The Language Experiments

Part 1: Charades

Part 1 was like trying to play a game of charades. It took forever to get simple ideas across to my best friend (who was helping me with these language experiments). Anything complex was way beyond what I could express using body language, and it was frustrating trying to get her to understand. She started off asking me things like "how are you" and "why" when I indicated I was tired (sleepy). The why wasn't something I could get across to her, so she started trying to guess by throwing out ideas like in a game of charades. After she figured out I had kept waking up all night long, she started trying to ask simple yes or no questions or questions that could be easily answered using body language. I had a really hard time starting new trains of thought, and she ran out of simple ideas to try to ask me, so our conversation was under 10 minutes long. If this was a real life type of situation, I would say the person with the words could express more complex ideas than those without words. I think the culture with the symbolic language would think the culture without it was living in the dark ages, not nearly as advanced as them, and perhaps a little slow or mentally handicapped. I think autistic people have difficulty expressing things with a spoken language; at least they don't express things in a manner that those without autism are used to. I think people who don't have autism marginalize those who do.

Part 2: Robot

I felt like a robot while having a conversation with my best friend. We were actually able to last an entire 15 minutes, but it felt as if there was a lot lacking. I had a hard time conveying emotion of any sort without using body language (it's amazing how much I use my hands and eyebrows). Trying not to gesture in any way and trying not to use tonal inflections were the hardest things for me. My best friend thought I seemed flat and rigid; she actually didn't like this part at all and preferred the gesturing language experiment better. She's so used to getting my opinions about things; clothes, politics, what I think someone else meant when they said something. She ended up steering away from that type of conversation because she said a lot of what helped her out was how I reacted non-verbally to something. My words were important, but so was the underlying meaning that my non-verbal queues expressed. I think non-verbal language helps to portray the emotion behind the words. If I say I love you without any sort of body language, then it's just words. The non-verbal language helps give depth and meaning to those words. As far as those who have difficulty reading body language, I think people with Asperger's Syndrome have a difficult time reading body language and therefore often misinterpret what someone's trying to say. I think if you have the ability to read body language, then you are more aware of the other person's emotions. I think this is beneficial in times when someone is potentially violent; reading those queues can help you know when to get far away from the hostile person. But I can't think of an environmental condition where there is a benefit to not reading body language. I'm sure there are situations out there where this would be beneficial, but I can't think of any at the moment.

Part 3: Written Language

I think part 1 would have been a lot easier to communicate if I had been able to write things down. The conversation would have been slow, but it would have conveyed more than just body language alone. For example, about 4 months ago, I went to a small coffee shop where the lady behind the counter had had a reaction to an antibiotic she was taking. She had lost her voice because of it and hadn't been able to speak for 3 weeks (with 6 more weeks to go - how she got the 6 weeks part, I'm not sure; doctors orders? - I didn't ask). She really thought it sucked. She wrote down short sentences that conveyed most of the thought and then filled in the emotional part with body clues. It was amazing at how little she actually had to write to convey the message she wanted to with a mixture of written words and body language. However, there are times when the written word alone can be misread when there isn't a person behind it giving the non-verbal clues as to the actual meaning of what they've written (like in emails). There's also culture to take into account when thinking globally. Even if you can read the same language as someone on the other side of the planet, it doesn't mean you'll understand the culture behind the words. Take Australia and New Zealand, for example, that are almost on the completely opposite end of the world from us. They speak our language (English) and yet they have a different culture and different values. While we may communicate basically well together, there will be a different usage of the language, different slang words, different meanings behind the thoughts and words than us. For instance, in New Zealand, an anklebiter is not a small dog (as is often assumed in the US). Instead, it's a toddler or small child. So while globalization can benefit everyone by bringing us closer together and being able to understand each other better, it can also be detrimental to those who assume other cultures use language in the same way we do.

The Zulu and Andean Indians

            KwaZulu-Natal, where the Zulu people live, has a wide variety of climate and geography. It is bordered between a western mountain peak that's almost 11,424 feet high and beaches at the Indian ocean to the east. The overall climate is subtropical, with summers being hot and humid, and winters being cool. However, in winter months, the mountains can get cold with frequent snow storms, and rain is common in the east along the coastal areas. Throughout KwaZulu-Natal, the average summer temperature range is from 73 to 82 degrees, while the winter average temperature range is from 50 to 73 degrees. However, whether it be summer or winter, the Zulu people live in a nation where they have long hours of sunlight. And while the mean temperature during summers is 73-82 degrees, it's not uncommon for it to get quite hot, as well.

            To cope with the long hours of sunlight, the Zulu people have adapted physically in the texture and color of their hair as well as the color of their skin. Their hair protects their scalp from direct sunlight and allows for cooling of the head. Their skin has adaptively darkened to protect their skin from the damaging sun.

            The Zulu have also adapted to their environment culturally as well. Both men and women are taught that it is the woman's duty to cook, clean and brew the beer. The Zulu women are also responsible for obtaining the water to do their domestic chores. Zulu women often have to walk long miles just to get to the water. In an effort to conserve energy, they have learned to carry water containers on their heads, hands-free. This allows the Zulu women freedom to use their hands for something else if they needed to, such as to hold their child's hand or carry something else of importance.

            For the Zulu people, I would chose African or black as their race. I would choose either one of these words based on the Zulu's coloration; African and/or black are the two words that come to mind that seem to be a universally American thing to call someone of that color or race.

