Tibetan Culture

Tibetan

Culture

   

Environment

Tibet's official name is Tibet Autonomous Region. Tibet is known as the "roof of the world", it is on the highest region on earth with an average elevation of 4,900 meters or 16,100 ft.Home to Mt. Everest, it is located in the southwestern border area of the People's Republic of China. Tibet covers an area of more than 1.22 million square km. It is one-eighth of China's land area. Tibet is slightly larger than Alaska and Texas combined. Tibet is the second largest provincial-level area in China. Tibet also has a 3,842 km border with its neighboring countries Myanmar, India, Bhuatan, Nepal and Kashmir in the south and
west.  

The climate in Tibet is hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter. Tibet's dry, cold climate has an average annual temperature ranging from -12℃ to 9℃ (10.4℉ to 48.2℉), which depends on the region. Temperatures in the mountains and plateaus can be very cold, and extreme strong winds are common year round. The river valleys have a more mild climate. Lhasa and central Tibet maintain
an average temperature of 0 ℃ (32℉) in                                

Mount Everest

December and an average of 17℃ (62℉) in June. The temperature can vary greatly on any day. In summer, the temperature can rise from 3℃(37.4℉) before sunrise to 27℃ (80℉) by the middle of the day. The temperatures in Tibet drop rapidly after sunset.

The average annual precipitation is about 381 mm or about 15 inches. The rainfall is even less in northern and western Tibet. Within the Tibetan Plateau, July is the "wet season" with an average rainfall of 122 mm (4.8 in). In fact, snowfall is much less common in Tibet than the one of their nicknames “Land of Snows" suggests. The sun rapidly melts off snow as it falls and artificial snow sometimes is made to offset drought. There have been several snow storms that result in an extreme amount of snow which are very dangerous and can be disastrous.  Tibet has been said to have all of the seasons in one day, ranging from below Celsius in the morning, to about 30 degrees Celsius or 86 Fahrenheit during the day and back to freezing at night.

The population setting for Tibet is mainly rural and they live with other cultures such as the Hindu and Chinese. There is a competition for resources as the Chinese government has taken over and control every aspect of Tibet in regards to the exporting of goods and natural resources.

Tibet can be pretty much divided into four different areas, in the south is the valley and drier regions, high mountains and river valleys in the south west, plateau in the North, and the wet forest regions of the east. This creates different climate zones from ice in the high regions to tropical in the lower mountain regions.  These diverse areas makes for diverse and complex species of flora and fauna.

Tibetan Flora

Tibet is home to extremely rare and nearly extinct plants and animals. Tibet has nearly 6,400 species of plants and 40 species are considered rare. Over 1,000 plants and flowers are used for used for herbal medicine. Some of the wildflowers found in Tibet are Primula cawdoriana, Sinoplantagines var. fengxiangiana, Cyananthus lobatus, Saxifraga spp., Polygonum griffithii; Meconopsis horridula var. racemosa, M. Integrifolia, Pedicularis bella and Fletcherii. Juniper trees and willow trees can be found in the valleys of central Tibet along with pansy and oleander flowers. The indigenous flowers tsi-tog are light pink, and bloom at a high altitude. Trees that are cultivated in the river valleys are apple, peach, pear, and apricot. The drier climates contain grasses and shrubs.

                        

Tibetan macaques

The Yak

Tibet has 125 animals on the list of rare species under government protection including the Tibetan antelope, yak, snow chicken and black-neck crane. Common in the mountain areas are the musk deer, wild sheep, wild goat, wild ass, yak, and Tibetan antelope.  Large mammals found in Tibet are the leopard, tiger, and several kinds of bear, wolf, fox, and monkeys.

Rare Snow Pigeon

Tibet has over 30 birds that are native only to Tibet and over 480 species of birds. Many rare and endangered species in Tibet may become extinct due to the current rate of deforestation in Tibetan areas.  

The environmental stresses that the Tibetan culture faces is the extreme cold and high altitude. It has been said that Tibet is one of the harshest living environments for human to live. One of the stresses that the Tibetan culture faces is global warming and the melting of the Arctic ice in the plateau. Millions of people depend on water from the Tibetan glaciers but with them melting at such a fast rate scientist are worried the ice wont last.

