Outsider's View on Amish Culture

Environment

One of the most advanced countries to this day, America, is a melting pot of different ethnicities. However, when we analyze those ethnicities, individuals still fall back on their predetermined list of races; White, Hispanic, Black, etc. Here’s a shocker, it is not that simple! When one classifies people in those earlier mentioned categories, one is just classifying them into broad and general races. In contrast, categorizing communities into different ethnic groups gives rise to many more accurate subcultures that have settled in the Americas. For example, one of the most similar, yet profoundly distant subculture of America are the Amish.

This ethnic group resides where we do, North America! Specifically, the densest populations of Amish communities are found in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. Still, even though they occupy the same territory as us other fellow Americans, they live in environments that are far from what modern Americans would think to be comfortable. Amish communities have primarily adopted a solitary, agricultural lifestyle that is they try to live on farms away from other non-Amish communities. By adopting this agricultural lifestyle they heavily rely on livestock, like chicken, hogs, and bull calves and annual crops like corn, wheat, and oats which all sum up to create the ideal Amish meadow/pasture. In addition, they enjoy the same climate conditions common to the east coast. They are exposed to the normal seasons, with little variation year to year however, conditions can vary within a year and depending on which part of the Americas they have settled in.  For example, those who live in Pennsylvania or Ohio experience harsh winter conditions like heavy rain and snow fall, which have gone up to annual averages of 50 inches, so if there are to be any adaptations this is where we would see it.

Adaptations

Genetic

Having originated from western Europe, Amish genetically carry the code for light skin. This wasn’t because they were just born this way, but goes back to the idea of natural selection favoring those with adaptive traits that led them to survive and pass on their genes. In this case, the Amish came from a region of the world were individuals were not exposed to a lot of sunlight. This led to the small amount of melanin they possess, which was favored by natural selection in that region (note: it was more that there wasn’t a greater survival of those with more melanin, so natural selection didn’t care as much for those with more melanin in Europe). As they migrated to the Americas, they retained their long term, European based adaption to less sunlight exposure; lighter skin.

Having migrated recently, this does not give Amish enough time for them to have developed physical adaptation to their current environment. However, they still have retained their original adaptation from Europe. Another physical adaptation is their height and stature. We seem to think that because people match the normal height and stature, that they have not experienced the hand of adaptation, but this is a notion that is flawed. Europeans, including the Amish, evolved the appropriate height and stature which reflects the environment prominent in Europe; somewhere between hot and cold. This “in between” body size was adapted for optimal balance of homeostasis in response to the environment.

Cultural

Moving on from long-term, physical adaptations which are passed down through genetics, the Amish have evolved different cultural adaptations over time to the stresses of their current environment. One of these adaptations is very similar to what other subcultures of America do when faced with a harsh winter conditions that is utilize blankets, thick coats, snow boots, and other clothes to trap heat in addition to utilizing one of the most primitive tools; fire. The Amish have also culturally adapted simplistic clothing for everyday wear to one, further themselves from the life style of non-Amish cultures (to preserve the Amish culture) and two, keep them from over heating during hot days on the farm. Finally, a main cultural adaptation, which also reflects the Amish lifestyle, is the adaption of an agricultural lifestyle which stays away from modern technological advances. The Amish have sort of evolved to live without the “burdens” of technology (as they would see it). This agricultural lifestyle has helped preserve the Amish lifestyle and culture, so in theory this adaptation is favored by its culture. However, this does not imply that the survival will depend on whether or not the offspring of an Amish couple will accept this lifestyle or not, which will be analyzed later on.

 

Language

            Just like any ethnicity, there is a certain language they adapt, the Amish are no different. This subculture has adopted a type of German dialect known as Pennsylvania Dutch. However, Amish children are thought English in school and the language used most often, due to the heavy reliance on funds from tourism, is written and spoken English. There are also special occasion, like religious events, where High German is used.

Gender Roles

            The Amish, being a conservative culture, rely heavily on the traditional gender roles, man and woman. With this traditional view on the different genders, come the traditional roles of each. The Amish believe that the man should portray the role of the head of the house and have the final say. The men are also responsible for all the hard, manual work, like the farming and building shelter. Still, this does not mean that the role of women is to only obey the will of their husband. The women are more submissive, but women do have certain roles needed for Amish society to run smoothly. For example, the women are responsible for making clothing, quilts, producing the high energy food items (like butter), and simply keeping the family together. These roles are pretty much set in stone for the Amish, and the only clear way to have these gender roles cross is by living a non-Amish lifestyle. For example, an individual like the hermaphrodite from “The Blessed Curse” would definitely not be accepted in the community and most likely be shunned.

Their culture, in a way, is also defined by their discrete gender roles. A contemporary feminist might see this as holding back the full potential that these Amish women are capable of unleashing. However, these Amish women do not necessarily experience any negative consequences of having such gender roles. With the uprising of tourism, women started to take on more roles than just cooking and producing goods for their families, instead they now help manufacture products that are sold in shops, this way the women are bringing in money and having a more profound role in society. These roles are thought to Amish children from birth, and when one reaches an age of readiness they are responsible to start taking respective gender roles.

