Week 8: Ethnography Project

Abelam Culture

Environment

The Abelam come from the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea, near the Maprik area. They live within the floorplains of the Sepik to the foothills of the Prince Alexander Mountains. The hills are 600-700 meters above sea level. It is tropical and always having a chance of rainfall. There is a slight change in temperature in the seasons,. From December to March there is a northwest monsoon and from May to October southeast monsoon. April and November being the months with the lease rain; as well as, no monsoons. From April to November the temperature is anywhere between 81 to 91 degrees Fahrenheit in the day and 70 to  79 degrees Fahrenheit. The Abelam live in both an urban and rural setting. The ones that live in the Prince Alexander Mountains have more a rural setting, whereas those living in the floodplains are closer to the urbanized city. Living within the plains neighboring the Abelam are the Arapesh. Although they are neighbors, they do not have many problems with resources. The Abelam survive in their environment by cultivating gardens. They plant yams, beans, taro, and others. In the north, they have low fertile slopes and the south they have muddy, rivers and swamps.

Adaptation

A phsyical adaptation of the Abelam is their darker skin and thicker, coarse hair. The Abelam live in a very hot and humid environment. Their darker skin produces more melanin which helps protect the skin from sun rays, allowing them to adapt to heat better. Also, their thick, coarse hair helps keep their scalps cool from the sun.     A cutltural adaptaion for the Abelam is their daily pattern. They abelem sleep about 10 hours of their day, hunt for about 2, and the rest of their day is spent on gardening. I believe this is because they have such a spiritual belief with the yams, so they spend all of their time on them. 

A cultural adapation for the Abelam is their gardening of yams. They spend majority of their time gardening and preparing for there later yam festivals. The Abelam believe yams to be sacred and powerful. The size of a yam tells how much spiritual power one has. Because yams are such sacred, they have certain rules when dealing with yams. During yam season, sex is banned, as well as, conflict and fighting. It seems that during yam season it gives a sense of harmony for the culture.

Language

Name	Written Language?	Population	Language Family	Unique Qualities?	Language Map Reference #
Iatmul	Yes	8, 440	Sepik-Ramu Ndu Family	"a" is a front vowel "â" is a back vowel	155
Manambu	Yes	2, 110	Sepik-Ramu Ndu Family		215
Boiken	Yes	31, 300	Sepik-Ramu Ndu Family	The "p, t, k, & ts" are all voiceless	145






 Gender Roles
       There are only two specific genders in my culture, both male and female. Although there are two specific genders, people such as the girl in "The Blessed Curse" are not looked down upon or thought of differently than any other race. Each gender has specific roles, although they do sometimes help one another and work together. Roles are passed down to children differently based on gender.
      At an early age, children are encouraged to engage in gender specific acts. The girls begin helping their mothers as soon as they are able to. Some of the chores they help with are  food preparation, cooking, and watching smaller children. When girls get their menstrual, they go through a ceremony. They are kept in a menstrual hut, where they do no work and rest. Food and anything else needed is brought to them. Days after, there is a feast prepared for her in honor of her becoming a woman. The boys, however, spend majority of their time with their moms until they begin their coming of age initiation. Males go through a gradual initiation from a few years old up until they are in there 30's. It isn't until they are around 40, where they become initiators themselves and considered a real man. The initiation is a process of seclusion, physical deprivation, beatings, and penis hastings. After each stage is successfully passes, males are honored with special ornaments and srtings which they wear daily. There are also specific names for males that complete these stages: ndur is man, kwinėm bėndu is an unmarried men, and nėmbikar-andu is a recently married man.

     There are specific roles both men and women play in the Abelam culture. Women do majority of the household work including; everyday cooking and taking care of the children. Women take care of the pigs until they are going to be used to eat. They also collect firewood and water for the family. Sewing and weaving string bags is also another job of women. Men do all of the hunting. The also build houses and fences, and cut timber. All arts and crafts (besides string bags) are done by men. They weave masks, carve ritual wooden objects, paint with clay and ochers, and decorate utilitatian objects. Men also make the spears, adzes, and other tools used. There are also specific jobs that can only be done by specific genders. Women plant and harvest taro, greens, bananas, and sugarcane. Men plant and harvest the ceremonial yams "wappi", and the shorter yams "njaambi".
       Although there are specific roles for men and women, they also work together on some jobs also. In gardening, men clear the heavy brush and cut trees while the women cute the small and secondary plants. Men build trellises and make and repair the fences while the women weed and harvest the crops. There are no negative repercussions for either gender helping or doing others' jobs.

