Fire and Maneuver

  Politics & Violence Rules or laws against killing are essentially a cultural universal, meaning all cultures have rules regarding the killing other people and the punishments for breaking these rules.  How do the Yanomamo rules regarding killing and the consequences for breaking these rules differ from the rules in Western cultures in general?   The Yanomamo culture does not necessarily view the killing of another human being as a bad thing.  If anything, fierceness and aggression are encouraged and rewarded; however, this does not mean that murder per se is allowed.  Still, the consequences of the intentional killing of a Yanomamo by another Yanamamo is reciprocated with swift reprisal from the community of the person who was killed.  Because there are no court or legal systems within the Yanomamo culture, a swift and violent reprisal acts as a form of justice and a deterrent to future attacks by either the community that was just retaliated against ...

    Language Experiment Over the weekend, I ventured into a partnered experiment where I had two 15-minute conversations.  The first conversation would consist of my partner being allowed to speak normally, while I, in turn, would only be able to respond using body gestures.  The second part of the experiment would again enable my partner to speak normally.  However, while I could also talk, I would not be allowed to use vocal inflection or body gestures for exaggeration (no speaking, writing, or ASL).   This is how the experiment went.       My partner for this experiment was my wife.  We discussed baseball-related topics, specifically the Dodgers.     Converting what I wanted to add to the conversation was extremely difficult, considering much of the discussion required in-depth terminology that was almost impossible to convey without using spoken language.   From my wife's perspectiv...

Zulu Peoples       Climate:     The Zulu are an African ethnic group that live mainly in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal.  The climate is moderate but can have months of high humidity and hot temperatures.  The altitude/elevation is 1025.24m (3363.65ft).  The annual high temperature is 24.77-celsius (76.59-fahrenheit).  The annual low temperature is 19.7-celsius (67.46-fahrenheit.  The average yearly precipitation is 106.56mm (4.2-inches).  The warmest month tends to be February at 28.48-celsius (81.46-fahrenheit), and the coldest month tends to be July at 16.76-celsius (62.17-fahrenheit).  The wettest month tends to be January at 179.69mm (7.07-inches), with the driest tending to be June 35.16mm (1.38-inches).  The average number of days with rainfall tends to be 159.63-days and the average number of days without rainfall tends to be 205.37-days.  Humidity averages at 74.68%.     ...

 Sadistic: Sadistic because their culture and rituals revolve around the infliction of pain as a means to purify themselves and their bodily imperfections via ritual.  These rituals are embraced despite the extreme pain the individual experiences but there also appears to possibly be a level of pleasure given to the person performing the ritual upon the receiver of the purification. Fringe: While I am not an anthropologist, I would say that there are very few people and/or cultures that would allow themselves to voluntarily allow themselves to be subjected to such torture.  While I am aware that the Satere-Mawe people perform a ritual lining gloves with fire ants that they then put their hands into, and other cultures will use self-flagellation as a form of religious ritual the rituals of the Nacirema must be to the extreme of this. Dysmorphic: The Nacirema people by their own admission believe that the human body is imperfect and must be perfected by ritual means.  ...

1) A heavy nylon tent and 2) a hand ax.  The tent I would use for shelter from the elements (nylon is also good at collecting condensation to be used for drinking water) and the ax to be used as a weapon and create other tools.