PYGMY

in anthropology, member of any human group whose adult males grow to less than 150 cm (59 inches) in average height. A member of a slightly taller group is termed pygmoid. The best-known pygmy groups and those to whom the term is most commonly applied are the Pygmies of tropical Africa; elsewhere in Africa some of the San (Bushmen) of the Kalahari are of pygmy size. All Asian pygmies are known by the generic term Negrito. These groups are biologically independent in origin. Culturally, all pygmy peoples are nomadic hunters and gatherers, practicing neither agriculture nor stock farming. Nearly all of them maintain close symbiotic relations with sedentary agriculturalists in their environment; consequently, in most cases they have lost their indigenous language and adopted that of their hosts. The famous Pygmy groups of the Ituri Forest in Congo (Kinshasa) present an example of a pygmy culture relatively unchanged as a result of acculturation with neighbouring peoples. Known collectively as the Bambuti, they are probably the earliest inhabitants of the region. Another well-known Pygmy group in equatorial Africa are the Twa (Batwa), who live in the high mountains and plains around Lake Kivu, in Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi, in symbiosis with the pastoral Tutsi, the agricultural Hutu, and other tribes. Many specialize in pottery, which they market; others hunt; some act as court musicians and attendants. Westward, in the marshes south of the Congo River, is the large group of Tswa (Batswa), who, like the Twa, have adopted much of the culture and language of neighbouring tribes. They live largely by fishing and trapping. North of the Congo, in the forest west of the Ubangi River, are the Babinga. This is also an acculturated group of pygmoids, but perhaps because of similarity of habitat they have retained more of the traits of the pure Pygmies of the Ituri Forest than have the Twa and Tswa and are still mainly nomadic hunters and gatherers. Farther to the west, in Cameroon and Gabon, there are other scattered groups that are even closer, physically, to the true Pygmy.