List of Headings
- i The symbolic status of the Mbuti
- ii New methods of agriculture
- iii The forest and its inhabitants
- iv The exchange of produce
- v A potential conflict of interests
- vi Traditions which survive despite changing circumstances
- vii Assistance given to Mbuti by villagers on important occasions
Passage
Drag a heading to each paragraph.
1. For perhaps two millennia, the Ituri Forest of northern Zaire in Africa has been the home for both Mbuti hunter-gatherers and Bantu village-dwelling cultivators.
2. Economic aspects of the reciprocity between Mbuti and villagers have been described in some detail. Starch foods from villagers' gardens make up a significant part of Mbuti diet year-round. In turn, Mbuti provide villagers on an irregular basis with 'prestige foods', for example honey from the forest.
3. Villagers play a prominent role in Mbuti marriages and deaths, and in mediating outbreaks of conflict among Mbuti.
4. Villagers require the spiritual unity Mbuti have with the forest to assure their own relationship with the land. In the harvest festivals of cultivators of the southern Ituri, Mbuti even take precedence over village ritual authorities.
5. The exchange relationship between Mbuti and villagers has been flexible enough to survive a number of migrations and political upheavals in the past.