1. Cold is an environmental stress that negatively affects the survival of humans by forcing them to adapt to unsafe living conditions. The human body must work a lot harder to keep the core temperature up, thus burning more calories and forcing the person to consume more food. As well as the increase in food consumption, shelters must also be modified to bear the tough weather. Preventing harsh wind conditions and snow are crucial to survival in an environment where there is consistently cold weather patterns.
2. Short Term- Putting on a jacket is a short term adaptation to the cold because it requires no genetic change and can be removed once the person in warm.
Facultative- The heat production increase in a human when it is faced with cold weather is facultative because it occurs inside the human, but once the temperature rises, the heat production will go back to normal.
Developmental- Humans living in colder climates have adapted to be generally burlier and have more mass to ensure their survival in these climates. Having more fat on their bodies better allow them to retain heat, making it easier on their bodies to keep warm. However, this is becoming less true as science and culture evolve into modern times, allowing anyone to live anywhere and survive with relative ease.
Cultural- Clothing and eating habits are two cultural adaptations that are very prevalent in cold climates. Because of the increased amount of heat that needs to be produced in order for humans to live in these climates, warm clothing helps tremendously, for the human body can only do so much. Eating habits are also changed because without the caloric intake needed to produce all of the energy needed not only to keep warm, but also to move around, the human will simply collapse and freeze to death.
3. Studying human variation from this perspective allows for us to see how diverse our genetic makeup can be, adapting to all sorts of different environmental stresses. This information can be used to further explain how we operate and help us control these adaptations so that we may be the best we possibly can. For example, if we learned all that there was to know about ourselves, we may be able to figure out easily accessible ways to cure diseases like cancer. Learning how we adapt is only the first step in this process.
4. I would use race to understand the variation of the adaptations by locating where that race primarily originated from and then make connections based on culture, weather, and altitude. These connections would lead to hypotheses being made which would, in turn, give us a better understanding of how the culture, weather and altitude shaped the physical appearance of a race. Using race only is not as accurate as environmental influences because there are many different races that live in very similar environments. That means that race is not a perfect indication because of its many discrepancies and intricacies that make up these differences as portrayed by the environmental stresses.
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ReplyDeleteYes, cold climates makes it difficult to maintain core body temperatures. What would happen if our core body temperature would drop too low? How would this disruption of homeostasis impact us negatively? Things like frost bite, hypothermia, organ failure and even death are all possible affects of cold stress.
ReplyDeleteShort term, facultative and developmental traits are all going to be physiological adaptations, not behaviors. So what is a physiological adaptation that occurs quickly in humans when they encounter cold stress? What does your body do when it is cold?
How does a human "increase heat production" physiologically? Specifics were needed. A facultative adaptation is vasoconstriction, which helps retain heat in the body core. You can also increase your metabolism over time to help generate more body heat.
Yes, humans have different body shapes in cold and hot climates, and shorter/squatter body shapes help to retain heat. It doesn't matter what science comes up with, our bodies still respond this way!
Good cultural discussion.
Good explanation for the productive use of this information.
For your last section, you are just using the adaptive approach and attaching "race" to it. Race is a subjective social construct, not a biological one, so how could we use it to objective understand biological traits? I agree with your final conclusion but I would state it even stronger: race cannot be used to understand biological variation.