Cold: Falling body temperature activates several reflex responses that counteract the lower temperature: blood vessels in the skin constrict, so less heat is lost; muscles start shivering to burn up more food and generate heat; etc. In addition, behavior of the whole individual becomes directed toward helping restore homeostatic balance.
A short term adaptation would be that the individual looks for a warm place, a coat to put on, etc.A facultative adaptation would be that the individual is paler, because of decrease sunlight people will not tan as much. Eating more. Development adaptations would be lighter skin and eyes. Body shape and size changes. Cultural adaptations would be consuming large quantities of high calorie fatty foods. This significantly increases the basal metabolic rate, which, in turn, results in the production of extra body heat. Heavy clothing, sleeping close to a group of people with their bodies next to each other, active when outdoors.It helps to understand different races when we study the environmental influences, because it can tell a lot about people. One can see why people are different in terms of physical appearance and behavior. For example in some parts of europe where its cold we can see that people are lighter with blue eyes and in some parts where its hot people have a darker skin tone.
Source:
http://www.indiana.edu/~p1013447/dictionary/drive.htm
Careful... you are mixing your adaptations and your stresses.
ReplyDeleteClothing is a cultural adaptation.
Paler skin is in response to reduced solar radiation and reduced vitamin D, not cold stress.
Eating more is a cultural adaptation, though the processing of the fats and proteins would facultative/developmental.
I would have liked more depth in your exploration of race.