The smallest people in the world are tribes. Pygmies: the smallest people in the world

In the rainforests of the Ituri province of the Republic of the Congo, the shortest people on the planet live - the pygmies of the Mbuti tribe. Their average height is 135 cm. The light skin color helps them to live easily and imperceptibly in the forest shade at the level of the Stone Age.
They do not raise cattle or cultivate plants. They live in close connection with the forest, but not longer than a month in one place. The basis of their diet is harvested berries, nuts, honey, mushrooms, fruits and roots, and hunting determines the form of their social organization.

Among those Mbuti who hunt mainly with bows and arrows, the group may consist of only three families, although during the honey harvest season, hunters unite in large groups, which are required for round-ups - begbe. But in the west, net hunters should have a group of at least seven families, and preferably twice as many. In cases where the group already includes 30 families, it is divided.

There is plenty of room for 35,000 Mbuti in the Ituri forests. Each group occupies its own territory, always leaving a decent-sized common piece of land in the center of the thicket.

The group as a whole considers itself to be one family. And this is the main social unit, although the group does not always consist of relatives. Its composition can also change with each monthly migration. Therefore, there are no leaders and permanent leaders. In any case, all members of the group are in solidarity with each other.

On hunting, the family is divided into age groups. The older men set traps and ambush them with javelins and clubs. Young men keep at a distance with arrows in their hands, so that if the game escapes, they will kill it. And women and children are behind the young hunters, turning to face them and waiting for the caught game to be put into baskets. They carry baskets behind their backs, they are held by straps worn over their foreheads. When the group has caught game for the day, it returns to the camp site, collecting everything edible along the way. Then they cook the food on the fire.

The most heinous crime among the Pygmies is when some cunning hunter sets up nets at the time of driving the game. The main catch is in his hands, and he does not share it with anyone. But justice is restored simply and impressively. All the prey is taken from the cunning one, and his family remains hungry.

Curious Englishman Colin Turnbull decided to conduct an experiment. He really wanted to check how the pygmy would behave outside his forest. Here is what he writes: “I persuaded the experienced hunter Kenge to go with me to the Ishango National Reserve, in the savannah, which is teeming with game. Loaded with all provisions, got into the car and drove off. Since it was pouring rain, Kenge did not even notice that the forest was left behind. When we reached the plain overgrown with grass, my companion began to grumble: - Not a single tree, what a bad country.
Only the promise of a large amount of game calmed him down. But then he was upset again when he learned that it was impossible to hunt this game. As we climbed the slope and looked out over the plain, Kenge was dumbfounded. In front of him stretched a green plain to the horizon, merging with Lake Edward. Without end and without edge. And everywhere elephants, antelopes, buffaloes, etc. graze. Kenge has never seen anything like it.
"That meat would last for many months," he said dreamily. I got into the car and got out of it more until we left the reserve. The next day, Kenge felt more confident and said:
- I was wrong, this is a good place, although I don't like it. The sky is clear and the earth is clear. If only there were more trees...On the way back, the deeper we drove into the forest, the louder Kenge sang. In the camp he was greeted as a hero

The Mbuti tribe are pygmies living in the east of Zaire, numbering approximately 100 thousand people and speaking the Efe language. Their gloomy reputation as ruthless hunters is distinguished by a rather peaceful way of life, compared to the warlike North Kenyan tribes. All tribes are already open, because European missionaries do not leave any ethnic group without their attention.

Mbuti pygmies change their campsites every five years in order to migrate closer to civilization - near roads and rivers they can exchange their prey in the form of skins, meat, wild fruits and berries for the achievements of cultural life they need - salt, matches, metal objects.

Mbuti tribe

They also became interested in clothing, so it is almost impossible to see their famous skirts made of leaves and tree bark. Mbuti make contacts for such natural exchanges with settled and civilized Bantu (translated from Swahili - "people").
Bantu is the language group of most of the Zairian tribes and many other African peoples, the literal linguistic name of which means sedentary people, tall.

Some argue that by this act the hunters expiate their guilt for depriving the forest of game and vegetation, since the pygmies have an ambivalent attitude towards hunting. It brings them joy, pleasure, and they love to eat meat, but still they believe that it is not good to take the life of living beings, because God created not only the people of the forest, but also the animals of the forest.

Children at a very early age are instilled with the idea of ​​dependence on the forest, faith in it, they are made to feel like part of the forest, and therefore they are entrusted with the duty of kindling a redeeming fire, without which there will be no successful hunting.