Subsistence
Ableam is a horticulture group. They live mostly off of taro and yams. Due to the different parts having different types of soil, these are harvested differently. In the north, they are harvested on hillsides and the south they are in the grasslands. Besides taro and yams, they also feed off of coconuts, sago palms, bananas, pigs, chickens, and a variety of vegetables. Of all the foods, sago palms are seasonal.
     There is a division of labor as men are only allowed to harvest the traditional yams and women are only to harvest the taro. The yams harvested by men are not to be eaten by the men, instead they are used for traditional purposes. Once the yams are harvested men then decorate them and they are used for yam festivals. Among yam harvesting, men also have other chores.
     They cut down the trees and clear land for new gardens and later will fence the gardens. The men then will plant all the yams, after women plant the taro in opening spaces. Weeding of the gardens is done solely by the women. Once yams are growing, the men will then put up sticks for the yams and will later cut the tubers. After this, women will clean up the excessive mess for later gardening.
     The general nutrition of the Abelam is healthy. They get a variety of foods from meat to vegetables to fruit which allows their bodies to not be dependent on any certain food. Yams seem to be the only food that has a big importance on the Abelam but more so due to traditional reason. 
 
 
Economic Systems

Due to the different variations in the soils, both on the hills and down in the floor plains, the Abelam do not produce much of a surplus. However, they do have some natural resources such as, cocoa, BLANNBLANK. Among these resources, yams and pigs are used and traded during yam festivals. The others are used as currency, to pay back debts, or cross trade.


Marriage

Abelam marriages are polygamous and exogamous. Husbands have 2 or more wives, but all majority of marriages are outside of their lineage group. Exogamy marriages are frowned upon. Women and men have the freedom of choosing who they wish to marry. There are two types of marriages, informal and formal.
     Formal marriages are marriages when the man will the woman's family of his interest in marriage. Men will normally tell the family during a woman's menstrual cycle "naramtaakwa". The man will then cook a yam and send that to the woman's family. If the family does not approve of the marriage they will send the yam back. If the woman does not approve the family will eat yam. If the woman and family both approve then the woman will eat the yam, which is a sign of engagement. Months later the couple will marry. The man's family prepares a house for the newlyweds where they stay for a week and rest together. Upon marriage the couple will no longer drink cold water and eat coconut meat due to certain taboos believed. They also plant a garden together and once the plant has harvested all the taboos of foods and drinks will disappear.



Shell rings "yewaa" used as brideprice

     Informal marriages are different types of marriages that are not formal. Some informal marriages are marriages where the woman's parents will arrange a marriage or where the woman will live with the man in hopes that her parents approve their marriage. If two people have a child before marriage then a formal arrangement will be put into order for the child to be apart of the man's life. This formal arrangement is also known as a brideprice. Some typical brideprices given are six to seven shell rings "yėwaa" or they engage in a sister exchange. If there is no brideprice, the child is considered to be apart of the woman's family only.
Cousin marriage is not common in the Abelam culture. However they do engage in brother-sister relationships. Brother-sister relationship are where the wife's husband is either ill or away, her brother will now help her with all the manly chores; or when the husband's wife is away or in the menstrual hut, his sister will do all the womanly chores. Homosexual relationships are uncommon, however they are not frowned up or censored.

    A common village is made up of a hamlet with 2-3 clans/lineages. Clans are said to be patrilineal and consist of a man's with his  brothers and sons and their wives and their children. Some villages do have multiple clans in that are not related. Gardens with multiple plants from marriages are worked on by the brothers and their wives and each family has it's own pot. Women own their own pigs and chickens and work separately from other wives. All women must cook daily, regardless if they are in a polygamous relationship or not.


Kinship
The descent pattern in Abelam culture is a patrilineal system, meaning all family members come from the male's side. Altough women are said to be inferior to men, clans are still open to recruitment from the woman's family, if needed.  Inheritance is also a patrileanal system.  Land and clan ownership is given to the males in the families. A hamlet/village consists of 2-3 clans/lineages; a lineage consists of a man with his brothers and sons and their wives and children. Each family has several houses: sleeping house for the father, a dwelling house for the mother and her children, and one or several storehouses for the root crop. Females members are called iai, males are yai, their sisters are yato, and their wives are tagwa. Within each village, there is a "Big Man" or Nemandu that has authority of the group. A Nemandu is a male and is then passed down through decent, usually to the first born son. In order to become a Nemandu, one must know about rituals and oratorical skills.  The Abelam's kinship system is somewhat similar to that of the Iroquis' cousins system. Cousins are only the children of the mother's sisters and father's brothers. 


