<p>Those claiming that Pygmies are malnourished don't have any idea what they are talking about.  Their diet is excellent.  Look at their trim, toned, athletic physiques.  The claim that they live in a challenging environment is also naive and ignorant of basic facts.  They split off and found themselves in a region with no downward pressure, where abundant and easy food and shelter allowed them not to intellectually progress for millennia.  It's genetic.  They will not be able to achieve in school for this reason.  Not everyone is exactly the same and that's just facts They are happy and proud of their traditions and are perfectly adapted to their environment.  One or two may be able to learn to read or to think abstractly, but the statistics and anecdotes presented here  show them to be outliers.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-08T10:24:37.333Z
Welcome Lesley. We don't so much work by assertion and argument as by evidence and evaluation of facts (or of the quality of evidence). Can you provide references to support your assertions?
Jiminy Cricket.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-17T13:29:57.343Z
Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer).
Community
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-08T09:13:04.433Z
2023-05-08T09:19:10.023Z
2023-05-08T09:19:10.023Z
leslie landberg
<p>Short answer: There are no such studies, but some pygmy children do learn math, and graduate from secondary schools.</p>
<p>Note: From the point of view of genetic divergence, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoisan" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Khoisan</a> are more commonly considered the oldest distinct lineage of humans (having diverged over 100,000 years ago), with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Pygmies" rel="nofollow noreferrer">African Pygmies</a> perhaps second (at maybe 60,000 years ago).  Divergence is just that however: These branches of the human population have had an equal amount of time to evolve as every other extant branch, just under different selection pressures, so there is not much reason to believe that they are any more similar in intelligence to ancestral humans than any other branch.</p>
<p>Credible demographics of pygmy scholastic achievements are hard to come by for a variety of reasons.  However, this <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-11601101" rel="nofollow noreferrer">BBC article</a> from 2010 claims to document the first pygmy university graduate in Uganda.  Similarly, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Estelle-Levin/publication/265433491_The_Right_to_Learn_Batwa_Education_in_the_Great_Lakes_Region_of_Africa/links/55f7d9b208aeafc8ac0692d3/The-Right-to-Learn-Batwa-Education-in-the-Great-Lakes-Region-of-Africa.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Warrilow (2008)</a> claims to document the first pygmy university enrolment, and additionally one of the first pygmy secondary school graduates in Uganda.</p>
<p>A few other articles note non-zero secondary school education attainment for pygmies - for example <a href="https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.435.905&amp;rep=rep1&amp;type=pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Lewis (2000)</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Those with a full secondary education represent less than 0.5 per cent
of the Batwa population.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Though no source is provided.  And <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10428232.2019.1581041" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Pemunta (2019)</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>... few Pygmy graduates that manage to go through the formal
educational system. ... only two of our 30 Baka Pygmy respondents had
completed primary education.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Several others mention only enrolment and literacy, such as <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139105729.004" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wodon et al (2012)</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>... the rate of school enrollment among children from six to eleven
years of age is extremely low among Pygmies at 18.7 percent ...</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That's based on a tiny sample in the DRC from 2005.  Literacy rate (15+ years) is 30.5% in the same sample.  This <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-pygmies-idUSTRE4953N220081006" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Reuters article</a> from 2008 says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>UNICEF estimates that only 35 percent of pygmy children of schoolgoing
age actually attend classes in Congo Republic ...</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echuya_Batwa#Economic_livelihood" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia</a> says (using a dubious source):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>... approximately 10% of Batwa children are enrolled in school as of
2021.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Why the numbers are so low is beyond the scope of this post, but presumably pygmies face many obstacles, including lack of access, extreme poverty and malnutrition, discrimination and exploitation, and other social, cultural, language, and lifestyle differences, as well as their indigenous right to refuse modernization.  Despite these obstacles, at least some pygmies have managed scholastic achievements, that much is evident.</p>
<p>Additional note: The only published evaluation of pygmy IQ is an estimate by <a href="http://doi.org/10.46469/mq.2011.51.4.2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Lynn (2011)</a> of 53.  How credible this is may depend on how credible you think <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lynn" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the author</a> and his methods are.  Whatever the case, the noted <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Flynn effect</a> indeed predicts that environment is a significant factor in IQ.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-11T17:01:33.890Z
Thanks a lot for your answer!!!
Wolphram jonny
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-11T06:22:40.017Z
2022-09-11T06:22:40.017Z
Arnon Weinberg
<p>I read that pygmies split from other human lineages pretty long ago, before modern humans appeared. That, and the fact that they still remain hunter-gatherers, makes me suspect that they might still share the intelligence of our more archaic human ancestors. I could not find much about pygmy intelligence however, other than them scoring very low in IQ. But we don't really know how much of IQ comes from the environment (eg, think of the Flynn effect).</p>
<p>My question is, are there any studies of pygmies raised in a more modern culture? Can they finish high school, can they learn basic math?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-07T10:06:38.557Z
I don't know about studies of the intelligence of Pygmies but I have heard that there is conceptual dispute in the field about IQ as a meaningful measurement of intelligence. See "Validity" here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient#Reliability_and_validity
Julius Hamilton
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-14T08:04:27.897Z
Beware of basing any deduction about their intelligence on "the fact that they still remain hunter-gatherers": surviving a "hunter-gatherers" life requires at least as much individual intelligence (and probably more) than in a city. The difference is about culture (e.g. starting with agriculture) and the scale of collaboration (tribe for hunter gatherers vs nations for city dwellers).
J.y B.y
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-19T20:25:30.330Z
@J..yB..y I base it on both, the fact that they remain hunter gatherers, and the fact that they split other humans before modern human behavior appeared in the rest of the world.  It is a hint only, may be they independently evolved more complex behaviors, or may be humans had them from way before the appearance of such behaviors in the anthropological records.
Wolphram jonny
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-19T21:57:57.713Z
@CarlosGauss: this is the same (erroneous) argument which was used, for instance, to claim that birds were "less evolved" than mammals in general and humans in particular, the descendants of "loser" dinosaurs. But bird species have evolved from dinosaur during the same time as mammals from their ancestors at the time. And many species have "survived" for longer than humanity has existed. Nor "Remaining Hunter gatherers" neither "spliting before" is an indication of inferior intelligence...
J.y B.y
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-20T17:25:13.500Z
@J..yB..y There is no guarantee that evolution leads to a larger intelligence, so our separate paths from a time in which both of us were less intelligent might have lead to different either levels or kinds of intelligence. You cannot deny that, only an actual controlled experiment would be able to tell which case is true. I was looking for hints.
Wolphram jonny
<measurement><intelligence><iq><cross-cultural-psychology><anthropology>
Is anything known about pygmy intelligence?
Wolphram jonny
# Is anything known about pygmy intelligence?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-09-05)

