RACIAL VARIATIONS IN HUMAN RESPONSE TO 

 LOW TEMPERATURE 



Frederick A. Milan 



The investigations of racial variations in thermoregulation have 

 been based on the premise that races of mankind inhabiting regions 

 characterized by seasonal ordiurnal periods of low temperature are 

 biologically adapted* to life in these environments. It has been 

 assumed that thermoregulation in a race living in regions of low 

 temperature may function differently from that of a race in a warmer 

 climate. These studies of racial variation in physiologic function are 

 attempting to accomplish the task recommended for biologists by 

 Prosser (1959). This task is to assess critically the functional adap- 

 tive features (includingbehavior) that can describe the unique fitness 

 of a species to its environment. 



According to the inferentialevidenceof archaeology and paleon- 

 tology, Homo sapiens evolved in tropical Africa and Eurasia, and his 

 original geographical distribution resembled that of the present day 

 Old World non-human primates. Earlyhominidspresumably lived in 

 a thermally neutral environment. It has also been clearly shown by 

 finds in Tanganyika that prehominids had already acquired tools and 

 fire before Homo sapiens evolved as a species (Washburn, 1959). 



It is obvious that man erects a cultural screen of dwellings, 

 clothing, living techniques, and behavioral adjustments between him- 

 self and his environment. Except at high altitudes (as on the Bolivian 

 altiplano, for example) where little can be done about low oxygen 

 tension by preliterate peoples, man's cultural screen effectively 

 ameliorates environmental stress and is an essential part of his 

 external temperature regulation. This cultural carapace must be 

 considered in enumerating human groups chronically exposed to low 

 temperatures. 



*A biological adaptation is "...an aspect of the organism that promotes its gen- 

 eral welfare, or the welfare of the species to which it belongs in the environment 

 it usually inhabits" (Simpson et al., 1957). 



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