Gender Roles

The Mbuti pygmies live in the Ituri forest, causing them to rely on hunting, gathering, and trading to survive. The men are in charge of organizing the hunting but the women are still able to help them with the nets for trapping animals. The Mbuti women are the main caretakers of the children; also they are in charge of collecting foods from the forest for the tribe to eat and for possible trades with villagers. The men are also able to help the women in gathering food. When the time comes to trade the collections of forest food and results of the hunt, the women are usually the ones to go out and do the actual trade of physical goods. On the other hand, both Mbuti men and women are able to trade labor for goods with the villagers.

The men and women assume their gender roles. The good thing is that they are not so strictly confined to what their gender is supposed to do for the tribe. They help each other in order to be effective in survival rather than judgmental. Also, the women are able to talk on the same level as men in a serious discussion. This shows that women are not looked down upon as inferior to men. The Mbuti pygmies have a great understanding of equality between the sexes and their successful lifestyle shows it.


Nadine, P.
    2010   The Mbuti of Northeast Zaire Cultural Survival. Electronic document,                   http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/the-mbuti-northeast-            zaire, accessed March 24, 2015.

Commercialization of the Mbuti Meat Trade

The Mbuti have used net-hunting techniques for many generations to hunt antelope for their meat in the Ituri rainforest of Zaire.  Traditionally, these techniques provided them with meat to use for trade in a reciprocity system of mutual benefit with the local villagers, as described by Karli Holt in her post about Mbuti politics and economy. These exchanges hold more of a cultural meaning for the Mbuti and are not only essential to their economy but also hold religious value and are vital in maintaining their relationship with the villagers.

However, since the 1950s, commercial meat traders have been attempting to infiltrate and exploit the Mbuti net-hunters. While their reciprocity with the local villagers is mutually beneficial and quite flexible, their relationship with the meat traders is not always so. The commercial meat traders set fixed prices and attempt to monopolize the Mbuti’s hunting grounds; this leads to overhunting, a problem that could potentially cause an antelope shortage that would devastate the Mbuti way of life.

Fortunately, the Mbuti have managed to successfully combat these commercial meat traders thus far. While the traders attempt to manipulate all aspects of Mbuti meat trade, the Mbuti have found ways to control the use of credit to their own benefit and in a sense use the meat traders to gain certain goods they would not otherwise have access to. Still, the meat traders will continue to affect the lives of the Mbuti and there are still many potential consequences that could arise from this attempt at exploitation.

 Hart, J. A.
1978  From subsistence to market: a case study of the Mbuti net hunters. Human Ecology 6(3):325-353.

Religion

The Mbuti religion is focused on the forest and sees the forest as a very sacred place. They consider themselves as “children of the forest”. There are two central rituals in the Mbuti religion; the molimo and the elima. The molimo is a musical instrument that the people use in the “Song of the Forest”, which is a festival they have that lasts about a month.  They see the molimo as a living thing when it is being used to play music. They consider the molimo so alive that they feed it, give it water, warmth, and shelter. Their society believes in the balance between silence and noise. When there are imbalances between the two they bring the molimo out to play music. The molimo is the Mbuti’s way of communication between the forest and the people and overall serenity.

The elima is a formal ritual to mark a young woman’s first menses. It is a time of sexual freedom to help her select a future partner. During this time the women are taught the elima songs as well as how to be a mother. This is a very joyous time for the Mbuti tribe. At the end of the ceremony the girls as considered in the Mbuti tribe as adult women.

Fuentes, C.
      2005 Mbuti pygmies. In Encyclopedia of anthropology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Electronic document, http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sageanth/mbuti_pygmies/0

The Mbuti Economy & Politics

The Mbuti have settled in parts of the Ituri Forest of northern Zaire. They have been developing their village for approximately 2,000 years now. All Mbuti live as forest specialists in association with agricultural groups. This interaction is key to their welfare. The Mbuti use the more elaborate political structure of villagers to regulate certain aspects of their own social system.

Mbuti and the villagers have a food trade that makes up their economic aspect. Year round, starch foods from villagers’ make up a large part of Mbuti diet. Sporadically, Mbuti will provide villagers with “prestige foods” including meat and honey from the forest. They help clear and harvest the gardens and participate in seasonal fishing expeditions. Mbuti also proved various forest products. These items may include construction materials, medicinal plants, firewood, etc. These exchanges don’t have exact trade values. There is rarely cash involved. Sometimes a product is giving without receiving anything in return.

Citation:

Hart, John
    2010 The Mbuti of Zaire. Electronic document, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/democractic-republic-congo/mbuti-zaire, accessed March 23, 2015