This book is an ethnography by Colin Turnbull. What makes it interesting is that he got to his research site and nothing went the way he wanted. And he was living with a community of people who were starving to death because of governmental intrusion that was destroying their land and their means of living. This guy, however, judged the ways in which people interacted with one another as inhuman because he couldn't wrap his head around the fact that they were starving. Turnbull ends up having a mental breakdown.

Really intersting example of how the idea of objectivity really does not exist in the social sciences.

Share/Like this Review?

Very interesting book.

Share/Like this Review?

This book was easily one of the most disturbing I've ever read. It completely laid waste to everything that I assumed was naturally a part of being human, and it was very difficult to not judge the tribe's behavior according to my own modern, Western standards. It was one of the most interesting things I've read, but I read each page filled with increasing horror. I can't help but feel thankful that I've never been in the same dire circumstances as the people of the Ik tribe. This is a book that I'm sure I'll think of for a very long time.

Share/Like this Review?