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Pygmy peoples

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This article is about modern ethnic groups. For other uses, see Pygmy (disambiguation).
African pygmies and Prof. K. G. Murphy.
Baka dancers in the East Province of Cameroon

Pygmy is a term used for various ethnic groups worldwide whose average height is unusually low; anthropologists define pygmy as any group whose adult men grow to less than 150 cm (4 feet 11 inches) in average height.[1] A member of a slightly taller group is termed pygmoid.[2] The best known pygmies are the Aka, Efé and Mbuti of central Africa. There are also pygmies in Australia, Thailand, Malaysia,[3] Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and Brazil.[4] The term also includes the Negritos of Southeast Asia. The remains of at least 25 miniature humans, who lived between 1,000 and 3,000 years ago, were found on the islands of Palau in Micronesia.[5]

The term "pygmy" is sometimes considered pejorative. However, there is no single term to replace it that covers all African pygmies.[6] Many so-called pygmies prefer instead to be referred to by the name of their various ethnic groups, or names for various interrelated groups such as the Aka (Mbenga), Baka, Mbuti, and Twa.[7] The term Bayaka, the plural form of the Aka/Yaka, is sometimes used in the Central African Republic to refer to all local Pygmies. Likewise, the Kongo word Bambenga is used in Congo.

Etymology

Main article: Pygmy (Greek mythology)

The term pygmy, as used to refer to diminutive people, derives from Greek πυγμαίος Pygmaioi via Latin Pygmaei (sing. Pygmaeus), derived from πυγμή a fist, or a measure of length corresponding to the distance between the elbow and knuckles.(See also Greek pechus). In Greek mythology the word describes a tribe of dwarfs, first described by Homer, and reputed to live in India and south of modern day Ethiopia.[8]

Origins

Various theories have been proposed to explain the short stature of pygmies. One explanation points to the low ultraviolet light levels in rainforests.[9] This might mean that relatively little vitamin D can be made in human skin, thereby limiting calcium uptake from the diet for bone growth and maintenance, and leading to the evolution of the small skeletal size characteristic of pygmies.[10]

Other explanations include lack of food in the rainforest environment, low calcium levels in the soil, the need to move through dense jungle, adaptation to heat and humidity, and most recently, as an association with rapid reproductive maturation under conditions of early mortality.[11] A recent study has suggested that growth in these populations is held back by smaller amounts of IGF (Insulin-like Growth Factor) during adolescence.[citation needed] Other evidence points towards a mutation in the IGF1 receptor causing short stature.[12]

African Pygmies

Distribution of Pygmies according to Cavalli-Sforza

Pygmies live in several ethnic groups in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and Zambia.[7] Most Pygmy communities are partially hunter-gatherers, living partially but not exclusively on the wild products of their environment. They trade with neighbouring farmers to acquire cultivated foods and other material items,[7]. It is estimated that there are between 250,000 and 600,000 Pygmies living in the Congo rainforest.[13]

Groups

There are several Pygmy groups, the best known being the Mbenga (Aka and Baka) of the western Congo basin, the Mbuti (Efe etc.) of the Ituri Rainforest, and the Twa of the Great Lakes.

