The Zulu population are located in
the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, this land is very fertile and
summer is the most productive season. This area only has two seasons each year,
Summer and Winter. A Zulu summer is between the months of October to April,
during which it is very rainy and warm. While winter is between June and August,
during which the weather is cold and dry. The temperatures here a very moderate
on average. Overall there is not much of a major change between seasons, but
the rain for most of the year helps crop growth, to feed the tribes people.
Winters can be somewhat stressful on the tribe, but do not last long. The
average rainfall for the Zulu tribe is, 115 days per year. Homeostasis is not
hard for the Zulu to maintain, to my understanding.
The Zulu demonstrate the physical
adaption of their darker skin color, which helps them block out harmful UV rays
of sunlight. The environmental stress which causes the need for such an
adaption, is the hot and humid climate, which they live in. They live in a
climate which is hot most of the year, with a lot of sunlight, in order to
balance their bodies and survive, they have developed darker skin that is able
to block most harmful rays of sunlight. This protects them from diseases such
as, skin cancer. This helps them maintain homeostasis.
Skin Color of Zulu Children
The Zulu tribe present the cultural adaptation of dressing
very sparingly, to help deal with the hot climate they live in. Men normally do
not wear shirts, just some fabric to cover their genitals, as well as small pieces
of fabric on their arms and legs. Women generally wear clothing made mostly of
beads, which offers, air flow to their skin to keep them cool. Once again this
stress was caused by the intense climate they live in most of the year. With
this clothing choice, they have helped control their ability to live in such a
hot climate.
Zulu Woman's attire
Zulu Male Attire
I consider the Zulu race to be, African. I chose this, based
on where they are located and based on the adaptations they share with most
other African natives. Lastly I chose it because as I just stated they are
African natives.
The Andean Indians population are
located in the Andes Mountains, in central South America. This area is located
within the tropics with temperatures varying based upon elevation. Lowlands
tend to be hotter, while higher up into the mountain ranges, temperatures tend
to be colder. Dense forests in this area receive heavy rainfall throughout the
year, however there are also dry areas where only sparse grass manages to grow.
Not much is known about the seasons in this location.
Andean Indian Demonstrate the
physical adaptation of, a strong heart and lungs, which helps with oxygen flow
in high mountain areas, where oxygen is denser than at lower elevations. This
environmental stress is caused by where they live, at higher elevations in the
mountains. These people must have strong hearts to live at such elevations
otherwise the pressure of trying to get enough oxygen to survive would be too
much for their heart and they would not survive. They need strong lungs to be
able to survive on denser oxygen, without over working their hearts.
Being able to not only function at such high altitudes, but play instruments too. Demonstrates a strong heart and lungs.
The Andean Indians show the
cultural adaption of, learning to farm using the constellations. This group of
people understands that where they live, farming is very difficult and has to
been done during specific times to be successful. These times are decided by
astronomy, when a certain constellation appears, in this case Pleiades which is
part of Taurus, they can predict precipitation during the rainy seasons, which
will be months later, and use it to know when to start planting their crops for
the year. Awaiting the appearance of this constellation is also a celebrated
festival for these people. This adaption helps them survive, by giving them
more crop production to feed their people each year.
Andean Indian Farming
I would describe the Andean Indian
race as, Native American or perhaps Hispanic. I base this on their skin
coloration and global location as well as having the word Indian in their name,
I will confess I had a lot of trouble with this, I couldn’t seem to find any
hints so I decided to take my best guess as to what I believed their race to
be. I would love input on this from someone with perhaps the same or a different
answer as to Andean Indian race.
My Links
Zulu environment Link: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Zulu.aspx
Andean environment Link: http://www.britannica.com/topic/Central-American-Indian
Zulu Physical Link: http://anthro.palomar.edu/adapt/adapt_4.htm
(learned climate information from previous Zulu link)
Andean Physical Link: http://anthro.palomar.edu/adapt/adapt_3.htm
Zulu Cultural Link: http://www.zulu-culture.co.za/zulu_clothing.php#.VxebFPkrLtQ
In general, good background on the Zulu environment, with a couple of comments:
ReplyDelete"Homeostasis is not hard for the Zulu to maintain, to my understanding."
But it isn't hard for them to maintain because of the adaptations they've developed. If you were to go live in this environment, would you have difficulty maintaining homeostasis?
Also, throughout your description, you ignore one very crucial environmental factor, namely that of the sun and solar radiation stress, and 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.
A correction on your Zulu physical adaptation: Higher melanin levels only address solar radiation levels. It doesn't help with heat. Otherwise, good discussion.
Good discussion on the Zulu cultural adaptation.
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.
Good discussion on your Andean physical adaptation, but it would have been good to specifically identify the stress, namely hypoxia. This isn't an issue of 'denser' oxygen, but lower oxygen pressure, making it difficult for oxygen to cross the membrane barrier in the lungs to be taken up by the hemoglobin in the blood.
Very interesting cultural adaptation! Well described.
Good attempt at identifying the Andean race. Well done acknowledging the difficulty identifying their race. To answer your question... There isn't a correct "race", which has no basis in biology and really isn't useful in science at all as it has no explanatory power. This point is important and needed to be addressed in the final section of the post, which unfortunately is missing from your post?
On the right track with the post. Make sure to read the guidelines carefully so you don't miss anything.
thanks professor I forgot to paste it in to the end but I did have it in my word document, better luck next time for me.
DeleteThanks for the response, Azure. For future assignments, feel free to respond to my comments with corrections or missed content. I can't give full credit, but I might add a couple of points if I feel you have responded accurately.
DeleteHello Zoey, I liked how you went into detail when you were talking about the environment the Zulu live in. I also agree with you that the Andean Indians must have a strong heart and strong set of lungs to be able to live at a higher elevation. I understand why you chose the words African for the Zulu, and Native American or Hispanic for the Andean Indians. It was also difficult for me to put both of these groups of people into a particular race. But good job on the post by the way I enjoyed seeing what someone else had to say about these two groups.
ReplyDeleteNice thick paragraphs, truly explain everything in detail about the cultures of the Zulu and the Andean Indians. The Zulus physical adaptation was very clear, i spoke on the same terms but it didn't realize that the Zulu would be exposed to cancerous diseases. It makes sense , they are constantly under the sun but thier adaptions saves them. For the Andeans race i also chose Native Americans and i could understand how Hispanics can be representing the tribe. The seems to have similar body structure and skin tone.
ReplyDelete