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The Twa (also ''Cwa''〔A local variant of ''Twa'' in Congo. Pronounced .〕) are any of several African hunting peoples or castes who live interdependently with agricultural Bantu populations, and who generally hold a socially subordinate position: They provide the farming population with game in exchange for agricultural products. ==Name== ''Abatwa/Abathwa/Batwa'' is a derivative root word common to the Bantu language group. It is often supposed that the Pygmies were the aboriginal inhabitants of the forest before the advent of agriculture. Vansina argues that the original meaning of the (Proto-Bantu) word '' *Twa'' was "hunter-gatherer, bushpeople", and that this became conflated with another root for Twa/Pygmy, '' *Yaka'' (as in Ba-Yaka).〔Vansina, Jan. 1990. ''Paths in the Rainforests: Toward a history of political tradition in equatorial Africa.''〕 As the Twa caste developed into full-time hunter-gatherers, the words were conflated, and the ritual role of the absorbed aboriginal peoples was transferred to the Twa.〔Scattered small hunter-gatherer populations survive in out-of-the-way places, some, such as the Hadza, with their original languages intact.〕〔 The most common contemporary usage of the word is among the Zulu speaking population of South Africa where it takes on a meaning of dwarf or Bushmen in reference to the former hunter-gatherers of the region. There are still peoples of South Africa that identify as Abatwa in the Drakensberg Mountains region and around Chrissiesmeer (see ǁXegwi language).〔http://mg.co.za/article/2011-06-24-the-secret-pool-of-surviving-bushmen-at-chrissiesmeer〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Twa」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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