Language Experiment

I found this experiment to be extremely difficult because the level of understanding was very low. It was hard to communicate with my partner through the methods I had at my disposal. I found myself getting frustrated with my partner even though I knew that it wasn’t her fault she couldn’t understand what was happening. My partner had a huge impact on what I was doing as well as I had a huge impact on how she was communicating. I found that she was trying very hard to understand me and she listened very intently, focused on what I was trying to communicate to her. She also communicated slower as if it was harder for me to understand because I had less ability to communicate with her. I tried to let her know that I could still understand her just as well as if I hadn’t been communicatively impaired, but she had a hard time understanding that.  I found that only about half of what I was trying to get her to understand was actually comprehended. The other fifty percent was given up on due to the frustration and difficulty I was having. If we were two different cultures meeting for the first time the person with the advantage is definitely the person with the ability to speak. The reason for this is because they also have different gestures and body language or cultural universals that can be conveyed with the language. Individuals that have lower mental capacity find it harder to communicate as well as people with certain diseases and from different cultures. It affects how people communicate with them because conversations are shorter, people get angry, and it makes it much more difficult to just communicate naturally.

The second way of communicating using only my voice without any signals was just as hard as the other way in my opinion. I was able to last the fifteen minutes but I did make some mistakes at certain points. It was interesting because my partner could understand everything I was saying but she lost interest. I couldn’t keep her interested in any subject I brought up. It was very hard to convey different emotions. I had a hard time conveying the importance of certain things to me as well. At one point we got on the subject of politics and I found it interesting that she couldn’t tell whether I liked or disliked a certain politician because of the lack of fluctuation in my voice. Of course after a couple minutes she figured at my point of view it just took longer than it normally would have. This experiment showed me just how important signals are in communication. Without it everything becomes very slow and boring and hard to understand. People that have difficulty reading body language must have it much harder to communicate and understand where somebody is coming from. Possessing the ability to read body language is helpful in countless circumstances. Understanding peoples emotions and stance on things can sometimes be more important than hearing what they are saying about it.

Experiment 1 would have been easier had we been able to write down what we were trying to say. There is also a major drawback to writing as well. The drawback being the amount of time it would take to communicate via pen and paper. This would take up a lot of time and much of what we did discuss during the time period would not have been mentioned. The written language is very helpful to the culture that developed it because it provides a way to communicate with people that aren’t near you. It also creates a more formal approach to communication as well as keeping in communication with more people than possible just through verbal communication. The written language has had a huge impact on the globalization of ideas through its quick and simple way of spreading such information all throughout the world. 

Environmental Adaptations

The Zulu.

The Zulu Population live in an environment with a moderate climate. The temperatures in the summer between October and April are warm and rainy, while the temperature during the winter between June and August is cold and dry. To deal with the sun in the hot temperatures the Zulu people have adapted darker skin caused from the greater production of melanin in the body. This blocks out UV rays from the sun and helps the Zulu people maintain the proper temperature that their bodies should be. Maintaining homeostasis in the body is important because if it is not maintained there is a risk of death or illness. Without this production of melanin in the skin of the Zulus they would have a very hard time surviving in their environment. The women have it very hard in the Zulu culture because they have to do many of the things at home that the men do not have to do such as cleaning, cooking, traveling far distances to receive water. The distance they travel to get the water has a large impact on how much energy the women have for the day. They have developed a system where the buckets used to transport the water are carried on their heads to save energy. The Zulu people are of the African race in my eyes. This is because they live in Africa and have similar traits to other African cultures.

The Andean Indians. 

The Andean Indians live all around the Andes Mountains. This is a very high altitude, varying from around 10,000 to 13,000 feet above sea level. The temperatures in this region vary with the altitude and the seasons are measured based on precipitation not the temperature. The temperature can get below freezing and can snow massive amounts of snow during the winters. The Andean Indians have adapted to the weather drastically. They have developed a higher blood flow throughout their bodies, which creates warmth in the coldest times. They have also developed a larger lung capacity allowing them to breathe more easily at such high altitudes. They have also developed culturally to the drastic temperatures as well. They have created warmer housing for themselves to keep their bodies warm enough to survive. They have also made warmer clothes that allow for moving around with less discomfort because of the snow. The race that I would call the Andean Indians is Indians, but that is not a very descriptive way of showing what their culture actually consists of.

I think that in explaining a population it is difficult to show who they really are by describing them by race. I think that the person who describes them through adaptation has much more explanatory power. Race is difficult to pinpoint many of the unique aspects of a certain culture, whereas adaptation allows the person doing the explaining to point out things that might not have been noticed had they just used race to define them.

The Nacerima

Part A

Different-
  I chose the word different as my first word because as with a lot of cultures this one is different from anything I have heard about before. They have a very unique way of viewing the world and to a lot of people it is a wrong way of looking at it. I am trying to see this culture without the judgments that come to mind from my own way of viewing the world but it is hard.

Magical-
  Magical is the second word I chose because of the way the culture works. Everything seems to revolve around magic, different rituals the Nacerima take part in justify the belief in magic in this culture. It seems as though through whatever a member of this culture does it can be traced back to the individuals belief in the magic element.

Sadistic-
  For lack of a different way of describing it I chose the word sadistic. In trying to see the culture through the eyes of an indifferent being I don't want to say that some of the rituals are wrong just painful ways of showing their devotion to the magical realm they believe in. They have methods that are very different to what other people might see as traditional, but in their own way it makes sense and that is what is interesting about the Nacerima.

Individual-
  Each person in this culture seems to be very individual of each other and have a lack of emotion. The excrement process and the reproductive process are very distorted and secret. The excrement process is said to be ritualized and routinized. They can only take part in this in the privacy of their own home and nobody else can know about it. The reproductive process is equally distorted. It is scheduled as an act. Pregnancy is avoided by limiting intercourse.

Ostentatious-
  They aren't ostentatious in the normal sense of the word but they do show off what they have. For instance the more powerful members of the community have the most shrines. The more shrines one has in the home the more powerful that individual is. Not only do they show off items they also show off themselves. Some of the more beautiful individuals go from town to town charging money for others to stare at them.

Part B

1. As an American I feel disappointed with my decisions, because my words were not all the best. I also had a realization through this experience that every culture is different and that even my own culture has flaws.

2. I didn't figure out that I was talking about my own culture so in that case my words are not biased because I took the most neutral approach. My words show what I truly think of the American culture. The American culture is far from my previously biased view that I had previous to this assignment.

3.  Most of my descriptions are non biased, but if I had to choose a couple words then they would be biased against the culture. A couple of times I had thought during this post that the American culture is a lot better than this one come to find out they are the same.

4. I think that avoiding ethnocentric judgments is very important when studying other cultures. The thing that shows who is an accomplished anthropologist is who makes the least ethnocentric judgments. I think that it is possible to be unbiased but it is a very difficult skill that a person must practice to get good at.