Zulu and Andean.
Two different groups of people, or populations, living completely different lives.
Today I'll be going over their differences and possibly their similarities.
Zulu
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During a reenactment in Wakkerstroom South Africa, of a battle in 1881 during the First South African War, Zulu tribal leaders dance to welcome the arrival of Queen Victoria's carriage. (Photo Courtesy of Chris Voets and Wikipedia Commons)
Environment
The Zulu are a South African population that is very condensed in the location of Lesotho. Their environment has harsh conditions that make it quite hard to remain in homeostasis.
The geography of Lesotho appears to be "alpine" like meaning that it mountainous with hills and such.
In terms of weather, it is not quite as consistent as it should be with fluctuation weather patterns and inconsistent, yet large, times of rainfall.
While the weather may be inconsistent, the temperatures average at around 15C during the winter months and 6C during the Summer months.
However, due to the long times of drought, it makes it quite harder for the Zulu to be able to remain at a consistent level of living as the lack of water equates to less biodiversity. Thus reducing foundations for crops and hunting and water availability extremely scarce.
Physical Adaptations
With increased temperatures and constant sun exposure, the Zulu population will need to adapt, over generations, in order to maintain their population. These adaptions will help them survive and increase survivability of every generation of these worlds. Unlike other populations across the world, the Zulu people exhibit lengthened limbs in their arms, legs, and even necks.
This physical adaption is Allen's Rule in which warmer climates will increase the linear form of the physical limbs that the body expresses. The Zulu peoples, having lived in a warmer climate, are an example of the Allen's Rule.
Cultural Adaption
One cultural adaption that the Zulu people express in their population is the significance of the color White. Specifically with how they worship, both religiously and spiritually view cattle. Cattle is a materialistic and symbolic piece of ownership to the Zulu, and so owning cattle will bring wealth and spiritual positives to those who own any. However, due to the spiritual association with the color white, it was common for white born calf to be given to the "King" of that village.
Andean
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| An Andean man in traditional dress |
Environment
The Andean peoples are aboriginal natives who live in the Central Andes of South America. In the area in which they reside, the Andes covers a large area from Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. They live in the higher parts of the Andes, or the Highlands. The Andes mountain's climates does vary depending on the location you are in, so to keep it simple I will refer to the location of Peru. With an altitude of 19k feet above sea level, the environment of the Andes is mountainous with 22°C throughout the region. Specifically in Peru, the weather is very desert like with not much rainfall. The colder desert conditions with lack of rain from water creates for harder adaptions.
Physical Adaptations
Because of the region in which they live the Andean natives a very particular set of physical adaptions that are not common to most populations. They have cardiovascular adaptations that allow for them to breath easier and live in higher altitudes that lowlanders cannot live with without exposing themselves hypoxia. The adaption increases their oxygen intake in order to absorb as much oxygen in thinner altitudes that have a larger number of Co2 in the air rather that Oxygen.
Cultural Adaption
Because of the colder environments, the Andean population adapted to their world with different cultural adaptions in order to survive. The most important one is adopting alpacas and camelids into their culture. While being used for the majority for food, and sometimes transportation, alpacas fur was adopted in their textiles. The fur of alpacas provides for warm clothing for the Andean to use during colder months.
Race
At the end of the day, the Zulu peoples and Andeans are different ethnicities and populations. However, they both do have their own race in which they belong to. The Zulu people I would personally categorize them as Southern Africans and for the Andean's they would be categorized as South Native Americans. For a more specific race category they would be Black and Aboriginal respectively.
In Summary...
For the two, whether or not physical or cultural adaptions have more influence than the other when it comes to categorizing what race they are is a tricky question. The issue is that, for the Zulu people, what made me categorize them as Black was due to their environment and physical appearance. However for the Andean it was their Cultural adaption and environment that had me identify them as aboriginal. When it comes to these things, I believe for anthropologists there is a hidden bias amongst the community that would make anthropologists define each population's race. In order to avoid these biases you cannot rely on only one category to identify them. However, at the end of the day, physical appearance will have more explanatory power for their race due to genetics.
Biography
“Andean Peoples.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/topic/Andean-peoples.