The high mobility of the pygmies also leads to the unstable nature of social organization. Since the composition and size of groups changes all the time, they cannot have leaders or individual leaders, since they, like other people, can leave and leave the group without a leader. And since the Mbuti do not have a lineage system, it would be difficult to divide the leadership when once a year the group splits into smaller units. Here too, age plays an important role in the system of government, and everyone, except children, has their own responsibilities. But even children play a certain role: bad behavior (laziness, grumpiness, selfishness) is corrected not with the help of a system of punishments - it does not exist among the pygmies - but simply by ridiculing the offender. These kids are great at what they do. For them, this is a game, but through it they comprehend the moral values ​​​​of adult life and quickly correct the behavior of the offender, raising him to ridicule. Young people are more likely to influence the lives of adults, in particular, they may express their dissatisfaction with the group or approval of the group as a whole, rather than individuals during the religious holiday of molimo. Adult hunters have the final say in economic matters, but that's all. The elders act as arbitrators and decide on the group's most important issues, and the elderly are respected by all.

The closeness that exists between the Mbuti Pygmies and their forest world is manifested in the fact that they humanize the forest, call it father and mother, since it gives them everything they need, even life. They do not try to control the world around them, but adapt to it, and this is the fundamental difference between their attitude towards the forest and the attitude towards the forest of its other inhabitants - fishermen and farmers. The Mbuti technique is very simple, and other tribes that own a certain material wealth consider hunters to be poor. But such material wealth would only interfere with the Mbuti nomads, and the technology they have is sufficient to satisfy their needs. They do not burden themselves with any surpluses. They make clothes from bark broken by a piece of elephant tusk, from skins and vines they make bags in which they carry children on their backs, quivers for arrows, bags, jewelry and ropes for weaving hunting nets. The Mbuti build dwellings in minutes from young shoots and leaves, cutting them open with metal machetes and knives they receive from nearby peasants. It is said that if they did not have metal, they would use stone tools, but this is doubtful - the Pygmies are gradually entering the Iron Age.

The abundant gifts of the forest can be judged at least by the kasuku tree - the resin from its top is needed for cooking, and the resin taken from the roots of the tree is used to illuminate dwellings. This resin is also applied to the seams of the bark boxes in which they collect honey. From an early age, a child learns to use the world around him so as not to destroy it, but only to take everything that is needed at the moment. His education comes down to imitating adults. His toys are replicas of things adults use: a boy learns to shoot slow-moving animals with a bow, and a girl goes into the woods and picks up mushrooms and nuts in her tiny basket. Thus, children provide economic assistance by obtaining a certain amount of food, although for them it is just a game.

Thanks to a sense of interdependence and community, brought up from birth, the pygmies as a single collective oppose the neighboring tribes of forest farmers, who have a completely different attitude to the forest and consider it a dangerous place that must be cleared in order to survive. The pygmies trade with these farmers, not for economic reasons, but simply so that the farmers do not climb into their forest in search of meat and other forest products that the peasants always need. The villagers are afraid of both the people of the forest and the forest itself, protecting themselves from them with rituals and magic.

The only magical means of hunters is "sympathetic" in nature - a talisman made from forest vines, decorated with tiny pieces of wood, or mastic from the ashes of forest fires, mixed with the fat of some animal and embedded in the horn of an antelope; it is then smeared on the body to ensure a successful hunt. The idea of ​​such a talisman is simple: if the Mbuti comes into physical contact with the forest even closer, then his needs will be satisfied. These acts are more religious than "magical" in nature, as seen in the example of a mother swaddling a newborn child in a special robe made from a piece of bark (although now the mother could also get a soft cloth), and decorating the baby with vine amulets, leaves and pieces of wood, and then bathes him in forest water, which accumulates in some thick vines. With the help of this physical contact, the mother, as it were, dedicates the child to the forest and asks him for protection. When trouble comes, as the Mbuti say, it is enough for them to sing the sacred songs of the prayer ceremony, “to wake the forest with them” and draw his attention to their children - then everything will be in order. It is a rich yet simple faith, in stark contrast to the beliefs and practices of neighboring tribes.

But otherwise, the life of the Mbuti has not changed in any way, they, as in past centuries, remain the same gatherers and nomadic hunters, retaining their traditional culture.

Video: Ritual dances of African pygmies.