Subsistence

            Coming back to this idea that the Amish have adopted a simplistic lifestyle, we can see why they have strived for so long on their simple subsistence pattern; agricultural. It is true that the evolution of an agricultural lifestyle was advancing, however the Amish have strictly held back from modern day advances on agriculture, and still possess simple techniques and methods for harvesting crop and maintaining livestock. Having this simplistic agricultural mode of subsistence, the Amish try to grow and harvest simple food items. For example, they heavily rely on annual crop like corn, wheat, oats, but they also put effort into harvesting seasonal goods like different fruits and vegetables. In addition to all these carbohydrates, the Amish do enjoy protein and foods rich in fat. They raise livestock from chicken and hogs to bull calves and cows just for milking. It is then safe to say that the Amish do have a balanced and nutritional diet, if not a better one than our fast food nation’s diet.

           Even though the Amish have strict, traditional genders they still believe in an egalitarian social relation that is, they believe that all should be treated equal no matter who has a more prominent gender role. Just because the men are seen as having the authority figure doesn’t mean that they will be the only ones who enjoy that year’s harvest. In all actuality, in the Amish culture, it is warranted that all family members participate in helping around the farm. From a young age, boy or girl, Amish children are thought to always be involved around the farm because that is their lifestyle and they rely heavily on the harvest because they have almost completely shut themselves off from the modernized world.

           

Economy

            This discussion of the Amish culture makes it sound like they are completely shut off from the rest of America. Even though the Amish people have tried very hard to not place themselves into America’s modern society, they are still part of America’s system. Due to the fact that they live in America, they use the same currency as we do when dealing with transactions. Yes, the Amish have adopted a simplistic lifestyle, but 

there is no way one can avoid America’s vast monetary system. To us outsiders, it might even seem taboo but Amish even use credit cards! There lifestyle of farming is by no means a way of income, and any surplus of food goes nowhere except the dinner table. All in all, the Amish do live a simple lifestyle with an agricultural mode of subsistence; however they still participate in the same economy system as we do.

Marriage

            The Amish religion, seen as “radical Christians” which will be discussed in more detail later, has governed their way of marriage. The Amish are monogamous people, who morally believe that divorce is wrong, and it is never an option. The Amish do not have any sort of systematic aspects of marriage that is they do not ask for dowry or have arranged marriages. Marriage is determined by a man asking a woman for her hand in marriage, sound familiar? An Amish man doesn’t seek for any sort of economic benefit or a gain in power, instead they seek for a woman who will be a good housewife and run a proper Amish family. Here, we can see that the male does the picking, in contrast with the animal kingdom where males have to fight over other males for the chance of copulation, Even though an Amish woman might be ready to marry, she will have to wait for a man to pick her over the others.

            The Amish, being a tight knit community, believe that endogamy is the only way to keep the Amish culture true, and stay away from the wider “evil world.” There are exceptions to those individuals who completely have decided to leave behind the Amish culture, but in that case the Amish community no longer sees him/her as a true Amish individual. After marriage, Amish couples will most likely move in with the husband’s parents that is, they practice a patrilocal residence pattern. Due to the fact that Amish are dedicated to a strict lifestyle, with discrete genders, and want to keep the Amish culture pure, they see homosexuals as part of the “evil world.” This has a lot to do with their strong beliefs in Christianity. An important thing to note here is that sometimes because of this goal of having a pure Amish society, a lot of intermarriage does occur between the Amish sometimes knowingly and unknowingly.

Kinship

            While the Amish prize their female counterparts, kinship is frequently determined by patrilineal descent. This is not to say that females are totally ignored, remembering that they are an egalitarian society, matrilineal descent is still present but less emphasized. Seeing that there is a heavy influence on the male gender, it can be inferred that males have more authority. This is a redundant theme through Amish culture that males have the most authority and are heavily influential. Because they have the more power than the females, they inherit land and any type of inheritance through descent lines. The Amish use titles like son, daughter, brother, sister, wife, husband, etc. and this reflects a sort of hybrid of Eskimo and Iroquois naming system.

Social and Political Organization

            Moving on to the aspect of social organization of the Amish culture, there have been multiple hints that the Amish display an egalitarian social relation. Even though the male of the household has greater influence, all individuals of the family reap the benefits equally and put in the same amount of work, even though the type of work might differ.

            Even though the Amish leave and abide by the laws of America, they seem to not have a specialized form of government. Unlike other cultures in America who separate church and state, political power is usually found in the head of church; ministers. These ministers, just like politicians, are chosen by the Amish people and if anyone is seen to have some sort of influence over the whole Amish community it is the minister. Like mentioned before, they follow all the same laws we follow, but because power is primarily found in the church, they follow other laws as well. For example, the way they dress and the way they conduct their lifestyle is heavily monitored. If an Amish were to go against the lifestyle choice of staying away from the outside world, like being part of a law firm, then they would primarily be shunned from the community. We need to note however that they do not only disregard serving in the military or violence, but that they also do not rely on social security or any other type of insurance.

