A Pygmy (of the Greek πυγμαιος, pygmaios , of one bent high ) is generally an animal of small size, inter alia examples a dwarf or a Manchot Pygmy. Pygmoïdes is an anthropological term which indicates certain ethnos groups of human of Africa or of Asia of small size.
Pygmies of Africa and Asia
From an anthropological point of view, a Pygmy is a member of the tribe S huntresses living in the African Equatorial forests or Asian, characterized by their small size, less than 1,50 Mètre on average. One finds Pygmies in central Africa, and also some in Southeast Asia.
Africa
The group best followed is that of the Mbuti of the forest of Ituri (in Democratic republic of Congo), which were studied by Colin Turnbull. One uses also the term Bayaka to designate the Pygmies, term which refers more to the people than with his size.The Pygmies are human beings of small size because they of did not push growth. It is an environmental adaptation which gives them an advantage in forest: their small size offers a greater resistance to the hot and wet climates to them, by producing themselves less heat.
-
the Tumandwa, men with reddish skin, the russet-red buckled hair.
- the Batwa, with the darker skin and the crisper hair.
- the Bakunda mix with Batwa to form the Bazimba.
In the large Equatorial forest, in central Africa, 50 000 Pygmies, free and wandering, still live of the gathering and hunting as for the end of the Paléolithique. They practice neither the culture nor the breeding. They respect only one to be able: that of nature. Ten thousand years of cultural evolution passed beside them, but today the " civilization" catches up with.
Only the Pygmies feel on their premises in the African equatorial sylve. They know how to dodge the obstacles of this hostile environment and, while respecting it, to oblige it to provide for their needs. So much so that of aucuns, among their neighbors, believe them gifted of magic capacities.
For lack of visibility through the impenetrable vegetation, it is often with hearing that the Pygmies locate game.
Day and night, of small fires brood under their huts, the Lobembé S, which constitute the temporary camping for provisional bivouacs, always close to a brook and under trees reaching 50 meters. The Pygmies do not rise before the day. After a hard day of hunting, they make the sleep in. Conceived for a family, each camping includes/understands home for the households and others intended for the single people. Young people and young girls live separate. Works of the women, the huts hold their rigidity of a lattice of small branches which one anchors out of ground and which one arches of force in the shape of arbor. This elastic assembly can support the weight of the woman who will pose sheets of Marantacée S like tiles, fastened by their incised petioles. Blades of bark make good mattresses. Stagnant smoke, finally, preserves the men of the insects, the vivres and usual objects of rotting.
Accustomed to the stopped horizons, the Pygmies seem always delighted by dominate, perched over a headland, the obscure forest where them faculty of orientation makes the desire of their neighbors, the Bantou S. They like to come there to play of the music with this species of comb with vibrations which one finds under varied names, in various areas of Africa. But it is rare to see Pygmies on the rivers. They do not have boats.
Pygmies in Antiquity
The Greeks called Pygmy of the beings, probably fantastic, tops of approximately 70 cm and living in the neighborhoods of the India. Pline, in its Natural history , makes the account of a meeting with these Pygmies. Aristote mentioned the existence of such beings, supposed to live in underground caves. Pygmy was as a divinity as the Carthaginois represented with the prow of their ships to frighten their enemies.
Threatened people
The populations Pygmies of Africa are today in prey with multiples, licenses and throbbing violations of their most elementary rights. For lack of identity papers which were not delivered to them with the birth due to refusal of recording, they do not have the possibility of reaching the basic care. Education, work, justice, are also basic rights whose pleasure is denied with the Pygmies. In addition, plunged in an extreme indigence, many people Pygmies see themselves today driven out forest, their environment however natural and original, by the companies of exploitation of wood, first persons in charge of a dramatic deforestation.
The first and independent measurement to engage to stop this deteriotation of their living conditions would be to make ratify by the worldwide African concerned (none to date did still it) Convention number 169 of ILO relating to native-born people and tribal.
If the interested States had suddenly ratified the aforementioned text, they would then be committed recognizing like indigenous the people Pygmy. And on the basis of this legal recognition, a whole series of measure particular will have to be implemented in favor of the populations Pygmies.
Within the framework of the process of recognition of the rights of the " Pygmées" , the Republic of Congo organized from April 10th to 15th 2007, the first International forum of the Autochtones People of the forests of Africa Centrale (FIPAC). This event joined together in Impfondo (department of Likouala), delegated autochtones, official representatives and international institutions come from all the countries from under area. At the end of work, declaration plans and of action plan were elaborate.
See too
| Random links: | List publications by editors - Casterman - NR | A turn together (album) | Arcad | Nachos | Airline Tycoon Evolution |