Classification of Pygmy languages

The term African Pygmies refers to "forest people" who have or recently had a hunter-gatherer economy and a simple, non-hierarchical societal structure based on band societies; are of short stature; have a deep cultural and religious affinity with the Congolian rainforests; and live in a generally subservient relationship with agricultural "patrons", with which they trade forest products such as meat and honey for agricultural and iron products.

Though lumped together as "Pygmies" by outsiders, including their patrons, these peoples are not related to each other either ethnically or linguistically. Different Pygmy peoples may have distinct genetic mechanisms for their short stature, demonstrating diverse origins.

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