From mobility to motility

Changes in Baka mobilities and sociality in north-eastern Gabon

Weig, Doerte

Hunter Gatherer Research (2015), 1, (4), 421–444.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2015.22
Language: English
Pages: 24

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of motility, the capacity to be mobile, as a more in-depth way to account for changes in forager mobility and social organization. research with Baka foragers in north-eastern Gabon shows how they are shifting their subsistence livelihoods by taking up artisanal gold mining, and an extended theoretical approach is called for to give greater acknowledgement to resulting social challenges and changes in these communities. The predominant focus in both archaeological and anthropological discussions has been on observable facts of resource-oriented mobility and human–environment interaction. Motility adds to the understanding of diversified mobilities by focusing not only on actualized observable mobility, but by also considering the choices and limitations, which precede movement. The notion of mobility capital is here introduced to evidence how changing individual and group mobilities challenge Baka egalitarian social organization.

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