Social Organization
The Abelam is generally an egalitarian group; no one is above any one and everyone is for the most part considered equal. Each village has a Nemandu, or Big Man, that is the "leader". Although there is a big man in the village, they are never really put into effect until there is conflict &/or time to vote. In the Abelam, they also believe men to be more superior than women, but women still have their rights and are treated equally.

Political Organization

     There is no political structure for the Abelam. They Nemandu is the only political leader/figure in villages. The Nemandu are the political speakers of the group. Voting is mandatory, so the Nemandu's are the ones that discuss issues and concerns with the local council. Among political control, they also are the conflict resolvers of the group. If there is any conflict among the people, the Nemandu works as a mediator stressing the importance of cooperation and solidarity. Fights are held in a ceremonial way. A group of Nemandu's will watch over the dispute whether it be through fighting, the exchanging of shell rings, or ritual songs.

Role of Violence
One of the biggest forms of violence in the Abelam culture is physical violence towards women. This can be from any man; brother, husband, cousin, etc towards a woman. Beatings towards women, however is not looked at as a punishable act unless it is taken too far. Physical punishment towards women in the Abelam culture is thought to be the same as child "spankings" in our culture. These beatings are looked at as neccesary punishment for these women and men are not punished for them.


Religion
In the Abelam culture, they do not believe in any specific religion. However, they are very serious about rituals. They have ceremonial houses called korambo and ceremonial grounds called amei. They have many rituals for men, women, and festivals. For women, the first part of their menstraul and when they are given shell rings all take place infront of the korambo. Also, during death rituals, the corspe is held in front of the korambo for a night. The Korambo is used to house the spirits before they got to their other world. Men initations are also a big thing in the Abelam culture. Men iniations start from when childhood all the way until the 30/40's. Also, the Abelam spend majority of their time taking care of their yams. Yams are thought to be spiritual. During yam season, the Abelam refrain from sexual activity, conflict, and anything really other than taking care of their yams.

Art
Artwork: Artwork is highly used in the Abelam culture. Painting is the main form of art used. They believe the paint to be magical. Once paint has touched the wood, it becomes powerful and active.  Paint is preferred over other types of art work because it allows them to give more detail and color to their artwork. The function of benefit of  painting is to express spiritual power and show the life of a community through their detailed paintings.

Music: Music in the Abelam is more so used as a religion expression. There are specific songs for initiations, ceremonies, and/or sacred events. Men songs are for their initiation, yam festival, ancestral spirit, and death's ritual. There are also songs that are said to help  nocturnal people.
Performance: The Abelam do many different performances during ceremonies. Like their music, they have dances specifically for each ceremony. Of the ceremonies, Yam Festivals and Male Initiations are the biggest. Colorful costumes and yam mask are worn during performances.  
Religious Art:  All of Abelam art has connection with religion. They use art as a spiritual technique. During male initiations they are taught the secrets of the Abelam religion. They paint faces during these initiations which represent the ancestral spirits. Also the wood carvings given to the new "men" have painted images that express their ancestors. Although their artwork is very detailed and colorful, it is more so used for sacred purposes.
Other: Yam masks are the closest used for religious purposes. Yam is thought to be spiritual and can tell the life of a man. The Abelam men grow yams for at least 6 months where they later use in festivals. Yam Festivals consist of fighting, yam exchanges, and many different ceremonies and performances. Yams used in festivals are as big as 80-90 inches in size. The bigger the yam a male has, they more spiritual power he has. Abelam base majority of their time and life around yams and
preparing for these festivals.

