This book describes and analyses how the Baka Pygmies changed in Cameroon at the turn of the 1960s with the adoption of agriculture and permanent roadside dwellings. Their move from a hunter‑gatherer economy to an economy that includes agriculture is an ideal framework for more general reflection on social dynamics, changes in societies and sustainable development. Over the past twenty years or so, monetary and market economies have spread to the majority of local societies worldwide, and analysing the transition processes those societies are going through is a major challenge. Social dynamics are analysed not as a break with but as a continuation of a movement, with tradition forming the constant of reference without which change would be unconceivable.

The annual Paul Bouteiller Prize was created in 2011 to reward books dealing with the recent history and evolution of a French overseas department or territory, or a State belonging to the following list: Algeria, Senegal, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Chad, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Djibouti, Comoros, Vanuatu.