The monkeys of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book are a very unique group of characters. They are viewed by the other animals of the jungle, or the Jungle People as they call themselves, as outcasts and outlaws. The most prominent chapter they occur in, “Kaa’s Hunting”, shows their lawless, shiftless, and uncivilized way of life. This image in itself does not give off any racist undertone. However, Disney’s adaption of The Jungle Book carries this view of the monkeys, while also giving them strong attributes that are commonly associated with African-Americans.
In Kipling’s original version of The Jungle Book, the jungle monkeys make their first prominent appearance in the chapter “Kaa’s Hunting”. The young boy Mowgli speaks of the jungle monkeys, called the Bandar-Log, to the bear Baloo, Mowgli’s friend and teacher, and Bagheera, Mowgli’s parent-figure, which instantly enrages the two. When Mowgli questions why he has never been taken to the Bandar-Log before, Baloo rants of the jungle monkey’s ways of life:
They are outcasts…Their way is not our way. They are without leaders. They have no remembrance…We of the jungle have no dealings with them. We do not drink where the monkeys drink; we do not go where the monkeys go; we do not hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they die. (Kipling 30)
Bagheera continues to elaborate on the Jungle People’s discontent towards the Bandar-Log, “They are very many, evil, dirty, shameless, and they desire, if they have any fixed desire, to be noticed by the Jungle People. But we do not notice them even when they throw nuts and filth on our heads” (Kipling 30). These quotes set the negative tone towards the monkey people, which is then promptly demonstrated by the monkeys kidnapping Mow...
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...ly man handle him. Also the kidnapping of Mowgli was of harmless intention to discover the secret of man’s fire. On the other hand, Kaa and Shere Khan, the tiger antagonist, make clear threats against Mowgli. The only apparent reason of the discontent held towards the monkey people is there lack of self control and monkey ways of life.
Rudyard Kipling’s original story of The Jungle Book presented a very distinct group of characters in contrast to virtually all other jungle people in the book. The Bandar-Log were seen as lawless, careless, and mostly mindless individuals who were social outcasts and pariahs. Disney’s film adaptation of Kipling’s tale held this concept, while also giving the monkey people strong characteristic typically connected to African-Americans. This creates a racist undertone in the movie that is absent from the original story’s source.
Marjorie Shostak, an anthropologist who had written this book had studies the !Kung tribe for two years. Shostak had spent the two years interviewing the women in the society. The !Kung tribe resided n the Dobe area of Northwest Botswana, that’s infused with a series of clicks, represented on paper by exclamation points and slashes. Shostak had studied that the people of the tribe relied mostly on nuts of the mongongo, which is from an indigenous tree that’s part of their diet.
"Children of the Forest" is a narrative written by Kevin Duffy. This book is a written testament of an anthropologist's everyday dealings with an African tribe by the name of the Mbuti Pygmies. My purpose in this paper is to inform the reader of Kevin Duffy's findings while in the Ituri rainforest. Kevin Duffy is one of the first and only scientists to have ever been in close contact with the Mbuti. If an Mbuti tribesman does not want to be found, they simply won't be. The forest in which the Mbuti reside in are simply too dense and dangerous for humans not familiar with the area to enter.
Kherdian, David, and Cheng'en Wu. Monkey: A Journey to the West : a Retelling of the Chinese Folk Novel. Boston: Shambhala, 2005. Print.
The Forest People, by Colin Turnbull was written in 1961. It follows his accounts among the BaMbuti Pygmies in the rainforest of the Belgian-Congo (now known as the Ituri forest in northeastern Zaire). This was said to be the last group of pygmies. These people are one of the few hunter-gatherer groups left of their kind. The book was written while Turnbull spent three years with the group of Pygmies in the late 1950s. His writing is very informal as he studies this tribe and also compares and contrasts the group of Pygmies to Africans in a local town (newer tribe). He takes the BaMbuti tribe (pygmies) who are perhaps a 10,000-year-old tribe, and he compares them to a group in the Bantu village, who lives right next to the forest and are a more recent tribe. He begins his writing by introducing the readers to the pygmies. He goes through and introduces multiple families and their family members, making it more real. He introduces Ekianga and his multiple wives, Kenge, and others. The names are strange and he gets to know many so it can be hard to keep track. He explains how as western people there is an initial fear of the forest and that this fear is alike those of the villagers near the forest. This can be true for any western born person, or anyone unfamiliar with life in the forest. The villagers have a reason for their fear though, they believe in lots of magic and spiritual things and they believe that the dark forest is full of evil spirits and magic. Turnbull then continues to introduce the readers to the forest through the eyes of the tribe. It shows the intimate knowledge that the tribe has on where and when to get food, and also how to predict predators. It turns the forest environment from intimidating and unknown, to ...
