Editing Pygmy peoples (section)

{{Short description|Ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short}}
{{Use dmy dates |date=August 2024}}
{{About|modern ethnic groups||Pygmy (disambiguation)}}
{{pp-semi-indef}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Pygmy peoples
| native_name      = 
| native_name_lang = 
| image            = Living on the rainforest.jpg
| image_caption    = [[Aka people|Aka Pygmies]] on the [[Congo Basin]] in 2014
| total            = <!-- total population worldwide -->
| total_year       = <!-- year of total population -->
| total_source     = <!-- source of total population; may be ''census'' or ''estimate'' -->
| total_ref        = <!-- references supporting total population -->
| genealogy        = 
| regions          = [[Central Africa]], [[Oceania]], [[Southeast Asia]]
| languages        = 
| philosophies     = 
| religions        = 
| related_groups   = 
| footnotes        = 
}}

In [[anthropology]], '''pygmy peoples''' are [[ethnic group]]s 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 {{convert|150|cm|ftin|abbr=on}} tall.<ref name="Britannica">{{Cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online |date=2007 |title=Pygmy |url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9062017/Pygmy |access-date=2011-10-11 |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070328205846/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9062017/Pygmy |archive-date=2007-03-28}}</ref>

Although the term is sometimes considered derogatory because it focuses on a physical trait,<ref>The [[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language|American Heritage Dictionary]] says that the term "strikes many as inherently derogatory" because "many people consider it offensive to refer to others by a name that identifies them in terms of a physical trait". {{cite encyclopedia |title=Pygmy |encyclopedia=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language |year=2022 |last= |first= |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |location= |id= |url=https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=Pygmy |access-date=November 3, 2024 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Hewlett |first=Barry S. |chapter=Cultural diversity among African pygmies |title=Cultural Diversity Among Twentieth-Century Foragers |editor-first=Susan |editor-last=Kent |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1996 |url=http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/hewlett/cultdiv.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100609193744/http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/hewlett/cultdiv.html |archive-date=2010-06-09}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REu0M_naDIs |title=The Congolese Tribes Selling Weed to Survive {{!}} WEEDIQUETTE |date=2024-05-21 |last=VICE |access-date=2024-05-23 |via=YouTube}}</ref> it remains the primary term associated with the [[African Pygmies]], the [[hunter-gatherer]]s of the [[Congo Basin]] (comprising the [[Bambenga]], [[Bambuti]] and [[Batwa]]).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pygmies.org/|title=African Pygmies|date=2016-02-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207091701/http://www.pygmies.org/|access-date=2019-11-18|archive-date=2016-02-07}}</ref> The terms "Asiatic pygmies" and "Oceanic pygmies" have also been used to describe the [[Negrito]] populations of [[Southeast Asia]] and [[Australo-Melanesian]] peoples of short stature.<ref>{{Cite book |author-link=Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau |first=Armand de |last=Quatrefages de Bréau |title=The Pygmies |date=1895 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S08-AAAAYAAJ |access-date=2022-06-30}}</ref> The [[Taron people]] of [[Myanmar]] are an exceptional case of a pygmy population of [[Mongoloid|East Asian]] phenotype.