The !Kung People: A Unique Way of Life

Environment

The !Kung Location

The !Kung population is located in isolated areas of Botswana, Angola, and Namibia. These regions are located in Southern Africa. They refer to themselves as the Zhun/twasi, "the real people," and are also referred to as the !Kung San. The semi-arid region in which they live features some trees but is mostly brush and grass-covered low hills and flat spaces. Rainfall during the wet season varies from five to forty inches. Temperatures during the winter are frequently below freezing, but during the summer are well above 100F.

This harsh environment was avoided by most outsiders, but the !Kung are able to survive by adapting to their surroundings. They are very isolated and take on their environment by themselves without the help of outsiders. The villages, consisting of 10-30 people, are semi-permanent; once the water source dries up, the band has to carry their belongings to a new site where a reliable source of water can be located. This shortage of water in certain places creates added stress on the !Kung people. The huts they live in are small and built of grass with all doors facing the center, circling a large communal area where children play, women cook, and all family life except for sleeping takes place. A fire is burning in front of each hut at all times.

The arid region in which they live in is generally filled with different types of grass. This grass covers the low hills and flat plains that the !Kung live on. Also, the hills and flat spaces are accompanied by lots of brush. The !Kung are hunter gatherers, adapting to their semi-arid environment by gathering roots, berries, fruits, and nuts that they gather from the desert, and from the meat provided by the hunters. !Kung men are responsible for providing the meat, although women might occasionally kill small mammals. Game is not plentiful and the hunters sometimes must travel great distances. Meat is usually sparse and is shared fairly among the group when a hunter is successful.

Climatic Adaptations

One physical adaptation of the !Kung people are that they have developed darker skin to combat the large amounts of sunlight they are exposed to. They have this darker skin because the excess melanin protects the skin and absorbs more sunlight. If they had lighter skin, they would be more prone to skin cancer and would not be able to survive in the sun. Another physical adaptation they have developed is the ability to sustain stamina to hunt. They have to march very far distances to hunt big game and have developed stronger bodies to achieve this goal. It has helped them gather more food from big games because it is usually sparse.

The !Kung have also gained cultural adaptations that have helped them adapt to their environment. One cultural adaptation is the use of their plants and nuts in the environment to fuel nutrition. The !Kung have adapted their gathering skills to find the fruits, vegetables, and nuts that best provide a healthy nutrition so they can live better. In addition, the !Kung use their environment for their clothing and shelters. Their clothes are made out of animal skin, their shelters of grasses, branches and leaves of shrubs. This use of the environment makes it possible for the !Kung to live in an arid region. Lastly, they have developed many ways into how they gather water. Since their water sources are scarce, the !Kung have used ostrich eggs, which can hold up to one liter of water. Also, they get water from the roots of the shrubs in the desert and drip the water out of the roots. These adaptations have helped the !Kung live in the arid desert.

Language

A map showing dispersion of Khosan languages.

!Kung, also called Ju, is a language complex spoken in Namibia, Botswana, and Angola by the !Kung people. Together with the ǂHoan language, it forms the proposed Kx'a language family. !Kung constituted one of the branches of the putative Khoisan language family. Some unique characteristics of this language are the large number of clicks it has and the many different tones. Scholars say that the language has some of the most complex inventories of consonants and vowels in the world. The !Kung language is also in a written form. The San languages are written in a standardized alphabet based on Latin characters with special symbols for the click sounds unique to the Khoisan languages.  Some of these symbols are //, !, /.  Technical materials are available to explain the sounds these symbols represent. The use of special symbols to represent their clicks shows that the written and oral language was developed in some sort of unison. The fact that they have written language shows that their language is intricate and at high level.

Gender Roles

I can only identify two specific genders in the !Kung culture, male and female genders. One of the defining roles of the male gender is hunting. They are responsible for hunting game and bringing their kill to the band. The !Kung women are responsible for the majority of the food and for the care of the children. The women do the majority of the gathering, such as gathering water, nuts, fruits, and firewood. Both men and women are very good at foraging the edible foods available in their environment. I think the gender roles are not very strict because sometimes the lines are crossed. For example, some women hunt small animals for their meat, not just the men. Also, both genders forage for edible plants and nuts in their environment. I don’t think there are any negative repercussions if one gender crosses over and fulfills another gender’s role. I think if the women were to fulfill some of the men’s hunting roles, they would leave their duties of child rearing and gathering to the men, which would make it impossible for these to get done. It would have a negative consequence on the society as a whole. These gender roles are taught to the young of the culture at a very young age. The young women in the tribe are with their mothers all the time, seeing how they forage for edible foods and watching them do their customary duties. The men learn at a very young age from the older, wiser men of the tribe on techniques of hunting and survival. These are very important traits for a young one to learn because they need to have these traits perfected for when they are older. Culture has the strongest influence on the gender roles of the !Kung. The roles are passed on by the different generations of the culture. But, some roles are biologically inherited for the women, such as child rearing and managing the food. These both have a huge impact on the way things are done in the culture. I think the cultural aspect of gender role identity is more useful to !Kung.

After reading the short passage about the “intersexed child,” I feel that the protagonist would fit in relatively well in my culture. Since there is some overlap in gender roles, it would make sense that an “intersexed” child could fulfill the duties of both genders. They could gather food, look after children, and hunt small animals for their meat. I think this would not be seen as normal to the culture, but they could fit into the gender roles of the culture.

