Hunter-gatherers of the Congo Basin
Subtitle: cultures, histories and biology of African Pygmies
By: Barry S. Hewlett, editor
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Published: 2014
Place of publication: New Brunswick, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 353
ISBN-13: 9781412853613
Subjects: Pygmies; History; Social life and customs; Hunting and gathering societies; Ethnology; Human biology; Ethnic relations
Description: The forest foragers of the Congo Basin, known collectively as "Pygmies," are the largest and most diverse group of active hunter-gatherers remaining in the world. At least fifteen different ethno-linguistic groups exist in the Congo Basin with a total population of 250,000 to 350,000 individuals. Extensive knowledge about these groups has accumulated in the last forty years, but readers have been forced to piece together what is known from many sources. French, Japanese, American, and British researchers have conducted the majority of the research; each national research group has its own academic traditions, history, and publications. Here, leading academic authorities from diverse national traditions summarize recent research on forest hunter-gatherers. The volume explores the diversity and uniformity of Congo Basin hunter-gatherer life by providing detailed but accessible overviews of recent research. It represents the first book in over twenty-five years to provide a comprehensive and holistic overview of African forest hunter-gatherers. Chapters discuss the cultural variation in characteristic features of Congo Basin hunter-gatherer life, such as their yodeled polyphonic music, pronounced egalitarianism, multiple-child caregiving, and complex relations with neighboring farming groups. Other contributors address theoretical issues, such as why Pygmies are short, how tropical forest hunter-gatherers live without the carbohydrates they receive from neighboring farmers, and how hunter-gatherer children learn to share so extensively. --Provided by publisher.
Table of contents: title: Introduction  -- Barry Hewlett; title: Cultural diversity of African Pygmies  -- Serge Bahuchet; title: Population genetics of Central African Pygmies and non-Pygmies  -- Paul Verdu; title: On Late Holocene population interactions in the northwestern Congo Basin : when, how and why does the ethnographic pattern begin?  -- Karen Lupo, A. Jean-Paul Ndanga, and Christopher Kiahtipes; title: Do 'Pygmies' have a history? : the autochthonous tradition in the history of equatorial Africa  -- Robert Moïse; title: Human biology and the health of African rainforest inhabitants  -- Alain Froment; title: The foraging lifestyle in the African tropical rainforest  -- Hiroaki Sato; title: Pygmy musics : a family portrait  -- Susanne Fürniss; title: Pygmy hunter-gatherer egalitarian social organization : the case of the Mbendjele Bayaka  -- Jerome Lewis; title: Hunter-gatherer childhoods in the Congo Basin  -- Barry Hewlett; title: Multiangular identities among Congo River Basin forest peoples  -- Stephanie Rupp; title: Inter-ethnic relations between forest foragers and farmers : dialectic symbiosis and diversity  -- Kiyoshi Takeuchi; title: Forest conservation and indigenous peoples in the Congo Basin : new trends toward reconciliation between global issues and local interest -- Mitsuo Ichikawa.