home » Winter » The smallest (stunted) people in the world are Pygmies. The Pygmy tribe - the people of equatorial Africa: photo, video, film about the life of African Pygmies

The smallest (stunted) people in the world are Pygmies. The Pygmy tribe - the people of equatorial Africa: photo, video, film about the life of African Pygmies

Dwarfism and gigantism are the opposites of the human world that attract attention. In addition to 190 cm of giants, Africa is home to the smallest people in the world. And this is not just a failure in genetics - there is a whole set of factors here, which will be interesting to everyone to learn about.

The smallest people in Africa are called pygmies or negrilli... Translated from Greek "people the size of a fist." Their growth ranges from 124 to 150 cm (and dwarfism is considered to be growth below 147 cm).

Pygmies are well adapted to life in humid rainforest- it is easy for them to move in impassable wilds, organisms are better cooled in hot climates and much less calories for food are required.

There is a fairly large community of pygmies on the mainland (about 280 thousand people), widespread in equatorial forests Central Africa on the territory of 5 states. They are conventionally divided into western and eastern.

Pygmies can be found on all continents: in the Philippines, Brazil, Australia, Bolivia, Indonesia, Fiji and Aydaman islands. Except, rainforest, the smallest people in the world also live in other places (for example, the African pygmies Twas - in the desert).

Pygmies in history

The first mentions of pygmies are found among the ancient Greeks (III millennium BC) and Egyptians (II millennium BC). And officially the world met the pygmies after independent travels in Africa by the German G. Schweinfurt and the Russian V. Juncker in the 1870s.

In the 60s of the twentieth century, the Belgian researcher J.P. Alla lived for several months in one of the pygmy communities, efe. He shot about aborigines 2 documentaries and founded charitable foundation... Now this organization provides real help this nation in the Congo, providing them with land for agriculture.

Genetics, anthropology of pygmies

Many researchers distinguish pygmies as a special race. Men with a height of one and a half meters are considered giants, and the average height of women hovers around 133 cm. African pygmies have light brown skin, a small head with a wide forehead and nose, black and curly hair, and thin lips.

It is interesting that outwardly the Negritos are closest to the pygmies, inhabiting the south and southeast of Asia, as well as the islands of Melanesia and the north of Australia. But genetically, the differences are quite large.

Pygmies still have the Neanderthal gene (up to 0.7%). These human ancestors lived from 600 to 350 thousand years ago, and modern man this gene has mutated and practically never occurs.

Origin hypotheses

Reasons for small stature

Hormones

It is not surprising, but the pituitary gland secretes growth hormone in pygmies in the same way as in ordinary people. But Africans do not have an acceleration of growth, since the secretion of hormones during puberty is not at the proper level.

Already in childhood, strong differences are visible between the same Europeans and pygmies. A 5-year-old pygmy is the same height as a 2-year-old European. And in adolescence (12-15 years old), pygmies simply stop growing.

Malnutrition

Pygmies are not only small, but also extremely slender. Their nutrition depends a lot on luck. For example, the Pygmy tribe in the Philippines is considered the thinnest of all human populations. The infant mortality rate in this tribe is half of all fertility.

Therefore, in order to survive, the size of the pygmies decreased from generation to generation.

Accommodation near the equator

The tropics are characterized by hot and humid climate... In such conditions (if we also add forests here), the body will necessarily overheat. People usually sweat and can thus avoid heatstroke.

But with high humidity sweating intensely simply will not work. The pygmies managed to reduce muscle mass and, thus, to establish thermoregulation.

Sun deficiency

Dense rainforests prevent adequate penetration sunlight(and the formation of vitamin D in the body). Therefore, the skeleton of pygmies is smaller - calcium is not absorbed enough and bone growth is inhibited.

Lifestyle

One of the main activities of Aboriginal people in Africa is collecting honey. Pygmies have been doing this for several millennia, so they evolved into small and dexterous people weighing up to 45 kg, able to climb vertically on branches that support their weight. In the Batwa pygmies, even the feet can bend at an angle of 45 degrees, although in ordinary people it is only up to 18.

