Question

write about the religious believes
of
batwa (pygmies) of the central rainforests of Africa​

Answer 1

Answer:

The term Pygmy, as used to refer to diminutive people, derives from Greek πυγμαῖος pygmaios (via Latin Pygmaeus, plural Pygmaei), a term for "dwarf" from Greek mythology. The word is derived from πυγμή pygmē, a term for "cubit" (lit. "fist"), suggesting a diminutive height.[5]

The use of "Pygmy" in reference to the small-framed African hunter-gatherers dates to the early 19th century, in English first by John Barrow, Travels Into the Interior of Southern Africa (1806). However, the term was used diffusely, and treated as unsubstantiated claims of "dwarf tribes" among the Bushmen of the interior of Africa, until the exploration of the Congo basin. In the 1860s, two Western explorers, Paul Du Chaillu and Georg Schweinfurth, claimed to have found the mythical "Pygmies". A commentator wrote in 1892 that, thirty years ago (viz., in the 1860s), "nobody believed in the existence of African dwarf tribes" and that "it needed an authority like Dr. Schweinfurth to prove that pygmies actually exist in Africa" (referencing Georg August Schweinfurth's The Heart of Africa, published 1873).[6] "African Pygmy" is used for disambiguation from "Asiatic Pygmy", a name applied to the Negrito populations of Southeast Asia.

Dembner (1996) reported a universal "disdain for the term 'pygmy'" among the Pygmy peoples of Central Africa: the term is considered a pejorative, and people prefer to be referred to by the name of their respective ethnic or tribal groups, such as Bayaka, Mbuti and Twa.[3] There is no clear replacement for the term "Pygmy" in reference to the umbrella group. A descriptive term that has seen some use since the 2000s is "Central African foragers".[1]

Regional names used collectively of the western group of Pygmies are Bambenga (the plural form of Mbenga), used in the Kongo language, and Bayaka (the plural form of Aka/Yaka), used in the Central African Republic.

Groups

Explanation: