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
I was caught by your cultural adaptation for the Zulu. Their traditional housing structure is very adaptive to the heat. The mud and grass structure insulate against the sun and heat and still allow for circulation of air through the structure. The metal sheets is a recent adoption and frankly they are not adaptive. They absorb heat and act like ovens. They tend to only use these if they are in towns where the metal is accessible and the grasses/mud are harder to come by.
ReplyDeleteOne of the key environmental stresses in many Andean populations is the stress of high altitude. You list the larger lungs in the physical adaptations section, so it should have been addressed in the first section.
"Race does not tell you much, it just tells you the color of their skin."
Excellent comment. That is exactly correct. It also tells you more about the background and biases of the person who identifies the race than about the labeled population itself. Nice summary.
I couldn't agree more about, the Andean Indians, crop condition, for all the work that they have to do just for there crops, it's extremely important about working together. Between making sure their weather will be good for there crops, to the distance of walking to plant and pick there food just, amazes me, what they have to do, to survive and that’s just crops, when there is tons of other things to worry about. The Andean Indians are great team workers, which are what a good tribe is all about. Great posting I really enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeleteI liked your description of the Zulu climate. I agree with your interpretation of the physical adaptation of darker skin. I used this in my post as well. I was wondering the reasons for why you classified the Zulu people as African race. What characteristics did you find that linked them with the African race? Also, I really liked how you said that describing populations using adaptations is much better than using race. I believe this is true as well and provides an anthropologist with a more thorough understanding to a group of people.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more with you on your comment about race. Race is truly, in my opinion, based on the color of someone's skin. Like you said, I also don'y believe that race can tell you much about a culture. Focusing on their adaptations will definitely give better results than using race. I really enjoyed your post!
ReplyDeleteGood finds on the cultural adaptation responses. The cultural adaptations I found for these two groups of people were not very accurate because I couldn't really think of something that would relate to the physical adaptations, but I didn't think of various ways the Zulu people could keep cool besides their small amount of clothing. Of course, there should be many other methods they have used to adapt. Also, the cultural adaptation for the Andean Indians was a surprise, I did not think at all of the irrigation systems they use because obviously their climate can be unpredictable and prone to droughts. Good post, however, I do like your points, but I think it'd be nice to have a little more expansion only because I'm interested in your ideas.
ReplyDelete