There are two short term responses that generate body heat; increase in metabolic rate and shivering. A faculative adaptation can result in a person's body fat. The more fat on a person could keep them warm. This would compare to a dog and their coat of fur, keeping them warm. A developmental adaptation would be a person cuddled up, or rounded into a ball to keep the warmth circulated. A cultural adaption to the cold would include the heavy clothing people wear to keep warm. This could includ gloves, hats, coats, and socks. Even blankets or the heater can apply.
This picture shows the cultural adaptions.
This picture shows a lady squatting in a position that humans would use if they were cold in the wild. This is developental adaptation.
This shows a body fat comparision. Most likely, the 35% man will be warmer compared to the 12% man. This is faculative adaptation.
This picture shows someone shivering. This results in a short term adaptation.Studying human variation benefits the world in many ways. It allows people to learn how others survive, and gives ideas of what to do and not to do. Adapting in cold weather is hard, and it's important to have knowledge in the subject. Heavy clothing and heaters are an easy fix to being cold, but in the wild those may not be offered. Since they are not offered, people have learned how to survive by different strategies.
I don't think I can use race to understand human variation since there is no connection. Race does not provide actual information, in fact it is just an outdated creation of the human mind. Studying the environmental influence rather than race makes more sense. Race is not due to adaptations, but due to genetics.
"An enviormental stress such as the cold could affect a humans homeostasis process by blocking oxygenated blood to flow throughout the body."
ReplyDeleteDo you have a source for this? There may be a relationship between cold and oxygenation of the tissues, but this isn't the primary problem. The human body works best the optimal temperature of 98.6 degrees. Drop below that, and organs don't function well. This leads to organ failure and even death. This is a much more immediate threat than getting sick.
Shivering is indeed a short term adaptation. Increasing the metabolic rate actually takes some time and is a facultative response, along with increasing body fat. Another is alternative vasoconstriction/vasodilation.
Developmental adaptations are genetic physiological adaptations and develop over time in response to environmental pressures. The position you show is a behavior, not a physiological trait. An example of a developmental adaptation to the cold is a rounder, squatter body shape to help retain heat in the body core (Bergmann and Allen's rules).
Okay on your cultural adaptation. More explanation besides the images was needed. How do those items help with cold stress?
Good explanation on the benefits of the adaptive approach.
"Race does not provide actual information, in fact it is just an outdated creation of the human mind. "
That is a great way of saying it. Race is indeed a human social construct with no basis in objective biology. It has no causal relationship with human variation. As such, it can't be used to explain that variation.
You did a good explaining how shivering is a short term adaptation. I would have loved to see more explanation on the other types of adaptation.
ReplyDeleteHypothermia is a great risk to the stressors of a cold environment. Hypothermia occurs when the hypothalamus fails and one can not regulate their body temperature. Hypothermia can cause many issues within the organ systems of the body because they cannot work properly in cold climates eventually resulting in death. Frostbite is also another very dangerous stressor in cold climates.
I like your explanation of why it is important to study human variations in adaptations. Although, I do not agree with you that race is created by genetics. Race is an idea, and it is created by people in my opinion.
I do like your post, however I do believe that you could have added a little more description to some things to give a better understanding. However, I do like your pictures and I thought they gave a good explanation for everything. I agree with Noelle about hypothermia and I feel as if that was an important aspect that you could have written a lot about.
ReplyDeleteyour post had a good explanation of the adaptations and the pictures when along well especially with the description. I found your last point on race most interesting. although I didn't have the same thought I can see your point as well.
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