Subsistence

The !Kung culture can be identified as being a hunter gatherer based culture for subsistence. They forage for their food and they hunt for game to get meats. They move from place to place based on the amount of water they have, so they can’t be an agrarian based society. They have a unique ability of finding the edible plants in their environment and eat them for food. There is no evidence that they are moving towards or adapting to a new type of subsistence pattern.

They made food items in the !Kung culture are local fruits, vegetables, nuts, and game. They find their fruit and nuts from different types of plant producing items that are near to them in their environment. If they move to a new place, they must adapt to the food that is available to them. The !Kung has a remarkable skill of finding the edible items for their diets. The men of the tribe hunt big game and use every part of the animal for food, shelter, and other things that they need. These items are all available year round and depend on the place the !Kung have settled.

The subsistence roles are split up based on gender. The men of the culture are assigned to hunting for food and going on trips to hunt big game. They have the responsibility of getting the meat to the tribe and making sure it is split evenly to each tribe. The women pick the fruit and nuts from the shrubbery around the environment. They then will prepare the food and serve it after it has been gathered and prepared.

The general nutritional status of the culture is that they are very healthy and have a wide variety of nutrients. They receive adequate nutritional intake because they do not rely on one certain crop or food. They have many different edible plants that they can find and eat. Also, the culture eats meat from different game that adds nutritional value to their diet. The fact that they are moving little by little to different places makes them more fit and healthy for living on the run.

Economic Systems

The !Kung culture does not produce any surplus in food items. They use everything that they forage for and hunt. They need everything that they find because they do not grow crops on their own or import foods from big corporations. In addition, the culture does not exhibit a specialization of labor. All the women pretty much have the same jobs that they must fulfill to help the community. They all care for the children, the food, and they due chores. The men all have to hunt and gather food. It is not different based on the social level or any special person. The !Kung does redistribute the goods that the tribe has gathered from hunts and forages. They all just rely on the goods that they can get from the environment and use those as needed. When a man comes back with a good kill from hunting, he will share the kill fairly with everyone in the tribe. The !Kung does not have any type of currency or participate in trade. They have been kept unchanged for many years and do not benefit from the inclusion of outsiders.

Marriage

The majority of marriages are monogamous, normally arranged by senior members of the kinship group.  It is preferred to marry cousins, but there is a complicating generational naming system, which can limit cousin choices by naming cousins as siblings in certain cases. More often than not, the first marriage of the !Kungs are arranged by the parents of the bride and groom. The average age of marriage ranges between 12-16 for girls and 18-25 for boys. The arrangement of !Kung marriages usually begins with the mother of the boy approaching the mother of the girl to propose a marriage. If the girl’s family is amiable and concedes to the proposal, a formal engagement is then secured with the conferring of Kamasi (a type of gift that is explicitly “exchanged between the parents of” the “prospective brides and grooms”). Thereafter, both families would frequently engage in a series of gift exchanges, lasting over a decade-long period, prior to the actual marriage of their children.

The !Kung have a strict incest taboo of marriage to an immediate family member. They are also not allowed to marry their first or second cousin. Also, they are prohibited from marrying someone who has the same name as their parents or siblings. The !Kung are a matrilocal society. This means the couple lives with or near the wife’s parents. They practice uxorilocality for the bride service period, which lasts until the couple has produced three children or they have been together for more than ten years. At the end of the bride service period the couple has a choice of which clan they want to live with.

Kinship

The ǃKung classify everyone who bears the same name as close kinsmen as if they were proper relatives. If a ǃKung man's sister is called Kxaru (a common female name), then all women named Kxaru are his "sisters." A ǃKung man may not sit too close to his sisters or tell sexual jokes in their presence, and he cannot marry them. The same rules apply to his sisters' namesakes. To the ǃKung, such customs identify "true" and not merely metaphorical kinship. The ǃKung believe that all namesakes are descended from the same original namesake ancestor, and in effect they treat the status of namesake as a genealogical position, like father, mother, brother, sister, son or daughter.

There are hereditary leaders, sometimes considered chiefs, but they have limited authority.  The chiefs have some duties such as dividing up the meat share from a hunt, and the chief does not get more meat then anyone else. Traditionally social order was enforced by ridicule, dispersal (forced separation) and sometimes even execution.  Infractions are now handled through district councils or government courts.  There was no formal military system.  The San peoples were generally pacifist, though minor skirmishes might occur. The inheritance patterns do match the descent lines for this culture. The Eskimo (Inuit) kinship system is how the !Kung follow naming patterns in their culture. They use terms such as brother, sister, father, and mother for each individual.

Social Organization

The !Kung culture is generally egalitarian except for the chief of the clan. The chief has some very important roles and leadership opportunities for the clan he represents. Not all the members have equal social power, as seen by the chief. There is really no mobility in this culture, except if a man moves into the role of the chief. They are classified as a chief through hereditary leadership and are passed on the power by the generation before them.

Political Structure

The !Kung tribes practice an egalitarian political organization. Politically, each tribe has an uncentralized political system where each member of the tribe is equally in line with the next citizen. Each !Kung tribe has their own sense of political structure and wealth is determined by the tribe according to the amount of meat and food the hunters and gatherers bring in and distribute to the tribe. There are no set leaders in the !Kung society and everyone works for each other. Their core value of modesty allow for this equality among tribe members.

An !Kung elder.

