matrilineal and some superimposed patrilineal organization, polygamy, secret cults,
ceremonial masks and wood carvings, and ancestor worship with prominent fetishistic
components.

The Pygmies of Central Africa may, in a sense, be considered as occupying a third
culture area, a broken one geographically, the portions of which are interspersed
among the other two. Such an "area," however, is not easily pinpointed, owing to the
nomadic nature of Pygmy life. In essence, rather than geography, this culture area
differs sufficiently from the others to warrant special classificatory consideration.2
Basically, the Pygmy culture is one of the simplest, mirroring Paleolithic elements
such as hunting, nomadism, loose tribal organization, monogamy, and monotheism.
A paucity of religious ceremonial as well as of the graphic and plastic arts is also evi-
dent. Unlike their South African counterparts -- the Bushmen -- the Central African
Pygmies live in a vassal-like arrangement with the surrounding large Negroes. The
arrangement -- almost symbiotic, were it not for distinct Negro domination -- involves
exchange of agricultural and metal products for hunting and scouting services. In
addition, the large Negroes extend a kind of "patronage" to the Pygmies attached to
their villages. In recent years, however, this relationship appears to be dissolving
owing to changing social conditions, notably the end of intertribal war. Their scouting
services no longer as much in demand, the Pygmies are today probably being forced
back again upon their own resources for food and tools, ³ except where their services
are of such a specialized nature as to forestall a cleavage. ⁴

The Pygmies, considered to be the aborigines of tropical Africa, inhabit the deep
forests and marshlands into which they have been driven by the large Negroes and are
found scattered through several such areas in Central Africa. Among the racially
purest Pygmies (averaging in height c. 4′11″ ⁵ ) are the Mambuti, the Efé, and the Aka
of the Ituri Forest in the northeast Belgian Congo. In French Equatorial Africa, in the
area of the Sanga and Ubangi Rivers, are found the Babinga Pygmies. Further west,
near the Ogowé River in the Gabon section of French Equatorial Africa, lives another
cluster of Pygmies, taking their names from surrounding Negro groups (e.g., the Bon-
gos, Bekus, and Koas ⁶ ). These three main groups -- of the Ituri Forest, the Sanga-
Ubangi, and Gabon areas -- are the true Pygmies, ⁷ although Pygmoid people are also found
in Central Africa. Among these people, who average slightly greater heights than the true
Pygmies, are the Tshwa and Fôtes of the Belgian Congo, in the inner circle of the Congo
River, and the Batwa of Ruanda. Other Pygmoid groups are found in the Belgian

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