Climate: The climate is sub-tropical and stays warm year-round. In the Summer, it is hot, humid and wet, with temperatures regularly in the mid-thirties (Celsius). October through April are the Summer months. May through September are the winter months. The winter is dry and pleasantly warm during the day, but cold at night and in the mornings. It is not unusual for there to be thunderstorms in the afternoon, but occasionally the rain lasts all day. The temperatures are between 17 degrees Celsius/56 degrees Fahrenheit, in the afternoon.
Physical Adaptation: The KwaZulu-Natal does not require any clothing to maintain homeostasis. According to the encyclopedia, there is a myth that long ago the Zulus did not die, but rather lived for years. There was times that it was hard to maintain homeostasis; due to extreme weather and heavy rain, that would destroy huts and crops.
Cultural Adaptation: There is an estimated 10-11 million people in the Zulu Tribe. This would be considered monolithic, large, powerful, and intractably indivisible and uniform. Cultural Adaptation has caused changes with the Zulu communities. The Zulu recognize the national holidays. The locals have adapted their age-old traditions to suit modern living.
Race: The Zulu Tribe is considered a Bantu ethnic group of Southern Africa and the largest. The are various different races that exist within the Zulus. For example, there are black Africans and mixed races that comprise the Zulu Tribe.
Adaptation vs. Race: The Zulu Tribe has adapted to their climate, living conditions, and continue to thrive presently. They are a black race of people. For example, even though some of them are mixed races, the one-drop rule makes them black. The Zulu tribe has a vibrate culture, that continue with their traditions, but have advanced into modern society, by adapting and changing to the world around them.
The Andean Indians are classified as Indigenous, meaning they are the original people to the land. Central America is home to the Andean Indians.
Climate: Temperatures range from the specially cold to dry weather. Lowlands tend to be hot, but elevation tempers on some of the islands, and along mountain ranges. The climate changes drastically throughout the region. For example, the Pre-ceramic time lead to the Ice Age. Presently, the melting glaciers; due to global warming has threatened the Andean Indians way of life. As the climate change, the river is drying up, and this water had sustained them for millenia.
Physical Adaptation: In order for the Andean Indians to survive, they had to physically adapt to their environment. For example, to breathe at high altitudes and increased size of the nostrils was a physical adaptation. This allowed additional air intake for sufficient oxygen. Another adaptation was being able to breathe at high altitudes, endurance of cold nights made it both easier and more comfortably, than someone without these physical adaptations.
Cultural Adaptation: The Andean Indians red skin surfaces for increased oxygen supply. Also, the was a noted blood hemoglobin adaptation.
The Andean Indians had control over the landscape for food growth. Farmers grow food on the sides of steep mountains.
Race: The Andean Indians are Indigenous people, but of course like many other races they are mixed, with European, Inca and Spanish. Mainly, they considered Indians and/Indigenous.
Adaptation vs. Race: The Andean Indians have seemed to adapted to their environment quite well, despite of all the challenges they face within their environment. Race does not have anything to do with their survival skills. They have a mixture of races, but they remain a close knit community. Men and women work side by side to make their community run.
Hi Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI thought you did a really good job explaining the cultural and physical adaptations of both populations. I also really liked your photos. I think that the Andean Indians had to physically get used to living in such high altitudes in order for them to survive. I had no idea that global warming would threaten their way of life. It would be quite difficult for someone to survive with drying rivers and little to no crops. I do think, however, that in the higher altitudes, there probably will not be much of heat and denser air. It will still be beneficial to them to have their hemoglobin level raised in order to survive the thin air.
Lots of great images!
ReplyDeleteOkay on your discussion of the environmental stresses for the Zulu population. Missing solar radiation as a stress?
As explained in the assignment guidelines, physical adaptations are those that have required some type of genetic change in the population. Your example of clothing doesn't meet this requirement and is actually a cultural adaptation. An example of a physical adaptation would be higher levels of melanin in the skin to protect against solar radiation stress or a longer, leaner body shape to help release excess body heat (Bergmann and Allen's rules).
"According to the encyclopedia, there is a myth that long ago the Zulus did not die, but rather lived for years. "
As this assignment addresses issues of science, let's steer clear of both myths and Wiki sources. Neither are applicable here.
You aren't specific what cultural changes you are talking about in your next section, but you also aren't talking about adaptations to environmental stresses, as outlined in the guidelines. Your example of sparse clothing would actually represent a cultural adaptation to heat stress for the Zulu.
"For example, there are black Africans and mixed races that comprise the Zulu Tribe."
Correct, there is a lot of variety within the Zulu population, which is actually part of the problem with using race in the first place. Make sure you understand the difference between a 'race' and an ethnic group.
"Environment" is not just about "climate". It is anything in the (in this case natural) environment that can negatively impact human homeostasis. In your second section, you correctly identify physical adaptations to high altitude stress (more correctly called 'hypoxia'), but you don't include this stress in your initial discussion about the Andean environment. It would have been good to include a thorough discussion on this to give your reader a complete picture of the environmental pressures facing the Andean population.
For the Andean cultural adaptation, remember that skin color is a physical adaptation, not cultural, as it requires at some point a genetic change to produce the adaptation. An example of a cultural change in the Andeans is their agricultural practices that take advantage of local crops and herd animals the are already adapted to the limited growing season of their environment.
"Indigenous" only means that they are native to the area. This isn't a race. 'Indian' is a closer description of a race for this population.
"Race does not have anything to do with their survival skills."
I agree, but I'm not sure how this gets to the question of the value (or lack thereof) of using race to better understand human variation, particularly when we are talking about physical adaptations.
Think about what race is. It is a sociocultural contruct, based upon external features only and highly subject to bias. Race's only function is to categorize humans into different groups. It does not *explain* human differences because it doesn't cause those differences. In science, we are looking to explain why humans are different, so how can we use race if it has no explanatory power? Describing populations based upon their adaptations (caused by the environment) is a much more useful and powerful approach to studying human populations.
The clarity in explain the environment was excellent, very easy to follow and understand the world the Zulu live in. It was interesting to read that there is over 10 million people in the tribe. The race chosen to represent the Zulu fascinated, so i looked up the ethnic group and i completely agree with the race to had chosen. I had explain the same adaptations for the Andeans in my blog and it is quite remarkable that they have adapted to such conditions.
ReplyDelete