Generally speaking, a pygmy is anything of unusually small size. This can be, for example, an animal (such as the pygmy hippopotamus).In an anthropological context, a Pygmy is specifically a member of one of the hunter-gatherer peoples living in equatorial rainforests characterised by their short height (below one and a half metres, or 59 inches, on average). Pygmies are found throughout central Africa, with smaller numbers in south-east Asia. The most closely studied group are the Mbuti of the Ituri rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which were the subject of a study by Colin Turnbull (The Forest People (1962)). Among the other African groups are the Aka, Baka , Binga , Efé , and Twa. In the Central African Republic, at least, the term Bayaka is preferred to Pygmy, as it refers to the people and not only to their stature.
Pygmies are stunted because in their early teens they do not experience the growth spurt normal in most other humans. This is an environmental adaptation; generally, smaller people tolerate wet and hot conditions better because they generate less body heat.
The African Pygmies are particularly known for their usually vocal music, usually characterised by density, counterpoint, communalism and 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 among the oldest known cultures in some areas of Africa. Their societies are renowned for their relative egalitarianism. They are often romantically portrayed as both utopian and premodern, which denies the fact they too live in the 21st century and have relationships with non-Pygmies (such as inhabitants of nearby villages, agricultural employers, logging companies, evangelical missionaries and commercial hunters encroaching on their food sources).
Among the Asian groups are the Agta and the BatakBatak designates two distinct peoples, one living in Indonesia, the other in the Philippines. Both speak languages of the Austronesian family. The Batak of Indonesia The term "Batak" is used to identify a number of ethnic groups found in the highlands of (in the PhilippinesThe Republic of the Philippines is an island nation consisting of an archipelago of 7,107 islands, lying in the tropical western Pacific Ocean about 100 kilometers southeast of mainland Asia. Spain (1521-1898) and the United States (1898-1946), colonized), the SemangThe Semang are the Pygmy-sized Negritos of the Malay peninsula. They are probably the indigenous peoples of this area, and have been recorded to have lived here since before the 200s. They are a fairly pure branch of the woolly-haired Negrito race, which (on the Malay PeninsulaThe Malay Peninsula ( Malay: Tanah Melayu is a major peninsula located in Southeast Asia. It runs approximately north-south and contains the most southerly point of the Asian continent. Its narrowest point is the Isthmus of Kra. The south-west coast is se) and the residents of the Andaman IslandsThe Andaman Islands are a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal, and are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of India. Port Blair is the chief community on the islands, and the administrative center of the Union Territory. The Andaman.
1 See also
- Homo floresiensisHomo floresiensis ("Man of Flores") is a newly described species in the genus Homo remarkable for its small body, small brain, and recent survival, thought to have been contemporaneous with modern humans Homo sapiens on the remote Indonesian island of Flo
2 External links
African Pygmies
