Keywords: review, Batwa, marginalisation, global capitalism, economic reform, Great-Lake region, pygmy, social capital, moral capital, glocalisation, grobalisation, binary epistemology,
Background
Much is written about the Batwa pygmies of the great lakes region. Especially about their current standard of living, history, and their relationship towards the other ethnic groups in their surroundings. The Batwa pygmies inhabit parts of southern Uganda, eastern DRC, Rwanda and Burundi. Although they are historically know as the indigenous people of the great lakes region, they only make up between 0.02 and 0.07 % of the total population of the countries they inhabit (Lewis 2006: 4). In Burundi for instance, according to a survey conducted by UNIPROBA (Unissons-nous pour la Promotion des Batwa), the total population of Batwa in 2008 was estimated at 78,071 people or 1 % of Burundi’s total population.
The Batwa traditionally lived by hunting and gathering but due to processes of globalisation, colonisation, and economical integration into a capitalistic world system, most of the Batwa couldn’t maintain their traditional lifestyle and became more and more marginalized and oppressed. Traditionally, Batwa were ‘forest’ people. They provided themselves with victuals by dwelling throughout the forest. They had an outstanding knowledge about traditional medicine, survival skills, and hunting techniques. Their low impact on the environment made their lifestyle sustainable over more than a thousand years. Agriculturist Bahutu and pastoralist Batutsi that started to occupy the region caused severe deforestation what harmed the homes of thousands of Batwa. The latter were than integrated at the lowest level in society what mark...
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In his book “Cattle Brings Us to Our Enemies”, McCabe does a 16-year stint in East Africa, specifically in Northern Kenya, doing research on the Turkana. He does this through STEP, the South Turkana Ecosystem Project. In “Cattle Bring Us to Our Enemies”, McCabe follows four families through his years in Kenya and notes how they live in a very demanding environment. He uses ecological data to analyze how and why the Turkana people make decisions about their everyday life. McCabe focuses on four main areas of study: how the Turkana survive and adapt to a stressful environment by nomadic pastoralism, how the techniques used to extract resources and manage livestock modify the environment, the effects of the environmental and cultural practices have on
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Robbins Burling, David F. Armstrong, Ben G. Blount, Catherine A. Callaghan, Mary Lecron Foster, Barbara J. King, Sue Taylor Parker, Osamu Sakura, William C. Stokoe, Ron Wallace, Joel Wallman, A. Whiten, Sherman Wilcox and Thomas Wynn. Current Anthropology, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Feb., 1993), pp. 25-53
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Spreading along seventy thousand square miles in the Amazon forest, the Yanomami tribe resides and maintains their culture without intrusion. Their culture has evolved just like that of a modern society, but their way of life is very different. The tribe chooses to live in communal housing; large round dwellings called shaponos. The shaponos are made out of wood and are completely built by the tribe’s people (1). Fam...
Originally from Botswana, the Bushmen are scattered over most many parts of South Africa and are believed to be descendants from early Stone Age ancestors. There are many tribes that have dissipated over many decades but not the San. Compared to other cultures around the world, they are one of the oldest indigenous tribes still alive and trying to maintain their lifestyle (San 2). Many of their earliest records of evidence of survival are songs and rock paintings on the wall of caves. Unfortunately, over the years the San have been forced to live in the desert of Kalahari by farmers looking for lush land and the Bantu tribes. Farmers are now putting up fences on, what used to be where the San occupied, but is now private property. Their indigenous culture has been around for many decades which means that some San ...
In the 1800s Europeans discovered Saartjie Baartman, a South African Bushman woman. They called her the Hottentot Venus and exploited her mainly because of her physical and cultural differences. Hottentot, Khoisan, San and Bushmen are all common names for the group of indigenous people of which she belonged. These people have been largely viewed by Western society as “savages who were part human, part animal” and considered to be “the lowest rung in the ladder of human development.” This unilateral yet widespread notoriety has existed since the 1800s and many of the banal conceptions of the Bushmen have remained unchanged through the course of modern history. This paper will be general overview of Bushmen culture. It will describe some of its complexities, as well as further note the way early Europeans and anthropologist perceived these South African peoples. This paper will not provide an in-depth historical account or all encompassing research of the culture but is a proposal that aims to present the Bushmen culture as one that has much to appreciated.
About three years ago, I became interested in the indigenous people’s view of nature when I saw a documentary which explored the indigenous people way of culture and beliefs. What I was fascinated about was when the presenter of the documen...
for all persons (Rich and Walker 1). Egalitarianism deals with the acceptance of any gender or
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