Adaptations

Rosy Cheeks of a Tibetan

Two long term physical adaptations of the Tibetan people living at such high altitude is that they: 1. Have 10 times more nitric oxide (NO) in their blood. 2. Twice the forearm blood flow of people living in low-altitude. Nitric oxide creates a dilation of blood vessels allowing blood to flow more freely to the extremities and aids the release of oxygen to tissues which is the result of the Rosy cheeks that Tibetans have.

Three cultural adaptations shown by the Tibetan culture to help them to adapt to their environmental stresses would be the control of fire, expanded tool kit including a bone needle for sewing complex clothing for the freezing environment and a cultural flexibility in subsistence practices.  

Language

Tibetan is the language spoken in Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, and in parts of northern India, it is the language of the Tibetan culture. Tibetan is a member of the Tibeto-Burman subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. Tibetan is  monosyllabic and  lacks inflection.  Tibetan is  tonal language, having six tones, short high, long high, short low, long low, high falling, and low falling. Tibet has a system of writing for Tibetan since the 7th century. Tibetan is written from left to right.

Tibetan language

Gender Roles

The Tibetan culture has 3 genders, male, female. In Tibetan Buddhist writings they refer to the word ma ning which refers to a person without genitals or genderless.

Tibetan women foraging for tea leaves

Women in Traditional Tibetan culture maintain their maiden name and are responsible for the household duties like cooking, cleaning, foraging and raising children. Many Tibetan women become nuns and there are a number of nunneries in Tibet.  The men hunt and build. Currently women attend college and achieve accomplishments like the men do.

Nuns in Tibet

Tibetan children

Tibetans spend a lot of time with their children and they are always with them enabling them to pass down cultural traditions by way of hands on and visual techniques.

The protagonist in "The Blessed Curse" would be accepted to a certain extent, she would be considered part of the lower class in the social structure with less opportunities.

Subsistence

Agriculture fields and village in Tibet

There are four types of subsistence patterns in the traditional Tibetan culture: foraging , pastoralism , horticulture and intensive agriculture . Foraging is a subsistence pattern that focuses on hunting and gathering of wild plants. Pastoralism is the raising of livestock for food and economic value. Horticulture is the art, science, and business of growing plants, and intensive agriculture is designed for large scale populations where food is grown in large quantities per acre.

Due to the hostile takeover by China in 1959, many people of the Tibetan culture were forced to live in exile which has changed their forms of subsistence. They had to adapt to different environments as well.  

Eating together :)

The main food items in the Tibetan culture differ in pastoral areas vs. agriculture areas and as the seasons change. Their main staple foods include roasted highland barley flour, wheat flour, meat, or red food, and milk, or white food.  The staple in summer is the white food, and the staple in winter is the red food. In the pastoral areas are dried beef and mutton sausage.

The men were the main laborers of subsistence.  The general nutritional health of the people in Tibet is good they seem to have a pretty balanced diet and rely mostly on meat and grains.

Economic systems

Since the takeover by China, they wanted Tibet to have more exports and now Tibet has a surplus of grain and export cereal as well as medicinal herbs and plants.

Tibetan weaver

Tibet has a specialization of labor meaning that there are people who make clothing and people who make jewelry and there are butchers and people who make pottery and so forth.

The redistribution of wealth in Tibet refers to the taxes and levies  included land rent, stock rent, corvee and taxes. The payment of this rent consisted of livestock, forced labor and cash.

Tibetan currency is Chinese Renminbi (RMB) or Yuan is the official currency of Tibet. The paper money is; 1,2,5,10,50 and 100 Yuan, 2 and 5 Jiao and 1, 2 and 5 fen.

Trade from Tibet includes Tea, Silver, hides, wool, deer's horns, musk and gold dust. These items are exchanged in Tachienlu for tea, cotton goods and haberdashery of all kinds, such as are used in Tibet for trading purposes.

Marriage

Polyandry family in Tibet

Before the takeover in 1959, polyandry was widely accepted until china made it illegal. Monogamous marriages are the most common but in rural areas, polyandry marriages are the norm. That is when a woman has several husbands, most likely brothers.

Marriage partners are determined by the parents and sometimes by the person seeking love.

