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Taiwan famously features an indigenous population of Austronesian people whose history on the island stretches back 5,000 years. But among these people, oral traditions have referred to another civilisation that seemed to be far older. They were often referred to as “pygmies” or tiny people and were described as having dark skin, curly hair and a diminutive stature. For centuries, they only existed in fables , although they popped up with remarkable consistency over an extremely long period of time. In early October, scientists proved they existed in Taiwan. According to a paper published in World Archaeology, a peer-reviewed journal,...

A few years back one of my friends was trying to share the gospel with a guy who, after a while, started almost screaming at him, “What about the pygmies?? What about the pygmies??” My friend let the guy calm down for a second and then he asked him a simple question:“Are you a pygmy?” His point was, on the day of judgment it’s not going to be about those who may have never heard the gospel in general, but about you in particular. As C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “If you are worried about the people on...

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, 16, attends a protest outside the White House on Friday. She launched the Friday school strikes last year. Since then, her notoriety has steadily grown as she speaks in clear and powerful terms about why people — particularly young people — must pay attention to our climate. Greta Thunberg led a protest at the White House Friday. But she wasn't looking to go inside: "I don't want to meet with people who don't accept the science," she says. The young Swedish activist joined a large crowd of protesters outside the White House Friday morning, calling for...

BWEYEYE, Rwanda (AFP) - In this remote corner of southern Rwanda, Twa pygmies are fighting a losing battle against the modern realities of environmentalism that are robbing them of their traditions. Sandwiched between the Burundian border and the edge of the dense Nyungwe rainforest, the village of Bweyeye is on the frontline of an increasingly divisive struggle between the diminutive Twa and the long arm of Rwandan law. Forced to abandon their centuries-old hunter-gatherer lifestyle by a ban on such activity in the maze of giant tropical trees, towering ferns and tiny orchids, many Twa have descended into crushing poverty...

The feud over Homo floresiensis, the little people of Indonesia, centers on whether they were an extinct diminutive species that evolved from some ancient hominid, such as Homo erectus, or whether they were just pygmy humans, perhaps suffering from some disease. The leading skeptic, paleoanthropologist Teuku Jacob, has claimed that there are pygmies living not far from where the fossils were found, on the island of Flores. I came across a short item at Japan Today about a scientific expedition to study the pygmies, which was based on an article in Kompas, an Indonesian publication. The original article is here,...

The discovery of a new species of human astounded the world. But is it what it seems? John Vidal went to remotest Flores to find out If you want to understand human evolution, it may be worth starting with Johannes Daak from the remote village of Akel in the heavily forested centre of the Indonesian island of Flores. Johannes, from the Manggarai ethnic group, reckons he is 100 years old and says he owes his longevity and enduring strength to having only ever known one woman. He says he owes his stature to his ancestors. Johannes is no more than...

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- As many as 800,000 pygmies in the Democratic Republic of Congo are being abused and killed, The Times of London said Thursday. In regional conflicts spanning the past decade, the pygmies never took up arms, but have been targeted by virtually all the armed groups. The London-based Minority Rights Group said in a recent report it had evidence of "mass killings, cannibalism and rape" and called on the International Court of Justice in The Hague to pursue those responsible as war criminals. The report linked much of the violence to beliefs...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, July 6 (UPI) -- Complaints of widespread slaughter of pygmies in the Democratic Republic of Congo were filed with the International Criminal Court in the Hague Tuesday. The Minority Rights Group International says it has gathered evidence of mass killings, cannibalism and rape by a rebel group in the northern part of the country, the BBC reported. An estimated 600,000 pygmies, who are defined as people whose adult males are less than 5-feet are believed to live in the DR Congo's forests where they survive by hunting wild animals and gathering fruit. "There have been systemic rapes...

UNITED NATIONS - Rebels used looting, killing, violence against women and cannibalism as "premeditated tools of war" in northeastern Congo, according to a new U.N. report. U.N. investigators took testimony from over 500 people during their mission to look into acts of cannibalism and other human rights abuses that took place between October and December in the area between the northeastern towns of Mambasa and Beni. According to the investigators from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, 173 killings and executions were reported including 12 incidents of cannibalism. The report was released Thursday. When rebels took the town of Mambasa...

PYGMY leaders have called on the UN to set up an international tribunal to put government and rebel fighters from the Democratic Republic of Congo on trial for acts of cannibalism against their people. Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of Mbuti pygmies, told the UN’s Indigenous People’s Forum that during the four-year civil war his people had been hunted down and eaten. “In living memory, we have seen cruelty, massacres, and genocide, but we have never seen human beings hunted down as though they were game animals,” he said. “Pygmies are being pursued in the forests. People have been eaten. This...

FORT WORTH - A man who beat his elderly mother to death, sliced her open and ate some of her heart was sentenced today to 30 years in prison. Joseph Frank "Joey" Cala II pleaded guilty Monday to murder in the 2001 death of Lydia M. Cala, 79, a retired teacher who volunteered for her church and the county registrar's office. After a three-hour hearing today, state District Judge George Gallagher chose the maximum of the 20- to 30-year sentence range contained in a plea agreement. "My goal is to make sure Mr. Cala is never allowed out again," said...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - An exhibit featuring singing and dancing pygmies in a small Belgian town has enraged African immigrants and sparked a protest involving some 100 people, local media has reported.Some 10 pygmies were flown in from Cameroon by a man who swears to be trying to improve their lot, but the display in the southwestern town of Yvoir has drawn criticism as a "scandalous" exploitation of human beings."This exhibit is scandalous," Joseph Anganda, a coordinator of the New Immigrants Movement, an activists group, told local RTBF television on Saturday while protesting outside the park where the exhibition was set...