I read that pygmies split from other human lineages pretty long ago, before modern humans appeared. That, and the fact that they still remain hunter-gatherers, makes me suspect that they might still share the intelligence of our more archaic human ancestors. I could not find much about pygmy intelligence however, other than them scoring very low in IQ. But we don't really know how much of IQ comes from the environment (eg, think of the Flynn effect).

My question is, are there any studies of pygmies raised in a more modern culture? Can they finish high school, can they learn basic math?

**Tags:** measurement, intelligence, iq, cross-cultural-psychology, anthropology

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I don't know about studies of the intelligence of Pygmies but I have heard that there is conceptual dispute in the field about IQ as a meaningful measurement of intelligence. See "Validity" here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient#Reliability_and_validity  
> **username_2**: Beware of basing any deduction about their intelligence on "the fact that they still remain hunter-gatherers": surviving a "hunter-gatherers" life requires at least as much individual intelligence (and probably more) than in a city. The difference is about culture (e.g. starting with agriculture) and the scale of collaboration (tribe for hunter gatherers vs nations for city dwellers).  
> **username_0**: @J..yB..y I base it on both, the fact that they remain hunter gatherers, and the fact that they split other humans before modern human behavior appeared in the rest of the world.  It is a hint only, may be they independently evolved more complex behaviors, or may be humans had them from way before the appearance of such behaviors in the anthropological records.  
> **username_2**: @CarlosGauss: this is the same (erroneous) argument which was used, for instance, to claim that birds were "less evolved" than mammals in general and humans in particular, the descendants of "loser" dinosaurs. But bird species have evolved from dinosaur during the same time as mammals from their ancestors at the time. And many species have "survived" for longer than humanity has existed. Nor "Remaining Hunter gatherers" neither "spliting before" is an indication of inferior intelligence...  
> **username_0**: @J..yB..y There is no guarantee that evolution leads to a larger intelligence, so our separate paths from a time in which both of us were less intelligent might have lead to different either levels or kinds of intelligence. You cannot deny that, only an actual controlled experiment would be able to tell which case is true. I was looking for hints.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_6 on 2022-09-11. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

Short answer: There are no such studies, but some pygmy children do learn math, and graduate from secondary schools.

