Human Variation & Race

Human variation occurs because of the different types of environmental stress that take places and impact the human race.  The different types of stress that cause this impact are cold, heat, high levels of solar radiation, and high altitude. I chose to explore more about the stress that cold inflicts because I personally hate cold weather.

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 cold, the human survival rate decreases. Cold stress can lead to frostbite, hypothermia, and ultimately death.  Since we are of tropical origins it is even harder for us to adapt to cold climates.  

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

1.     Short Term: Our bodies begin to shiver after reaching a certain degree below the normal body temperature, after a certain amount of elapsed time our bodies stop shivering and begin to suffer from hypothermia. 

2.     Facultative: People that live in cold climates are already adapted 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. 

3.     Developmental: Humans that live in cold climates are more likely to have a higher amount of body mass than the average human in order to hold in a higher amount of heat internally. 

4.     Cultural:  Diet can have a major impact in the way species adjust, especially humans. The main diet for those that live in cold climates is usually protein and fat because vegetation is pretty much non-existent.  

As proven above 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.

I would use race to understand the variation of adaptations if I was considering the entire human race as a whole. If I was only dealing with one or two individuals I wouldn’t be able to categorize by race because that’s dominantly 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 South Africa have dark skin and dark hair, there are plenty of South Africans that I personally know who have light skin, light hair and blue eyes but both groups are not considered to be the same race.

Language

Part 1:

My attempt to engage in a conversation with my sister for 15 minutes without using symbolic language was unsuccessful to say the least. I found it very difficult because I communicate on a day to day basis with speech.  

My sister had absolutely no idea what I was trying to say. She stared at me with the most confused face I have ever seen. I'm not sure if that means she isn’t the brightest light bulb in the room or if I looked like an untamed chimpanzee. It was difficult to stay in character and not say a word because we both kept laughing. There was a few occasions where I would shout a sentence out of frustration and she would respond, "That's nothing close to what you gestured!" . I don't think I am the only person who had difficulties with this form of communication because society in general is used to talking all the time, even if it's excessive.

If we had been two different cultures meeting for the first time, I would think the person who lives in an environment that required them to adapt to communicating without symbolic language would have an advantage.

The people who use symbolic language most likely look down on the people who do not use symbolic language. I say that because symbolic language is so common in this day and age, it's like breathing. So someone who is unable to communicate using symbolic language could be absolutely shocking and unbelievable to most people.

Nail salons are a prime example of communication difficulty among individuals. Most employees at nail salons have came over seas and only speak Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc. A description of a typical nail salon customer is a Caucasian female who speaks only English. I have seen many instances where customers get irritated with the employees because they do not understand the specifications of what type of service they would like. On the other hand, employees at these salons get frustrated trying to explain themselves to their customers and normally give up on their attempt and do whatever the customer wants.

Part 2:

My attempt to communicate with my sister only using speech was almost as difficult as not being able to use any speech. I am partially Italian and if you know anything about Italians you know they're loud and use hand gestures for everything.

            I'm almost certain my sister thought I was wearing a strap attaching my arms to my waist. Standing completely still made my voice go monotone and I felt like a statue. As a result my sister was completely bored with the conversation and felt it was bland.

I believe the use of  "signs" and non-speech language techniques in our language is very important because it adds animation and life to the topic that is being discussed.

There are people who have difficulty reading body language because they're not use to or don't understand it. The ability to read another person's body language is helpful because you could establish if the person is being truthful or not. For example, when I say, "Hey let's go to the gym!" and my sister says, "Ok"  while dragging her feet, I know she doesn't really want to go. But if she says, "Ok" and shoots out of her chair, I know she wants to go.

I feel the best situation to be incapable of reading a person's body language is in a hospital. Seeing a person in pain is not a pretty sight. It's sad, depressing, and would make me feel bad for not being able to do anything in that second to relieve them from their pain.