  • Mbenga people or Ba-Mbenga (AKA Ba-Binga [derogatory]) (west Congo basin)
    • Aka or Mò-Áka (AKA (Ba-)Yaka, Ba-Yaga, Gba-Yaka, Bi-Aka, Beká, Yakwa, Yakpa, Yakpwa) (Central African Republic, Republic of Congo) speak a Bantu language (Aka) close to Lingala
      • M-Benzélé or Ba-Benzélé (Western Aka, Central African Republic)
      • Ba-Sese (Eastern Aka)
    • Baka (AKA Bi-Baya) (Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of Congo) speak closely related Ubangian languages of the Ngbaka branch: Baka proper, Ganzi, and Gundi AKA Ngondi
    • Gyele or Ba/Bo-Gieli (AKA Bonjiel(i), Ba-Ko, Be-Koe, Ba-Kola, Ba-Kuele, Li-Koya) (Cameroon) speak a Bantu language (Gyele) of the Makaa-Njem branch
  • Bongo (Babongo) of interior Gabon
  • Mbuti or Bambuti (Ituri rainforest, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  • Twa or Ba-Twa (AKA Ge-Sera) (Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda) speak the Rundi and Rwanda languages
  • The Twa and Cwa hunter-gatherers in the savannas and swamps south of the forest, in Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, and Angola, living among groups such as the Himba. Physically, these people do not differ from their Bantu neighbors, but have a similar subservient position to their agricultural neighbors as the forest Pygmies. The may be remnant Khoisan populations (the Ila, Tonga, and Lenje of Zambia, and the Chewa of Malawi, for example, believe them to be aboriginal peoples, and trace sacred places to them), but Blench[14] suggests that they may (also) have migrated from the forest with the Bantu.

Relationship with other Africans

Ancestral relationship

A commonly held belief is that African Pygmies are the direct descendants of the Late Stone Age hunter-gatherer peoples of the central African rainforest, who were partially absorbed or displaced by later immigration of agricultural peoples, and adopted their Central Sudanic, Adamawa-Ubangian, and Bantu languages. This view has no archaeological support, and ambiguous support from genetics and linguistics.[15][16][17]

Some 30% of the Aka language is not Bantu, and a similar percentage of the Baka language is not Ubangian. Much of this vocabulary is botanical, deals with honey collecting, or is otherwise specialized for the forest and is shared between the two western Pygmy groups. It has been proposed that this is the remnant of an independent western Pygmy (Mbenga or "Baaka") language.[18]

Genetic evidence for origins

Genetically, the eastern Mbuti pygmies are extremely divergent from all other human populations, suggesting they have an ancient indigenous lineage. It has been suggested that they represent the most ancient divergence after that of the various Khoisan peoples. The overall genetic picture suggests that the original Mbenga population, possessing Y-chromosome haplogroup B[19] and mtDNA haplogroup L1,[20] was slightly influenced by gene flow from Bantus. Their closest relatives appear to be the Hadzabe, who live in the savannas east of the forest and were quite short in stature, before heavy recent intermarriage with their taller neighbors.

The western Mbenga pygmies, and other groups which have been studied, such as the Gabonese pygmies and the Twa, differ little from their Bantu and Ubangian neighbors.

Reports of genocide

In 2003, Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of Mbuti pygmies, told the UN's Indigenous People's Forum that during the Congo Civil War, his people were hunted down and eaten as though they were game animals. In neighbouring North Kivu province there has been cannibalism by a group known as Les Effaceurs ("the erasers") who wanted to clear the land of people to open it up for mineral exploitation.[21] Both sides of the war regarded them as "subhuman" and some say their flesh can confer magical powers.[22] Makelo asked the UN Security Council to recognise cannibalism as a crime against humanity and an act of genocide.[23] According to Minority Rights Group International there is extensive evidence of mass killings, cannibalism and rape of Pygmies and have urged the International Criminal Court to investigate a campaign of extermination against pygmies. Although they have been targeted by virtually all the armed groups, much of the violence against Pygmies is attributed to the rebel group, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, which is part of the transitional government and still controls much of the north, and their allies.[24]

Slavery

In the Republic of Congo, where Pygmies make up 5 to 10% of the population, many Pygmies live as slaves to Bantu masters. The nation is deeply stratified between these two major ethnic groups. The Pygmy slaves belong from birth to their Bantu masters in a relationship that the Bantus call a time-honored tradition. Even though the Pygmies are responsible for much of the hunting, fishing and manual labor in jungle villages, Pygmies and Bantus alike say Pygmies are often paid at the master's whim; in cigarettes, used clothing, or even nothing at all. As a result of pressure from UNICEF and human-rights activists, a law that would grant special protections to the Pygmy people is awaiting a vote by the Congo parliament.[25][26]

Music

Main article: Pygmy music

The African Pygmies are particularly known for their usually vocal music, usually characterised by dense contrapuntal communal improvisation. Simha Arom says that the level of polyphonic complexity of Pygmy music was reached in Europe in the 14th century, yet Pygmy culture is unwritten and ancient, some Pygmy groups being the first known cultures in some areas of Africa.[27] Music permeates daily life and there are songs for entertainment as well as specific events and activities.