Pygmies differ from other African tribes in their height, which ranges from 143 to 150 centimeters. The reason for such a small growth of pygmies is still a mystery to scientists, although some researchers believe that their growth is due to their adaptation to difficult living conditions in the rainforest.

Pygmies were sold to zoos!

The origin of the pygmies is still a mystery to scientists. No one knows who their distant ancestors were and how these little people ended up in the equatorial forests of Africa. There are no legends or myths to help answer these questions. There is an assumption that in ancient times the pygmies occupied the entire central part of the Black Continent, and were later driven out by other tribes into the rainforests. From Greek, the pygmies are translated as "people the size of a fist", the scientific definition interprets the pygmies as a group of undersized Negroid peoples living in the forests of Africa.

Pygmies are mentioned in ancient Egyptian sources of the III millennium BC. e., later Herodotus and Strabo wrote about them, Homer in his Iliad. Aristotle considered the pygmies to be a very real people, although a lot of fantastic things were written about them in ancient sources: for example, Strabo listed them along with big-headed, noseless, cyclops, pso-heads and other mythical creatures of the ancient period.

It is worth noting that because of their growth, the pygmies have long suffered many disasters and humiliations. The taller Africans drove them from the most favorable places and drove them into the green hell of the equatorial forests. Civilization also brought them some joy, especially at the beginning of contact with white people. Some travelers and colonial officials captured the pygmies and took them with them to Europe and the USA as a curiosity. It got to the point that pygmies, especially their children, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were sold as living exhibits to zoos in the West ...

It would seem that now this people can live much calmer and more confident in their future, but, alas, this is not so. It's hard to believe, but during the period 1998-2003 during the civil war in the Congo, it happened quite often that pygmies were caught and eaten like wild animals. A sect of “erasers” is still operating in the same parts, whose members are hired to clean up the territory from pygmies if mining is supposed to take place on it. Cultists kill pygmies and feed on their flesh. Enlightenment has not yet penetrated into the deep layers of the African population, so many inhabitants of the Black Continent believe that by eating a pygmy, they acquire some kind of magical power that protects them from witchcraft.

The presence of a considerable number of peculiar pygmy slaves will also seem incredible, although slavery is legally prohibited in all countries. Pygmies become slaves in the same Republic of the Congo, and they are even inherited; according to the tradition existing here, their owners are representatives of the Bantu people. No, pygmies do not walk in shackles, but their master can simply take away from the slaves the fruits and meat obtained in the forest, sometimes he still gives them some kind of provisions, tools and metal for arrowheads. Surprisingly, the pygmies do not arrange any uprisings against the slave owners: as some researchers say, without maintaining relations with the Bantu, they can only get worse,

Why are they so small?

The growth of pygmies ranges from 140 to 150 cm. The smallest people in the world are the pygmies of the Efe tribe, in which the average height of men does not exceed 143 cm, and for women - 130-132 cm. Of course, as soon as scientists learned about the existence of pygmies, they the question immediately arose - what is the reason for their such insignificant growth? If the small pygmies were only a small part of their tribe, their diminutiveness could be explained by a genetic failure. However, due to the general low growth, such an explanation had to be immediately discarded.

Another explanation, it would seem, lies right on the surface - the pygmies do not have good nutrition, and they are often malnourished, which is reflected in their growth. The study showed that the diet of African pygmies is almost the same as that of neighboring farmers (the same Bantu), but their daily food intake is very small. It is possible that this is why their bodies, and, accordingly, their height, decreased from generation to generation. It is clear that a smaller amount of food is enough for a small person to survive. Even a very curious experiment was carried out: for a long time a small group of pygmies were fed to satiety, but, alas, neither the pygmies themselves nor their offspring grew up because of this.

There is also a version about the effect of lack of sunlight on the growth of pygmies. Spending their whole lives under the canopy of a dense forest, the pygmies do not receive enough sunlight, which leads to a slight production of vitamin D by the body. The lack of this vitamin causes inhibition of bone growth, which results in a very miniature skeleton in the pygmies.

Some researchers believe that the diminutiveness of pygmies is caused by an evolutionary process that adapts them to life in dense thickets. It is clear that it is much easier for a small and nimble pygmy to make his way through a palisade of trees, fallen trunks, entangled in vines than a tall European. It is also known about the predilection of pygmies for collecting honey. Looking for honey, male pygmies spend about 9% of their lives in trees in search of habitats for wild bees. Of course, climbing trees is easier for a person with small stature and weighing up to 45 kilograms.

