Chapter 1 The World of the Forest

CHAPTER 1: The World of the Forest

These things happened but a lot of it did not pertain to my particular study:

• The people live in the northeast corner of the Belgian Congo, which is in the middle of Africa.  They live in the Ituri Forest.  

• There is a lot of wild life where they live such as elephants and leopards. 

• The world of the forest is scary, dark, and inconvenient to outsiders but it is glorious, treasured, and loved by those who live there.  

• The villagers are considered the outsiders that live and work among the plantations. They view the forest as evil. 

• The BaMbutie are the real people of the forest.  There are tribes who have come more recently but the Pygmies have lived in the forest for thousands of years.  

• The Pygmies are hunters and gathers.  They hunt the game and the gather wild fruits that the outsiders do not see.

• On average the Pygmies are smaller than 4 and a half feet.  Even though they are small they are both tough and powerful. 

• The Pygmies are a legend are erected the curiosity of the Egyptians and those in Pompeii.  Mappa Mundi believed that they were subhuman monsters but instead of studying a Pygmie skeleton he was studying a skeleton of a chimpanzee.  George Schweinfurth told the world in his book The Heart of Africa that the Pygmies did in fact exist and furthermore they were human. 

• The BaMbuti Pygmies are split up into three different linguistic groups that follow three diffract dialects of three different Negro languages.  The Pygmies are said to have lost their own language through acculturation but traces of their language can be heard in their tonal pattern.  The Easternmost group may have survived some of their original language. 

• Comparison between Father Schebesta who did his work through the Negroes and Turnbull who did his work through the Pygmies.  

• Tribal Nkumbi Initiation Festival- Where 9-12 year old body are circumcised, stay at initiation camp to learn secrets of tribal lore, and then after two or three months leave with the responsibilities and privileges of an adult. The Negros hold the festival and the Pygmies attend but are not in charge in anyway.  A non-intitated boy is considered half of a man.  

• Turnbull takes part in a tradition as it cute with a arrow blade in his forehead and above each eye.  Then some of the flesh is taken out and is filled with medicine and ash.  This signifies that he is a part of the forest now, a man and hunter, and would soon be married.  He was not fully aware of what these slits meant when he got them.  

Religion: 

• They believe that they world is good. 

• They do not believe in evil spirits. 

I am interpreting my observations through a Functionalist perspective.  I believe that culture is a set of tools that actually allows people to adapt to their environment so that they can eat, propagate, and survive.   So far I have learn that the Pygmies are hunters and gathers and they have adapted to their environment in this way in order to survive.  Hunting and gathering is something that the culture has adopted in order for their people to survive.  In regards to religion so far I have learned that the Pygmies believe that the world is good and they do not believe in evil spirits.  So far this is everything I have learned about their religion.