Mbuti Pygmies of the Rainforest

Summary

The documentary delves into the lives of the Mbuti Pygmies in Africa's Ituri rainforest, illustrating a lifestyle deeply intertwined with their natural environment. The Mbuti, living as they have for centuries, seamlessly blend with the rainforest, hunting and gathering in harmony with nature. The film explores their sophisticated knowledge of the forest, from using bark to create clothing to their skilled methods of hunting elephants for food. Despite the simplicity of their lifestyle, the Mbuti's existence is shown to be rich in tradition, community, and a profound connection with the forest, which they regard almost deified. However, looming threats from external forces targeting their nomadic lifestyle cast a shadow over their future.

Highlights

• The Pygmies possess incredible knowledge of their environment, allowing them to live sustainably 🍃.
• Their traditional dances and songs celebrate their symbiotic relationship with the forest 🌲.
• The film captures the essence of a society where crime and politics are virtually absent ✌️.
• Pygmy communities function without modern conveniences, preserving unique cultural practices 🔍.
• The urgent threat of losing their culture highlights the fragility of isolated civilizations today ⚠️.

Key Takeaways

• The Mbuti Pygmies have thrived in harmony with the Ituri rainforest for centuries 🌳.
• They maintain a nomadic lifestyle, relying on ancient hunting and gathering techniques 🏹.
• The Pygmies use the forest's resources ingeniously, crafting clothing and tools from natural materials 🌿.
• Their culture is rich with traditions and dances that connect them deeply to the forest 🌌.
• Threats from external pressures to modernize pose risks to their traditional way of life 🚨.

Overview

The Mbuti Pygmies, an ancient society, thrive in the Ituri rainforest through a unique bond with nature. Without reliance on modern technologies, they skillfully use forest resources for food, shelter, and tools. This symbiotic relationship with their environment has preserved their culture through centuries, creating an existence intertwined with the rhythm of the forest.

Pygmy traditions and lifestyle are vividly depicted in their daily activities, from hunting parties to communal dances. These activities not only ensure survival but also reinforce community ties and pass down knowledge. The film showcases their harmonious existence, devoid of contemporary stressors like war and modern crime, making their society appear idyllic yet vulnerable.

Despite their resilience and rich heritage, the Mbuti face existential threats from external forces pushing for societal change. The pressure to adopt a sedentary lifestyle and integrate with the modern world endangers not only their traditional way of life but also the unique wisdom they hold about sustainable living. The documentary raises poignant questions about the costs of such transformations.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:30: Introduction to Pygmies and Their Environment The chapter introduces the ancient pygmy hunters who lived thousands of years ago in the great rainforests beneath Africa's mysterious mountains. These pygmies are depicted as harmoniously integrated with their environment, living in a mystical and misty realm that predates recorded history.
• 01:30 - 03:00: Integration with Environment The chapter explores the integration with the environment, focusing on the humid rainforests of tropical Africa. Despite being judged hostile by modern society, these rainforests are celebrated by some as the birthplace of mankind. The narrative poses a hypothetical scenario: discovering a surviving group of pygmies, referred to as 'living fossils,' who remain completely untouched by the outside world. The implications of such a discovery are considered.
• 03:00 - 04:30: Daily Life and Traditions The chapter titled 'Daily Life and Traditions' seems to be composed mainly of non-verbal elements, including applause and music. Given this, the content likely focuses on an expressive medium, perhaps visual or performing arts, that conveys cultural traditions through performance. The applause suggests a live or recorded show, while the repeated 'Music' indicates a strong emphasis on musical elements. Overall, this chapter likely highlights cultural expressions in daily life through music and performance, though specific verbal details are absent from the transcript.
• 04:30 - 06:30: Hunting Techniques and Tools This chapter explores the elusive nature of the Mbuti Pygmies, as they navigate the dense Ituri forest. It highlights the challenges of searching for these skilled hunters, emphasizing their preference for remaining concealed from outsiders. The Pygmies' deep understanding of their environment allows them to remain hidden unless they choose to reveal themselves, making them almost impossible to locate by non-Pygmies.
• 06:30 - 08:30: The Role of Women and Family The chapter discusses the resilience and continuity of ancient lifestyles, focusing on how certain cultures, if transported back in time, would find their world unchanged even over thousands of years. The lifestyle, including food, shelter materials, hunting weapons, and dances in the forest, would remain consistent with what was practiced six thousand years ago.
