Human Variation & Race
1. Cold climates pose a threat to humans by presenting the possibility of frostbite among other survival risks.
2. Goosebumps that raise the hair on the skin in order to retain warmth are an example of a short-term adaptation to the cold.
Gaining weight to stay warm is an example of a facultative adaptation.
Facial hair is an example of a developmental adaptation to retain warmth.
Clothing is an example of a cultural adaptation.
3. The benefit of studying human variation from this perspective gives an unbiased and scientific reasoning behind the traits that various humans around the world exhibit. These findings can help us better figure out the nature of human adaptation. This information could be used in developing products that can help to enhance or act in lieu of natural human adaptations.
4. Adaptations happen often within a population as a whole. This makes it easy to understand race and its geographical relationship. Understanding environmental influences is far better because it explains both origin and functionality of common adaptations.
That first section required a lot more information than you have offered. What happens to the body when the core body temperature drops below the optimum temperature of 98.6 degrees? Why can't it function well below this temperature? What happens to the internal organs? What, beyond frost-bite, can be the result? Hypothermia? Death?
ReplyDeleteGoosebumps *used* to be an adaptation but not anymore in humans. Goosebumps form when the tiny muscle attached to the base of the hair follicle contracts, causing the hair to stand upright. Now if the organism has a full coat of hair, this causes and air pocket of warm air to form between the skin and the hair to act as insulation. But without that heavy coat of fur, we gain no benefit. We are left with only the bumps.
An example of a short term adaptation to cold stress is shivering.
Okay on weight gain for facultative. Another adaptations in the online activities is vasoconstriction, along with alternating vasoconstriction/vasodilation.
A developmental trait is something that a population develops over time in response to a relatively constant environmental pressure. Does a man's facial hair satisfy this definition? How about body shape? Those in cold environments tend to have shorter, rounder body shapes, as per Bergmann's & Allen's rules. Make sure you review these concepts in the online assignment sub-module.
What type of clothing would be adaptive to cold stress? More explanation needed.
"This information could be used in developing products that can help to enhance or act in lieu of natural human adaptations."
Correct. Like what? Can knowledge on adaptations to cold climates have medical implications? Help us develop clothing that retains heat more efficiently? Can we develop new means of home/building construction that might help increase heat retention? How can we actually use this information in an applied fashion?
"This makes it easy to understand race and its geographical relationship."
How so? Do we need biology to understand race? What is race?
To answer this question, you first need to explore what race actually is. Race is not based in biology but is a social construct, based in beliefs and preconceptions, and used only to categorize humans into groups based upon external physical features, much like organizing a box of crayons by color. Race does not *cause* adaptations like environmental stress do, and without that causal relationship, you can't use race to explain adaptations. Race has no explanatory value over human variation.
I liked the mention of frostbite and thought that Hypothermia might be something that could occur that needed development. I had never really thought of goosebumps as something for extreme cold, more of just alertness of the senses but I know that the body has multiple functions for one thing. Could not just facial hair but an abundance of hair be a growth needed?
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