           

Violence

Seeing that the Amish follow strict Christian guidelines, they prohibit any type of violence, ranging from bearing arms to holding government office. However, Amish are not immune from experiencing violence from the outside world. For instance, there is a right of passage for adolescence known as Rumspringa, where an Amish adolescence is allowed to go out into the real world and decide on whether or not they want to leave the Amish life style behind. Here, the sheltered Amish individuals experience a culture shock full of different things and activities that are deemed “evil” or “violent” in the Amish community. When individuals come back they either realize that this world full of interesting things is or isn’t for them, and one factor that comes into play is this positive factor of the Amish community frowning upon violence.

Religion

            Finally, moving on to the aspect of Amish culture that primarily sets the parameters of life, religion is seen as the dominating force that guides the Amish community to live a lifestyle voided of the outside world. Christianity is a religion followed by many, and the Amish are one of those groups. There current monotheistic religion was based on their traditional Anabaptist beliefs that only adults should be baptized under God’s name and that “true Christians” should not hold government office, stay away from any type of violence, show humility and obedience. They follow an unwritten code of behavior known as the Ordnung whose reinforcement of the rules depends on the bishop. The Amish believe that the Bible is the word of God, and because of that everything said in must be true, and this is where the Amish obtain there idea of how life all began.

A unique event that characterizes Christianity practiced by the Amish, is in the above mentioned fact that they perform adult baptisms and absolutely believe that to be a good Amish and Christian one must void themselves of the outside world which is full of evil and violence. The Amish believe to be a good Christian one does not have to part take in rituals, but instead listen to the Word of God. In their culture, one does not need giant symbols and fancy churches to show their fate, to them genuine worship is found in community action among each other. Religion in this culture seems to dictate life. Without it, it seems the Amish culture would deteriorate due to the fact that a lot of their lifestyle is based on the Word of God and wanting to uphold the image of a good Christian.

 

Art

            Just as the Amish have a simplistic lifestyle, they possess simplistic art. The Amish are heavily influenced by music and dance. At any sort of celebration, like a wedding, it has been noted that the Amish sing and into the late hours, in addition to singing during any religious events. However, it is important to note that the Amish do not encourage using musical instruments because it is considered “worldly and vain.” This allows the Amish to have some sort of art form that is fun, yet not go against there value thus living within the ideal Amish lifestyle. Amish artwork seems to be an innovation in response to the increase interest in tourists wanting to visit and learn about their communities. Amish have adopted artwork for the purposes of profit. In a way, people can enjoy the simple Amish paintings while the Amish benefit from another source of income. Other than just art, the Amish enjoy other activities like gardening and playing sports like volleyball or softball, however we have to remember that they play for fun and not for the competition of it.

           

Conclusion

            The Amish culture has tried very hard throughout the years, since their settlement here in America, to void them of the outside, evil world. Still as hard as they tried, the Amish have been influenced both positively and negatively by many of the other cultures that inhabit America. If treat the Amish culture as the in group, and we compare them to the rest of America as an out group culture, we can already see that the out group culture is more prominent than the Amish. America’s culture has had a negative influence on the Amish culture, because the standards that the Amish live by directly oppose those adopted by many of us Americans today. However, we have also positively influenced them because in the recent years, tourism has increased in Amish communities, and the out group has provided them with a source of income for just being who they are.

            The Amish had traveled to the Americas a while back, and are still thriving on their strict, simplistic lifestyle. Needless to say, the Amish culture is in no way threatened to go into extinction. They have almost existed in “homeostasis” with the outside world and survive on their agricultural lifestyle.

            In conclusion, we go back to the idea that America is just one big melting pot of different ethnicities and cultures and the Amish just happen to be one of them. Even though there numbers are small, the Amish culture is a culture known by almost all the inhabitants of America. So even though they do not posses such large roles, their name possess much notoriety. 

Art: Very Old School

There have been many interpretations on the cave art found in the Lascaux Caves, but all of them revolve around animals and specifically those that were sketched on to these walls. One of the ideas is that the painters drew them almost as a “how to” schematic for hunting, deduced from observing the fact that specific parts of the animal were marked with arrow like symbols or slashes. Another theory is that the painters were big fans of the mythical world, that is there culture might have been heavy on shamanism and putting a lot of religious belief in these animals, or what is known as totemism. Yet there is still another explanation to why the painters drew what they did and this one revolves around the idea that they were constructing some sort of calendar to document time. They documented time by using the proposed unit of a season (e.g. summer), and would chronologically depict biological development of the animal with changes in morphological structures. This also could have helped them categorize which animals were reproductively ready.

This heavy emphasis on animals, and the total absence of the human species, shows that the painter’s culture was heavily influenced by animals, and specifically the cow and horses. Just as some churches glorify Jesus Christ on the stained glass windows, the painters here glorified the animals.

These paintings give us insight to our aspects of these painters’ lives. For example, they indirectly let us know about the craftsmanship of these skillful artists, that back then were just exiting the cycle of evolution from our early primate ancestors to our early human species. To draw these paintings in the first place they would have had to develop the tools to do them, and such tools have been found and show the advancement and the intrinsic quality of those tools, like the lamp.

The innovation of the lamp was accomplished due to the fact that these early drawers had some difficulties to face. Here, the lamp was made to aid them in the underground, dark caves and illuminated their canvases.

No matter what time era you analyze or what type of art you think is the best, they all serve one common purpose and that is to document what is happening during the time of conception of the art work. Either it be early renaissance art or early cave sketches of horses, artists have indirectly and unconsciously helped document time. Another purpose all art serves is to help convey and express what was of concern during their time.

