The BaMbuti Pygmies is located in Congo, Africa. They are hunter-gatherers and one of the oldest indigenous people in Africa. They are classified into four distinct cultures, each speaking a different language. They live in a tropical rainforest in the Forest of Ituri. They are the shortest of the pygmies, with an average of 4 feet 6 inches. Their culture is very different from our own and the African Pygmies are one group of people whose lifestyle has changed very little despite various foreign invasions.
Colin Turnbull was a Britsh-American anthropologist who did many studies on the BaMbuti Pygmies. This study made him well known since it made a lot of contributions to the study of perception and how it affects the way we live. He said “The identity of the BaMbuti Pygmies of the Ituri Forest in the Congo with the forest itself goes beyond their social life; they are also psychologically conditioned by their environment. This can best be illustrated by some observations that I made during a recent field trip in their country.”
Turnbull first realized that distance affects perception was when he was with a pygmy called Kenge and when they saw buffalos in the distance, Kenge actually asked what kind of insect are those. And while they approached the buffalos, Kenge was shocked at what at first seemed so small, is actually immensely huge.
The reason behind this is because pygmies’ natural habitat is the forest, so they hardly ever see things that are further away, thus their lack of knowledge that things at an distance looks smaller than it actually is. This proves that you are what you’ve seen and experienced, so no two person’s perception is the same.
Well done, Alice.
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