森の民の生態と自然観 アフリカ，ムブティ・ピグミーの事例から

Abstract

Environmental revisionists see the local landscape as a product of centuries-long interaction between man and nature. Based on this standpoint, examined in this essay is the ecological and ideological relatioship of the Mbuti hunter-gatherers of the Congo Basin with the forest world. While human activities are generally thought to be destructive to the environment from a conventional Western viewpoint, an examination of the Mbuti case indicates that they also impose positive impacts on the forest environment. A preliminary analysis of their use of forest and its resources suggests that their habitation and activities in the forest may have contributed to the maintenance of the forest resource base, rather than deteriorating it, and that they comprise a part of a large recycling sysytem of the forest world. The “circulation in the forest”, or “continuity with the forest”, shown in the ecological sphere is also represented in their view of the forest. The Mbuti view the forest as a womb, as the place where they come from, and also as the place where they go after the death. Their hunting is not merely a foodprocuring activities, but also the process through which they confirm the continuity with the forest world. Such a life deeply incorporated into the forest ecosystem and the view of nature deriving from it show a marked contrast with the Western idea of the forest, which is based on dualistic opposition between man and nature.