 

This type of art, known as performance art performed by people like Marina Abramovic, this helps to functions once again as another time point in the history of humans and marks the era of modernism and contemporary art. She also conveys important ideas of our time such as the imbalance of power between males and females, and conveys the idea of attention in here very last work, “The artist is present.” However, this type of art has no specific culture except those who are interested by what goes against “the norm.” This both includes those that love the unusual, and those that believe that what she does, does not fit what is accepted in society today. This type of art, performance art that is, opens up a lot of possibilities to explore one’s status and role in both society and with their self. 

must watch, James Franco even participated: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trw9vYV_g6c&feature=related&noredirect=1

Power Seen in Yanomama Tribe

Humans have evolved to such great extents, and we have made many advances however as our primitive ape ancestors took the first steps to humanness, modern day Homo sapiens still hold on to some of their primitive traits; violence. With violence, comes murder and this is seen in all different races and cultures. Our Western culture primarily perceives violence as punishable by date (note that not all states have accepted the death penalty, only 34 states have), and our perspective can be seen in different cultures from the French, circa French Revolution, to the modern day Yanomamo. Violence is perceived the same way in all culture; bad, however the thing that differs is the punishment for the violence and the mechanisms behind it. When we look at the Yanomamo we see that they, along with our Western culture, believe that violence and murder is worthy of punishment, but what differs is how that punishment is dealt. Our Western culture primarily believes in the death penalty, and those that don’t, believe in life servitude in correctional facilities. The Yanomamo people treat individuals who have committed acts of violence with hostile intent, just as some American states wish to carry out the death penalty. However the main difference is that, where all of Western culture believes that whoever committed the crime should be the only one guilty and dealt the punishment, the Yanomamo culture believes that kin to the individual who committed the act of violence can be held accounted for and have their lives taken. Where we find the death penalty, or jail rightful, they find that murder for vengeance to be viable.

The murders for vengeance, or revenge killings, all starts out with an individual’s kin passing away, either by direct murder or by indirect methods such as sorcery of shaman. The individual, possessing primitive traits of aggression, contemplates on who is guilty of this death. Once that individual has someone in mind or knows exactly who did it, he seeks out for revenge and kills of that individual or group. However, these revenge killings are almost circular in nature, in that they will always come back to haunt the murder. The individual or group that the grieving Yanomamo killed off will have kin that will then seek vengeance and this process will continue until one or the other starts to back off, and accept the status of cowardice.

Those who commit these revenge killings go through a ritual known as a unokaimou and are then known as unokais, which is translated by Chagnon to “those who have killed.” You could imagine that in an environment where vengeance is a common act, building some sort of reputation could help you ward off future murders. Thus by gaining the title of unokais, you start to develop the reputation of someone who should not be taken so lightly. In addition to building a reputation to protect yourself, the title of unikais can help attract more women, by the means that unikais can offer protection, and thus increase the unikais reproductive success. However, to first develop this status of unikais one has to kill, and in the Yanomamo culture those who kill are destined to die by the grieving Yanomamo’s hand and the only question to ponder is when? Non-unikais have just as much advantage as unikais in that they are not faced with the great possibility of being vengefully killed, and thus can in turn have great reproductive success as well.

In actuality, there are some benefits of revenge killing seen by Chagnon in the Yanomamo tribe. Revenge killing has increased the closeness and size of kin. Kinship has been benefited from revenge killing by having more kin to be there for the grieving individual and support him in his turn to seek vengeance. The more kin they have in support for them, the more likely the revenge killing will take place. However, with so much of the Yanomamo marriages occurring within the family, the harder it is for the Yanomamo to decide whether the revenge killings to be carried out if there family was in another community and murdered. Thus their social and political structure is now affected as well. The Yanomamo have no systematic social or political structure, the closet they come to having some distinction in power is when an individual acquires the title unikais or the leader of a community, a patas. Marriage and reproduction is greatly affected by revenge killings, and by Chagnon’s observations, is governed by it. Those who acquire the unikais status, given to only those who have successfully carried out killing another for vengeance, are high prized by the women in the Yanomamo tribe, and are more sought out for than non unikais.

With steps towards humanness, we still held on to our primitive traits of violence. In our modern society killing another human being is one of the worst and frightening things a human is capable of. True, no one is born with the intention to kill, however sometimes people are put into situations where previous genetic and environmental effects have wired their brain to respond to this situation by murder, or in the case of the Yanomamo revenge killings. This is why we have laws for such acts. These laws do not only act as a deterrent to stop people from committing a murder but they also punish those who have somehow managed to bring themselves to commit such a crime.

Matrilineal Descent Kinship

Kinship

For this weeks assignment I decided to interview the person who has not only given me half of their chromosomes, but in addition their mitochondrial DNA, my mother! The reason why I decided to analyze kinship through the matrilineal descent path was not because I share more genetic information with her but that I know that she comes from a huge family and it would be fun to see how far I could delve into it. My mother was born in Yerevan, Armenia, at the time of her birth she didn’t know it, but she would be the oldest of the 5 offspring. My mother was born to a working class family and today is still in a working class family, but hopefully with my advancement into medical school that soon will change!