Of course, the pygmies were carefully studied by doctors and geneticists, they found that the concentration of growth hormone in their blood is not very different from the average indicators of an ordinary person. However, the level of insulin-like growth factor was below the norm by 3 times. According to the researchers, this explains the small growth of newborn pygmies. In addition, the low concentration of this hormone in the blood plasma prevents the onset of a period of active growth in pygmy adolescents, who completely stop growing at the age of 12-15 years. By the way, genetic studies made it possible to call the pygmies the descendants of the most ancient people that appeared on Earth about 70 thousand years ago. But scientists have not identified genetic mutations in them.

The small stature of the pygmies is also explained by their short life span. Alas, these little people live an average of only 16 to 24 years, those who have reached the age of 35-40 are already long-livers among them. Due to the short life cycle, pygmies experience early puberty, causing inhibition of body growth. Puberty in pygmies occurs as early as 12 years old, and the highest birth rate in women is noted at 15.

As you can see, there are many factors contributing to the small growth of pygmies. Perhaps one of them is the main one, or maybe they all work together. Yes, due to their short stature, some scientists are even ready to single out the pygmies as a separate race. It is curious that in addition to growth, the pygmies have other differences from the Negroid race - these are light brown skin and very thin lips.

"Lilliputians" from the rainforest

Now pygmy tribes can be found in the forests of Gabon, Cameroon, Congo, Rwanda, and the Central African Republic. The life of these little people is constantly connected with the forest, they spend the main part of their lives in it, get their own food, give birth to children and die. They are not engaged in agriculture, their main occupations are gathering and hunting. Pygmies lead a nomadic life, they leave their camp as soon as there is no game, no fruits, no edible plants, no honey around the camp. Resettlement takes place within the boundaries established with other groups, hunting on foreign land can become a reason for conflict.

There is another reason for moving. It happens when someone dies in a small pygmy village. Pygmies are very superstitious, they believe that since death has visited them, it means that the forest does not want them to continue to live in this place. The deceased is buried right in his hut, funeral dances take place at night, and in the morning, leaving their simple buildings, the pygmies move to another place.

The main occupation of male pygmies is hunting. Unlike "civilized" hunters who come to Africa to amuse their pride and get hunting trophies, pygmies never kill a living creature if there is no need for it. They hunt with bows with arrows poisoned with vegetable poison and spears with metal tips. Birds, monkeys, small antelopes and deer become their prey. Pygmies do not store meat for future use, they always share the prey fairly. Despite the usual luck of undersized hunters, mined meat makes up only 9% of their diet. By the way, pygmies often hunt with dogs, they are very hardy and, if necessary, are ready at the cost of their lives to protect the owner from the most ferocious beast.

A significant share in the diet of the pygmies is made up of honey and other gifts of the forest. Honey is mined by men who are ready to climb the highest trees for it, but the gifts of the forest are collected by women. Around the camp they look for fruits, wild roots, edible plants, they do not disdain worms, larvae, snails, frogs and snakes. All this goes to food. However, at least 50% of the diet of the pygmies is vegetables and fruits, which they exchange with farmers for honey and other gifts of the forest. In addition to food, through the exchange, the pygmies get the fabrics they need, pottery, iron and tobacco.

Every day, a part of the women remains in the village, making a kind of matter from the tree bark called “tana”, it is from it that the famous aprons of the pygmies are made. For men, such an apron is attached to a leather or fur belt, and they wear a bunch of leaves at the back. But women wear only aprons. However, settled pygmies that have already appeared often wear European clothes. Civilization is slowly but persistently penetrating into the life and life of the pygmies, their culture and traditions, perhaps in a few decades, will become a thing of the past.

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Pygmies are first mentioned in ancient Egyptian inscriptions of the 3rd millennium BC. e. at a later time - in ancient Greek sources. In the XVI-XVII centuries. they are called "matimba" are mentioned in the descriptions left by the explorers of West Africa. In the 19th century, their existence was confirmed by the German explorer G. Schweinfurt, the Russian explorer V.V. Junker and others who discovered these tribes in the tropical forests of the Ituri and Uzle river basins. In 1929-1930. P. Shebesta's expedition described the Bambuti Pygmies; in 1934–1935 the researcher M. Guzinde found the Efe and Basua Pygmies.

