Many people and organizations misunderstand the concept behind the name Pygmy. This misunderstanding leads them to misinterpretations and erroneous judgements about its use. This article goes back to the origin of the name in order to clarify the meaning that it has today, especially for the Pygmies themselves. The term 'pygmy' originated in ancient Greece where it was employed for a legendary people who, in Greek mythology, were engaged in an unceasing battle against cranes. Although the morphology of the pygmies described by the ancient Greeks cannot be fully characterized, the term 'pygmy' was used for centuries to refer to a population of small stature living close to the Nile. This led scientists and travellers in modern times to refer to populations of small stature living in equatorial Africa as pygmies. The distinction between Pygmies and non-Pygmies in this region matches the presence of two kinds of populations whose identities are defined in contraposition to one another by socio-cultural aspects. Genetic population studies have suggested that the Pygmies split from non-Pygmy populations around 60,000 years BP. Very importantly, the use of the name Pygmy is gratifying to the Pygmies themselves and it appears in the title of almost all Pygmy rights organizations. The name Pygmy thus covers populations sharing a particular phenotype, having a common origin and thus a biological identity, as well as socio-cultural characteristics which are diverse but nevertheless distinguish them from non-Pygmy populations. Furthermore, the name Pygmy has a dual function for the Pygmies themselves, at once asserting their common identity in contraposition to non-Pygmies ("Big-blacks" as they call them) and conveying their claims against those who despise them, who are the same "Big-blacks".

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俾格米人这个名字的历史及其对俾格米人本身的重要性。

许多人和组织误解了俾格米这个名字背后的概念。这种误解导致他们对其使用产生误解和错误判断。本文回顾了这个名字的起源，以阐明它今天的含义，特别是对于俾格米人本身而言。“侏儒”一词起源于古希腊，在希腊神话中，它被用来指代与鹤进行不断战斗的传奇人物。尽管古希腊人描述的俾格米人的形态无法完全表征，但“俾格米人”一词几个世纪以来一直用来指居住在尼罗河附近的身材矮小的人群。这导致现代科学家和旅行者将生活在赤道非洲的身材矮小的人群称为俾格米人。该地区俾格米人和非俾格米人之间的区别与存在两种人群相匹配，这两种人群的身份是通过社会文化方面相互对立来定义的。人口遗传研究表明，俾格米人在距今 6 万年前左右就从非俾格米人群体中分裂出来。非常重要的是，俾格米人这个名字的使用令俾格米人自己感到满意，并且它出现在几乎所有俾格米人权利组织的标题中。因此，俾格米人这一名称涵盖了具有特定表型、具有共同起源并因此具有生物学特性的人群，以及具有多样性但仍将其与非俾格米人群区别开来的社会文化特征。此外，俾格米人这个名字对俾格米人本身具有双重功能，一方面维护他们与非俾格米人（他们称之为“大黑人”）相对立的共同身份，另一方面表达他们对那些鄙视他们的人的主张，这些人是俾格米人。同样的“大黑人”。