Note: From the point of view of genetic divergence, the [Khoisan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoisan) are more commonly considered the oldest distinct lineage of humans (having diverged over 100,000 years ago), with [African Pygmies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Pygmies) perhaps second (at maybe 60,000 years ago). Divergence is just that however: These branches of the human population have had an equal amount of time to evolve as every other extant branch, just under different selection pressures, so there is not much reason to believe that they are any more similar in intelligence to ancestral humans than any other branch.

Credible demographics of pygmy scholastic achievements are hard to come by for a variety of reasons. However, this [BBC article](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-11601101) from 2010 claims to document the first pygmy university graduate in Uganda. Similarly, [Warrilow (2008)](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Estelle-Levin/publication/265433491_The_Right_to_Learn_Batwa_Education_in_the_Great_Lakes_Region_of_Africa/links/55f7d9b208aeafc8ac0692d3/The-Right-to-Learn-Batwa-Education-in-the-Great-Lakes-Region-of-Africa.pdf) claims to document the first pygmy university enrolment, and additionally one of the first pygmy secondary school graduates in Uganda.

A few other articles note non-zero secondary school education attainment for pygmies - for example [Lewis (2000)](https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.435.905&rep=rep1&type=pdf):

> Those with a full secondary education represent less than 0.5 per cent
> of the Batwa population.

Though no source is provided. And [Pemunta (2019)](https://doi.org/10.1080/10428232.2019.1581041):

> ... few Pygmy graduates that manage to go through the formal
> educational system. ... only two of our 30 Baka Pygmy respondents had
> completed primary education.

Several others mention only enrolment and literacy, such as [Wodon et al (2012)](http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139105729.004):

> ... the rate of school enrollment among children from six to eleven
> years of age is extremely low among Pygmies at 18.7 percent ...

That's based on a tiny sample in the DRC from 2005. Literacy rate (15+ years) is 30.5% in the same sample. This [Reuters article](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-pygmies-idUSTRE4953N220081006) from 2008 says:

> UNICEF estimates that only 35 percent of pygmy children of schoolgoing
> age actually attend classes in Congo Republic ...

[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echuya_Batwa#Economic_livelihood) says (using a dubious source):

> ... approximately 10% of Batwa children are enrolled in school as of
> 2021.

Why the numbers are so low is beyond the scope of this post, but presumably pygmies face many obstacles, including lack of access, extreme poverty and malnutrition, discrimination and exploitation, and other social, cultural, language, and lifestyle differences, as well as their indigenous right to refuse modernization. Despite these obstacles, at least some pygmies have managed scholastic achievements, that much is evident.

Additional note: The only published evaluation of pygmy IQ is an estimate by [Lynn (2011)](http://doi.org/10.46469/mq.2011.51.4.2) of 53. How credible this is may depend on how credible you think [the author](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lynn) and his methods are. Whatever the case, the noted [Flynn effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect) indeed predicts that environment is a significant factor in IQ.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks a lot for your answer!!!  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2023-05-08. Score: 0

Those claiming that Pygmies are malnourished don't have any idea what they are talking about. Their diet is excellent. Look at their trim, toned, athletic physiques. The claim that they live in a challenging environment is also naive and ignorant of basic facts. They split off and found themselves in a region with no downward pressure, where abundant and easy food and shelter allowed them not to intellectually progress for millennia. It's genetic. They will not be able to achieve in school for this reason. Not everyone is exactly the same and that's just facts They are happy and proud of their traditions and are perfectly adapted to their environment. One or two may be able to learn to read or to think abstractly, but the statistics and anecdotes presented here show them to be outliers.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: Welcome Lesley. We don't so much work by assertion and argument as by evidence and evaluation of facts (or of the quality of evidence). Can you provide references to support your assertions?  
> **username_5**: Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer).  

---