The females seem to value marriage more than men because traditionally women return to their home after three months of marriage to prepare barley and butter teas as well as other things for their husband.

Incest goes against the Tibetan Buddhist religion and is not practiced.
The residence patterns are primarily based in the nuclear family with just the immediately family.

The attitude towards homosexuality in the Tibetan culture is frowned upon and forbidden. The Dali lama had said that he is okay with homosexuality if they are not religious.

Kinship

Descent patterns of the Tibetan culture show the descent from the Chinese Han about 3,000 years ago. Traditional Tibetans have said that they descended from the marriage of the monkey Pha Trelgen Changchup Sempa and rock ogress Ma Drag Sinmo.

The patriarch seems to have the most authority over the family. The inheritance patterns go to the sons in the family and they are divided between them. Women are now fighting for more rights.

Tibetan women's association

 The Birth Ceremony called Pangsaiis a ritual that takes place to clean away the baby to wipe them out and grow to be healthy and the mother to quickly recover.  These rituals have been going on for over 1,500 years. On the third day of the birth for a boy and the fourth day for a girl is when certain households bring gifts for the new baby such as qingke barley wine, buttered tea, meat, butter and clothing.
After the birth rituals is when the baby will receive their name, usually a living Buddha is invited to name the baby and sometimes the parents provide the name.

Social organization

I would say that Tibetans are a stratified people. They are based on three social classes, one is the high class consisting of  Nobles, government officials and monks of pure conduct. The middle class has a large part of the population and ranges from minor government officials, to taxpayer and landholding peasants, to landless peasants.  It is possible for movement between classes but was only possible in the middle division. The lower class has what they call ragyabpa ('untouchables') of different types, blacksmiths and butchers. The very lowest of class has executioners, bachelors and hermaphrodites.

Tibetan Monks

Political structure

Tibet is now governed by the Chinese Communist party. The Tibetan government is in exile and has been reorganized with modern democratic principles.

The Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalai Lama over 80,000 Tibetans and members of his government escaped from Tibet to seek political asylum in India, Nepal and Bhutan. Over 120,000 Tibetans live in exile. The Dalai Lama is regarded by Tibetans as the head of state and their spiritual leader.

The Chinese communist party determines the laws and the punishment for breaking the laws are death, torture, mutilation, sterilization, and forced abortions.



The Role of Violence

A monk who set himself on fire

Tibetans are a peaceful and harmonious culture. With the invasion and hostile takeover by China, there has been numerous violent acts such Tibetan nuns and monks setting themselves on fire in protest to the China’s occupation and the horrible treatment of the people of Tibet. Another is the Tibetan infanticide and that is the killing of an infant. This has a negative effect on Tibetan culture.


Religion

Buddha (note that the symbol on his chest
 has a meaning of peace in Buddhist culture)

In the Tibetan culture, Tibetan Buddhism is practiced. It is a monolithic religion and the focus is on Buddha.
The history of Buddhism in Tibet starts with Bon which was the  religion of Tibet it was animisti, shamanistic, and parts of it live on today Tibetan Buddhism.
It  begins in 641 CE. On that year, King Songtsen Gampo  unified Tibet with  military control and had two Buddhist wives, Princess Bhrikuti of Nepal and Princess Wen Cheng of China. The princesses are credited with the introduction of Buddhism to their husband. In 755 CE, Buddhism became the official religion of the Tibetan people.

Some of the important practices in Tibetan Buddhism are performing rituals like food and flower offerings, water offerings, religious pilgrimages, the hanging of prayer flags and chanting prayers using a prayer wheel. Meditation is a very important practice as well.


Buddhism and its practices go hand in hand with the Tibetan culture. Overall I do not believe the Tibetan culture could function without it.



Art

Tibetan Monks creating a sand mandala

Tibetan art has many forms including, painting, jewely making and pottery. I will focus on the paintings of the Tibetan people. Mandalas are represented quite often in Tibetan art.  The function of this kind of art is that Tibetan Buddhists  tend to use  mandala paintings for attainment of a spiritual state, and even reach the transformation into the divine.

Tibetan music is a reflection of cultural heritage and it mainly religious. Tibetan singers are known for their strong voices, some say it is due to the high altitude.

