No. 28 (2003)
Edited by Mitsuo ICHIKAWA and Daiji KIMURA
INTRODUCTION:
Recent Advances in Central African Hunter-Gatherer Research
Mitsuo ICHIKAWA
Daiji KIMURA
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Names, Use and Attributes of Plants and Animals among the Ituri Forest Foragers: A Comparative Ethnobotanical and Ethnozoological Study
Hideaki TERASHIMA
Kobe Gakuin University
ABSTRACT
Ethnobotanical and ethnozoological surveys have been conducted from the 1970s
among Ituri forest hunter-gatherers, the Mbuti and Efe, revealing interesting points on the relationships
between the hunter-gatherers and the flora and fauna. In this paper, names, use and attributes
given to plants and animals by the foragers are described and compared. Although the Efe and
the Mbuti use completely diiferent languages now, not a few names, uses and attributes of plants
and animals are common to both groups. It has become clear that the use of plants and attributes
given to animals are more durable than the names in the transition of their culture through contact
with farmers. The common names, uses and attributes may suggest the existence of original Pygmy
words and plant and animal culture in the Ituri forest.
Key Words: Efe; Mbuti; Tropical rain forest; Plant names; Animal names; Plant use; Animal attributes; Original Pygmy language.
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Bakas’Mode of Co-Presence
Daiji KIMURA
Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
ABSTRACT
The characteristics of hunter-gatherer societies have been discussed previously within
the framework of social structure or in relation to various “-isms,” such as egalitarianism. Eschewing
this relatively rigid structure, this report focuses on the fluid daily social interaction of the Baka
Pygmies of southeastern Cameroon. First, their spatially diffusive conversation in the forest camp or
roadside village is described. Then the relative calmness, and high degree of resonance, of their interactions
are discussed, based on the results of analysis using the time-sampling method and video
image analysis. It is conjectured that living under such “multi-connected” conditions may cause
them to face an “explosion of processing effort,” in responding to the tangled interactional relationships
that characterize their community. The sophisticated resonance observed in these interactions
is thought to be an ethno-method for diminishing the impact of such complexity. This viewpoint is
discussed in relation to hunter-gatherers’ socio-ecological way of life.
Key Words: Baka Pygmies; Cameroon; Hunter-Gatherers; Parallel distributed interaction.
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Interethnic Relations in Southeastern Cameroon: Challenging the “Hunter- Gatherer” – “Farmer” Dichotomy
Stephanie RUPP
National University of Singapore
ABSTRACT
By slotting forest communities into reductive categories such as “hunter-gatherer”
/ “farmer” and “pygmy” / “villager,” analyses of social relations in tropical forests are reduced to
two dimensions based on contrasting subsistence strategies and polar relations of power. As a result
of this flattened perspective of the social landscape, other ways of reckoning social relations as
expressed by contemporary forest peoples may be rendered analytically invisible and ideologically
irrelevant to outside observers and analysts. This paper examines the formation and transformation
of social relationships among Bangando, Baka, Bakw´el´e, and Mbomam, four distinct communities
that intermingle in the forests of southeastern Cameroon. Far from conforming to these simplified,
paired classifications of social identity based on presumed economic strategies and political relationships,
the diverse communities of southeastern Cameroon pursue numerous and flexible production
techniques, engage in manifold and changing relationships, and identify self and other in multiple
and shifting ways. This paper demonstrates that, rather than maintaining strict ethnic divisions according
to subsistence production, Bangando, Baka, Bakw´el´e, and Mbomam individuals participate
in interfamilial, interethnic, and interregional networks that are social, economic, ritual, and political
in nature.
Key Words: Ethnicity; Identity; Cameroon; Bangando; Baka.
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The Framework of Central African Hunter-Gatherers and Neighbouring Societies
Daou V. JOIRIS
Universit´e Libre de Bruxelles
ABSTRACT
This article presents a synthesis of available information about the framework of relations
between Pygmy peoples and neighbouring local communities called “villagers” or “farmers.”
