1. High levels of Solar Radiation can cause skin cancers, sunburns and cataracts can develop in the eyes if there is a prolonged exposure.
2.
- A short term solution can be to get out of the sun and avoid it if possible. Go inside a building and you can even apply sunscreen to block the solar rays from the sun.
- A humans Facilitative adaptation to the skin is the ability for a lighter skinned person to tan. Longer exposure to the Sun's UV rays allows our skin to change color and turn darker due to Melanin. There are different types of Melanin and people with light complexioned skin usually produce Pheomelanin. Melanin acts as a protective biological shield against UV radiation.
- An example of a developmental adaptation to solar radiation is that dark skin people pass down their dark skin from generation to generation. This development has helped the generation have better protection from the sun and solar radiation. The DNA of the generation has changed due to this development.
- An example of a cultural adaptation would be that a culture might wear certain clothing, like a hat to protect them if they have little or no hair. In some cultures, people use sunscreens and certain materials that help to block most of the radiation from the skin.
3.The benefits of studying human variation this way is that we can get a peek of how different cultures use various methods to do certain things like protect themselves from solar radiation. The information we obtain from other cultures can help to give us a better understanding of how they act and perform tasks.
4. I would use race to mark the differences in all cultures. Not all cultures are the same and therefore, we can get new information from them which might help us in a way. The study of environmental influences on adaptations is a better way to understand human variation than race because a cultures practices are usually passed down from generation and a different culture might look at it differently because that culture doesn't do it. Discrimination based on race is a easy thing to do and it doesn't matter what race a person may be, as long as they are all exposed to the same conditions to realize the difference they make to protect from it.
It seems to me, though, that people who are born closer to the equator or in an area where is a lot of sun handle the heat and levels of solar radiations better, but they are humans just like you and I. I wonder if there is a genetic meaning behind that. I've witnessed firsthand somebody from Russia have a lot more problems with solar radiation than a friend who was born and raised in Ecuador.
ReplyDeleteYou have the basics for the background on solar radiation stress. Can you put this in terms of how it impacts homeostasis?
ReplyDeleteWe actually have no short term adaptation to solar radiation. We can go in out of the sun or put on sun screen or cover ourselves to protect us, but these are not short term physiological responses. That is why this is such a dangerous stress.
Good job on the remaining adaptations.
While I see your point on the advantage of studying different cultures, this assignment deals primarily with physiological changes in the body in response to environmental stress. How can this approach help with respect to the biological changes, not just the cultural adaptations?
You are on the right track in the final section, but again you seem to be focusing on the cultural aspects instead of the biological ones. Remember that when we analyze patterns in human adaptations using the environmental approach, we are taking advantage of the fact that the environment is causing these adaptations. There is a causal relationship, directly from the environment to the traits. Is that same relationship there in race? Does race directly cause our adaptations? OR is race just a subjective system of classification, varying across cultures and subject to bias? Is race useful at all for understanding WHY adaptations occur?