The Pygmies of Africa

The term pygmy is used to define a human group of hunter gatherers living in Africa and that have as main characteristic its small size.

 The average height of Pygmies living in the African equatorial forests does not exceed five feet in male individuals and is even lower in female individuals.

 A new study seems to have found the cause of dwarfism of this human group that has about half a million people. Pygmy groups are distributed in Central Africa in countries like Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Equatorial
Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Angola and Botswana.

This study claims to have found the genes responsible for the small size of these humans was conducted on a group of Pygmies from Cameroon which is usually smaller than the other, exactly 17 centimetres on average under the other pygmies.

Investigating the entire genome of these individuals have found some promising genes in a region of chromosome 3. Genes have been identified as possible causes are DOCK3 and CISH, both associated with size variation.

Moreover, the CISH gene is also associated with the possibility of being affected by infectious diseases and this is a curious fact, as the Pygmies live in very hot jungle and where they are exposed to all kinds of diseases and parasites.

These genes DOCK3 and CISH also associated with reproduction and metabolism. For this reason it seems important as it could be a link between early sexual maturity of individuals and their short stature.

An important fact about the pygmies is that they reach sexual maturity at an early age and continue to live through this, because nobody can live many years. Life expectancy in Africa is no more than 46 years, and within the statistical pygmies is worse,
because they live between 15 and 24.

Despite having some gaps, the study presents some fundamentals for sustainable and successful enough to formulate a theory.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=26214

Posted by Fouad Ashraf on Jun 19 2012. Filed under Africa, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry