Who are the pygmies and where do they live. Lilliputians from Africa: how the world's lowest people live

Pygmy is a representative of one of the peoples living in the equatorial forests of Africa. This word is of Greek origin and means "a man the size of a fist." This name is quite reasonable, given the average height of the representatives of these tribes. Find out who the pygmies of Africa are and how they differ from others on the hottest continent.

Who are the pygmies?

These tribes live in Africa, near Ogove and Ituri. In total, there are about 80 thousand pygmies, half of whom live along the banks of the Ituri River. The growth of representatives of these tribes varies from 140 to 150 cm. Their skin color is somewhat atypical for Africans, because they have it a little lighter, golden brown. Pygmies even have their own national dress. For example, men wear a fur or leather belt with a small apron made of wood in the front and a small bunch of leaves in the back. Women are less fortunate, often they only have aprons.

Houses

The buildings in which the representatives of this people live are made of twigs and leaves, holding everything together with clay. Oddly enough, the construction and renovation of the hut here is the concern of women. The man, having conceived the construction of a new house, must go to the elder for permission. If the elder agrees, he gives his visitor a nyombikari - a bamboo stick with a peg at the end. It is with the help of this device that the boundaries of the future dwelling will be outlined. This is done by a man, all the rest of the construction work falls on the shoulders of the woman.

Life style

A typical pygmy is a forest nomad who does not stay in one place for a long time. Representatives of these tribes live in one place for no more than a year, as long as there is game around their village. When the fearless animals run out, the nomads take off in search of a new home. There is another reason why people often move to a new location. Any pygmy is an extremely superstitious person. Therefore, the entire tribe, if one of its members dies, migrates, believing that the forest does not want someone to live in this place. The deceased is buried in his hut, a commemoration is arranged, and the next morning the whole settlement goes deep into the forest to build a new village.

Mining

Pygmies feed on what the forest gives them. That's why early morning the women of the tribe go there to replenish supplies. On the way, they collect everything edible, from berries to caterpillars, so that every pygmy fellow tribe is well fed. This is a well-established tradition, according to which a woman is the main earner in the family.

Outcome

Pygmies are accustomed to the traditions of their lives that have been established over the centuries. Despite the fact that the government of the state tries to teach them a more civilized life, cultivation of the land and a sedentary existence, they continue to remain far from it. Pygmies, photos with which many researchers studying their customs take, abandon any innovations in their everyday life and continue to do what their ancestors did for many centuries.

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, which will be interesting for 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 tropical rainforests - they can easily move in impassable wilds, organisms are better cooled in hot climates and much less calories are required for food.

On the mainland there is a fairly large community of pygmies (about 280 thousand people), common in the equatorial forests of 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 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 thousand... BC) and Egyptians (II millennium BC). And officially the world met 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 made 2 documentaries about Aboriginal people and founded a charitable foundation. Now this organization provides real assistance to this people 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 in modern humans this gene has mutated and practically does not occur.

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 just 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 climates. 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, you simply won't be able to sweat intensely. The pygmies managed to reduce muscle mass and thus establish thermoregulation.

• Sun deficiency

Dense rainforests prevent sufficient sunlight penetration (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 can 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 hardly bite people, and the latter practically do not react to minor bites. But it's worth showing up next 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 endured 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, dishes) are exchanged by the pygmies from nearby farmers for honey and other forestry provisions.

Pygmies roam constantly. 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 up belly. 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 the flesh of a pygmy, you can get magical power.

Video

Pygmies (Greek Πυγμαῖοι - "people the size of a fist") are a group of undersized Negroid peoples living in the equatorial forests of Africa.

Testimonies and mentions

Mentioned already in the ancient Egyptian inscriptions of the 3rd millennium BC. e., at a later time - in ancient Greek sources (in the "Iliad" by Homer, Herodotus and Strabo).

In the XVI-XVII centuries. they are referred to as "matimba" in descriptions left by researchers in West Africa.

In the 19th century, their existence was confirmed by the German explorer Georg August Schweinfurt, the Russian explorer V.V. Juncker, and others, who discovered these tribes in the rainforests of the Ituri and Uzle river basins (various tribes under the names: Akka, Tikitiki, Obongo, Bambuti, Batwa) ...

In 1929-1930. expedition P. Shebest described the pygmies bambuti, in 1934-1935 the researcher M. Guzinde found the pygmies Efe and Basua.

At the end of the 20th century, they live in the forests of Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Rwanda.

The earliest mention of pygmies is contained in the story of the Egyptian Khirhuf, a nobleman of the Old Kingdom, who boasted that he had managed to bring a dwarf from his campaign for the amusement of the young king. This inscription dates back to the 3rd millennium BC. NS. In the Egyptian inscription, the dwarf brought by Khirhuf is called dng. This name has survived to this day in the languages ​​of the peoples of Ethiopia: in Amharic, the dwarf is called deng, or dates. Ancient Greek writers tell all sorts of stories about African pygmies, but all of their messages are fantastic.

