The term pygmy, as used to refer to diminutive people, comes via Latin pygmaeus from Greek πυγμαῖος pygmaîos, derived from πυγμή pygmḗ, meaning "short cubit", or a measure of length corresponding to the distance from the elbow to the first knuckle of the middle finger, meant to express pygmies' diminutive stature.

[13][14] This might mean that relatively little vitamin D can be made in human skin, thereby limiting calcium uptake from the diet for bone growth and maintenance and leading to the evolution of the small skeletal size.

[15] Other explanations include lack of food in the rainforest environment, low calcium levels in the soil, the need to move through dense jungle, adaptation to heat and humidity, and as an association with rapid reproductive maturation under conditions of early mortality.

The best known are the Mbenga (Aka and Baka) of the western Congo Basin, who speak Bantu and Ubangian languages; the Mbuti (Efe etc.)

They trade with neighbouring farmers to acquire cultivated foods and other material items; no group lives deep in the forest without access to agricultural products.

[18][19] However, although Pygmies are thought of as forest people, the groups called Twa may live in open swamp or desert.

[20] A commonly held belief is that African Pygmies are the direct descendants of Late Stone Age hunter-gatherer peoples of the central African rainforest, who were partially absorbed or displaced by later immigration of agricultural peoples, and adopted their Central Sudanic, Ubangian, and Bantu languages.

However, this type of vocabulary is subject to widespread borrowing among the Pygmies and neighboring peoples, and the "Baaka" language was only reconstructed to the 15th century.

[30] From the end of 2002 through January 2003 around 60,000 Pygmy civilians and 10,000 combatants were killed and often cannibalized in an extermination campaign known as "Effacer le tableau" during the Second Congo War.

The Pygmy slaves belong to their Bantu masters from birth in a relationship that the Bantus call a time-honored tradition.

"[39] As a result of pressure from UNICEF and human-rights activists, in 2009, a law that would grant special protections to the Pygmy people was awaiting a vote by the Congo parliament.

[41] In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, during the Ituri conflict, Ugandan-backed rebel groups were accused by the UN of enslaving Mbutis to prospect for minerals and forage for forest food, with those returning empty handed being killed and eaten.

At a state level, Pygmies are sometimes not considered citizens and are refused identity cards, deeds to land, health care and proper schooling.

The Lancet published a review showing that Pygmy populations often had worse access to health care than neighboring communities.

[47] Negritos in Southeast Asia (including the Batak and Aeta of the Philippines, the Andamanese of the Andaman Islands, and the Semang of the Malay Peninsula) are sometimes called pygmies (especially in older literature).

Negritos share some common physical features with African pygmy populations, including short stature and dark skin.

[48] Their superficial resemblance to some Africans and Melanesians is thought to be from living in a similar environment, or simply retentions of the initial human form.

[51] Frank Kingdon-Ward in the early 20th century reported a tribe of pygmy Tibeto-Burman speakers known as the Taron inhabiting the remote region of Mt.

Birdsell classified Aboriginal Australians into three major groups, mixed together to varying degrees: the Carpentarians, best represented in Arnhem Land; the Murrayans, centred in southeastern Australia; and the Barrineans.

The authors argued that these people were evidence for a distinct Negrito population in support of Birdsell's theory, and claimed that "the fact that the Australian pygmies have been so thoroughly expunged from public memory suggests an indecent concurrence between scholarly and political interests", because evidence of descent from earlier or later waves of origin could lead to conflicting claims of priority by Aboriginal people and hence pose a threat to political co-operation among them.

[70] Susan McIntyre-Tamwoy, archaeologist and adjunct professor at James Cook University, has written[71] of the northern Cape York Aboriginal people's belief of the bipotaim, which is when "the landscape as we know it today was created".

[77] E. W. Gifford reiterated Gabel's statement in 2014 and claims that tribes of pygmies in the closest proximity to Fiji would most likely be found in Vanuatu.

[citation needed] The remains used to identify Homo luzonensis were discovered in Luzon, the Philippines, in 2007, and were designated as a species in 2019.

Homo floresiensis, another archaic human from the island of Flores in Indonesia, stood around 1.1 metres (3 feet 7 inches) tall.