Human

Adaptability to
High Altitudes
Alex K. Ruuska, PhD
NMU
Week 8

Text and Ethnographic Readings

Moran Text:
Chapter 6: Human Adaptability to High Altitudes
Pp.157-188
Ethnographic Reading:
How the Enga Cope with Frost: Responses to Climatic
Perturbations in the Central Highlands of New Guinea
Pp.223-237

Extreme Environments: High

Altitudes, e.g.
1) Mt Fuji, Honshu,
Japan
2) Andes: Machu
Picchu, Peru
3) Himalayas: Nepal

Mount Fuji, 3,776m (12,388ft) high

Machu Picchu,
Peru,
World Heritage Site
Machu Picchu,
lost city of the
Incas.

Location: Urubamba valley, Cuzco, Peru

Machu Picchu
from a distance,
the ruins with
mountain
Huayna Picchu
behind it.
http://archaeology.about.com/od/incaarchaeology/ss/m
achu_picchu_gc.htm

http://www.globalexplorers.org/images/leadi
ngtheway/maps/day_10_machu_picchu_cuzc
o.gif

Himalayas, Asia

Mount Everest &

K2

http://www.destination360.com/asia/china/himalayas.php

Other Extreme High Altitude

Environments: E.g.
4)Caucasus: Southern Russia
5) Ethiopia: Mountains
6) Rocky Mountains: United States

http://www.ahuntingwor
ld.com/images/kuban/R
ussia-CaucusMountains-1.jpg

http://static.squidoo.com/resize/squidoo_images/1/draft_lens2051015module10220288photo_1214661481

Physical Stresses of Highland

Adaptations
Hypoxia: low oxygen
pressure
Cold stress
Aridity
Shallow soils
Steep slopes
Low biological
productivity
Pulmonary disease

http://www.mountainflying.com/image
s/oxygen.gif

Adaptations to Stresses
Gene for Oxygen Saturation, (Tibet,
higher rate of infant survival)
Cold Stress: Cultural Responses,
Clothing and Shelter; Work/Sun
Seasonal Migration and Marriage
Prescriptions (e.g. Polyandry)

Sociocultural Stresses
Poverty
Poor infrastructure
(roads, services,
healthcare)

More than 500 people have been killed

and 1,500 injured after a powerful
earthquake hit the coast of Peru on16-Aug2007. The quake - measured 7.9 on the
Richter scale struck near the capital, Lima.

Significance of Studying
High Altitude Adaptations
Natural lab: window into
biological and cultural
adaptation
Environmental Change:
gauge for past and
present global
environmental changes
Core samples, carbon
dioxide levels

Quechua Boy,
Ollantaytambo

I. High Altitude Quechua of

southern highland Peru
language group
Incan and
Spanish (mestizo)
descent
Columbia,
Ecuador, Peru,
Bolivia
http://www.thewonderingeye.co.uk/Scripts/LargeImagePage.asp?ImageID=47

Quechua Girl, Cuzco

QUECHUA LANGUAGE and IDENTITY

Although Quechua is spoken by mestizos in rural
and urban areas, it tends to become increasingly
identified with the lower-class Indian peasantry
within the nation-states of its contemporary
distribution.
Descendants of the Inca themselves and of the
peoples they conquered constitute a large part of
the Indian and mestizo highland population of Peru
and adjacent countries. Living in dispersed
homesteads, communities, and townships, they
possess an intricate culture composed of
authochthonous and European elements.

QUECHUA ADAPTATIONS
In colonial times, they acquired many Spanish cultural
elements such as oxen and other domestic animals, plows,
and new crops, as well as local governing councils and
religious brotherhoods.
Many modern Quechua are hacienda workers or have
become assimilated as laborers in highland towns.

Furthermore, in the twentieth century, the highland

Quechua have increasingly intensified the colonization
process of the Montaa rainforest regions on the eastern
Andean slope, a process that began as far back as Inca
times.

Subsistence

Location: Pisac, Cuzco, Peru

Many varieties of corn are on
sale at Pisac market.
Every Sunday, the town square
at Pisac fills with locals from the
surrounding areas, who have
come to sell their produce.

Highly Developed
Cuisine
Seafood: Coast
Yucca and Plantains:
Jungle
Potatoes: Andes
Ceviche: seafood &
onions (national dish)
Trade, Exchange
Networks, Seasonal
Migration

Settlement Ecology
Location: Cuzco, Peru
The tiled rooftops of Cusco are a purely
Spanish inheritance.
Today they form an integral part of the
city's character.

1/3 in Lima Peru

Urban Squatter
Settlements
Migration into Lima
Temporary and
Permanent Housing

Demography

Peru: 24.5 million;

in Central Andean
Highlands 90%
speak Quechua
Intensifying
colonization of
Montana
rainforest, and
eastern Andean
slope

Political Ecology
What is the
relationship
between
local
adaptations
and regional
and global
economies?

From rice in Peru to miso in

Japan, food prices are rising

Ethnographic Reading:
How the Enga Cope with Frost: Responses to Climatic
Perturbations in the Central Highlands of New Guinea
Pp.223-237

Ethnographic Reading
In the 1920s, 1941, and 1972, the Central Highlands of
New Guinea experienced a prolonged period of drought
coupled by 30 nights of frost
What was the national response to these events in 1972?
What were the goals of the Relief Programs? What
assumptions were made?

Ethnographic Reading
Did the Enga have any internal way to cope with the
frost conditions?
What happened when similar conditions occurred 30
years earlier?
What is agricultural mounding?

Ethnographic Reading
Where is mounding most prevalent?
Why do the mound structures change with altitude?
Eric Waddell critiques the ideas of anthropologist, M.J.
Meggitt as ethnocentric. What is this all about? (227)

Ethnographic Readings
Types of gardens: valley bottoms and low slopes; what are
the advantages And disadvantages of each type of
garden? (228)
How do families use both types of gardens to reduce risk?
What are some traditional responses to frosts? (230)

Ethnographic Reading
What relationships and shared resources exist among
the Central and Fringe Enga?
How have relationships and adaptive strategies altered
as a result of globalization processes?