y come to an end. The elephant's tail was cut off and taken back to the village as proof of the animal's death and as a sign for the women of the village to come to the place of elephant's body. By morning all three tribes were there, the elephants remains were divided and given to each family. Deciding which meat was to be given to what person was based on what role a hunter played in the hunt. The person the struck the blow that killed the elephant got the best cuts of it's meat. The rest of the meat was distributed evenly among the families. The Mbutis are not the heartless elephant killers like they appear to be. After killing the animal the hunters pray over it's body and pray for themselves because they believe that what they did was wrong. Even though they killed out of hunger, the Mbuti believe that their god will not give them eternal life for taking another beings life by killing one of his creatures.While the meat was still being smoked the Mbuti all got together and had what Kevin Duffy calls a "Meat Festival". The "Meat festival" was simply what people today in America might call a family reunion or barbecue. Every person from every tribe had gotten involved. There was singing, dancing, and laughter everywhere. Arumba, the killer of the elephant, sang songs of how he defeated the beast, how it behaved, and described the mortal wound in which he had inflicted. (Duffy, 164) Of course he used the most grotesque words in order to make his own great accomplishment look even greater. This meat festival is so much like a barbecue or family reunion. Families getting together playing games, laughing, and joking around. The Mbutis are not much dissimilar from everyday Americans in that respect. Humans seem to always behave like humans no matter where they are in the world or what technologies they possess. The Mbuti are probably better than Americans in another aspect also. They all hunted together, but not only t...