Systematic discrimination

Raja James Sheshardi of the American University conducted a case study on the Pygmies of Africa and concluded that deforestation has greatly affected their everyday lives. Pygmy culture is threatened today by the forces of political and economic change. In recent times this has manifested itself into an open conflict over the resources of the tropical rain-forest, it is a conflict that the Pygmy are losing.

Historically, the Pygmy have always been viewed as inferior by both colonial authorities and the village dwelling Bantu tribes.[28] This has translated into vicious discrimination. One early example would be when Belgium colonial authorities captured and exported Pygmy children to zoos throughout Europe, including the world's fair in the United States in 1907.[28] Pygmies are often evicted from their land and given the lowest paying jobs. At a state level, Pygmies are not considered citizens by most African states and are refused identity cards, deeds to land, health care and proper schooling. Government policies and multinational corporations involved in massive deforestation have exacerbated this problem by forcing more Pygmies out of their traditional homelands and often alienated into villages and cities where they often are marginalized, impoverished and brutalized.

Today there are roughly 500,000 Pygmies left in the rain-forest of Central Africa.[28] This population is rapidly decreasing as poverty, intermarriage with Bantu peoples, Westernization, and deforestation all gradually destroy their way of life and culture as well as their entire ethnic group.

The greatest environmental problem the Pygmies seem to be facing is the loss of their traditional homeland, the tropical forests of Central Africa. In several countries such as Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo this is due to deforestation and the desire of several governments in Central Africa to evict the Pygmies from their forest habitat in order to cash in on quick profits from the sale of hardwood and the resettlement of farmers on the cleared land. In some cases, as in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this conflict is violent and the desire of a racist groups such as the Hutus of the Interahamwe to eliminate the Pygmy all together and take the resources of the forest as a military conquest, using the resources of the forest for military as well as economic means.[28] Since the Pygmies rely on the forest for their physical as well as cultural survival, as these forests disappear, so do the Pygmy.

Along with Raja Sheshardi, the fPcN-Global.org website had conducted research on the pygmies. The human rights organization states that as the forests have receded under logging activities, its original inhabitants have been pushed into populated areas to join the formal economy, working as casual laborers or on commercial farms, thus being exposed to new diseases.[29] This shift has brought them into closer contact with neighboring ethnic communities whose HIV levels are generally higher. This has led to the spread of HIV/AIDS into the pygmy group.

Since poverty has become very prevalent in the Pygmy communities, sexual exploitation of indigenous women has become a common fact. Commercial sex has been bolstered by logging, which often places large group laborers in camps which are set up in close contact with the Pygmy communities. There happens to be a widely believed myth among the minds of Africa that state if you have sex with a Pygmy woman, she happens to have the power to cleanse all men of HIV.[29] This myth places these women at a very high risk.

