Growing up in a changing world. A case study among Baka children (southeastern Cameroon)

Abstract

While many studies have explored the impacts of the multiple pressures faced by small-scale societies on adult livelihoods and on the maintenance of their cultural knowledge, few have focused on the way hunter-gatherer children are living in this changing context. This study aims to assess how children are both affected by and involved in this process of change, and evaluate how the different changes might impact children's daily life and cultural learning. By working among the Baka, a small-scale society from the Congo Basin who have been facing several changes for more than 50 years, I analyze Baka children's daily life and perception toward their own culture and their expectation toward their future. The results of this work show that children's daily life and perceptions are intimately related to their expectations toward adulthood. These results are discussed on the light of the specificity of Baka childhood and the influence of general trends conveyed by external actors on Baka perceptions.

Traditional Aucan knowledge on fish and plants eaten by fish along the Tapanahoni River, Suriname

“…Modern anthropologists have shown repeatedly that in rainforest communities, women are actively engaged in both hunting and fishing, especially in households where men leave the village in search of income-generating activities (Gallois and Henry 2021;Reyes-García et al 2020). The traditional knowledge of children in forest-dwelling communities and their contribution to the household diet is also often overlooked or downplayed (Gallois 2017;Van den Boog et al 2017;Van 't Klooster et al 2019) and deserves more scientific attention. Fishing children are generalists, they do not fish for one specific species, and the local biocultural diversity becomes visible in the many different species they catch and are able to name in just a few days.…”

The Cost of Gathering Among the Baka Forager-Horticulturalists From Southeastern Cameroon

“…This first overview confirms that the Baka from this area in southeastern Cameroon rely on a farming-foraging livelihood, not only hunting and gathering. Agriculture is highly valued (Gallois, 2017), and the Baka tend to prefer domesticated crops above most other foods (Gallois et al, 2020). These preferences may be due in part to: (1) multiple and ongoing political and developmental campaigns that promote agriculture in Cameroon, (2) perceptions of a higher social status that may be associated with having agricultural fields (Gallois, 2017), or (3) personal taste preferences for crop foods.…”

“…Agriculture is highly valued (Gallois, 2017), and the Baka tend to prefer domesticated crops above most other foods (Gallois et al, 2020). These preferences may be due in part to: (1) multiple and ongoing political and developmental campaigns that promote agriculture in Cameroon, (2) perceptions of a higher social status that may be associated with having agricultural fields (Gallois, 2017), or (3) personal taste preferences for crop foods. The way the Baka engage in their subsistence activities is not homogenous in the studied area, with slight differences among the settlements.…”

“…Men tend to spend more time and energy on hunting and women on gathering (Gurven and Hill, 2009) and men cover greater distances than women for acquiring food (Pontzer and Wood, 2021;. Subsistence activities also vary across age categories, with children and adults focusing on different resources (Gallois, 2017), and elders dedicating more time to activities other than food acquisition, such as childcare and knowledge transmission (Kaplan et al, 2000).…”