Human Variation

I chose to do my blog on high altitude and how humans adapt to compensate for the thinner air.  High altitudes itself has about the same percentage of oxygen in the air as sea level air does.  However, the air pressure at higher altitudes makes it harder for the oxygen to pass through selective permeable membranes in the lungs.  This causes the body to go into a state of hypoxia which is a term for lack of oxygen.

Short term adaptations

An initial response to higher altitudes is the body begins to start breathing faster and the heart starts working faster as well. This adaptation is to try and pump the oxygen throughout the bloodstream. At the same time, the body doesn't digest food as fast either to allow for the body to work harder on pumping oxygen rich blood throughout the body.

Facultative adaptations

Over a longer period of time, the body will begin to acclimatize to the higher altitude.  More capillaries and red blood cells are created to compensate for the smaller amounts of oxygen in the body.  This allows for the oxygen to spread faster throughout the body.  The lungs also expand in response to the lesser air pressure in the higher altitudes.

Developmental Adaptations

South Americans and Tibetans are two cultures that live and have lived in high altitudes for thousands of years.  The South Americans that inhabit the Andes Mountains produce more hemoglobin to carry oxygen in their blood.  The Tibetans breather faster and have larger arteries to allow for more blood flow.

Cultural Adaptations

It is believed that humans first started inhabiting higher altitudes roughtly 10,000 years ago.  These people were hunter gatherers and it is thought they settled here due to the warming climate after the Ice Age. After the ice sheets melted away in the high altitudes, vast regions were found where vegetation could be grown.  The early human populations also were able to keep warm with fire and and warmer clothing created from the fur of various animals that lived in the mountain.

In the case of studying human variation of environmental stresses, it was interesting to read that the Andean people and Tibetan people were able to adapt in different ways to the higher altitudes. A third population, the people of Ethiopia that live in higher plateaus, offer no difference than to the people of lower and yet are able to live there perfectly fine.  This helps in the evolution in regards to how humans adapt.  Why is it that one culture adapted to the same stress and another culture was able to do it completely different? Why is there another population that has no significant difference in genetic makeup or phenotypic expression that would explain why they are able to live at higher elevations.  These are all questions that have scientists exploring how and when the effects of evolution took place in these populations.

I'm not sure how you would use race to explain human variation.  Race includes a specific group of people that do not all live in the same way.  At least with environmental stress studies, the populations involved all live their life in a similar fashion.  It is easier to understand why people that live in hotter climates survive better where they are located than if they were in a colder climate.  Mountain people are better suited to live in mountains than your coastal populations would be.  Race isn't specific enough to determine a lifestyle from them.

Week 7 Assignment

     This assignment was somewhat easy, yet difficult at the same time.  I can't say spending a half hour of my day not saying anything was very difficult.  However, getting my g/f to understand what i needed or was trying to say was an uphill battle to say the least.

     Animation was the key to her even having the slightest clue.  I approached her about this assignment and she started laughing but was interested at the same time.  I think she quickly became frustrated as I am not a charades champion. I used pointing a lot and grunting to emphasize.  I can tell by the looks she gave me she was getting to the point where she couldn't wait for it to be over.  She likened the experience to hanging out with her baby niece.  After I thought about it, i guess that is what it is like.  The baby has no notion of spoken language but you usually know or can guess what they want or need.  Through trial and error, you learn the habits of a baby and what sounds refer to what.

     I would say expressing complex ideas is only exhibited through spoken language.  It is the quickest way to know what someone is thinking.  The attitudes of people that can speak often are very arrogant.  Spoken language is seen as a sign of intelligence and people that aren't able to speak are often called "dumb" or other derrogatory terms.  The fact they are able to label people with words that they aren't aware of is arrogance within itself.  People that can speak either speak down to people that can't speak or try to be very helpful.  It usually takes a person to warm up to a person that is different in the fact that they can't speak.  My girlfriend has a brother with Down's Syndrome as well as autism and it can be very difficult to understand what he is saying.  You either just answer with a simple "yes" or "no" sometimes just to move on. Other times make a huge effort just to listen to him and figure out what he's trying to say.  Making it increasingly difficult is he understands me perfect.

Part 2

     I was able to make it the entire 15 minutes because I thought I had no choice but it wasn't difficult either.  My wonderful girlfriend of mine doesn't like cheaters so I had my face covered by a paper bag to prevent any facial gestures.
     It was interesting to note that she was really more frustrated with the spoken part of the assignment with no emotion attached to my voice.  It gives off the impression that I'm not interested in what I'm saying.  Although she knew it was part of the assignment, she got turned off from wanting to talk to me because it felt like a one sided conversation.
     I never realized how much people use their hands when they speak. Often, the hands are good just to capture someone's attention.  They focus on the movement and are able to pay attention to you.  That has some truth behind it because I can't listen to talk radio, but I can watch it on TV when they do the live feeds of radio station.
     Many people, including I, have difficulty reading body language.  I'm not able to capture the slight and subtle movements that clue me in to what someone is thinking. I can't even clue in on the obvious signs that show what someone is trying to emphasize.  People that are able to read body language get so much more information out of an individual.  People can recognize passion from someone that speaks about something they actually care about and they can recognize insignificance when someone is continuously talking about something they have no feelings for.  A situation that is misunderstood is commonly caused by a misinterpretation of body language.  I am not able to think of a situation that i can relate this too.  It would be the equivalent of someone asking me a question I may or may not care about and them assuming one over the other based on something I did that persuaded them to believe on one side.