Pygmy peoples#Short stature

{{Main|Pygmy (Greek mythology)}}

File:DR Congo pygmy family.jpg pygmy village]]

The term pygmy, as used to refer to diminutive people, comes via Latin {{Lang|la|pygmaeus}} from Greek πυγμαῖος pygmaîos, derived from πυγμή pygmḗ, meaning "short cubit", or a measure of length corresponding to the distance from the elbow to the first knuckle of the middle finger, meant to express pygmies' diminutive stature.{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Pygmy |volume=22 |pages=677–679 |first=Robert Murray |last=Leslie |short=1}}

In Greek mythology and classical natural history, the word denoted a tribe of diminutive people first described by the ancient Greek poet Homer, and reputed to live to the south of modern-day Ethiopia or in India.{{Citation |title=pygmy |dictionary=Online Etymology Dictionary |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pygmy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029195134/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pygmy |archive-date=2013-10-29}} For example, Aristotle described them thus in his History of Animals (while discussing cranes that migrate south of Egypt): "The story is not fabulous, but there is in reality a race of dwarfish men, and the horses are little in proportion, and the men live in caves underground."Aristotle, History of Animals 8.12, 892^a12. Translated by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson.

Many African pygmies prefer to be identified by their ethnicity, such as the Aka (Mbenga), Baka, Mbuti, and Twa.{{Cite web |title=Forest peoples in the central African rain forest: focus on the pygmies |editor-last=Dembner |editor-first=S. A. |website=FAO Corporate Document Repository |publisher=Food and Agriculture Organization Forestry Department |url=http://www.fao.org/docrep/w1033e/w1033e03.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161025131122/http://www.fao.org/docrep/w1033e/w1033e03.htm |archive-date=2016-10-25 }} The term Bayaka, the plural form of the Aka/Yaka, is sometimes used in the Central African Republic to refer to all local pygmies. Likewise, the Kongo word Bambenga is used in Congo. In other parts of Africa, they are called Wochua or Achua.{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Wochua|volume=28 |page=767}} In French-speaking Africa, they are sometimes referred to adjectivally as autochthon{{cite web |last=Beaumont |first=Peter |others=Photos by Kate Holt |title=Gorillas, charcoal and the fight for survival in Congo's rainforest |via=theguardian.org |series=Defenders: Saving Congo's Parks |website=The Guardian |date=22 July 2019 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jul/22/gorillas-charcoal-fight-survival-congo-rainforest |access-date=1 September 2019}} (autochtone), meaning "native" or "indigenous".

File:African Pigmies CNE-v1-p58-B.jpg

{{See also|Short stature|Human height}}

Various theories have been proposed to explain the short stature of pygmies. Some studies suggest that it could be related to adaptation to low ultraviolet light levels in rainforests.{{cite journal |doi=10.1002/ajpa.21512 |title=Indirect evidence for the genetic determination of short stature in African Pygmies |date=2011 |last1=Becker|first1=Noémie S.A.|last2=Verdu|first2=Paul|last3=Froment|first3=Alain|last4=Le Bomin|first4=Sylvie|last5=Pagezy|first5=Hélène|last6=Bahuchet|first6=Serge|last7=Heyer|first7=Evelyne |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=145 |issue=3 |pages=390–401 |pmid=21541921 |url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86961/1/21512_ftp.pdf |hdl=2027.42/86961 |hdl-access=free}}{{cite web |title=Ultraviolet light levels in the rainforest |first=Julian |last=O'Dea |date=December 21, 2009 |url=http://julianodea.blogspot.com/2009/12/ultraviolet-light-levels-in-rainforest.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304104530/http://julianodea.blogspot.com/2009/12/ultraviolet-light-levels-in-rainforest.html |archive-date=2016-03-04}} This might mean that relatively little vitamin D can be made in human skin, thereby limiting calcium uptake from the diet for bone growth and maintenance and leading to the evolution of the small skeletal size.{{Cite journal |last=O'Dea |first=JD |title=Possible contribution of low ultraviolet light under the rainforest canopy to the small stature of Pygmies and Negritos |journal=Homo: Journal of Comparative Human Biology |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=284–7 |date=January 1994}}

Other explanations include lack of food in the rainforest environment, low calcium levels in the soil, the need to move through dense jungle, adaptation to heat and humidity, and as an association with rapid reproductive maturation under conditions of early mortality.{{Cite web |author-link=Ed Yong |last=Yong |first=Ed |date=19 December 2007 |title=Short lives, short size – why are pygmies small? |website=Not Exactly Rocket Science |url=http://notexactlyrocketscience.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/short-lives-short-size-why-are-pygmies-small/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324140524/http://notexactlyrocketscience.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/short-lives-short-size-why-are-pygmies-small/ |archive-date=2012-03-24}} Other evidence points towards unusually low levels of expression of the genes encoding the growth hormone receptor and growth hormone compared to the related tribal groups, associated with low serum levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 and short stature.{{cite journal | title = The shortness of Pygmies is associated with severe under-expression of the growth hormone receptor | journal = Mol Genet Metab | date = November 2009 |last1=Bozzola |first1=M |last2=Travaglino |first2=P |last3=Marziliano |first3=N |last4=Meazza |first4=C |last5=Pagani |first5=S |last6=Grasso |first6=M |last7=Tauber |first7=M |last8=Diegoli |first8=M |last9=Pilotto |first9=A |last10=Disabella |first10=E |last11=Tarantino |first11=P |last12=Brega |first12=A |last13=Arbustini |first13=E | volume = 98 | issue = 3 | pages = 310–3 | pmid=19541519 | doi=10.1016/j.ymgme.2009.05.009}}

