Pygmies are a dwarf tribe, Africa. Lilliputians from Africa: how the lowest people in the world live The life of the pygmies

The shortest people on earth, whose average height does not exceed 141 cm, live in the Congo Basin in Central Africa. "The size of a fist" - so translated from the Greek pygmalios - the name of the pygmy tribe. There is an assumption that they once occupied the whole of Central Africa, but then they were forced out into the region of tropical forests.

The daily life of these wild people is devoid of romance and is associated with the daily struggle for survival, when the main task of men is to obtain food for the entire village. Pygmies are considered the most non-bloodthirsty hunters. And indeed it is. They never hunt for the sake of hunting, they never kill animals for the desire to kill, they never store meat for future use. They do not even bring a killed animal to the village, but butcher, cook and eat right on the spot, calling all the villagers to a meal. Hunting and everything connected with it is the main ritual in the life of the tribe, clearly expressed in folklore: songs about hunting heroes, dances that convey scenes of animal behavior, myths and legends. Before the hunt, men smear themselves and weapons with mud with the dung of the animal they are going to hunt, turn to the spear with a request to be accurate, and set off.

Everyday food of the pygmies is vegetable: nuts, edible herbs and roots, the core of the palm tree. Fishing is a seasonal activity. For fishing, pygmies use a special grass, from which the fish fall asleep, but do not die. Grass leaves are dissolved in the river, the catch is collected downstream. A particular danger for the pygmies is the jungle, full of a variety of wild animals. But the most dangerous is the python. If a pygmy accidentally steps on a python more than 4 meters, he is doomed. The snake instantly attacks, wraps around the body and strangles.

The origin of the pygmies is still not entirely clear. It is only known that the first Europeans quite recently penetrated into their world and were met rather belligerently. The exact number of representatives of the tribe is not known. According to various sources, there are about 280 thousand of them. The average life expectancy is no more than 45 years for men, women live a little longer. The first child is born at the age of 14-15, but there are no more than two children in the family. Pygmies roam in groups of 2-4 families. They live in low huts covered with grass, which can be done in a few hours. Boys 9-16 years old are circumcised and subjected to other rather cruel trials, accompanied by moral instructions. Only men take part in such ceremonies.

The tribe has lost its native language, so the dialects of neighboring tribes are most often used. Clothing consists of only a hip belt with an apron. But settled pygmies are increasingly wearing European clothes. The main deity is the forest spirit Tore, the owner of forest game, to whom hunters pray before hunting.

The culture and traditions of the pygmies are gradually disappearing. New life slowly penetrates into their life, dissolving in itself the lifestyle of the smallest people on the planet.

Watch interesting videos.

Unknown planet. Pygmies and Karamojongs. ch1.

Ritual dances of Baka pygmies.

- (Pygmaei, Πυγμαι̃οι). The mythical people of dwarfs, the size of πηγμή, τ. e. 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, their residence began to be considered the sources of the Nile, as well as India. Current… … Encyclopedia of mythology

A group of peoples belonging to the Negril race, the indigenous people of tropical Africa. They speak Bantu languages ​​(Twa, 185 thousand people, 1992; Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire), Adamaua of the eastern group (Aka, Binga, etc., 35 thousand people; Congo, CAR) and Shari ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (inosk.) 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. “You see, there he is!” Cf. He loved his poor Fatherland among his wanderings. She was wrapped in mules, Her pygmies ... ... Michelson's Big Explanatory Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)

Modern Encyclopedia

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

The people of dwarfs, who lived, according to the legendary legends of the Greeks, on the shores of the ocean (Homer) and at the source of the Nile (late writer), where he fought constantly with cranes. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Pavlenkov F., 1907. pygmies ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

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

pygmies- PYGMIES, a group of peoples: Twa, Binga, Bibaya, Ghielli, Efe, Kango, Aka, Mbuti with a total number of 350 thousand people belonging to the Negrillian race, the indigenous population of Tropical Africa. The name comes from the Greek pygmaios (literally the size of ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

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

pygmies- (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 growth of the pygmies and symbolizes a distorted perception of the true ethnic group. 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 accomplishments of the Leader, the current masters of the Kremlin look like real dwarfs. And the pygmies will always envy the political...
• Kremlin pygmies against the titan Stalin, or Russia to be found, Sergey Kremlev. Although Putin and Medvedev are the same height as Stalin, in comparison with the titanic accomplishments of the Leader, the current masters of the Kremlin look like real dwarfs. And the pygmies will always envy the political...