If there is ever a necessity to make a major decision among the tribe, the tribe gathers together and discusses the matter, then makes a decision as a whole. Everyone in the tribe must agree with a decision in order for the tribe to act. However, the wisdom of the elders is highly resourceful to the tribe because that is all they have to offer to the tribe.

The Role of Violence

One role of violence that plays an important part in the !Kung culture is the hunting aspect of their culture. Men are trained to hunt at a young age and carry out the hunting duties of big game for the tribe. This is a very positive thing for the tribe, as it is a major source of food that they need to keep their bodies healthy. Another role of violence in the !Kung culture is the fact that European settlers have been interacting in their culture. This has had a negative effect on the !Kung. These settlers have even been killing the !Kung for sport, which is very sad to see for this culture.

Religion

!Kung are traditionally tribal religionists and are very closed to Christianity.  They believe celestial bodies (sun, moon, morning star, and the southern cross) are symbols of divinity.  They believe the praying mantis is a divine messenger and when one is seen, diviners try to determine the current message. Other animals also have spiritual significance for them.  They also believe that dancing near a sacred fire will give them the power to heal.  Their spiritual leaders are diviners and healers.  They believe ancestors are involved in curing rituals, but they do not revere the dead as the Bantu peoples do.  This practicing of religion is very important to the !Kung culture.  I believe they would not be able to live without their religion, as they would not be able to seek guidance from their divine believers.

Art

The !Kung culture express their art in the form of rock paintings and beadwork. Although the true meaning and origin of these rock paintings is subject to interpretation, many have agreed that they originated from the !Kung because of the close ties to !Kung culture depicted within them. These paintings portray many important aspects of !Kung life, such as the hunting of the eland antelope and the ritual curing dance known as the “trance dance.” Probably the most important art form of the !Kung is their beadwork. Constructed by women, these beads are made from ostrich eggshells. These beads are presented and famed during the “trance dance.”

The !Kung use music as a way of expressing their appreciation of their God. The !Kung say that the songs are given to them by the great God and that they contain n/um, “a mystical potency capable of curing that is also found within medicine men and fire. The repetitive clapping and stomping, and the rhythmic quality of the song has an almost hypnotic effect, which leads the men into a trance-like state.

The !Kung have dance called the “trance dance” that is very sacred to them as a form of art. They use the dance as a way of curing the sick, and it is done very frequently. Once they enter this trance, they may run about in a frenzy, laying their hands on each person to draw out the illness and “fling it beyond the reaches of the clearing.” This art form of dance is considered to be directly tied to God and healing powers, concepts within the superstructure of !Kung culture.

Conclusion

The !Kung have been living a culture that has not changed for many years. The outside world, specifically European settlers, has interfered in a very negative sense. They have killed the !Kung people for sport and have disrupted their natural way of life to the point where some of the culture has died. I feel like the !Kung culture is not thriving or near extinct, but in the middle of the pack. I think they are able to stay alive because of their trusted rituals and unique ability to find resources in their environment. I think they might have trouble finding water in the future as the total amount of water goes down. This culture has not been influential at all in the modern culture that I can find.

Bibliography

http://www.ucc.uconn.edu/~epsadm03/kung.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/!Kung_language

http://orvillejenkins.com/profiles/kung.html

http://ksuanth.wetpaint.com/page/!Kung+Political+Organization

http://ksuanth.wetpaint.com/page/!Kung+Art

Lascaux Caves: Art as a Culture

Functions of Early Art

I think the cave artists were trying to give an amazing review of what life was like during their times. The art displayed in the Lascaux Caves gives the viewer a deep sense of what animals and people looked like back then in the eyes of the artist. The animals most often show movement and expression, as if the artists were trying to show how they functioned and behaved. These portraits of life from over 17000 years ago show people interesting facts of animals, people, and culture from that time period.

I think there were so many more animals in the paintings compared to people because I believe there were more animals than humans where the artists were living. In addition, I feel like the artists would have a better chance of drawing animals than humans because they did not know what an artist was or what he was doing. I think it might have been easier to draw animals in the cave, as well as they would look more elegant having many different types of animals painted on the wall.

The paintings can tell us about the life of animals in the early cave dwellers eyes. They show they shape and movement of many different animals, and we can compare them to animals today. In addition, the art shows how animals were accepted by the culture and how they behaved. Also, the paintings show early human culture and what the early humans looked like. The paintings show what type of medium was readily available in the early cave dwellers life. It showed that they considered art to be a very important part of their culture. The paintings also show some ancient figures such as ancient star charts. This shows that the early cave dwellers relied on star formations to help them through everyday cultural life. This shows some high intelligence of these people.

These early humans faced many difficult tasks to be able to paint the amazing figures in the caves. The artists had to paint inside steep, dangerous caves that had to be very dark. It would be a very difficult challenge just to get into the caves and around them without being injured. I think painting on surfaces of rock that is very uneven would be difficult to control the painting process and how one would want to paint. I think it would be difficult for some of the artists to paint the animals they did because they would have to observe them without being harmed.

I think these paintings provide important functions to the culture of these early humans. One function of the art would be to serve as a leisure activity to the people of the early cave dwelling society, serving as their society's pastime. Secondly, I think the art serves as a medium of history to show what life was like back in the early cave cultures. Even thousands of years later, one can view amazing paintings that portray the history of these cave dwelling humans. Thirdly, the art could serve as a source of communication between people of the early humans. They could use their art as a source of telling a story and communicating to another individual or group.

