Heat is one of the few stressors that man is unlikely to change. It is an entirely outside force that gives life and destroys it at the same time. Homeostasis helps us maintain our internal equilibrium or stability.  Disturbing our internal equilibrium can result in death. Bodies function on a constant basis and overheating your system is often deadly. Uncontrollable infections can cause the body to overheat. There are also internal forces that create heightened heat elevations to fatal levels.      Humans have an entirely internal temperature regulating system. People have developed cultural patterns and technologies that help them adjust to extremes of temperature and humidity. Too much humidity combined with high heat can not only lead to hyperthermia, but humidity also makes it difficult for the body to evaporate its excess heat. Hyperthermia is the result of our core temperatures rising about 105 to 107 degrees.  Humans can exist only for a short period of time before their temperatures result in deterioration of internal organs and eventually death. Our body shapes and sizes are significant factors in how physiologically our bodies adjust to hot temperatures.  

            Interesting examples of are provided when you google Human Biological Adaptability. The data refers to Carl Bergmann and Joel Allen, 19^th century naturalists, who, through initially studying polar bears observed that the greater the bears’ body masses the colder their environment. Bergmann’s Rule indicates that like organisms living in the warmer regions around the equator have developmentally adapted to their environments, not genetically but biologically. Based on his study the polar bears eat massive amounts of food, creating massive amounts of heat, and effectively retain their internal heat.  Allen’s Rule, indicates the more body surface the faster body heat is lost. Based on his study of an East African Masai tribe below, having physically adapted to the extreme climatic heat by growing longer limbs to assist in heat loss.

                                                                  

            Other ways humans adapt to excessive heat is by sweating, evaporation of the body’s heat. It is our own cooling system. It is the body’s short term response to heat.

            A facultative adaption to heat stress would be a genetic change due to heat stress. As indicted above, perhaps the Masai tribe genetically changed through natural selection adapting a longer-limbed body, more surface area to evaporate more heat.

            Cultural adaption to heat is one of mankind’s greatest indulgences. Man has invented fans to swirl air around him and designed machines that create cold air to swirl around him. The buildings we live in provide a steady stream of moderate temperature at the flick of a switch or the turn of a dial. Unlike wearing fur to control the cold stress, clothing is often designed to be light and cool of the lightest weight materials in order to maintain a comfortable internal temperature. Diet is always trending one way or another from the heavy meals in the past to today’s fair, salads and lighter foods, the trend of today. The terminology “stick to your bones” refers to heavy meals of the past and the type of fair suited to a colder climate. The Masai diet consists of blood, milk, high fat meat and honey and tree bark. That could account for the difference in diet in their environments.

            Migratory patterns exist throughout the United States. The Northeast is a colder climate and the four distinct seasons affect the lifestyle, and results heartier humans who chose to live there. Much of the South and Southwest due to the influence of the natural heat gives rise to populations who prefer the heat. More specifically, since the late 1940s, you can see the migratory patterns of people moving from the Northeast coast down to Florida, due primarily to the intense seasonal changes in the North and a total turnaround in Florida.
            The benefit of studying humans across environmental clines is the categorization of the data. Compiling data is anthropology’s way of keeping track of mankind.

            Language, as we know it, is one of the most significant advancements of humankind. Foundationally we know that words have no meaning until you give them meaning. Symbolically, everyone in a conversation should be “on the same page,” or “speaking the same language”.

            My first conversation started out in the usual manner. I had prepared some little nibbles for a meeting of 5^th grade teachers at my daughter’s home. It was an informal meeting with all the teachers sitting on the sofa and armchairs surrounding the coffee table where I spread out little pastries, savory and sweet. While I was not a direct participant in the substantive conversation, I did make my presence known without speaking. I observed something interesting just watching the way the conversation flowed and how the conversation moved from one to another and the symbolism exhibited by every teacher. If the speaker was making a good point, another teacher would point a finger at her and nod, indicating she was in full agreement.  Anthropologically speaking, there was an alpha teacher who dominated the conversation, her voice raised louder and more aggressive sounding. When teachers disagreed with her, but couldn’t overrule her voice, they would raise a hand in a single-goodbye gesture, a sign of dismissing the significance or importance of the statement. The teachers were of every culture including South American, American, Israeli, and Canadian. It didn’t seem their various cultures hindered their participation in the conversation. The teachers were democratic for the most part and politely leaned toward each speaker during conversation. I raised the tray of pastries and waved my hand towards the napkins. My point was made and teachers tried out the different treats. One of the teachers cursed under her breath as she tipped over her soda. It was all I could do not to say something! I went to the kitchen to get paper towels (which started a comical conversation about cloth towels versus paper towels). When I was asked a direct question about the treats, my daughter replied on my behalf that I was doing an experiment for my Anthropology class and could not speak.

