Efe Ethnoarchaeology
Category archives for Efe Ethnoarchaeology
The Great Human Race: How to survive
Posted by Greg Laden on January 26, 2016 
The Great Human Race is a new production of National Geographic, in three parts. I recently viewed the first episode, “Dawn” which comes with this description: All people can trace their roots to the savanna of East Africa, the home of one of the first members of the human species — Homo habilis. Archaeologist Bill…
When Are Nomads Not Really Nomads? (Efe Pygmy Ethnoarchaeology)
Posted by Greg Laden on May 16, 2013 “First, we’re going to collect our data,” Jack, the archaeologist, was telling me as we slogged down the narrow overgrown path. He seemed annoyed. “Then, we’ll leave. Until we leave, they won’t leave. They think it would be rude. After they leave, we’ll go back and map in the abandoned camp.” I had just arrived…
Meat Eating in Human Prehistory
Posted by Greg Laden on April 20, 2013 
All human hunter-gatherer groups that have been studied incorporate meat in their diets. Studies have shown that the total dietary contribution of meat varies a great deal, and seems to increase with latitude so that foragers in subarctic and arctic regions eat a lot of meat while those living near the equator eat less. It…
King Leopold’s Soliloquy
Posted by Greg Laden on February 28, 2013 This is the book: King Leopold’s Soliloquy: A Defense of His Congo Rule. If you prefer, this is the on line version. I first became aware of, and read, King Leopold’s Soliloquy, which is not his soliloquy but a parody of what he might say according to Samuel Clemens, while doing fieldwork in the ex-Belgian…
Is it appropriate to use the term “Pygmy” when speaking of…Pygmies?
Posted by Greg Laden on August 5, 2012 Some of the people who live in the rain forest of Central Africa are known widely as “Pgymies.” That word…Pygmy…is considered problematic for a few different reasons. It refers to a person’s physical appearance, because it means “small.” The word is sometimes used in biology to refer to the smaller species among a group of…
Selected Posts about the Efe and the Congo
Posted by Greg Laden on February 23, 2012 A compendium of selected posts written about the Ituri Forest, the Efe Pygmies, and other folks and other things in the region:
Day of the locust. Yum!
Posted by Greg Laden on August 28, 2011 Continuing with the theme of eating insects …
“Excuse me, there’s some food in my bugs!”
Posted by Greg Laden on August 22, 2011 Speaking of people eating insects … as we were … I do have this fun story from the Ituri Forest.
The reason the Efe won’t normally kill an insect …
Posted by Greg Laden on August 18, 2011 that has wandered into their camp if they don’t know anything about it a priori is … according to what they told me when that happened once … is …
No place to sit down
Posted by Greg Laden on August 18, 2011 I knew a couple who had spent a lot of time in the Congo in the 1950s. He was doing primatology, and she was the wife of a primatologist. And when she spoke of the Congo or Uganda, where they spent most of the time, she always said two things that always put me off…