Lewis, J; (2017) Egalitarian social organization: The case of the mbendjele baYaka. In: Hewlett, BS, (ed.) Hunter-Gatherers of the Congo Basin: Cultures, Histories, and Biology of African Pygmies. (pp. 219-243). Routledge: New York, NY, USA.

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Abstract

The steady reduction in access to forest by Pygmy groups across central Africa has resulted in most being more accurately called ”former hunter-gatherers“ than hunter-gatherers. Despite great diversity of situations that many Pygmy groups find themselves, they share some remarkable similarities. In particular, their egalitarian social organization is bound up in a matrix with other key cultural practices. Bahuchet tabulated his observations of cultural similarities and differences between Kola, Bongo, Baka, Aka, Twa, Asua, Mbuti, and Efe Pygmies stretching from west to east across the Congo Basin. Although continuing to hunt and gather, here they will also trade, labor or perform services for villagers in return for food, goods, alcohol or money. The Mbendjele clans with whom we lived have exchange relations with four different groups of farmers: the Bongili, Kabunga, Sangha-Sangha and recently with the Bodingo. The term “bayaka” is contracted to different extents and used by Aka, Baka, Luma, Mbendjele, and Mikaya, typically as baaka, or baka.

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