Population Comparisons
Zulu Population:
1.
Environment of population:
Rainfall is typically between .4 and 5
inches of rain throughout the year.
Climate can change from highs of 84 degrees
Fahrenheit in the winter time to lows of 66 degrees Fahrenheit also in the
winter time.
In the summer time highs of 77 degrees
Fahrenheit and lows of 44 degrees Fahrenheit
Fall and spring wall in between these too.
2. Physical
adaptation they present:
One physical
adaptation they have is the tone of their skin. It is one of the much darker
varieties. This tone of skin is based on the amount of melanin and they need
this because they live in an area where they may be more contact with ultra
violet rays that are harmful to skin types that have less melanin and can cause
skin cancer or melanoma.
3. Cultural
adaptation they present:
The cultural
adaptation of the Zulu population would be the war tactics of King Shaka. During the
late 1700s, when the Zulu population faced great threat from invasions, King
Shaka developed new tactics and weapons to help combat their opponents while
also starting off a new tradition among warriors.
4. Race?
Based off of
physical appearance, the Zulu , would best be described as part of the “African”
race due to the physical characteristics of their body as well as skin color
are associated with what is known to look “African”.
Andean Indian Population:
1.
Environment of population:
In the winter temperatures can be less than
52 degrees Fahrenheit and the rainfall is about 4 inches at this time. In the
summer the temperature can range from 68-72 degrees Fahrenheit with about 8
inches of rain. They are in a high
altitude because they reside in the Andes Mountains of South America.
2.
Physical Adaptation they present:
The physical adaptation they have is lung
capacity. This is helpful to them because they live in a very high altitude
where otherwise it would make breathing hard to do but they have adapted in
that way with an increased production of hemoglobin.
3.
Cultural Adaptation they present:
The Andean Indians didn’t receive much
assistance from their environment in their way of food since it was harder for
plants and animals to survive in that altitude so there was a slim selection
that included alpacas and llamas for wool and milk.
4.
Race?
The race of the Andean Indians would be
described as Native American by the details of their physical appearances.
5.
Summary- Adaptation vs. Race:
To base a person off of the race and not
their adaptations would be a mistake for an anthropologist I believe. If based
on race then it could be misleading and not as accurate as if you were to start
the research on the adaptations of this race to figure out why they may look
the way they do or be the way they are. The adaptation of a person in their
environment can add to what makes them of a certain race anyway but to base
their race off the appearance only would not have as much insight behind it.
Looking into how the adaptations listed above helped mold them would be much
more insightful.
Works' Cited
http://anthro.palomar.edu/adapt/adapt_3.htm
http://www.zulu-culture.co.za/zulu_food.php#.VxhMEfkrKM8
https://www.google.com/search?q=andean+indian+lung+capacity&espv=2&biw=1600&bih=775&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiIt5zdgZ_MAhXGOT4KHSRgAvYQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=GdJjcIobcHeBzM%3A
http://wallpaperweb.org/wallpaper/nature/andes-mountains-patagonia-argentina_11542.htm
First of all, great images! I do suggest that you resize them to fit better into your post. You can do this by clicking on the image when you are in the edit function for the post and selecting a smaller size.
ReplyDeleteIn general, good description of the environment (though it would be better to write this as a paragraph... these are papers and should be treated as such from a grammatical standpoint), but you ignore one very crucial environmental factor, namely that of the sun and solar radiation stress. This is important because the physical adaptation you identify (correctly) was the higher level of pigmentation in the skin. It would have made your discussion more complete to include the stress and the adaptation that addresses it.
Good explanation of skin color/melanin levels as an adaptive response to solar radiation stress.
With regard to your Zulu cultural adaptation, remember that the guidelines ask you to identify physical and cultural adaptations that are a response to an environmental stress you discuss in the first section. So how does war tactics help the human body maintain homeostasis when subjected to environmental stresses? You took off on an unrelated tangent here. How do the Zulu maintain homeostasis with their culture to deal with the heat or sun or low rainfall amounts?
Africa is a big place! Within the continent of Africa, you not only have those with the physical traits of the Zulu, but also those from the north-eastern part of Africa and the Mediterranean area who tend to have features of Middle Eastern populations. I do understand what you meant, I just want you to recognize one of the problems with trying to identify race in any meaningful way.
For your Andean population, you had a similar problem to your Zulu discussion, namely leaving out a key environmental stress that you then go onto discuss in your next sections: Hypoxia. Tell the whole story to your reader.
As for your cultural adaptation, yes, they have adopted animal husbandry techniques using animals that are well-adapted to the high altitude environment. Well done.
I generally agree with your selection race for the Andean population. Which physical traits, specifically, did you use to make this choice?
I agree with your conclusions in the last section, but let's work on clarifying why this is a logical conclusion. I know this can be a difficult idea to wrap your head around.... usually students haven't even considered how race is conceptualized before this point. Think about what race is. It is a sociocultural contruct, based upon external features only and highly subject to bias. Its only function is to categorize humans into different groups, and those categories differ from culture to culture... so who's system of racial categories do we use? Race 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.
Your choice of images was excellent. I know that they are a little oversized for the format of your blog, but their impact on me as a reader was immediate. With a little more formatting they'd fit much better.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with L Rodriguez that more detail would have strengthened your article, I appreciate they way you have thought outside the box with your choices. The Zulu war tactics you sight are very impressive and with a little expansion of detail I think you could have tied this to a stressor that represents adaptation to the environment.
When I was writing my own article I almost chose the Native American race as an identifier for the Andean Indians, but changed my mind at the last minute. It was nice to see someone else go this route. There are many similarities that i would have liked to see you explore.
Overall, the article was an easy read, with good images, and refreshing choices but would have benefitted from more detail in each section.
Thanks,
Marc
Very great job on this post. Your images, although slightly too big, definitely fit your description of physical and cultural adaptions described in your paragraphs. While described most of your stances and observations quite completely, for example your description of the physical adaptation of Zulu skin color, I would suggest elaborating more on your choice of Race, which I know I could improve on too. Nevertheless, I enjoyed your insight on the environmental adaptations of both the Zulu and Andean Indians.
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