Human rights groups have also reported widespread sexual abuse of indigenous women in the conflict-ridden eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Despite these risks, Pygmy populations generally have poor access to health services and information about HIV. According to fPcN-Global.org, in 2006, the British medical journal, The Lancet, published a study showing that the Twa consistently had worse access to health care than neighboring communities. According to the report, even where health care facilities exist, many people do not use them because they cannot pay for consultations and medicines, they do not have the documents and identity cards needed to travel or obtain hospital treatment, and they are subjected to humiliating and discriminatory treatment.[29]

Studies in Cameroon and ROC in the 1980s and 1990s showed a lower prevalence of HIV in pygmy populations than among neighboring ones, but recent increases have been recorded. One study found that the HIV prevalence among the Baka pygmies in eastern Cameroon went from 0.7 percent in 1993 to 4 percent in 2003.[29]

Non-African Pygmies

Asian Pygmies

Negritos

Main article: Negrito

Negritos in Southeast Asia (including the Batak and Aeta of the Philippines, the Andamanese of the Andaman Islands, and the Semang of the Malay Peninsula), and occasionally Papuans and Melanesians in adjacent Oceania, are sometimes called pygmies (especially in older literature).[citation needed]

Negritos share some common physical features with African pygmy populations, including short stature and dark skin. The name "Negrito", from the Spanish adjective meaning "small and black", was given by early explorers.

The explorers who named the Negritos assumed the Andamanese they encountered were from Africa. This belief was, however, discarded by anthropologists who noted that apart from dark skin and curly hair, the Andamanese had little in common with any African population, including the African pygmies.[30] Their resemblance to some Africans, it is generally believed, is due to adaptation to a similar environment, rather than shared origins.[31]

Their origin and the route of their migration to Asia is still a matter of great speculation. They are genetically distant from Africans,[31] and have been shown to have separated early from Asians, suggesting that they are either surviving descendants of settlers from an early out-of-Africa migration, or that they are descendants of one of the founder populations of modern humans.[32]

Rampasasa

The Rampasasa of Flores in Indonesia are short-statured without being dark-skinned. Their appearance suggests a resemblance to Homo floresiensis.[33]

T'rung

Frank Kingdon-Ward in the early 20th century, Alan Rabinowitz in the 1990s, P. Christiaan Klieger in 2003, and others have reported a tribe of pygmy Tibeto-Burman speakers known as the T'rung inhabiting the remote region of Mt. Hkakabo Razi in Southeast Asia on the border of China (Yunnan and Tibet), Burma, and India. A Burmese survey done in the 1960s reported a mean height of an adult male T'rung at 1.43 m (4'6") and that of females at 1.40 m (4'5"). These are the only "pygmies" noted of clearly East Asian origin. The cause of their diminutive size is unknown, but diet and endogamous marriage practices have been cited. The population of T'rung pygmies has been steadily shrinking, and is now down to only a few individuals.[34][35]

Australia

There is mention of tribes of Pygmy Aborigines near Cairns, Queensland, in Peter McAllister's book "Pygmonia: In search of the secret land of the Pygmies" (Penguin (Australia), ISBN-13:9780702236914).

Barrineans

Short statured aboriginal tribes inhabited the rainforests of North Queensland, Australia, of which the best known group is probably the Tjapukai of the Cairns area.[36] These rainforest people, collectively referred to as Barrineans, were once considered to be a relict of the earliest wave of migration to the Australian continent, but this theory no longer finds much favour.[37] The Rainforest People tended to live in the first variety of Jykabita, a wood and mud structure renowned for incubation of plants.[38]

Tribes of very short people are also found in the mountains of New Guinea. 1000 years ago, Palau island in Micronesia was still inhabited by pygmy people.