Conclusion/Cultural Change


The Abelam culture has somewhat been affected by the more modern cultures, especially the Western cultures. Western cultures are trying to bring their traditions and stop the Abelam traditions, like their ritutals and iniations. I believe it is some what of a negative impact because this is their culture and what they have been doing forever simply because it works in their culture. Although, Western cultures are trying to stop Abelam traditions, people of the Abelam culture are still trying to keep certain ones.
I believe with the influence of other cultures, it could cause a chance of their culture losing their identity. I feel Western cultures try to come to these cultures, similiar to Abelam, and take over simply because they feel they can and/or  that the culture isn't doing right. I feel the Abelam should continue to keep their traditions, and could incorporate some of the more modern Western culture ways but do not lose their culture.
The Abelam culture does not seem to have a big role in the modern world, as there is not much information on them. However, due to their resources like cocoa, bananas, pigs, sago palms, chickens and variety of vegetables; I believe they will turn into a more market economy. Once more modernized cultures see this surplus of resources, they will begin trying to come in and take these resources.


Works Cited
• Leigh, Caroline. "Abelam Yam Masks and Tops, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea." Art-Pacific.com. Caroline Leigh, 1996. Web. 17 April 2012. <http://www.art-pacific.com/artifacts/nuguinea/yammasko.htm>
• Kortman, Ulrich. "The Abelam." Tribal Art. Ulrich Kortman, 2010. Web. 17, April 2012. <http://ulrichkortmann.com/fiabelam.html>
• "The Abelam."Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Men and Women in the World's Culture. Volume 1. 2003. Print.
•  "Papua New Guinea, East Sepik." The World Factbook. CIA. Web. 21 April 2012. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pp.html>
• Lewis, M. Paul. "Languages of Papua New Guinea." Ethnogue-Languages of the World. 2009. Web. 21 April 2012. <http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=PG>

Week 7: Art as a Culture

1. Functions of Early Art:
A. I believe the cave artists were just painting images of daily life. From the many different animals, to some images of humans hunting. From doing more reading into the Lascaux Caves, I found out that some of the little collections of dots are thought to be constellations. I believe the images being painted in these caves make it somewhat ritualistic to the cave artists.


B. I believe the paintings are all of animals because the cave artists were showing what they see in their normal lives. Hunting played a big role in this era, so all the animals were animals they hunted. Although, they did paint animals they hunted, reindeer were of the many hunted but they do not have any paintings of them. I believe they probably do have some paintings of reindeer however, we can not identify them as there are still 300 paintings unidentified.

C. This picture below shows of a bison and a stick figure (human) on the ground, I think this is portraying the hunting of the people of this era and the strength of these animals. I believe all these paintings show the importance animals had in this era. The detail put into these animal paintings and not so much into the humans, to me, shows that the animals were stronger and in a sense looked up to. With paintings of animals like the unicorn, maybe they believed these animals and paintings were magical. The different proportions and placings of these paintings show the attention to detail and time these cave artists took to make these paintings.

D. The unevenness of the cave was probably the hardest part of making these painting. Cave artists had to be able to paint with the cracks of the caves. Also finding different materials to use to make these colorful paintings was probably a challenge. Another big factor is lighting, these paintings were done in caves. A lot of these images were probably painted in the dark or with little use of light.


E. One function of this art to early humans is it gave a sense of capturing a story or image, somewhat like a picture. Everyday they were out hunting and meeting these new animals, coming to these caves and painting them allows them to remember their experience and tell someone else of it. Another function is just seeing the beautiful art for the ones that did not create these paintings. They will be able to look at an image and make their own story from it. Lastly, I feel these paintings help educate people. It helped educate early humans as it let them know the different animals surrounding them and that some are dangerous. For later humans, these paintings have educated us on our history, giving us some insight on this era and what was going on during it.


2. Commonalities in Function:
Art now, whether it is in the form of paintings/drawings, photography, music, &/or theatre all capture a story or image. In the paintings/drawings and photography of modern day art, they all capture a moment and allow the person to make their own story from it. Music and theatre are a bit different as they usually tell you the story, but they still allow you to get lost in the story and feel as though you experienced it. Also there is always an audience wanting to see these images, watch these plays, &/or listen to these songs for their stories. Many people have favorite artists because they can relate or enjoy the stories that are being depicted. To me, education through art is one of the best forms of education. It allows people to really pay attention to what is being taught and not feel as though it is being taught in a uninteresting way. Also our art now will help people in the future learn about our time now and how life was for us.


3. Introduce your Favorite Art:
The form of art I chose to explore is Photojournalism. I have always had an interest in photography, but I recently have gotten into Photojournalism as it tells more of a story. From taking classes, I've learned photojournalism is more so about the people and really capturing a story.

