Language

Part 1:

-          In the first experiment where I could not talk, I found this fairly easy because it is easy to communicate with nodding and facial expressions.

-          My partner was my boyfriend, and I did not let him know I was even conducting an experiment. We are currently taking a class together and sit next to each other where we do try and communicate very quietly. He did not notice that I was not verbally communicating back with him this time, and it did effect him but to a certain degree. My boyfriend whispered, and talked more through the use of his hands as if he were more conscious that we were not supposed to be talking during lecture.

-          The culture that has an advantage of communicate more complex ideas would by my boyfriend because he has more tools so to speak, in getting his ideas across. Individuals in our culture that have difficulties communicating with spoken language would be a person that has impearled hearing, people suffering from mental retardation, and babies. People that do speak and try to communicate with people that have difficulty communicating with the spoken language to and compensate it with other ways of communicating like hand signals (ASL), writing, and facial expressions.   

Part 2:

-          I was not able to last the full 15 minutes without using any physical embellishment. It was difficult because using my hands and facial expressions is something that is natural and is hard to control.  

-          I have been sick for the past couple of days so I took the opportunity to test this experiment when I was lying in bed underneath my covers. My mom always like to come talk to me and see how my day went,  so to text the experiment I put all my body parts under the covers, leaving my head out at the top. My mom didn’t notice and didn’t expect anything was different but to me I couldn’t last the full 15 minutes without using any physical form of communication.

-          This experiment shows that the physical form of communication is almost as important as the spoken form.

-          Non-speaking techniques are very important in our ability to communicate effectively because it helps those who have problems using spoken communication to adapt and understand the rest of the world.

-           A person who has difficulty reading body language would be a person who is blind. The adaptive benefit of knowing the physical embellishment would be a clearer understand of who the different types of emotions might look like. It would also help the blind communicate better because they can use physical embellishments they have learned and apply them when they are communicating through spoken words.

-          I think no matter what environmental you are in; body language is always beneficial in some sort of way.

Part 3:

-          If I was able to write down what I wanted to say in class to my boyfriend, communicating with him would be easier because it would have more exact and precise in what I wanted to say exactly.

-          The advantages written language provides to a culture that develops and uses it, is that we can use it to help the future and remember the past. We teach and learn through written language which helps the current and future generations to come. As an American culture, we can write our history down so it can never be forgotten.

-          Written language has helped globalization because it has been able to bring cultures closer together because we are able to communicate and become more personal with each other.  Sometimes different cultures have difficulties communicating through language so writing substitutes in the meantime until we can come to understand learn their language or dialect.  

The Zulu and Andean Population

-The Zulu population is located in South Africa which brings subtropical climate and lots of sunshine with brief, intense rain showers and a lot of humidity. A Sub-tropical climate brings summer temperatures from Nov-Feb, ranging from 24-30 Celsius followed by winter temperatures at 20 Celsius Mar-Apr. Temps very from 11 degrees at night to 30 degrees during the day. What can cause stress for the Zulu people is the constant change in climate. Sunny days followed by harsh rainy showers will cause long-term physical adaptations because the climate is something the Zulu people cannot control. They can only deal and cope with the living conditions they are dealt with. This stress is climate changes can make it hard to maintain homeostasis because the weather can destroy home, crops, animals; making it hard to eat, and perform daily routines. To physically adapt to these conditions they have houses made out of Cow dung, and tin roofs which is a positive thing considered what the population has to work with. These houses are fit for the environment in which they live and bring a possibility to return to homeostasis. A cultural adaptation is weaving, craft making, pottery, and beadwork that the Zulu women bond together and make. Women and children weave every day-use mats, beer sieves, and baskets for domestic purposes that help benefit the population bringing more efforts of homeostasis. I think it is very common to describe a culture by their race, but i don’t believe it is always right. It also depends on what race is defined as, but a race i would use that best fits the Zulu tribe are Africans. Based on the past history and what Africans dealt with and the living conditions they have are very similar to the Zulu people. The more reasonable approach would be the physical and cultural adaptations i used to describe the tribe instead of just race.