{{Cite journal |vauthors=Dávila N, Shea BT, Omoto K, Mercado M, Misawa S, Baumann G |title=Growth hormone binding protein, insulin-like growth factor-I and short stature in two pygmy populations from the Philippines |journal=J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab |date=March 2002 |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=269–276|doi=10.1515/JPEM.2002.15.3.269 |pmid=11924928 |s2cid=30556010 }}

{{Further|Classification of Pygmy languages}}

African Pygmies live in several ethnic groups in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo (ROC), Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Madagascar, and Zambia. There are at least a dozen pygmy groups, sometimes unrelated to each other. The best known are the Mbenga (Aka and Baka) of the western Congo Basin, who speak Bantu and Ubangian languages; the Mbuti (Efe etc.) of the Ituri Rainforest, who speak Bantu and Central Sudanic languages, and the Twa of the African Great Lakes, who speak Bantu Rundi and Kiga. Most pygmy communities are partially hunter-gatherers, living partially but not exclusively on the wild products of their environment. They trade with neighbouring farmers to acquire cultivated foods and other material items; no group lives deep in the forest without access to agricultural products. It is estimated that there are between 250,000 and 600,000 Pygmies living in the Congo rainforest.{{Cite web |last=Vidal |first=John |date=4 October 2007 |title=World Bank accused of razing Congo forests |website=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/oct/04/congo.forests |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513215843/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/oct/04/congo.forests |archive-date=2016-05-13}}{{Cite web |last=Sheshadri |first=Raja James |title=Pygmies in the Congo Basin and Conflict |issue=163 |date=December 2005 |work=ICE Case Studies |publisher=American University |url=http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/pygmy.htm |access-date=Mar 24, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304025741/http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/pygmy.htm |archive-date=2016-03-04}} However, although Pygmies are thought of as forest people, the groups called Twa may live in open swamp or desert.

File:Pygmy languages (Bahuchet).png are not shown.]]

Expansion to Central Africa by the ancestors of African Pygmies most likely took place before 130,000 years ago, and certainly before 60,000 years ago. A commonly held belief is that African Pygmies are the direct descendants of Late Stone Age hunter-gatherer peoples of the central African rainforest, who were partially absorbed or displaced by later immigration of agricultural peoples, and adopted their Central Sudanic, Ubangian, and Bantu languages.{{Cite web |last1=Blench |first1=Roger M. |last2=Dendo |first2=Mallam |title=Genetics and linguistics in sub-Saharan Africa |date=27 June 2004 |publisher=SAFA 2004 |location=Cambridge-Bergen |via=Roger Blench Website |url=http://www.rogerblench.info/Genetics/SAFA%202004%20genetics%20paper.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721174821/http://www.rogerblench.info/Genetics/SAFA%202004%20genetics%20paper.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-21 }}{{Cite book |last=Klieman |first=Kairn A. |title=The Pygmies Were Our Compass: Bantu and BaTwa in the History of West Central Africa, Early Times to c. 1900 |publisher=Heinemann |date=2003 |isbn=978-0-325-07105-3}}{{cite book|author=Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza|title=African pygmies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQ8OAQAAMAAJ|access-date=11 October 2011|year=1986|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0-12-164480-2}}

Some 30% of Aka language is not Bantu, and a similar percentage of Baka language is not Ubangian. Much of pygmy vocabulary is botanical, dealing with honey collecting, or is otherwise specialized for the forest and is shared between the two western pygmy groups. It has been proposed that this is the remnant of an independent western pygmy (Mbenga or "Baaka") language. However, this type of vocabulary is subject to widespread borrowing among the Pygmies and neighboring peoples, and the "Baaka" language was only reconstructed to the 15th century.Serge Bahuchet, 1993, History of the inhabitants of the central African rain forest: perspectives from comparative linguistics. In C.M. Hladik, ed., Tropical forests, people, and food: Biocultural interactions and applications to development. Paris: Unesco/Parthenon. {{ISBN|1-85070-380-9}}

African Pygmy populations are genetically diverse and extremely divergent from all other human populations, suggesting they have an ancient indigenous lineage. Their uniparental markers represent the second-most ancient divergence, after those typically found in Khoisan peoples.{{cite journal | title = The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans | journal = Science | year = 2009 | display-authors = 1 | pmid = 19407144 | doi = 10.1126/science.1172257 | last1 = Tishkoff | first1 = SA | last2 = Reed | first2 = FA | last3 = Friedlaender | first3 = FR | last4 = Ehret | first4 = C | last5 = Ranciaro | first5 = A | last6 = Froment | first6 = A | last7 = Hirbo | first7 = JB | last8 = Awomoyi | first8 = AA | last9 = Bodo | first9 = JM | volume = 324 | issue = 5930 | pages = 1035–44 | pmc = 2947357 | bibcode = 2009Sci...324.1035T }}Also see Recent advances in genetics shed some light on the origins of the various Pygmy groups. Researchers found "an early divergence of the ancestors of Pygmy hunter–gatherers and farming populations 60,000 years ago, followed by a split of the Pygmies' ancestors into the Western and Eastern pygmy groups 20,000 years ago."{{cite journal

