Mbuti People Beliefs and values Gender relations Kinship The Mbuti people live in north/northeast portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo region of Africa. They stay in bands or villages raging from 15 to 60 people. They are know as the people of the trees. They are also called Pygmies. They are foraging communities always searching for food and water.
They depend on the environment of the rain forest for almost all their livelihood. Foragers are known as the “original affluent society”. They are content with the small amount of material possessions that they do have. They are not constantly trying to obtain more. The jungle provides sufficient food and shelter enabling them to have good amounts of leisure time.
The women care for their children and forge for vegetation and men hunt and provide other skills. The San society have bilateral descent which means they consider themselves related to both sides of their families which is important because in extreme situations such as a drought, the San people are able to find relatives that can provide water. The kinship of the San people are very important in every aspect of their lives. The Women of the San tribe are very important in their society because they help provide food and care for the children, this allows them to have a say in important decision in the community. In the Sans community the women get married before maturity, and the groom can not consummate his marriage until the bride has fully matured physically and mentally, during this time the groom lives with the bride family and provide brideservice, which means the groom contributes meat to the bride's family band.
The Mbuti are considered to be a foraging group of people or better known as hunters-gatherers because they depends primarily on wild food for subsistence. The Mbuti people are still around today because everything they do, say and portray is reflective of the rain forest, although the Mbuti’s economic organization is simple, their social organization on the other hand is not. From their beliefs and values to their social and economic structures, the Mbuti rely on their knowledge to survive (Harako 1976). The climate is divided into a rainy season from April to November and a dry season from December to March. The rain falls two out of three in the rainy season and one out of three in the dry season.
The forest is a sacred haven to the tribe. They have a culture that is all their own and may seem mysterious to those who are not accustomed to their unique way of living (Tanner, p. 626-627, 1982 ). They have certain beliefs and customs that have resisted change for thousands of years, but with human influence, this is subject to change. This research paper discusses the kinship, social organization, and social change and beliefs. The Mbuti have dwelled in the Ituri Forest for thousands of years.
A nuclear family is composed of a mother and father and their children. The nuclear family is most common because, in a foraging setting, it is adaptive to various situations.”(Endicott, 1981). These camps live in groups and move from place to place so they can hunt, dig tubers, and gather goods from the forest. Both the men and the women share the same amount of work in order to take care of their families and find food. Most often the men take care of the hunting (using handmade bamboo pipes and poison darts), and the women gather the tubers and berries.
Batek of Malaysia Ciera Diaz ANT 101 Anthony Jerry December 10, 2012 Batek of Malaysia The Batek people of Malaysia are an indigenous society that lives in the rainforest. The ever changing ways of the world have caused the Batek people to move and adjust their lives because of other encroaching on their land and their way of lives. This society is a very old and self relying society that lives off of the land and each other. This group of people is a great way of showing human decency and kindness for one another and a great way to coexist and help each other. In learning about other cultures and their ways of living can only help give more examples of what we might be doing wrong and what we might be doing right in our own culture.
She was also known as a women’s rights advocate and she received many awards. The work that Wangari Muta Maathai did is very important to lean about. She was a Kenyan environmental and political activist. Maathai was educated in the U.S at Mount St. Scholastics and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya. She continued to teach at Nairobi, becoming a senior lecturer in anatomy in 1974, chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy in 1976 and associate professor in 1977.
For many indigenous peoples, the natural world is a valued source of food, health, spirituality and identity. Land is both a critical resource that sustains life and a major cause of struggle and even death. Each indigenous culture is distinct and unique. While many peoples may express similar worldviews and a common indigenous identity, their cultures are nonetheless based on different histories, environments, and creative spirits. (www.indigenouspeople.net/) Here in Trinidad indigenous people existed for over 6,000 years before the arrival of Columbus, and numbered at least 40,000 at the time of Spanish settlement in 1592.
Critical Thinking – Kinship Organization of San Tribe The kinship organization of the San people is a multifamily grouping. They are made up of small mobile bands. These bands are “typically composed of a group of related nuclear families” or a few extend families. (Nowak & Laird, 2010, 3.7) They are a foraging society and all food is shared among each other. “San communities comprise up to about 25 men, women and children.” (Siyabona Africa, 2011, para 7) Everything they do in these small communities helps the survival of the entire family.