Zulu - Introduction, Location, Language, Folklore, Religion, Major holidays, Rites of passage, Relationships, Living conditions http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Rwanda-to-Syria/Zulu.html#ixzz1sSUw7w4r



-The Andean Indians are directly in the tropics of South America, where the climate is measured by precipitation and not temperature. Lowlands tend to be hot but elevation tends to mess with the climate because the Andean Indians live in conditions of high mountain ranges. The climate is very scattered as you move throughout the land of South America through forest and elevated plains but rainfall is the norm paired with heat throughout the year. A physical adaptation is the lack of oxygen the Andean Indians get. Growing up in the South American land you may not be able to tell the difference but it makes it hard for people outside of the population to visit and adapt/ live where they do, making it hard to better their livings conditions and expand in different ways. This makes it hard to maintain homeostasis because with lack of oxygen (hypoxia) followed by an increase of heart rate increases. This makes it hard to perform physical tasks and get things done throughout the day. A physical adaptation is controlling their breathing and building more hemoglobin in their blood which increases lung expansion. This results in balancing their homeostasis so they can cope better with the climate when performing more physically demanding tasks. A cultural adaptation is nutritional diet (fruits, salads, beans, etc) which the Andean Indians participate together to balance the effects high altitudes have on their body so they can stay efficient. A race most similar to the Andean Indians would be the Spanish in my opinion because of their clothing styles.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/102247/Central-American-and-northern-Andean-Indian

The Nacerima Tribe

Five words I would use to describe the Nacerima tribe is Self- conscious, spiritual, traditional, materialistic, and fearful. I would describe them as self-conscious because this tribe believes the human body is ugly. They perform routines to make their breast smaller or larger, or make their weight increase or decrease.They avoid body exposure and the natural functions of it too. I feel as if in some way they are ashamed of what they are born with, but overall it is the pressures in which society makes them feel this way. I would also classify them as materialistic because of the amount of shrines one has in their house along with the appearance of them, and if one is not as wealthy they will also try to imitate the appearance of another wealthy person’s shrine. In addition they are materialistically based due to the fact that they have to pay the custodian a rich gift after having a surgery (if survived).  While reading this article i feel as this tribe judges much on what one has to offer or what a family can provide. This tribe is traditional because certain views are passed down from mother to child. An example is the mother passing down her views is the insecurities of the body and they way it should look like to her child so later down the line in the future she might have to go see the “listener” for guidance and help.  They are traditional in a way that they follow in the way society leads, meaning that they follow what the "holy-mouth men" and the "medicine men" say to do. Fearful is a word I would also use to describe this tribe because they are fearful of the mouth and the capabilities it has to control their life if they do not go see the “holy-mouth men”. They are scared of not having friends and the way the mouth can affect their appearance and life so much that they will endure pain, and put certain things into their mouth to prevent things from happening.They are also spiritual in the sense that they continue to go even though their mouth still decays, and they make sure they see the “holy-mouth men” at least 2 a year.

• As an American, i fell that the five words i used describes the American culture we have very well. As a society everyone holds at least one of the characteristics i described if not more. Traditional and spiritual depends on the person, but for the most part everyone is traditional or spiritual in some kind of way it dosent have to be religiously.
• I dont believe the choices in the words i used to describe the "Nacerima" tribe reveal any ethnocentrism on my part. What i can understand is ethnocentrism, is being judgemental or making hasty conclusions based on the lacking of my own experiences and knowledge. The five words i picked or very rational and reasonable. I believe all my words are free of bias because i have examples from the text to back them up. I feel as if us Americans are fearful in many ways and hold high expectations not only for ourselves but for others so we are fearful or failure. Traditional and spiritual are very much the same in the examples i gave, and i feel as if they are not bias because everyone is either spiritual or traditional in their own way. Self-conscious and materialistic are two words i can possible see as showing some sort of ethnocentrism; just because i am comfortable with my body and they people around me might be dosent mean the "Nacarima" tribe is self-conscious because they dont show theirs. Materialistic can be explained as ethnocentrism because i do not personally thrive off of expensive gifts, dosent necessarily mean the "Nacarima" tribe is materialistic.
• To substitute the two words i could use generous and conservative.
• It is important avoid ethnocentrism judgements because as individual who do not grow up or experience a culture first hand, we create negative statements that get passed  around in society. Respect is given to a culture when being as bias free as one can when describing a culture. It also gives others a opportunity to have a open mind before you put negative words or images in their head. I believe it is not possible to have cultural bias because if you are raised on certain ideas or ways, if you believe them or not, thoughts are going to form when researching on a culture that is different than yours. No matter if you say it or think it, everyone is bias in some kind of way, if your agreeing with a cultures lifestyle or not.