Chapter 7 The Play World of the BaMabuti

Chapter 7 The Play World of the BaMabuti 

Observations; 

- All the children call parents amongst the same age as their mother and father and those of the only generation grandparents 

- The children learn the culture at a young age and play "house"

- The children climb to the tops of trees until it bends and touches the ground before they leap off 

- The women make belts that take weeks and they are always doing something.  

- Nkusa vine is used to  make hunting nets

- moms often make new hunting nets for their sons when they get married 

- The hut in considered the woman's property, one time the husband and wife got into an argument and she started to take apart the hut.  Later they pretended like the leaves were dirty and they went the stream together to wash them.  Other women the next few days took leaves to wash also.  We have never seen this practice done prior the fight or since that week.  

- Cephu tells a story that Turnbull really likes, and it is the same story he told him six years prior 

- The people enjoy reenacting things that have happened and stories 

- When they kill an elephant they move there camp to where the elephant is.  The village people hear about the kill so the Pygmies try to send them meat before they enter the forest.  When the Negros come they feed them sometimes for a few days.  Sometimes they play a gambling game, to which the Pygmies always win and then the Negros leave.  

- The chief sent his daughter to will Turnbull not the Pygmies.  She slept in the bed with him but they did not have sex.  He had her fix the roof and cook for him but they did not sleep together, they did not want to complicate things.  

Religion: 

- Spirits kill villagers but not Pygmies 

There is not much in this chapter about religion outside of when it is mentioned that spirits kill the villagers but not the Pygmies.  I wonder if the Pygmies don't believe in spirits at all or if they believe that the spirits only hurt the villagers.  

From a Functional Anthropologist perspective the women individually work on the belts even though they may be in the company of other women  in order to survive because they know they are needed for hunting.