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The Forest Is Everything: Mbuti Pygmies of Zaire's Ituri Forest
| Article
# : |
14030 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1995 |
1,362 Words |
| Author
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Rupert Watson; photographed by Wendy Stone
Rupert Watson is a lawyer and free-lance writer who has lived
in Nairobi, Kenya, for seventeen years. Wendy Stone is a free-
lance photographer living in Nairobi. She is represented by
Gamma-Liaison in New York City and Odyssey Productions in
Chicago. |
The Mbuti's past, present, and future is inextricably linked to the forest they inhabit. To a pygmy, indura nee bokbu (the forest is everything). They maintain a sense of intimate respect for their environment, which they call either "mother" or "father." Quintessential hunter-gatherers, pygmies are most noted for their diminutive stature (the word pygmy derives from the Greek pygmaios, meaning "undersized"). Individual Mbuti are seldom more than four and a half feet tall. Their stature enables them to move through the forest with surprising ease.
The Mbuti live in small groups of between five and fifteen nomadic households, loosely organized as one extended family. Parents, children, and relatives live in family huts, arranging themselves around a central fire--which smolders all night--for sleep. The Mbuti's huts are temporary dwellings that take little more than an hour to erect. Into a domed framework of saplings are woven a patchwork of large, heart-shaped mongongo leaves. The whole structure is held in place with strands of vine. Huts must be able to withstand torrential deluges: There is scarcely a dry week in the Ituri forest.
Every three or four weeks, to avoid overexploitation of the food resources in any given location, the group moves on. Food is plentiful year-round and the Mbuti have little need to store up surplus against future shortages, but they are very conscious of the dangers of overuse of the forest's bounty. Each migration also gives adult individuals the chance to split off and join another group. In this way, disagreements between members of the group are averted or defused. There is no larger social or political unit than the group and no ruling lineage; only age confers seniority. This lack of rigid social
... (1996 of 8414 Characters)
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