This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. Please help recruit one or improve this article yourself. See the talk page for details. Please consider using {{Expert-subject}} to associate this request with a WikiProject

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. This article has been tagged since January 2007.

A Pygmy is a member of any human group whose adult males grow to less than 59 in. (150 cm) in average height. The name is also sometimes loosely applied to the Bushmen (San) of southern Africa and the so-called Negrito peoples of Asia (such as the Philippine Ilongot). Besides their short stature, Pygmies are notable in having the highest basal metabolic rate in the world and a high incidence of sickle-cell anemia. The Bambuti of the Ituri Forest are a well-studied example. Image File history File links Information_icon. ... Image File history File links Wiki_letter_w. ... The Bushmen (also known as Basarwa in Tswana, or San in Nama) are an indigenous population of the Kalahari Desert, which spans South Africa and neighboring Botswana and Namibia as well as southern Angola. ... The Negritos include the Ati, the Aeta and at least 4 other tribes of the Philippines, the Semang of the Malay peninsula, and 12 Andamanese tribes of the Andaman Islands. ... The Ilongots are a tribe who inhabit the southern Sierra Madre and Caraballo Mountains, on the east side of Luzon Island in the Philippines. ... Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy expended while at rest in a neutrally temperate environment, in the post-absorptive state (meaning that the digestive system is inactive, which requires about twelve hours of fasting in humans). ... Sickle-shaped red blood cells Sickle-cell anemia or anaemia (also sickle-cell disease) is a genetic disorder in which red blood cells may change shape under certain circumstances. ... The Mbuti people, or Bambuti as they are collectively called, are one of several indigenous hunter-gatherer groups in the Congo region of Africa. ... The Ituri Rainforest is located in the Ituri region of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. ...

In a more general sense, pygmy can refer to any human or animal of unusually small size (e.g. Pygmy Hippopotamus). Binomial name Choeropsis liberiensis (Morton, 1849) The Pygmy Hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) is a large mammal native to the forests and swamps of western Africa (the species name, meaning of Liberia, reflects this). ...

Anthropology

Comparative height of a Pygmy man (right) and an Average man (left).

In an anthropological context, a pygmy is specifically a member of one of the nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples living in equatorial rainforests characterised by their short height (below 1.5 metres, or 4.5 feet, on average). Pygmies are found throughout central Africa, with smaller numbers in south-east Asia (see Negrito). Members of so-called Pygmy groups often consider the term derogatory, instead preferring to be called by the name of their ethnic group (e.g., Baka, Mbuti). Image File history File links Pygmy. ... Image File history File links Pygmy. ... Anthropolology (from the Greek word , man or person+knowledge) consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). ... Communities of nomadic people move from place to place, rather than settling down in one location. ... In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, also known as tropical wet forests and tropical rainforests, are a tropical and subtropical forest biome. ... The metre, or meter (U.S.), is a measure of length. ... A foot (plural: feet or foot;[1] symbol or abbreviation: ft or, sometimes, ′ – a prime) is a unit of length, in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... The Negritos include the Ati, the Aeta and at least 4 other tribes of the Philippines, the Semang of the Malay peninsula, and 12 Andamanese tribes of the Andaman Islands. ... A word or phrase is pejorative or derogatory (sometimes misspelled perjorative) if it expresses contempt or disapproval; dyslogistic (noun: dyslogism) is used synonymously (antonyms: meliorative, eulogistic, noun eulogism). ... ΔMedia:Example. ... // Overview The Mbuti are one of several indigenous hunter-gatherer groups in the Congo region of Africa. ...