The pygmies even managed to enter into a kind of symbiosis with the bees. Bees almost do not bite people, and the latter practically do not react to minor bites. But it's worth showing up next to white man and sweat a little - he will not be spared.

Small century

Unfortunately, the smallest people in the world live very little. Their average life expectancy is only 24 years, and 40-year-olds are already considered aksakals. Pygmies survive only due to the frequent change of generations.

Puberty occurs very early in them, simultaneously with inhibition of growth. Men begin to reproduce at the age of 12, and the peak of fertility in women is at 15.

Pygmies in the modern world

Modern African pygmies live in forests, hunting and gathering everything they need. Animals are killed with bows and arrows.

At the same time, until recently, they did not know how to make fire (they transferred it when changing camp) and did not make tools (they exchange them with neighboring tribes).

A large segment of food (up to 30%) is the gathering of fruits and honey. And the rest of the food and things (metal, tobacco, clothes, utensils) are exchanged by the pygmies from nearby farmers for honey and other forestry provisions.

Pygmies are constantly roaming. This is due to the custom - when a member of the tribe dies, he is left in the hut where he lived. At the same time, the entire community moves to a new place.

Pygmies are very good at medicinal plants... Therefore, no one can prepare a medicinal or poisonous mixture better than them. Even the bulk of the pygmy vocabulary consists of similar words.

In an interesting way, pygmies catch fish. They make poison, thanks to which all the fish in the reservoir will float belly up. But after a while, the poison loses its strength and the fish can be eaten.

Slavery and cannibalism

It turns out that slavery still exists in the Republic of the Congo. The neighboring tribe, the Bantu, has pygmy slaves in their families and passes them on by inheritance.

Pygmies obtain food for their masters in the forest in exchange for the goods they need to survive. In fairness, it should be noted that slaves may well be in the service of several farmers.

And in the province of North Kivu there is still a belief that by eating pygmy flesh, you can get magic power.

Video

PIGMIES - n-ro-dy, referring to the central-tral-but-af-ri-kan-skoi ra-se.

