Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Joel M. HannaDepartments of Physiology and Anthropology, University of Hawaii at Manta,Honolulu,. Hawaii 96822Daniel E. BrownDepartment of Anthropology, University of Hawaii, Hilt, Hawaii 96720INTRODUCTIONWithin the complex of characteristics which we recognize as distinctly humanare usually listed bipedalism, hairlessness, a large brain, and a symboliclinguistic ability. Each of these characteristics is genetically coded and pro-bably represents a regponse to selective pressures at some time in the past. Ineach case we see a continuation and elaboration of adaptive patterns whichcharacterize the order Primates.Among our human adaptations we must also include the ability to tolerateheat. Human heat tolerance is the result of a series of adaptations which havebeen genetically encoded. All normal members of the species are born with ahighly specialized complex of thermoregulatory sweat glands and a sensitiveconlxol system. It is a plastic system whose response and efficiency becomesmore pronounced with prolonged and intense stimulation. The ability to re-spond to heat is seen in all extant human populations, regardless of theenvironment in which they now live or how many generations they have beenremoved from the heat (22). For those groups living in hot environments, theemployment of cultural mechanisms has served as a buffer mediating betweenthe hot macroenvironment and the organism. Still it is clear that physiologicaladaptations remain of paramount importance in daily survival (80). As is thecase with other human characteristics, we seem to have taken advantage of ourprimate heritage, and with the aid of selection, extended our capacity beyondthat of the other members of the order.2590066-4294/83/1015-0259502.00www.annualreviews.org/aronline Annual Reviews
Hanna et al. (Sat,) studied this question.