Colin Turnbull spent fourteen months living with the Mbuti in order to gain an understanding of how these people live and their belief system. His book, The Wayward Servants; The Two Worlds of the African Pygmies, documents the lives of a band of the Mbuti people. Colin Turnbull admits that the account he gives is not completely without bias. He chose to adopt the Mbuti lifestyle, which meant that the villagers occasionally viewed him with distrust (11). The Mbuti, the pygmy tribe of the Ituri forest in the northeast Congo, derive their lifestyle directly from the forest. Their lifestyle is simple and possible, as the result of the abundance provided by the forest. The ecosystem, in which they live, is able to provide for their needs. Food, clothing, and shelter are readily available for the taking. These people, the Mbuti, choose to interact with the villagers for convenience, not because they are subservient to the villagers, as the villagers claim.
The Mbuti believe that goodness is derived from the forest itself and is the normal state of affairs. Physically and spiritually the Mbuti gain strength the forest (131). Their forest territory can supply all of their needs. Even so, an important part of their lives concerns their interaction with the villagers whose territory overlaps theirs.
The villagers maintain a stable community with ritual behavior and a formal system of government. The Mbuti adopt some of the culture of the village, when in the village, for a variety of reasons. The most important reason for the Mbuti to participate, in the ritual life of the village, is economic. The village provides trading partners for the Mbuti. The villagers, by tradition, claim that they own the Mbuti, and that the Mbuti owe them service or meat. Sometimes, the Mbuti comply; sometimes, they do not (40). The Mbuti have a superficiality of village acculturation which is practiced for convenience not because of beli...