Turnbull, Colin Macmillan

▪ 1995

      British-born anthropologist (b. Nov. 23, 1924, Harrow, England—d. July 28, 1994, Kilmarnock, Va.), conducted extensive field studies in Africa among the Mbuti Pygmies in the Belgian Congo (now Zaire) and the Ik hunters of northern Uganda and recorded his experiences in two best-selling books, The Forest People (1961) and The Mountain People (1972). Turnbull earned a B.A. (1947) and an M.A. (1949) from Magdalen College, Oxford, and received degrees from Oxford in social anthropology (1956), literature (1957), and anthropology (D.Phil., 1964). During World War II he served in the Royal Navy. Turnbull was employed (1959-69) as a curator of African ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, besides teaching anthropology at such universities as Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y. (1969-72); Virginia Commonwealth University (1972-75); and George Washington University, Washington, D.C. (1976 until his retirement in 1983). His anthropological field studies provided grist for such works as The Lonely African (1962); Wayward Servants (1965), another look at the Mbuti; Tibet (1968; with Thubten Jigme Norbu); Man in Africa (1976); and The Human Cycle (1983), which explored childhood to old age among various cultures. His classics The Forest People, an uplifting account of the resourceful Ituri Forest Pygmies, and The Mountain People, an exceedingly grisly portrayal of the often brutal customs of the hunger-starved Ik, secured his reputation. Turnbull spent the latter years of his life in Hawaii, Samoa, and India, where he became a Buddhist monk and adopted the name Lobsang Rigdol.

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