Le cri du calao

Abstract

The author shows that interspecific association underlies the system of representation in a Baka songfable which depicts the origin of ritual hunting powers. In order to investigate this interpretation, the comparison of the symbolic, ethnoscientific and scientific corpus is applied to three mythical figures: the tick, the elephant bird and the bird’s song. These data are interpreted to be thought according to a systemic rationale, based on several degrees of heterospecific dependence, starting from the « most advanced » parasitism to commensalism, passing by mutualism-parasitism and an additional intermediate interspecific relationship. Therefore, they can be considered as symbolic concepts of heterospecific biological inspiration.

Keywords

• Baka hunter-gatherers
• Cameroon
• songfable
• hunting power
• forest elephant Loxodonta cyclotis
• elephant bird