Environmental Adaptations

Population A:

1. The Zulu population inhabits KwaZulua-Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and the Free State of South Africa. Where 80% of Zulu people are, KwaZulua-Natal, the climate is varied yet verdant thanks to diverse, complex topography. Generally, the coast is subtropical with inland regions becoming progressively colder. The south coast has an annual rainfall of 1009 mm, with daytime max peaking from January to March at 28 degrees Celsius with a minimum of 21 degrees Celsius, dropping to daytime highs from June to August of 23 degrees Celsius with a minimum of 11 degrees Celsius.

2. It is essential to be fit when in such a broad landscape. It takes time to 

get resources for everyday things. Usually, rural women do not have appliances such as electric stoves, electric kettles, vacuum cleaners, and electric lights. Men traditional clothing consists mainly of cowhide that is used to cover the bottom front and back. Traditionally, women and men walk barefooted when they wear these clothes. Women have to do chores in order to get anything that they need, like going to the forest to collect wood for cooking and for bringing warmth. This chore sometimes keeps women away from home for the whole day. Oftentimes women have to leave early in the morning and only come back home late in the afternoon. Women usually walk long distances in search of water. They often carry steel buckets, clay pots, or plastic containers. Most women master the art of carrying the water container without hand support at a very early age. There are rural areas that have water taps, but many places still use natural spring water, in which frogs and crabs are commonly seen moving freely. Without doing this, they would definitely not reach homeostasis because they would starve.

Woman carrying pottery

3. The Zulus live in homesteads instead of villages. Each homestead is known as umuzi. Each of the homesteads are surrounded by a hedge, and consist of several "beehive-like" huts, known as kraals. They are beehive-shaped and are built around flexible saplings. Over the top thatching of grass mats are laid and tied down with grass ropes. The floor is made of clay and cow-dung and is polished with a stone to make a hard surface making the floor look like marble. The huts form a circle, with an opening at one end that serve as an entrance. There iss also an inner circle, which iss fenced off by poles. This serves as a cattle pen, where the livestock are kept at night. Each homestead has farmable land around it for the use of growing crops. Cattle are grazed on common pastures short distances away from a family. 

 

 Zulu huts

4. The high majority of the Zulu's race is black. Favoring 79.5% of South Africa's population is black, this is a good estimate.

Population B:

1. The climate is not the same throughout the Andes because there are places nearer to the equator than others. The Andes are separated into three natural regions: the southern, central, and northern regions. In the northern region, it is hotter because it is closest to the equator. There are rain forests in this region, due to the more humid, rainy climate. In the southern region, the mountains are nearer to the Antarctic and it is much colder. It is not very populated in the southern area. In the central region, the weather is more mild because it is not near either the equator or the cold Antarctic.

2. Humans have occupied the Andes for more than 10,000 years, and millions 

of people, indigenous and otherwise, currently live on these plains, high in the 

mountains of South America, at altitudes exceeding 3000 m. While, to some 

extent, acclimatisation can accommodate the one-third decrease in oxygen 

availability, having been born and raised at altitude appears to confer a 

substantial advantage in high altitude performance compared with having 

been born and raised at sea level. Being in this environment gives these people 

only one choice in the climate in which they live, and they adapt.

Farming at high altitude

3. The temperature in the Andes can be rather pleasant. The seasons change more by rainfall than by temperature. Nights are a bit cold to chilly and days can require a winter jacket to short sleeve shirts. In the cities many of the people wear modern clothing, yet in some cities and in the smaller towns and countryside the women usually wear a long skirt and have a collar or shawl. Many women also prefer to wear bowler hats. Each community has a different pattern of weaving of their textiles and  their hats. You can immediately know what community a man is from by identifying his hat. The woven pattern of their special ponchos is also an identifying item. Hats can also tell you by color and design a person’s status in the community and whether or not they are single, in a trial marriage, or married.

Andes clothing

4. A large part of the population of the Andes are Mestizo, meaning mixed 

ancestry. So it can be a largecombination of ethnicity that are the majority 

of peoples. Much blood comes from ancient Incas and ancient Peru populations, 

also from European and Indian natives. It is much too diverse to name one 

race the majority.

Summary: Adaptations have nothing to do with race. It is all the environment. Explaining how they are raised and understanding an individual's environmental influence and immunities is the only route to understanding their culture, as an anthropologist.

Zulu

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

http://izmo.tripod.com/project/zulu.htm

Andes

http://www.andeanawakening.com/andean-culture.html

http://jeb.biologists.org/content/204/18/3151.full.pdf