Food Restrictions of the Mbuti Pygmies, Eastern Zaire

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While the Mbuti Pygmies utilize more than 300 animal and plant species as their food, only 60% are eaten freely by anybody without restriction. Of the remaining 4()% avoided by the Mbuti for various reasons. more than 85% are the animals (including a few plants) which, called kweri in general, are conditionally restricted. These animals are thought to be dangerous, because the Mbuti think they may cause diseases or other disorders to the person who eats them, to his or her small child. or even to the unborn baby. All the Mbuti are not affected by the kweri. Newborns, infants, and those in the initiation period are thought to be specially susceptible. The general tendency is that the restriction for these animals is relaxed as one grows old. The diseases caused by kweri. their prevention and cure, and the characteristics of these "dangerous" animals are described and analysed. It is suggested that the food restriction provides us with a clue to an understanding of the Mbuti's concepts of diseases and eating food. DIVERSITY OF THE MBUTI FOOD The !vlbuti net-hunters are hunter-gatherers in [he tropical rain forest. the Ituri Forest, of nOrtheastern Zaire. They have been keeping a so-called symbiotic relationship with the Bantu and Sudanic agriculturalists at least for several hundred years (Turnbull, 1965) or more (Bahuchet .and Guillaume, 1982; Han and Hart. 1986; Bailey and Peacock. in press). Their life have changed considerably through this interdependent relationship. One of the examples of such changes through contact is their language. Today. they speak a dialect of the languages of their neighboring agriculturalists. and lost almost entirely their original language. Another example is the dual residential pattern consisting of a semi-sedentary base camp near the villagers and a nomadic forest camp. The effect of contact is also obvious in the subsistence activities. First. since the interdependent relationship was established, the Mbuti has been providing the agriculturalists with manpower. They help the agriculturalists clear the forest. plant and weed the fields, watch the animals, harvest and process the crop. The Nlbuti's labor has played an important role in the environment of humid tropics which has enormous plant biomass and shows a rapid growth rate. There is a vast cultivable land in the I turi forest. The expansion of agriculture is, therefore. not dependent on the land available to them, but largely on the manpower available for cultivation. The traditional agriculture in the Forest remained at a subsistence level, and did not produce a substantial surplus for a large-scale trading. However. ~lbuti's manpower must have been of considerable help to the agriculturalists who were expanding themselves into the interior forest.