Pygmies lead a hunting lifestyle. In the pygmy economy, gathering seems to occupy the first place and mainly determines the nutrition of the entire group. Most of the work falls on women, since it is women’s business to obtain plant foods. Women of the whole group living together daily, accompanied by children, gather wild roots, leaves of edible plants and fruits around their camp, catch worms, snails, frogs, snakes and fish.

The pygmies are forced to leave the camp as soon as all suitable plants have been eaten in the vicinity of the camp and the game has been destroyed. The entire group moves to another area of ​​the forest, but wanders within the established boundaries. These boundaries are known to all and are strictly observed. Hunting on foreign lands is not allowed and can lead to hostile clashes. Almost all groups of pygmies live in close contact with the tall population, most often with the Bantu. Pygmies usually bring game and forest products to villages in exchange for bananas, vegetables, and iron spearheads. All groups of pygmies speak the languages ​​of their tall neighbors.

House of pygmies made of leaves and sticks

The primitive nature of the culture of the pygmies sharply distinguishes them from the surrounding peoples of the Negroid race. What are pygmies? Is this the autochthonous population of Central Africa? Do they constitute a special anthropological type, or is their origin the result of the degradation of the tall type? These are the main questions that constituted the essence of the Pygmy problem, one of the most controversial in anthropology and ethnography. Soviet anthropologists believe that pygmies are the aborigines of tropical Africa of a special anthropological type, of independent origin.

Growth from 144 to 150 cm for adult males, the skin is light brown, the hair is curly, dark, the lips are relatively thin, the body is large, the arms and legs are short, this physical type can be classified as a special race. The possible number of pygmies can range from 40 to 280 thousand people.

In appearance, the negritos of Asia are close to them, but genetically there are strong differences between them.

- (Pygmaei, Πυγμαι̃οι). Mythical people dwarfs, of size with πηγμή, τ. That is, growth is not more than the distance from the elbow to the fist. According to Homer, they lived on the shores of the Ocean; subsequently, the sources of the Nile, as well as India, began to be considered their location. The current ... ... Encyclopedia of mythology

PIGMIES- a group of peoples belonging to the Negrillic race, the indigenous population of tropical Africa. They speak the Bantu languages ​​(Twa, 185 thousand people, 1992; Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire), the Adamaua of the eastern group (aka, Binga and others, 35 thousand people; Congo, CAR) and Shari ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Pygmies- (footnote) people are morally insignificant. Wed For the crowd he is great, for the crowd he is a prophet; For himself he is nothing, for himself he is a pygmy! ... Nadson. “See here he is!” Cf. He loved among his wanderings his poor Fatherland. By her blinkers obvyyan, By her pygmies ... ... Michelson's Big Explanatory Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)

PIGMIES Modern encyclopedia

Pygmies- From ancient Greek: Pigmaios. Literally: The size of a fist. In ancient Greek mythology Pygmies were the fabulous people called dwarfs, who were so small that they often became victims of cranes, like frogs. Therefore, the dwarfs had to ... ... Dictionary winged words and expressions

PIGMIES- the people of dwarfs, who lived, according to the legendary legends of the Greeks, on the shores of the ocean (Homer) and on the sources of the Nile (late writing), where they constantly fought against cranes. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Pavlenkov F., 1907. pygmies ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Pygmies- (Pugmaioi), own. people the size of a fist in Greek mythology, a fabulous dwarf people living in Libya. The Iliad (III, 6) tells about their battles with cranes (cf. L. v. Sybel, Mythologie derIlias, 1877, and L. F. Voevodsky, Introduction to mythology ... ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

Pygmies- PIGMES, a group of peoples: tva, binga, bibaya, gielli, efe, kango, aka, mbuti with a total number of 350 thousand people belonging to the Negrillic race, the indigenous population Tropical Africa... The name comes from the Greek pygmaios (literally the size of ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

pygmies- a group of peoples in Central Africa. The total number is 390 thousand people (1995). They speak Bantu languages. Many pygmies maintain a wandering lifestyle, archaic culture, and traditional beliefs. * * * PYGMIES PYGMIES, a group of peoples related to ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

PIGMIES- (from the Greek. "fist" or "distance" from the fist to the elbow) in 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 defined ... ... Symbols, signs, emblems. Encyclopedia

Books

• Kremlin pygmies against the titan Stalin, Sergei Kremlev. Although Putin and Medvedev are the same height as Stalin, in comparison with the titanic achievements of the Leader, the current masters of the Kremlin look like sheer dwarfs. And the pygmies will always envy the political ... Buy for 210 rubles
• Kremlin pygmies against the titan Stalin, or Russia to be found, Sergei Kremlev. Although Putin and Medvedev are the same height as Stalin, in comparison with the titanic achievements of the Leader, the current masters of the Kremlin look like sheer dwarfs. And the pygmies will always envy the political ...

