Zulu Culture Essay

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“Final Cultural Research Paper” Ant 101 – Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Instructor – Tristan Marbles June 17, 2012 “Final Cultural Research Paper” The Zulu traditions and culture are one of the most culturally oriented of all people. The Zulu, which means people of heaven, are a proud nation that treasure their heritage, are friendly and always hospitable; displaying an unyielding loyalty to their inkosi (traditional leader). The Zulu language is rich and expressive, very often punctuated with distinctive click sounds. The kinship system in the Zulu culture is based upon two things; the dynamic principles and the resultant social phenomena in three different categories. The categories are the territorial kinship, the descent group kinship, and the terminological kinship. For the territorial kinship the main goal was for exploitation of the land coalescence of houses. This formed the segmentation of kinship groups. The individual families which emerged as the basic kinship units were organized into descent groups, mainly of minor order. The determinants of the descant rank determined the rank, status, position, and descent-group headship. This was together with the primogeniture which determined the succession, inheritance, and settlement of disputes. Then there was the terminological aspect which was the classificatory principle that took care of the terminology and associated domestic rights and obligations. The rights and obligations of the terminological system were and are effective within the territorial framework of the descent-group system. In this terminological aspect common reciprocal rights and obligations associated with the kinship class for similar positions. A man classifies not only his father, but all his father’s brothers. They domesticated animals and were male dominated, the men having full control
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