Andes Mountain Climate - Paho. https://www.paho.org/cub/dmdocuments/REDVIVAndesMountainClimate..pdf.
Borda V;Alvim I;Mendes M;Silva-Carvalho C;Soares-Souza GB;Leal TP;Furlan V;Scliar MO;Zamudio R;Zolini C;Araújo GS;Luizon MR;Padilla C;Cáceres O;Levano K;Sánchez C;Trujillo O;Flores-Villanueva PO;Dean M;Fuselli S;Machado M;Romero PE;Tassi F;Yeager M;O'Conn. “The Genetic Structure and Adaptation of Andean Highlanders and Amazonians Are Influenced by the Interplay between Geography and Culture.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, U.S. National Library of Medicine, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33277433/.
“Introduction to Andean Cultures (Article).” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-americas/south-america-early/a-beginn/a/introduction-to-andean-cultures-edit.
Shelomi, Matan, and Dirk Zeuss. “Bergmann's and Allen's Rules in Native European and Mediterranean Phasmatodea.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 1 Jan. 1AD, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2017.00025/full.
“World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal.” Climatology | Climate Change Knowledge Portal, https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/country/lesotho/climate-data-historical#:~:text=Lesothoslimateisgenerallyclassified,duetothehigherelevations.
“Zulu Culture and Cattle Symbolism (Na).” (NA), https://www.southafrica.net/na/en/travel/article/zulu-culture-and-cattle-symbolism.
Zulu:
ReplyDeleteI actually wonder about your source for the environmental factors for the Zulu population. They live predominantly in northeaster South Africa and actually live in a moderate environment, with temperatures ranging from high 50's to low 80's. They tend to get plenty of rain and they have a long growing season, so tend to have sufficient food and raise large herds of cattle. The predominant stress here would be solar radiation stress and heat stress.
Yes, longer, thinner limbs (Allen's rule) is a good adaptation to heat stress. What about their adaptations to solar radiation stress?
Re: Cultural adaptation... remember that we are focusing on how the Zulu adapt to environmental stresses, both physically and culturally. So how have the adapted to heat and solar radiation stress culturally? How about their housing structures?
Race: "Black" is closest. The other is a geographical identification, not a race.
Andean:
Good opening description of the environment, but don't be afraid to be explicit in your identification of the stresses involved here. Andeans experience multiple environmental stresses, including high altitude, solar radiation and cold stress.
Very good description of the physical adaptation to high altitude stress.
Very good cultural description! Yes, the use of these animals is a wonderful cultural adaptation to both cold and high altitude. Alpaca are very surefooted over the rocky, steep mountainsides and have wonderful warm fur and skin. They can be used for carrying heavy loads, their meat and milk provides protein, and their fur provides warmth. Well done.
Race: Not really "aboriginal". That is associated with native Australian populations. How about indigenous Indians?
Summary: "physical appearance will have more explanatory power for their race due to genetics."
But we are exploring both physical AND cultural adaptations here. And "physical appearance" alone is what we base our determination of "race" upon. So let's back up here...
The question here is which approach (environmental adaptation or race) provides a better explanation of a culture's physical appearance and cultural practices? Yes, the environmental approach is better for anthropologists, but why?
Race is not based in biology but is a social construct, based in beliefs and preconceptions, and used only to categorize humans into groups based upon external physical features, much like organizing a box of crayons by color. Race does not *cause* adaptations like environmental stress do, and without that causal relationship, you can't use race to explain adaptations. Race has no explanatory value over human variation.
Hello angel, you did an excellent job picking the first photo for the Zulu group, you into very good detail about their environment. Your writing was very well structured. you did go into detail about the temperatures ranging from winter to summer. You explain their physical adaptations with great detail focusing on the consistent sun exposure alongside that you also focus on the cultural annotation. you explained about the cattle being looked at at a religious and a spiritual view. Next you spoke about the Andean Group with an excellent photo of a man within the traditional dress demonstrating a perfect example for us to view. you went on about the environments the location within South America where they reside within Venezuela, Ecuador Peru and Bolivia. can you explain the physical adaptations to allow them to be higher altitudes and have a larger intake of oxygen. you talked about the race and then gave great detail as well and your summary was excellent giving a conclusion to what was a very detailed search online for the information required for this assignment.
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