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| title = Inferring the Demographic History of African Farmers and Pygmy Hunter–Gatherers Using a Multilocus Resequencing Data Set

| doi = 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000448

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New evidence suggests East and West African Pygmy children have different growth patterns. The difference between the two groups may indicate the Pygmies' short stature did not start with their common ancestor but instead evolved independently in adapting to similar environments, which adds support that some sets of genes related to height were advantageous in Eastern Pygmy populations, but not in Western Pygmy populations.{{cite web|title = We May Have Been Wrong About How African Pygmies Grow|url = http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150728-african-pygmies-height-science-health-nutrition|website = National Geographic News|access-date = 2015-07-28|first = Rachel A.|last = Becker| date = July 28, 2015|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150729155612/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150728-african-pygmies-height-science-health-nutrition/|archive-date = 2015-07-29}}{{cite journal|title = Growth pattern from birth to adulthood in African pygmies of known age|journal = Nature Communications|date = 2015-07-28|volume = 6|pages = 7672|doi = 10.1038/ncomms8672|pmid = 26218408|pmc = 4525207|language = en|first1 = Fernando V. Ramirez|last1 = Rozzi|first2 = Yves|last2 = Koudou|first3 = Alain|last3 = Froment|first4 = Yves|last4 = Le Bouc|first5 = Jérémie|last5 = Botton| bibcode=2015NatCo...6.7672R }}

However, Roger Blench{{Cite book |author-link=Roger Blench |last=Blench |first=Roger |date=1999 |chapter=Are the African Pygmies an ethnographic fiction |editor-last1=Biesbrouck |editor-first1=Karen |editor-last2=Elders |editor-first2=Stefan |editor-last3=Rossel |editor-first3=Gerda |title=Central African hunter-gatherers in a multi-disciplinary perspective: Challenging elusiveness |publisher=CNWS Leiden University |pages=41–60 |via=Roger Blench Website |url=http://www.rogerblench.info/Anthropology/Africa/Pygmies%20an%20ethnographic%20fiction.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150420030236/http://www.rogerblench.info/Anthropology/Africa/Pygmies%20an%20ethnographic%20fiction.pdf |archive-date=2015-04-20 }} argues that the Pygmies are not descended from residual hunter-gatherer groups but rather are offshoots of larger neighboring ethnolinguistic groups that had adopted forest subsistence strategies. Blench notes the lack of clear linguistic and archaeological evidence for the antiquity of pygmy cultures and peoples and also notes that the genetic evidence can be problematic. Blench also notes that there is no evidence of the Pygmies having hunting technology distinctive from that of their neighbors, and argues that the short stature of pygmy populations can arise relatively quickly (in less than a few millennia) due to strong selection pressures.

{{Main|Pygmy music}}

File:Baka dancers June 2006.jpg pygmy dancers in the East Region of Cameroon]]

The African Pygmies are particularly known for their usually vocal music, usually characterised by dense contrapuntal communal improvisation. Simha Arom says that the level of polyphonic complexity of pygmy music was reached in Europe in the 14th century, yet Pygmy culture is unwritten and ancient.{{Cite AV media notes |title=African Rhythms |date=2003 |others=Music by Aka Pygmies, performed by Aka Pygmies, György Ligeti and Steve Reich, performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard |publisher=Teldec Classics |id=8573 86584-2 |type=Liner notes |last1=Aimard |first1=Pierre-Laurent |last2=Ligeti |first2=György |last3=Reich |first3=Steve |last4=Arom |first4=Simha |last5=Schomann |first5=Stefan}} Music permeates daily life and there are songs for entertainment as well as specific events and activities.

{{Further|Rwandan genocide|Effacer le tableau}}

The pygmy population was a target of the Interahamwe during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Of the 30,000 Pygmies in Rwanda, an estimated 10,000 were killed and another 10,000 were displaced. They have been described as "forgotten victims" of the genocide."In Rwanda, an estimated 10,000 of the 30,000-strong pygmy community was slaughtered during the Rwandan genocide, making them the "forgotten victims" of the Rwandan genocide."{{cite web |url=http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/pygmy.htm |title=Pygmies in the Congo Basin and Conflict |author=Raja Seshadri |date=7 November 2005 |work=Case Study 163 |publisher=The Inventory of Conflict & Environment, American University |access-date=21 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304025741/http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/pygmy.htm |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=dead }}

From the end of 2002 through January 2003 around 60,000 Pygmy civilians and 10,000 combatants were killed and often cannibalized in an extermination campaign known as "Effacer le tableau" during the Second Congo War."Between October 2002 and January 2003, two the rebel groups, the MLC and RCD-N in the East of the Congo launched a premeditated, systematic genocide against the local tribes and Pygmies nicknamed operation "Effacer le tableau" ("erase the board"). During their offensive against the civilian population of the Ituri region, the rebel groups left more than 60,000 dead and over 100,000 displaced. The rebels even engaged in slavery and cannibalism. Human Rights Reports state that this was due to the fact that rebel groups, often far away from their bases of supply and desperate for food, enslaved the Pygmies on captured farms to grow provisions for their militias or when times get really tough simply slaughter them like animals and devour their flesh which some believe gives them magical powers.11. Fatality Level of Dispute (military and civilian fatalities): 70,000 estimated"see:{{cite web |url=http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/pygmy.htm |title=Pygmies in the Congo Basin and Conflict |author=Raja Seshadri |date=7 November 2005 |work=Case Study 163 |publisher=The Inventory of Conflict & Environment, American University |access-date=21 July 2012 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304025741/http://www1.american.edu/ted/ice/pygmy.htm |archive-date=4 March 2016 }}{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/rebels-eating-pygmies-as-mass-slaughter-continues-in-congo-despite-peace-agreement-601088.html |title=Rebels 'eating Pygmies' as mass slaughter continues in Congo despite peace agreement |author=Basildon Peta |work=The Independent |date=January 9, 2003 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101226172041/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/rebels-eating-pygmies-as-mass-slaughter-continues-in-congo-despite-peace-agreement-601088.html |archive-date=December 26, 2010 |author-link=Basildon Peta }} Human rights activists have made demands for the massacre to be recognized as genocide.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2933524.stm |title=DR Congo Pygmies appeal to UN |work=BBC News |date=23 May 2003 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213023950/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2933524.stm |archive-date=13 December 2010 }}