Lives in the tropical forests of Ek-va-tori-al-noy and East Africa-ki. Known under the names: tva (bat-va, abat-va) - in Me-jo-ze-r'e and De-mo-kra-tich. Res-pub-li-ke Kon-go (DRC) (the term "tva" sometimes used in relation to the hunting groups of the South Af-ri-ki - South An-go-ly, Nam-bii, Zam-bii, South Africa, including the dignity); kwa / chwa (DRC), mbu-ti / bam-bu-ti (se-ve-ro-vos-tok DRC), bin-ga / ba-bin-ga, mben-ga / bam-ben-ga (for -fall Ek-va-to-ri-al-noi Af-ri-ki). Raz-de-la-yut-Xia on the eastern and western pygmies. To the eastern pygmies from-no-sit-syat: tv Me-zh-o-ze-rya (over 200 thousand people in Ru-an-de, about 100 thousand people in Bu-run-di, 35 thousand people in Vos-to-ke DRC, 5 thousand people in Tan-za-niya and 3 thousand people in Ugan-de); sua (asua; 35 thousand people), efe (35 thousand people) and kan-go (10 thousand people) in the bas-sei of the Uele river in se-ve-ro-vos-to-ke DRC. Western pygmies: mon-go-tva (in the region of lakes Tum-ba and Mai-Ndom-be on se-ve-ro-za-de-DRK); gban-zi-ri (ban-zi-ri, gban-zi-li, gban-de-re; 50 thousand people), ba-mass-sa (15 thousand people) and bu-ra-ka (5 thousand people) at the top of the Uban-gi river in the south of the CAR and se-ve-ro-za-pas de DRC; bo-fi (30 thousand people in the south-west of the CAR) and aka (yaka, baia-ka, be-baia-ka, bi-baia, ba-bin-ga, mben-ze-le, ba- ben-ze-le, ba-se-se, sa-mo-n-name-bia-ka; 30 thousand people in se-ve-ro-vos-to-ke Res-pub-li Kon- go - RK, 20 thousand people in the south-west of the Central African Republic and 5 thousand people on the se-ve-ro-for-pas-de of the DRC) in the lower calls of the Lo-Bae River; gun-di in the top of the Sang-ga river (15 thousand people in the south-west of the CAR); ba-ka (bi-baya, bin-ga, ba-binga) in the bassei of the rivers Dzha and Bum-ba in the south-east-to-ke Ka-me-ru-na (45 thousand people) and in top-hov-yakh of the Ai-i-na river on se-ve-ro-vos-to-ke Ga-bo-na (5 thousand people); gye-le (gi-el-li / bai-e-le, ko-la / ba-ko-la, koya / ba-koya) south of the Nyong River (5 thousand people in the south-west -pa-de Ka-me-ru-na and se-ve-ro-za-de Ek-va-to-ri-al-noi Gui-nei). You-de-la-yut-sya are also the southern pygmies: tva bas-sei-na Ka-sai in the south-for-pas de DRC; upem-ba-tva (lu-ba-hem-ba-tva) in the distant districts at the top of the Lua-la-ba river in the south-east of the DRC ; ban-gve-ulu-tva in bo-lo-takh Ban-gve-ulu on se-ve-ro-vos-to-ke of Zam-biya; lu-kan-ha-tva in Central Zam-biya; ka-fue-tva in the lower calls of the Ka-fue river in the south of Zam-biya, etc. The total number of people is up to 500 thousand people. The pygmies ut-ra-ti-li their tongues and speak in the tongues of the ok-ru-zhayu-bang-tu, as well as in the tongues of uban-giy- the sub-family of the ada-ma-va-uban-giy-languages and the central-tral-no-su-dan languages. So-keep-nya-yut traditional beliefs, part - christi-no (ka-to-li-ki and pro-tes-tan-you: Baptists, Lutherans, etc.).

According to the most racial theory, the pygmies - by-tom-ki abo-ri-gen-no-go na-se-le-niya Ek-va-to-ri- al-noi Af-ri-ki, you-cramped in the 2nd millennium BC in hard-to-reach-dull regions after the ras-se-le-niya earth - forestry peoples, who speak the languages of Ban-tu, Uban-Gi and Central-tral-no-su-dan, who are tes-ni-whether because of the initial tongues of the pygmies. According to the genetic study, their ancestors lived in isolation for about 60 thousand years. The earliest knowledge about them is found in the ancient Egyptian over-pi-si of the III millennium BC. Among the ancient Greek av-to-ditch (in "Ilia-de" Go-me-ra, in Ge-ro-do-that and Stra-bo-na) pygmies called mythical carols ki who lived in Africa. In the European descriptions of Western Africa in the 16th-17th centuries, pygmies are mentioned under the name "ma-tim-ba". Their essence was confirmed in the 19th century by the German researcher G. Schwein-fur-tom and the Russian ex-pe-di-ci-she V.V. Yun-ke-ra. The main groups of pygmies about-na-ru-women in the XX century. P. She-best (1929-1930) and M. Gu-zin-de (1934-1935).