Commonalities in Function

The functions in the art of the early humans compared to that of modern art shows some important similarities. One similarity is that the art provides a leisure for the culture. One can use art to fulfill hobbies and as a medium to express oneself. In addition, modern and early art is used as communication of stories and thought. The art is seen as a medium to tell stories and spread ideas in the artist's culture. In both early and modern art, the art serves as a function of preserving the history for future generations. The art can be viewed by many generations in the future and can see what culture was like for the artist and what influenced him to create it.

My Favorite Art: Sculpture

People who use sculpture to express themselves do so by creating a three dimensional piece of art. Sculpture serves as a way for the artist to model something in real life or to model abstract ideas that show their emotion in their mind. The material the artist uses to sculpt with serves as a function. The material signifies a mood the artist wants to create for the viewer of the sculpture. In addition, some sculptures function as a preservation of history, such as a famous person. They want this person's legacy to live on for as long as possible to give future generations more information.

I think the art of sculpture had its own culture back in the early years of the Greek culture. They used there own set of language and behaviors throughout the making of sculptures. The sculpture was a very important part of the Greek culture and is seen today has its own unique art form. Today, I  don' think there is any special form of unique dress or behavior that goes on in the art form of sculpture. I think the only unique ideas that surround the art form is the language used to describe the process of sculpting. All the techniques and different mediums used have a unique language that only the sculptors know.

I think this art form benefits society because it can be used to showcase the life of human being who have changed our history in a positive modern. Sculptures and statues of presidents and war heroes remind people of the amazing things they have done in there life. Also, abstract sculptures serve as a unique way to showcase different emotions and give other people something to think about when they see an amazing sculpture. It gets them thinking critically and realizing that art is an important part of our culture. Although all of these reasons are positive, I think sculptures can have an negative consequence. They can be vandalized and create a cultural problem for some people in different parts of the world. Sometimes, sculptures or statues of bad people are made and they create an uneasy feeling for people who think they should be brought down. Some examples of these are the Saddam Hussein and Joe Paterno statues.

The Yanomamo Culture: Politics and Violence

All cultures have different rules or laws regarding the killing of other people and the punishment they shall receive. In Western culture today, laws are written in stone that prevent people from killing another person. There are very strict laws that will punish a person who is to break these rules of killing, such as life in prison or the death penalty. In contrast, the Yanomamo have no written language and no formal laws. They violate general rules and customs whenever personal gain can be achieved. Since they don’t have a written form of laws as a guiding principle, the rules are broken on a near daily basis. Many different types of violence are a result from the lack of written language and law.

In the Yanomamo culture, the most common reason for killing is the act of revenge on a previous killing. The main reason they cite this revenge is because of “women.” The people who are out for revenge must be careful of an ongoing, viscous circle of revenge back in their direction. The Yanomamo see the revenge killing as an advantageous counterbalance to the killing that was done to them earlier. In addition, the Yanomamo explain that a village that has a reputation for swift retaliation is attacked less frequently, and as a result they do not have as many mortalities. Also, the Yanomamo culture sees revenge as a social benefit, giving men who take part in revenge as having higher reproductive success and higher marital success. These two benefits to the act of revenge show why it is so important in the Yanomamo culture.

Unokais: Those who have killed. In the Yanomamo culture, one who kills must follow a ritual purification called unokaimou. One purpose of this ritual is to avert any supernatural harm on oneself from the soul of the victim. The benefit of being a unokais means you are fierce and respected as one who enacts revenge. Another benefit of the unokais is the higher reproductive success than a non-unokais. This greater success in reproduction is due to the greater success of finding a mate. This is one reason a man would rather become a unokais rather than a non-unokais. The benefit of being a non-unokais would be the benefit of a less risky life of killing and revenge. They live a life with fewer mortal risks than the unokais.

Revenge killing is an integral part of the Yanomamo culture. It has relationships with all aspects of life, including political structure, social status, kinship, and marriage and reproduction. Each of the Yanomamo villages has certain descent groups. Each descent group has one or more political leaders, or patas. These patas can have many wives and a lot of children. They are the headsman of the group and all of them in the given study are unokais. In the tribal world warfare is the extension of kinship obligations by violence because the political system is organized by kinship.  Revenge killing has a big influence on the social status of the Yanomamo culture. Those who participate in revenge killings are seen as higher up on the social ladder. They have more power and influence on social organization among the village people. Kinship relates to the revenge killings and how people are related to each other in their culture. A person is related to another if at least one genealogical connection between them exists. Most individuals, however, are related to their kin in multiple ways. In most villages well over 80% of the members are related to more than 75% of the village. Data from the article shows that members of the village are related to each other more closely than half cousinship. Killing among the Yanomamo culture is very important for the loss of individuals. Nearly 70% of all individuals (males and females) age 40 or older have lost at least one close genetic kin due to violence, and most (57%) have lost two or more. This is a very important factor to why the village people lose so many family members. Revenge killing has a huge affect on the marriage and reproduction behavior of the Yanomamo. Those who participate in the revenge killing, the unokais, have a higher rate of marital success and a higher rate of reproductive success. Both of these facts are due to them having greater success finding a mate to marry and reproduce with. They find greater success finding mates because they either appropriate them forcibly from others, or by customary marriage alliance arrangements in which they seem to be more attractive as mates than non-unokais. As you can see above, revenge killing constitutes a major part of the Yanomamo culture.

