Mbuti: The Hunter-Gatherers

Oct 25, 2011
Dolores Bundy

Hunter-Gatherers - Mbuti

The concept of culture is a learned set of thoughts and laws concerning appropriate behavior shared by a group of people. . .

Culture underpins the core of Anthropology. Anthropologists not only study the evolution of human beings, but also gain knowledge about their cultures—how cultures develop, how cultures shape human behavior, and how culture is passed on from one generation to the next. In short, some theories are more pertinent to the understanding of different cultures, while others to the ways in which people cope, and still others to the nature of human vulnerabilities.

Culture is the framework that tells us what is important to attend to, how to organize what we see, and how to interpret it. This knowledge and understanding of the world’s cultural diversity, irrespective of formalities, differentiate what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior within the constructs of kinships, social organization, and beliefs and values.

The Mbuti are one of the oldest cultures of indigenous, forest people from the Congo region of Africa, who live peacefully in a country filled with massive land and cultural diversity. They are composed of bands relatively small in size that range from 15 to 60 people. Also referred to as pygmies, the average male height of the Mbuti is less than 4 feet 11 inches—a unique people who inhabit the Ituri rainforest of Northeastern Congo, in Central Africa. Anthropologists categorize this nomadic group as a foraging society of hunter-gatherers.

Kinships

The social organization of the Mbuti society is based on kinships, sex and age. Kinship relationships determine access to resources, including band memberships and provide a means for transmitting status and property from generation to generation. It is not merely coincidental that inheritance rights are usually based on the closeness of kinship links. By means of these inclusions, all Mbuti of all Ituri bands are potentially classified as kin according to the terms of the indigenous classification.

As foragers, the Mbuti kinship needed to be flexible in order to deal with small, constantly changing bands. Communication was then highly entangled in this perception, along with beliefs and schemas. What was assumed to be true was a consideration of the lens through which their reality was being created. The Mbuti built their culture upon these ideologies which dictated how they behaved and agreed, as well as deeply illustrated the importance of their social ties within these kinships.

The most common type of family in the Mbuti society is the nuclear family

The Nuclear family is composed of a mother and father, and their children. The nuclear family seems to work best in terms of cooperation and sharing. This is because the band consists of bilaterally extended family relations, as the terms for categories of kin or relatives are applied to all band members, regardless of actual or known biological connection.

The Mbuti tend to follow a patrilineal descent system—a system in which one belongs to one’s father’s lineage. It generally involves the inheritance of property, names or titles through the male line as well. Their residences after marriage are patrilocal, whereby the couple lives with the husband’s family. The salient principles of differentiation implicit in this nomenclature are generation and gender.

The recognition of Mbuti relationships are of extreme importance, particularly when choosing a partner. The elders dictate the outcome, by sending clear messages to the youth that they are prohibited from marrying kin on either side of the family—mother or father’s side, which would be considered displeasing to the Forest. Also, displeasing to the forest is to marry outside of one’s age group. A marriage is recognized once the couple moves in together. Women are not viewed as their husband’s property as in some other societies. Women are also free to leave without reprimand should the marriage become unacceptable.

Social Organization

The Mbuti are an egalitarian society—men and women have equal power. There is also no ruling lineage and no overlay of political structure. The social nature of gathering is a shared responsibility for the Mbuti people. Women’s roles as reproducers and nurturers in this foraging society provides a logical basis for dividing required tasks. As most typical among hunters and gatherers, the Mbuti men hunt and women gather. However, sometimes women will bring a small animal home, and sometimes men will bring gathered food.

Although anthropologist disagree concerning gender hierarchies and whether male dominance or economics is the primary cause, all agree that gender hierarchies agriculturally not biologically determine this and it varies with time and place. One theory—public and private dichotomy—suggests that women’s universal subordination to men has much to do with perhaps women’s universal role as mother and homemaker.

In the Mbuti culture, sister exchange is the common form of marriage.

Based on reciprocal exchange, men from other bands exchange sisters or other females to which they have ties. Also, in Mbuti society, bride wealth is not customary as with other societies. There is no formal marriage ceremony. A couple are considered officially married when the groom presents his bride’s parents with an antelope, he alone has hunted and killed. Polygamy does occur, but at different rates depending on the group, and it is not generally very common.

