Blog Post:
Human Variation and Race Blog
1. Heat is
an environmental stress that impacts the survival of humans by disturbing the
homeostasis stage in a pessimistic way. With heat being an environmental stress
it would bring heat rashes, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke. “Heat rashes occur
when the sweat glands become clogged from too much sweating or lack of circulation
to the area. Heat exhaustion may occur after you’ve been exposed to high temperatures
for several days and have developed dehydration. Heatstroke is caused by
prolonged exposure to high temperatures or by doing physical activity in hot weather.
You are considered to have a heatstroke when your body temperature reaches 104
F or higher.”
2.
·
A short term
adaptation for heat is sweating. It’s the body’s natural way of trying to cool
its self-down. You just need to drink lots of water or something with nutrients
so that you may replenish what your body has lost and so that you don’t dehydrate
or get a heat stroke while being outside or during your recreational
activities.
·
A Facultative
Adaptation for heat is the tone of skin. If you have dark skin you can absorb
the heat, and with a lighter skin tone you can reflect the heat. For example,
is when you wear something dark like black you feel warmer than when you wear
something light like white.
·
“A
developmental Adaptation for heat is bipedalism, when standing on only two legs
we are less exposed from the heat of the sun, it hits less surface area on us.
It also enabled our skin to have more contact with cooler and faster moving
breezes.”
·
A cultural
Adaptation for heat is air conditioning, which has been the greatest invention
other than the heater during the winter! There’s nothing better than sitting in
a cool room, when its 90-110 F outside. We have also modified our clothing to
be the bare minimum when it gets hot outside.
4. In my
opinion you can’t really use race for a way of explanation for the variation of
adaptation. The definition of race refers to a person’s physical characteristics,
such as bone structure and skin, hair, or eye color.
Okay on your description of the impact of heat stress, though I would have preferred that this be in your own words. Quotes should support your own writing, not replace it. Additionally, finish the story! Yes, heat stress can produce hyperthermia (heat exhaustion and heat stroke) but can't it also lead to death? Why does the body not work well when temperatures rise above the optimum level of 98.6 degrees? What happens to the body's organs (particularly the brain) when temperatures rise?
ReplyDeleteGood short term adaption.
Skin tone is an adaptation to solar radiation, not to heat stress. It may have a secondary benefit in high climates, but heat stress is not the driving stress for skin color. A faacultative adaptation to heat stress is vasodilation to help the body release excess heat out of the body.
For your developmental adaptation, while it is true that bipedalism has been argued to be an adaptation to heat stress, keep in mind that this is still in question.
I notice that you have used a quote as your entire explanation here. You haven't cited the source (as required) and again, this should be in your own words. Quotes should only support your own writing, not replace it.
Another, more broadly recognized, example of a developmental adaptation to heat stress is the long, lean body shape, which matches Bergmann and Allen's rules, and helps to dissipate excess body heat in hot climates.
Good cultural adaptations.
Good discussion on the benefits of using the adaptive approach. Can their be medical implications as well?
"The definition of race refers to a person’s physical characteristics, such as bone structure and skin, hair, or eye color."
I don't disagree with this, but it doesn't fully explain why race can't be used to explain human variation. Race is not a biological construct. It is a socio-cultural concept, with no basis in biology, subject to the biases and preconceptions of each culture. It is purely descriptive, not explanatory, and more importantly, race has no causal relationship with human variation. How can race explain variation if it doesn't cause it? In contrast, environmental stresses DO cause humans to evolve and adapt. That is why it has explanatory power over human variation.
Wendy, I enjoyed your post, I did mine on cold I enjoyed seeing the contrast to the different weather. I found your post very engaging and easy t read, to you also brought up some points I agree with on how we can't use race to explain human variation. overall really good explanations and detailed work
ReplyDeleteAlicia Taboada
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job. Yes race is not a biological construct, but a social one. This concept is the greatest lesson I learned in this class.
Alicia
Alicia Taboada
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job. Yes race is not a biological construct, but a social one. This concept is the greatest lesson I learned in this class.
Alicia