2) Short term: One short-term adaptation to the stress of the cold is one that any reader can recall for themselves: shivering. In order to increase body heat and keep a person active, we start to shiver as a reaction to the cold. Shivering is the exact opposite of sweating, with the benefit being to warm up a person.
Developmental: One developmental adaptation to the cold, specifically exhibited in Mongolian people is having short appendages, which creates a smaller body area and makes it easier to retain heat.
Cultural: One cultural adaptation to the cold, again exemplified by the Mongolian people, is a nomadic lifestyle. Specifically, herders migrate along with their herds of livestock (horses, sheep, goats) across Mongolia to less extreme (in regard to the cold) locales so their herds can graze and do not freeze to death. Also, the people themselves are not tied down to a specific environment, so they can retreat from the advancing cold to a degree.
3) The benefits to studying humanity in regard to clines rather than other classifications are that they are less biased to the organizer's beliefs, more accurate, more holistic, and give a wider view to humanity that can be seen as a spectrum of adaptations for specific niches. The information we gather from these kinds of explorations is helpful because it paints an accurate portrayal of human evolution and adaptation, rather than lumping people into categories over trivial distinctions, such as race. This information can be used in a productive way by anthropologists to aid other groups of people who fall under the same niche. Adaptations one group has developed may be applicable to another group.
4) Race is not a strong enough breakdown/organizational system to explain the adaptations I expounded on in question #2. These adaptations aren't race specific, they are environment specific. Race is a weak organizational system for characterizing the human race. The adaption perspective is much more holistic and unbiased, focused rather on what is actually the case rather than socio-political organization based on power and privilege.
Interesting post regarding enviornmental temperatures in relation to the human body. It is fascinating to see how the human body works to combat temperatures, both cold and hot through various forms in terms of both short-term and long-term responses. As you discussed, race is a social construct that does not enter the picture when we are discussing physical adaptations.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the inclusion of your information from the Mongolian population in your post!
ReplyDeleteGood description on the cold stress and for the most part, your adaptations are correct. The only misconception I need to address is with your facultative adaptation of vasoconstriction. This is actually a short term adaptation, for the primary reason that if you vasoconstrict for too long, you suffer tissue death. A facultative trait is alternating vasoconstriction with vasodilation so that loss of heat is reduced but occasionally the vessels are reopened to allow tissues to receive blood supply.
Great discussion on the benefits of the adaptive approach and the comparison between using race or adaptation to study human variation.
Other than that one point, well done.