The Demonstration of Resilience in the Drawings of Baka Pygmy Children

Abstract

This paper reveals the resilience of hunter-gatherer Baka Pygmy children, as demonstrated by their drawings. Twenty-five boys and six girls were asked to draw their favorite things on paper with pencils, colored pens and pastel crayons. The results should be considered from different angles such as their drawing process, style, and the content of their works. Their spontaneity, curiousness, adjustability to the unfamiliar stimuli and joy in the new experience were shown during the drawing process. Their final products also revealed resilient factors such as “Productive activity” “Insight and warmth,” “Confident Optimism,” “Skilled expressiveness,” “Adaptability to change.” Through their resilience, i.e., a flexible learning attitude to a transitional and critical situation, I speculate that humans have also been thriving similarly in the face of adversity throughout history.