The most closely studied group are the Mbuti of the Ituri Rainforest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which were the subject of the study The Forest People (1962) by Colin Turnbull. Among the other African groups are the Aka, BaBenzelé, Baka, Binga, Efé, Batwa or Twa, and Wochua. 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. // Overview The Mbuti are one of several indigenous hunter-gatherer groups in the Congo region of Africa. ... Map of Ituri within the DRC The Ituri Rainforest is located in the Ituri region of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. ... Colin Macmillan Turnbull (November 23, 1924 - July 28, 1994) was a prominent British anthropologist who gained fame with his book The Forest People (1962), a detailed study of the Mbuti Pygmies. ... The Aka are a wandering African pygmy people, with large heads and slender necks, who live by hunting. ... The Baka, also known as Bebayaka, Bebayaga, Bibaya, or Babinga, are a Pygmy ethnic group inhabiting the southeastern rain forests of Cameroon, northern Congo (Brazzaville), northern Gabon, and southwestern Central African Republic. ... Binga is a town in Matabeleland North in Zimbabwe, lying on the south eastern shore of Lake Kariba. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The Twa are a pygmy people, of short stature, who were the oldest recorded inhabitants of an area in central Africa that now comprises the nations of Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. ... The Twa, also known as Batwa, are a pygmy people, of short stature, who were the oldest recorded inhabitants of the Great Lakes region of central Africa. ... The Wochua were/are a pygmy people of Africa, living in the forests of the Mabode district, south of the Welle. ...

Pygmies are smaller because in their early teens they do not experience the growth spurt normal in most other humans. This is an environmental adaptation, called insular dwarfism; smaller bodies have evolved independently in non-human species in response to isolation on small islands or dense forest environments. By natural selection, the environments in which the ancestors to Pygmies lived favored decreased body size over many generations, and today they dominate the gene pool. Most African Pygmy tribes are about 140-160 cm tall (the smallest are the Mbuti from the Ituri forest in northeast Congo republic/Zaire), of muscular body build, and have short legs (trunk index ca. 52-53%) that sharply contrast with their long arms. Their high physical mobility is evident from their loose joints and short muscle bellies with long tendons. They have highly developed anterior pelvic tilt (extreme lordosis), a trait that they share with West African negroid populations. A separate article is about the punk band called The Adolescents. ... Puberty refers to the process of physical changes by which a childs body becomes an adult body capable of reproduction. ... Insular dwarfism is the process and condition of the reduction in size of large animals - almost always mammals - when their gene pool is limited to a very small environment, primarily islands. ... The Galápagos Islands hold 13 species of finches that are closely related and differ most markedly in the shape of their beaks. ... The gene pool of a species or a population is the complete set of unique alleles that would be found by inspecting the genetic material of every living member of that species or population. ... // Overview The Mbuti are one of several indigenous hunter-gatherer groups in the Congo region of Africa. ... Lordosis is a term used to describe the direction of the curvature of the five lumbar and seven cervical vertebrae of the vertebral column. ...

Pygmy houses made with sticks and leaves in northern Republic of the Congo

The African Pygmies are particularly known for their vocal music, characterised by dense polyphony, group performance and improvisation. French-Israeli ethnomusicologist Simha Arom says that the level of polyphonic complexity of Pygmy music resembles that of European ars nova polyphony. Most pygmy musical instruments are simple and portable, suitable to a traditionally nomadic lifestyle. Pygmy societies are renowned (perhaps romanticized) for their egalitarianism. They are often romantically portrayed as both utopian and "premodern", which overlooks the fact that they have long had relationships with more "modern" non-pygmy groups (such as inhabitants of nearby villages, agricultural employers, logging companies, evangelical missionaries and commercial hunters encroaching on their food sources). African Pygmies seem to have given up their own languages in favor of those spoken by the more dominant surrounding non-Pygmy peoples, who are usually Bantu. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1632x1224, 491 KB) Summary I took this picture myself, enjoy. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1632x1224, 491 KB) Summary I took this picture myself, enjoy. ... The Pygmies are a broad group of people who live in Central Africa, especially in Congo, Central African Republic and Cameroon. ... Polyphony is a musical texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). ... Philosophically, improvisation often focuses on bringing ones personal awareness into the moment, and on developing a profound understanding for the action one is doing. ... A musicologist is someone who studies musicology. ... Simha Arom is a French-Israeli ethnomusicologist who is recognized as an expert on the music of central Africa, expecially that of Central African Republic. ... In music, the word texture is often used in a rather vague way in reference to the overall sound of a piece of music. ... Ars nova was a stylistic period in music of the Late Middle Ages, centered in France, which encompassed the period from the publication of the Roman de Fauvel (1310 and 1314) until the death of Machaut (1377). ... Communities of nomadic people move from place to place, rather than settling down in one location. ... Egalitarianism (derived from the French word égal, meaning equal or level) is the moral doctrine that people should be treated as equals, in some respect. ... Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu (dull yellow) vs. ...