For-ni-ma-yut-sya bro-dya-whose hunt (weapon - bow, co-drink), fish-bo-fishing-st-vom and co-bi-ra-tel-st-vom , about-me-ni-vaya to-be-th-e-duk-you at the ok-ru-zhayu-n-ro-dov for grain, metal and clay-ny-ny in-su-du ; were-whether-to-become-schi-ka-mi layer-new bone-ti. You-de-ly-va-yut lu-bya-ma-te-riu (mbu-gu). Didn't know how-to-so-bov to-by-chi-nya (besides-me ba-ka, to-be-vav-shih him). Os-no-wu co-qi-al-noy or-ga-ni-zation of the composition of the composition-la-yut lo-cal-groups of 2-6 nuk-le-ar-se-mei (from 15 to 60 people). The account of the clan-st-va pat-ri-li-ne-ny, ras-pro-country-nyon marriage exchange sё-st-ra-mi. In-w-di and so-qi-al-naya ye-rar-chiya from-day-st-woo-yut. Tva Me-jo-ze-rya form-ra-zu-yut et-no-ka-stu-th community - the lowest Ie-rar-chic level in the co-hundred-ve run-di and ru -and-yes. So-hu-nya-sya traditional folk-lore: fairy tales, mi-phology, mu-zy-ka (in-st-ru-men-you - in-dya-noy ba -ra-ban, ar-fa, musical bow); mbu-ti and mben-ga have a poly-phonic music.

In the XX century, before-no-ma-lis in-torture-ki-re-seeding of pygmies in stationary-nary villages, as a rule, when -bolic mis-si-yah. Since the end of the 20th century, in-ten-siv-naya you-cut-off-forest-ows, as well as or-ha-ni-za-tion in them for-in-ved-ni-kov way-so-st- woo you-test-not-pygmies from the original territories and the destruction of the traditional image of life. Some of the pygmies do not go to settled. Under-ver-ha-yut-Xia dis-kri-mi-nation, ge-no-qi-du in the course of civil conflicts.

Do you know how the word "pygmies" is translated? People as big as fists. They are the smallest people on the planet.

Most under the word "pygmies" understand the people of short stature living in Africa. Yes, this is partly true, but even African pygmies are not one people. Various nationalities live on the Black Continent: the pygmies of the Batwa, Bakiga, Baka, Aka, Efe, Sua, and this is not the whole list. The height of an adult man usually does not exceed 145 centimeters, and a woman - 133 cm.

How do the smallest people on the planet live?

The life of the pygmies is not easy) They live in temporary villages in the forests. Why temporary, you ask? The smallest people have a nomadic lifestyle, they are constantly in search of food and are looking for places rich in fruits and honey. They also have ancient customs. So, if a person dies in a tribe, then he is buried under the roof of a hut and the settlement is abandoned forever.

Near the temporary villages, pygmies hunt deer, antelopes and monkeys. They also collect fruits and honey. With all this, meat makes up only 9% of their diet, and they exchange the bulk of the production for garden vegetables, metal, fabrics, tobacco from people who keep farms near the forest.

Little people are considered excellent healers: they prepare medicinal and poisonous potions from plants. It is because of this that other tribes dislike them, as they attribute magical powers to them.

For example, pygmies have a curious way to fish: first they poison the pond, causing the fish to float to the surface. And that's all, the fishing was a success, it remains only to collect the catch. No gathering with fishing rods on the shore or fishing with a harpoon. After a few hours, the poison ceases to act and again the lively fish returns to its usual life.

The life span of pygmies is very short: from 16 to 24 years. People who have lived to be 40 years old are real centenarians. Accordingly, they have sexual maturity much earlier: at the age of 12. Well, they acquire offspring already at the age of fifteen.

Still in slavery

Africa is the most controversial continent. Slavery has long been banned throughout the world, but not here. For example, in the Republic of the Congo, according to the established tradition, pygmies are inherited from the Bantu people. And these are the real slave owners: the pygmies give them their prey from the forest. But, unfortunately, small people are forced to endure such treatment, since the "owners" give them the food and goods necessary for their survival, without which it is unrealistic to live in the forest. Moreover, pygmies go for tricks: they can be in "slavery" by several farmers at the same time in different villages. If one owner did not give food, then perhaps the other will make him happy.