First, let's take a look at the facts and reports of scientists about the pygmy tribes. There is not so much information about the mysterious undersized people as we would like it to be, so all of them are important. Where and how they live, who they are: "error" or "regularity" of Nature; maybe, having understood their "features", we will be able to better examine ourselves? After all, we are all children of the same planet, their problems cannot be strangers to us.

“The first ancient evidence of pygmies was left by the Greek historian of the 5th century. to x. NS. Herodotus. When he was traveling in Egypt, he was told the story of how one day young men from African tribe nasamonov decided to “take a trip to Libyan Desert in order to penetrate further and see more than all those who had previously visited the most remote parts of it, "..." the nasamons returned safely and that all the people [pygmies] they came to were wizards. "

“Another testimony about the pygmies was left to us by the greatest Roman scientist Pliny the Elder (24-79 AD). In his Natural History, he writes: “Some report a tribe of pygmies living among the marshes, of which originates from the Nile "".(1*)
"One of the civilizations where pygmies lived and which now gone into oblivion located on Hawaiian Islands... "...". Today, pygmy tribes live in Africa (Central Equatorial Zone) and South-East Asia(Andaman Islands, Philippines, and the rainforests of Malacca) ”.

African hunters and gatherers are represented by three main groups - the pygmies of Central Africa, the Bushmen South Africa and hadza East Africa... Neither pygmies nor Bushmen are a single monolith in stages - each of these groups consists of tribes or other ethnic communities at different levels of socio-historical and cultural development.

Name pygmies comes from the Greek pygmaios (literally - the size of a fist). The main countries of settlement: Zaire - 165 thousand people, Rwanda - 65 thousand people, Burundi - 50 thousand people, Congo - 30 thousand people, Cameroon - 20 thousand people, Central African Republic - 10 thousand people. people, Angola - 5 thousand people, Gabon - 5 thousand people. They speak Bantu languages.

Pygmies were one of the races that emerged from Africa and settled in the south of Asia, where they were very common in antiquity. The modern population of pygmies lives not only in Africa but also in some areas of South Asia, such as Aeta and Batak in the Philippines, Semang in Malaysia, Mani in Thailand. The average height of an adult male is about 140 cm. Women are about 120 cm. The ever taller pygmies are the result of interracial mixing with neighboring tribes.

"PIGMIES. Have proportional healthy body, only reduced in size. Anatomy and physiology are close to normal ".

“Among the pygmies there are little sexual (Amazons) - and easily excitable (Bushmen, who have a constant erection), there are very infantile - and very masculine (bearded, muscular, with large facial features, chest, unlike Negroids, hairy). African pygmies are very musical and plastic. They hunt elephants. Near them live giants-nilots, the most tall people on the ground. They say that the Nilots willingly marry pygmy women, but they are afraid of men. "

Previously, it was believed that the low stature of the pygmies was due to the poor quality of nutrition and some of its special diet, but this version has not been confirmed. There are other races living nearby - the Masai and Sumburu in Kenya, who do not eat much better, but are considered the tallest in the world. At one time, a group of pygmies was fed fully and for a long time for the purpose of experiment, but their growth and the growth of their offspring did not increase.

Pygmeev Central Africa can be divided into three geographically distinct groups: 1) Pygmies of the Ituri River Basin, known as bambuti, wambuti or mbuti and linguistically divided into three subgroups: efe, basua, or sua, and aka (about which in more detail in this article); 2) the pygmies of the Great Lakes region - the twas inhabiting Rwanda and Burundi, and the scattered groups surrounding them; 3) pygmies of the western regions of the tropical forest - baguyelli, obongo, akoa, bacwa, baile, etc. In addition, there is also a group of East African pygmies - boni.

Now the pygmies have fallen on hard times, they are dying out due to diseases like measles and smallpox, which, in combination with poor nutrients and heavy loads, lead to high deaths. In some tribes, the average life expectancy is only 20 years. The taller and stronger Negro tribes oppress the pygmies and survive them in areas of little use for existence.

Some scientists also try to associate the short life span of pygmies with their height (compare the lifespan of an elephant and a mouse). In general, all researchers of this people agree that the study of pygmies helps to better understand the principles of evolution and human adaptability to different conditions environment.

The high demand for bushmeat drives the pygmies to poaching in reserves. The unreasonable extermination of endangered animals could soon become a threat to the existence of the pygmy tribes themselves - a vicious circle from which it is already impossible to get out.

Pygmies go to poaching in the reserve, weapons - trapping nets and spears.

Here is the catch, it is a great success to catch an antelope.

“Pygmies are nomadic people. Several times a year they leave their homes and, along with all the simple belongings, leave by hidden paths to the most remote forest corners. "
"... pygmies live in huts that look like small green bumps."

“The pygmies are constantly supporting the fire. When moving to another camp, they carry burning brands with them, since it is very long and difficult to strike a fire with a flint. "

“There is no real clay that can hold the buildings together, and the rains are destroying the pygmy” buildings. Therefore, they often have to be repaired. During this lesson you can always see only women. Girls who have not yet started a family and own home according to local customs they are not allowed to do this work. "