![]() Aka Pygmies on the Congo Basin in 2014 | |
Regions with significant populations | |
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Central Africa, Oceania, Southeast Asia |
In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a population) for populations in which adult men are on average less than 150 cm (4 ft 11 in) tall.[1]
Although the term is considered derogatory,[2][3] it is primarily associated with the African Pygmies, the hunter-gatherers of the Congo Basin (comprising the Bambenga, Bambuti and Batwa).[4]
The terms "Asiatic Pygmies" and "Oceanic pygmies" have been used to describe the Negrito populations of Southeast Asia and Australo-Melanesian peoples of short stature.[5] The Taron people of Myanmar are an exceptional case of a "pygmy" population of East Asian phenotype.