!!!Daisuke Bundo Research topic: ¡ÈApplied visual anthropological study on the role of videos on the dissemination and conservation of indigenous cultures¡É In recent years, an approach has become pervasive, in which researchers aim to improve the present situation by actively engaging with the problems faced by the members of societies or groups focused on as the research target. Especially in Europe and the U.S., interventions through the use of visual media have been successful and an area of anthropology in which visual media is used intensively is now referred to as ¡ÈApplied Visual Anthropology.¡É Preceding such a trend, since the birth of video in the mid-1960s, video production has become a tool which allows producers to understand their circumstances and has promoted their active engagement with such situations. This has become a popular movement known as ¡ÈParticipatory Video¡É after digital video became common in the 1990s. Since 1996, I have been conducting anthropological research on the Baka, a tribe in the tropical rainforests of the East province of Cameroon. Since 2002 I have also been making ethnographic films. Although farming and settling down have become common for the Baka people, they still obtain much of their resources by hunting and gathering. However, controls on hunting and recent environmental damages due to logging operations and mining, are making their traditional lives difficult to carry on. They are also facing various troubles due to their dependent relationship with other neighboring peoples. These have led the Baka to organize an indigenous peoples¡Ç group and they are now expanding their activities, backed up by support from aid agencies. Since 2011, I have been making participatory videos on the Baka¡Çs organizations. Collaborating with Cameroonian filmmakers I am producing five short films on three organizations ASBAK, OKANI and CADDAP. In addition, I continue to study the films through organizing film-screening seminars among researchers on Cameroon. This study, exploring the possibilities and challenges of the indigenous peoples¡Ç movement through the use of visual media is also an attempt to create a new network among the indigenous people, filmmakers and researchers. !!!Koichi Kitanishi At present, I focus on the Baka Pygmy hunter-gatherers in the tropical forests in the East Region of Cameroon, and study the impacts of the introduction and dissemination of cultivation and cash economy on their society. Recently, in particular, I looked in detail at ownership of the fields and forms of inheritance to study the significant changes occurring in the forms of hunter-gatherers¡Ç land ownership. Since many of the cacao fields, which are increasing in number, are becoming the property of Baka people, I am interested in how their livelihoods might be transformed. Furthermore, I want to pay attention to greatly changing relations between the Baka and the other ethnic groups that live in neighboring areas, caused by the introduction of cacao cropping. I conducted a comparative study on banana cultivations in the tropics of Asia and Africa, focusing especially on cultivation methods, local cultivars and their utilization. My research on the Baka was part of this project. My goal is also to relate this to the challenges involved with hunter-gatherers adaptation to farming. The term ¡ÈPygmy¡É comes from the name of imaginary dwarfs who fought against cranes in ancient Greece. Although the term refers to various images, it started being used to refer to small people living in the tropical rainforests of the central part of Africa in the latter half of the 19th century. I study how the original images associated with the term were and are reflected upon these actual people. I would also like to re-investigate the relationship between ancient Egypt and the Pygmies; a topic which has already been discussed in many literature. I enrolled in the Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University. During the master¡Çs program, I studied fishing people in Iheyajima Island, Okinawa. In my second year of the doctoral program, I went to Africa for research for the first time. I conducted ecological anthropological and economic anthropological research on a hunter-gatherer group, the Aka (a Pygmy hunter-gatherer group) residing near Linganga-Makaou village at the upper reaches of the Motaba River in the northeast part of the Republic of Congo. Since the security situation deteriorated in the Congo, I switched my focus to Cameroon. I joined Drs. Haruo Hanawa and Kaori Komatsu, who had been there already, and then in research on a hunter-gather, the Baka, group¡Çs, subsistence activities, especially focusing on swidden agriculture (Photograph 1) and food sharing in Lotong village located in the East Region. I faced many problems but I managed to complete my research. Afterwards, I travelled around Cameroon with Professor Ichikawa. In Eyumojok, near the border with Nigeria, we stayed at Shigehiro Sasaki¡Çs place for a while. He was a graduate student at the time but is now an associate professor in Nagoya University (Photograph 2). I also travelled around Maroua in the north (Photograph 3) and enjoyed discovering