A. Photojournalists main goal is to tell a story. They are somewhat like the news only through photos. They capture a series of photos and put them together to tell a story or can capture one photo (like this one to the right) and it can tell a story alone. There are trying to communicate a problem or what is going in the world.


B. Photojournalists are a group of people, but there is no complete culture. There are however 3 different types of photos in photojournalism. 

• Timeliness — the images have meaning in the context of a recently published record of events.
• Objectivity — the situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict in both content and tone.
• Narrative — the images combine with other news elements to make facts relatable to the viewer or reader on a cultural level.

C. Photojournalism benefits society because it brings awareness to the world. They are able to capture the stories being told through images which tells a better story than hearing it on the news or reading about it. Photos capture peoples eyes and gives a more sense of empathy for the event being captured.

Week 6: Politics and Violence

Revenge killing is an act performed by many in the Yanomamo tribe. Since there are no laws/rules, like a judicial system, the Yanomamo do not have to face consequences like going to jail. They believe revenge killing is okay simple because of the vengeance and pain they feel from their lost. Vengeance and pain is a natural feeling after a death of someone close. The only difference between Western cultures and cultures that take part in revenge killings is the consequences given in Western cultures for murder. Whether a murder is premeditated or not, there is still some sort of consquence once must pay, whereas the Yanomamo have no consequences. In fact, males that perform in these revenge killings (unokais) are some what more superior to the ones that don't.

Revenge killings are performed in raids of groups of 10-20 men. The night before their raid, they make an image of the person they are going after; although they will kill anyone in the family. Upon return from the raids, each person that hit a family member (with a bow & arrow) must perform a ceremony called unokaimo. In a unokaimo ceremony, members are said to do a ritual purification that will take away any spiritual harm from their victims of the raid.

The unokais of the groups are quickly known around villages, one of the biggest benefits of being named a unokais. Once named a unokais, other tribes now know you will perform in a revenge killing if someone from your tribe is killed. Also, unokais have more success with women as women are either forced to be with them due to a raid, or simply just because of the attraction to an unokais. Ones that do not go through with the raids, also known as non-unokais, are also known. The non-unokais are known as cowards, and usually can be targeted for tribe murders. Also, their wives tend to go to other men, whom are often unokais.

There are many factors that play into part with revenge killings like: political status, social structure, kinship, and marriage. The political leaders are the leaders of the groups and are the ones that decide on revenge killings. The political leaders have the biggest groups and is often organized by kinship. These bigger families give a greater chance of a revenge killing. Therefore, smaller tribes are usually more targeted as they will have a lesser chance to act in revenge killing and they have little to no power in their village. Fissioned groups are groups of people that are related through ancestry but are from separate tribes/groups. Men in these situations often won't act upon the revenge killings as they want no harm done onto their family. When the tribe comes back from the raid, the tribe member that didn't take part will either go back to his orginal group or will stay in his current group usually hiding his vengeance. Unokais are looked at as better than unokais among women, which causes families to break up and get smaller. The women of the men that are either victims of a revenge killing or didn't take part in one, usually are forced to be with someone from a different tribe. As a whole, once named a unokais, you are now looked at differently among villages.

   Although killing is globally and morally wrong, there still must be laws against it. In tribes (or families) where killing is somewhat normal and of everyday life, you wouldn't know any better not to do it. Yes, we all feel vengeance when a family member, or close friend, passes (more so if it was purposely) but that doesn't mean we should act on it. In western cultures, we know killing someone (regardless if it was purposely or accidentally) you will face some sort of consequence which is the sole reason we don't see many instances of revenge killings. Just because we know that it is wrong and shouldn't be done does not mean others, that have no law against it, know also. 

Week 5: Kinship Chart & Analysis

My dad, Pete, is 50 years old and was born in Los Angeles, CA. His mother is of African American and Creole decent, and his father is African American. He grew up in Los Angeles, CA with his parents and 4 siblings. As a child, his father was the "strict" one you can say and his mother was the more easy going. Unfortunately, throughout that time both his father and brother were deceased. His mother and 3 sisters soon moved to San Fernando Valley where they spent the rest of their life. He later married and had a daughter, but divorced. He is now still living in San Fernando Valley with his girlfriend.