• 08:30 - 10:30: Pygmies' Social Structure and Recreation The chapter explains the nomadic lifestyle of the pygmies, highlighting their practices of hunting animals and gathering wild foods as they move through the forest. The pygmies build new camps every five or six weeks when resources near old camps are depleted. Living in a humid equatorial environment, they wear minimal clothing crafted from tree bark, sometimes decorated with artistic designs. The pygmies see no reason to leave the forest due to the abundance of food and shelter it offers.
• 10:30 - 13:00: Interactions with Nature and Animals The chapter explores the interactions between the a booty pygmy and nature, particularly focusing on their hunting techniques. It opens with a serene description of a place devoid of politics, crime, and war, accompanied by music. The narrative then shifts to the pygmies preparing for a hunt. It highlights their choice of weapon, the bow and arrow, and the specific prey they target, which is the fat monkey, considered small game. Unique to their hunting method is the use of simple wooden arrows, which are often treated with specific substances, rather than using bone or metal-tipped arrows.
• 13:00 - 15:00: Cultural and Spiritual Beliefs The chapter explores the cultural and spiritual beliefs of the pygmy people, particularly focusing on their use of poisonous substances. It discusses how these poisons, derived from certain insects and plants, are potent enough to kill a monkey within minutes. Despite the lethality, these substances are a regular and integral part of the pygmy's cultural practices, particularly involving the colobus monkey.
• 15:00 - 17:00: Threats to Pygmies' Traditional Lifestyle The chapter titled 'Threats to Pygmies' Traditional Lifestyle' discusses the traditional hunting methods of the Mbuti Pygmies in Central Africa. Despite the modern world's advancements, the Mbuti continue to hunt only for food without any firearms, thus posing no threat of extinction. Their hunting techniques, particularly using nets made from forest materials, have been preserved over centuries. Occasionally, the entire community collaborates by connecting individual family nets together for hunting.

Mbuti Pygmies of the Rainforest Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 at the dawn of time beneath the clouds of Africa's mysterious mountains of the morn thousands of years before recorded history an ancient race of pygmy hunters lived in the misty Twilight of a great rainforest [Music] perhaps more than any other known people the pygmies blended naturally with their
• 00:30 - 01:00 environment the humid rainforest of tropical Africa judged hostile by modern men yet considered by some to have been the birthplace of mankind itself what if today deep in the forest we would to find a surviving group of living fossils pygmies completely untouched by the outside world [Music]
• 01:00 - 01:30 [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause]
• 01:30 - 02:00 [Music] to anyone's searching the vastness of the Ituri forest for a hunting band of him booty pygmies such as this it is not enough to spend days walking the forest exposed to all the elements that even African leaders do not willingly endure the pygmies themselves must want to be found if they don't know human being except another pygmy could ever find
• 02:00 - 02:30 them that's how they survived their ancient lifestyle unchanged for unknown centuries [Music] if such a pig they were to be transported back in time to his world say six thousand years ago he would not be aware of any difference around him he would eat the same food have his heart built of the same materials hunt for the same weapons danced to the forest with the same dances
• 02:30 - 03:00 hunting animals and gathering wild foods the nomadic and booty wander through the forest at will building a new camp every five or six weeks when food becomes scarce around an old camp in a humid equatorial hole they wear only a wisp of cloth made from tree bark sometimes painted with interesting designs to please the eye they can see no good reason for leaving the forest that so adequately provides all the food and shelter they need a
• 03:00 - 03:30 place where politics crime and war are unknown [Music] and a booty pygmy prepares for the hunt his weapon the bow and arrow his target fat monkey a considered small game the monkey is not usually hunted with bone or metal tipped arrows instead simple wooden arrows are treated with a
• 03:30 - 04:00 deadly poison made from certain insects and plants enough to kill a monkey within minutes although a regular part of the pygmy time the colobus monkey is
• 04:00 - 04:30 in no danger of extinction the abuti don't own a single gun between them killing only for food their hunting methods have remained unchanged for centuries hunting with Nets is a technique used by the embody pygmies in Central Africa using all the materials of the forest each family makes and maintains a net from time to time all the nets in the community are tied end to end and strung
• 04:30 - 05:00 out through the forest in a maximum effort to catch game while the men tend the Nets the women beat the forest driving the animals ahead of them into the net the animals they hope to catch of a forest antelopes hiding somewhere among the trees extremely shy and acutely sensitive to danger all nearby animals are immediately aware of the
