Mbuti

CENTRAL AFRICAN HUNTER-GATHERER RESEARCH TRADITIONS
Barry S. Hewlett and Jason M. Fancher
Washington State University, Vancouver

For: Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers. Vicki Cummings, Peter Jordan and Marek Zvelebil, eds. Oxford University Press

Biographic information:
Barry Hewlett is Professor of Anthropology at Washington State University, Vancouver. He received a PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1987 and has had appointments at Tulane University and Oregon State University. He has conducted research in central Africa since 1973 and is the author of Intimate Fathers: The Nature and Context of Aka Pygmy Paternal Infant Care, Hunter-Gatherer Childhoods (edited with Michael Lamb) and Ebola, Culture and Politics: The Anthropology of an Emerging Disease (with Bonnie Hewlett). He has published 35 journal articles or book chapters about Congo Basin foragers.

Jason M. Fancher is a recent graduate of Washington State University’s PhD program in anthropology. His doctoral dissertation is an ethnoarchaeological analysis of animal bone assemblages produced by modern Aka and Bofi foragers of the Central African Republic. Jay’s professional interests include: hunter-gatherer studies, evolutionary ecology, zooarchaeology, vertebrate taphonomy, and sharing anthropological perspectives with non-specialists and the general public.

Indexing names and terms:

Key words: Central Africa, Congo Basin hunter-gatherers, Pygmies, research traditions in Congo Basin hunter-gatherers

Abstract
The largest remaining groups of mobile hunter-gatherers on earth live in Central Africa. More than 350,000 foragers (historically referred to as “Pygmies”) from at least 13 distinct ethnolinguistic groups occupy diverse environments in the Congo Basin. This chapter begins with an overview of these groups, their cultural commonalities, and genetic relationships. Next, we summarize the personal backgrounds and

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