In the precolonial era, economic activity in most communities in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo was largely subsistence in nature, characterized by a varying combination of shifting cultivation, hunting, fishing, and gathering. The agricultural technology of most groups was comparatively simple. Livestock were limited to chickens and the occasional goat or sheep. In most communities — particularly those in and on the fringes of the forest — the men valued hunting far above agriculture, and devoted to it not only time but much ritual activity. This pattern was consistent with the division of labour: at best men played a small part in cultivation, usually that of cutting and burning forest or bush before planting. The high social status of hunting persisted even where the d