Language Blog

Part 1:

This was very difficult not to talk at all. I even had to catch myself a few times from making sound effects to try to display my thoughts. It almost became like a guessing game of charades if she asked a question with two answers I would have to try to indicate which answer was better though hand gestures.

The conversation became more them talking to me, than with me. They could get simple yes/no answers, a few eye rolls, and the occasional eyebrow raised but that was it. It became more just talking and not expecting an answer.                      

    The speaking culture had the advantage, say the speaking culture wants to go to war with a country they just say “lets go to war”, but for the non symbolic speaking culture it would be much more difficult to explain “lets go to war”. I feel as though the speaking culture would have an attitude of maybe superiority over the other since it is easier for them to communicate. Individuals that have difficulty with spoken language would be children, foreigners and handicapped individuals. The way people who can speak, who interact with them is they tend to slow down their words, often times it leads to frustration.
               
Part 2

I managed to almost last the whole time the part I had a problem with was moving my head and eyebrows. What made it so difficult was the inability to move and express with my body. I’m very much a person that conveys a lot of emotion in my face and my body gesture.

In the conversation it was very hard for them to judge what kind of attitude I had, since it was so emotionless it was hard for them to gauge my reactions to specific statements. I had to say a lot more since my face and hands were not saying it for me.   

Non-speech language is very important in our communication skills, it cuts down the time we need to speak. If I can raise an eyebrow inquisitively it conveys “why” without me having to say it.

    Yes there are people who have difficulty reading body language, they tend to be the people that takes things way too far from appropriate and make everyone uncomfortable. Like I said the advantage would be knowing people’s boundaries, and being able to have social skills. Situations where it would be useful for someone else to not be able to read my body language is when you are angry at someone but you don’t want to hurt them or their feelings. It’s a hard thing to think of a benefit to not reading body language because there are so few, it’s so important to know body language.                                                       
Part 3

Yes, it would have helped because then we could have had a real conversation as

opposed to really just me listening to a conversation and agreeing and disagreeing with comments. I would have been able to answer questions and feel a part of the conversation.
    It gives the culture the ability to keep records and stories. It also gives them the ability to communicate to others without having to speak or see each other. It also allows for the ability of signs, imagine how hard it would be to drive somewhere without all the road signs we have, I for one know I would get lost all the time.

Written language for one allowed for the spread of religions, without the ability to write and translate those words it would have been so much harder to spread the religion. Writing also spreads ideas of progressions and even technology. Written language plays a large role in globalization.

Two Cultures

Zulu: 

1. The Zulu tribe lives in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa. They live in a subtropical climate that is the cause of sun and sometimes intense rain. They have sunny conditions most of the year round. Almost 330 days of sunlight which leaves little days without. 

2. The physical adaptation would be their skin color, the dark color of their skin would help them with their intense heat. With more color in their skin it helps block out UV rays, protecting them from the sun.

3. The cultural adaptation is their rondavels or their houses, they are made of mud, grass or iron sheets. They also provide protection from the sun’s heat and shelter. 

4. The Zulu tribe is of African race.

Andean Indians:
    1. The Andean Indians live in the Andes range in South America, stretching from Ecuador to Peru to Chile. Their weather is very tropical, hot and humid.
    2. A physical adaptation they developed is their lungs, they tend to be larger to better suit the high altitude in which they live.

    3. For the Andean Indians the cultural adaptation they created to help support their food source is irrigation systems, and even terraces. It would be hard to grow food in that area without the proper watering

    4. The race of the Andean Indians is Hispanic, since they come from South America.
                                        
Part 5.
It is much better to approach describing populations through their adaptations more than their race. Race does not tell you much, it just tells you the color of their skin. It would be more useful to anthropologists to look at adaptations to understand why culture look and do the things that they do. Race is not very explanatory, while adaptations can tell you why people have larger chests in the Adeas Mountains because they need the extra space for air, or that the people of Africa tend to have darker skin to help them against the harsh sun.       


References:
http://www.sa-venues.com/weather/kwazulunatal.htm
http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Rwanda-to-Syria/Zulu.html
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Zulu.aspx
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/102247/Central-American-and-northern-Andean-Indian

Part A:The five words I choose to describe the Nacerima

• Religious
• Obsessive
• Mutilating
• Conservative
• Economically Motivated

1. Religious- The Nacerima are highly religious people. Believing in magic, medicine men and having shrines they pray to at their own homes. Their religious beliefs have to be strong, their medicine men torture them for healing. It takes great faith to believe that mutilation is good for their well being and for their religion. They have rituals that they take great care to keep their sacredness.

2. Obsessive- While the Nacerima are religious they are also obsessive in their practices and beliefs. They have secretive religious practices that they perform daily. They also are obsessive about pregnancy prevention, bathing and excretory routines. Something that is natural for us as Americans is sacred to the Nacerima and is planned, not according to nature but to a schedule.

3. Mutilating- The healers of the Nacerima perform some of the most horrific procedures on their people. The Latipso ceremonies are one such mutilating afair. It is known to the childern as the place where one goes to die, but it is where the sick go to be "healed". The healers perform torturous acts as Miner describes them, he even stated it's amazing anyone comes out healed.

4. Conservative- It appears that the Nacerima are very conservative people. The only time they expose their bodies is when they go to to perform the latipso ceremonies where they are stripped of their clothing. Their excretory movements and bathing are private rituals and they do everything possible to keep their body clothed. One can only assume that it is because they believe their bodies ugly which is why they perform their rituals

5. Economically Motivated- Miner described the Nacerima as people that spend time in the economical pursuits, Miner also mentioned that the poor emulate the rich. It appears that economics plays a large role in their society, they need money in order to obtain healing, and they also need money to reenter society. Their religious is very economically based in that the rich have it easier and that the poor strive to be richer though the practices of the religion.

Part B:
1. As an American I would have to agree with my word choices, for the most part we are very driven economically base people.  We also "mutilate" out image though make-up, surgeries, dentists, the way we dress, we change our selves. I agree with my words as descriptions of Americans but it may also be a slightly biased view of parts of our culture.

2. I think my words that are unbiased would have to be economically motivated, conservative, and religious. Those words are more straight forward descriptions, that don't necessarily imply meaning. My more biased words would be mutilating and obsessive, they have a connotation of negativity mutilating is a degrading term that is harsh. Obsessive can be viewed in a negative manner as well, it could imply that they have a problem of doing something over and over.

3. For my biased words I could switch out obsessive with committed, committed is more dignified way of saying someone does something regularly. As for mutilating I could have put changing implying we change the way we look, we "remove" our old selves in order to be some thing else so we changed.

4. It's interesting how simple word choices being implied on ones self makes me see a little more clearly at how it would be best to avoid ethnocentric judgements. Judging a culture is not the objective, it is to learn from them to better understand, like the essay said "you can't understand what you don't understand". It is hard to avoid personal cultural bias when looking at a culture but it should be a goal to try and do so, so that you can better understand why certain groups do certain things. You can't learn if you don't ask questions.