Colin Turnbull - Definition and Overview

Colin Macmillan Turnbull (November 23, 1924 - July 28, 1994) was a Scottish-born anthropologist who gained fame with his book The Forest People (1962), a detailed study of the Mbuti Pygmies. In 1972, he wrote his most controversial book, The Mountain People, which portrayed Uganda's hunger-plagued Ik tribe. Turnbull was an unconventional scholar who rejected objectivity. He idealized the Mbuti and reviled the Ik.

Turnbull became an American citizen and lived in New York and Virginia with his partner of 30 years, an African American Joseph Towles, as an openly gay and interracial couple. After his partner's death, Turnbull retreated to a Buddhist monastery where he lived out his remaining years under the name Lobsong Rigdol before his death from AIDS.