The
Zulu’s and The Andean Indians
The Zulu people live in
South Africa there population is about 3 million people, they are most know
from there beadwork and basketry. The
name of the Zulu people came from, one man and his decedents make up the Zulu
clan. The Zulu people raise cattle and farm for many different fruits and vegetables.
The women are the ones that own the homes and are in charge of keeping
everything afloat.
The Zulus are Africans and in the area where they live is
extremely difficult for them to complete their labor intensive jobs. The Zulu have many traditions and rituals
that they partake in each year. In many of the areas where the Zulu live the
women have to collect water, wood, do the cooking, cleaning and any other household
task. For the Zulu women the job their job is never done. The Zulu people live
in huts made of long grass and their floors are made of hardened clay. The
Zulus also believe that illness because stress and misfortune, so if a family member
dies they are considered to have misfortune.
Over time the Zulus learned
to adapt to there always changing economy and way of life. They struggle for
many years with having their own freedoms and rights. They also had to adapt to
the climate in South Africa. It is extremely hot and they live in an area with
only low grasses that don’t provide any shade.
The Zulus skin had to adapt over
time to deal with the harsh UV rays from the sun and that is why their skin
pigmentation is so dark. Traits about their appearance also changed such as
there noised widened so they are able to breathe in the hot African air every
day. The Zulu have had to learn to adapt to the harsh thunder storm that happen
in the area where they live. They believe they should always put away all of
the mirrors, pots, sink and much more in order to protect themselves from being
struck by lightning. Many Zulu people still die each year from being struck by
lightning. The Zulu people as a race are
African American people and have had hardships among their people from many
years because of slavery and wars among other nations.
The Zulu people have had to
adapt in many different ways in order to survive in the extremely temperamental
African air. Both their race and adaptation play off of one another. The Zulus
have had many problems with their race because they are African they
were in slaved and forced to do hard jobs in the sun and heat which forced them
to adapt faster to their environment otherwise they would have all died by now.
Many people from America today would not be able to survive in the harsh African
sun because of their own skin pigmentation and not being properly equipped to breathe
and work in the African sun.
The Andeans Indians are people
Indians that have learned to adapt to high altitudes that most people would ever
be able to survive at. The Andeans have also learned to thrive under these high
altitudes conditions when other cultures would flounder.
The Andeans people are
able to breathe in less air and their bodies have learned to take more oxygen
in to their blood so it is easier for them to breath and such high altitudes. The
Andeans bodies had to adapt to the area in which they live so that they would
struggle to breath with every breath. Breathing is something most people don’t even
think about so imagine having to stress about breathing every time you took a breath
it would be unbearable. The high altitudes of the Andes have been occupied by
people for more than 10,000 years and by millions of people (J.L Rupert).
Babies of the Andean Andeans born in the high altitude have better
developmental adaptations then ones born and sea level. The Andeans have to
wear very think ponchos in order to stay warm because it is very cold in the
high altitudes at which they live.
The Andeans Indians are hard
to describe as anyone races because they are so different from any other people
on earth. They live in the highest city on earth which is in Bolivia. If I could
describe them as any one race I would say they would be close to Native Americans,
this is because of their skin pigmentation and traditions. The difference
between their race and adaptations are that race describes there outer appearance
and adoptions would be the way they adapter to breathing at such high altitudes.
The Andeans are amazing and fascinating people that have learned to live in an extremely
difficult environment.
Summary
Both of these unique cultures have had to adapt to the
places that they live. Both of these races are very different put fit to the circumstances
at which they live. The Zulu are African people that have had to adapt to the
harsh sun in order to survive and this goes a long with their races because African
in fact do have darker skin than other people in order to not get skin cancer
and to deal with the UV rays from the sun. Because race is how you look and
adaptation is how your body has to react in order to survive I think they both
go hand in hand. The Andean people have lighter pigmentation then the Africans do
because they are in high altitude and in a way colder environment. The Andeans
have had to have their lung adapt to the breathing conditions and this also
goes along with them being Indians. Indians all over the world have had to
adapt to the situations and have learned to thrive.
Sources
Introduction to the
Zulus, unknown author, © copyright 2008
Zulu Culture, Graham Chennells, Zulu Culture and about
the Zulu people, the Zulu
Nation, and Zulus in Zululand; covering various aspects of the
Zulu Culture,
Genetic
approaches to understanding human adaptation to altitude in the Andes
J. L. Rupert 1, * and P. W. Hochachka 2 1Department of Pathology
and
Laboratory Medicine and 2 Department of Zoology, the University of
British
Columbia, Vancouver, Canada V6T 2B5 *e-mail: rupert@zoology.ubc.ca
Accepted 2 July 2001
I enjoyed reading your post. You gave a lot of in depth information on both the Zulu and Andean Indians. I was unaware that another physical adaptation of Africans are their wider nose. It is interesting how just about every phsyical feature (from hair to skin to nose to height) is some how an adaptation to their environment. Great post!
ReplyDeleteThanks I really enjoyed reading about all of the different cultures, it is so amazing to me that people live so different from how we live.
Delete~Heather L. Gault
I was curious about your use of the phrase "learn to adapt". Do we really "learn" to adapt, or do we just adapt? Don't make the mistake of thinking that adaptation is a conscious decision. More often than not, it happens with little or no thought at all, certainly with regard to physical adaptations.
ReplyDeleteGood detail provided in your discussion. The mention of the Zulu adapting culturally to the frequent lightning storms was very interesting. I hadn't heard about that before.
While I agree with you that physical adaptations and race identification go hand-in-hand, that wasn't the point of the summary. These are two different approaches to describing a population. Which one is better at describing that population? From which approach to you get a better understanding of a culture, from the viewpoint of an anthropologist.
Otherwise, good. Images were great!
Thank you so much for the feed back! I do agree I guess as people we sometimes don't know we are even adapting to certain situations. The human race is really an amazing thing.
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