The BaMbuti

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The BaMbuti

• Hunting-and-Gathering Today
• Relations with the Lese Monday
• The Contemporary Situation Wednesday

2
BaMbuti People

• Often referred to as pygmies because of their
  short stature (4 feet) they lack an insulin-like
  growth factor
  
• But other Africans consider skin color and body
  shape---rather than height---the important
  distinguishing feature

3
Four distinct groups of BaMbuti, who perhaps
number 200,000

• Mbuti who speak Bira
• Efe who speak Balese
• Sua who speak Bira
• Aka who speak Mangbetu
• Mbuti and Efe live in the east, in the Ituri
  rainforest the Sua and Aka live in the western
  Congo River basin up through Cameroon and the
  Central African Republic.
• All maintain a hereditary exchange relationship
  with a neighboring farmer group, whose language
  they speak with similar alterations.
  
• When an Mbuti and an Efe meet, they speak Swahili
  or another trade language, Lingala.
  

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Ituri Rainforest within DRC
5
Colin Turnbull,1924-1994

• His ethnographies of the Mbuti were based on
  research from 1951-1972
  
• Covered the late colonial and early postcolonial
  period.
  

6
The BaMbuti as Hunter-Gatherers

• A classical anthropological approach

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Do hunter-gatherers give us insight into the
early lives of humans?

• Yes---hunting and gathering was the way that
  people made a living up until 10,000 years ago
  
• But---no
• Because of the interdependences that
  hunter-gatherers establish with other groups
  through trade and other connections (which we
  will read more about).
• We should not see them as our past.

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Hunter-Gatherer Societies

• People hunt and gather wild products of the
  environment generally men hunt and women gather
  
• Low population densities
• Detailed knowledge of the environment required
• Moving with the seasons and moving to areas with
  resources

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The Original Affluent Society

• Needs are met for minimal labor in a few days of
  work per week
  
• Sustainable ecologically because needs are
  modest
  
• The system breaks down when outsiders place
  restrictions on land use
  
• When resources become limited, more emphasis on
  hunting

10
Highly Egalitarian Societies

• Gender, status, power, wealth
• Few exclusive rights to resources
• Absence of food surplus
• Those who participated in food gathering and
  hunting expeditions were given a share of the
  food
  
• Co-operation and sharing a general tenet

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Little attachment to material wealth

• Myth of origin
• Adults are contaminated for killing animals so
  children and elders have important ritual
  responsibilities
  
• Little property to inherit hunting nets and
  spears, gathering basket and metal paring knife
  

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Great Attachment to Egalitarian Moral Values

• To lie and steal, connive and cheat, to amass
  private wealth, power and privilege are
  dysfunctional
  
• Children do not play competitive games tree
  climbing, hunting, house
  
• Emotionally, we are not their equal, even if
  materially we are more developed.---Colin
  Turnbull, The Mbuti Pygmies, p. 11
  

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Social OrganizationLack of concentration of power

• Hunting bands each has their own hunting
  territory
  
• Constant mobility between bands, see Turnbull,
  page 223.
  
• No political leaders

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Kinship

• Kinship terms used for those who hunt together in
  the same camp at the same time
  
• When the band splits up, then one stops calling
  the people who leave by these terms
  

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Kinship Terms

• Grandparent Tata
• Mother Ema
• Father Eba
• Sibling Apuai
• Child Miki

What do you notice about these terms?
How do they differ from our kinship terms?
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Kinship Terms

• Age matters but not gender or biological kinship
• Gender only matters in terms of procreation
  (mother/father)