Cultural anthropology is the study of man, and how he lives in society. Different human cultures are considered to understand man in the society. Every society has a culture, contrary to the western thought that Africans did not have a culture, because they did not have a history. Culture is the way of life of a people. By claiming that a certain society does not have a culture, then the claim may be interpreted as though that society does not have a life. In this paper, a consideration is made of the way of life of the pigmy population of the ethnic group of the Baka of Cameroon. These are people who have lived in the forests and are still living there
A pigmy is any person from a human family whose adult male’s height is less than one hundred and fifty centimeters. They are found in different ethnic groups, but mostly found in Central Africa. Examples of pigmies in central Africa are the Aka, the Efe and the Mbuti. There are pigmies in other places in the world, notably Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea, all in Asia, and Brazil and Bolivia in South America.
Members of a slightly taller group, reference to the pigmies are referred to as pygmoids. The word pigmy is sometimes used derogatively, and so the bearers of the title would rather be referred to by their ethnic identities. One would therefore be termed as a Mbuti, for instance, instead of being referred as a pigmy. There is however no single title for the whole group other than the term pigmy.
The origin of the pigmy community in the central African region is still in doubt. They are believed to be hunters and gathers from the late Stone Age period of the central African rain forest. They were partially absorbed by immigration to their place of habitual stay by agriculturally oriented immigrants. The pigmies are believed to have independent adaptations to the forest, as researches have shown.
The argument accrues from the fact that the genetic mutations in the two groups of eastern and western pygmies vary and have no notable relationship. The eastern pigmies who comprise the Mbuti are the shortest of all the pigmy populations and have been noted to be divergent from other human populations. However, the intermarriages between the different populations have distorted the original heights of pigmies, where some are found to be taller than others. A case of the Hadzabe found in the Savanna east of the forest is relatively tall as a result of heavy intermarriage with their neighbors.
Pygmies count among the oldest populations in Africa. They are mentioned in Egyptian records four millenniums ago as they were taken by traders to the pharaohs for a dance. In such a case, they were used as a means to an end of the merchants, in a way violating their rights as human beings. According to Emmanuel Kant, a human being should not be used to satisfy the desires of another human being. People should be used as an end in themselves. It is therefore unfortunate that the pigmies were used as dance objects before the pharaohs.
The pigmy height condition has elicited theories trying to explain why they are that short. Some theorists believe their height is not really genetic, that the environment has played a big part. They argue that the contribution of nurture has been influenced by the hard life they undergo. There are frequent shortages of food in the rain forest environment, and if acquired, the food may not be balanced. The soil is also known to be deficient of calcium, responsible for the development of born, thus affecting the size of bones. Related to this is the limited ultraviolet light level reaching them in the dense forests.
They hence suffer from a deficiency in vitamin D, bringing about a limitation in the calcium uptake from the diet for the growth and maintenance of bones. The pigmies are also adapted to heat and humidity and their body size is one of the adaptation mechanisms. To move in the dense jungle, the pigmies need a small body and thus the size is just but adaptation.
African countries harboring pigmies include the east African countries of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. Others are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Namibia, Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, the Republic of Congo, Botswana, and Zambia. Because the pigmy populations are predominantly traditional hunter-gatherers, they live on the wild products of their environment, trading with their neighbors who deal in cultivated foods and other necessary material items.
Pigmies are of several groups. There are the Mbenga, found on the western Congo basin, and the dominant group, best known. Others are the Twa of the Great Lakes and the Mbuti of the Ituri Rainforest. It is a sad truth that in their long history, they have never been known to participate actively in national politics of their countries. However, this may be due to their perceived ineluctability, as they are considered sub human by the respective dominant communities around them.
The Southeast Asian region has got also a population which resembles the pigmies of Africa in some way. They are short in stature and black in skin color. However, there are no genetic proofs that they may be of African origin. It is however believed that they may have migrated to Asia during former years of immigration to Asia. The Negritos are thought to be descendants of one of the founder populations. The environmental adaptations may have molded them to be closer to Africans in resemblance, and not a shared origin.
The pigmies have had it rough with the political machinations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They have been victims of targeted attacks and rape by soldiers of both the government and the rebel movements. They are often considered sub-human and, more inhumanly, they are used as food-the practice of cannibalism. A United Nations’ Indigenous People’s Forum was told in 2003 by the Mbuti pygmies that during the Congo Civil War, the pigmies were hunted and eaten, calling on the world organization to investigate the heinous activities of the military on both sides through the International Criminal Court. They urged the United Nations to categorize cannibalism as a crime against humanity, and genocide, as it aims at exterminating it’s a people.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Ituri pigmies have no option but to share their lives with 2 million Bantu speakers who fled their areas as refugees. They live a traditional life of barter trade where they exchange firewood and game with some bare necessities of life. They work for the Bantus for food, as they are not party to the money economy. Their lives have been greatly hindered by the destruction of rain forests for agricultural activities.
This is however done in total disregard of the ecosystem, as a crucial part of the ecosystem is being sacrificed, the pigmies. This is an area that humanity must consider. The pigmies are used to the forests and by destroying forest cover is like deliberately demolishing somebody’s habitat. It should be a collective responsibility, in order to appreciate diversity, to respect the pygmies and even increase the forest cover.
Pigmies are not spared by tropical diseases either. They suffer from diseases said to be brought about by the whites, or transferred to them from the Bantus. A typical pigmy community is said to have about twenty percent of the population as sick. Problematic illnesses include malaria, eye problems, intestinal worm diseases, lung infections, framboesia and viral infections. Measles has also attacked many of the pigmy children alongside polio, thus raising the child mortality rate. Local resources are limited to cater foe the high cost of medication.
