Editing Colin Turnbull (section)

==Career==
In 1951, after his graduation from Banaras, Turnbull traveled to the [[Belgian Congo]] (present-day [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]]) with Newton Beal, a schoolteacher from [[Ohio]] he met in India. Turnbull and Beal first studied the Mbuti [[pygmies]] during this time, though that was not the goal of the trip.

An "odd job" Turnbull picked up while in Africa at this time was working for the [[Hollywood (film industry)|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 (boat)|''African Queen'']], which was used for the feature film ''[[The African Queen (film)|The African Queen]]'' (starring [[Humphrey Bogart]] and [[Katharine Hepburn]]; 1951).<ref>Grinker, 70–71</ref> After his first trip to Africa, Turnbull traveled to [[Yellowknife]] in the Northwest Territories, where he worked as a [[geologist]] and gold miner for a year,<ref>Grinker, 87–89</ref> before he went back to school to obtain another degree.

Upon returning to Oxford in 1954,  Turnbull began specializing in the anthropology of Africa. He 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|Lancaster County]], and was on staff in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, [[Virginia Commonwealth University]], in [[Richmond, Virginia]]. Other professional associations included [[corresponding member]]ship of [[Royal Museum for Central Africa]] and a fellowship in the [[Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland|British Royal Anthropological Institute]]. He first gained prominence with his book ''[[The Forest People]]'' (1961), a study of the [[Mbuti people]].

In 1972, having been commissioned to come up with an explanation and solution to the difficulties experienced by the [[Ik people]], he published his controversial ethnography ''[[The Mountain People]]''.  The Ik were a [[hunter-gatherer]] tribe who had been forced to stop moving around ancestral lands, through the seasons, because it now involved the three national borders of Uganda, Kenya and Sudan. Forced to become stationary in Uganda, and without a knowledge base and culture for survival under such conditions, they failed to thrive, even to the point of starvation and death. He described the Ik as driven to a radically selfish condition in which they felt no care or responsibility for anyone else, even their children.

''The Mountain People'' was later adapted into a theatrical work by playwright [[Peter Brook]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Production of The Ik {{!}} Theatricalia|url=https://theatricalia.com/play/a0/the-ik/production/1dt|website=theatricalia.com|access-date=29 May 2020}}</ref>

===Contributions to music===
Some of Turnbull's recordings of Mbuti music were commercially released, and his works inspired other [[ethnomusicology|ethnomusicological]] studies, such as those of [[Simha Arom]] and Mauro Campagnoli.  His  recording of ''Music of the Rainforest Pygmies'', recorded in 1961, was released on CD by [[Lyrichord Discs]]. His recording of a Zaire pygmy girls' initiation song was used on the [[Voyager Golden Record]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Voyager - Music on the Golden Record|url=https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/golden-record/whats-on-the-record/music/|website=voyager.jpl.nasa.gov|language=en|access-date=29 May 2020}}</ref>