I think we must have laws against “anti-social” behavior, like killing other people. Even though these actions are considered ones that no one should want to do, they must have laws instated against them because violence is a potent force in human society and may be the sole driving force of human evolution. As organisms on Earth, we are implanted with traits to promote our survival and reproduction, which means we may have to kill to revive these human needs. Also, I think some people who have emotional disorders can kill other people without realizing the importance of the crime of taking a life. Laws must be present to remind them of the importance of taking a life. I think we should have more stringent laws on anti-social behaviors. This should make it less likely for people to commit these heinous crimes.

Kinship Analysis

I choose to interview my grandfather, Jim Tanner, for the kinship analysis essay. My grandfather was born in Sterling, Colorado in 1934. Since then, he has moved out to California and has lived in Santa Clarita for over 40 years.  He comes from Swedish and English descent and considers himself a middle class citizen. He has retired from the education sector and has taken maintained a great relationship with his family. I knew he would be a great choice for an interview in order to fulfill this assignment.

As far as the interview goes, I felt very comfortable throughout the entire interview. I even asked my grandfather how it went afterwards, and he said it was very pressure-free and relaxed. Conversing in a calm tone helped maintain a nice atmosphere to get a solid interview done. Also, the interview was conducted in my grandfather’s home, which added a more comfortable setting for him to answer some questions. There were not any specific times I could think of throughout the entire interview that created awkwardness. This helped me get all the information I needed for the interview without making anybody uncomfortable. On the other hand, I think it would have been much more difficult if I was interviewing someone that was unrelated to me. The fact that I would not have as much knowledge with the person, it would make it more difficult to talk to this person about important information. Also, I think there would be many more awkward instances throughout the interview that would create some uneasiness for both of us.

When analyzing my family’s kinship chart, I found some patterns dealing with family size, closeness, and socialization levels. The size of my family is very large and continues throughout the entire chart. Most sections of my family have at least three to five kids. This is higher than the average amount of kids. My grandfather had four other siblings, with each of them having an average of four kids. I think this large family size was an idea passed on from generation to generation and has continued today. My grandfather was closer to his children rather than his nieces and nephews, which is what I expected going into the interview. I think this is the same for most families today. My grandfather knew everybody in his family and knew a lot of information about them. He knew more about his children and grandchildren that lived very close to him, which is expected because he communicated with them more than others farther from him. Throughout the kinship chart, I saw a pattern of socialization patterns. All of the members were apart of the middle class level and believed in the same cultural values. The attitude towards younger members and older members remains the same in my family. Each age group is represented equally, and they are treated equally. My family is very ethnically similar, which creates no social impact on the family’s relationship with one another. My kinship chart follows a pattern of patrilocal residence. This means the residence pattern of the married couple lives in the husband’s father’s place of residence. I did not see any emphasis on a maternal or a paternal line of descent on the kinship chart.

I learned a lot of information after interviewing my grandfather for this kinship assignment. I know the relatives on both sides of my family, but I would say I am much closer to the relatives on my mother’s side of the family. I socialize and visit with them more as well. This is due to ethnic reasons that have created more relationships with the family on my mom’s side. I think my grandfather and my grandmother have the most influence on decisions made in the family. I think this is because they are the most vocal about many decisions and our family trusts them to make the right decision. Also, they are the eldest in the family and have experience making difficult decisions. They also know the most about each of their family members, which helps them make educated decisions. I think that family members are treated differently when they are married into our family. There is more scrutiny on their actions and decisions. I can remember some specific examples where the member married into the family was treated differently than if they were born into the family. I don’t believe there is any attitude that changes based on the gender of the family member. I think each gender is treated equally in my family. I have learned how big my family really is, and that I did not even know about some of my distant relatives at all. It was really interesting to here that they had some common themes that I had. In addition, getting to interview someone about kinship patterns was a new way of practicing my interviewing skills and getting more information about my family. I had a lot of fun learning many new things about kinship and my family.

Subsistence and Economy

Part 1

Two major types of subsistence patterns used by humans have been hunter-gatherers and agriculture. Both of these types of subsistence patterns have benefits and drawbacks. The benefits of a hunter-gatherer system are less exposure to disease due to constant migration, a more diverse range of foods, and a healthier lifestyle due to constant movement. The hunter-gatherer moves around from place to place without staying stagnant. This characteristic didn’t suit a healthy environment for some disease like it does today in crowded establishments. In addition, the hunter-gatherer had a wide range of food due to movement to new environments. This means they are not eating only salty or sugary foods that cause health problems. Finally, their migratory lifestyle has the ability to enhance health by constantly walking and moving.

The benefits of an agricultural system of subsistence include a steady source of food, a more specialized workforce, and the ability to sustain larger populations. The agrarian society gives people a steady source of food supply that can be relied on for most times of the year, except for drought or insect problems. The fact that people can rely on a steady source of food means they have more time settle in one location and concentrate on other forms of leisure. Also, the invention of agriculture resulted in a specialization of skills. People could now designate their skills toward certain parts of their society due to the fact that they could settle down. Finally, the agrarian society has allowed large populations to settle in one place because of a steady food source. These people can stay in a settlement without worry that they need to search for food.