{{Main|Fortress conservation}}

In a strategy described as fortress conservation, the conservation efforts of national parks, often financed by international organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund, can involve heavily armed park rangers removing native pygmies off the land.{{cite news|url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBDKiJrLits |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/TBDKiJrLits| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|title=Congo: The tribe under threat|newspaper=Unreported World |access-date=1 September 2019|date=2 June 2019}}{{cbignore}} However, some have argued that the most efficient conservation methods involve giving land rights to the land's indigenous inhabitants.{{cite news|url= https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jul/22/india-follow-china-saving-forest-people-land-rights|title=India should follow China to find a way out of the woods on saving forest people|newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=1 September 2019|date=22 July 2016}} This pattern of eviction has been seen in national parks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, such as Kahuzi-Biéga National Park, where pygmy inhabitants often cut the trees down to sell charcoal. In the Republic of the Congo, this is seen in the Messok Dja protected area.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/26/you-have-stolen-our-forest-rights-of-baka-people-in-the-congo-ignored|title='Large-scale human rights violations' taint Congo national park project|work=The Guardian |date=26 November 2020|access-date=27 May 2022}} In Cameroon, this is seen in the Lobéké National Park.{{Cite web|last1=Warren|first1=Tom|last2=Baker|first2=Katie|date=4 March 2019|title=WWF Funds Guards Who Have Tortured And Killed People|website=BuzzFeed News |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tomwarren/wwf-world-wide-fund-nature-parks-torture-death}} In Uganda, some Batwa have been removed from land reclassified as national parks, such as the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, which is home to the endangered mountain gorilla. {{cite news|url= https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ugandas-batwa-tribe-considered-conservation-refugees-see-little-government-support|title=Uganda’s Batwa tribe, considered conservation refugees, see little government support|newspaper=PBS|access-date=6 September 2024|date=21 October 2021}}

In the Republic of the Congo, where Pygmies make up 2% of the population, many Pygmies live as slaves to Bantu masters. The nation is deeply stratified between these two major ethnic groups. The Pygmy slaves belong to their Bantu masters from birth in a relationship that the Bantus call a time-honored tradition. A 2007 news report stated that even though Pygmies are responsible for much of the hunting, fishing and manual labor in jungle villages, "Pygmies and Bantus alike say that Pygmies are often paid at the master's whim: in cigarettes, used clothing, or even nothing at all."{{cite news |url=http://www.newsobserver.com/110/story/552528.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228160138/http://newsobserver.com/110/story/552528.html |archive-date=2009-02-28 |title=Congo's Pygmies live as slaves |work=The News & Observer |first=Katie |last=Thomas |date=March 12, 2007}} As a result of pressure from UNICEF and human-rights activists, in 2009, a law that would grant special protections to the Pygmy people was awaiting a vote by the Congo parliament.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/16/world/as-the-world-intrudes-pygmies-feel-endangered.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |title=As the World Intrudes, Pygmies Feel Endangered |author=Nicholas D. Kristof |date=June 16, 1997 |work=The New York Times |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701085434/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/16/world/as-the-world-intrudes-pygmies-feel-endangered.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |archive-date=July 1, 2017 }} According to reports made in 2013, this law was never passed.{{Cite web |title=Pygmies: Racism |website=Survival International |url=http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/pygmies/racism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150423122241/http://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/pygmies/racism |archive-date=2015-04-23 }}

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, during the Ituri conflict, Ugandan-backed rebel groups were accused by the UN of enslaving Mbutis to prospect for minerals and forage for forest food, with those returning empty handed being killed and eaten.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/09/congo.jamesastill |title=Congo rebels are eating pygmies, UN says |first=James |last=Astill |work=The Guardian |date=8 January 2003|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170329051637/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/09/congo.jamesastill|archive-date=29 March 2017}}

{{Main|Batwa–Luba clashes}}

In Northern Katanga Province starting in 2013, the Pygmy Batwa people, whom the Luba people often exploit and allegedly enslave, rose up into militias, such as the "Perci" militia, and attacked Luba villages.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/world/africa/in-congo-wars-are-small-and-chaos-is-endless.html?_r=0|title=In Congo, Wars Are Small and Chaos Is Endless|work=The New York Times|access-date=7 March 2017|date=30 April 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170506194515/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/world/africa/in-congo-wars-are-small-and-chaos-is-endless.html?_r=0|archive-date=6 May 2017}} A Luba militia known as "Elements" counterattacked. More than a thousand people were killed in the first eight months of 2014 alone{{cite news|url=http://www.irinnews.org/feature/2017/07/11/displaced-congolese-civilians-sent-back-widening-war|title=Displaced Congolese civilians sent back to a widening war|publisher=irinnews.com|access-date=18 July 2017|date=11 July 2017}} with the number of displaced people estimated to be 650,000 as of December 2017.{{cite journal|url=https://www.icrc.org/en/document/democratic-republic-congo-communal-violence-malnutrition-tanganyika |title=Stricken by communal violence and malnutrition in Tanganyika, Democratic Republic of the Congo |journal=International Committee of the Red Cross |date=29 December 2017 |access-date=19 March 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/08/11/dr-congo-ethnic-militias-attack-civilians-katanga|title=DR Congo: Ethnic Militias Attack Civilians in Katanga|publisher=Human Rights Watch|date=11 August 2015|access-date=7 March 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308043544/https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/08/11/dr-congo-ethnic-militias-attack-civilians-katanga|archive-date=8 March 2017}} The weapons used in the conflict are often arrows and axes, rather than guns.