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

Testimonies and references

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

In the XVI-XVII centuries. they are called "matimba" are mentioned in the descriptions left by the explorers of West Africa.

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

In 1929-1930. P. Shebesta's expedition described the Bambuti Pygmies; in 1934–1935 the researcher M. Guzinde found the Efe and Basua Pygmies.

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

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


Such in the ancient world represented the pygmies. Fragment of wall painting. Historical Museum in Naples.

Pygmies in mythology

Pygmies (Πυγμαϊοι), in Greek myth-making, a fabulous people of dwarfs living in Libya (Hecataeus, Genealogy, I 328), or in Asia Minor (Pliny, Natural History, V 109). The size of the pygmies was from an ant to a monkey. Strabo (II 71; XV 711) lists them together with half-dogs, large-headed, nest-eared, beardless, noseless, one-eyed and hook-toed representatives of the mythical peoples of antiquity. In Herodotus (II 32, 6), the pygmies are a special tribe that lives in Africa in the upper reaches of the Nile. The pygmies are closely associated with the cult of the god of fertility, the Nile, and are identified with the dwarfs of the Pihiei, surrounded by whom the Nile was depicted (Philostratus of Lemnia, Pictures, I 5). Hence the idea of ​​the pygmies as an agricultural tribe (Philostratus of Lemnia, Pictures, II 22), hairy and black men living in the fertile layer of the earth. The most common motifs of the myths about the pygmies are geranomachy and geraklomahy. Geranomachy is a war of pygmies with cranes (in Greek geranos - crane), which pygmies wage every year riding partridges, rams or goats (Pliny, Natural History, VII 26) in order to steal or break their eggs (Homer, Iliad, III 5 -7). Some mythographers (Athenaeus, IX 390) explain the enmity between pygmies and cranes by the ancient transformation of a pygmy girl into a crane, who was at enmity with the tribe.

In a later development, the legend of the pygmies enters the legend of Hercules. When the latter defeated the Libyan giant Antaeus, the son of the earth, and was resting after the struggle, the pygmies, who lived like ants in the sand, crawled out in droves, fully armed, from their holes and attacked him. They wanted to avenge Antaeus, because they were, like him, the children of the earth. Hercules, waking up, took them all into his lion's skin and took them with him. Some researchers tried to explain the legend of the pygmies by the existence of dwarf peoples in tropical Africa, already known to the Egyptians. Images of pygmies friendly surrounding some giants (Nile, hippos) and militantly - others (Hercules, crocodiles) are found on frescoes in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Greek art, especially vase painting, loved to depict the comic war of the pygmies with the cranes.

The myth of the pygmies was expounded in detail in the epic poem of Boy, which is expounded by Antoninus the Liberal, Elian, Athenaeus, and briefly by Ovid. According to the version of Elian and Athenaeus, Gerana ("crane", English)) was the queen of the pygmies, whom they practically deified, and said that she was more beautiful than all the goddesses. Hera got angry and turned her into a crane (according to Ovid, this happened after Hera won the competition), and now she is at war with the pygmies. From Gerana and Nicodamantus, a land tortoise was born.

A slightly different version is given by Antonin Liberal. According to his story, a girl from the country of the pygmies of Enoi did not honor Artemis and Hera. She married Nicodamantus and had a son Pug. All the pygmies brought her gifts on the occasion of the birth of her son. Hera turned Oenoe into a crane and unleashed a war between her and the pygmies. According to I. V. Stahl, the name of Enoi is associated with a circle of myths about Dionysus.

There are other references as well. According to Hesiod, the Pygmies are born of Gaia. Pygmies are considered to have descended either from the king Pygmy, or from Dor, the son of Epaphus. According to the Hesychia dictionary, Pygmy is an epithet of Adonis and Apollo among the Cypriots.

