Cultural Practices at High Altitudes - Essay Example

?Topic:  Cultural Practices at High Altitudes that Affect Reproduction and Maturation Introduction Cultural practices are part of any community or country and it is difficult for human being to live without the influence of any particular culture in their way of life. People living at all parts of the world have its own significant culture as its holds a balance and harmony in their day -to -day life. Humans are social animals and were induced to follow different cultural practices to allow better survival in a particular environment or region. Since earth is a globe with places of high and low altitudes the people surviving in high altitudes have to retain certain cultural practices to maintain their health quotient. Human beings highest priority at all time were to safeguard its own species and as a result reproduction and maturation always had upper hand in their life. “Generally High altitude residents engage in cultural practices that modify the effect of hypoxia on energy availability as well as other attributes of the high altitude environment”(Hornbeing,49).It is seen that people living in High altitude like Tibet, and Nepal practice many cultural practices which positively affected their reproduction and maturation level High altitudes lack oxygen which can result in degeneration of cells and affect the overall health of human being, certain cultural practices improved their living conditions. The culture practice of retreating to lower lands during pregnancy Human being is largely depended on their natural environment for survival and sustenance and irregularities in their environment can have a significant effect on his health and wellbeing. For human, the process of growth and development is a crucial issue, and every thing initiates with healthy reproduction and maturation of offspring. Since high altitudes lack oxygen, indigenous people in colder places developed a cultural practice of moving to lower lands to protect themselves and their offspring from adverse situations. According to (Hawiland ,41)“ To ensure reproductive success , Spanish women began the cultural practice of retreating to lower altitudes for their pregnancies and the first year of their children lives” . There is high controversy regarding the extent to which the high altitude climate can affect the fertility and maturation of an individual .Generally less malfunctions are noticed and this could be the effect of the cultural practices used by the indigenous people living in that specific region. As per (Russo)“Babies born to mothers living at high altitudes tend to be smaller than babies from lower altitudes. The reduced flow of oxygen to the placenta can slightly retard the baby's growth, and this can increase some of the risks to the baby (particularly if it is born prematurely)”.This could be a main reason the women move to lower altitude where oxygen is abundant that can assure a better health for the themselves and their unborn child Social aspect of moving to lower altitude for birth It is widely seen that Tibetan and Nepalese women descend to lower altitude during pregnancy to avoid the high altitude stress prevalent in cold regions. Tibetan and Nepalese people have unique adaptation capability in comparison to normal people and have better fertility rate than women of lower altitudes. However, they come to lower altitudes to avoid the morning sickness, nausea and other illnesses they confront during they times of pregnancy. Generally a deficiency of oxygen in the blood level can result in seizure, fatigue, coma or even death to women as she is in pregnancy stages. So in order to avoid these fatal conditions the women in high altitudes mostly move to lower altitudes to have a safe pregnancy period and healthy child. Every culture wants to protect their people and reproduction is the main source by which we populate and expand our generation. The women in the high altitudes realized that during pregnancy they experience high difficulty in breathing and they knew this could affect health and maturation of their unborn child. If they continued to stay in cold regions during pregnancy they can lose theirs as well as their child’s life. So in an effort to protect the society, and their forthcoming generation they moved to lower altitudes where the temperature is perfect for gestation period and pregnancy. This practice as gained an importance in the social behavior of the indigenous people o f high altitudes as it is practiced commonly in their society while women are pregnant. Consequences of this Cultural adaptation practice This practice of women in colder region moving to seal level on pregnancy have highly increased the birth rates of their children and increased their population rates. In high altitudes it is highly noticed that the child sometimes have retarded growth because of the lack of oxygen in the mother’s as well as infant’s body. Some times the child can be born with health complication or premature and this greatly affects the survival rate of the infants. So in order to remove these negative effects the women were advised to move to lower altitude region to get ample amount of oxygen. (Lewis, 34)writes that “Altitudes does not appear to affect the reproduction in people of higher altitudes to the degree in does in the people of lower altitudes. Infants have birth weighs high as those of low lands and progress to grow to a health and well -developed child.” The way behavior of people changed due to this cultural practice Since this practice of moving to lower altitudes started, the women started having a healthy offspring’s and this in turn brought about a significant change in social well being of the family and society of that region. People were assured that they can have good birth rate by moving to warmer climate and can give birth to healthier babies .A community without good reproduction rate cannot be considered balanced and wholesome. Every family needs a healthy offspring to continue their generation and if they are devoid of this it can lead to physical and mental distress and mutation. Importance of this cultural practice The main motive behind this cultural practice is to protect the indigenous population from the adverse environmental situation present in higher altitudes. Hypoxia is one major factor which hinder the reproductive cycle of people in high altitudes .Being aware of this fact pregnant decided to move to lower levels or seal levels to have same pregnancy chances. As per (Vitzthum,3141-3150) “In addition to environmental factors, social and cultural factors in humans may also underlie any apparently lowered production of offspring at high altitude”. The main thing which contributes to the health and maturation is the state of mother during the pregnancy stage. Hence women understand the importance of moving to lower altitudes to protect their progeny and family generation. This practice did not have any negative effect on the people of high altitudes as women moved to lower regions only during pregnancy. This cultural practice has paved way to a stability in the reproductive functioning of the women .Throughout history they were able to maintain a consistent child -birth rates despite of colder climate in their region .Human habitation has been present in high mountains since ages and they were forced to adapt to the environmental conditions by embracing several cultural practices and rituals To ensure reproductive success these people have chosen a very appropriate and positive step and still follow the same to keep things in balance. Conclusion Human beings were forced to move to different regions pf planet throughout the history as a part of exploration and better living environment. High altitudes have been haven for humans since ages despite of its extreme weather conditions. However the lack of oxygen is one major negative aspect of high altitude areas, and ,only people living there for years are adapted to the climatic conditions of these regions. People who are new to these places find it hard to breathe and encounter nausea, morning sickness and fatigue in extreme cold conditions. The same case is with the pregnant women among the indigenous group of people in colder regions. And studied have shown that there is lower fertility and higher risk for women living in mountainous regions. “Evidence of lower fertility rates in a high altitude population is much more likely due to intervening social factors that may be only indirectly related to the mountain ecology”.(wiley37)This is the reason why the women have been practicing the shifting off to lower altitudes to have greater chances of giving birth to healthier kids. Only if the mother experienced a healthier environment then the baby can be born healthy and matured. Some high altitude region like Ladakh has very extreme weather and pregnant women will have to face lot of illnesses and unrest if not taken good care of. So the best choice is to move to warmer climate and to protect the health of both baby and the mother. Bibliography Hornbein, T.F. High Altitude: An Exploration of Human Adaption . 1ste.d. 161. New York: Marcel Dekker Inc., 2001. 49. Print. Hawiland, W.A. EVOLUTION AND PREHISTORY: THE HUMAN CHALLENGE . 8th ed.,. California: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007. 41. Print. Lewis, Barry. . Understanding Humans: Introduction to Physical Anthropology and Archaeology. 10th ed.,. California: Thomson Wadsworth, 2008. .34.Print. Russo, Juniper. "High Altitude Risks for Pregnant Women." www.associatedcontent.com. Yahoo news Network, 28-01-2011. Web. 13 Mar 2011. . Vitzthum, V.J. "The home team advantage: reproduction in women indigenous to high altitude ." Journal of Experimental Biology . 204. (2001): 3141-3150 . Print Wiley, A.S. An ecology of high-altitude infancy: a biocultural perspective . 12ed.,. New York: Cambridge University Press, 204. 37. Print Read More