• 05:00 - 05:30 pygmies presence they listen trying to locate the exact place the danger is coming from but the danger is constantly moving as the beaters begin to close in trapping the animals between them and the net the animals that panic run blindly into the net and die the meat they provide to be shared by all Death Comes quickly for those animals are lucky enough to be trapped the hunt continues with a steady approach of the beaters
• 05:30 - 06:00 [Applause] [Music] sometimes not too often but there's a surplus of bead a tiny umbilical antelope will be captured and kept as a
• 06:00 - 06:30 pet but it's future is as uncertain as the next hunt [Music] the gathering bartering and preparing the food occupies much time of the life of a pygmy woman it's only when the chores are done that she takes the time to do things just for herself Mother's Milk is often used to preparing the cosmetics that all pygmy women apply to each other's faces the milk is mixed
• 06:30 - 07:00 with a wild forest fruit the juice of which turns black on contact with the milk water would affect the same chemical reaction but even in the Ituri forest water is not always immediately available the juice now turned black with the action of the milk is strained off into an earthen pot and since mirrors are unknown in the forest a friend applies the makeup trained since childhood each pygmy woman deftly draws lines with a sure precision
• 07:00 - 07:30 of an artist every woman has her own idea of what looks best and no two designs are alike but there are a few complaints for having no mirrors nobody really knows just how they look while the men may be expert hunters and providers of meat the women are skilled at an endless variety of jobs about the camp making a sleeping mat out of Hong Kong the leaves is done with such
• 07:30 - 08:00 effortless skill that it almost appears easy but a lifetime of practice lies behind such casual endeavors such sleeping mats are waterproof against the perpetually dam floor of the forest on one wears out a new one is made everybody has slept on such a bad all their lives and will probably die on one many children are born on mongongo leaves [Music] ii-in pygmy society grown-ups frequently
• 08:00 - 08:30 play together with children it's one way of passing along customs had knowledge from one generation to the next in the hoop dance mothers teach their daughters gestures and body movements symbolizing events and occurrences in adult life and besides it's a present way of passing the hours when the day's work is done some of the body movements might be frowned upon in another society but the dance that the young girls perform reflects a complete innocence of mind in
• 08:30 - 09:00 doing what comes naturally for a pygmy mother to openly search a daughter's head for lice is as natural as any other sign of affection rather it would be considered unnatural not to remove the lice if they are there from about the age of two years little boys are already learning the most important activity in a pygmy community hunting butterflies
• 09:00 - 09:30 are not exactly a dangerous animal but one must start somewhere hunting frogs is not much more ambitious but it all leads to the day when as young men the accuracy of their arrows will be in food or hunger for the camp there are no chiefs among the pygmies the most respected men are the best hunters extreme humidity allows frogs to live
• 09:30 - 10:00 permanently out of water and lay their eggs on land some frogs never make it [Music] the most poisonous snake in the Ituri forest the horned Viper it's slow mode of traveling on its ribs belies a terrifying speed and deadliness for there is no snake that strikes faster or kills quicker than the horned Viper from
• 10:00 - 10:30 frogs the snakes is a natural step for the training of a young pygmy hunter and besides the snake makes better eating cut off its poisonous head and the meat is almost considered a delicacy but first the snake must be killed before it can be a monk pygmy hunters there is none law renowned for skill and bravery and the one they call saengil ethic deep in the forest with his wife
• 10:30 - 11:00 and young son his only weapon to spear Sango is known for the number of elephants he has killed single-handedly many pygmies are in turn killed and they say that an elephant will one day get sang cool but hunting is his job a job he takes great pride of doing well the daily rainstorm is due to strike any minute now time to take shelter of the fragile Hut's that seem light enough to blow away
• 11:00 - 11:30 [Music] to experience a tropical storm sheltered only by a few leaves and sticks is to know a feeling of total insecurity unless one is born a picnic yet the temporary hood of the romantic everybody is entirely functional with a fire burning inside it can be a snug and warm as a hut built of brick and mortar meat is stored in baskets hanging from the
• 11:30 - 12:00 wall and a piece can be cooked anytime on the fire which is always burning because of their great hunting skill pygmies enjoy more protein in their diet than most people in Africa in the inter a forest family togetherness is not just an empty phrase at least among the abuti children are not isolated in separate rooms and nobody can ever be truly loudly smouldering fires collective body
