Encounters with the Dead among the Efe and the Balense in the Ituri Forest: Mores and Ethnic Identity Shown by the Dead

Abstract

The Efe Pygmies and the Balese often encounter the dead, awake as well as in sleep. The dead dwell deep in the forest, and continue their traditional way of life. The dead sometimes teach new knowledge and technology to the living and tell them to keep their traditional way of life. Perhaps in keeping with the wishes of the dead, the Efe and the Balese are reluctant to adopt the westernized life and ideology which local missionaries want to introduce among them. After death, the Efe and the Balese dwell in the forest so that they themselves have no intention to exhaust the forest resources. Therefore, their cosmology including the next life in the forest would better protect the forest than animal and plant conservation projects imposed by outsiders.