In the beginning, the interview was sort of awkward as it was my dad I was interviewing. He didn't really understand the purpose of my interview in the beginning, so it was hard to get started. Once started, I began very interested in past stories and hearing him reminisce on his past and childhood. The more we got into the interview, the more it turned into just a regular conversation where I was able to learn about my family before my time. I think if I was to interview someone I was unrelated to, it would be even more interesting as I wouldn't know anything about the interviewee and their family.

The kinship of my family, is actually kind of confusing. Up until making this chart, I did not even realize how some of my cousins that are my age, are actually my second cousins. Since my great grandma has 4 kids, we have 4 smaller families inside of our big family. Some families are bigger with lots of kids, while others are small with little to no kids. My grandma has the biggest inner family, with her 5 kids, 8 grand kids, & 2 great grand kids. The cousins all have their own little groups based on their ages, so like each generation of cousins are pretty much the closet. In my family, there is really no different attitudes towards the older and younger family members, other than the younger ones make sure to respect and help out our elders.  A lot of my family is mixed with two or more races. It seems that throughout the years, we have had more bi-racial babies born into our family. There are no conflicts with social interactions between the different races, we actually welcome them more and enjoy the mixture of our family.

Although my parents divorced when I was young, I still am fairly close with both sides of my family. As a child, I would rotate holidays between both families spending equally time with them. Since my dads family lives closer than my moms, I do see and socialize with his side more. On my dad's side, I would say my grandma has the most influence on family decisions, as she is the backbone of our family. She is the one we all can go to, from 1 years old to 55 years old, and she will make sure she helps us regardless what it may take. Family members married into the family are not treated any differently than our family. We are all very protective of each other, so in the beginning we may be hesitant of someone new. On my moms side, it is fairly different. Her side is Caucasian, with her being the only mixed child (she was adopted) and only child to have mixed children. Although we are all mixed and my father & step father are African American, my mom's side of the family still treated them like they are apart of the family. Something that I have seen (on my dad's side) in our "smaller" family is that my grandma is more motherly to the boys. I am sure that goes along the lines of a "momma's baby" and she is still motherly to the girls, just maybe worries more about the boys. She is always checking up on the boys and just making sure they are okay and don't need anything. She does the same for the girls, it's just not as much. This has taught me about my family before my time allowed me to hear it from my dad's side, making it all more interesting. Although I have made family trees in the past as a child, the kinship chart allowed me to really see the different families and how they have grown.

Kinship Chart

Week 4: Subsistence and Economy

Part 1: Hunter- Gatherers vs. Agriculture

Hunter Gatherers
Hunter gatherers have a more balanced and nutritional diet due to their bodies not growing immune to any specific foods. Since they are able to eat different foods, they are less likely to experience famine and malnutrition. They stay in small groups, making it easier to feed everyone. Since there isn't such a high demand of food, hunter gathered are able to have more social time after gathering their food. On the other end, hunter gatheres constantly move because they have to follow the food. Hunter gatherers sometimes live miles away from water making it hard to collect water. The Zulu is a hunter gatherer tribe whose women spend lots of their time on walks to get water. Although groups are small, there is still a chance that not enough food is gathered.

 Agriculture
Agriculture is powered by fuel, making it less labor for people. The machines are able to provide a surplus of food, giving more of a supply for trade and selling. With less time spent on collecting food, it gives more times to bettering settlements and lands. The increase of settlements brought more population and a more organized community. Since agriculture only provides a small variety of foods, people become less immune to new foods. They are more subject to famine and diseases due to their immune systems becoming immune to the same foods. Also agriculture is moreso based off of seasons, so if there are any problems with weather, terr could be problems with growing crops.

 Whose healthier?
 It is said that hunter gatherers have healthier diets. Since they do have a set diet, or a limited diet, their bodies are able to eat more foods. Agriculture only allows curtains foods to be farmed which makes your body only able to eat those foods. Also hunter gatherers are far more active than those living in farming societies. They spend a lot of time either out hunting for food, moving to be closer to food, or preparing the food & collecting water. Farming societies don't have to spend so much time on the food, since it is all fuel powered.

Why agriculture? 
I think human populations moved to agriculture mainly for its convenience. With agriculture, you do not have to worry about finding the food and moving closer to the food, it simply prepared the food for you. Since people were able to spend less time on hunting, it has made more time for families, gaining material goods, and leisure time. Also the surplus of food and increase in trading and selling. Once realized that agriculture can make more food and take less time, it almost makes too much sense to not switch to agriculture.


