Human Variation

Human Variation

Human variation occurs due to the different types of environmental stress that take places and impact the human race.  There are various types of stresses such as cold, heat, high levels of solar radiation, or high altitude. The type of stress that I’m choosing to talk about today is the cold. Only because I really cannot stand to be cold and I cannot imagine having to adapt to a cold climate therefore, I chose to explore more about it.

Cold weather negatively impacts the survival of humans because humans can only get accustomed to a very limited degree of coldness, so if the weather is extremely harsh and severely cold then the chance of survival is very minimal. Cold stress can lead to frostbite, hypothermia, and ultimately death.  Being that we are of tropical origins it is even harder for us to adapt to cold climates.  

However, there are many ways in which we adjust to the different type of environmental stresses that we might face, for example:

Short Term: Meaning our bodies react to the stress that is being put through, in this case being cold climate. Our bodies begin to shiver after it has reached a certain degree below the normal body temperature but it is only temporary, after a certain amount of time our bodies stop shivering and we began to suffer from hypothermia. 

Facultative: This type of adjustment is based on genetics. The traits evolve over long periods of time and the adjustment last as long as the stress exists. In this case people that live in cold climates become somewhat accustomed to the cold. As time passes, the basal metabolic rate in their bodies increases in order to adapt to the type of climate that they live in. 

  

Developmental: Explains how the human body changes in order to adjust and be able to survive in cold climates. Humans that live in cold climates are most likely to have a higher amount of body mass than the average human in order to hold in a higher amount of heat within. 

 

Cultural:  Cultural adjustments can be based on their diet, tools, shelter, rituals, clothing, migratory patterns and many other concepts. Diet can have a major significance in the way that many species adjust, especially humans. The main diet for those that live in cold climates is usually protein and fat because vegetation is very rare if not non-existent.  

As you can see human variation allows us to see the difference in the human race not only physically but culturally as well and how we may or may not evolve over time. Explorations such as the one that we conducted today help us understand how others survive, what we as a race are capable of and how to help others that may be in need but that live under a different type of environmental stress.

Maybe I would use race to understand the variation of adaptations if I was considering that race as a whole, meaning dealing with a large amount of people. Yet, if I was only dealing with one or two individuals you can’t really categorize by race which is mainly based on skin color.  The study of environmental influences on adaptations is a better way to understand human variation because different races can go under the same type of environmental stress and same races can go under different types of environmental stress, for example not all people from Mexico have dark skin and dark hair, there are plenty of Mexicans that have light skin and blue eyes but both groups are not considered to be the same race. Same in South Africa, there are three different types “races” that they classified their residents in, yet they all go through the same environmental stresses, so it is always more precise to observe a group’s environmental adjustments.

Language Experiment

The first part of the experiment was very difficult for me. I conducted my experiment during my lunch break at work. I work at a school, so  you have about six teachers dishing and venting about their day. I always have something to say so just sitting there without being able to talk was a  little bit of a challenge to me but it was very interesting to see how my co-workers reacted. 

As I sat there listening to the conversation, my co-workers were trying to get me engaged in the conversation because they are used to me talking and sharing details about my day. What I found that was very interesting was that after a good five minutes of my silence I was slowly excluded from the conversation. The eye contact from the speaker also seemed to decrease and whoever was speaking would look directly at someone else, even when I was giving them all of my attention. I really thought that they would look at me more to see what kind of face expressions I would make since I was not speaking but I was still clearly interested in what they had to say, but they didn't. 

If we were two different cultures and they had the ability to use symbolic language, they would most definitely have the advantage when it came to expressing COMPLEX ideas and that is why we as humans have such an advantage over everyone else, because although there are different forms of communication that others species may use, we are the only ones that are able to speak and communicate by using a symbolic language. Unfortunately, not all humans are born with the ability to speak. There are cases in which children are born either with a disability or a deformity which might prevent them from being able to speak such as mutes, non verbal  individuals with mental disabilities or with physical disabilities. 

The second part of the experiment was actually much easier for me, although it was still frustrating to not be able to use hand movements and body language it was  still much easier than not being able to speak at all. 