• 12:00 - 12:30 heat and warm humid nights make bedclothes unnecessary and unknown in the Ituri just a sleeping might have green mango leaves to cover the damp earth total saturation frequent rains and tropical heat combine to produce a humidity of up to 100 percent trees continue to drip water long after the rain has stopped organized devastation a
• 12:30 - 13:00 forest that took millions of years to evolve chunked out in days to make way for the villagers gardens and more houses made of mud and sticks for generations the pygmies have come into the Negro villages for metal tips for their arrows iron knives and spear blades the secrets of metal working with bellows and Forge are jealously guarded and never shared by the village blacksmith on their part
• 13:00 - 13:30 the expert piggley hunters offer be for the forest something the villagers value - and so the tools or weapons are offered in exchange for a share of the hunters kill ultimately the villagers may have the final advantage for most of all the big bay desires the bananas and other cultivated foods that only the villagers can provide and somewhere along the way the gentle little hunters seem to have accepted the villagers as their overlords and owners on special
• 13:30 - 14:00 occasions many pygmies will come out of the forest to gather at the village in their owners use of an impending elephant hunt will bring the biggest crowd of all and when pygmies get together one thing is almost certain to happen when the villagers want to kill an elephant they hand out Spears to the pygmies and tell them go kill an elephant this not only increases the chances of a successful hunt but it's considered much safer at least for the villagers the valuable instructions of the
• 14:00 - 14:30 villagers to the pygmies could be reduced to just a few simple words here are the Spears now go and kill an elephant a big elephant and don't forget the tasks are for the chief so they must be paying to the villagers are not especially tall people if they tower over the pygmies like Giants but the pygmies are not a duly impressed they don't kill an elephant alright but only when they're ready [Music]
• 14:30 - 15:00 for a few days after visiting the villages the pygmy diet is often supplemented with such cultivated delicacies as the banana which they carry back into the forest fulfill in its various forms they will roast boil and take raw this favorite fruit eating it as many as 3 times a day when available the pygmies like to eat such things but never grow them in the forest that would mean settling permanently in
• 15:00 - 15:30 the same place cutting down trees making plantations a complete change in lifestyle for the nomadic pygmies who love their shady home as it is [Music] tradition hold that the Pinkney's originated in the primeval forest and they always live there certainly their lives are so interwoven with the ecosystem of their beautiful home but
• 15:30 - 16:00 they are as much a part of it as the antelope the insects or the fishing stream unmet streams of the purest water flow gently above the trees - IRRI stripper streams that only the abuti have seen and named their forest sanctuary is not taken for granted by the big news they praise and thank it for what it provides they light fires in its honor sing in its praise and think
• 16:00 - 16:30 of it it almost deified terms until now inhabited only by scattered groups of the little people Victoria is one of the unpolluted natural wonders still left on earth [Applause] the making of cloth from tree bark is a satisfying creative task for a pygmy
• 16:30 - 17:00 using only the inner layer of bark from a certain tree the piece is separated and the rougher outer bark discarded about an hour's work is necessary with a traditional elephant tusk hammer to pound the bargain to a soft cloth a process that greatly increases the original size of the piece [Music] the creative satisfaction comes in the
• 17:00 - 17:30 final painting of a bark cloth with vegetable ties usually and geometric designs every abuti is his or her own person and as with face painting each design is different and must not conform to a tribal pattern [Music] human pressures and emotional stress are not excessive at the rainforest and artist materials cost precisely nothing and time in the Ettore is not measured at dollars [Music]
• 17:30 - 18:00 the hunter sang-gu is one of the group given spears by the villagers but something of a loner Sango doesn't like to hunt in a group especially when after the dangerous elephant he'll go along with his friends until the serious hunting begins and leave the group to hunt alone [Music] preparation for the hunt includes the blacking of faces the abuti say that when the elephant sees them among the
• 18:00 - 18:30 shadows it will think they are chimpanzees and so ignore them [Music] of all the preparations to kill an elephant none is more enjoyed by the hunters and the making and drinking of a ceremonial drink called regal it's made from the cola with an added stimulant in the form of certain green berries from the forest all the hunters given spears
