Zulu and Andean Indian Enviroments
Zulu Environment
The Zulu population makes up 22% of the 45 million people living in South Africa. They reside near the Indian Ocean and the west Drakenberg mountains. They are surrounded by a variety of ecosystems that they use to their advantage. Throughout the entire year, they receive 35.2 inches of rainfall. This rainfall is essential for growing their food and keeping their livestock. During their summer season, it's not like the temperature here in California.Their summer temperatures range from 67-70 fahrenheit.
Physical Adaptations
Due to European colonialism, Zulu were forced to change the patterns of how they utilize their land. More large-scale farming came to be causing the Zulu to look for different areas to farm. This made it very difficult for the Zulu population because floods were very common with their frequent rainfalls. If they were not diligent on upkeep of the crops, the whole village would suffer from malnutrition. To help better the farming lands the Zule men learned to develop wells to store their water in case of droughts.
Cultural Adaptations
The Zulu population created a close knitted community with circular houses right next to each other. They learned that by creating mud or concrete blocks they would protect themselves from illness and disease outbreaks. Living in closed quarters allowed them to care for those that became ill from the rainfall and floods. The Zulu were also taught to use grass and if lucky enough iron sheets as housing. Before developing their houses, they were susceptible to getting sick because they had no protection from weather conditions. They would sleep outside and could potentially become prey to larger animals. The Zulu were taught beadwork through colonialism. The beadwork is derived from wood, fruit and even seeds. The beadwork was then added to their clothing or as jewelry.
Race for the Zulu population -
After learning about the Zulu population of South Africa. I would say their race is South African. Their cultural practices are non-traditional compared to the customs that we see here in America. For example unmarried women are only allowed to wear skirts and no tops. This demonstrates that they are looking for marriage. The Zulu population also hunts for their food while we go to the grocery store for our meals.
Adaptation vs. Race
Analyzing physical adaptation for the Zulu people made me come to the realization weather plays a huge role if they get to eat. If the weather is too severe and ruins their crops they do not have any local market to shop. They will have to make ends meet with what is available.
Researching the cultural adaptations of the Zulu has been eye opening because their building structure is different than ours. We are not concerned about where the material is coming from or who is building the homes. The same idea follows with the clothing. We purchase our clothing at a department store and do not give it a second thought about who made it or where it's coming from. I don’t think that one adaptation has more power over another. I believe that physical adaptation influenced the outcomes of cultural adaptation. An example would be how they get rainfall all year long and they built homes to keep themselves out of these weather conditions.
Andean Indians Environment
The Andean Indians live on the longest mountain range in the world. It stretches from Colombia to Chile. Since they are living at a higher altitude, their oxygen levels are thinner. They are also surrounded by active volcanoes and have the world’s largest salt flat. In the mountains there is known to be about 30,000 plant species. Out of these 30,000 species there are only a few that actually produce fruit or vegetables. There are only two seasons; during the day it is very hot and at night it gets very cool like winter.
Physical adaption Andean-
The Andean Indians live in an isolated society in the high elevated mountains. They face a lot of challenges cultivating their food because of their climate conditions. Out of the entire year they face 300 nights where frost threatens their farming. As a last resort to preserve their food inventory, Andean people freeze dry their meat and fish. The high altitudes make it easier to grow potatoes, corn, maze, quinoa, peanuts, pepper, cotton.
Cultural adaptions Andean-
As mentioned previously the Andean Indians freeze dry their foods . In order to keep a great amount of their food inventory they built warehouses that only store the food. In addition to the warehouses, the mountains have a lot of alpacas and llamas. The Andean’s use the alpacas and llamas for fleece to create warm clothing to keep warm from the winter nights. Clothing such as sweaters and hats. The Andean Indians built their homes out of stone and adobe to withstand the hot temperatures during the day and the cold winter nights. They found that these materials were better suited for their climate conditions.
Race for the Andean population -
After reading about the Andean Indians I would say they are Native South American. This population is native to the Andes Mountains. They have adapted to the climate changes and have strive through their agricultural developments.