In a later development, the legend of the pygmies is included in the stories about Hercules. When the latter defeated the Libyan giant Antaeus, the son of the earth, and was resting after the struggle, the pygmies, who lived like ants in the sand, crawled out in droves, fully armed, from their holes and attacked him. They wanted to avenge Antaeus, because they were, like him, the children of the earth. Hercules, waking up, took them all into his lion's skin and took them with him.

Aristotle considers them a real people. Some researchers tried to explain the legend of the pygmies by the existence of dwarf peoples in tropical Africa, already known to the Egyptians.

Greek art, especially vase painting, loved to depict the comic war of the pygmies with the cranes. If in the images of the VI century BC. e. (the earliest of them is on the François vase) pygmies are depicted as well-built people, although of short stature, then by the 4th century BC. e. they turn into fat dwarfs with accentuated phallic features.

In the work of the Chinese historian of the 7th century Li Tai "Ko di zhi" ("Description of all lands", written in 638), it is said that south of Daqin (that is, the Roman Empire) there is a country of dwarfs, where people are only 3 chi tall ( about 90 cm). When the dwarfs cultivate the fields, they are attacked by white cranes. Then people from the country of Daqin, giants 10 zhang (about 31 m) tall, protect them from cranes. How the story from Greek mythology became known to the Chinese remains unclear.

The monograph by I. V. Stahl (Epic Traditions of Ancient Greece: Geranomachy. An Experience of Typological and Genre Reconstruction. M., Nauka. 1989. 304 pages, in notes: Stahl 1989) reflects in detail the plot about the struggle of pygmies with cranes in ancient literature and art. According to her interpretation, the cranes appear in the myth as people from the other world, and the meaning of the myth is in the struggle of life and death, while in the visual arts it is included in the circle of Dionysian plots. And it is not entirely clear already whether we are talking about real African pygmies here, or about mythical creatures.

Pygmies lead a hunting lifestyle. In the economy of the Pygmies, gathering, apparently, occupies the first place and mainly determines the nutrition of the entire group. Most of the work falls to the share of women, since the extraction of plant food is the business of women. Every day, the women of the entire cohabiting group, accompanied by children, collect wild-growing roots, leaves of edible plants and fruits around their camp, catch worms, snails, frogs, snakes and fish.

Pygmies are forced to leave the camp as soon as all suitable plants are eaten in the vicinity of the camp and the game is destroyed. The whole 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 may lead to hostile clashes. Almost all groups of pygmies live in close contact with a tall population, most often with the Bantu. Typically, the pygmies bring game and forest products to the 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 it an autochthonous population of Central Africa? Do they constitute a special anthropological type, or is their origin the result of degradation of the tall type? These are the main questions that made up the essence of the pygmy problem, one of the most controversial in anthropology and ethnography. Soviet anthropologists believe that the Pygmies are natives of tropical Africa of a special anthropological type, of independent origin.

Height from 144 to 150 cm for adult males, skin is light brown, hair is curly, dark, lips are relatively thin, large torso, 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 external type, the negritos of Asia are close to them, but genetically there are strong differences between them.

- (Pygmaei, Πυγμαι̃οι). The mythical people of dwarfs, the size of πηγμή, τ. e. 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, their residence began to be considered the sources of the Nile, as well as India. Current… … Encyclopedia of mythology

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

pygmies- (inosk.) 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. “You see, there he is!” Cf. He loved his poor Fatherland among his wanderings. She was wrapped in mules, Her pygmies ... ... Michelson's Big Explanatory Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)

pygmies Modern Encyclopedia

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

pygmies- the people of dwarfs, who lived, according to the legendary legends of the Greeks, on the shores of the ocean (Homer) and at the sources of the Nile (late writer), where he fought constantly with 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 are a fabulous people of dwarfs living in Libya. Iliad (III, 6) tells of their battles with cranes (cf. L. v. Sybel, Mythologie derIlias, 1877, and L. F. Voevodsky, Introduction to mythology ... ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

pygmies- PYGMIES, a group of peoples: Twa, Binga, Bibaya, Ghielli, Efe, Kango, Aka, Mbuti with a total number of 350 thousand people belonging to the Negrillian race, the indigenous population of 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 retain a wandering lifestyle, archaic culture, and traditional beliefs. * * * PYGMIES PYGMIES, a group of peoples belonging to ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

