Human Variation
To
understand the name of this chapter “Human Variation” it is important to take a
look at anthropology nowadays. Modern anthropology does not agree with
separation of humans into races, because this terminology can be broad and at
the same time is hard to agree with that would fall into one specific race
rather than the other. The term “race” can be used in a number of different
ways: to define species, subspecies,
culture and nationality, therefore we will see more often “human variation” referring
to what was once known by race.
Clearly, it
is important to understand the multiple reasons why certain traits are more
common in the people leaving in the same area and the types of variation depend
upon a few factors:
- Biochemical
- Anthropometrics
- Ondometrics
- Short term/ long term adaptions
An
interesting fact about the trait that determines the color of the skin is that
darker skin tend to be more resistant to the sun, so as you get closes to the
equator, people tend to share the same trait of darker color of skin, in order
to protect themselves from the sun. As you go up north, people tend to share
the trait of very white skin, and that also has a reason. Very light skin has a
better capability of absorbing the
Vitamins from the sun, and considering the places in the north hemisphere such
as Iceland that are very rarely exposed to the sun, people with light skin with
absorb more vitamins from that little bit of sun, comparing to a person with
darker skin. Those could be considered long term adaptions and it has a direct connection with the environment influencing
human variation.
Another factor that is mentioned in this chapter is the
biocultural variation (biological, social and cultural). An example is the sickle cell anemia that is
passed through families and it is considered a cultural adjustment. People who
had one gene of sickle cell are resistant to malaria, but if a person had both
genes (from mother and father) it can be deadly.
One example of physiological adaptation is the live in high
altitude. The human body is not very adaptable to high altitudes so groups of
people living in such conditions present a few problems including increased
infant mortality, high numbers of miscarriage and premature birth.
Several elements are responsible for categorizing different
human variations, but we cannot forget that one of the most important ones on
human beings is the cultural factor. Today’s world tend to define people by
their culture, their food, their religion and beliefs and that it has become
common to the new generation to assume that a person with a certain religion,
for example, belongs to certain race.
That is a misconception that commonly leads to fights, disagreements
and sometimes wars.
Personal Input:
This subject can be very polemic. I did an interview and it
is funny how much the place of birth influences on the person’s idea of race.
I learned that biological factors also affect the human
variation and the skin tone variation really caught my attention because I am
from Brazil and there this is something very common. Whenever I tell someone I
am from Brazil I get a surprised reaction, people think I am from Europe
usually, just because of my light skin color. They think Brazilians are mostly
darker skins.
Truth is that regions closer to equator actually are commonly
defined by people with darker color skin, but south of Brazil is very close to
the south pole, so the skin color tend to be lighter. It is interesting that in
one country it is possible to see the human variation so clearly and it is
people with the same culture, eating habits and one predominant religion. So
one country, different skins, same culture. That is
why I also agree that the term “race” shouldn’t be used anymore to determine
human beings. In the case of my country,
how would we categorize the population?
I did a brief interview with a couple of friends to lean what
were their opinions in this subject.
The results are interesting and I hope you enjoy it.
Additional information:
For additional information I added a brief interview that I made
with some people I know, just to understand what are their thoughts about human
race/ human variation.
I took advantage of the fact that I mostly know people from
other countries and I tried to make it diverse.
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