Inside view of Pygmy house northern Republic of the Congo

African pygmies and Prof. K. G. Murphy.

The homes of Pygmies of the Republic of the Congo, precisely between the towns of Ouesso and Pokola, along the Sangha River, are made of sticks and leaves; they are very small and equipped with the basic items such as a bed and shelves, which are all made from wood. Because in the rainy forest it is quite cold during the night, they usually keep an ongoing small fire inside. They are accustomed to produce homemade alcohol by distilling corn or available fruits; they are also very good hunters. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1632x1224, 499 KB) Summary I took this picture myself, enjoy. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1632x1224, 499 KB) Summary I took this picture myself, enjoy. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1382x2112, 1273 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Pygmy Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1382x2112, 1273 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Pygmy Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Ouésso is a town in the northern Republic of the Congo, lying on the Sangha River and surrounded by rainforest. ... The Sangha River, a river in central Africa, is a tributary of the Congo River. ...

Among the Asian groups are the Agta and the Batak (in the Philippines), the Semang (on the Malay Peninsula), the Taron of Myanmar (one of the most endangered human populations in the world) and the residents of the Andaman Islands. Kapre (also known as Agta in the Visayan dialect)is a Philippine mythical creature similar to that of the Bigfoot creature, but with more human characteristics. ... Batak designates two distinct peoples, one living in Indonesia, the other in the Philippines. ... The Semang are the Pygmy-sized Negritos of the Malay peninsula. ... The Malay Peninsula (Malay: Semenanjung Tanah Melayu) is a major peninsula located in Southeast Asia. ... Taron is also the name of a small ethnic group in the Himalayan foothills of northern Burma (Myanmar) whose population is declining to the point where they are in danger of disappearing entirely. ... This article or section may be confusing for some readers, and should be edited to be clearer or more simplified. ...

Controversy

There is currently (Sept, 2006) a debate in the scientific community on whether Homo floresiensis is a pygmy rather than a different species of Homo. Both sides of the argument give compelling cases to support their stand, but so far, no consensus has been reached. Binomial name †Homo floresiensis P. Brown , 2004 Homo floresiensis (Man of Flores) is the name for a possible species in the genus Homo, remarkable for its small body, small brain, and survival until relatively recent times. ...

See also

• Ota Benga
• Homo floresiensis
• Hunter gatherers
• Pygmy music
• K. G. Murphy

Researchers who studied pygmy cultures: Ota Benga in 1904, showing his sharpened teeth. ... Binomial name †Homo floresiensis P. Brown , 2004 Homo floresiensis (Man of Flores) is the name for a possible species in the genus Homo, remarkable for its small body, small brain, and survival until relatively recent times. ... In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... The Pygmies are a broad group of people who live in Central Africa, especially in Congo, Central African Republic and Cameroon. ... African pygmies and Prof. ...

• Colin Turnbull
• Mauro Campagnoli

Colin Macmillan Turnbull (November 23, 1924 - July 28, 1994) was a prominent British anthropologist who gained fame with his book The Forest People (1962), a detailed study of the Mbuti Pygmies. ... Mauro Campagnoli (born in Turin, 1975), is an Italian anthropologist, ethnomusicologist and composer. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Pygmy

• Indigenous Peoples Resource Bank is the largest collection of resources dedicated to "pygmies" and forest-centered hunter gatherers of West-Central Africa available on the web
• Pygmies assistance foundation KLEINOOD, the Netherlands
• Baka Pygmies Culture, music and life of Baka Pygmies, by Mauro Campagnoli
• Congo's Unreached
• "Report Reignites Feud Over ‘Little People of Flores’" J.N. Wilford (article in New York Times, August 22, 2006)
• Mbuti Pygmies @ National Geographic Magazine National Geographic Feature in September 2005
• From the Belgian Congo to the Bronx Zoo Ota Benaga, the Pygmy brought to the United States to be on display in 1906

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. This article has been tagged since January 2007.