As an insider, trying to play the role of an outsider, it was hard to develop some sort of professionalism between me and my mother during this interview because we are very aware of exactly what is happening in each other’s lives. However, there were still things I had no idea of. As my mother began to tell me about her parents, my grandparents, and their siblings she started to mention those who were deceased. The thing was I had no idea who she was talking about, because I have met all my grandparents’ siblings. The human brain has evolved to predict outcomes, and this sent me and my brain in a state of confusion. It turned out the reason why I never knew about my grandfather’s sister was because she passed away at an early age of 5 years. However, I tried to not let that bother me, because to her she seemed to have accepted it. The honest truth is if I was in the same situation with someone I was not familiar with I would most likely not be so distort about it, so I feel like there was some bias involved during this interview.

With this interview, my assumptions turned out to be true. For example, my immediate family is very close with each other and with extended family members. Just as we today spend Christmas with family from 4 generations, my mother’s childhood memories were ones where she celebrated holidays with all family members and still with family from many different generations. Coming from rural country, the majority of Armenians are from the working class, and my mother’s family was not an exception. Some family members have been living on their own, independent farms (reflecting the subsistence agricultural pattern), some have jobs and live in the city, and some live far away from the city. Even though there was some bias on my side when I was interviewing my mother, it didn’t seem that my mother had a bias towards one side of the family. She respectfully and accurately recalled all of her family members, age of death, and her childhood memories. According to my mother, it seems that there are almost no differences but only similarities in the lifestyle among the different family members. All of the family recalled by my mother were born and raised in Armenia, during their lifetime. They all shared similar patterns of lifestyle like patrilocal residence to a point (which even my mother participated early in her marriage). Another pattern that seems to be similar throughout all generations is that family size tends to be on the larger side. The only difference that my mother can point out is the difference between the younger and older generations. With her being part of the middle of the 4 generations, she fairly understands both the younger generation and the older generation, and she let me know that the older ones do see things that they don’t necessarily like however they do see things that make them proud to be part of this kinship.

Since birth family has been a major factor in every decision I have made in my life, especially when I decided to go off to UC Davis to earn my B.S. however as much as I am involved with my family I sadly do not know ever person very well. I know back to my grandparents’ siblings but nothing before that due to obvious reasons; age! Still, the relatives I know, I socialize with them equally from both my father’s and mother’s side of the family. In my immediate family, my father has always had the final say and I am certain that this is because of where my parents came from. A common aspect of Armenian culture is a heavy reliance on the male figure of the family, this arises from our strict morals and ethics. This leads to the question of how different genders are perceived. Looking through my kinship and family, I have personally noticed that females are subjected to abide by different standards than the males, even in everyday interactions; greetings! When males greet another male we are innately drawn to shake the other’s hand and even give a kiss on the cheek whereas males treat females more subtly or sometimes even passively by hugging or simply saying hello, respectively. However, as the generation of American-Armenians starts to grow, this general trend of the male figure having the last word is starting to diminish and now we are adopting the trend of compromising and possessing equal status. Something to note here is that those who marry into the family still come from the same background and culture so they are not treated differently, however the adaption of emotions has led to all human beings having their own opinions of one another. 

Subsistence and Economy

Part 1: Different Subsistence Patterns

a)      Pros/Advantages

§         Agriculture

                                                              i.      With the rise of agriculture and farming techniques, individuals were able to stabilize in one area and grow, leading to greater reproductive fitness and advancing from primitive methods to modern techniques.

                                                            ii.      Were able to grow enough food to feed the community and were able to even have a surplus of food, for emergency situation like when there are unfavorable conditions for harvest

                                                          iii.      Food supply is continuous as long as they keep harvesting and conditions are favorable

§         Hunting and Gathering

                                                              i.      With hunting and gathering, the communities tend to be very small, therefore there are a lot less mouths to feed, meaning the work put in to find the food does not impede on the amount of food/energy gathered.

                                                            ii.      With these communities not having so many “extra” people, all are equal in status and ranking.

                                                          iii.      Their food supply will always be available until they either hunt down all of it in the area and use it up

b)      Cons/Disadvantages

§         Agriculture

                                                              i.      With the rise of agriculture, farmers in the beginning would hire slaves to do the manual labor, and this then formed a community where individuals were not equal in status and ethical issues arose. This can still be seen today as farmers still hire immigrants to do the hard manual labors while we flourish the fruits of their labor.

                                                            ii.      Sometimes the habitat that the individuals live in experience unfavorable conditions for farming meaning that these communities are taking a risk in maybe not having food during that season

                                                          iii.      With farming, there are greater factors that can damage the harvest, like insects/pests, plant and livestock disease, environment (i.e drought, winter, not enough sun light), etc.

                                                          iv.      Much more work needs to be put into taking care of harvest and livestock

§         Hunting and Gathering

                                                              i.      Individuals living in such communities will not have enough energy or food supple to be able to advance and grow like agriculture communities, leading to a low reproductive fitness

                                                            ii.      They can use up all the food supple from one area, thus leading to them living a nomadic lifestyle and always being unsure if the next location will be abundant in any type of food supply

                                                          iii.      With this nomadic lifestyle they increase their risk of predator attacks, sickness, and death

c)      Which one is healthier?

