Sun and Heat Exposure
Environmental influences that are case studies on human physical growth and development has focused on the influences of social and economic factors such as, family and household characteristics, urbanization/modernization, nutrition, and the physical environment such as altitude, temperature and climate. Today we are going to be focusing on how heat affects the survival of humans. Heat exhaustion is a common reaction to heat waves across America, this can cause a human to become dizzy, develop a headache or faint. Heat stroke is another measure when it comes to heat, this consists of dry skin, a body temperature above 103, confusion and sometimes unconsciousness. According to the Centers for disease control and prevention, "Extreme heat is only blamed for an average of 688 deaths each year in the U.S." But when constant heat hits a region, the state of a humans well-being drops drastically.
Humitidy is a huge factor contributing to the heat. Humidity and heat cause a person to sweat but the sweat won't be drying on the body. This increases the risk of a heat-related accident. Another major factor causing heat-related deaths is the temperature staying through the evening. If the temperature remains elevated through the night humans become at a higher risk for heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Humans need to learn to adapt and control their body temperature.
One way humans can adapt to the heat for a short term is by drinking plenty of water, submerging one's body in water, staying in cool areas, using cold wet cloths on their faces ect. During the summertime in California, we experience extream heat but not to the level other human beings are facing. The facultative way to adapt to sun exposure is by using sunscreen. The sun can cause permanent damage to the skin and one way to adapt and help promote healthy skin is by using sunscreen. The developmental way to prevent sun exposure would be to build a shade in a space with a cool ground. This will help people be out of the sun and in a cool environment. There is no amount of different kinds of skin tones or textures that should stop a human from using sun protection. No matter what cultural ethnicity someone is, all should use protection from the sun.
The benefits of studying human variation are to give the reader a better understanding of the cultural differences humans face but also the similarities we all share as well. Information like this may not be useful in understanding variations, because the sun affects everybody. Heat stroke and exhaustion can occur on any day, same with sunburns and skin cancer. I believe that this form of adaption is overruled and effects us equally if all humans found a way to keep out of the sun and heat. Environmental influences on adaption are better to study then race in general because you get a better understanding of the cultural differences when it comes to survival. This may give you a better understanding of how the culture functions in society.
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ReplyDeleteHi Katelyn,
ReplyDeleteI think you went into good detail explaining why heat can be so dangerous and lead to adaptaions amongst living things. One thing I would watch for is that all/ most of your adaptations are cultural adaptations which doesn't adresss all the different types. Overall it was an interesting post to read and I liked that you shared some specific facts.
Opening comment... you can move the images around so that they are next to the appropriate text sections.
ReplyDeleteGood description on the possible disorders that can arise from heat stress, but what happens to the body (particularly internal organs, including the brain) when the core body temperature rises above the optimum temperature of 98.6 degrees? Why can't it function well above this temperature?
"Humitidy is a huge factor contributing to the heat."
We are only talking about heat stress. Humidity is a different factor.
"Humidity and heat cause a person to sweat but the sweat won't be drying on the body."
Are you arguing that we don't sweat without humidity? Or perhaps we just don't notice how much we sweat when humidity is low?
Regarding your identification of the adaptations, you are actually just highlighting cultural adaptations, none of the physical ones. Three of those adaptations (short term, facultative, developmental) are physiological/biological/genetic and not within our control. They require no choice or decision on our part. I'll go through them one by one:
Drinking water: This is a behavior. We need to consciously decide to drink water. It requires our mental involvement in the process to seek out and consume water. An example of a short term adaptation is sweating (which you list above and I thought you were headed that direction).
Sun screen is a cultural adaptation to solar radiation stress, not a facultative adaptation to heat stress. An example of a facultative adaptation to heat stress is vasodilation, which is the opening of capillary beds under the skin to allow the release of excess heat from the blood stream to the air.
Building a shelter is a cultural adaptation. An example of a developmental adaptation to heat stress is a long, lean body shape, as explained by the Bergmann and Allen rules.
You've identified several cultural adaptations, so I will give credit for that.
All of these are described in the online sources in this assignment's submodule. I recommend you review those.
You kind of lump the last two sections together, so I'm having difficulty parsing them out.
"The benefits of studying human variation are to give the reader a better understanding of the cultural differences humans face but also the similarities we all share as well. "
This needed to be expanded. I agree that knowledge is always useful, but can you identify a way this knowledge can be useful in a concrete way? Can knowledge on adaptations to hot climates have medical implications? Help us develop clothing that releases heat more efficiently? Can we develop new means of home/building construction that might help decrease heat retention? How can we actually use this information in an applied fashion?
" Environmental influences on adaption are better to study then race in general because you get a better understanding of the cultural differences when it comes to survival."
For some reason, you are emphasizing "culture" in this last section, but most of the variation we are trying to understand is biological/genetic in nature. So can we use race to understand biological (since this is a course in biological anthropology) variation in humans?
To answer this question, you first need to explore what race actually is. Race is not based in biology but is a social construct, based in beliefs and preconceptions, and used only to categorize humans into groups based upon external physical features, much like organizing a box of crayons by color. Race does not *cause* adaptations like environmental stress do, and without that causal relationship, you can't use race to explain adaptations. Race has no explanatory value over human variation.
Hi Katelyn
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the way you wrote your post. It made it feel as if your were talking to me in a conversation, rather than feeling that I was reading information. Which I feel is how blog posts should feel. The only thing I think you should have done is change the formatting of the responses to the questions, with each question having its own paragraph rather than it all being together because it made the post feel sort of jumbled. Other than that I felt your post was vert informative about how heat is a body stressor.