File:Ota Benga at Bronx Zoo.jpg at the Bronx Zoo in 1906]]

{{See also|Human zoo}}

Historically, pygmies have always been viewed as inferior by both colonial authorities and the village-dwelling Bantu tribes. Pygmy children were sometimes captured during the period of the Congo Free State, which exported Pygmy children to zoos throughout Europe, including the world's fair in the United States in 1907. Pygmies are often evicted from their land and given the lowest paying jobs. At a state level, Pygmies are sometimes not considered citizens and are refused identity cards, deeds to land, health care and proper schooling. The Lancet published a review showing that Pygmy populations often had worse access to health care than neighboring communities.{{cite journal|author1=Nyang'ori Ohenjo |author2=Ruth Willis |author3=Dorothy Jackson |author4=Clive Nettleton |author5=Kenneth Good |author6=Benon Mugarura |title= Health of Indigenous people in Africa|journal= The Lancet|volume =367|issue =9526|year=2006|pages =1937–1946|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68849-1|pmid=16765763 |s2cid=7976349 }}

File:Ati woman.jpg woman of the Philippines]]

Negritos in Southeast Asia (including the Batak and Aeta of the Philippines, the Andamanese of the Andaman Islands, and the Semang of the Malay Peninsula) are sometimes called pygmies (especially in older literature). Negritos share some common physical features with African pygmy populations, including short stature and dark skin. The name "Negrito", from the Spanish adjective meaning "small black person", was given by early explorers. The explorers who named the Negritos assumed the Andamanese they encountered were from Africa. This belief was, however, discarded by anthropologists who noted that apart from dark skin, peppercorn hair, and steatopygia, the Andamanese had little in common with any African population, including the African pygmies.{{Cite book |last=Liu |first=James J.Y. |title=The Chinese Knight Errant |location=London |publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul |date=1967 |isbn=0-226-48688-5}} Their superficial resemblance to some Africans and Melanesians is thought to be from living in a similar environment, or simply retentions of the initial human form.

Their origin and the route of their migration to Asia is a matter of great speculation. They are genetically distant from Africans{{cite journal| doi = 10.1016/S0960-9822(02)01336-2| first = Kumarasamy| last = Thangaraj| display-authors = etal| title = Genetic Affinities of the Andaman Islanders, a Vanishing Human Population| journal = Current Biology| volume = 13| issue = 2| pages = 86–93(8)| date = 21 January 2003| pmid = 12546781| s2cid = 12155496| doi-access = free| bibcode = 2003CBio...13...86T}} and have been shown to have separated early from Asians,{{Cite journal|last1=Yew|first1=Chee-Wei|last2=Lu|first2=Dongsheng|last3=Deng|first3=Lian|last4=Wong|first4=Lai-Ping|last5=Ong|first5=Rick Twee-Hee|last6=Lu|first6=Yan|last7=Wang|first7=Xiaoji|last8=Yunus|first8=Yushimah|last9=Aghakhanian|first9=Farhang|last10=Mokhtar|first10=Siti Shuhada|last11=Hoque|first11=Mohammad Zahirul|date=2018|title=Genomic structure of the native inhabitants of Peninsular Malaysia and North Borneo suggests complex human population history in Southeast Asia|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29383489/|journal=Human Genetics|volume=137|issue=2|pages=161–173|doi=10.1007/s00439-018-1869-0|issn=1432-1203|pmid=29383489|s2cid=253969988 |quote=The analysis of time of divergence suggested that ancestors of Negrito were the earliest settlers in the Malay Peninsula, whom first separated from the Papuans ~ 50-33 thousand years ago (kya), followed by East Asian (~ 40-15 kya)...}} suggesting that they are either surviving descendants of settlers from the early out-of-Africa migration of the Great Coastal Migration of the Proto-Australoids, or that they are descendants of one of the founder populations of modern humans.{{cite journal | last1 = Kashyap | first1 = VK | last2 = Sitalaximi | first2 = T | last3 = Sarkar | first3 = BN | last4 = Trivedi | first4 = R | year = 2003 | title = Molecular relatedness of the aboriginal groups of Andaman and Nicobar Islands with similar ethnic populations | url = http://www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/IJHG/IJHG-03-0-000-000-2003-Web/IJHG-03-1-001-067-2003-Abst-PDF/IJHG-03-1-005-011-2003-Kashyap/IJHG-03-1-005-011-2003-Kashyap.pdf | journal = The International Journal of Human Genetics | volume = 3 | pages = 5–11 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090327171812/http://www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/IJHG/IJHG-03-0-000-000-2003-Web/IJHG-03-1-001-067-2003-Abst-PDF/IJHG-03-1-005-011-2003-Kashyap/IJHG-03-1-005-011-2003-Kashyap.pdf | archive-date = 2009-03-27 | doi = 10.1080/09723757.2003.11885820 | s2cid = 31992842 }}

Frank Kingdon-Ward in the early 20th century reported a tribe of pygmy Tibeto-Burman speakers known as the Taron inhabiting the remote region of Mt. Hkakabo Razi in Southeast Asia on the border of China (Yunnan and Tibet), Burma, and India.Alan Rabinowitz 1990s,{{clarify|date=September 2018}} P. Christiaan Klieger 2003{{clarify|date=September 2018}} A Burmese survey done in the 1960s reported a mean height of an adult male Taron at {{convert|1.43|m|ftin|abbr=off}} and that of females at {{convert|1.40|m|ftin|abbr=off}}. These are the only known "pygmies" of clearly East Asian descent.

