteacher from Ohio
he met in India. Turnbull and Beal first studied the BaMbuti pygmies during this time, though that was not the complete goal of the trip.
An "odd job" Turnbull picked up while in Africa
at this time was working for the Hollywood producer Sam Spiegel
. Spiegel hired Turnbull to assist in the construction and transportation of a boat needed for his film. This boat was the African Queen
, which was used for the feature film The African Queen (starring Humphrey Bogart
and Katharine Hepburn
; 1951). After his first trip to Africa, Turnbull traveled to Yellowknife in the northwest territories of Canada
, where he worked as a geologist
and gold miner for approximately a year, before he went back to school to obtain another degree.
Upon returning to Oxford in 1954, he began specializing in the anthropology of Africa. Turnbull remained in Oxford for two years before another field trip to Africa, finally focusing on the Belgian Congo (1957–58) and Uganda
. After years of fieldwork, he finally achieved his anthropology doctorate from Oxford in 1964.
Turnbull became a naturalized citizen of the United States
in 1965, after he moved to New York City
to become curator
in charge of African Ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History
in 1959. He later resided in Lancaster County
, Virginia
and was on staff in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Virginia Commonwealth University
, Richmond
. Other professional associations included Corresponding Membership of Royal Museum for Central Africa
and fellowship in the British Royal Anthropological Institute
. He first gained prominence with his book The Forest People
(1961), an admiring study of the BaMbuti
. In 1972, he wrote a sequel of sorts, the highly controversial The Mountain People, which was concerned with Uganda
's hunger-plagued Ik
tribe.
Turnbull was an unconventional scholar who rejected neutrality. He idealized the BaMbuti and reviled the Ik, and described the latter as lacking any sense of altruism, in that they force their children out of their homes at the age of three, and gorge on whatever occasional excesses of food they might find until they became sick, rather than save or share. However, several anthropologists have since argued that a particularly serious famine
suffered by the Ik during the period of Turnbull's visit may have distorted their normal behavior and customs, and some passages in his book make it clear that the behavior and customs of the Ik during the period he describes were drastically different from what was normal for them before they were uprooted from their original way of life.
He later worked on a theatrical adaptation of The Mountain People with his friend, playwright Peter Brook
.
studies, such those of Simha Arom
and Mauro Campagnoli. His most famous recording is Music of the Rainforest Pygmies, recorded in 1961, now released on CD by Lyrichord Discs, Inc. His recording of a Zaire pygmy girls' initiation song was used on the Voyager Golden Record
.
on August 17, 1937. In 1957 he moved to New York City to pursue a career as an actor and writer. He met Turnbull in 1959 and they exchanged marriage vows the following year.
Towles' initiation into anthropology occurred as a volunteer in the Anthropology Department at the American Museum of Natural History
with Turnbull. From 1965 to 1967, he assisted with the creation of the "Man in Africa Hall", a permanent exhibit later called the "Hall of African Peoples." He also researched and constructed the "Slavery in the New World" subsection of the museum. In 1963, he entered Pace College to study history and anthropology, graduating in 1968. He received his Ph.D. from Makerere University
in 1979.
From 1965 to 1967, Turnbull and Towles conducted fieldwork among the Ik of Northern Uganda in Africa. In the Congo in 1970, they conducted fieldwork on the Nkumbi circumcision initiation ritual for boys and the Asa myth of origin among the Mbo
of the Ituri forest
.
In 1979, they traveled the world studying the concept of tourism as pilgrimage. Towles next turned to biblical research and writing plays and novels. He reacted angrily to Turnbull's semi-autobiographical work The Human Cycle (1983), which omitted all references to their relationship. Towles' health declined slowly from that time. He died from complications of AIDS
in 1988.
Turnbull arranged for Towles' research to be published posthumously. It appeared in 1993 as Nkumbi initiation ritual and structure among the Mbo of Zaïre and as Asa: Myth of Origin of the Blood Brotherhood Among the Mbo of the Ituri Forest, both in Annales of the Royal Museum for Central Africa
(Tervuren, Belgium), vol. 137.
inmates. After his partner's death, Turnbull donated all his belongings to the United Negro College Fund
. He donated all their research materials, most of which were the product of his career, to the College of Charleston
, insisting that the collection be known under Towles' name alone.
In 1989, Turnbull moved to Bloomington
, Indiana
to participate to the building of Tibetan Cultural Center with his friend Thupten Jigme Norbu
, elder brother of the 14th Dalai Lama. Later Turnbull moved to Dharamsala
, India where he took the monks' vow of Tibetan Buddhism
, given to him by the Dalai Lama
.