            There are those in our culture, the elderly, the disabled and otherwise disenfranchised who cannot speak effectively. They cannot stand up for themselves in legal or social situations situations. I don’t know if it’s culturally American trait or not, but the speaker usually raises their voice as if loudness alone will result in communication.

            A second conversation began a bit differently. I was joined by some acquaintances at the local Starbucks where we were discussing an upcoming 5k walk that many of “us ole ladies” were going to try. I’ve done 5ks twice before and felt myself a pro at the event. One of the walkers stated the important steps she felt were necessary to prepare for a race, regardless of what condition you are in. I raised my hand to intercede and disagree and realized I couldn’t move that hand or make any gesture at all. Culturally, I was born and raised to speak with my hands! I worked with attorneys and courtroom clerks and realize the importance of being able to emphasize your point and hand gestures are my stock-in-trade. In order not to use my hands for anything else, I sipped my coffee. Another walker mentioned the importance of good diet before taking on a 5k walk.  Eat low carbs, don’t eat low carbs, eat pasta, don’t eat sugars – everything! And all I could think of was that I couldn’t move my hands. I thought carefully before I opened my mouth because a disagreement on a topic on which I feel passionate would ruin my entire experiment. I composed my face into calm lines and proceeded to explain my technique for working up to the big event. I leaned into the conversation (oh no, that’s body language); I began to raise my eyebrows alarmingly only to realize that I was not articulating merely acting out. I actually looked at my watch to see if I had made it to 15 minutes, and had to laugh when I realized that looking at my watch was a symbolic gesture of wanting to end a conversation quickly.

            Not everyone is proficient at reading body language. Body language is an acquired skill and one worth developing. The ability to read people and situations aids in police work, teaching and psychology amongst many others. Reading body language and tensions in a room of people allows one to adapt to the situation as needed. It is hard to imagine a situation where “reading the situation,” would be of no benefit.

            It is difficult to be brief in a synopsis of the Piltdown Man story because there are so many details of great impact, with many participants, over a significant period of time. 

            Piltdown begins in the early 1900s, in the southeast of England where a day laborer discovered a piece of what he thought was human skull. He passed it on to Charles Dawson, a lawyer by trade, and an amateur archeologist. Dawson felt the find held great potential. In approximately 1912 he contacted eminent geologist, Sir Arthur Smith Woodward. They joined forces for a summer of digging. They found animal fossils and stone-age tools. In pre-WWI, late 1912 they presented their findings to a grateful British Empire. Amongst their findings was a jawbone. They thought they’d discovered the missing link. The jawbone suggests the teeth were worn down in the manner of man, and its size suggested it was of ape origin. After much ado, Sir Woodward named the creature Eoanthropus dawsoni. With the weight of Sir Woodward’s opinion of the jawbone, and what it represented firmly behind them, Britain took their place amongst other countries with their scientific finds. With the Natural History Museum behind them, the find was considered evidence of the undisputed earliest human ancestor.

            1953 brought an end to that thinking. The Piltdown man was discovered to be a fake! The British public was scandalized, and the scientific world outraged. Egos were involved and the British Empire stood there shame-faced. Scientists who had built their livelihoods upon the genuineness of the Piltdown Man, were shamed. Carbon dating of fossils was still a long way off. In the Natural History Museum’s mineral department, Kenneth Oakley performed state-of-the-art nitrogen testing and discovered the relative youth of the bones. The Piltdown Man’s bones were not even human, probably Orangutans. All of the bones were proven to be forged.

            Who could plan and carry out such a hoax against England, and the public in general? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has a connection to the story in that he lived down the road from Piltdown and knew all the players in the scenario. Being a proponent of spiritualization, all the rage in those days, he believed that spirit photographs were evidence, and set out to convince the world. His efforts quickly disrupted his credibility in the scientific community, regardless of the fact he was a medical doctor.  Ultimately Charles Dawson himself was held most liable for the fraud, though many thought Sir Woodward was in on the scam too.