The cause of their diminutive size is unknown, but diet and endogamous marriage practices have been cited. The population of Taron pygmies has been steadily shrinking and is now down to only a few individuals.{{cite magazine | first = P. Christiaan | last = Klieger |others=Photos by Dong Lin | title = Along the Salt Road | magazine = California Wild |publisher=California Academy of Sciences |date=Fall 2003 |url=https://researcharchive.calacademy.org/calwild/2003fall/stories/burma.html |access-date=2022-07-01 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126055847/https://researcharchive.calacademy.org/calwild/2003fall/stories/burma.html |archive-date=2021-01-26}}

{{cite web |title=A Journey Through Northern Burma: Along the Salt Road |last=Klieger |first=P. Christiaan |others=Photos by Dong Lin |date=2005 |website=Woodland Travels |location=Botahtaung Township, Myanmar |url=http://www.woodlandtravels.com/northenburma.html |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090110095841/http://www.woodlandtravels.com/northenburma.html |archive-date=2009-01-10}}

{{Cite web |last=Klieger |first=Christiaan |others=Photos by Dong Lin |title=Myanmar Anthropology – High Altitude Anthropology |work=California Academy of Sciences Science NOW: Where in the World |orig-date=Archive 2001–March 2004 |url=http://www.calacademy.org/science_now/archive/where_in_the_world/ckleiger_myanmar.php |access-date=2011-10-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202153046/http://www.calacademy.org/science_now/archive/where_in_the_world/ckleiger_myanmar.php |archive-date=2008-12-02}}

{{Cite web |author-link1=Randy LaPolla |last1=LaPolla |first1=Randy J. |last2=Poa |first2=Dory |last3=GROS |first3=Stéphane |last4=Klieger |first4=Christiaan |others=Photos by P. Christiaan Klieger and Dong Lin |orig-date=2001–2003 |title=Photos of Rawang People in the Hkakabo Razi Area |website=Rawang-Dulong-Anong Language and Culture |publisher=Linguist List |url=http://v2.linguistlist.org/~lapolla/rda/MWphotos.html |access-date=2011-10-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212143913/http://v2.linguistlist.org/~lapolla/rda/MWphotos.html |archive-date=2009-02-12}} In 2013, a link between the Taron and the Derung people in Yunnan, China, was uncovered by Richard D. Fisher, which may indicate the presence of pygmy populations among the Derung tribe.{{cite web |last=Fisher |first=Richard D. |title=The search for 'Dawi': the last of the T'rung pygmies of Burma and his return visit to his ancestral homeland in Tibet/Yunnan borderlands |website=Grand Canyons of the Earth |url=http://www.canyonsworldwide.com/tibet/dawiNewsletter/html/search_for_the_dawi.html |access-date=12 August 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130908131226/http://canyonsworldwide.com/tibet/dawiNewsletter/html/search_for_the_dawi.html |archive-date=8 September 2013}}

Australian anthropologist Norman Tindale and American anthropologist Joseph Birdsell suggested there were 12 Negrito-like tribes of short-statured Aboriginal peoples living on the coastal and rainforest areas around Cairns on the lands of the Mbabaram people and Djabugay people.{{Cite web |author-link=Norman Tindale |last=Tindale |first=Norman B. |title=Tjapukai (QLD) |date=16 December 2003 |orig-date=Reproduced from N.B. Tindale's Aboriginal Tribes of Australia (1974) |website=Tindale's Catalogue of Australian Aboriginal Tribes |publisher=South Australian Museum |url=http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/orig/tindale/hdms/tindaletribes/tjapukai.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080726175601/http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/orig/tindale/HDMS/tindaletribes/tjapukai.htm |archive-date=2008-07-26 }}{{cite Q |Q128257949 |mode=cs1 |chapter=Tjapukai (QLD)}}{{Cite journal |author-link=Colin Groves |last=Groves |first=Colin |title=Australia for the Australians |journal=Australian Humanities Review |date=June 2002 |issue=26 |url=http://australianhumanitiesreview.org/2002/06/01/australia-for-the-australians/ |access-date=2022-07-01 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115141723/http://www.australianhumanitiesreview.org/archive/Issue-June-2002/groves.html |archive-date=2009-01-15}} Birdsell found that the average adult male height of Aboriginal people in this region was significantly less than that of other Aboriginal Australian groups; however, it was still greater than the maximum height for classification as a pygmy people, so the term pygmy may be considered a misnomer.{{Cite journal|author-link=Peter Hiscock|last=Hiscock|first=Peter |date=2005|title=The extinction of rigour: a comment on 'The extinction of the Australian Pygmies' by Keith Windschuttle and Tim Gillin|jstor=24046693|journal=Aboriginal History|volume=29|pages=142–148}} He called this short-statured group Barrineans, after Lake Barrine.

