In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature for populations in which adult men are on average less than 150 cm tall.

The African Pygmies are a group of ethnicities native to Central Africa, mostly the Congo Basin, traditionally subsisting on a forager and hunter-gatherer lifestyle. They are divided into three roughly geographic groups:The western Bambenga, or Mbenga, the eastern Bambuti, or Mbuti, of the Congo basin (DRC) the central and southern Batwa, or Twa. The more widely scattered Southern Twa are also grouped under the term Pygmoid.