BaMbuti Pigmies

Anthropologist Colin Turnbull is the man who has given the most amount of information for s to have a glimpse at the society of this Pygmies. He interacted with them in Congo. He had alliance with one who traduced everything. He made 6 major trips to Africa. He is known for studying the ethnology of the Pygmies. The BaMbuti are a Pygmy race that live in the forest in central Africa. He observed that their life and culture revolved around the environment they live in. One Pygmy said this about the forest they live in: “The forest is our home; when we leave the forest, or when the forest dies, we shall die. We are the people of the forest”. They never separate from the tribe and they sometimes made bonfires at night and sang and danced. The most important season for these pygmies is the honey season. They also have a sacred trumpet called the Molimo. The culture of the molimo was that the sacred part of it was the song it made and the ‘spirit’ it gave. The BaMbuti have many rituals like this, says Trunbull. The ritual of the sacred Molimo was that they light it on fire, sing songs, and “feed” the Molimo. At the Molimo fire the trumpet is passed through the flames and hot ashes are rubbed over it. The sounds of the trumpet imitate animal sounds. SO, as we can se their perception of nature is totally different than our. Why do you think that is? Maybe, because nature is their home, without the forest they would be totally different. And for us nature is just the trees and grass in the yard. Their perception of life revolves around their forest. We use a trumpet to produce music for instance, while they use to imitate animal sounds. Their form of entertainment is different as well. Their perception of life is highly influenced by the environment they live in. Another example is that we are accustomed to seeing people leave and come back or to see them every other week. Meanwhile, they see each other every single day and they sleep close and everyone in the community interacts with one anther at least 3 times each day, imagine if one of the tribe would leave to the city they would think they died because they do not have experience with people leaving and coming back and they do not know what is outside of the community in the forest.

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