Hunter-Gatherers of the Congo Basin: Cultures, Histories, and Biology of African Pygmies

by Barry S. Hewlett (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138525566
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/06/2017
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Barry S. Hewlett is professor of anthropology at Washington State University, Vancouver. He has conducted research with Congo Basin hunter-gatherers since 1973 and is co-editor of Hunter-Gatherer Childhoods (with Michael Lamb) and author of Intimate Fathers.

Table of Contents

1: Introduction; 2: The Colonial Period; 3: The Federal Period; 4: The Self-Determination Period; 5: Black Higher Education: A Brief Comparison; 6: Compendium; 7: The Current Status of Native American Higher Education

Editorial Reviews

Hewlett (Washington State Univ.) has edited an excellent volume that brings together research on the culture and biology of African Pygmies, updating Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza's African Pygmies (CH, May'87), which focused on biology. Topics here include Pygmy cultural diversity, genetics, the role of metallurgy in the rise of farmer-forager inequalities, biology and health, the viability of foraging in the tropical rainforest, musical diversity, the diversity and fluidity of Pygmy identities, and the effects of forest conservation and global markets on Pygmy culture. . . . Summing Up: Highly recommended.” — P. L. Fleury de Barros, Choice “This volume summarizes previous knowledge and provides a wealth of new information about the Central African foragers known as pygmies. The pygmies show high diversity, but also represent a coherent biological branch of humans with a fascinating evolutionary history. This volume provides a state of the art summary and evaluation of important questions like: Why are the pygmies short? Could they have survived as foragers before the arrival of agriculturalists? How can they have retained cultural continuity yet lost their original languages? Why is there so much genetic diversity across different groups? This is a great book for anyone interested in hunter-gatherers and their contribution to understanding human variation.” —Kim Hill, professor, Arizona State University "Hunter-Gatherers of the Congo Basin brings together a wide range of authorities on varied aspects of these fascinating and scientifically important peoples, with subjects ranging from genetics to music, childhood to health. Barry Hewlett, with his decades of fieldwork experience in these cultures and his rigorous and creative approach to everything in anthropology, is the ideal coordinator for this effort, and this book will be a vital resource for hunter-gatherer studies going forward." —Melvin Konner, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor, Department of Anthropology, Program in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology, Emory University

From the Publisher