Tibetan musicians

This music video represents Tibetan music  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5q4vM7J-UQ&feature=related   

Dance is a cultural and religious and spiritual expression as seen in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6T8QDpCXtI
 Almost all Tibetans can sing and dance.

Buddha in bronze

Religious art is expressed in just about all of Tibetan art including, paintings, sculpture, dance, and music.

Cultural Change

The Tibetan culture has been greatly affected by the Chinese culture and how they want to oppress the Tibetan culture. It is now forbidden to teach Tibetan language in schools and recently two teachers were jailed for doing so. They are trying to strip Tibet of its culture. The Tibetan people refuse to go down without a fight but the Chinese government makes it difficult for them controlling almost every aspect of their life. Tibet has a strong culture in the modern world because there are many people and countries that appreciate who they are and what they represent and are trying to free Tibet.

Bibliography

http://adventure2asia.com/tour_c_det.php?ttloption=Flora%20and%20Fauna%20in%20Tibet&coption=Tibet&cid=9

http://tibetanwildyakadventures.com/flora.htm

http:// taiwandna.com/TibetanPage.htm

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20 04/02/0224_040225_evolution_2.html

http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/language.htm

http://acelebrationofwomen.org/?p=24565

http://anthro.palomar.edu/subsistence/sub_5.htm

http://info.tibet.cn/en/newfeature/faf2003/t20050517_29597.htm

http://zt.tibet.cn/english/zt/041225_xzsh/2-4.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyandry_in_Tibet

http://www.everyculture.com/South-
Asia/Nepali-Marriage-and-Family.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_classes_of_Tibet 

http://www.religionfacts.com/buddhism/sects/tibetan.htm

http://buddhism.about.com/od/vajrayanabuddhism/a/tiberthist1.htm

http://humanrightssite.com/news/self-immolation-and-violent-clashes-rise-tibet

http://dl.lib.brown.edu/BuddhistTempleArt/TibetanArt.html

http://www.last.fm/tag/tibetan/wiki

http://www.presscluboftibet.org/china-tibet-13/the-birth-ceremony.htm 

Art As A Culture

The Lascaux cave paintings are located in France and they were created by the Cro-Magnon people thousands of years ago. With hundreds of large scale drawings, the cave artists were trying portray their feelings and  thoughts about their life, and the supernatural .

 It is very rare for European cave paintings to depict humans and the Lascaux cave is no exception. The art is depicted from a mans perspective in regards to the flora and fauna surrounding him.

Paintings of the predatory animals were thought to give protection from them.  The paintings tells us that the paleolithic people were spiritual and practiced fertility magic. They had most likely spent a lot of time in the winter months in the cave.

 The cave paintings were found deep in the cave in dark areas thought to be spiritual areas. There are many other designs depicted on the cave walls other than animals, they are geometric shapes and symbols, thought to be due to the effects of being in the dark and seeing things with your eyes from just being out of the light.

 I believe that the functions of this art to early humans show which animals are predatory and which ones were not, their belief in the supernatural world and gives a glimpse into what was going on in the minds and lives of the people of that time.

Some of the commonalities in function of the art of early humans and the art of modern humans is that the art depicts the thoughts and beliefs of the people and of that time with fertility art, religious art, spiritual and supernatural art.




I would like to introduce you to one of my favorite artists, Nina Simone. Nina is a blues singer and musician. She is known for her protest songs and amazing voice.
Blues music tells stories and represents black people’s culture, their life, love, pain and suffering.
People who play or listen to the blues are given the opportunity to learn about Black culture.
Black people would turn to blues music to express themselves about slavery and equal rights and heartbreak. I think that the Blues gives black people a voice that was otherwise unheard unless through music.
It is a way for history to be passed down through generations in song.
Blues music is something that I am very passionate about and I feel Nina Simone represents it the best for me.