            Human faults heavily weighing in on the finding of Piltdown Man would be vanity of the museum's thinking and the egotism of the central characters. Subsequently, rivalries between scientists and museum chairman department heads developed. Notoriety for the find itself could cause many to dump their long held beliefs of the honor and dignity of their profession. The people of England wanted their place in scientific history. First the ego of Dawson, a lawyer, so generally not above a little scheming, and clearly a wanna-be archeologist.  He was seeking academic credibility and standing amongst the scientific community.  It wasn’t until the subsequent discovery of Dawson’s earlier finds, alleged Roman artifacts were discovered in Pevensey in Sussex County, near Piltdown, that Dawson’s treachery was fully realized. Doubt was also cast upon Sir Woodward’s possible connection to the hoax. He was Dawson’s greatest supporter, who believed till his death of the genuineness of the Piltdown Man. If he were a man of science, wouldn’t he have been a bit more skeptical throughout the digging and the findings? Perhaps, as the videos suggest, Sir Woodward wanted to protect the Natural History Museum’s and Britain’s interests in the discoveries. It is further notable that Charles Hinton, an employee of the Natural History Museum, and subsequently head of the department of zoology, was found with a suitcase full of bones that looked surprisingly like the Piltdown bones, with the same markings inside and out. You are left to wonder just how far flung this hoax had gone? There were great rivalries between departments and chairmen of departments in the Natural History Museum. Each department wanted the glory of the find, yet no responsibility in perpetuating an ongoing hoax. Hinton may have been experimenting on the “bones” because he wanted to replicate their validity, or was he part of the hoax all along? The discovery that nearly 50 objects of Dawson’s discoveries were fakes, forgeries, and that the scientific community was taken in by it, was a scam of epic proportions.

            Securing England’s scientific place in history was the purpose of Piltdown Man.  Previously, England had no findings of her oldest human remains and had taken a back seat to other countries findings, like Germany. England’s arch rival at the time, when WWI broke out. It seems interesting to note that nothing was ever found again in Piltdown after Dawson’s passing in 1916.

            The process initially responsible for discovering the Piltdown Man to be a hoax was nitrogen testing. It wasn’t until 1961 that radiometric (carbon) dating provided the most absolute technique for dating fossils. 

            How can one possibly remove the human variable from the equation of scientific discovery? It seems impossible. Without man thirsting to learn more, to see just beyond the ridgeline, there would be no discoveries at all. Therefore, man must continue to venture “where no man has gone before”. It is part of the quest.

            This is indeed an example of a life lesson. Believe nothing without verifying the facts. But, how could this have been proven wrong before nitrogen testing came into practice, and subsequently carbon dating, or any of the advancements in scientific technology today? For that matter, how could the scientific community as a whole have been so misguided as to have held onto the belief of the bones irrefutable legitimacy? Without the advancement of today’s technology the real proof would lie just outside the realm of reality.

Dr. Rodriguez and classmates:
My topic is diet across the five primates.

Lemurs live exclusively on the island of Madagascar, a lush, tropical environment which provides significant vegetation. Being herbivores, the Lemurs diet is primarily fruits and leaves. Without competition from the large continent of Africa, the Lemurs had very little competition for the native vegetation and very little reason to evolve.  The Spider Monkeys live mainly in Asia, the Middle East and Northern Africa regions. The Spider Monkeys are omnivores like lemurs but, aside from eating fruits and leaves, eat roots, nuts, birds’ eggs and insects. The environment of the Spider Monkey creates competition for food such that their prehensile tails and semi-brachiator shoulders and arms developed in order for them to gather more food and escape predators more quickly. Baboons, an old world monkey species, ceropithecines, are found in Africa.  Baboons have developed cheek pouches in order to store more food. Baboons are omnivores and tend to eat fruit, but meat is also on their menu. Large and aggressive males may even eat birds and occasionally baby chimpanzees. Gibbons, subfamily Hylobatidae, are terrestrial, not arboreal, and live in Southeast Asia. Gibbons rarely leave the tree tops to forage for fruit and leaves. Gibbons are brachiators, able to swing from branch to branch, with a hand-over-hand motion and have one of the greater arm-spans of the primates. They will, occasionally, walk upright across branches. Chimpanzees thrive in tropical forests as easily as in the Savannas of Africa. Chimpanzees have evolved closest to humans. Chimpanzees’ diet, like these other primates is primarily vegetarian. Males, more aggressive by nature, are more likely to eat meat than females. Chimpanzees do not pass along hunting skills to their offspring, and therefore, diet remains herbivore in nature.

 Lemur       Spider Monkey  

                                                                                                             Baboon

 

Siamang Gibbon   Chimpanzee