Even though these subsistence patterns have many benefits, they also have some drawbacks. The hunter-gatherer has to find food on a day-to-day basis because they do not have a permanent source of food like agrarian societies. This means that they can die from hunger if food is not found in their new environment. Another disadvantage of the hunter-gatherer system is the fact that this system cannot sustain a large population of people. Since they migrate and find new places for food, they can only travel in groups small enough that the food they find can sustain.

The agricultural system of subsistence has some disadvantages as well. Their agricultural product is not permanent, it can be subject to water shortages, insects, and low food yields. These factors make getting the amount of food you need very difficult. In addition, the agrarian society can suit large populations, which allow disease to thrive. Many new diseases were present in places of agricultural settlement due to the populous amount of people. Even though the agricultural society creates labor specialization, this can be seen as a drawback because it means people do not have an all around skillset that they can use to help them throughout their life for many different situations.

I think the hunter-gatherer system provides a healthier lifestyle. The constant change in food means that people are not eating the same foods repeatedly. The constant movement from place to place and eating of nutritional foods makes the diet healthier for a hunter-gatherer. The fact that they can only support how much they can feed means that they can eat much smaller portions of food at many more intervals throughout the day, which are healthier for humans.

I think early humans turned towards agriculture because they found it very hard to be constantly migrating from place to place all the time. I think the human bod has trouble acquainting to new places all the time. They just needed to find a steady source of food, which is why they went for agrarian societies. The early humans did not want to lose loved ones and travel in small groups. They wanted to keep all members alive so they had to develop an agricultural based system.

Part 2

There is a direct relationship between the availability of surplus and the ability to trade because one must have the necessary amount of goods to survive for them as well as to trade to other people. It is impossible to trade something that you do not have.

Two social benefits to trade include the increase in social relationships and the increase in specialization of certain technologies of the trading parties. When two parties trade, they are creating a social relationship between one another because they are mutually trading items that benefit one another. This creates relationships that last between people, countries, and industries. In addition, trading creates specialization within society. Since one party may be trading their products to others, they can specialize their technology so they become very efficient in what they are doing to increase profit.

Two negative social results of the development of trade are the creation of monopolies and the increase in debt relations between parties in the trade. A monopoly is when a particular person or enterprise is the sole supplier of a certain commodity. This is a drawback because if one person controls a viable commodity, they can drive up the prices and people will have to go through them to buy that commodity. On the same note, trade can create debt implications on parties that trade products for something of lesser value. This puts countries in international debt, setting them back in areas such as education, healthcare, and infrastructure in order to use their money to pay back debt.

Agriculture is related to trade by the production of food products that can be traded between regions throughout the world. Now that humans have found a way to settle in a place viable to grow crops, they can trade to others around the world to obtain items that will help them survive. Since all humans cannot produce everything that they need to survive, trading has helped them get these items.

Language

Part 1: No Symbolic Language

I found this part of the experiment very difficult. The fact that I could not use any form of normal language, which is what I use everyday of my life, to communicate with someone made it very challenging. Since I was not use to communicating in this manner, the person I communicated with had trouble understanding some of the words that I was relaying. My partners impressions throughout the conversation were very demonstrative. My partner altered the way they communicated after seeing how difficult it was for me to communicate what I was trying to relay to them. My partner's hand and facial expressions became very demonstrative, as if they were trying to expel the information I had trouble communicating to them. They made a lot of face, hand, and speaking gestures that were different then normal in an effort to try to further understand the information I tried to communicate. I think the culture that has the ability to speak has an advantage in communicating complex ideas because they are used to speaking this way ordinarily, which allows them to express all their ideas at their full capacity. The speaking culture might view the culture that does not use symbolic language as being of lesser intelligence. They might see them as being underdeveloped because they do not use the same language type as the speaking culture. This can be seen as a form of ethnocentrism towards the culture using non symbolic language. Some individuals in our culture that have difficulty communicating spoken language are the deaf community and newborn kids. Interacting with the deaf community can be very difficult because they cannot hear what you are saying to them. Even though they can pick up lip movements, the deaf rely heavily on facial expressions, gestures, and sign language. To speak with them, one must have a sign language translator or use many gestures to communicate efficiently. In the case of newborn kids, they have not learned how to speak. Most parents have trouble communicating to newborns because they cannot speak directly to them about the issue present.

Part 2: Spoken Language

It was very difficult to last 15 minutes using only speech for communication. I had to continually think about the task in order to complete the 15 minutes, which made it very difficult to communicate effectively. Since I use all types of language and communication everyday throughout my life, it was difficult to change up my normal way of communicating. It was difficult to speak without using any inflections or modifiers in my voice to add emphasis. My partner could understand for the most part was I was saying, it was much easier for them to understand then the first part. My partner said I became very monotonous while communicating, which made it difficult to follow along with the conversation. Also, my partner was using gestures and body movements which made it harder to speak without using those certain movements. Our non-speech language in our culture is very important to allow us to communicate effectively. The hand signals, vocal intonations, and body movements add emphasis to the spoken language to add clarity and subject to the communication process. This makes it easier to understand the content of communication. There are people who have difficulty reading body language. These people include the blind, senior citizens, and young children. The adaptive benefit to reading body language allows others to pickup subtle cues that help understand what another person is trying to communicate. Also, understanding body language allows a person to bond with other humans. I think there might be an advantage to not being able to read body language in an environment where one would not gain any extra knowledge about what the communicator is trying to say. It would be a useless adaption to acquire a trait of being able to read body language.

