Uganda's Infamous 'Selfish' Tribe Has Been Misunderstood For Almost 40 Years

CARLY CASSELLA29 JUNE 2020

The Ik people of Uganda are a small mountain community with a big reputation. Except there are researchers who now think that reputation is wholly undeserved.

In the 1960s, a prominent anthropologist by the name of Colin Turnbull published a book that described the Ik people as extraordinarily 'unfriendly', 'uncharitable', and 'mean'. He named them "the loveless people".

Today, new research suggests this small ethnic group is no more self-serving than any other community struggling under a famine.

In fact, far from breeding a culture of selfishness, the Ik are normally just as generous and cooperative as the rest of us. Turnbull simply caught them at a time when resources were running dangerously low.

"Turnbull's claim that the Ik have a culture of selfishness can be rejected," the authors of the new study write.

"Cooperative norms are resilient, and the consensus among scholars that humans are remarkably cooperative and that human cooperation is supported by culture can remain intact."

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/anthropologists-return-to-a-selfish-tribe-in-uganda-and-find-they-re-actually-decent-folk





Famous anthropologist examining another "specimen."