Colin Turnbull was an Englishman born in London who studied philosophy, politics and music. He was an important intellectual figure during the 60s and 70s and he studied anthropology at Oxford university, he then specialized in the African field, he got interested in this field when he traveled to East Africa, the Congo, the Sudan and Egypt on a motorcycle trip in 1951, that was when he first met the Pygmies.
Bambuti pygmies are a group of indigenous people of the Congo region in Africa. Their groups are relatively small, consisting of 15 – 60 people. They live within the forest; and this has influenced their perception, as they cannot see objects very far away, allowing Turnbull to investigate perception in more depth. He observed that the pygmies have never seen a very wide view. In other words, they were so used to live in the forest they never got the chance to go outside and see other things. An example is when Kenge noticed the buffalo far away and thought they were insects of some sort, but when they got closer to them and he saw the buffalo getting bigger and bigger as they approached he was dazzled. He could not believe what he was seeing because throughout his entire live he always had objects an animals very close to him so when he saw something far away, it looked small to him, hence why he thought the buffalos were insects.
This study was important as it shows and supports other experiments which say that perception can deceive us.
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