In the Arms of Africa: The Life of Colin M. Turnbull Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

In the Arms of Africa: The Life of Colin M. Turnbull Book

Colin Turnbull (1924-94) made his reputation with two bestselling works of popular anthropology that tell diametrically opposed tales. The Forest People (1962) holds up the central African Pygmies as examples of the human capacity for communal goodness and love, while The Mountain People (1973) argues that Uganda's Ik tribe, threatened by a killing famine, had cast aside those qualities in favor of soulless individualism. Turnbull's life was as controversial and rife with contradictions as his books, fellow anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker reveals in this absorbing biography. Born in England, Turnbull roamed the world and eventually made his home in America. Product of a conventional, privileged upbringing, he saw himself as a champion for the world's oppressed. He infused anthropology with a passion some deemed unscientific but general readers found electrifying. He was openly homosexual despite the threat this posed to his academic career, which was never his top priority. The love of Turnbull's life was an African American man; he proclaimed Joe Towles's brilliance but was ambivalent about his lover gaining financial independence, and their 29-year relationship was marred by violence and infidelities. Nonetheless, Joe's 1988 death devastated Turnbull, who also succumbed to AIDS six years later. Grinker displays both discernment and critical sympathy in this gripping chronicle of a tumultuous life. Read More

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  • Product Description

    Colin Turnbull was an anthropologist second in renown only to Margaret Mead, he was acclaimed for his groundbreaking study of the Central African Pygmies. But little has been known about his equally exotic personal life until now. A man of privilege and formidable education, Turnbull poured the full force of his personality into that of his lover of 30 years, a poor African-American named Joe. After Joe's death from AIDS in 1988, he renounced most of his friendships, gave away most of his money, and until his own death from AIDS in 1994, lived as a Buddhist monk.

  • 0312229461
  • 9780312229467
  • Roy Richard Grinker
  • 1 August 2000
  • St. Martin's Press
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 368
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