the different aspects of Africa, apart from those found in the rainforests. Photograph 1 (upper-left): A Baka man removing weeds. Photograph 2 (middle): Trying to extract juice from cassavas, their staple food, using a bag. Photograph 3 (upper-right): Scenery near Ruhmsiki. During 1995, I resumed my research in the Congo, collecting data on food sharing and subsistence activities, and conducted interviews to fill in the gaps of what I lacked in the previous fieldwork. I completed a doctoral program in the Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University and received a doctorate of Science. Started working in Faculty of Education in Yamaguchi University. I conducted research on the Baka in the Ndongo village in the East Region of Cameroon. Research on the swidden agriculture was the main area of focus (Photograph 4). I also observed their daily cash transactions. Moreover, a primary school was built in the Ndongo village with support from a Catholic Church and some children of the farmers and the Baka of the Ndongo village started attending the school. As such I also observed the installation of school education to the village (Photograph 5). Photograph 4 (upper-left): A Baka man who helped with my research on the field Photograph 5 (upper-right): A Baka boy and his teacher writing letters on the blackboard. I started research in the Beson village with Ayako Hirasawa, who was then a graduate student, but eventually went back to Ndongo village and resumed research there. The content of my research is the same as it was in 1999. I conducted intensive research in the Ndongo village concerning the Baka¡Çs systems of land ownership and inheritance (Photograph 6). During the trip to and back from the site of investigation, I faced many troubles, but I managed to get back (Photograph 7). Photograph 6 (upper-left): A cacao field eradicated of its weeds and a Baka man and its owner. Photograph 7 (upper-right): Cargo truck and the bridge that fell into the Lokomo River. In Ndongo, I am continuing my research on the Baka people¡Çs land ownership and inheritance. Based on quantitative data, I compared the food-sharing of the Baka and the Aka. It is thought that both people are Pygmy hunter-gatherers and have common ancestors; the Aka from the northeast part of the Congo, whereas the Baka are from the southeast part of Cameroon. While the Aka people still keep considerably the life of hunter-gatherers, the Baka now own their own land and engage in farming. Moreover, the Aka did not have much chance to engage with a cash economy, whereas the Baka, on the other hand, trade goods using cash daily. Despite differences in subsistence activities and economic situation, the Baka also actively share food (especially foods cooked by women), similar to the Aka. Yet, an analysis revealed that there was a decrease in the amount of meat shared as it became regarded as a source of cash income; and that there developed a fixation regarding who to share food with, due to the sedentarization. Hence, it became clear that the Baka are sustaining their food-sharing system by altering other parts of the traditional economic system and it is not simply that the Baka¡Çs economy has become engulfed in a cash economy. The Baka, hunter-gatherers in southeast Cameroon began settling down and cultivating crops in the 1950s. To find out why the people have started cultivation, I looked at the case of some of the Aka based in the southern part of the Central African Republic, who settled down and started their cultivation in the 1970s. Although their settlement and farming were triggered by government policies during the colonial periods and after independence; the major factor in these cases is the changes in relationship with neighboring farmers. Both the Aka and the Baka became difficult to obtain crops from these farmers as their relationships became severe due to a variety of political and economic factors. Research has revealed that this represents a direct and common factor which influenced the tribes to start farming on their own. !!!Yujie Peng Research topic: ¡ÈAnthropological research on the body adornments of a Pygmy hunter-gatherer group¡É Research history: April 2010 Enrolled in ASAFAS August – December 2010 (for a total of 20 weeks) I travelled to Africa for the first time. In two villages in southeast Cameroon, Ndongo and Son (a small village between Marea and Gribe), I conducted preliminary research on the body modification (e.g. tattoo, piercing, brand, teeth sharpening) of a Pygmy group, the Baka. July-December 2011 (for a total of 22 weeks) I visited the Baka people¡Çs camp near Yokadouma in the East Region of Cameroon to conduct further regional research, then entered Son village to conduct research on how the Baka people learn about their body adornment. !!!Koji Sonoda My principal research interests lie in the field of face-to-face interaction among the Baka Pygmy hunter-gatherers in Cameroon. For my Ph.D research I am currently investigating how processes of teaching / learning are conducted in concert with the surrounding environment in everyday activities. My methodology involves ethnographic description and conversation analysis techniques.