INSTRUCTIONS:
Create a thesis and an outline on The Zulu Culture. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide. An abstract is required. Among the Zulu and some other pastoral cultures, agriculture forms a supplement to developing animal products (Nowak & Laird, 2010). However, Gluckman (1963, p.81), argues that although “the Zulu, Tswana, Ankoke, Kavirondo, and Nuer are grouped as pastoral-agriculturalists”, complex patterns emerge from an interweaving of their ecological setting, the distribution of their settlements, division of labor, and other factors that form their culture.The Zulu utilize their animals not only for their own subsistence but also in social and ritual occasions. Similar to the Masai of Kenya, although there is an emphasis on music, dancing, elaborate beadwork, and oral narratives, there is little significance for the visual arts in the Zulu culture (Hatcher, 1999). Livestock represents wealth and prestige. they are exchanged as a part of marital gift-giving and are used for settling disputes, as well as for ceremonial sacrifices. The community develops close emotional attachments to their livestock, and rarely slaughter their animals for food. Due to a lack of storage facilities and preservation techniques, pastoralists such as the Zulu have a reciprocal system of distributing the animals they butcher to other members of the group for immediate consumption (Nowak & Laird, 2010). Pastoralism as the primary mode of subsistence impacts several dimensions of cultural behavior among the Zulus.The ancestor cult of the Zulus is based on the lineage and kinship system distinguishing Zulu's life. Ritual sacrifices form an inherent part of ceremonial rites among the tribe. Lambert (1993) attributes sacrifice to its origins in the ritualization of the paleolithic hunt. The contradictory features regarding people deeply attached to their animals are that there is no trace of guilt or anxiety at ritual killings among the Zulus. The author states that in both Zulu as well as ancient Greek sacrifices, misleading emotional factors are imbued.