Pygmy genocide

The smallest people have been under constant pressure from other tribes for many centuries. And here we are talking not only about slavery, but even about ... cannibalism! Moreover, in our modern world, in the XXI century. So, in the period civil war in the Congo (1998-2003), pygmies were simply caught and eaten. Or, for example, in one of the provinces of Africa, North Kivu, at one time there was a grouping to prepare the territory for mining. And they killed and ate pygmies in the process of stripping. And some peoples of the Black Continent generally believe that the flesh of a pygmy will give magical power, and a connection with a woman from some stunted tribes will relieve disease. Therefore, rape happens very often here.

Of course, all this affects the life of the small people: there are no more than 280 thousand of them left, and this figure is decreasing every year.

Why is so small

In fact, the diminutiveness of these peoples is explained by evolution. Moreover, in different nations the reasons are different, this is exactly the conclusion that scientists have come to. So, genetic analyzes have shown that in some tribes (for example, among the Sua and Efa pygmies), a child's growth restrictor is turned on in the womb and babies are born very small. And in other nations (Baka), children are born normal, the same as among representatives of European races, but in the first two years they grow very slowly. All these changes at the genetic level are provoked various factors.

So, poor nutrition contributes to short stature: the body of pygmies has decreased in the process of evolution. The fact is that they need much less food to survive than larger peoples. It is also believed that the tropics "helped" small growth: after all, body weight affects the amount of heat produced, so large peoples have a much greater chance of overheating.

Well, another theory says that diminutiveness makes life easier in the tropics, making pygmies more nimble, because in impenetrable forests this is an excellent quality. This is how evolution helped small people adapt to their lifestyle and climate.

Interesting Pygmy Facts You Didn't Know Before

Fact number 1... Many people believe that pygmies live in forests. However, this is not always the case: for example, the Twa pygmies live in deserts and swamps.

Fact number 2... Moreover, some anthropologists attribute dwarf peoples to pygmies, where a man's height does not exceed 155 centimeters. In their opinion, pygmies live in different parts of the world: in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Bolivia and Brazil. For example, Filipino pygmies:

Fact no. 3... Most pygmy words are associated with honey and plants. In general, they have lost their native language and now speak the languages of the peoples around them.

Fact no. 4... Some researchers believe that pygmies are representatives of an ancient people that existed more than 70 thousand years ago.

Fact number 5... Pygmies were known even in Ancient Egypt. So, black dwarfs were brought to rich nobles as a gift.

Fact no. 6... In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pygmy children were sold to zoos in the United States and Europe as exhibits.

Fact number 7... The smallest people in the world are the pygmies of Efe and Zaire. The height of women does not exceed 132 cm, and of men - 143 cm.

Fact no. 8... In Africa live not only the lowest people, but also the tallest. In the Dinka tribe, the average height of a man is 190 cm, and a woman is 180 cm.

Fact number 9... Pygmies today do not use the calendar, so they do not know the exact age.

Fact number 10... A 2.5-year-old Caucasian child is about the same height as a five-year-old pygmy.

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 adaptability to the 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, 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 3rd 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 in ancient sources a lot of fantastic things were written about them: for example, Strabo listed them along with the big-headed, noseless, cyclops, psoglavtsy and others mythical creatures antique period.

It is worth noting that because of their height, pygmies have suffered a lot of disasters and humiliations for a long time. Taller Africans drove them out of the most favorable places and drove into a green hell equatorial forests... Civilization also brought them a little joy, especially at the beginning of contact with white people. Some travelers and colonial officials captivated the pygmies and, as a curiosity, took them with them to Europe and the United States. It got to the point that the pygmies, especially their children, in late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century, they were sold as living exhibits to the zoos of 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 1998-2003 civil war in the Congo, it quite often happened that pygmies were caught and eaten like wild animals. In the same area, the sect of "erasers" still operates, whose members are hired to clean up the territory from pygmies, if mining is supposed to be there. Cultists kill pygmies and feed on their flesh. The 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 masters 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 food, tools and metal for arrowheads. Amazingly, the pygmies are not satisfied with 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 have the question immediately arose - what is the reason for their so insignificant growth? If small pygmies were only a small part of their tribe, their diminutiveness could be explained by a genetic malfunction. However, due to the overall low growth, such an explanation had to be discarded immediately.