Number and population

The total population of pygmies is about 300 thousand people. . Including in Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda over 100 thousand people. Zaire - 70 thousand. Congo - 25 thousand. Cameroon - 15 thousand. Gabon - 5 thousand. They speak Bantu languages, the Pygmies of the Ituri River speak Sere-Mundu languages.

Pygmies make up the Pygmy Negroid race, they are short in stature, have a yellowish skin tone, narrow lips, and a narrow and low nose bridge. Before the Bantu settlement, the pygmies occupied the whole of Central Africa, then they were forced out into the region of tropical forests. They were in severe isolation. Preserved archaic culture. They are engaged in hunting, gathering and fishing. The weapon is a bow with arrows, often poisoned, with an iron tip, sometimes a small spear. Traps and traps are widely used. Applied art developed. They retain many features of the tribal structure, wander in groups of 2-4 families.

Occupation

Pygmies only eat what they find, catch or kill in the jungle. They are excellent hunters and their favorite meat is elephant, but more often they manage to get not very large animals or fish. Pygmies have a special technique for catching fish. The method they use is based on poisoning fish with plant poisons. The fish falls asleep and floats to the surface, after which it can be collected simply by hand. Pygmies live in harmony with nature and take only as many fish as they need. Unclaimed fish wakes up after half an hour without any damage.

Who are the pygmies PYGMIES - people living in the equatorial forests and migrating from camp to camp, depending on the time of year. Pygmies make up the Pygmy Negroid race, they are short in stature, have a yellowish skin tone, narrow lips, and a narrow and low nose bridge. The average life expectancy of pygmies is from 16 to 24 years, depending on the specific people, so evolution made sure that they quickly reached the state of an adult, albeit a short person, in order to have time to have children. It is believed that these are the most ancient inhabitants of the Congo Basin. According to the latest estimates, the number of pygmies in the world varies from 150 thousand to 300 thousand people. The vast majority of them live in the countries of Central Africa: Burundi, Gabon, DRC, Zaire, Cameroon, Congo, Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, Uganda and the Central African Republic.

The first mention of pygmies was made in ancient Egyptian records dating back to the 3rd millennium BC. Later, the ancient Greek historians Herodotus, Strabo, Homer wrote about the pygmies. The real existence of these African tribes was only confirmed in the 19th century by the German traveler Georg Schweinfurt. Russian researcher Vasily Junker and others.

The growth of adult male pygmies is from 144-150 cm in height. Women are about 120 cm. They have short limbs, light brown skin, which serves as excellent camouflage in the forest. Hair dark, curly, lips thin.

Pygmies live in the forests. The forest for them is the highest deity, the source of everything necessary for survival. The traditional occupation for most Pygmies is hunting and gathering. They hunt elephants, antelopes and monkeys. They use shortbows and poisoned arrows for hunting. In addition to various meats, pygmies are very fond of wild bee honey. In order to get to their favorite delicacy, they have to climb 45-meter trees, after which they use ash and smoke to disperse the bees. Women collect nuts, berries, mushrooms and roots.

Pygmies live in small groups of at least 50 members. Each group has a special area for building huts. Marriages between members of different tribes are quite common here. Also, absolutely any member of the tribe, when he wishes, is free to leave and join another tribe. There are no formal leaders in the tribe. Issues and problems that have arisen are resolved through open negotiations.

The weapon is a spear, a small bow, arrows. Pygmies barter iron for arrowheads from neighboring tribes. Various traps and traps are widely used.

Pygmies are the most famous dwarf tribes living in the forests of tropical Africa. The main areas of concentration of pygmies today: Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Cameroon and Gabon.

Mbutis a tribe of pygmies living in the Ituri forest in Zaire. Most scientists believe that they were most likely the first inhabitants of this region.

Twa a tribe of pygmies in equatorial Africa. They live both in the mountains and on the plains near Lake Kivu in Zaire, Burundi and Rwanda. They maintain close ties with neighboring pastoral tribes and know how to make pottery.

Tsva this large tribe lives near the swamp south of the Congo River. They, like the Twa tribe, live in cooperation with neighboring tribes, adopting their culture and language. Most of the Tswa hunt or fish.

A group of peoples belonging to the Negril race, the indigenous people of tropical Africa. They speak the languages ​​of the Bantu, the Adamaua-Eastern group and the Shari-Nile group. Many pygmies retain a wandering lifestyle, an archaic culture, and traditional beliefs.