§         There are many factors to take into consideration to determine which of the two subsistence patterns are healthier, but at the end is has to be agriculture. The reason why we are all here today, with prolonged life expectancies is because of the rise of farming and being able to manage our own livestock. If we also just take a look into the food supply itself, agriculture is healthier in many aspects. For example, true, protein is a major source of energy and is need for normal development however our bodies are designed to utilize certain enzymes to breakdown proteins and fats, and these enzymes come from vitamins that are sometimes only found in vegetables and byproducts from live stock (eg. Vitamin D from milk). In addition, agriculture developed systematic methods to grow and harvest crops and livestock so this allowed enough food so malnutrition was not a concern. However, there are some drawbacks because livestock were raised within the community humans were more susceptible to disease. Still, we overcame that boundary and are now here today because someone realized they can grow their own food.

d)     The reason why early humans decided to transition from hunter and gathering methods to acquiring food to an agriculture lifestyle is due to many factors. One of the simple factors I can think of is that some individuals were just not good at hunting, plain and simple. Those who could not catch their own food risked their reproductive fitness, so a new method was established, instead of going to the food they brought the food to them. Another reason might have been that there was just not enough food to go around. This lead them to devise another way to produce more food to greater increase their reproductive fitness.

Part 2: Different Economies

a)      With the rise of agriculture, communities were able to harvest and collect a surplus of food. This lead them to utilize and develop another technique other than farming; trading. They traded food for tools, clothes, livestock, and weapons, however the important thing here is that it is because of the extra food that these communities harvested that allowed them to trade. Therefore, the statement that there is a direct correlation between surplus of food and trading holds true. Not only is the surplus of food used as trading items, but the surplus of food is what has helped advance the community to the stage of utilizing trade. With hunter and gathers we do not see settled, advanced communities developing their culture, however with agriculture people have the resources now to settle down and grow into advance communities with more developed cultures and economic systems.

b)      Other than benefiting from acquiring items that you typically don’t have access to, trading provides social benefits as well. One benefit developed from trading between two different communities is the formation of closer bonds between them. Having these two different cultures trading and bartering allows for them to get to know and understand one another. This will further lead them to become allies, and further develop and advance. Another beneficial factor that comes with trading is the development of one’s self. Unlike in today’s modern society where the main form of transactions are carried out online, early humans 12,000 years ago and still in other places around the world today, transactions were and are carried out through human-to-human interactions. This type of social interaction leads to one’s self developing personality, and skills in interacting with people.

c)      With the advancement of society and culture due to agriculture and trading, humans did not only reap the benefits, but also the negative aspects that came with trading. Looking specifically at the social aspect, one obvious problem is jealousy. Still, today different communities are not satisfied with what they have, and even what they get out of the trade that is carried out. As this jealousy continuous, cultures start to form enemies due to the jealousy of the other culture’s resources. Another negative social aspect that came with development of trading was a shift in status. With trading, those who did not have enough to trade became peasants, but those who had things to trade became powerful.

d)     With the rise of agriculture, humans 12000 years ago started to develop and advance. This growth then led to the development of trading and bartering. With agriculture there is only so much one community can harvest per year, therefore communities started to seek other communities that possessed items that they did not. With having a surplus of food, and other communities having none, humans realized that this surplus did not have to go to waste and could have more value to other communities that were lacking in food supplies. This led to trading between communities and those who developed farming techniques before others would have an advantage because they where the ones who would set out and trade for things that would help advance their community. 

"What you talkin' bout, culture?"

One of the major steps to humanness is the evolution of speech. Our early ancestors, after becoming mobile and acquiring the human’s characteristic bipedal trait, started to develop and form speech. However, one can always ask “How does our speech and communication differ from other primates and mammals?” The thing is, us humans have developed our own system for speech, with a set of alphabets that can be used by anyone to form language and speech. This week’s assignment was to test the different components of speech and language, that is 1) the component of symbolic language and 2) the physical component of speech.

Part 1

The first portion of this experiment required me to not use any sort of symbolic language that is speaking, writing, or sign language. This scenario accounted for the use of speech itself, and put me in a state where my ideas could not be conveyed through speech but only physically communicated, almost like other mammals. To be completely honest though, this was not as hard as it sounded when I first read it. I performed the experiment with my brother, so there was a little bias there (as in if I pointed to something random it was because it usually had some significant event coupled to it that we both knew of), however I managed to convey my ideas and opinions. It was not as difficult because there were no limits to what I could do physically to communicate my thoughts and my signals did not get misinterpreted, that is they were discrete physical actions that could only mean one thing (eg. If I pointed to the television, my brother knew I was talking about the television). As the experiment went on, my brother started to acclimate to the scenario, however in the beginning there were some issues. At first, it was more difficult for him to understand what was happening, he would guess a lot and was confused sometimes, but after a while things picked up. In addition, I also noticed he was using more than usual hand movements and physical cues during our conversation, as in he would point to things more, he would nod his head in agreement or disagreement with his verbal response. Now, if my brother and I represented two different cultures meeting for the first time, he would have the advantage in developing and communicating complex ideas due to the fact that he can rely not only on physical communication, but he will have access to an established language system, and can use symbolic language by speaking ideas, or writing them out. My brother (culture that uses symbolic language) will most likely have the belief that I (culture that does not use symbolic language) am the inferior one. However, in our society today, we have many people today who are not able to utilize symbolic language to communicate, but we still see them as equals, for example those who are born without the capability to hear (i.e. through deafness) or those who are born with difficulties developing language and speech (i.e. through mental retardation). From personal experience, having an uncle who is deaf, it sometimes can be hard to communicate with him, and I always seem to heavily rely on physical communication and hand movements, even though he is very fluent in American Sign Language. The way I see it, is that those people who are seen as “inferior” seem to be more superior than us due to the fact that they not only need to interpret what we say with our complex ideas and symbolic language, but they have to process it and respond back with their simplistic communicational methods.