I would like to focus on one of Nina’s songs, Four Women. This particular song represents four different women each with their own unique story. Please listen:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRmzQ39sXTQ&feature=related 

Yanomamo

                                                             Yanomamo Warriors
                                                      


       The Yanomamo tribe have a very different concept of killing other people as we do in the western culture. The do not have any form of law or authority. For the most part it is expected of a man or a tribe to retaliate against another man or tribe that has done them wrong in some way. These killings are called revenge killings. The rules that the Yanomamo tribe has regarding the killing of other people is that they must seek revenge not only on the person that committed the crime but sometimes the people in their village. There is no consequences for killing other people in fact if you do not participate in these revenge killings then you will be deemed a coward. After a man kills another man, he then takes part in a ritual purification process to make sure the soul of his victim does not inflict harm upon him. After this process the men are now referred to as Unokai. If you are a Unokai then you will have great reproductive wealth and success. Unlike that of Yanomamo culture, western culture has a different view on the killing of another man. Depending on the situation, you will be tried in a court of law by a judge and a jury of your peers. If found guilty of killing then you may be sentenced to many years, life or even death in prison. Although the thought of revenge killings is not uncommon in the western world it is against the law.

In the Yanomamo populations, the revenge killings are for the most part due to the death of kin or involve women in some way. If someone in the family is wronged, harmed or if someone dies, their way of grieving is hushuvo, which means anger verging on violence. Men in the tribe will get together and sometimes travel for days to reach the other village and then proceed to attack the village, not just the person they are after but others as well.

When a man reaches the status of unokais, he will then have great reproductive success and it has also attritubed to the concealment, agility in moving through dense forest on raids, and athletic physical ability. It has also been known for the unokais to the deter violence of enemies and lose fewer kin. A non- unokais would have the benefit of having a longer mortality rate. A man would chose to be a unokais over being a non-unokais because it is one of the characteristics that a Yanomamo man and his tribe values. He becomes more attractive to females which in turn will give him reproductive success and that is highly regarded.

In the Yanomamo culture, each village is made up of decent groups which are groups that are made up of family through the male blood line. In each of these groups there will be one or more “Big Ones” which are the political leaders of the group. The leader of the village will be the one with the largest decent group. Family is very important to the Yanomamo and kinship bonds are very strong and they will seek blood revenge on anyone that harms one of there kin.

If involved in the revenge killings and become a unokai then you will have a high social status like a warrior.

Kinship is highly valued among the Yanomamo population, A Yanamamo man will fight for and protect his people from revenge killings from other villages and also seek revenge if someone from his village or descent group was harmed or killed.

When a Yanomamo man participates in a revenge killing and goes through the purification process to become a unokai, he become more desirable to women and has a greater chance for reproductive success. Some men have marry more than one wife resulting in multiple children.

We need laws against people that kill other people because if we didn’t have laws that would send someone to jail or possible death there would be no other consequence other than to start to do revenge killings ourselves.  It would seem that there is no way that a man could kill another man but sometimes people are mentally disturbed and kill for no reason or a crazy reason or it could happen by accident where it was not intentional or in defense so there are so many variables involved in killing someone that laws definitely need to be set in place.

                                                       Yanomamo Tribe

 

Kinship

      I would like to introduce my mother Linnell, she was born in Watts, California in South Central Los Angeles. She was raised by her mother Rita who was a factory worker and never had much food on the table. Her mother is French and her father was Irish they were divorced when my mother was a young girl.  She remembers going hungry a lot and sharing lunch with her teacher. Linnell was a small white girl with blond hair and blue eyes living in a predominantly black neighborhood. Although she was one of only a few white people at her school, Linnell felt more comfortable around people of color. My mother did not grow up very religious but she became very spiritual and passionate about equal rights and was very involved in that movement. She came of age in the 1960’s and was and still is a free spirit.  My mother and father lived in Venice beach, Ca. and lived a bohemian beatnik lifestyle for many years together.

      Interviewing my mother was fantastic because I learned of things about my family that I has no idea about. I was mostly comfortable throughout the interview but it did get a little awkward when there was some stuff that she really didn’t want me to write about. I do not think that it affected the thoroughness of the interview because we did talk about it. If I was interviewing someone unrelated to me and I don’t think the interviewee nor I would feel as comfortable talking with each other as my mother and I do.

      The patterns I see in my kinship chart is that my mother was only close with very few in her family. She was only close with her sister and recently her own mother. My mother had a very sad childhood and she was kidnapped by her father only to be sent to live with his mother. Her mother found her and took her back so she had lost ties to her father and his side of the family at a young age.  The families in my family tend to be relatively small on average  from 2-4 kids. There are ethnic differences in my family, my mother married a black man (my father) but I do not think it had a social impact on the family relationships or social interactions due to the fact that my mother had dated black men before and the family lived in a black neighborhood. I think it had to do with the fact my mother was not religious and my uncle Johnny and his family are Mormon and my mother didn’t agree with there lifestyle and did not like religion being pushed down her throat so we were not close with her brother or his family.