He died in Virginia in 1994, aged 69, from complications of AIDS (like Towles).
quite thoroughly refutes Turnbull's evaluation of the Ik in a 1985 article in Africa, The Mountain People: Some Notes on the Ik of North-Eastern Uganda.
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
who came to public attention with the popular books The Forest People
The Forest People
The Forest People is Colin Turnbull's ethnographic study of the Mbuti pygmies of the then-Belgian Congo ....
(on the Mbuti
Mbuti
Mbuti or Bambuti are one of several indigenous pygmy groups in the Congo region of Africa. Their languages belong to the Central Sudanic and also to Bantu languages.-Overview:...
Pygmies
Pygmy
Pygmy is a term used for various ethnic groups worldwide whose average height is unusually short; anthropologists define pygmy as any group whose adult men grow to less than 150 cm in average height. A member of a slightly taller group is termed "pygmoid." The best known pygmies are the Aka,...
of Zaire
Zaire
The Republic of Zaire was the name of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo between 27 October 1971 and 17 May 1997. The name of Zaire derives from the , itself an adaptation of the Kongo word nzere or nzadi, or "the river that swallows all rivers".-Self-proclaimed Father of the Nation:In...
) and The Mountain People (on the Ik
Ik people
The Ik are an ethnic group numbering about 10,000 people living in the mountains of northeastern Uganda near the border with Kenya, next to the more populous Karamojong and Turkana peoples. The Ik were displaced from their land to create a national park and consequently suffered extreme famine...
people of Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
), and one of the first anthropologists to work in the field of ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
.
Early life
Turnbull was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and educated at Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
and Magdalen College
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
where he studied politics and philosophy. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he was in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve after which he was awarded a two year grant in the Department of Indian Religion and Philosophy, Banaras Hindu University
Banaras Hindu University
Banaras Hindu University is a public university located in Varanasi, India and is one of the Central Universities of India. It is the largest residential university in Asia, with over 24,000 students in its campus. BHU was founded in 1916 by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya under the Parliamentary...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, from which he graduated with a master's degree in Indian Religion and Philosophy.
Career
In 1951, after his graduation from Banaras, he traveled to the Belgian CongoBelgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
(present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
) with Newton Beal, a schoolteacher from Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
he met in India. Turnbull and Beal first studied the BaMbuti pygmies during this time, though that was not the complete goal of the trip.
An "odd job" Turnbull picked up while in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
at this time was working for the Hollywood producer Sam Spiegel
Sam Spiegel
Sam Spiegel was an Austrian-born American independent film producer.-Life and career:Spiegel was born in Jarosław, Galicia, Austria-Hungary as Samuel P. Spiegel to a German-Jewish father and Polish mother and educated at the University of Vienna. His brother was Shalom Spiegel, a professor of...
. Spiegel hired Turnbull to assist in the construction and transportation of a boat needed for his film. This boat was the African Queen
African Queen (boat)
The African Queen is the boat used in the movie The African Queen. It is located at 99701 Overseas Highway in Key Largo, Florida. On February 18, 1992, it was added to the U.S...
, which was used for the feature film The African Queen (starring Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
and Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
; 1951). After his first trip to Africa, Turnbull traveled to Yellowknife in the northwest territories of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, where he worked as a geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
and gold miner for approximately a year, before he went back to school to obtain another degree.
Upon returning to Oxford in 1954, he began specializing in the anthropology of Africa. Turnbull remained in Oxford for two years before another field trip to Africa, finally focusing on the Belgian Congo (1957–58) and Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
. After years of fieldwork, he finally achieved his anthropology doctorate from Oxford in 1964.
Turnbull became a naturalized citizen of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1965, after he moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to become curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
in charge of African Ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
in 1959. He later resided in Lancaster County
Lancaster County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 11,567 people, 5,004 households, and 3,412 families residing in the county. The population density was 87 people per square mile . There were 6,498 housing units at an average density of 49 per square mile...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
and was on staff in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University is a public university located in Richmond, Virginia. It comprises two campuses in the Downtown Richmond area, the product of a merger between the Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in 1968...
, Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. Other professional associations included Corresponding Membership of Royal Museum for Central Africa
Royal Museum for Central Africa
The Royal Museum for Central Africa is an ethnographical and natural history museum in Tervuren, just outside Brussels, Belgium. It was first built to show off King Leopold II's Congo Free State for the 1897 World Exhibition. It focuses mainly on Congo, Belgium's former colony...
and fellowship in the British Royal Anthropological Institute
Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland is the world's longest established anthropological organization, with a global membership. Since 1843, it has been at the forefront of new developments in anthropology and new means of communicating them to a broad audience...
