Introduction

            The story of the Leopard is a folklore from South Africa. It is about how much courage each character can show. The characters are Pygmies, which are Ki the husband of Luetsi , and Ntio the brother of Ki. Ki displayed a very strong and determined character in the story. He showed that when Luetsi wants to visit her mother in there village. But suddenly something happened to Ki. It was also mentioned in the story that Ki offered a meat to Luetsi. I was curious why he offered a meat to his wife. I want to know the history and traditions of the Pygmies.

             

             This blog will talk about the traditions and history of the Pygmies.I also include photos , so you will not get bored in reading this blog.

Body

              As what I have said in my introduction, I was curious about the Pygmies. According to sciencemag.org , Short people known as pygmies are scattered across equatorial Africa, where they speak various languages, inhabit different types of forests, and hunt and gather food in diverse ways. Despite their cultural variety, a new study shows that the pygmies of Western Central Africa descended from an ancestral population that survived intact until 2800 years ago when farmers invaded the pygmies' territory and split them apart. The origins of pygmies have long been a mystery. Researchers have debated whether African pygmies inherited their height from a common ancestor they shared long ago or whether shortness evolved independently in each tribe because it was advantageous for life in the forest. For instance, getting enough calories to grow taller might have been more challenging than in more open terrain. Pygmies grow up just like other modern humans until they become teenagers, when they fail to undergo a final adolescent growth spurt. Although humans have lived in the forests of Western Central Africa for at least 30,000 years, there are no fossils to show whether the ancestral population was short to begin with--or whether the trait evolved more recently in different groups. Previous DNA studies haven't resolved the question.
              
According also to livescience.com ,Pygmy traits independently evolved many times among different peoples around the world, because shorter heights may have helped them live in rainforests, researchers say.The small body sizes known as pygmy traits are seen worldwide, limited to peoples who traditionally hunted and gathered food in tropical rainforests, such as in Central Africa and Southeast Asia. These small statures apparently developed independently in these populations, an example of convergent evolution, much as fish and dolphins both evolved streamlined bodies to better swim in their watery worlds.Scientists have suggested that small body size might confer a number of evolutionary benefits for life in rainforests. For instance, while tropical rainforests are the most complex and diverse ecosystems on land, home to half of all living species on the planet, "there is actually not that much food for humans," said lead study author George Perry, an anthropologist at Pennsylvania State University in University Park. Small body sizes, therefore, may have evolved because they require fewer calories.

                We should have courage in every challenge in our lives. Not only to our selves , but also to other people. We should ready to help, as long as we know we are doing the right thing. 


Conclusion
                 I conclude that , you should not only show courage within yourself, but also to the people around you. We should be always ready in every challenge in our lives. It is our choice to be strong, and have courage. We should motivate ourselves to do and finish all challenges in our lives.

References

• 'The Pygmies' www.livescience.com
• 'A short story of African Pygmies' survivalinternational.org