From an epistemological point of view, the literature is more detailed about the origin of that relationship
than about the analysis of its framework. From an ethnographic viewpoint, a comparison of
the two most researched case studies in different cultural settings provides evidence of the existence
of a similar relational interethnic model in the Congo River basin. This model involves both aspects
of the “ideology of solidarity,” sustained by links of pseudo-kinship, and of the “ideology of domination,”
political-economic dominance over the Pygmy peoples by the “villagers.” The relationship
also appears fluid in that it allows a multiplicity of partnerships. The interethnic relational model
suits an environment of mobility and of acephalous political organization. The author argues that
the model is not specific to hunter-gatherer societies, nor to Pygmy communities in general, but
rather to Pygmy groups in regular contact with villager communities characterised by mobility and
non-hierarchical political organization.
Key Words:Pygmies; Non-Pygmy neighbors; Inter-ethnic relations; Hunter-gatherers; Central Africa; Pseudo-kinship; Subordination.
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Relocated to the Roadside: Preliminary Observations on the Forest Peoples of Gabon
Judy KNIGHT
Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, The University of Oxford
ABSTRACT
The Forest Peoples of Gabon (commonly referred to as the Pygmies) have, until
recently, attracted little attention in the academic forum. It seems it is widely assumed that these
groups are largely assimilated into dominant neighbouring ethnic groups and have consequently
adopted new cultural practices and lost many of their own (Anderson, 1983). Recent research has
revealed a range of socio-economic situations including forest-based semi-nomadic communities
who combine hunting and gathering with shifting cultivation. However, the majority of Gabon’s
Forest Peoples have moved to the roadside, and where the last forest-based groups remain, relocation
is inevitable or in process. Integrating ideas of history both exogenous and local, the aim of this
paper is to consider the reasons why the Forest Peoples of Gabon have been relocated to the roadside
in both academic and real terms. Based on recent fieldwork it provides preliminary observations
on: the present distribution, settlement patterns and subsistence strategies of the Forest Peoples of
Gabon; the processes by which they have been (and continue to be) relocated; and the effects of
their various efforts to accept or reject inclusion.
Key Words: Pygmies, Gabon, Relocation, Assimilation, Conservation.
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Watershed, Weddings and Workforces: Migration, Sedentarization, and Social Change among the BaAka of Southwestern Central African Republic
Anna L. KRETSINGER
Department of Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh
Rebecca HARDIN
Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies
ABSTRACT
This brief demographic history of the BaAka pygmies of the Dzanga-Sangha Dense
Forest Reserve analyses the BaAka’s engagement with capital and the extent to which it influences
immigration. The BaAka villages within the reserve have been influenced differently by coffee and
timber boom/bust cycles. We superimpose local economic history with demographic data, then
using five parameters; residence, place of origin, estimated year of birth, sex and parental place
of origin, we seek to establish whether different immigration patterns are due to different local
economies. Also discussed are the effects of local economies on traditional marriage migration
patterns. We conclude that immigration patterns do change over time probably due to demands for
labor in conjunction with preexisting marriage alliances.
Key Words: BaAka; Pygmy; Bayanga; Immigration; Migration; Labor.
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Cultivation by the Baka Hunter-Gatherers in the Tropical Rain Forest of Central Africa
Koichi KITANISHI
Faculty of Education, Yamaguchi University
ABSTRACT
The Baka in southeastern Cameroon are one of the “Pygmy” hunter-gatherer groups
living in the tropical rain forest of central Africa. The Baka are said to have accepted cultivation
with their own fields in the 1950s. Their cultivation is unplanned and haphazard, due to longer time
lapse between labor investment and return for cultivation than for hunting-gathering. This difference
was one of the obstacles for adoption of cultivation with their own fields, and has made them
receive produce from neighboring farmers in exchange for forest products or for farm work. The
important factor for adoption of their own cultivation is that acquiring produce from the neighboring
farmers became diffcult due to change in relationship between some Baka and farmers. Colonial
government policy also affected the Baka. The major crop of the Baka is plantain. Plantain as a
crop requires little care or preservation for future planting and consumption, suited for the Baka
cultivation. These factors probably promoted adoption of cultivation by the Baka.
Key Words: Baka hunter-gatherers; Acceptance of cultivation; Relationship with farmers; Plantain.
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