Another explanation, it would seem, lies right on the surface - the pygmies lack good nutrition and they are often malnourished, which is reflected in their growth. The study showed that the diet of African pygmies is practically the same as that of neighboring farmers (the same Bantu), but their daily intake of food is very small. It is possible that this is why their bodies, and accordingly their height, have decreased from generation to generation. It is clear that little man less food is enough to survive. Even a very curious experiment was carried out: long time a small group of pygmies were fed to capacity, 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 entire life under the canopy of a dense forest, pygmies do not receive enough sunlight, which leads to an insignificant production of vitamin D. The lack of this vitamin causes inhibition of growth bone tissue, so it turns out that the pygmies have a very miniature skeleton.

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 brisk pygmy to wade through a palisade of trees, fallen trunks, entangled with vines, than for a tall European. It is also known about the addiction of pygmies to collecting honey. Looking for honey, pygmy men spend about 9% of their lives in trees in search of habitats for wild bees. Of course, tree climbing is easier for a person of small stature and weighing up to 45 kilograms.

Of course, the pygmies were thoroughly studied by doctors and geneticists, they found that the concentration of growth hormone in their blood does not differ much from the average indicators. an ordinary person... However, the level of insulin-like growth factor was 3 times lower than normal. 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 adolescent pygmies, who completely stop growing at the age of 12-15 years. By the way, genetic research made it possible to call the pygmies descendants. the most ancient people, which appeared on Earth about 70 thousand years ago. And here genetic mutations scientists have not identified them.

The small growth of the pygmies is also explained by the short duration of their life. Alas, these little people live on average from 16 to 24 years, reaching 35-40 years among them are already long-livers. Due to the small life cycle the pygmies have an early puberty causing inhibition of body growth. Puberty in pygmies begins at the age of 12, and the highest fertility in women is noted at 15.

As you can see, there are many factors that contribute to the small growth of pygmies. Perhaps one of them is the main one, or maybe all of them act 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, pygmies have other differences from negroid race- This is 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 life in it, find food for themselves, give birth to children and die. They are not engaged in agriculture, their main occupations are gathering and hunting. Pygmies lead a nomadic lifestyle, they leave their camp as soon as there is no game, no fruit, no edible plants, or honey around the camp. The resettlement takes place within the boundaries established with other groups, hunting in a foreign land can become a pretext for conflict.

There is another reason for relocation. It happens if 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 pygmy men is hunting. Unlike "civilized" hunters who come to Africa to amuse their pride and get hunting trophies, pygmies never kill Living being if there is no need for it. They hunt using 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 spoils fairly. Despite the usual luck of undersized hunters, the meat obtained 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.

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

Pygmies are first mentioned in ancient Egyptian inscriptions from the 3rd millennium BC. NS. 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 researchers West Africa... In the 19th century, their existence was confirmed by the German researcher G. Schweinfurt, the Russian researcher V.V. Juncker and others who discovered these tribes in the rainforests of the Ituri and Uzle river basins. In 1929-1930. expedition P. Shebest described the pygmies bambuti, in 1934-1935 researcher M. Guzinde found the pygmies Efe and Basua.

Size and population

The total population of the 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 Ituri pygmies - Ser-Mundu languages.

Pygmies make up the pygmy Negroid race, are distinguished by their short stature, yellowish skin tone, narrow lips, narrow and low nose. Before the settlement of the Bantu, the pygmies occupied the whole of Central Africa, then they were forced out into the area of tropical forests. We were in strong isolation. We have preserved an 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. Developed applied arts... They retain many features of the tribal structure, roam in groups of 2-4 families.

Occupation

Pygmies eat only 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 catch not very large animals or fish. Pygmies have a special fishing technique. The method they use is based on the poisoning of fish with vegetable 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 as much fish as they need. Unclaimed fish wakes up after half an hour without any damage.