Part 2: Economy vs. Trade
There is a direct relationship between the availability of surplus and the ability to trade means without surplus you cannot trade. You need supply to provide for the demand. The availability of a good, especially when the good is easy for you to get or grow, that creates the ability to trade and sell.


Social Benefits
A social benefit from trade is the social interaction. Usually in trade, people are trading a good they are able to grow with a good they cannot grow, due to soil, weather, etc. Since the people you are trading with aren't from the same place, they are able to socialize and meet people from different cultures, that also speak different languages. Another benefit would be the increase in population and settlements. With less time spent on hunting and moving, people living in these farm societies were able to spend more time on building their land. Due to the success of farms, more people are coming to these lands to also begin farming themselves.

Social Disadvantages
A social disadvantage is there can be a conflict in trading. When there is no money involved and goods are just exchanged, this is called barter. Bartering causes disagreement on the price and terms of the deal made. If money is involved, two parties can still have disagreements on what is being sold. Another disadvantage would be communication and language. When trading with people from different cultures, it may be difficult to communicate with one another due to language barriers. Because of the language difference, traders will begin their own form of language making it universal for them all to understand. With an increase in trade, this will slowly loose the cultures and their languages.
Relationship Between Agriculture and Trade
 My answer to question #1 stated that with the availability of a good, there is the ability to trade. With the development of agriculture, it has given an increase in supply. That increase in supply has made an increase in the ability to trade. There is now a surplus of goods to trade, due to the switch from food foraging to agriculture.

Week 3: Language

During the first experiment where I could not use any language to communicate, I did find it a lot harder (and frustrating) than I expected. I initially thought it would be funny, until I decided to just randomly try the experiment without letting my partner aware. My partner was my younger brother, when he came home from school he was trying to ask me to help with his homework, I simply just shook my head yes and walked into his room and began reading what it was his homework was. He looked at me kind of funny, but ignored it and kept going. Lucky for me, he began telling me which homework he actually needed help with. I found it hard in trying to explain to him what he had to do, to where it became frustration for us both. Since he did not know why I wasn’t talking, he was becoming frustrated with what I was trying to say. He began just asking if he does this or that and I would simply shake my head yes or no. It is tremendously hard to engage in a conversation where you can say little to nothing at all. The speaker has the advantage in the conversation since they are able to both, listen and respond. They do not have to deal with trying to figure out ways, besides ASL, to tell you what it is they want to say. However, for the speaker it may be hard trying to carry on the conversation with someone that cannot communicate back. I recently had an incident where a Spanish speaking woman wanted to know the color number of my hair dye. I do not speak any Spanish, so I was trying to explain that I did not know the color number to her by using hand gestures and facial expressions.

When engaging in a conversation without any physical embellishments, I found the conversation to be extremely dry and not really interesting. Although we were able to finish the conversation, I am not sure my partner really wanted to. The hardest part for me was reminding myself I could not do any vocal intonation. In a regular conversation you do not realize how much you do them and it really changes the tone of the conversation. My partner seemed to be confused as to whether I was interested in their conversation really or just listening to what it was that they were saying not trying to be rude. Their facial expressions and vocal intonations made up for my lack of them. Their voice seemed to decrease and be less interested more and more. They also seemed to have no really excitement in telling me their story, probably because they felt I didn’t really care about it anyway. This experiment shows that using signs in our language really helps get whatever it is across. The highs and excitement give off that feeling, as does the lows and non excitement. Body language is also another big factor in communication as it better helps tell your story and makes the conversation more comfortable. The benefits of being able to read body language, is simply using that with the conversation to tell what and how they speaker really feels. The only types of environments that I can think of where there may be a benefit to not reading body language, is when the body language is negative. If you cannot read body language, you will have no really emotion from it.

If I was able to use writing in the first experiment, I feel the conversation would have been almost exactly like a regular conversation with both people speaking. Being able to write what you want to say, allows the other person to know exactly what it is you are saying as oppose to guessing. Although writing will take a lot more time, it will help a great deal having the conversation. Written language allows you to always keep whatever it was said. We find old writings and are able to use that to find out about the culture it came from, the time period, and other factors. Written language is something that can be kept forever and tells more about a culture than anything else since it was written by someone from that culture. The findings of old scriptures helps tell the world about our history and gives us more information on the differences of the people. The makings of newspapers, allows us to know about local and international news. Its keeps us up to date on current news, as well as, allow us to keep historical news from older newspapers. 