      There was no one in my family my mother felt comfortable asking for money, babysitting or favors of any kind. She had asked her mother for money once and was denied so never again and my aunt babysat my brother and I only once too.

I know only a few family members on my mother’s side well and I know mostly the family on my father’s side. I very rarely socialize with my family due to the fact that we are pretty spread out over the country. I do go see my grandma (mom’s mom) every Christmas but really never see my family much except for my mother who lives down the street from me.  Right now in my family the decision making is being done by my mother and aunt who are in charge of my grandmother and her estate due to her declining health.  If you were married into our family we would treat you just like family, but that is me, I guess it did take my husband a few years for him to get in! I feel that the attitudes towards men and women in my family are pretty much equal. Women are treated with respect, I don’t think we would have it any other way!

I have learned that my family needs to get together. Life is too short to let something like religion get in the way of us being a family. It is also hard to maintain that close nit family unit when your family is spread out all over the map. I would like to start calling my family more especially my Dad. I think a call for a family reunion is due!

Hunter Gather vs. Agriculture & Trade

Part 1. Hunter gather & Agriculture

Subsistence patterns of the hunter gathers and agriculture have many benefits. Hunter gatherers have a nutritional benefit; they have a balanced diet and have the ability to fight disease and infections. Hunter gathers have more time to spend with their family and help take care of the children.  With the discovery of agriculture it has made it possible to stay in a place longer than before and provide food for many more people creating a rise in population.

The disadvantages of hunter gathers would be the lack of abundance of food resulting in the inability to feed a large amount of people. The hunter gathers are always on the move and can never stay in one place for too long because they must go where the food is.  As for the disadvantages in agriculture is that they are more susceptible to disease and infection and they are at the mercy of the seasons and weather. If there is a drought there will be no crops. Like the potato famine in Ireland when the blight took over the potatoes many people went hungry because they relied on the potato so much. Another disadvantage for agriculture is the result of the evolution of  smaller jaw bones due to the lack of eating a substantial amount of meat in their diet unlike the hunter gathers. Unfortunately we still have the same amount of teeth resulting in overcrowding of the teeth in the mouth like my son who has $5000.00 worth of orthodontia in his mouth!  

The hunter gather provides a healthier diet because it is more nutritionally balanced but with the technological advances and the production of cereal grains and legumes the agriculture diet has become more nutritionally balanced.

I believe some human populations made the transition into agriculture because it was out of necessity due to the fact that their population out grew the ability to sustain themselves with food foraging. With agriculture people could not only feed more people but it made it possible to have surplus crop providing for themselves and for other people who could not provide for themselves and were they able to trade and sell their crops.

Part 2: Economics and Trade:

The availability of surplus and the ability to trade means that you have to have enough surplus (food) to have the ability to trade the food to other people.

Two social benefits of trade are building relationships with other people and cultures by giving them something they need for something you need. The other is the ability to show your wealth and status within your community by your possessions.

Negative social results of trade would be in the two parties resulting in conflict over the trade due to greed in which one or both parties are trying to get the better deal. Another result would be globalization, when people of other cultures get together to trade it could result in eventual native language loss and disease.

With the development of agriculture and the ability to have a surplus of food gave the opportunity for people to trade with other people for things that they needed which resulted in the development of trade. It also gave people without the ability to grow food the chance to trade for it. Agriculture made it possible for people to settle down and create homes resulting in developing an economy by making tools, clothing and pottery and trading it for food.

Language Experiment

      In part 1 of my language experiment was very difficult. The conversation was with my 10 year old daughter and I found that I could respond to what she was saying but I couldn’t start a conversation with her, meaning I was unable to start a new idea/topic and it was frustrating.

I could see that my daughter was getting impatient with me but as far as her altering her communication she would talk to me normally but when she would ask me a question and she didn't understand my response she would get slightly agitated.

If we were from different cultures trying to communicate and we were meeting for the first time it seems that it would be hard to get to know each other and learn from one another.

