THE FRAMEWORKOFCENTRALAFRICANHUNTER-GATHERERS AND NEIGHBOURING SOCIETIES

ABSTRACT This article presents a synthesis of available information about the framework of re-lations between Pygmy peoples and neighbouring local communities called “villagers ” or “farmers.” From an epistemological point of view, the literature is more detailed about the origin of that rela-tionship than about the analysis of its framework. From an ethnographic viewpoint, a comparison of the two most researched case studies in different cultural settings provides evidence of the existence of a similar relational interethnic model in the Congo River basin. This model involves both aspects of the “ideology of solidarity, ” sustained by links of pseudo-kinship, and of the “ideology of domi-nation, ” political-economic dominance over the Pygmy peoples by the “villagers. ” The relationship also appears fluid in that it allows a multiplicity of partnerships. The interethnic relational model suits an environment of mobility and of acephalous political organization. The author argues that the model is not specific to hunter-gatherer societies, nor to Pygmy communities in general, but rather to Pygmy groups in regular contact with villager communities characterised by mobility and non-hierarchical political organization