. He first gained prominence with his book The Forest People
The Forest People
The Forest People is Colin Turnbull's ethnographic study of the Mbuti pygmies of the then-Belgian Congo ....
(1961), an admiring study of the BaMbuti
Mbuti
Mbuti or Bambuti are one of several indigenous pygmy groups in the Congo region of Africa. Their languages belong to the Central Sudanic and also to Bantu languages.-Overview:...
. In 1972, he wrote a sequel of sorts, the highly controversial The Mountain People, which was concerned with Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
's hunger-plagued Ik
Ik
The Ik are an ethnic group numbering about 10,000 people living in the mountains of northeastern Uganda near the border with Kenya, next to the more populous Karamojong and Turkana peoples. The Ik were displaced from their land to create a national park and consequently suffered extreme famine...
tribe.
Turnbull was an unconventional scholar who rejected neutrality. He idealized the BaMbuti and reviled the Ik, and described the latter as lacking any sense of altruism, in that they force their children out of their homes at the age of three, and gorge on whatever occasional excesses of food they might find until they became sick, rather than save or share. However, several anthropologists have since argued that a particularly serious famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
suffered by the Ik during the period of Turnbull's visit may have distorted their normal behavior and customs, and some passages in his book make it clear that the behavior and customs of the Ik during the period he describes were drastically different from what was normal for them before they were uprooted from their original way of life.
He later worked on a theatrical adaptation of The Mountain People with his friend, playwright Peter Brook
Peter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
.
Contributions to music
Some of Turnbull's recordings of BaMbuti music were commercially released, and his works have inspired other ethnomusicologicalEthnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
studies, such those of Simha Arom
Simha Arom
Simha Arom is a French-Israeli ethnomusicologist who is recognized as an expert on the music of central Africa, especially that of Central African Republic. His books include African Polyphony and Polyrhythm: Musical Structure and Methodology ISBN 0-521-24160-X. He also made some historical field...
and Mauro Campagnoli. His most famous recording is Music of the Rainforest Pygmies, recorded in 1961, now released on CD by Lyrichord Discs, Inc. His recording of a Zaire pygmy girls' initiation song was used on the Voyager Golden Record
Voyager Golden Record
The Voyager Golden Records are phonograph records which were included aboard both Voyager spacecraft, which were launched in 1977. They contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form, or for...
.
Joseph Towles
Joseph Allen Towles was born in Senora, VirginiaSenora, Virginia
Senora is an unincorporated community in Lancaster County in the U. S. state of Virginia....
on August 17, 1937. In 1957 he moved to New York City to pursue a career as an actor and writer. He met Turnbull in 1959 and they exchanged marriage vows the following year.
Towles' initiation into anthropology occurred as a volunteer in the Anthropology Department at the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
with Turnbull. From 1965 to 1967, he assisted with the creation of the "Man in Africa Hall", a permanent exhibit later called the "Hall of African Peoples." He also researched and constructed the "Slavery in the New World" subsection of the museum. In 1963, he entered Pace College to study history and anthropology, graduating in 1968. He received his Ph.D. from Makerere University
Makerere University
Makerere University , Uganda's largest and second-oldest higher institution of learning, , was first established as a technical school in 1922. In 1963 it became the University of East Africa, offering courses leading to general degrees from the University of London...
in 1979.
From 1965 to 1967, Turnbull and Towles conducted fieldwork among the Ik of Northern Uganda in Africa. In the Congo in 1970, they conducted fieldwork on the Nkumbi circumcision initiation ritual for boys and the Asa myth of origin among the Mbo
Mbo people (Congo)
The Mbo people are an ethnic group of Ituri Province, Mambasa Territory in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As of 1994 there were about 11,000 speakers of the Mbo language, which is similar to the Ndaka, Budu, Vanuma and Nyali languages....
of the Ituri forest
Ituri Rainforest
The Ituri Rainforest is a rainforest located in the Ituri region of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo formerly called Zaire. The forest's name derives from the nearby Ituri River which flows through the rainforest, connecting firstly to the Aruwimi River and finally into the Congo.-...
.
In 1979, they traveled the world studying the concept of tourism as pilgrimage. Towles next turned to biblical research and writing plays and novels. He reacted angrily to Turnbull's semi-autobiographical work The Human Cycle (1983), which omitted all references to their relationship. Towles' health declined slowly from that time. He died from complications of AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
in 1988.