Part 2

The second experiment analyzed the use of symbolic language but one person was denied any physical means of communication, so no change in tone of voice, facial expression, hand movements, etc. Both, my brother and I, found this experiment to be more difficult (and fun) because every time we started our conversation we would both break out into laughter because of the seriousness on our faces. Therefore, on multiple tries, failed to last the full 15 minutes but not just because of the laughter but also it seemed hard for me to refrain from using facial expressions. As my brother and I attempted to complete the task at hand, my brother did not find it difficult to understand what I was saying but found it hard to interpret how I felt about what I was saying. He did not get how I felt about what we were talking about. He stated “it was like you had no opinion, even though you were literally telling me you agreed with me.” This experiment shows us the importance of communicating through physical ways, and that this simplistic approach to communication is needed to express ideas accurately and with ease. The reason why is because with symbolic language facts, concepts, and laws are easily conveyed however “signs” and non-speech language techniques are needed to express ideas, thoughts, and opinions. In today’s society, there are many individuals that have a hard time interpreting body languages, and it can range from people like you and me to those who physically do not have the capability to see physical cues and motions, that is blind individuals. People who are blind sometimes can be at a disadvantage because they do not have access to how ones idea looks like, or feels like which is conveyed through facial expressions, hand movements, etc. There are not many environmental conditions I can think of where not reading body language is beneficial, however I can think of certain physical conditions where it is not beneficial to read body language, and that is when an individual is diagnosed with tourette syndrome. A person with tourette syndrome might communicate an unwanted, and depending on the situation inappropriate, physical gesture or sign, therefore it would be beneficial for one not to interpret those physical gestures literally.

Part 3

Writing is considered a type of symbolic language, so if we were allowed to use it in the first experiment it would have made things easier, however there would be no reason to perform the experiment then because one can convey complex ideas and thoughts with writing. It is very beneficial for a culture to develop writing because once an established system is created for the use of forming words (i.e. an alphabet), that culture now has access to a reliable and constant system to communicate with one another. This way, complex ideas can easily be communicated with all those who comprehend that system of symbols. Another advantage is that writing allows the preservation of ideas, facts, opinions, etc. that can be revisited in a later time. This advantage of having access to writing, leads to the spread of that idea/knowledge, which is known as globalization. It is because of the development of writing why we can gain knowledge on the concept of globalization itself. It is true that globalization can be spread through other mediums, such as speech, however the idea can not be expressed systematically for others to have access to. 

Zulu tribe and Andean Indians

Zulu Tribe

As we move into summer here in Los Angeles, California the heat is starting to pick up, however this does not compare to the amount of sunshine that the African Zulu tribe, located in the southern portion of Africa, are exposed too. Here the Zulu tribe receives “about 320 days of sunshine a year,” with very little variation in the weather. The temperatures the Zulu tribe experiences throughout the year “range from 73ºF to 92ºF.” The Zulu tribe is specifically located in a region of South Africa known as KwaZulu-Natal, which typically receives from “one day of rainfall a month (usually during June-July) to nine days of rainfall (typically during November-January). The weather, to any sun tanning enthusiast, seems to be optimal however this continuous sunlight exposure is not as beneficial as one might think. In addition, studies have shown that “the ozone layer over South Africa is depleting” leading to increased amount of harmful UV rays entering through the atmosphere and affecting the inhabitants of South Africa.

Taking in all these factors into account, one can conclude that if these conditions were presented to a population over many generations, certain adaptations would take place to benefit and improve the survival rate of those people. Here, examining the individuals of the Zulu tribe, we notice multiple adaptations to the severe climate conditions presented to them over many generations. For example, possessing an overall darker skin tone to adapt to the constant sun exposure and having lengthy (i.e. tall) bodies built to regulate body temperature given the warm conditions they thrive in. Something that a lot of people don’t notice is that inhabitants of such warm conditions adapt to this constant disruption of body temperature by evolving slowly to obtain long, lengthy bodies, that is their body frames are less wide but taller/lengthier. This follows the principles of “Bergmann’s and Allen’s Rules, which together state that a body and its parts that are lengthier have a greater surface area, and with this increase in surface area the more blood is exposed to the air. This adaption then leads to more blood passing under the skin to lose heat faster and at a greater extent, leading to a better regulation of body temperature in warm condition.”

