Deep in the rainforests of tropical Africa live a small people called Pygmies. Their name is derived from the Greek word pygme, or “fist,” a description that harkens back to the days when a man’s fist was used to indicate a unit of length of 131/2 inches (34.3 centimeters). The name Pygmy is generally applied to a member of any human group whose males are less than 59 inches (150 centimeters) in average height—about 41/2 Greek “fists.” A separate group of people who resemble the Pygmies but are slightly taller are termed pygmoid by anthropologists.
The best-known Pygmy groups and those to whom the term is most commonly applied are those of tropical Africa. Elsewhere in Africa some of the San, or Bushmen, of the Kalahari Desert are of Pygmy size. Asian Pygmies are known by the generic term Negrito.
All Pygmy peoples are food-gatherers; they practice neither agriculture nor stock farming. Each group is made up of a few family groups, and individuals spend much of their time gathering food and making tools. Their weapons are the bow and arrow, the blowgun, and the knife.
Nearly all Pygmy groups maintain close relations with other peoples in their area. As a result, in most cases the Pygmies have lost their native language and adopted that of their neighbors. The famous Pygmy groups of the Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are an exception. Their culture has remained relatively unchanged by interaction with neighboring peoples. Known collectively as the Mbuti, they are probably the earliest inhabitants of the region.
Another well-known group in equatorial Africa is the Twa, or Batwa, group, who live in the high mountains and plains around Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi in close association with other tribes. Many of the Twa specialize in pottery, which they market. Westward, in the marshes south of the Congo River, is the large group of Tswa, of Batswa, who, like the Twa, have adopted much of the culture and language of neighboring tribes. North of the Congo, in the forest west of the Ubangi River, are a group of pygmoid people called the Babinga. Farther to the west, in Cameroon and Gabon, are other scattered groups.