- in Greek mythology, a tribe of dwarfs, symbolizing the barbarian world. The name is associated with the small growth of the pygmies and symbolizes a distorted perception of the true ethnic group. The Greeks determined the size of the pygmies from an ant to a monkey. According to various sources, this tribe lived on the southern periphery of the Oikumene - south of Egypt or in India. Herodotus attributed the habitat of the pygmies to the headwaters of the Nile. Strabo listed the pygmies along with large-headed, nest-eared, beardless, noseless, one-eyed and hook-toed half-dogs.

There was a legend that the fertile soil layer of the Egyptian river valleys gives rise to pygmies, so they sometimes acted as a symbol of the fertility of the semi-fairy lands of the south. To harvest the ears, they armed themselves with axes, as if they were going to cut down the forest. Pliny the Elder claimed that the pygmies built their huts from mud mixed with feathers and eggshells, while Aristotle settled them in underground caves.

A characteristic motif of the mythology of the pygmies is geranomachy. The legends said that the pygmies annually fight with cranes for three months, sitting astride rams, goats and partridges, trying to steal or break the eggs of birds. Moreover, military campaigns, which took the pygmies three months a year, they made to the southern Russian steppes, where there were crane nests. Their enmity was explained by the legend of the transformation into a crane of a pygmy girl who opposed the tribe. The symbolism of geranomachy was found on vases, mosaics, Pompeian frescoes and gems.

Another symbolic motif associated with the pygmies was heraclomacy: myths tell that the pygmies tried to kill the sleeping hero, taking revenge on him for the victory over their brother Antaeus. Hercules gathered the pygmies into the skin of the Nemean lion and took them to Eurystheus. Family relations with Antey were intended to emphasize the semiotic image of the pygmies, its astonic aspect. A popular technique in artistic creativity was the reduction of pygmies and giants into a single storyline.

Pygmy was also called the Carthaginian deity, whose head, carved from wood, was placed by the Carthaginians on warships to intimidate enemies.

Pygmies in Africa

The word "pygmy" usually means something small. In anthropology, it refers to a member of any human group whose adult males do not exceed one and a half meters in height. But the basic concept of this word, as a rule, refers to the African tribes of the pygmies.

The growth of most African pygmies is from 1 m 22 cm to 1 m 42 cm in height. They have short limbs. The skin is reddish-brown in color and serves as camouflage in the forest. The head is usually round and broad, with curly hair.

Most Pygmies are traditional hunters and gatherers. They prey on antelopes, birds, elephants and monkeys. For this, small bows and poisoned arrows are used for hunting. Women usually gather berries, mushrooms, nuts and roots.

Pygmies live in small groups. Each tribe consists of at least fifty members. There is a territory for building huts for each group. But with the threat of extinction of food, each tribe can take a different territory. Marriages between members of different tribes are common. In addition, any member of the group is free to leave one and join another tribe whenever they wish. There are no formal leaders of the tribe. All problems are solved through open negotiations.

Sources: www.africa.org.ua, ppt4web.ru, www.worldme.ru, c-cafe.ru, www.e-allmoney.ru

Pygmy is a representative of one of the nationalities living in the equatorial forests of Africa. This word is of Greek origin and means "a man the size of a fist." This name is quite justified, given the average height of the representatives of these tribes. Find out who the pygmies of Africa are and how they differ from others in the hottest continent.

Who are the pygmies?

These tribes live in Africa, next to Ogowe and Ituri. In total, there are about 80 thousand pygmies, half of which live along the banks of the Ituri River. The height of the representatives of these tribes varies from 140 to 150 cm. The color of their skin is somewhat atypical for Africans, because they have a slightly lighter, golden brown. Pygmies even have their own national dress. So, men wear a fur or leather belt with a small apron made of wood in front, and a small bunch of leaves in the back. Women are less fortunate, often they only have aprons.

Houses

The buildings in which representatives of this people live are made of twigs and leaves, fastening everything with clay. Oddly enough, the construction and repair of the hut here is the responsibility of the women. A man, having conceived the construction of a new house, must go to the elder for permission. If the elder agrees, he gives his visitor a nyombikari - a bamboo stick with a peg at the end. It is with the help of this device that the boundaries of the future home will be outlined. This is done by a man, all other construction worries fall on the shoulders of a woman.