Adaptation vs. Race
After analyzing the physical adaptations for the Andean Indian population, I learned that they have a very good lung capacity. They have adapted to being able to live in thinner air quality. Their bodies have also adjusted to temperature changes. They also learned how to preserve their food in order to decrease malnutrition in their community. Researching the cultural adaptations of the Andean Indeas made me feel like I need to be more resourceful. They use the alpacas and llamas that are on the mountains for food, clothing and even transportation.
Citations:
https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/zulu
https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/cultures/fx20/summary
https://www.worldlandtrust.org/news/2024/05/communities-of-kwazulu-natal/
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Andean-peoples
https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Central-Andean-Indians/480490
You appear to have lost your text-wrapping function. This sometimes occurs when you create your post in Google Docs and copy/paste it into Blogger. Not sure why, but it is your responsibility to check your post after you publish to make sure it posts correctly and can be read easily.
ReplyDeleteThe easiest fix is to copy your text first into a text app, like NotePad, and then copy/paste that into Blogger. It takes out the formatting from Google Docs and let's the Blogger formatting take over.
I'll copy your text below so that I can grade it for now. From now on, you will need to correct these before I grade them.
Zulu Environment
DeleteThe Zulu population makes up 22% of the 45 million people living in South Africa. They reside near the Indian Ocean and the west Drakenberg mountains. They are surrounded by a variety of ecosystems that they use to their advantage. Throughout the entire year, they receive 35.2 inches of rainfall. This rainfall is essential for growing their food and keeping their livestock. During their summer season, it's not like the temperature here in California.Their summer temperatures range from 67-70 fahrenheit.
Physical Adaptations
Due to European colonialism, Zulu were forced to change the patterns of how they utilize their land. More large-scale farming came to be causing the Zulu to look for different areas to farm. This made it very difficult for the Zulu population because floods were very common with their frequent rainfalls. If they were not diligent on upkeep of the crops, the whole village would suffer from malnutrition. To help better the farming lands the Zule men learned to develop wells to store their water in case of droughts.
Cultural Adaptations
The Zulu population created a close knitted community with circular houses right next to each other. They learned that by creating mud or concrete blocks they would protect themselves from illness and disease outbreaks. Living in closed quarters allowed them to care for those that became ill from the rainfall and floods. The Zulu were also taught to use grass and if lucky enough iron sheets as housing. Before developing their houses, they were susceptible to getting sick because they had no protection from weather conditions. They would sleep outside and could potentially become prey to larger animals. The Zulu were taught beadwork through colonialism. The beadwork is derived from wood, fruit and even seeds. The beadwork was then added to their clothing or as jewelry.
Race for the Zulu population -
After learning about the Zulu population of South Africa. I would say their race is South African. Their cultural practices are non-traditional compared to the customs that we see here in America. For example unmarried women are only allowed to wear skirts and no tops. This demonstrates that they are looking for marriage. The Zulu population also hunts for their food while we go to the grocery store for our meals.
Adaptation vs. Race
Analyzing physical adaptation for the Zulu people made me come to the realization weather plays a huge role if they get to eat. If the weather is too severe and ruins their crops they do not have any local market to shop. They will have to make ends meet with what is available.
Researching the cultural adaptations of the Zulu has been eye opening because their building structure is different than ours. We are not concerned about where the material is coming from or who is building the homes. The same idea follows with the clothing. We purchase our clothing at a department store and do not give it a second thought about who made it or where it's coming from. I don’t think that one adaptation has more power over another. I believe that physical adaptation influenced the outcomes of cultural adaptation. An example would be how they get rainfall all year long and they built homes to keep themselves out of these weather conditions.
Andean Indians Environment
DeleteThe Andean Indians live on the longest mountain range in the world. It stretches from Colombia to Chile. Since they are living at a higher altitude, their oxygen levels are thinner. They are also surrounded by active volcanoes and have the world’s largest salt flat. In the mountains there is known to be about 30,000 plant species. Out of these 30,000 species there are only a few that actually produce fruit or vegetables. There are only two seasons; during the day it is very hot and at night it gets very cool like winter.
