Human Variation

1. Select only ONE of the following environmental stresses:  (a) heat, (b) high levels of solar radiation, (c) cold, or (d) high altitude.  Discuss specifically how this environmental stress negatively impacts the survival of humans by disturbing homeostasis. (5 pts)

 Living in an extremely cold environment can be harmful to the human body. A normal body temperature stays around 98.6 F/ 37 C, so we are relatively warmer species than not. The reason(s) why we need to be around this temperature is so that our organs can function in a relaxed state. When our body temperature goes up our organs work hard when our body temperature goes down our organs have to work even harder. If our body is unable to retain any amount of heat our organs would stop working. Mainly because there is no blood flowing throughout the body as well. So this is how this environmental stress negatively impacts the survival of humans by disturbing homeostasis.

2. Identify 4 ways in which humans have adapted to this stress, choosing one specific adaptation from each of the different types of adaptations listed above (short term, facultative, developmental and cultural).  Include images of the adaptations.  (5 pts each/ 20 pts total)

I think a short term adaptation could be when a student is studying for a test the night before the test is to be taken. Once the test is over the stress is most likely gone with it. A facultative adaptation is when I go on a roller coaster. That anxiety mixed with eagerness in riding a roller coaster provides phenotypic expressions. After the ride is over there is still excitement in the body. For a developmental adaptation I feel that people who become diabetic go through this. The sudden change in diet causes internal changes but also produces a phenotypic change as well. This change is for the individual’s rest of his or her life. And last a cultural adaptation, humans who live near the beach are more likely to wear less clothing than an individual who lives in the city. We may find people who live in suburban areas to be nicer than those in the city. An individual would definitely find themselves adapting to each setting if one were to change.

Short term adaptation          Facultative adaptation

                          

Developmental adaptation    Cultural adaptation

vs.

3. What are the benefits of studying human variation from this perspective across environmental clines?  Can information from explorations like this be useful to help us in any way?  Offer one example of how this information can be used in a productive way.  (5 pts)

We are able to understand the culture that is formed at what attracts people from diverse backgrounds to inhabit the same environmental community. Yes, I think we can find this helpful. An example I would think would be for an election. The election would be about the best candidate regardless of race, compared to a community that stands no human variation who may vote for one identical human being.

4. How would you use race to understand the variation of the adaptations you listed in #2?  Explain why the study of environmental influences on adaptations is a better way to understand human variation than by the use of race.  (10 pts)

I would understand it by generalizing how certain races handle short term stressors how a race would react to a facultative adaptation or which races go through more developmental adaptations the other races or seeing which races make cultural adaptations within a certain environment. Often times we generalize people by race because that’s how the social environment tells us to do rather than seeing people for what they can do or the skills they have. Most importantly we know that environmental influences have changed over time, but humans haven’t changed much. If we study human variation on environmental influences can prove why human variation is a certain way. If we choose to study human variation through race, there’s a chance of being incorrect about any observation.

Language Experiment

Part 1

     This assignment was difficult in a communication sense. We weren’t able to cover as many things as we would have if we were both talking for 15 minutes. At first we tried just my partner talking and me responding but often times I couldn’t answer the question. So he changed the way he communicated so that we were more on the same plane. Not only was my partner talking but he started using more hand gestures. His communication also slowed down compared to the first few minutes of the conversation.

      My partner was in charge of the conversation because he was the one talking. It almost seemed as if he felt he needed to control the conversation because he could speak and I could not. The changing of topics was changed by both I feel, my facial expressions and him seeing that was telling that we needed to move on from a certain topic. I didn’t do this assignment with more than one partner but when I am in a conversation with more than one other person I always find myself as the third guy. I’m naturally a reserved type of guy so I’m there just listening most of the time. It’s mostly the people who are speaking and dominant in a conversation that have that controlling power in a conversation.

     The culture that speaks spoken language would have the advantage in communicating complex ideas. It would depend on the situation where one could be either frustrated at the fact that the other culture cannot speak or in accepting attitude. For people who have pets, they sometimes talk to their pets knowing they can’t respond in a symbolic way but still feel like they are communicating with their pet.

Part 2

     This part of the entire assignment was more difficult than the first part. In the first part there was a bit more freedom in the way we communicated than this one. There was more difficulty in the way we understood each other because there wasn’t any of those body signals that helps us understand each other as well as actual verbal communication.

     The use of sign in our language does many things to way we communicate. It directs our listeners to why we say what we say or feel. I think this is why non-verbal communication is important in the way we communicate. And sometimes our body language tells more of what we’re trying to say than what we are actually saying.

     The ability to read body language is beneficial in many ways. It may be better to read one’s body language than to need to hear someone speaking because we read the person’s body language first. If it’s not what we expect than at least we can change our attention.

The people who don’t read one’s body language are easy to see to someone who does read a person’s body language.

     When I see people with their headphones on I automatically see that person as not wanting to talk to people. It’s quite disturbing when someone does interrupt a person with headphones on but it does not mean that this person is one way or another.

Piltdown Post

1.                  The story of the Piltdown man began in 1912 in a southern English town in a small village called Piltdown. The guy responsible for this research is Charles Dawson. He claimed to have found a piece of a human ancient skull. One of the controversies with this findings was that this piece of the skull resembled that of an ancient ape not a human. It gave many people doubts with just this finding but as time went on Dawson and his team found more pieces to the skull that made most people hesitant to publicly criticize any of Dawson’s work. Another odd fact was that after Dawson had died there was no other fossils to be found in Piltdown. However, there was more findings in other countries like Asia and Africa. Many people questioned if Piltdown man was a legit part in human evolution. After better technology arose they found the Piltdown fossil to be skewered with. One example the video mentions was that the teeth of the fossil was cut down to have the same size teeth.  

2.                    It seems that Dawson was trying to make his mark in human evolution. His curiosity, creativity, and persistency is unquestionable but his motives here were a bit unfair to the people around him and the outlook on human evolution. It goes back to the earlier chapters where we discussed human opinion in scientific research. It’s a great deal to learn about how things were formed and when they were formed but when scientist have more personal ideas on these things then it’s hard to validate research on human evolution.

3.                  As time went on better research methods were made specifically technological improvements. Scientists were able to put this Piltdown skull under review and learn more about it’s coming. The persistent research of scientist also led to other corrupt findings made by Dawson.

4.                  I don’t think the human factor should be removed from science. When researching human evolution there has to be a human perspective to help guide most findings.

5.                  I think its important that we pass on valid information in anything we do. The reality is that most people if not all are not overly concerned with someone’s opinion but maybe a premise to based their own opinion on. We should always make sure there are valid resources before we agree with something.