Now, looking at nongenomic adaptations, one thing I keep on noticing while I look through images is that the Zulu individuals seem to wear almost no clothing. One can say that this is because of their status as a 3^rd world country; however I see it as a cultural adaptation. The conception of clothing during primitive time was for the survival of those humans that faced cold climates, however in the case of the Zulu tribe, being exposed to such warm condition, clothing is just a hindrance. They culturally adapted to these warm conditions by down regulating the amount of skin covered and exposing more skin to be cooled off by easier interaction between skin and air.

In our modern society, the most popular race to classify the Zulu tribe under would be Blacks. American, immigrating originally from Europe, have developed literally black and white labels for the inhabitants of this planet. When filing out a standardized test there is no option saying whether you are from the Zulu tribe or from opposite ends like Ethiopia, we have determined that if natural selection has favored for you to poses dark melanin and pigmentation then you are known to belong to the Black race.

Andean Indians

Looking at total extreme, the inhabitants of the Andes Mountains in South America, are exposed to very cold condition, ranging from less than 52ºF to 64ºF, the warmest. Unlike the Southern Africa, the Andes region receives plentiful rainfall each year. A key difference to mention here is that the altitude of both locations differ, whereas the Zulu tribe lives on flat, sub-Saharan lands, the Andean Indians live in altitudes reaching to 20,000 feet!

 A physical adaptation the Andean Indians poses by being exposed to such conditions was increase in lung surface area volume and an increase in the amount of red blood cells. Natural selection favored these adaption because of the hypoxic conditions of where the Andean Indians lived, meaning that they were living in an environment with a depletion in oxygen. This increase in the number of red blood cells (hemoglobin) allowed more oxygen to be transferred throughout the body.

A cultural adaptation to these cold conditions and low oxygen levels was to produce many articles of clothing to provide warmth from the harsh environment. 

Just like in the case of the Zulu tribe, individuals that inhabit the Andes Mountains fall into this black and white category. Being from the South Americas, the Andean Indians would be classified as a Latin based race. This race is not only based on Americas criteria but because the Andean Indians share a lot of food, language, clothing, etc with those around them as well. 

People of Nacerima: That Can't Be Normal, Right?

1) Low Self-Esteem

     The Nacerima tribe seems to be a society full of individuals with low self esteem. Miner believes that “the fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly,” to the Nacerimas. These individuals are born and raised to believe that they are not good enough with the way they look, so the only option is to fix it with potions and harsh body mutilating rituals. Miner also observed that the “Nacerima possessed this fascination with the mouth,” and that they feared that if they did not participate in these “rituals of the mouth, their lovers reject them.” Having such an obsession with such a small portion of the human body shows how little confident the Nacerima have, unless they go and perform these rituals of the mouth.

2) Complex

     The Nacerima, poses such complex rituals and goals. Miner observed that “the Nacerima like to collect many different charms and magical potions,” which they get from their “medicine men.” However, instead of receiving their potions directly, they must go through not only the medicine men, but travel and depart on a journey to a “herbalist,” with a scribe containing the cryptic potion, who will then translate and provide them with what they desperately seek. It also seems that to support their interesting daily rituals, complex processes are initiated. For example, “Nacerima have a Water Temple in every community where priests, through elaborate ceremonies, purify the water.” Water itself being one of the purest things on this planet, must be analyzed and further purified by special priests.

3) Brutal

     The rituals observed and presented by Minor, that the Nacerima are obsessed about, seem to be very brutal and sadistic. For example, there is one observation made that can put any person in a culture shock state; “women bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour.” Knowing that the human body can’t tolerate such heats produced by ovens, they still take the chance and “bake their heads” in one, an act that can be seen by any other culture as life threatening. There also seems to be brutality in the one thing the Nacerima seems obsessed with, the mouth. Minor reported that “individuals seek out holy-mouth-men who, with tools of the trade, gouge teeth and drill into them and make their gums bleed.” Present this observation to an outsider, and their instinct is to squarm.

4) Secretive

     From Minor’s observations one can conclude that the Nacerima people, as obsessed as they are performing these obscure rituals, they are just as obsessed with hiding the fact that they participate in them. For example, Minor observed that the Nacerima take part in daily rituals in shrines that they have built, but that “the rituals associated with it are not family ceremonies but are private and secret.” It only seems that there are a few exceptions to where the Nacerima people divulge into their experiences with these rituals. One of them is during the time when children of the Nacerima are at an age to discuss the rituals performed in these shrines. Another example when the Nacerima don’t hide in the shadows of their rituals, are those females who choose to go through such inhuman rituals and make their breasts larger, and go on “to be idolized by men, from village to village.” Other than those caveats, the Nacerima seems to withhold information from their community, such as when to be mothers dress in a certain way, to purposely hide the fact that they are pregnant.    

5) Lost

    The overall image of the people of Nacerima Minor has potrayed, seems to be a cultures composed of lost individuals who are born to go through these rituals so their society accepts them. Minor observed and noted that the purpose, of almost all the rituals performed, was to gain further access into their own culture, to be liked and accepted more. They go through brutal rituals, and yet they seem to partake in them year after year. The goal of the Nacerima is to better one’s body through these obscure rituals because they are not satisfied with the way it was in the beginning. They are lost in that, to be accepted into society one has to mutilate their body and suffer pain, if not though luck.