|
Congo Pygmies (also known as Bambenga or Bayaka) live in several ethnic groups in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and Zambia.〔 Most Pygmy communities are partially hunter-gatherers, living partially but not exclusively on the wild products of their environment. They trade with neighbouring farmers to acquire cultivated foods and other material items; no group lives deep in the forest without access to agricultural products.〔 It is estimated that there are between 250,000 and 600,000 Pygmies living in the Congo rainforest.〔(World Bank accused of razing Congo forests ), The Guardian.〕 However, although Pygmies are thought of as forest people, the groups called Twa may live in open swamp or desert. == Etymology == (詳細はGreek πυγμαίος ''Pygmaios'' via Latin ''Pygmaei'' (sing. ''Pygmaeus''), derived from πυγμή a fist, or a measure of length corresponding to the distance between the elbow and knuckles. (See also Greek pechus). In Greek mythology the word describes a tribe of dwarfs, first described by Homer, and reputed to live in India and south of modern day Ethiopia.〔(pygmy ). Online Etymology Dictionary.〕 European explorers and colonists used this term to describe the small-framed forest peoples they encountered in the Congo rain forest and the name has since stuck as an identifier for all such small-framed groups in the region. The term "pygmy" is sometimes considered pejorative. However, there is no single term to replace it.〔Hewlett, Barry S. "Cultural diversity among African pygmies." In: ''(Cultural Diversity Among Twentieth-Century Foragers )''. Susan Kent, ed. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1996.〕 Many so-called pygmies prefer instead to be referred to by the name of their various ethnic groups, or names for various interrelated groups such as the Aka (Mbenga), Baka, Mbuti, and Twa.〔(Forest peoples in the central African rain forest: focus on the pygmies ).〕 The term Bayaka, the plural form of the Aka/Yaka, is sometimes used in the Central African Republic to refer to all local Pygmies. Likewise, the Kongo word Bambenga is used in Congo. 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「Congo Pygmies」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|