Physical adaption Andean-
The Andean Indians live in an isolated society in the high elevated mountains. They face a lot of challenges cultivating their food because of their climate conditions. Out of the entire year they face 300 nights where frost threatens their farming. As a last resort to preserve their food inventory, Andean people freeze dry their meat and fish. The high altitudes make it easier to grow potatoes, corn, maze, quinoa, peanuts, pepper, cotton.
Cultural adaptions Andean-
As mentioned previously the Andean Indians freeze dry their foods . In order to keep a great amount of their food inventory they built warehouses that only store the food. In addition to the warehouses, the mountains have a lot of alpacas and llamas. The Andean’s use the alpacas and llamas for fleece to create warm clothing to keep warm from the winter nights. Clothing such as sweaters and hats. The Andean Indians built their homes out of stone and adobe to withstand the hot temperatures during the day and the cold winter nights. They found that these materials were better suited for their climate conditions.
Race for the Andean population -
After reading about the Andean Indians I would say they are Native South American. This population is native to the Andes Mountains. They have adapted to the climate changes and have strive through their agricultural developments.
Adaptation vs. Race
After analyzing the physical adaptations for the Andean Indian population, I learned that they have a very good lung capacity. They have adapted to being able to live in thinner air quality. Their bodies have also adjusted to temperature changes. They also learned how to preserve their food in order to decrease malnutrition in their community. Researching the cultural adaptations of the Andean Indeas made me feel like I need to be more resourceful. They use the alpacas and llamas that are on the mountains for food, clothing and even transportation.
My feedback:
ReplyDeleteZulu:
1. In general good, but one of the key stresses of this environment is heat stress and also solar radiation stress. It would have been good to explicitly outline those here.
2. Physical: As explained in the guidelines, a physical adaptation is a positive change directly to the human body. That isn't what you are describing here. Farming practices are behaviors and cultural practices, not genetic physical traits. An example of a physical adaptation to (for example) solar radiation stress would be darker pigmentation of the skin to protect against harmful radiation.
3. Cultural: Okay, I can see how housing would benefit against predation and weather, but the homes of the Zulu are even better than just a basic shelter. They are structured to enhance ventilation and circulation to keep the structure cooler, a neat adaptation to heat stress. You could also have discussed their lighter cooler clothing, another adaptation to heat stress.
4. "Africa" is a geographical location/continent, not a race. Adding "south" in there helps a bit but there are still multiple races living in that region. There are many races that live in Africa, so we can't use it to indicate just one. Not all are of the same race as the Zulu. In particular, the Afrikaner are white populations descended from German immigrants. They are also 'South African" but their race is white. A more accurate choice for the Zulu would be "black" or "negroid".
Andean:
1. Good description.
2. Physical: Again, farming is a cultural practice, not a physical adaptation. An example of a physical adaptation you see in the Andean population to (for example) the stress of high altitude/hypoxia is a large barrel chest to increase the size of the lung capacity.
3. Cultural: Very good discussion here. Just make sure you understand the difference between a physical and a cultural adaptation, as described in the assignment guidelines.
4. Like above, you are identifying a geographical area, not a race. A better choice for the Andean population is that they are native American Indian.
5. Summary: This was meant to be on summary for both sections. I'll parse together both of your responses.
This last section asked you to compare the usefulness of the two approaches, the adaptive approach vs. using race to understand human variation in physical and cultural traits. You don't consider the issue of race here, you just explore the adaptations (and identify some that should have been included in your post, by the way).
Left out is the exploration of the concept of explanatory power, i.e., which approach better explains why humans vary as they do, the adaptive approach and race? Which one explains why we vary?
Race is not based in biology but is a social construct, based in beliefs and preconceptions, and used only to categorize humans into groups based upon external physical features, much like organizing a box of crayons by color. Race does not *cause* adaptations like environmental stress do, and without that causal relationship, you can't use race to explain adaptations. Race has no explanatory value over human variation. We must use the adaptive approach to understand why humans vary as they do.