DeFalco, Amelia. "Jungle creatures and dancing apes: modern primitivism and Nella Larsen's Quicksand." Mosaic [Winnipeg] 38.2 (2005): 19+. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
"The Monkey" is a short story written by Isak Dinesen. The story was published in 1934. "The Monkey" is a form of gothic sublime. In this story, I encountered many elements that related to magical realism as well as the sublime.
One of the various topics of Monkey Beach, that can be taught in school, is the struggle of maintaining traditional values under the long-term effects of colonization and the predominance of Western culture
Though he tries to remain analytical, questioning if indeed “... [in] The 21st century, there were still nomadic hunter-gatherers out there using stone tools and rubbing sticks together to start a fire,” Behar soon begins to exhibit visceral reactions to the environment (Behar, 1). Though he claims to be in Papua for journalistic purposes, Behar cannot maintain an impartial disposition. After contact with tribesmen one of Woolford’s native outfitters believed to be native peoples, Behar undergoes a transformation. That evening, he begins to fear his surroundings, telling readers “The jungle is claustrophobic and, at times, maddening—the incessant rain, heat, and mud, the screeching of cicadas, the eerie sensation we're being watched” (Behar, 9). Abandoning his logical, systematic disguise, Behar becomes paranoid, becoming one with the primeval essence of the jungle.
Different anthropologists such as Nowak and Laird (2010), and Butler (2006), recommended that these residents of jungles contain an exclusive background; position, morals and everyday life is entirely through big adjustment. It can be said that the Mbuti people live in their own world. This paper will discuss the kinship system and the social organization of the culture as far as how they practice equal sharing of food after engaging in hunting and gathering. This paper will also discuss how the Mbuti culture uses gender relation to determine their hunting ages.
Achebe, Chinua. An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. New York: Wylie Agency, 2006. Print.
Three wishes, an old Indian curse, and a mummified paw, that was cut from a monkey. This is going to be exciting! “The Monkey’s Paw” is a short story written by W.W. Jacobs in the early 1900’s just after the turn of the centenary. Even though the text is short, it grabs the reader’s attention and keeps them on the edge of their seats until the very end. As exhilarating as this thriller is to read, unfortunately like many literary works written during that time, “The Monkey’s Paw,” is demeaning towards women and goes against feminist literary criticism’s principles and ideologies.
DeFalco, Amelia. "Jungle creatures and dancing apes: modern primitivism and Nella Larsen's Quicksand." Mosaic [Winnipeg] 38.2 (2005): 19+. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
In “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness," Achebe takes notes the ways that Conrad degrades Africans by reducing their religious practices to misconception, belittling their complex geography to just a single mass of jungle, telling them to remain in their place, and taking away their capability of speaking. Achebe criticizes Joseph Conrad for his racist stereotypes towards the people of Africa. Achebe also sensibly labels these stereotypes and shows that Africa is in fact a rich land full of intelligent people who are, in fact, very human.
The Bandar-log are always doing something that the Jungle People in “Kaa’s Hunting” hate them for. For example, Kipling wrote, “But whenever they found a sick wolf, or a wounded tiger, or bear, the monkeys would torment him, and would throw sticks and nuts at any beast for fun and in the hope of being noticed.” (Pg 32). The Jungle People do not approve of that and that is why the Jungle People
Achebe, Chinua. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Heart of Darkness: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Essays in Criticism. 3rd ed. Ed. Robert Kimbrough. New York: W.W. Norton, 1988. 251-262.