Human Variation & Race

Maintaining our body temperature is an extremely important part of our survival. Humans are not equipped to handle extreme cold temperatures. When we are put in a situation that involves the cold, we most likely won’t survive.  When we are exposed to cold temperatures, we run the risk of developing hypothermia, which is when our body temperature drops below 94 degrees Fahrenheit.  The hypothalamus begins to fail and the core body temperature will start to drop rapidly. This makes it difficult for humans to survive in the most northern and southern hemispheres.

Even though it is difficult for humans to live in these climates, we have adapted in order to be able to survive. One short-term solution to fighting the cold is drinking alcohol. This increases the blood flow throughout the body giving the person a feeling of warmth. However, this doesn’t last very long.

 A cultural response is the use of warm clothing, living in houses, and making fires to stay warm. Some even limit their activities to times when it is the warmest. An example would be the Eskimos. They consume large amounts of high calorie foods in order to speed up their metabolic rate, which increases their production of body heat.

A facultative response would be the narrowing of the blood vessels, which reduces blood flow, called vasoconstriction. This prevents heat loss from the skin. However, this can cause frostbite, so the body also knows when to switch to dilating the blood vessels. This is called vasodilation.

A developmental response would be the genetic passing of short stocky bodies. The short bodies would have less surface area to heat, so it would be able to stay warmer. This is shown in Allen’s rule.

The benefit of studying human variation across different environments gives us insight on how well humans can adapt to the harsh environmental factors of Earth. This information is helpful because it allows us to be able to take information and spread it so others can use the practices to adapt as well. An example would be studying how the Eskimos survive in the cold weather and using that information to allow others who wish to live in those types of areas for reasons such as fishing in Alaska.

Instead of using race to understand the variation of adaptations, we should be looking at the culture of the people in each condition listed. Race really has nothing to do with the way humans adapt to their environment.