Week 2: Environmental Adaptations

     Environmental variations cause many different adaptations in both humans, and animals. Some adaptations are physical; where one has different appearances that help them remain homeostasis. Also cultural adaptations are learned techniques to help with their environment. Two groups we have looked at, Zulu people and Andean Indians live in two totally different environments that they have had to adapt to. I will go into depth on these environments they live in and the adaptations they have acquired. 

Zulu People

The Zulu people live in KwaZulu-Natal, the eastern border of South Africa. It has a subtropical climate, with hot summers and cool winters. The temperature in summer ranges from 70-80 degrees, whereas during winter it’s usually 50-70 degrees.  Majority of the year the weather is hot and humid with long hours of sunlight. To cope with the sun, the Zulu people have darker skin and thick, coarse hair. Melanin is produced to help protect our skin from UV rays; depending on where you live you will have a different type. Eumelanin produces a dark brown to black color, which is what is found in Africans.

Zulu women have many labor chores vary from cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and collecting water and wood which require many hours of hard work. To fetch water and do laundry, women in urban areas often must walk long distances. To save less energy, women have mastered holding buckets on heads without the use of their hands. This technique also allows for their hands to be of use for other things, like children.

            The race I would consider the Zulu people is black, or African. I usually differentiate black and African, black would be people that are African American whereas as African would be people who were born in Africa. I would consider them black &/or African based off of where they are from and the color of their skin. 

Andean Indians

The Andean Indians live throughout the Andes Mountains from Ecuador to Peru to Chile. The weather varies by countries; in one country it can be hot and humid, while the neighbor country can be freezing. Seasons are determined by precipitation rather than temperature, the higher up, the precipitation increases. In the tropical areas, the snowline is 4500-4800 meters while in the drier areas it increases to 4800-5200 meters. The temperatures in the summer are in the 70’s, while in winter they decrease to about 50 degrees, but can drop as low as below 0. The Andean Indians have many physical adaptations that allow them to be more immune to the cold weather and high altitudes. Enlarged chests allow for an increased lung capacity when up in those high mountain altitudes. Also Andean Indians have a higher blood flow which helps keep them warmer in the low temperatures. Wool clothes and lots of layers is a cultural adaptation that helps keep the Andean Indians warm. During cold seasons they also have different sleeping patterns and sleep in stone huts.

The race I would consider the Andean Indians is Native American, or Indian. Although they do live in Central America and could also be considered Peruvian, Colombian, etc; I feel like that would not give someone the image of an Andean Indian. 

Summary     


   From looking deeper into the Zulu and Andean Indians, I feel like physical and cultural adaptations give a more in depth explanation of groups. I feel like my choice of race for the two is a more generic description of the groups and does not necessarily tell where they are from. For example, calling the Andean Indians "Indians" does not give much information about the type of Indians they are, nor does really give you any other information on the Andean Indians. Since the Zulu are black, I feel like calling them "African" really isn't much of a problem but it fails to recognize that in Africa, there are other races that too are African. It is extremely important to study environmental adaptations, as oppose to race, as an anthropologist because it gives a more in depth explanation of the group/culture.  




Sources

• "The Zulu People." Zulu-culture.co.za. Durban. 2010. Web. 17 April 2012. <http://www.zulu-culture.co.za/index.php>
• "KawZuli-Natal province, South Africa." Southafrica.info. Big Media Publishers. Web. 17 April 2012. <http://www.southafrica.info/about/geography/kwazulu-natal.htm> 
• "People of Africa." Africanpeople. African Code, 2001. Web. 17 April 2012. <http://www.africanpeople.info/>
• "Andean People." The Free Dictionary. Research Machines plc, 2009. Web. 17 APril 2012. <http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Andean+Indian>
• "Indian Tribes and Languages of the Andes." Native-Languages. 2011. Web. 17 APril 2012. <http://www.native-languages.org/andean-culture.htm>
• Koelsag, J.H. "Population Hometostasis." South African Medical Journal 20.2 (February 1978) 2.11
• De Lorenzo, F. "Cold Adaptation and the Seasonal Distribution of Acute Myocardial Infarction." QJM 92.12 (1999): 747-751