• 18:30 - 19:00 by the villagers have collected at a single camp in the forest including the inscrutable Sango the Kola nut contains caffeine and once provided the stimulant used in modern soft drinks mixed with the green berries the effect on Sango and his friends will be much the same as exceedingly strong coffee but unlike nervous coffee addicts elsewhere the pygmies wait patiently for their Brule knowing it will come only when it's ready cups are unknown in a
• 19:00 - 19:30 nomadic and booty camp instead leaves are passed around to be used for drinking the Kola concoction and so a bond of friendship is strengthened between a group of hunters just as it might have been thousands of years ago in the same primeval forest there will be a personal triumph or tragedy for the man who thrusts the first spear into the elephant but everyone knows that if the hunt goes well the meat will be shared by all [Music]
• 19:30 - 20:00 the hunters leave camp without farewells or fanfare in his adult life each burn has been on more hunts that he can remember some have killed a fierce forest buffalo others have accounted for the AKOP in Bongo only two of them have previously killed an elephant one of them Sangu the quiet one it has been three years and said he
• 20:00 - 20:30 would have their part of the forest has killed one of these giants and then the hunter himself was killed horribly by the wounded beast before it read off to die from its spear wound [Music] always happiest to be moving through
• 20:30 - 21:00 their beloved forest the hundreds break into a steady run that will take them faster towards the elephant they carry smoldering logs of wood so that they'll have fire wherever they stop for the night about 50 kilometres deeper into the forest [Applause] [Music] one of the more persistent dangers of the forest the ferocious army ants on the March day and night they swarm over
• 21:00 - 21:30 every living thing in their path attacking a man as quickly as they would another insect a particularly juicy meal is traveling nearby blind and unaware of danger a world longer than some species of snakes long enough to be a swallowing problem for the average worthy bird [Music] while the hunters jog after the elephants their wives and children
• 21:30 - 22:00 follow with their tracks carrying with them everything they own the huts they left behind they have abandoned forever to be reclaimed by the forest somewhere ahead before nightfall their staff had build an entirely new camp out of the virgin forest they don't expect to see their bed until the next day but they know the elephants are deep in the forest as always the women carry burning logs with them to the new camp apparently unable or unwilling to make fire without them
• 22:00 - 22:30 [Music] in a world they say is shrinking fast the Space Age a group of nomadic pygmy women are making a camp exactly as they did thousands of years ago the very first poll of a new Hut a family home to be built in a couple of hours total cost absolutely nothing building permit it hasn't been invented yet purchase of land walk in any
• 22:30 - 23:00 direction for a day and take your pick a private stream a riverbank a hilltop it's all free for the taking so far until time and the outside world catch up with the humble T pygmies no one knows how long the embody will ignore a government order to abandon their nomadic life of freedom and settled permanently near the road it is perhaps unfortunate that nobody has thought to ask the pygmies what they
• 23:00 - 23:30 want to do [Music] because their hands and arms unusually busy carrying loads or building huts and bawdy women have developed an ability to pick things up with their toes in the Ituri forest there's no waiting around or there's a job to be done in modern
• 23:30 - 24:00 times the geodesic dome has been developed and acclaimed as a structure combining the desirable properties of the tetrahedron and the sphere yet many many years before these words were invented the pygmies had developed their own geodesic dome they do not give it fancy names no hope that everybody will admire it a pygmy Hut is purely functional it can withstand the forces of a tropical storm and keep out the chilling damp air of the night about every five weeks it is abandoned and a
• 24:00 - 24:30 new one built of fresh materials complete with change and landscaping of full-grown trees and exotic shrubs it's all there in return for a few hours work it's fortunate that the mongongo plant grows profusely in the forest its enormous leaf as the most widely used thing that the pygmies know covering for the floors of huts sleeping mats food containers drinking cups and variations are these users too numerous to mention
• 24:30 - 25:00 the final leaf of a job that looks more simple than it is [Music] then see what a good wife I am
• 25:00 - 25:30 [Music] from time to time it is apparent that all is not perfect on the life of the abuti but with their usual flair for survival a medicine is prepared this time from the bark of a certain line when applied to an open wound it promotes healing because it is a powerful germicide and inhibits infection how many plants and substances the Ambo T tried before finding one that worked shall never be known probably other effective medical