            In contrast, the Andean Indians also live in a varied climate, most of it at a higher altitude than what is accustomed to here in the U.S. The mountain ranges vary from over 6,000 feet to over 11,000 feet in height. Because some of the mountains are so high, there is a permanent line of snow, which include some large ice fields. The Andean climate also holds fertile valleys, forests, plains, volcanoes and deserts. Because of the variety of climates, temperature also varies quite a bit, most of it on the cooler end of the scale from the South African Zulu nation. In the Andes mountains, the habitable portions can drop down below freezing at night, while the days can be mildly warm. Additionally, microclimates can exist in the Andes due to factors such as wind, length of time there's sunlight (which is less than what the Zulu experience), and latitude.

            Because a good portion of the climate the Andean Indians live in is chilly, high altitude mountains, they seem to have adapted to it physically. They've adapted to the stress of elevation and cold by developing a basal metabolism that is higher than the basal metabolism of Americans. Andean Indians are also able to maintain a higher level of blood flow to their extremities, thus helping them maintain some warmth in a cold environment.

            Becuase they often live in cold environments, the Andean Indians have learned to weave square shawls called lliclla, which is a Quechua word. The lliclla helps to keep the Andeans warm, as it's made out of wool. Additionally, it can be used to carry children on the woman's back or cargo on the woman or man's back. Further, it is also used for some ceremonies, and is often worn in layers with other llicla during these ceremonies.

            For the Andeans, I would chose to describe their race as Indian. As with the Zulu people, I would chose Indian as it seems to be the word that most commonly brings someone of that type of appearance to mind in the U.S.

            Having looked at the Zulu and Andean Indians from different aspects, I know that looking at varying peoples from their physical and cultural adaptations is a more accurate way of describing groups of human beings. Describing people based on outward appearances doesn't necessarily cover everyone in that culture. For instance, calling the Zulu African doesn't necessarily cover anyone who's white who's also African (the U.S. mentality has a habit of associating the word African with the word Black). Anthropologists would find more use out of describing people by their physical and cultural adaptations to help the reader discover the people the anthropologist is describing without any, or with as few as is possible, preconceived notions popping into the readers head.

Culture Descriptions, Part A

My first descriptor of the Nacerima people is body dismorphic. They seem to believe the body is ugly and prone to illness; they seem bent on changing what they can in hopes it will cure their ailments. For example, they'll go to  what are known as holy mouth-men. These holy mouth-men will then either enlarge holes in the teeth or make new holes if there are none, so they can cure the mouth of illness with potions they put into the holes. More examples of the Nacerima body dismorphia are the women's desire to change their breast size (which seems to also be a very western trait), and men's desire to change their faces by scraping and lacerating them, as well as the women's desire to also change their faces by baking them in small ovens.

The second descriptor I chose is ritualistic. The Nacerima people have a wide range of rituals that they perform on a regular basis. As previously mentioned, they visit the holy mouth-men at least once per year so they may go through a private mouth-rite. Beyond that, each Nacerima family has at least one shrine in their home where they go in an attempt to thwart what they believe to be the ugliness and maladies of their bodies.

The Nacerima culture also seems to be money centric to some extent. Their economy seems to work on a market economy that may seem vaguely familiar to us. However, one difference might be that the Nacerima people are required to provide gifts, rather than a payment, to people they view as holy. They must give gifts to their medicine men for the ingredient list for the potions they need to cure themselves. There are also herbalists, holy mouth-men, listeners, and the guardians in the latipso's who all require gifts for services rendered, the guardians requiring a second gift before the individual can leave the latipso.

Superstitious is the fourth word I chose to describe the Nacerima people. Despite painful rituals, like going to the latipso's or visiting the holy mouth-men, the Nacerima people continue doing these same rituals with the superstition that it will make them better, that it will cure their ailments. In addition, the Nacerima people will keep charms the medicine men give to them in their shrines, even when the individual has long forgotten what any particular charm was actually used for.

Lastly, secretive was the final word I chose to describe the Nacerima people. While secretive may not be a word to describe them as a whole, it describes how they are with their bodies and its normal functions. For example, women try to hide the fact that they're pregnant and will give birth to their children in privacy and on their own. Furthermore, women refuse to breastfeed their children. Neither man nor woman will use the restroom in view of anyone else and find it extremely discomforting when they must while in the latipso.

This article was fascinating, and I hope to learn more about the Nacerima people. [haha - this is funny to me now]

1. As an American, I feel the words I chose are pretty close to being on target. We do seem to be a money-centric country who will spend vast amounts of money to cure our body dismorphia in a sometimes ritualistic, sometimes superstitious ways. And while we're not as secretive in regards to our bodies as some cultures, we aren't as open about them as other cultures.

2. I think all of the words I used can be seen as ethnocentric and/or biased, especially superstitious and ritualistic. While my intention was not to have a bias, I can see that there is one, that my own definition of my culture shone through. I believe that once I hear the word tribe, I automatically assume those people are different ... even when they're not, even when the tribe being described is my own. It's interesting to see how someone else could describe my culture.

3. An alternative to Secretive is Reserved [about bodily functions]

An alternative to Ritualistic is Custom [custom-bound, custom concious]

An alternative to Money Centric is Capital/Commercial

I can't think of an alternative to Superstitious.

Body dismorphic can be seen as biased, but I believe it is actually a pretty accurate word for our culture.

4. I don't believe it is completely possible to avoid cultural bias when observing other cultures. However, it is necessary to try to avoid inserting your own bias into that culture to ensure others from any culture can understand the culture you're describing in as clear a view as possible.