pygmies- (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 growth of the pygmies and symbolizes a distorted perception of the true ethnic group. 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 accomplishments of the Leader, the current masters of the Kremlin look like real dwarfs. And the pygmies will always envy the political ... Buy for 210 rubles
• Kremlin pygmies against the titan Stalin, or Russia to be found, Sergey Kremlev. Although Putin and Medvedev are the same height as Stalin, in comparison with the titanic accomplishments of the Leader, the current masters of the Kremlin look like real dwarfs. And the pygmies will always envy the political...

Baka pygmies inhabit the rain forests of southeastern Cameroon, northern Republic of the Congo, northern Gabon, and southwestern Central African Republic. In February 2016, photographer and journalist Susan Shulman spent several days among Baka pygmies, making a short report about their life.

Tropical rainforests are their natural habitat. The main occupations are hunting and gathering, in this harmonious unity with nature they live for centuries, and their world is determined by the presence of the forest. Pygmy tribes are scattered across Africa over an area of ​​178 million hectares.

Pygmies differ from representatives of other African tribes in their diminutiveness - their height rarely exceeds 140 cm. In the photo above, members of the tribe perform a traditional hunting ceremony.

Susan Shulman became interested in Baka Pygmies after hearing about Louis Sarno, an American scientist who has been living among the Baka Pygmies in Central Africa, in the rainforest between Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo, for 30 years.

Louis Sarno is married to a woman from the tribe, all these years he has been studying, helping and treating Baka pygmies. According to him, half of the children do not live up to five years, and if he left the tribe for at least a year, he would be afraid to return, because he would not have found many friends alive. Louis Sarno is now in his early sixties, and the average life expectancy of Baka pygmies is forty years.

Louis Sarno not only provides medicines, but also does other things: he acts as a teacher for children, a lawyer, translator, archivist, writer and chronicler for a community of 600 Baka pygmies in the village of Yandubi.

Louis Sarno came to live with the Pygmies in the mid-80s after hearing their music on the radio one day and decided to go and record as much of that music as possible. And he doesn't regret it one bit. He has the opportunity to regularly visit America and Europe, but always returns to Africa. We can say that the song brought him to the heart of Africa.

Baka pygmy music is yodeling-like polyphonic singing against the natural sounds of the rainforest. Imagine the polyphony of 40 female voices and the drumming rhythm of four men on plastic drums.

Louis Sarno claims he's never heard anything like it before, and it's divine.

Their hypnotic music usually acts as a prelude to the hunt, as the tribe sings to summon a forest spirit named Bobi and ask him for permission to hunt in his forest.

Dressed in a suit of leaves, the "spirit of the forest" grants permission to the tribe and blesses those who take part in tomorrow's hunt. In the picture above, the pygmy is about to go hunting with a net.

The basis of the diet of the tribe is the meat of the monkey and the blue duiker - a small forest antelope, but recently these animals in the forest are becoming less and less. This is due to poaching and logging.

“Poachers hunt at night, they scare animals with torches and calmly shoot them while they are paralyzed with fear. The nets and arrows of the Baka pygmies cannot compete with the firearms of the poachers.

Deforestation and poachers seriously devastate the forest and greatly harm the way of life of Baka pygmies. Many of these poachers are from the neighboring Bantu ethnic group, which makes up the majority of the population in the region,” says Susan Shulman.

As a result of the gradual depletion of the rain forests in which the Baka live, the future of their forest home is in question, as it is not clear where all this will lead.

Historically, the Bantu tribe considered Baka Pygmies "subhuman" and discriminated against them. Currently, relations between them have improved, but some echoes of the past still make themselves felt.

As the traditional life of Baka Pygmies becomes more difficult and problematic by the day, the younger generation has to find work in Bantu-dominated cities.

“Young people are at the forefront of change. There are very few opportunities to earn money for them. As the resources of the forest in terms of hunting are depleted, you have to look for other opportunities - and this is usually only temporary work for the Bantu, who offer, say, $ 1 for five days of hunting - and even then they often forget to pay, ”says Susan.