Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Human Variation & Race

1. The environmental stress that has been put upon humans is bearing through the cold. The cold weather can be life threatening and can be harmful. The cold weather can be adapted to, or can cause serious problems, such as hypothermia. Hypothermia is a condition in which core temperature drops below the required body temperature. You can catch hypothermia from cold water, alcohol, and low temperatures, which can lead to death. Other symptoms can occur, such as, fat insulation, and blood flow patterns.

2.
  • Shivering is a short term, because the muscles shake and warm your body up. 

  • Having red cheeks and nose is a facultative adaptation, because the skin temperature falls below below 10°C.

  • Developmental adaptation would having a larger body mass. People with bigger body mass would stay warmer, I noticed it with my friends and I. One of my friends is really thick and another one is really small; the friend that is small is always cold, even during spring and summer, but the one that is thick, is always hot, she turns on the ac in the middle of winter.
 
  • Clothing is a cultural adaptation because, the warmer the clothes are the warmer you stay. Specially the have certain types of clothes for the cold, such as, pea-coats, scarfs, gloves, and much more. 

 3. The benefit of studying human variation through environmental clines because we can see how people adapt to certain things, and it uncovers different forms of natural selection. This information can be useful, only to understand why people do certain things and act a certain way.

4. If we were to use race to understand the variations on adaptions, it would be to show how different each race is, and not every one race is the same. It can also show us how they adapted to their environment. I believe that environmental influences is a better way to understand human variation because each race is different, and that more then one race live together. So if different races live together, that means they are adapting to the environment and not who they are. Race does play a part on how we adapt, but it doesn't play a big part.