Part 3: Written Language

I think part one would have been way easier if I had been able to use written language. I feel that written language has the same power as spoken language if the person you are communicating to can read. The written language would provide as a substitute for spoken language. The only thing that would make it more difficult to understand then speaking is the amount of time it would take to write and read the dialect. This could create an unnatural amount of time between people who give and receive communication. Written language allows a culture to set policies and rules for given parts of a culture. For example, the laws we write down using written language are set in stone so our country can run smoothly. Written communication is more explicit and precise then spoken language. This can help to create a universal means of communication, easily able to be understood. Written language has had a giant impact on the spread of ideas around the world. Written language has allowed new ideas to spread to places where spoken language would not be understood. The written language can be interpreted in many different countries to help spread positive ideas. On the other hand, written language can also bring about negative impact on globalization of ideas. For example, the spread of written ideas of unjust rules to countries that act wrongfully in the way they treat humans makes written language uneffective towards positive impact.

Environmental Adaptations of the Zulu and Andean Indians

Zulu Population

The Zulu Environment

The Zulu people live in the northern regions of kwaZulu-Natal, on the eastern seaboard of South Africa. Also called Zululand, the Zulu climate consists of a warm sub-tropical climate for most part of the year. Summer temperatures (November to February) are hot, ranging from 24 to 30 degrees Celsius (about 80 degrees Fahrenheit). The winter temperatures hover around a comfortable 20 degrees Celsius (about 70 degrees Fahrenheit). The winter night temperature dips to around 11 degrees Celsius (about 52 degrees Fahrenheit). The rest of the year has very hot days and high humidity levels due to the fact that the Zulu population is subject to sunlight throughout the entire year. The total number of average rainfall days in Zululand in one year is 115 days.

Zulu Physical Adaptation

Zululand is located just south of the equator, resulting in lots of sunlight reaching this part of the Earth. Due to this abundance of sunlight, the Zulu people acquire new physical traits that occur through evolutionary processes over generations of time. It involves actual genetic change in an entire population in response to consistent environmental stress and change over a long period of time. The trait they acquire is the production of more eumelanin, melanin that produces dark brown to black colored skin. This darker colored skin allows for more ultraviolet radiation blockage, which is prominent where the Zulu people live. Although this shielding of light is good, complete blockage of ultraviolet radiation results in negative effects for the Zulu people. A little bit of the radiation needs to be absorbed by the body to keep adequate amounts of Vitamin D. New evidence suggests that vitamin D may help prevent a wide range of cancers, including those of the colon and breasts. Since the Zulu people are at risk to sun exposure, this increase in melanin production helps maintain their homeostasis. 

A photo of the dark-skinned Zulu people to help combat their intense exposure to ultraviolet radiation.

 Zulu Cultural Adaptation

As said before, the Zulu culture is subject to year round sunlight. The Zulu have adapted their way of dressing by using clothes that show a lot of skin and keep them as cool as possible. They even build their clothes straight from their natural environment. The use of minimal clothing in the warm temperatures allows the Zulu people to remain at a normal, homeostatic body temperature. If they were to wear large, fur coats like other cultures, they would overheat and become at risk to death and bodily harm.

Typical Zulu Clothing.

 The Zulu Race

 I would describe the Zulu people as being part of the Negroid race. The Negroid race is characterized by the brown to brown-black skin, usually a long head form, varying stature, and thick, everted lips. The Negroid peoples are found in the part of Africa that is south of the Saharan desert. I think the Zulu people fit perfectly in this category because they are from Zululand which fits the description of where the Negroid race is found. In addition, the Zulu people show the physical signs of being in the Negroid race.

Andean Indians

The Andean Environment

The Andean Indians inhabit Central America (South of Guatemala) and the northern coast of South America. The area is located largely within the tropics. The seasons are classified by extreme changes in rainfall more than extreme changes in temperature. The lower parts of the Andean environment tend to be hot, while the elevated regions maintain cooler temperatures. Areas of heavy rainfall support dense forest, whereas a few dry regions support little more than sparse grass. Elevation plays a key role in the environment one will see where the Andean Indians live.

Andean Physical Adaptation

Since the Andean Indians live in high elevated places, they have physically developed traits that counteract the effect of oxygen deprivation at high altitudes. Common humans began to lose oxygen at an altitude of around one to two miles. Some regions in the Andes are up to three miles high. The Andean Indians haev develpoed traits over thousands of years that give them the advantage to live at such a high altitude. The Andean Indians have a skin surface that is red because they are making more red blood cells on the skin's surface to get the needed amount of oxygen to their tissues. These people have additional red blood cells and capillaries to carry more oxygen.  The lungs increase in size to facilitate the osmosis of oxygen and carbon dioxide.  There is also an increase in the vascular network of muscles which enhances the transfer of gases. These adaptations help the Andean people survive in their unique environment.

Red skin surface for increased oxygen supply.

Andean Cultural Adaptation

Since the Andean people live at high altitude in the mountains, most farmland is hard to find because of the slope or the elevated areas. Sporadic periods of rainfall make it even tougher to find the right times to farm. This makes it very difficult to grow adequate food for proper nutrition. To aid these tough conditions, the Andean Indians have come up with a system of forecasting the rains using simple astronomical
observations. These observations of when the rain will come and go are remarkably reliable and give the Andean people a way to grow food.

Typical Andean Farmers.

