Food Sharing among the Pygmies of Central Africa

Abstract

This paper describes the sharing and circulation of food among the Aka Pygmies from Central African Republic (northwest Congo Basin), compared with other groups, Baka and Gyeli from Cameroon, and Mbuti from eastern Zaire. All four groups practice sharing in three phases: (1) dividing up meat among hunters, (2) sharing of each hunter's part among his kin, (3) distributing cooked food by every household. Sharing is made, without any centralization, by ascribing the ownership of the animal, i.e., the responsibility of its sharing, to the owner of the weapon that killed it. Sharing among African Pygmies is a way of pooling risk, which satisfies two complementary functions: a supplying function (corresponding to food supply uncertainty), and a social function (corresponding to group cooperation and cohesion). However, in the Pygmy's concept, food sharing cannot be isolated from other types of exchange; it is only one part of a larger system including the circulation of goods (mainly iron tools) and the acquisition of spouses. Food sharing is a function in the wider system of exchange and cooperation that perpetuates the society.