Bambuti Forager Model

According to our textbook, foraging is defined as, “a food-getting strategy that obtains wild plant and animal resourced through gathering, hunting, scavenging, or fishing” (Ember 106). That is, individuals following this way of life do not produce their own food, but rather takes advantage of naturally-occurring produce and wildlife, collecting and hunting items found in nature so they can be consumed. Generally speaking, current foraging societies tend to live in marginal, low-populated areas of the world such as, “deserts, the Arctic, and dense tropical forests” (Ember 107), and live in small groups, often traveling from place to place without making any sort of permanent camp or village. Unlike food producing societies, the groups that
First of all, the BaMbuti inhabit the dense Ituri forest located in the modern Republic of Congo on the western coast of Africa, an area that is difficult to occupy as seen when Turbull described abandoned villages where, “The forest destroyed everything but its own” (Turnbull 167). The horticulturalists found it difficult to sustain a food producing societies there, feeling no choice but to move villages every few years because of the wrath of the forest and unforgiving soil that produced minimal, mediocre produce. The BaMbuti, on the other hand, thrived within the forest itself, surviving off of naturally-occurring sources of food found within the forest. For example, women often foraged “around for mushrooms and nuts” (Turnbull 99), placing anything that could be safely consumed into the baskets they carried with them, while the men hunted, obtaining their food strictly from nature. Additionally, the BaMbuti did not stay in one place too long, as seen from their shift from the village, to Camp Lelo, to “one camp which was only a few hours from the village” (Turnbull 138), back to the village, then to Apa Toangbe after the group split up for the honey season, to Apa Kadiketu (where the group eventually reformed near the end of honey season), and so on and so forth. Also, the BaMbuti had “no chiefs, no formal councils. In each aspect of Pygmy life there might be one or two men or women who were more prominent than others, but usually for good practical reasons” (Turnbull 110). This shows that they possess only one social class, with no specific individuals being more important than another (in most cases), which is typical of foraging societies. Additionally, the BaMbuti did also possess a division of labor based on age and gender, with men typically performing the hunting and women and children completing the gathering, but this division did