The KwaZulu
The Zulu people are an African ethnic group who live in Southern African province of KwaZulu-Natal. This region is NOT an agriculturally fertile region. Summers being the driest and harshest. Summers are between November and April, and it is about 24-30 degrees Celsius. Winters are extremely cold, dry, and very humid for the locals. Winters temperatures are from 20 degrees Fahrenheit. For the majority of the year, their climate is very hot and have high humidity levels. Many of the Zulu people live in huts in small villages. Electricity and running water are a luxury. The village children are the ones walking miles at a time to draw water. Having that said, people in the KwaZulu province have to have equipped bodies to even live in these particular harsh conditions. People predominantly from Africa have extra course thick hair, a defense mechanism against the sun. The course hair would help protect their scalps. The skin color of this tribe is a specific adaptation. The Zulu people have deep dark skin color, for these people use manual labor to even survive. The Zulu people live in a dessert regions where there is not much shade and trees, and they are under intense sunlight. In the links provided, it has been stated that nature has selected darker skin for people who live in tropical region, ESPECIALLY non-forested regions. Our skin is like a shield, producing melanin to our skin against harmful ultraviolet rays. The more the a population is exposed to sunlight, the more skin pigmentation is produced.The cultural adaptation that I observed was that the people in this tribe body/clothing covering. It has been said that the Zulu people have been termed as a nude African tribe. These people in this tribe would need the minimum of clothing as possible due to hot temperatures. The race I would describe these individuals resemble is Black.
The Andean Indians
The climate in the Andes Mountain depend on the latitude, altitude, and proximity of the sea, but the southern section of the mountains are rainy and cold, the central section is very dry, and the northern section is rainy and very warm. The average temperature is 18 degrees Celsius/64 degrees Fahrenheit. The people inhabiting these region are among the rainforests. Because of the slopes, the Andean Indians have different lifestyles. They can not travel or farm like we do. Life in the Andes Mountain can be difficult to grow crop, and machinery is impossible because of the slopes of the mountains. Farm work has to be done by hand. The Andean people have a technique called Terracing to increase fertility for their land. Traveling is also difficult for the natives, so they pack with the help of llamas (a cultural adaptation I observed for this particular ethnic group). The Andean Indians are very laborious. The Andean Indians have 20 percent more blood, weigh 60 percent more (due to they need more hemoglobin production for more oxygen absorption), thicker blood which mean they need a stronger and larger heart(said to be a fifth larger),larger lungs, slightly larger feet and hands with more arteries and veins to help them become immune against frostbite. The Andean Indians would resemble an Indian or a Hispanic race.
The Andean Indians farm potatoes,corn, and rice manually.
The Andes Mountain are very tropical, therefore the Andean Indian
are of olive skin tone complexions.
The Andes Mountain stretches down South American through Colombia,
Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina,
These two ethnic groups have come a long way as a civilization facing extreme weather conditions. From the Zulu tribe, they lack access to drinking water on the hottest continents of the world, and the Andean Indian have been said to be among the only civilization to thrive in mountainous regions from not having normal oxygen and temperature level. There is a close relationship between environment and adaptations leading to race characteristics (i.e. The people in the Zulu tribe have really dark skin as a defense mechanism for being under intense sunlight. and the Andean Indians have quite bigger and larger internal organs than most of other human populations because of their environment).
Your introduction was very interesting. You went into their daily lives and also what resources the Zulu would find as luxuries. I did not know that active water water was unavailable to them. The framework of your post was similar to mine, we basically had the same responses to physical adaptations. The pictures you chose were also very interesting, it was a variety showing the two cultures in every day life.
ReplyDeleteWell for me it was sort of tough to look for any cultural adaptations such as tools they use. The only cultural adaptation i did fins was that the majority of the time they are nude, and their knees and arms are covered. That's it. I don't know if you had trouble? For the most part we have similar information on their envirnment.
ReplyDeleteYour post is well done and well-written. Good discussion on the adaptations and great images!
ReplyDeleteThe only think I found to be missing was a true comparison between studying a population based upon adaptations as opposed to labeling it with a race. Which method teaches you more about a population? Which approach would be more useful to an anthropologist?
Otherwise, great post.
Thank you Professor Rodriguez.
DeleteI did forget to include that in my post.My take on that I believe Anthropologists can learn more from studying the adaptations than their race. I believe studies and research based of on an ehtnic group's race is much more limited. Whereas, the adaptations tells more cultural adaptations, behavior,and culture, not just the physical appearances.
Thank you for the response.
DeleteI found it very interesting that the Andeans have more blood, weigh more, with a larger heart and more arteries. I wonder how long the physical adaptations took for them? Or if they are immune to any diseases or do they live longer than the rest of us?
ReplyDeleteThose are very interesting questions Cristal. What I did read was the Andean people were less susceptible to illness when the Europeans came to the America due to living at high altitudes, and they have slightly stronger immune systems.
ReplyDeleteThis is not entirely true... I am the Zulu Native. and going through your blog / findings, I would like to ask you one question... Have you been in South Africa - KwaZulu Natal?
ReplyDelete