• 25:30 - 26:00 cures they have discovered in their vast botanical Wonderland is a matter of conjecture [Music] one of the rarest most exotic foods in the world has fouled in a termite hill the locals call it malenky a white fungus mass will sometimes grow on the fecal wood and leaves that have passed through the alimentary canal of the termites creating a symbiotic
• 26:00 - 26:30 relationship between the turbine and the fungus the termites eat the fungus and this reuse of their feces is important in their feeding cycle the abuti loves to eat it when they can but not every termite hill contained the stringy white fungus that tastes like mushroom only better the mushroom minutes many varieties is a regular part of a pygmy diet some mushrooms are tiny and smaller than a finger they are others are large
• 26:30 - 27:00 enough to feed a family somewhere are there misty beginnings the abuti have found which mushroom was read about at which were poisonous [Music] even without hunting the pygmy would not go hungry the eatery offers a multitude of edible things to those who know its secrets [Music] some vines are poisonous some make good
• 27:00 - 27:30 medicine and others have leaves good to eat [Music] there's no birds they have booty do not grow crops of any kind instead they have learned to eat the things that grow wild in the forest to a pygmy woman a certain plant indicates the presence of edible roots when the hunting is poor a family could live indefinitely on roots nuts berries wild fruits and mushrooms
• 27:30 - 28:00 essentially all human life of the Ituri evolves around the pygmy camp but everyone must eventually returned there the women arrived with enormous loads of rain-soaked firewood each load heavier than the woman herself [Music] a day's work of gathering completed and arrest Weller a woman smokes a pipe of marijuana and
• 28:00 - 28:30 relaxes with her woman friends she would Isildur smoke a common cigarette but it's a luxury she could not afford even if available traditionally the abuti woman wears a knife in her belt but it's not for any warlike purpose she keeps it at hand for a hundred and one jobs in the forest and about the camp now it's time to make baskets to carry the beat of the elephant that they are confident their husbands will kill each
• 28:30 - 29:00 woman will carry her own weighted meat and perhaps more much of the meat will go to the villagers in return for bananas and other cultivated crops but first an elephant has to die [Music] the bird closest to killing an elephant at this point in time is sangil accompanied only by his friend commando he has found tracks on his minutes old he tells his companion to stay behind
• 29:00 - 29:30 while he goes in alone to check the elephants size another fresh track it's a large bull Sangu compares the size of his own foot with that of the elephant but right now is one of those noisy flying machines that san liu has never seen on the ground he has been told by the villagers that men fly inside the
• 29:30 - 30:00 machines sometimes he wonders what the forest would look like from Sir John but this is a view that he'll probably never see a giant cauliflower of a forest so dense that there are places where sunlight has not reached the ground for hundreds of years [Music] frightened by the strange sound the ball decides to leave and sango he decides to follow the piggley's ability to run for great
• 30:00 - 30:30 distances through the forest makes him one of the deadliest hunters ever known few animals even the elephant cannot distance him once he takes his target if the elephant ahead is not yet sensed sango's presence the other animals along the way have but some instinct tells them when they are not the hunted one intention doesn't give way to panic [Music]
• 30:30 - 31:00 [Applause] [Music]
• 31:00 - 31:30 [Music] [Music]
• 31:30 - 32:00 [Music]
• 32:00 - 32:30 [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause]
• 32:30 - 33:00 the elephant is mortally wounded and Sango is very much alive he does not expect to find the elephant dead until at least the next day but he'll follow as far as he can before darkness comes tonight the hunters will sleep deep in the forest far from their wives and families the hunters talk about the
• 33:00 - 33:30 wounded elephant was the wrong deal did it hit a vital place is the beasts already dead or is it waiting with a terrible vengeance to kill them when they catch up Sango thinks the elephant will be dead when they find it but his failed the commando doesn't think so legends the name of the baby who was killed by such an orphaned [Music] Sango was right with his friend commando they finally offered really quite dead
• 33:30 - 34:00 [Music] it's a full-grown bull with fired tusks and Sango was pleased but like commando he is also here and the jubilation will come later after exorcism of the animals powerful spirit accomplished by cutting off the tip of the elephant's trunk [Music]
• 34:00 - 34:30 possession of the dead elephant by the hunters is further established by removing the tail to have this member is it once proof of ownership at a special symbol of victory kebab though does the others using the sharp edge of his spear he gives the tail to Sango only now - Sango allow himself the emotions of victory single-handedly are learning the spear he tackled the giant elephant and survived
