HUMAN RACIAL BESPONSES 



occupy a small fraction of their former territory and are found in 

 South West Africa, Bechuanaland Protectorate, Angola, Rhodesia, 

 and the Republic of South Africa. They are hunters and gatherers, 

 lighter in color than their Bantu neighbors, and speak a Click lan- 

 guage. In physical appearance they are short of stature (4 feet 9 

 inches to 5 feet 4 inches) and have a number of anatomical infantile 

 features (Tobias, 1961). 



The Bushmen were formerlydistributedover much of southwest 

 Africa but are presently confined to the high plateau of the Kalahari 

 Desert at altitudes between 3000 and 5000 feet. Here the winter night 

 climate is sufficiently cold to be stressful for a habitually naked 

 people. 



Response to whole body cooling. Wyndham etal. (1958) measured 



the skin and oral temperatures of two male Bushmen and two white 



South Africans sitting nudefor two and one half hours. Ambient tem- 



o o 



peratures ranged between 10 C and 15 G. The oral temperatures 



of the Bushmen were lower. The skin temperature of one bushmen 



sleeping naked under his cloak next to a fire was measured for 8 



hours. Ambient temperatures ranged between 12 C and 13 C. Air 



temperatures under the cloak were about 26 C, and temperatures 



on the trunk were about 35 G. It was concluded that the Bushmen 



have made an intellectual rather than a physiological adaptation to 



diurnal temperature changes. 



Ward et al. (1960) measured the metabolism and skin and rectal 

 temperatures in eight male Bushmen and five male European con- 

 trols exposed naked to the Kalahari Desert night environment. Night 

 temperatures ranged between 22 C and 2.7 C. A radiation shield 

 was interposed between the subjects and the night sky. A thermo- 

 couple on a plastic holder manipulated by an observer was utilized 

 to obtain skin temperatures. Face masks and a Douglas Bag were 

 used to sample metabolism intermittently. The metabolic response 

 in the Bushmen was higher than in the controls, but the percentage 

 increase related to skin temperature was the same for the controls, 

 Bushmen, and Norwegians (Ward et al. , 196Q. Rectal temperatures 

 were similar. The Bushmen's skin temperatures were lower because 



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