I believe the culture that is able to speak has the advantage in communicating complex ideas. It is extremely difficult to convey an idea when you cannot speak or use a symbolic language. It seems that the speaking culture would feel dominance over the culture that does not use symbolic language possibly thinking that they are less intelligent.

I think that within our culture people with autism have difficulty communicating our spoken language and I feel that people communicating with an autistic person might think that they are not even worth talking to or what they have to say is not important or without meaning but that is false. People with autism have valid feelings and ideas that they just have a hard time expressing.

     In part 2 of my language experiment where I was able to speak but without the use of physical embellishments I found to be much easier than part 1. I was able to communicate exactly what I was feeling and I had no trouble lasting for 15 minutes in fact I went over about 10 min. It was a bit difficult not using any inflections or body movements because I talk with my hands a lot and when I use my hands and facial expression. it seems to help get my point across so not using it was hard.

My daughter was able to communicate with me much better or I should say I was able to communicate with her and it was easier for her and she didn't show any frustration or agitation towards me in this conversation. She would look at me kinda funny because of my lack of facial expression.

In this experiment it shows just how much we use signs in our language and how it helps us to get our point across. By using inflections and the use of facial expression makes it so the person we are talking to understand the essence of our conversation like if we are upset, sad, or happy.

I believe that there are people who have difficulty reading body language. People who have the ability to read body language makes it easier for them to understand the intentions or actions of the other person.

I think that in any environmental condition body language is beneficial I wouldn't say that is wasn't. I really cannot think of a certain environmental condition where body language would not come into play and be beneficial. It helps us to understand where the person is coming from even if it is different from the words are saying.

     Part 3 of the language experiment is the importance of written language and I feel that it in part 1 it would of made it possible for me to convey what I was feeling and wanted to say. I could ask questions and discuss issues of importance with the use of the written word.

The culture that has a written language ensure that their language will not be forgotten and it gives other people and future generations the ability to learn the language of that culture.

The impact that written language has globalization is that we are better able to communicate and understand and learn from people all around the world and without it we would be very isolated in our ways of thinking and our understanding about different people and their cultures.

The Zulu & Andean Tribes

The Zulu tribe lives in the region of present day KwaZulu-Natal on South Africa’s east coast. . The environment is mountain coastal, It is an area that receives snow in the mountains in the winter and in the summer it can go from rain to very hot and humid temperatures from the coast.  The Zulu tribe utilized the fertile soil and amount of rainfall they received 1000mm annually and agriculture became a very important way of life. The difference in temperature from the harsh hot summer to cold winter cam be challenging and making it difficult to maintain homeostasis.

The clothing the Zulu’s wear is a physical adaptation of their environment. Men will mainly wear cow hide just to cover the front and back of the private area of the body and young women simply wear beads around their neck. This is how they combat the heat.

The cultural adaptation of the Zulu tribe is affected by globalization. The Zulus all lived in huts now most of them live in modern houses which have improved the ability to maintain homeostasis.

If I had to pick a race I would pick African American because they look similar to the African Americans in our culture, they have very few   similarities other than that though.

The Andean Indians live in the Andes range in South America, all the way from Ecuador to Peru to Chile, and including both the coast and the mountains. They mostly lived in an area that was 10,000 – 13,000 feet above sea level. In the High cold planes it is summer every day and winter every night.

The wool from the llama and alpaca was used to make warm clothing so the Andeans could survive in the freezing winter nights in such high elevations.

The Andean’s had to learn to survive at high elevations, having 200-300 frost nights a year; they had to figure out a way for supplying food. They developed a way to freeze dry meat, fish, and vegetables to maintain their food supply for their community that will last them. They created food storage shelters for their freeze dried food.

I would describe the Andean Indians as Spanish, because they most resemble them although they are mixed with white, Indian and African.

I do not like to categorize cultures based on the physical attributes, it doesn’t give you much about who they are or what they are about. I believe to use the cultural adaptations is the most useful approach for Anthropologist to use.

http://www.kznonline.gov.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82&Itemid=174

http://www.zulu-culture-history.com/

 http://www.south-africa-tours.com/zulu-culture.html#clothing

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/23548/Andean-peoples

http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/price14.html