Pygmies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pygmies (sing. Pygmy) refers to various peoples of central Africa who have an average height less than 5 feet (152 centimeters). The term is also sometimes applied to the so-called Negrito peoples of Asia.[1][2][3]
The term is also occasionally used to refer indiscriminately to individuals of unusually short stature.[1] Members of so-called Pygmy groups often consider the term derogatory, instead preferring to be called by the name of their ethnic groups.[4] Nevertheless, the term is widely used as no other term has emerged to replace "Pygmy".[5]
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[edit] Etymology
The term pygmy derives from Greek Pygmaio and Latin Pygmaei (sing. Pygmaeus) which literary was a measure of length corresponding to the distance between the elbow and knuckles, used to refer to diminutive people. In Greek mythology the word describes a tribe of dwarfs, first described by Homer, and reputed to live in either India or Ethiopia.[6]
[edit] African Pygmies
[edit] Origins
A commonly held view is that the pygmies are the original inhabitants of the central African rainforest, where they lived for millennia as hunters and gatherers before the arrival of Central Sudanic, Adamawa-Ubangian and Bantu-speaking agriculturists. This view is increasingly coming under challenge as there is no archaeological or biological evidence to directly link modern day Pygmies with the Late Stone Age peoples who lived in central Africa before the agriculturists arrived.[7] [8]
Some scientists assert that it is plausible that pygmies are simply the descendants of Bantu or Adamawa-Ubangi speakers who took up forest dwelling at some point in the past, considering that genetically there is no evidence that Pygmies are distinct from other Africans. Similarly, linguistically and culturally, Pygmies cannot be considered distinctive from other central Africans.[8][9]
[edit] Sub groups
Pygmies live in several distinct ethnic groups in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo.[4] Most pygmy communities are hunter-gatherers, live partially but not exclusively on the wild products of the rainforest. They trade with neighbouring farmers to acquire cultivated foods and other material items.[4]
There are several ethnolinguistically distinct Pygmy populations in Central Africa, including:
- Aka (Central African Republic, Republic of Congo)
- Baka (Cameroon and Gabon) (Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of Congo)
- Babenzelé
- Babongo (Gabon, Republic of Congo)
- Binga
- Efé
- Gyelli (Cameroon)
- Bambuti (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
- Bakola (Cameroon)
- Tikar Cameroon
- Tswa
- Twa (Rwanda)
- Wochua
[edit] Asian pygmies (Negritos)
Some "Negrito" peoples of Malaysia, India, Thailand, the Philippines and the Andaman Islands are often called "pygmies". Although these groups, which include the Batak and the Aeta of the Philippines, the Andamanese of the Andaman Islands, and the Semang of the Malay Peninsula, share common physical features with African pygmy populations, they are not closely related. Studies suggest that their ancestors arrived during migrations from Africa to Southeast Asia and Oceania as much as 60,000 years ago, making them by far the earliest inhabitants of their lands.[10][11]
The name "Negrito" comes from the Spanish or Portuguese "little Negro" and was given by early explorers who assumed the Andamanese they encountered were from Africa. This assumption was discarded when anthropologists noted that apart from dark skin and curly hair, they had little in common with any African population, including the African pygmies.
[edit] References
- ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.
- ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica: Pygmy
- ^ HighBeam Encyclopedia: Pygmy
- ^ a b c Forest peoples in the central African rain forest: focus on the pygmies
- ^ Hewlett, Barry S. "Cultural diversity among African pygmies." In: Cultural Diversity Among Twentieth-Century Foragers. Susan Kent, ed. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
- ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
- ^ Genetics and linguistics in sub-Saharan Africa
- ^ a b Klieman, Kairn A. The Pygmies Were Our Compass: Bantu and BaTwa in the History of West Central Africa, Early Times to c. 1900, Heinemann, 2003.
- ^ Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca, ed. African Pygmies. Orlando, Fla.: Academic Press, 1986
- ^ Kashyap VK, Sitalaximi T, Sarkar BN, Trivedi R 2003. Molecular relatedness of the aboriginal groups of Andaman and Nicobar Islands with similar ethnic populations. Int J Hum Genet, 3: 5-11.
- ^ Survival International, 2002, Siberia to Sarawak: Tribal Peoples in Asia
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Mbuti Pygmies @ National Geographic Magazine National Geographic Feature in September 2005
- Mbuti Pygmies, Who Rules the Forest? (National Geographic Magazine Multimedia)
- Baka Pygmies: Culture, music and rites of initiation in the Central African rainforest
- Survival International: Pygmies