File:Aboriginal encampment in rainforest behind Cairns, 1890.jpg

Birdsell classified Aboriginal Australians into three major groups, mixed together to varying degrees: the Carpentarians, best represented in Arnhem Land; the Murrayans, centred in southeastern Australia; and the Barrineans. He argued that people related to Oceanic Negritos were the first arrivals, and had been absorbed or replaced over time by later incoming peoples; the present-day Barrineans retained the greatest proportion of ancestry from this original Negrito group, "[b]ut this is not to say that the Barrineans are Negritos ... the Negritic component is clearly subordinate, and ... the preponderant element is Murrayian."{{cite journal |author-link=Joseph Birdsell |last=Birdsell |first=Joseph |date=1967 |title=Preliminary Data on the Trihybrid Origin of the Australian Aborigines |journal=Archaeology & Physical Anthropology in Oceania |volume=2 |issue=2}} This trihybrid model is generally considered defunct today; craniometric,{{cite book |last1=Larnach |first1=Neil William George |last2=Macintosh |first2=S. L. |date=1970 |title=The Craniology of the Aborigines of Queensland |publisher=University of Sydney |isbn=0855570016}} genetic,{{cite journal |last1=McAllister |first1=Peter |last2=Nagle |first2=Nano |last3=Mitchell |first3=Robert John |display-authors=etal|title=The Australian Barrineans and Their Relationship to Southeast Asian Negritos: An Investigation using Mitochondrial Genomics |date=1 June 2013 |journal=Human Biology |volume=85 |issue=1 |pages=485–94 |doi=10.3378/027.085.0322|pmid=24297238|hdl=10072/57320|s2cid=33171899|hdl-access=free}} and linguistic{{cite book |last=Dixon |first=R. M. W. |title=The Languages of Australia |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1980 |page=262 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R5w8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA262 |isbn=9780521294508}} evidence does not support a separate origin of Barrinean or other Aboriginal groups, and physical differences between Aboriginal groups can be explained by adaptation to differing environments.{{cite journal|last1=Gilligan| first1=Ian| last2=Bulbeck| first2=David| date=2007 |title=Environment and morphology in Australian Aborigines: A re-analysis of the Birdsell database |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=134|issue=1|pmid=17568440 | doi=10.1002/ajpa.20640 | pages=75–91}}

In 2002, the purported existence of short-statured people in Queensland was brought into the public eye by Keith Windschuttle and Tim Gillin{{clarify|date=June 2020}} in an article published by the right-wing Quadrant magazine (edited by Windschuttle himself). The authors argued that these people were evidence for a distinct Negrito population in support of Birdsell's theory, and claimed that "the fact that the Australian pygmies have been so thoroughly expunged from public memory suggests an indecent concurrence between scholarly and political interests", because evidence of descent from earlier or later waves of origin could lead to conflicting claims of priority by Aboriginal people and hence pose a threat to political co-operation among them.{{cite book |last1=McNiven |first1=Ian J. |last2=Russell |first2=Lynette |title=Appropriated Pasts: Indigenous Peoples and the Colonial Culture of Archaeology |date=2005 |publisher=AltaMira Press |location=Lanham, Md. |isbn=0-7591-0906-0 |pages=90–92 |edition=2nd |url=https://archive.org/stream/appropriatedpast00ianj#page/90/mode/2up/search/windschuttle+and+gillin |url-access=registration}}{{Cite web|url=http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/history-wars/2002/06/the-extinction-of-the-australian-pygmies/|title=The extinction of the Australian pygmies|last=Windschuttle|first=Keith|date=1 June 2002|website=Quadrant magazine|publisher=Quadrant Magazine Ltd.|access-date=31 January 2019}} This and other publications promoting the trihybrid model drew several responses, which went over the current scientific evidence against the theory, and suggested that attempts to revive the theory were motivated by an agenda of undermining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander claims to native title.{{Cite web|url=https://theconversation.com/who-we-should-recognise-as-first-australians-in-the-constitution-38714|title=Who we should recognise as First Australians in the constitution|last=Westaway|first=Michael|date=13 March 2015|website=The Conversation|publisher=The Conversation Media Group|access-date=31 January 2019}}{{Cite journal|last=Ross|first=Anne|date=June 2010|title=Constant Resurrection: The Trihybrid Model and the Politicisation of Australian Archaeology|jstor=27821565|journal=Australian Archaeology|volume=70|issue=1|pages=55–67|doi=10.1080/03122417.2010.11681911|s2cid=141126928}}

Some Aboriginal oral histories and oral traditions from Queensland tell of "little red men". In 1957 a member of the Jinibara (the Dalla people) tribe of SE Queensland, Gaiarbau, who was born in 1873 and had lived for many years traditionally with his tribe, said that he knew of the "existence of these "little people – the Dinderi", also known as "Dimbilum", "Danagalalangur" and "Kandju". Gaiarbau claims he saw members of a "tribe of small people ... and said they were like dwarfs ... and ... not ... any of them stood five feet [1.5m]."{{cite web |url= https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/36299846?q&versionId=46655024 |title=Gaiarbau's story of the Jinibara tribe of South East Queensland and its neighbours |author=Winterbotham, Lindsay P.|date=1957 }} The Dinderi are also recorded in other stories, such as one concerning a platypus myth{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=e6WBCgAAQBAJ |title=Aboriginal Pathways: in Southeast Queensland and the Richmond River |author=John Gladstone Steele|date=1983 |publisher=Univ. of Queensland Press |isbn=9780702257421 }} and another, The Dinderi and Gujum - The Legend of the Stones of the Mary River.{{cite web | title=Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Service | website=Queensland Health | date=30 October 2017 | url=https://www.health.qld.gov.au/sunshinecoast/html/atsi-health-serv | access-date=16 June 2020}} [https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/file/0022/360634/lh-3.mp3 Audio]

