Understanding Hunger with Ik Elders and Turnbull's The Mountain People

ABSTRACT

Drawing upon the method of peer obstruction, this article revolves around understanding experiences of hunger among the Ik of northern Uganda by reflecting upon Colin Turnbull's book The Mountain People together with community elders. The article debates the ethical dilemmas of discussing potentially unpopular ethnographic accounts locally, and the anthropological hesitation of using ethnic categories such as the ‘Ik’. The article contributes to discussions of intervention as a method in anthropology by exploring the uncomfortable yet creative potential of being pushed out of one's comfort zone as anthropologists.

KEYWORDS:

• Ik
• Colin Turnbull
• East Africa
• obstruction
• Lars von Trier

Notes

1 We have kept the names of interlocutors who preferred this. The names of interlocutors that we did not have a chance to ask have been given pseudonyms.

2 If we had considered it harmful or risky for our interlocutors to engage in a discussion about the book and hunger, we would obviously have refrained from having this discussion. We obtained what some anthropologists would consider ‘informed consent' from our interlocutors in the sense that we invited specific people to the discussions, explained what we would like to discuss and made sure that they knew about the harsh descriptions in the book. We also made it clear that people were free to participate or leave as they pleased. It was our clear impression that all participants found the discussions interesting and provoking, but appropriate and not re-traumatising in any way.

3 Here we describe the discussion of three of the excerpts which evoked most response.

4 All conversations took place with the help of our interpreter, Hillary, who translated from Ik to English.