Who are the pygmies PIGMIES are a people living in equatorial forests and migrating from camp to camp, depending on the season. Pygmies make up the pygmy Negroid race, are distinguished by their short stature, yellowish skin tone, narrow lips, narrow and low nose. Average duration the life of the pygmies is from 16 to 24 years, depending on the specific people, so evolution made sure that they quickly reach 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 Central African countries: Burundi, Gabon, DRC, Zaire, Cameroon, Congo, Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, Uganda and CAR.

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

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

Pygmies live in the forests. For them, the forest is the supreme deity, the source of everything necessary for survival. The traditional occupation for most pygmies is hunting and gathering. They hunt birds, elephants, antelopes and monkeys. Short bows and poisoned arrows are used for hunting. In addition to different meat, pygmies are very fond of the honey of wild bees. In order to get to their favorite treat, 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, no less than 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, can freely leave and join another tribe. There are no formal leaders in the tribe. The questions and problems that have arisen are resolved by open negotiations.

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

Pygmies are the most famous dwarf tribes living in the woods tropical Africa... The main areas of concentration of pygmies today are 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.

Tva 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 cattle-breeding tribes, they know how to make pottery.

Tswa this large tribe lives near the swamp south of the river Congo. They, like the Twa tribe, live in cooperation with neighboring tribes, adopting their culture and language. Most of the Tswa are hunters or fishermen.

A group of peoples belonging to the Negrillic race, the indigenous population of tropical Africa. They speak the languages of the Bantu, the Adamaua-Eastern group and the Shari-nil group. Many pygmies retain wandering image life, archaic culture, traditional beliefs.

- v Greek mythology a tribe of dwarfs, symbolizing the barbarian world. The name is associated with the small stature of the pygmies and symbolizes the distorted perception of the true ethnos. The Greeks determined the size of the pygmies from ant to monkey. According to various sources, this tribe lived on the southern periphery of the Oycumene - south of Egypt or in India. Herodotus attributed the habitat of the pygmies to the upper reaches of the Nile. Strabo listed pygmies along with large-headed, nest-eared, whiskers, noseless, one-eyed and hook-fingered half-dogs.

There was a legend that the pygmies gave rise to the fertile soil layer of the Egyptian river valleys, so they sometimes acted as a symbol of the fertility of the semi-fabulous lands of the south. To reap the ears, they armed themselves with axes, as if they were going to cut wood. Pliny the Elder argued that pygmies build their huts from mud mixed with feathers and eggshell, and Aristotle settled them in underground caves.

A characteristic motif of pygmy mythology is geranomachy. Legends said that pygmies fight cranes each year for three months, riding on rams, goats and partridges, trying to steal or break the eggs of birds. Moreover, the military campaigns, which took the pygmies three months a year, they made in the southern Russian steppes, where there were nesting cranes. Their enmity was explained by the legend about 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 motive associated with the pygmies was heraclomachia: myths tell that the pygmies tried to kill the sleeping hero, taking revenge on him for defeating their brother Antaeus. Hercules gathered the pygmies in the skin of the Nemean lion and took them to Eurystheus. Family relations with Antaeus were intended to emphasize the semiotic image of the pygmies, its astonic aspect. A popular technique in artistic creation was the reduction into a single storyline pygmies and giants.

A Carthaginian deity was also called pygmy, whose head, carved from wood, was placed by the Carthaginians on military ships to intimidate enemies.

Pygmies in Africa

The word "pygmy" usually means something small. In anthropology, this 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 usually refers to African tribes 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 hunter-gatherers. They hunt antelopes, birds, elephants and monkeys. For this, small bows and poisoned arrows are used for hunting. The women usually pick berries, mushrooms, nuts and roots.

Pygmies live in small groups. Each tribe has at least fifty members. There is a territory for building huts for each group. But with the threat of disappearance of food, each tribe can occupy 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 he wishes. There are no formal tribal leaders. All problems are resolved through open negotiations.

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