The Andean Indian Race

The Andean Indians can be described as part of the Mongoloid race. The Mongoloid race includes most peoples of Eastern Asia and the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The description of race for these people is described as affron to yellow or reddish brown in skin color, of medium stature, with a broad head form. The hair is dark, straight, and coarse; body hair is sparse. The eyes are black to dark brown. The epicanthic fold, imparting an almond shape to the eye, is common, and the nose bridge is usually low or medium. I feel the Andean people fit this classification of race.

Summary – Adaptation vs. Race

Comparing the two types of classification of people, I think the classification using physical and cultural adaptations is better than using race. The classification using the adaptions towards one's environment gives much more explanatory information towards many actions and ideals the culture is accustomed to. On the other hand, race is a very general way of describing people, only basing it on their outward appearance. This generalization of appearance does not account for their adaptive difference to their respective environments one would be missing if they did not describe them. I think the environmental adaptation approach is a much more effective way of describing populations for anthropologists.

Sources

Zulu Environment: http://www.zulu.org.za/index.php?districthome+29++57984 
Zulu Environment: http://www.zoover.co.uk/south-africa/kwazula-natal/zululand/weather 
Zulu Physical Adaptation: http://anthro.palomar.edu/adapt/adapt_4.htm
Zulu Cultural Adaptation: http://www.zulu-culture.co.za/zulu_clothing.php
Zulu Race: http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0860612.html
Andean Environment: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/102247/Central-American-and-northern-Andean-Indian
Andean Physical Adaptation: http://anthro.palomar.edu/adapt/adapt_3.htm
Andean Cultural Adaptation: http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/orlove/New%20Publications/2002%20American%20Scientist.pdf
Zulu Race: http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0860612.html

The Nacerima Way of Life

  Part A

Spiritual

The fundamental belief of the Nacerima is to use ritual and ceremony to counteract the belief that the human body is inherently ugly.  Their spirituality is seen in the multiple shrines in each household devoted to this fundamental belief.  Also, the Nacerima keep many charms and potions in their shrines, with which they believe they can't live without.

Fascination

The Nacerima have an unlikely fascination of the human mouth.  This fascination with the mouth can be seen by the fact that the mouth has a supernatural influence on the social life of the Nacerima people. Without these rituals for the mouth, they believe their mouths would become infected with diseases and misfortune. This fixation of the mouth can be further seen when the Nacerima seek the holy-mouth-man once a year, and continue to believe even though their teeth continue to decay.

Ritualization

The latipso, an imposing temple of the Nacerima medicine men, is where elaborate ceremonies to treat the sick are performed. Little children speak of the latipso as the place "where you go to die." This place of ritual seems slightly counter intuitive, a place of healing the sick that many fear they will die. This is because many of the rituals performed in the temple are very harsh to the human body. For example, discomfort, torture, manipulation, and mutilation of female patients occurs at the temple during rituals. Still, these harsh rituals do not decrease the faith of the Nacerima in their medicine men.

Illogical

The Nacerima people's thought can be seen as illogical. They follow certain rituals for certain aspects of their life, but not others. This can be seen in the role of the "listeners." They believe that parents, especially the mothers, bewitch their children's minds. "The counter-magic of the witch-doctor is unusual in its lack of ritual" as compared to the other rituals they perform in their lives, such as in their shrine boxes, mouth fascination, and the temple rituals.

Extraordinary

The Nacerima people's mind show some incredible characteristics when studied. For example, the Nacerima can retain huge amounts of information in memory during their exorcism rituals, even things from their birth. In addition, it is extraordinary how the Nacerima have continued to leave for such a long time while imposing such harsh conditions on their health and bodies throughout their everyday lives.

Part B

As an American, I feel confident in the way I described my culture except for the descriptive word, illogical.  By using illogical, I feel I showed some cultural bias in using this word to describe the Nacerima people. I feel that the other four words I choose are a great way of describing our culture as well as many other cultures. These descriptive words give a sense of the way Americans live and how they act.


I feel that two of the words I used to describe the Nacerima show ethnocentrism.  The words fascination and illogical show a cultural bias I have towards the description of the Nacerima people.The word fascination shows bias because I am not accustomed to seeing people who are fixated on the human mouth. Since I have not understood why they have this fascination and I have not talked to someone who acts this way, I can't judge the way that the Nacerima feel about their rituals. In additon, the word illogical is biased because I don't fully understand the reason that the Nacerima perform certain rituals that are different to me. Some of these rituals could be understood better if I looked at the meaning and the adaptive function of the act. On the other hand, I feel the words spiritual, ritualization, and extraordinary are not culturally biased. I think these words are mostly universal to cultures because of their special rituals and acts.


A word that can replace illogical to create a description free from bias is unique. By using the word unique, I feel this accurately describes the actions of the Nacerima fairly without showing culture bias.  Since I have not studied or understood their culture, I should not use illogical to describe their cultural actions. Also, a word to replace fascination is commitment. The Nacerima may have adaptive or function based reasons to why they fixate towards certain items that are different from what I believe in.


I believe it is very important to avoid ethnocentrism when studying and describing foreign cultures. It is important to describe these foreign cultures free from cultural bias because we do not understand their culture if we have not fully experienced it first hand. If we don;t understand their culture, then we are assuming something that is not proven to be true. I don't think it is possible to completely avoid ethnocentrism because our mind shows unconscious bias that we don not even know exists. But, I think we can avoid it enough where we give a fair understanding of the culture to a point that correctly describes the culture.