The Mbuti Pygmies of the Ituri ForestThe Mbuti Pygmies of the Ituri Forest in Central Africa are foragers who use a combination of foraging, hunting net and archers. Their kinship, their social organization and their gender relations make them a unique group. Even though they live in the rainforest of equatorial Africa and own almost no property, they are happy and peaceful people. Pygmies are small people who are generally less than five feet tall. The Mbuti have lived in the Ituri forest for thousands of years. They live among the tall green trees of the rainforest with its thick undergrowth. Trees provide protection against several elements that can cause deadly diseases. “The main health risk for the Mbuti is respiratory problems: humidity averages around 95% throughout the year. Torrential rains fall almost every afternoon. (Turnbull, 1985) They have the bare minimum necessary for their survival. The Mbuti hunt and gather in the northeastern corner of the great equatorial rainforest of central Africa. The canopy rises about 150 feet above the forest floor, blocking any direct sunlight except where rivers flow through the forest, where salt licks are found, or where farmers from immigrant villages cut down their plantations. Under the canopy, the temperature barely fluctuates and is always comfortable, dropping as low as 70 degrees at night and rarely exceeding 80 degrees during the day. (Turnbull, 1985) Their food consists of "elephant, hippopotamus, buffalo, okapi, bongo, bush pig, yellow-backed duiker, chimpanzee, baboon, Perter's duiker, Gabon duiker, black-fronted duiker, chevrotain, mangabey, red colobus, Abyssinian colobus, Angolan colobus, blue duiker, blue monkey, red-tailed monkey, Bate's pygmy antelope, mo... ... middle of paper ...... and social organization. American Anthropologist, 89(4), 896-913. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/677863Nowak, B. and Laird, P. (2010). Cultural anthropology. (Chapter 3 Band societies, section 3.8 Rituals and religion, case study 3.5 the Mbuti Molimo ritual, paragraph 1). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUANT101.10.2/sections/ch00Roscoe, P. (March 1993). The net and the bow in Ituri. American Anthropologist, 95(1), 153-154. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/681184Roue, M. (January 1998). A sharing economy: There is no room for selfish individualism in nomadic hunter-gatherer societies. UNESCO Courier, R2 (RN A20355193) (3), 23. Retrieved from http://infotrac-college.cengage.com/itw/infomark/333/797/166533649w16/purl=rc1_WAD_0_A20355193&dyn=9!xrn_2_0_A20355193?sw_aep =olr_wa d