Region and territory is a principle of social organization in the life of the Mbuti people. Bands are of a nomadic nature and continuously seek new hunting ground mainly based on game hunting and collecting forest products. This is most often when food is scarce and the group is forced to move on. In order to lessen disputes among band members, the terrain becomes the most tactful way to make agreeable arrangements of huts, by taking advantage of the new location.

Conflicts that are too serous will result in a camp dividing into sub-groups and will form their own band of hunters and will forage miles apart. If any conflicts remain after the honey season and the bands must form again to resume their cooperative living, fishing then becomes the utmost significant economic importance and is then primarily performed by the women.

The life of the Mbuti is centered around the Ituri forest.

The Mbuti men display a tremendous amount of physical labor as they hunt animals such as deer, boar, hippopotamus, and elephants, while the women gather various types of plants, fruits, insects, larvae, lizards, and shellfish. The Mbuti and many surrounding villages have a relationship based primarily on the trade of these goods. They will typically bring the villagers honey and meat in return for plantation products. This economic exchange can occur on several different levels—between the band and village, and between two lineages, or between individuals.

The Mbuti consider themselves children of the forest and foster peacefulness. The forest and the sounds within it are foundational to their beliefs. The Mbuti do not believe in evil spirits or sorcery that emanate from the forest as the nearby villagers do—they believe their forest world is kinder than that. Demonstrated among the Mbuti as described by anthropologist and best-selling author, Colin Turnbull in his ethnography were concerns with food, sex relations, theft and territorial considerations.

Among the Bantu villagers, he describes their social values and beliefs as just short of incredible. There are no such things as orphans, no childless mothers, no solitary children without brothers and sisters, and no lonely old people, for all old people have an immense family to care for them, wherever they are.

Rituals of the forest

As such, the Mbuti people’s love for forest life is never more obvious than instructed by the rituals they perform within the band which illuminates directly from the forest. Rituals consist of initiations involving both male and female coming of age—the elima, and the nkumbi rituals. The elima is the most important ritual in a female Pygmy’s life which is a festival to celebrate her transition from a girl to womanhood and determines marital arrangements. Likewise, the nkumbi ritual is an initiation for the young male coming of age which involves circumcision and certain hunting rituals to determine manhood.

The molimo ritual involves an even deeper association and connection with the Forest, as an esoteric reliance begins to emerge. The Mbuti natives view the Ituri forest as the mother and father of all the forest people. Accordingly, like all good parents, the Forest will protect its children. So, when someone dies, or a tribe is in crisis, the Mbuti assume the Forest is asleep, and perform the molimo to wake up the Forest so that it may continue to protect its children, the Mbuti.

Most cultural anthropologists have the view that in all human participation there is a common underlying humanity that reveals the impact of understanding of what it means to be human and lies within the disagreement to what degree relative contributions of biology and culture contribute. However, nurture vs. nature is an age old dilemma that essentially demonstrates that there are many cultural universalities that can emerge and help us to develop considerations and choices which in turn, allows us to think about the world around us with a more critical perspective.

Beliefs and values

Although each culture is different, determined by specific ideas of language, ethics, social roles, supernatural ideas, styles of bodily decoration, family structure, sexual regulation and food preferences, the Mbuti people are very much like other foraging societies. They are a gentle people who try as much as possible to live in harmony and avoid violence. They shun aggressive behavior and refuse to fight in wars, avoiding violence—and perhaps just as critically, thinking and feeling that they must avoid it—is not only essential to many of these peoples, it is defining for them. The Mbuti use reciprocity, live peacefully and enjoy many hours of free time for leisure activities, including socializing with kin and friends.

For the approximately 15,000 Mbuti pygmies who live in the Ituri rainforest of Central Africa, the structural analysis of the culture is deeply embedded in the silence of the forest. For they believe the forest is always talking to them. This precept contends that the content of each culture is different and that each culture has specific ideas of kinships, social organization and values and beliefs, all of which define our differences and our commonalities. The Mbuti, societal form of living illustrates these ideologies and demonstrates that our behaviors are impacted by our culture more than our biology, and dictates what it means to be human and in many ways to be hunter-gatherers.