Susan McIntyre-Tamwoy, archaeologist and adjunct professor at James Cook University, has written{{cite thesis |url= http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/8183 |title= Red devils and white men|author=McIntyre-Tamwoy, Susan |date=2000 |publisher=PhD thesis, James Cook University|doi= 10.25903/db9w-9r36}} of the northern Cape York Aboriginal people's belief of the bipotaim, which is when "the landscape as we know it today was created". Bipotaim was formed "before people, although not perhaps before the short people or the red devils as these were also here before people".{{cite thesis |url= http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/8183 |title= Red devils and white men|author=McIntyre-Tamwoy, Susan |date=2000 |page=187|publisher=PhD thesis, James Cook University|doi= 10.25903/db9w-9r36}} She writes, "many ethnographers recorded stories of 'short people' or what they referred to as 'pygmy tribes{{'"}}, such as Lindsey Page Winterbotham.{{cite thesis |url= http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/8183 |title= Red devils and white men|author=McIntyre-Tamwoy, Susan |date=2000 |page=87|publisher=PhD thesis, James Cook University|doi= 10.25903/db9w-9r36}} She used information collected both through oral accounts (including those of Injinoo people), observation and archival research.{{cite thesis |url= http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/8183 |title= Red devils and white men|author=McIntyre-Tamwoy, Susan |date=2000 |pages=9–10|publisher=PhD thesis, James Cook University|doi= 10.25903/db9w-9r36}} McIntyre-Tamwoy recounts a bipotaim story: "We are the short people [pygmies?]. Red devils occupy parts of the adjacent stony coast but our home is here in the sand dunes and forest. Before the Marakai ['white people'] came to our land the people were plentiful and they roamed the land. They understood the land and called out in the language of the country to seek permission, as they should ...".{{cite thesis |url= http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/8183 |title= Red devils and white men|author=McIntyre-Tamwoy, Susan |date=2000 |page=183|publisher=PhD thesis, James Cook University|doi= 10.25903/db9w-9r36}}

According to Nathan Sentance, a librarian from the indigenous Wiradjuri nation employed by the Australian National Museum, there is no known archaeological or biological evidence such a people existed. Sentance claims it is a myth used to justify the colonisation of Australia as well as other countries by Europeans.{{cite web | title=Dismantling the Australian pygmy people myth | website=The Australian Museum | url=https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/first-nations/debunking-australian-pygmy-people-myth/ | access-date=16 June 2020}}

Norman Gabel mentions that rumours exist of pygmy people in the interior mountains of Viti Levu in Fiji, but explains he had no evidence of their existence as of 2012.{{cite book |title=A Racial Study of the Fijians |author=Norman E. Gabel |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39140}}

E. W. Gifford reiterated Gabel's statement in 2014 and claims that tribes of pygmies in the closest proximity to Fiji would most likely be found in Vanuatu.

In 2008, the remains of at least 25 miniature humans, who lived between 1,000 and 3,000 years ago, were found on the islands of Palau in Micronesia.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/mar/12/fossils |title=Pygmy human remains found on rock islands |author=Ian Sample |work=The Guardian |date=March 12, 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228031358/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/mar/12/fossils |archive-date=December 28, 2016 }}{{cite journal |title=Small-Bodied Humans from Palau, Micronesia |journal=PLoS ONE |date=March 2008 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=e1780 |doi =10.1371/journal.pone.0001780 |pmid=18347737 |pmc=2268239 |author1 = Lee R. Berger |author2 = Steven E. Churchill |author3=Bonita De Klerk |author4=Rhonda L. Quinn |bibcode=2008PLoSO...3.1780B |author-link1=Lee R. Berger |doi-access=free }}

During the 1900s, when Vanuatu was known as New Hebrides, sizable pygmy tribes were first reported throughout northeastern Santo. It is likely that they are not limited to this region of New Hebrides. Nonetheless, there is no anthropological evidence linking pygmies to other islands of Vanuatu.{{cite web |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document//Volume_60_1951/Volume_60,_No._2_%2B_3/Anthropological_problems_in_Fiji,_by_E._W._Gifford,_p_122-129/p1 |title=Anthropological problems in Fiji |author=E. W. Gifford |access-date=3 May 2014}}{{cite book |title=Ethnology of Vanuatu: An Early Twentieth Century Study |author=Felix Speiser |date=January 1996 |page=400 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=9780824818746 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P0eQTQtoYu4C}}

The extinct archaic human species Homo luzonensis has been classified as a pygmy group.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} The remains used to identify Homo luzonensis were discovered in Luzon, the Philippines, in 2007, and were designated as a species in 2019. Homo floresiensis, another archaic human from the island of Flores in Indonesia, stood around {{convert|1.1|m|ftin|abbr=off}} tall. The pygmy phenotype evolved as a result of island syndrome which, amongst other things, results in reduced body size in insular humans.{{cite journal |last1= Baeckens |first1= Simon |last2= Van Damme |first2= Raoul|date= 20 April 2020|title=The island syndrome |journal= Current Biology |volume= 30 |issue=8 |pages= R329–R339 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2020.03.029|pmid= 32315628 |doi-access= free |bibcode= 2020CBio...30.R338B }}

• Bwiti
• Koro-pok-guru, small people in Ainu folklore
• Ota Benga, man taken as slave and zoo exhibit to the U.S.
• Vazimba, possible first inhabitants of Madagascar
• Homo floresiensis, an extinct species of short humans
• Island syndrome, the set of conditions which develop in island-dwelling organisms, including the pygmy phenotype in human people
• Dwarfs and pygmies in ancient Egypt

{{reflist|2}}

{{Commons category|African Pygmies}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Scholia|topic}}

• [http://www.pygmies.org/ African Pygmies: Hunter-Gatherer Peoples of Central Africa]
• [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/the-pygmies-plight-93401092/ The Pygmies' Plight], Smithsonian Magazine, December 2008 by Paul Raffaele
• [http://www.survival-international.org/tribes.php?tribe_id=35 Survival International: Pygmies]
• [https://pygmysurvival.org/ Pygmy Survival Alliance]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160305231312/http://www.wimp.com/bridgebuilding/ Undated footage of Pygmy tribe constructing a vine bridge]
• [http://tpitman.blogspot.com/search/label/Congo%3A%20The%20Forest%20People Mbuti Net Hunters of the Ituri Forest, story with photos and link to Audio Slideshow], by Todd Pitman, The Associated Press, 2010.

Pygmyism

Pygmyism

Category:Hunter-gatherers of Oceania

Category:Hunter-gatherers of Asia

Category:Ethnonyms