• 34:30 - 35:00 [Music] [Applause]
• 35:00 - 35:30 [Music] [Applause] but pinky's fascination that the elephant trial continues even in death just as the use of fire makes the abuti
• 35:30 - 36:00 different from all other inhabitants of the forest the elephant's trunk distinguishes it from all other animals they know that an elephant kills with its trunk and they delight now in touching this rifle Webber with impunity a prehensile nose with its tip tunnel but all the excitement is over one man will be chosen to take the elephant's tail back to the camp so that the people will know that elephant has been killed
• 36:00 - 36:30 from above the hunters it was Gabon dou who was chosen to carry the elephant's tail back to camp he doesn't have to say anything the tale is the message and the proof he holds it high for all to see an elephant provides more beat than a hundred antelopes even with the villagers taking their share the embody of this part of the forest will be eating elephant meat for months to come they clap elbows pygmy fashion the occasion surely calls
• 36:30 - 37:00 for a celebration dance a spontaneous public over of a booty good humour the dads with drums at bamboo roads unique to the pygmies of the rainforest what the pygmies dance they believe that the forest hears they have music and listens to their song they fake the forest for the beat of the other foot and for not taking the life of an in-body hunter in return [Music]
• 37:00 - 37:30 for unknown centuries the pygmy was the only human being in the immensity of the rainforest his dad's the only dance his song the only song but cutting up a
• 37:30 - 38:00 full-grown bull elephant is serious business by the next day everybody with even the remotest claim to the meat has found their way to the carcass the crew includes those villagers who provided the spears and who claimed to own sago and his hunter friends and for that
• 38:00 - 38:30 matter their families too but at a time like this the villagers forget their pride and work side by side with the pig banks there is little disagreement for the pygmies are a remarkably peaceful people but there is an urgent need the boil custom decrees a certain important persons are entitled to selected parts of the elephant the age old axiom that possession is nine-tenths of the law applies also in the Ituri forest [Applause]
• 38:30 - 39:00 for the most part the women keep out of the bloody struggle they serve the purpose of guarding the ever-growing piles of meat thrown to them by their husbands [Applause] before the tons of meat can be carried away it must be smoked dried to preserve it and to lighten its weight for the journey fires and B tracks are easily
• 39:00 - 39:30 made from an abundance of wood it takes about a day or two to smoke dry the meat and when it's ready it may not look particularly appetizing but it has lost more than half its weight [Music] nothing is wasted not even the bone marrow using an axe provided by the villagers a pygmy breaks open a huge leg bone of the elephant inside the marrow is soft raw and ready-to-eat it is also
• 39:30 - 40:00 apparently delicious the word spreads and stone pieces of raw Baro are being eaten like candies I would have Sangu the man who made it all happen Sango the hunter of elephants provider of food for his family and a hundred other people perhaps he thinks of the grueling three days March with little food or of what might have happened that the elephant had turned on him
• 40:00 - 40:30 [Music] again the spontaneous dance this time to honor Sango and his hunter friends to pay tribute to their hunting skill to say thanks for the beat of the elephant [Music] [Applause] with dads and song the abuti commune with their forest the forest that they've loved and venerated since the misty beginnings of time the forest is our mother and father the pygmies say it gives us everything we need food shelter
• 40:30 - 41:00 to walk we are the children of the forest when it dies we die [Music] [Applause] the meat is dry now and everyone carries a heavy load the place where the elephant died has left far behind to the Flies and the ants ahead lies a full day's march following trails already and
• 41:00 - 41:30 budino the pygmy culture existed for unknown centuries before the bag de Carta was signed in 1215 it flourished through events that took place yesterday in the embodied time scale the so called discovery of America the conquest and destruction of the Aztecs of the Incas yet today the abuti no bird is aware that his life of freedom and harmony with nature is threatened by outside forces he is instructed to leave the
• 41:30 - 42:00 forest and make a permanent home at the edge of the nearest road where the last thing he does an entire people will have lost their identity and the forest will be empty of humanity and laughter for the first time in thousands of years [Applause] and so one day soon in the name of
• 42:00 - 42:30 promised the pygmies will be gone and there will be none like them to take their place in the great forest that may have been the birthplace of mankind itself the empty decaying huts of a few scattered camps will be all the remains and the fire of the pygmies will be extinguished forever [Music] [Applause] [Music]