See also

References

  1. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica: Pygmy
  2. ^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/484569/pygmoid
  3. ^ The Negrito of Malaysia.
  4. ^ http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10283306 Darwin's Children
  5. ^ Pygmy human remains found on rock islands, Science | The Guardian.
  6. ^ Hewlett, Barry S. "Cultural diversity among African pygmies." In: Cultural Diversity Among Twentieth-Century Foragers. Susan Kent, ed. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  7. ^ a b c Forest peoples in the central African rain forest: focus on the pygmies.
  8. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary.
  9. ^ [1]
  10. ^ O'Dea, JD. Possible contribution of low ultraviolet light under the rainforest canopy to the small stature of Pygmies and Negritos. Homo: Journal of Comparative Human Biology, Vol. 44, No.3, pp. 284-7, 1994.
  11. ^ Short lives, short size - why are pygmies small? « Not Exactly Rocket Science.
  12. ^ Bozzola et al. The shortness of pygmies is associated with severe under-expression of the growth hormone receptor. Mol. Genet. Metab. Vol. 98, No. 3, pp. 310-313, 2009.
  13. ^ World Bank accused of razing Congo forests, The Guardian.
  14. ^ [2]
  15. ^ R. Blench and M. Dendo. Genetics and linguistics in sub-Saharan Africa, Cambridge-Bergen, June 24, 2004.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca, ed. African Pygmies. Orlando, Fla.: Academic Press, 1986.
  18. ^ Serge Bahuchet, 1993, History of the inhabitants of the central African rain forest: perspectives from comparative linguistics. In C.M. Hladik, ed., Tropical forests, people, and food: Biocultural interactions and applications to development. Paris: Unesco/Parthenon.
  19. ^ Wood, E. et al. 2005, Contrasting patterns of Y chromosome and mtDNA variation in Africa: evidence for sex-biased demographic processes. European Journal of Human Genetics (2005) 13, 867–876. doi:10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201408
  20. ^ Tishkoff, S. et al. 2007, History of Click-Speaking Populations of Africa Inferred from mtDNA and Y Chromosome Genetic Variation. Molecular Biology and Evolution 2007 24(10):2180-2195; doi:10.1093/molbev/msm155
  21. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article402970.ece Pygmies struggle to survive.
  22. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3869489.stm DR Congo Pygmies 'exterminated'.
  23. ^ DR Congo Pygmies appeal to UN.
  24. ^ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/rebels-eating-pygmies-as-mass-slaughter-continues-in-congo-despite-peace-agreement-601088.html rebels 'eating pygmies'.
  25. ^ Congo's Pygmies live as slaves, newsobserver.com.
  26. ^ As the World Intrudes, Pygmies Feel Endangered, New York Times.
  27. ^ African Rhythms (2003). Music by Aka Pygmies, performed by Aka Pygmies, György Ligeti and Steve Reich, performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Teldec Classics: 8573 86584-2. Liner notes by Aimard, Ligeti, Reich, and Simha Arom and Stefan Schomann.
  28. ^ a b c d Sheshadri, Raja. "Pygmies in the Congo Basin and Conflict." no.163 (2005): ICE Case Studies, American University (Mar 24, 2010).
  29. ^ a b c d FdN. "fPcN InterCultural:Friends of People close to Nature." fPcN-Global.org. 6 Apr 2008. http://www.fpcn-global.org/node/227 (accessed Mar 24, 2010).
  30. ^ Liu, James J.Y. The Chinese Knight Errant. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967 (ISBN 0-2264-8688-5).
  31. ^ a b Thangaraj, Kumarasamy (21 January 2003). "Genetic Affinities of the Andaman Islanders, a Vanishing Human Population" (PDF). Current Biology. 13 (2): 86–93(8). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  32. ^ Kashyap VK, Sitalaximi T, Sarkar BN, Trivedi R 2003. Molecular relatedness of the aboriginal groups of Andaman and Nicobar Islands with similar ethnic populations. The International Journal of Human Genetics, 3: 5-11.
  33. ^ Elegant, Simon (2005-05-30). "Bones of Contention". Time. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  34. ^ P. Christiaan Klieger (2003). Along the Salt Road. California Wild.
  35. ^ http://www.woodlandtravels.com/northenburma.html http://www.calacademy.org/science_now/archive/where_in_the_world/ckleiger_myanmar.php http://v2.linguistlist.org/~lapolla/rda/MWphotos.html
  36. ^ Tindale's Catalogue of Australian Aboriginal Tribes: Tjapukai (QLD).
  37. ^ Australia for the Australians.
  38. ^ "Australia, the other white meat" Aaron Pirini, 1982.
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