My co-workers did not exclude me this time but they still acted differently they were more obvious and eager to get a reaction out of me. So they would say something and stop and look at me and when I would talk (clearly I didn't talk as much as usual or they would have thought that I had completely lost my mind.) and I would say things like " I see" and " I know where you're coming from" and " that's interesting", phrases that don't require a lot of emotion.  

I think that the ability to talk and being able to see and use body language and expressions is very important. Without signs we can't translate emotion and emotion is what makes us human. Individuals that may not have the ability to see such as blind people or even children with autism  that have difficulty reading and translating body language have a major disadvantage when it comes to communication. 

Last but not least, I'm wondering if this is a trick question because I can not think of environmental  setting where it would be an advantage to NOT be able to see body language or expressions might be an advantage. Maybe when conduction and experiment or during a trial other than that I'm not sure.   

Piltdown Man

The Piltdown Hoax

In 1912 and archeologist named Charles Dawson made a very famous discovery in the town of Piltdown, England. Dawson found what appeared to be the skull and jaw of modern human and instantly became acclaimed by other scientists. Dawson invited other scientists to the site including archeologist Arthur Woodward. After the discovery many scientist depended on the fossil as evidence or support for their theories, one of these scientist was Arthur Keith, he claimed that the fossils prove his theory about humans developing big brains before being able to walk upright.  Sadly, in 1953 the fossils, better known as the Piltdown man was pronounced a hoax, jaw did not belong to a modern human but to an orangutan.

Many questions followed the discovery of the hoax, scientist, including Arthur Keith were appalled and even embarrassed, one theory is that England was the only country that had not found any fossils unlike Asia, France and Germany. I think the human fault that took place in that as human we all loved to be praised  whether it’s for being the best or for being the first or even Keith’s case for being “right”, that may have blinded some of the fellow scientist that were fooled by hoax.

The Piltdown was declared a hoax in 1953.  Paleontologist used fluorine dating which is a method that is used to determine if fossils that are found near each other have the same amount of fluorine and the fossils did not match.  This method is really interesting, when bones or teeth lie underground the absorb fluorine and they also lose nitrogen content, if a bone or a tooth is found scientists can see if they are from the same time period. This method only works if the fossils are found in the same area. They also discovered that the jaw was in fact an orangutan’s jaw and the teeth had been filed down.

I can just imagine how many scientist and followers must have felt, fooled, embarrassed and even angry. Yet, as humans they are bound to make mistakes. I think those human faults that we mentioned earlier had a big part in their reaction to Dawson’s discovery. Although now we may ask “How did you not know?” and many can even criticize these scientist, I would not take the “human” factor out of the scientific equation. I think we need that, and I also think that we can learn from that. We can learn from being wrong ourselves and we can learn from other’s being wrong, many times amazing discoveries have come to the surface because a scientist had an incorrect idea and ended up discovering something else.

However, although we are human and mistakes are allowed, as scientist or not just scientist but all professionals, we are responsible for the information that we provide to others. That includes the information that you come up with and information that you have heard from other and are now choosing to share with the world. It is always important to know you’re supporting facts especially if you are going to attach your name to a claim.  It is also important that  as spectators we question what others tell us, whether it’s out scientist, our president or even our doctors. 

Primate Blog

Primate Blog 

LEMUR

Environment:  They live in rainforests of the East and dry regions in the West.

Dental:  2.1.3.3.

            2.1.3.3.

Four incisors and two canines, like a comb.

Adaptation: Shearing leaves and crushing seeds.  

SPIDER MONKEY (NEW WORLD MONKEY)

Environment: They live in Tropical Rain Forest of Central and South America.

Dental: Omnivore and Frugivores 2.1.3.3.

                                                       2.1.3.3.

Adaptation: They have adapted to their environment by eating fruits whole instead of biting them.

BABOON

Environment:  They live in Africa or Arabia in Savannas

Dental: 2.1.2.3.

            2.1.2.3  

Adaptation: They have adapted by eating insects and plants but sometimes they eat fish.

GIBBON

Environment: They live in the dense forest.

Dental: 2.1.2.3.

            2.1.2.3.

CHIMPANZEE

Environment: They live African rain forest, woodland, grassland.

Dental: Omnivores 2.1.2.3.

Adaptation: They eat fruit and plant eaters from the trees.