Life style

A typical pygmy is a forest nomad who does not stay in one place for a long time. Representatives of these tribes live in one place for no more than a year, while there is game around their village. When the fearless animals run out, the nomads take off in search of a new home. There is another reason why people often move to a new place. Any pygmy is an extremely superstitious person. Therefore, the whole tribe, if one of its members dies, migrates, believing that the forest does not want anyone to live in this place. The dead man is buried in his hut, a commemoration is held, and the next morning the whole settlement goes deep into the forest to build a new village.

Mining

Pygmies feed on what the forest gives them. Therefore, in the early morning, the women of the tribe go there to replenish supplies. On the way, they collect everything edible, from berries to caterpillars, so that every pygmy of the same tribe is fed. This is an established tradition, according to which the woman is the main breadwinner in the family.

Outcome

Pygmies are accustomed to the traditions of their lives, which have been established for centuries. Despite the fact that the government of the state tries to educate them in a more civilized life, cultivation of the land and a settled existence, they continue to remain far from this. Pygmies, photographed by many researchers studying their customs, refuse any innovations in their everyday life and continue to do what their ancestors have been doing for many centuries.

Baka pygmies inhabit the rain forests of southeastern Cameroon, northern Republic of the Congo, northern Gabon, and southwestern Central African Republic. In February 2016, photographer and journalist Susan Shulman spent several days among Baka pygmies, making a short report about their life.

Tropical rainforests are their natural habitat. The main occupations are hunting and gathering, in this harmonious unity with nature they live for centuries, and their world is determined by the presence of the forest. Pygmy tribes are scattered across Africa over an area of ​​178 million hectares.

Pygmies differ from representatives of other African tribes in their diminutiveness - their height rarely exceeds 140 cm. In the photo above, members of the tribe perform a traditional hunting ceremony.

Susan Shulman became interested in Baka Pygmies after hearing about Louis Sarno, an American scientist who has been living among the Baka Pygmies in Central Africa, in the rainforest between Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo, for 30 years.

Louis Sarno is married to a woman from the tribe, all these years he has been studying, helping and treating Baka pygmies. According to him, half of the children do not live up to five years, and if he left the tribe for at least a year, he would be afraid to return, because he would not have found many friends alive. Louis Sarno is now in his early sixties, and the average life expectancy of Baka pygmies is forty years.

Louis Sarno not only provides medicines, but also does other things: he acts as a teacher for children, a lawyer, translator, archivist, writer and chronicler for a community of 600 Baka pygmies in the village of Yandubi.

Louis Sarno came to live with the Pygmies in the mid-80s after hearing their music on the radio one day and decided to go and record as much of that music as possible. And he doesn't regret it one bit. He has the opportunity to regularly visit America and Europe, but always returns to Africa. We can say that the song brought him to the heart of Africa.

Baka pygmy music is yodeling-like polyphonic singing against the natural sounds of the rainforest. Imagine the polyphony of 40 female voices and the drumming rhythm of four men on plastic drums.

Louis Sarno claims he's never heard anything like it before, and it's divine.

Their hypnotic music usually acts as a prelude to the hunt, as the tribe sings to summon a forest spirit named Bobi and ask him for permission to hunt in his forest.

Dressed in a suit of leaves, the "spirit of the forest" grants permission to the tribe and blesses those who take part in tomorrow's hunt. In the picture above, the pygmy is about to go hunting with a net.

The basis of the diet of the tribe is the meat of the monkey and the blue duiker - a small forest antelope, but recently these animals in the forest are becoming less and less. This is due to poaching and logging.

“Poachers hunt at night, they scare animals with torches and calmly shoot them while they are paralyzed with fear. The nets and arrows of the Baka pygmies cannot compete with the firearms of the poachers.

Deforestation and poachers seriously devastate the forest and greatly harm the way of life of Baka pygmies. Many of these poachers are from the neighboring Bantu ethnic group, which makes up the majority of the population in the region,” says Susan Shulman.

As a result of the gradual depletion of the rain forests in which the Baka live, the future of their forest home is in question, as it is not clear where all this will lead.

Historically, the Bantu tribe considered Baka Pygmies "subhuman" and discriminated against them. Currently, relations between them have improved, but some echoes of the past still make themselves felt.

As the traditional life of Baka Pygmies becomes more difficult and problematic by the day, the younger generation has to find work in Bantu-dominated cities.

“Young people are at the forefront of change. There are very few opportunities to earn money for them. As the resources of the forest in terms of hunting are depleted, you have to look for other opportunities - and this is usually only temporary work for the Bantu, who offer, say, $ 1 for five days of hunting - and even then they often forget to pay, ”says Susan.