Exploration Ranges of Aka Pygmies of the Central African Republic

Abstract

A study of I09 Aka pygmies of the Central African Republic was aimed at their individual mobility and the exploration of the area in which they live that takes place over their lifetime. We were unable to fit the data to equations earlier suggested for 'neighbourhood knowledge'. but found instead a negative exponential function of distance was a good description of the probability of a person ever having visited a given place. A 'half-range' is defined and evaluated as the median distance of places visited, a measurement of the 'exploration range'. The halfrange is found to vary with age, sex, ethnic affiliation, locality, and also shows extensive individual variation within these criteria. Reasons for travel are primarily for visiting family, next for hunting/gathering or dance, and finally and only to limited extent for work connected with village life. Acculturation seems to bring about substantial sedentarisation, and this to be more important than the difference in incidence of farming between what we call acculturated and non-acculturated pygmies.

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