Turnbull arranged for Towles' research to be published posthumously. It appeared in 1993 as Nkumbi initiation ritual and structure among the Mbo of Zaïre and as Asa: Myth of Origin of the Blood Brotherhood Among the Mbo of the Ituri Forest, both in Annales of the Royal Museum for Central Africa
Royal Museum for Central Africa
The Royal Museum for Central Africa is an ethnographical and natural history museum in Tervuren, just outside Brussels, Belgium. It was first built to show off King Leopold II's Congo Free State for the 1897 World Exhibition. It focuses mainly on Congo, Belgium's former colony...
(Tervuren, Belgium), vol. 137.
Later years
Late in life Turnbull took up the political cause of death rowDeath row
Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...
inmates. After his partner's death, Turnbull donated all his belongings to the United Negro College Fund
United Negro College Fund
The United Negro College Fund is an American philanthropic organization that fundraises college tuition money for black students and general scholarship funds for 39 private historically black colleges and universities. The UNCF was incorporated on April 25, 1944 by Frederick D. Patterson , Mary...
. He donated all their research materials, most of which were the product of his career, to the College of Charleston
College of Charleston
The College of Charleston is a public, sea-grant and space-grant university located in historic downtown Charleston, South Carolina, United States...
, insisting that the collection be known under Towles' name alone.
In 1989, Turnbull moved to Bloomington
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
to participate to the building of Tibetan Cultural Center with his friend Thupten Jigme Norbu
Thupten Jigme Norbu
Thubten Jigme Norbu recognised as the Taktser Rinpoche, was a Tibetan lama, writer, civil rights activist and professor of Tibetan studies and is the eldest brother of the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso...
, elder brother of the 14th Dalai Lama. Later Turnbull moved to Dharamsala
Dharamsala
Dharamshala or Dharamsala is a city in northern India. It was formerly known as Bhagsu; it is the winter seat of government of the state of Himachal Pradesh and the district headquarters of the Kangra district....
, India where he took the monks' vow of Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
, given to him by the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
.
He died in Virginia in 1994, aged 69, from complications of AIDS (like Towles).
Controversy
Bernd HeineBernd Heine
Bernd Heine is a German linguist and specialist in African studies.From 1978 to 2004 Heine held the chair for African Studies at the University of Cologne, Germany. His main focal points in research and teaching are African linguistics, language sociology, grammaticalization theory and language...
quite thoroughly refutes Turnbull's evaluation of the Ik in a 1985 article in Africa, The Mountain People: Some Notes on the Ik of North-Eastern Uganda.
Publications
- The Forest People, 1961. ISBN 0-586-05940-7
- The Lonely African, 1962 . ISBN 0671200690
- The Peoples of Africa, 1962
- The Mbuti Pygmies: An Ethnographic Survey in Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, 50, 139-282
- Wayward Servants; The Two Worlds of the African Pygmies, 1965. ISBN 0-8371-7927-0
- Tradition and Cange in African Tribal Life, 1966
- Tibet: Its History, Religion and People (with Thubten Jigme Norbu), 1968. ISBN 0-7011-1354-5
- The Mountain People, 1972. ISBN 0-671-64098-4
- Africa and Change, editor, 1973. ISBN 0-394-31520-0
- Man in Africa, 1976. ISBN 0-14-022035-6
- The Human Cycle, 1983. ISBN 0-586-08493-2
- The Mbuti Pygmies : Change and Adaptation, 1983. ISBN 0-03-061537-2
See also
- Hunter gatherers
- Other researchers who studied pygmy cultures
- Simha AromSimha AromSimha Arom is a French-Israeli ethnomusicologist who is recognized as an expert on the music of central Africa, especially that of Central African Republic. His books include African Polyphony and Polyrhythm: Musical Structure and Methodology ISBN 0-521-24160-X. He also made some historical field...
- Mauro Campagnoli
- Roy Richard GrinkerRoy Richard GrinkerRoy Richard Grinker is an author and Professor of Anthropology, International Affairs, and Human Sciences at The George Washington University.Grinker is an authority on North and South Korean relations...
- Simha Arom
External links
- Inventory of the Joseph A. Towles Papers, circa 1920s - 2009, in the Avery Research Center at the College of CharlestonCollege of CharlestonThe College of Charleston is a public, sea-grant and space-grant university located in historic downtown Charleston, South Carolina, United States...
- Biographer's website: colinturnbull.com
- African Pygmies Culture, music and photos, with ethnographic notes