Anthropology Essay Example

Explain how and why the humans use rituals, myths, practices, belief systems, and ideologies in maintaining and creating culture?

Culture refers to the values, beliefs, as well as views of the natural environment that tend to govern and are seen in the behaviors that the people show in their daily lives. It is mostly transmitted from one generation to the other through use of language. They are designed to help the people deal with the actual issues in the society that affect them such as social, political, and regional issues. They are set by having in place rituals that are used to make people understand why certain things are being done. For instance, rituals have been used to develop cultures that are used in paying last respects to the dead, in this case the rituals are employed in ending the problems that they have with why death occurs to the people.

Myths are used to satisfy the peoples desire to understand the reasons behind certain things happening the way they do in the world today. They are also used to make sure that the people abide by the rules of the land or uphold higher levels of ethics while dealing with grown-up people in the community. For instance, the people use their beliefs to come up with religions, which form very basic units in the community. The people believe in supernatural powers that can assist them in fighting against the various problems that are affecting their lives in the society and in that light, they use rituals such as dancing to create their religious cultures that will help them appeal to their God for help, protection, and also for prosperity.

Compare and contrast how two different cultural groups use culture to adapt to their environment. Be sure to emphasize how each of these practices demonstrates the uses of cultural adaptations to the natural habitats?

Most communities who practiced hunting and gathering mostly settled in areas that had lands that could not support agricultural activities or they had no skills of preparing agrarian equipment such as the fork. In this case, they adapted to their natural environment by having their ladies do the gathering while the men went out to hunt in the forests for the wild animals. This offered them food which in turn helped them in surviving during this trying moments and made sure that their societies live on and on. They shifted from one settlement to the other to maintain the areas where they could find food products from their hunting and gathering practices in the area. Moreover, they did not have sophisticated or advanced equipment that would enable them inefficiently working on the land to produce for the society. They also shifted because some of the areas were extremely cold and they needed to change to maintain areas that could be habitable to them.

On the other hand, the societies that practiced agriculture had to work for more extended hours than the hunters and gatherers just for them to produce food to satisfy their pack. They also narrowed their food base comprising of a small level of animals and plants that were to be consumed by the people. This was an attempt to make sure that the food produced could sustain the whole society for a specific duration until the next harvest, which, in turn, helped them to survive. They also had regulations on land ownership, unlike the hunters who didnt. The rules were to make sure that every group of people focused on producing food for their families and not relying on others