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.