Human Variation

I chose to go with heat as my environmental stresses that negatively impacts our survival as humans. There are many different ways heat affects out homeostasis, whether it is dehydration to a fatal heat stroke. We as humans have had many different adaptations that help us with heat problems. The first being a short term adaptation which would be sweating through our pores, which then cools our body do

wn and brings our  temperature down. A facultative adaptation humans have is very similar to a short term adaptation except it takes a little longer to begin. An example of this would be skin darkening which allows them to not overheat as fast as someone who is lighter skin color who then gets hot quicker and dehydrates faster. A developmental adaptation example is humans body shape of populations who live in higher heat areas tend to have phenotype which allow them to be skinnier. Someone who is skinnier is less likely to overheat because they don’t need to carry a lot of heat in their cores. A cultural adaptation example is mainly the type of clothes we wear, usually in the times with high heat levels humans tend to wear tank tops, shorts, hats, bathing suits, and they also carry around water bottles and drinks that keep them hydrated.

The main benefit of studying human variation is so that when other environmental clines are affected one day which they most likely will be they have the knowledge of what to do to help them. Having the information of all different types of human variation can prevent many different health problems. One example of how that information can be used productively would be when parts of the world start to become hotter due to global warming they can look back on different ways to survive the heat and healthy ways to do so.

I couldn’t really use race to understand the variation of the adaptations because race really wouldn't be able to help me understand variations of adaptations. Race is a class of people who have the same common history, or nationality. But by trying to understand variation by race you are going by the environment which is the main focus. Instead by using environmental influences on adaptations to understand variation would be easier because it is based solely on the environment in which a human lives in. 

Language Blog

In part 1 of my assignment. I was asked to engage in a conversation for 15 minutes where I was not allowed to use any version of symbolic language, which means I couldn't speak, write or use sign language. This was a very difficult task for me. I like to talk a lot in general so having to not speak for 15 minutes was hard enough. But what was difficult about this is that I couldn't use words it was almost as if I was playing charades. My partners seemed to not alter their ways of communicating to me but rather they made their communication to me more detailed. I think they started doing this so that I would be able to communicate back easier without having to speak. They started to get frustrated, and I know it must have been difficult because they were trying to understand what I was telling them, while not knowing if they were right or wrong. If  both me and my partners where two different cultures, who just met for the first time, I think that the speaking culture has the advantage in communicating complex ideas rather then the one who can’t speak.  The attitude that the speaking culture may have towards the culture who doesn't use symbolic language is that they may feel that they are more intelligent and better off. People in our culture who have a difficulty communication with spoken language may be people who are def, mental ill, or even mute. This has a huge affect on interaction with others because it puts a sense of difficulty in communication, but most of the time while it may be difficult to understand usually you are able to still interact or if needed find a solution.

In Part 2 of my assignment, I was asked to spend 15 minutes communication without any physical embellishments which means no hand signals, not vocal intonation, not head, facial, or body movements. I found this even more difficult then the first part of this assignment. When I speak I always talk at different tones of voice, and use a lot of hand signals. Some would say this is because of my Italian Culture and that is part of who I am. Which is very possible. My partner was affected a lot in this experiment because first off she is not used to me speaking that way, and second off it was as if I had no emotion or feeling involved at all. This experiment shows how much some or most people depend on the use of “signs” in our communication. Being able to use non-speech ways of communication is very important because it shows meaning, emotion, and is easier to understand because it has those traits. There are many people who struggle with the difficulty of reading body language correctly. Some may take certain body language the wrong way and because of that their communication with that person may be affected largely. In general being able to read body language effectively is a great benefit to have. By doing this you can understand the person more and how they are trying to communicate with others. A benefit of not being able to read body language is that you are solely only focused on what they are saying and that’s it.  

Overall this was a great experiment and I learned a lot from it. You really don't understand how symbolic language and physical language are very important to being able to communicate with others 

The Piltdown Hoax

The Piltdown hoax was a hoax that took place in 1912. In an English village named Piltdown. Charles Dawson an Archaeologist and Arthur Woodward geologist claimed they had found a skull and jaw of a human ancestor who lived from 500,000 to 1 million years ago. This jaw bone was claimed to be the missing link between ape and man. This was a big discovery for the scientific community, and Dawson was credited with the fame.  Some scientists didn't believe that there findings were real but they couldn't challenge Woodward’s opinion.  This hoax was discovered false when a few years later, findings of ancient remains of human ancestors who lived hundreds of thousands of years after the Piltdown man were found in Asian and Africa, this didn’t match up to the Piltdown man because their skulls were less human and not more human. This brought many questions to if the Piltdown man was real. In 1949 scientists put the fossils to many test and the result was that the fossils were up to 100,000 years old. After more test they found that the fossils were stained and cut to try to add age to the fossils. The teeth that were on the fossils were even filed down.  After more and more test they came to find that the jaw bone was only 100 years old and was actually a jaw bone of an orangutan.
The human fault that came into play with this hoax was that Charles Dawson wanted to become a famous scientist that was known for a great finding. He wanted to be accepted by fellow scientists.  This was very negative to the scientific process because it now was clear that scientist can forge fossils to have great findings.  The positive aspects of the scientific process that revealed the Piltdown man as a fraud was the tests that were given. The fluorine test was the first step that showed scientists that this “man” was not who they thought it was. After that scientist then gave this Piltdown man a full analysts, they looked under the microscope at the teeth and found they were filed down to look like human teeth and the jaw bone was cut so that they had no proof if it really belonged to the fossils skull that was found with it. I don’t think it’s possible to remove the human factor from science. The human factor will always be there and that is what science needs. It needs scientist who will question one another’s work and even their own findings.  I would never want to remove the human factor from science because no machine will ever be able to replace a humans brain. Humans have great findings each day and always will because we have an unlimited thought process because we are always thinking of different things and what is going on. The lesson I take from this event is that scientific findings can be forged and with that they should always be verified by other scientist who are impartial to the findings. Also that by having this event occur it brought the idea to scientists that other findings can and will be forged and they need to beware of that.