The plight of cannibalism was confirmed by UN investigators that during fighting with rival insurgents, the rebels ate an excess of a dozen pygmies and some more people from other ethnic groups. It was during an offensive to recapture Mambasa town between November and December 2002 by the Congolese Liberation movement that the reported barbaric acts took place. The report was however received “with shock by the group leader Jean Pierre Bemba.
The Baka pigmies consider hunting as one of the most precious practices. It is not only beneficial as a source of food but has a symbolic meaning attached to prestige. For hunting such a big animal like an elephant the hunter is granted due respect in society. The Baka pigmies like in the rainforest of Cameroon and have a culture of exchanging goods with farmers nearby. They live a nomadic lifestyle in the forest like any other pigmy. However, they face a threat of destruction of their habitation as deforestation is being massively conducted thus threatening their survivals.
The society has traditional medical experts and singers in the forest. At initiation the pygmy boys are accorded a status of an adult. They undergo a vigorous exercise where they are exposed to cultural secrets of the society.
The bushmen sometimes encounter hostilities in their stay in the bushes as they meet exploitation and are often despised by their neighbors the farmers. They are seen as goods rather than human beings to be given due respect. The Baka lead a quite life despite the aggression they receive. They are keen to maintain themselves within their cultures in the forest.
Elephant hunting is a dangerous venture participated by the Baka pigmies. It is linked to the base of cultural activities such as initiation of men. The pigmies use different weapons in their adventure, targeting primates, rodents, artiodactyls, among other many forest dwellers. The also target crocodiles in their hunting exercise which they kill by spearing.
Due to the reduction of forest meat and the relatively shorter expeditions inside the forest hunting for the pigmies has become less in terms of the provision of proteins. They thus face serious nutritional problem a matter detrimental to the health of children.
The gathering tradition of the Baka is so important as it provides various kinds of vegetables. The products gotten from gathering include fruits, mushrooms and yams. Small animals are also gathered. These are termites and caterpillars used as food as well. The gathered foods are carried in baskets and panniers to the camps. The way of life is socialism where the food is shared. Remains are not left for long as they are perishable and may spoil. Other gathered products like maniac is dried under the sun and later provided to produce flour. Plantains are roasted on coal and crushed in the mortar.
Fishing is another activity the Baka people participate in for food. Dam fishing is the predominant method done by women. They also drain water from streams in dry seasons so as to obtain fish from mud. The women sometime cooperate with girls and children in making expeditions towards water coursers. In dam fishing the water course of a stream is interrupted to create a dam. The interruption is done by use of mud, branches, trunks and leaves. The dam is meant to retain some water, even as part of the stream is drained. Where water has flowed away there are found fish deprived of water and hidden under trunks or stones in the river bed. It does not matter what animal has been captured all are taken home food –including crabs.
The Baka are also used to a cruder system of fishing that of throwing toxic substances in water so that fish may come up to breath. They then hit the fish by use of a machete and take it home.
Basket weaving is a practice of women. In this they use various vegetable materials depending on what particular job the basket is intended to do. Panniers and mats are also made. Other materials and tools include musical instruments hunting paraphernalia gathering and cooking tools and bark clothes.
Music plays a central role in the life of the Baka like in any other human society. In all life’s moments there are songs and dances crowning the various occasions. The ranges mentionable here include those from healing to initiation rituals. When telling traditional tales and playing group games, again songs are sung. Of fundamental importance also is the hunting propitiating songs and of course songs just sung for entertainment. Daily events are also accompanied by musical events and attitudes.
The musical system of the Baka pygmies is one of complexity and articulate almost fully vocal and polyphonic. A variety of instruments are used. They include cylindrical drums the harp-zither the arched harp, models of rattles and lamella phones. Typical of the pygmean music culture is the musical bow. This is made and played exclusively by women.
Skilled dancers usually perform in all importance rituals from initiation rites to funeral rites. There are varied types of dances performed in different parts of the forest for specific traditional festivities. In the dance, spirits may join in and dance with the pygmies as they hold the festival. They would come in at night or when there is moon light. The healers may also use the opportunity of night dance to show the community their healing powers in the most traditional manner, typical of the traditional African make up of society. This is one of the cultures that was abandoned by the Africans after the whoiiteman came during colonization, claiming thet African gods ic.
The pygmies are quite superstitious people. They believe in spirits of initiation where some aspects are a top secret of the culture. They believe in a spirit of the forest who is mysteriously powerful and carries out the initiation process for boys. The secrets surrounding the initiation are considered inviolable by the pygmies and would stop at nothing to allow a stranger to observe – it is a cultural heritage. Even their own women and children are not put in light of what goes o during the rituals. The practice takes several days and involves the initiates being shared and smeared with palm oil then led to some special hut prepared for the purpose.
The initiates then undergo multiple rituals both public and secret. Public rituals include dances and processions. Some of these rites may be so dangerous but they have to be undergone anyway. After spending some time in the secret places they are then brought face to face with the spirit of the forest a mysterious entity that “kills” them after which he “resurrects” them as adults conferring on the same special powers.
On the basis of these observations, the pygmy population should be prioritized in the United Nations agenda, and given full respect as any other human being. The major difference between a human being and an animal, according to Aristotle, is that a human being is a social animal, political in nature. He has established a political system wherein his rights and privileges are guarded, and these conditions the pigmy population has passed. They usually organize themselves in groups, doing most things together. As seen from the above literature, the pigmies live a socialistic life of sharing food after hunting and gathering. They use human language to communicate, and, their intelligent quotient is up to the standards.
References
Eder, J. (1987).On the Road to Tribal Extinction.
Mauro Campagnoli Baka Pigmies. Web.
Wells, R. (1995). What’s Smaller than a Pigmy Shrew? Albert Whitman & Company.