Cold response, body form, and craniofacial shape in two racial groups of Hawaii

Abstract

The goals of this research were two. A first aim was to determine relationships between craniofacial anatomy and craniofacial response to cold, and a second, to apply the results to historical and evolutionary models.Detailed anthropometric measurements were taken on 58 young men native to Hawaii; 33 were of Japanese descent, and 25 of European ancestry. Facial and other temperatures were recorded during 70 minutes of cooling at 0°C. Heat loss was enhanced by ten foot-per-second air movement.Though the Europeans showed more cold-induced vasodilation at facial sites, there were cross-sample correlation agreements which suggested that temperatures remain lower in the presence of high cheek thickness, protrusive malar area, and probably a smaller, shorter head. Consequently, the Coon-GarnBirdsell "cold-engineered face," based on a frostbite selection model, is rejected, and a n effort is made to fit Asiatics, Europeans and European Neanderthals to current findings.Additional detail is presented on shape-temperature regressions as well as simple racial comparisons for cranio-facial shape, body build, and temperature.

Body build and temperature tolerance: an experimental analysis of ecological ‘rules’

“…Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that body proportion differences of much lesser amplitude, including those of the foot and face, are of negligible or no significance in thermoregulation. This find ing is in complete accord with Steegmann's [1970Steegmann's [ , 1972 observation that the face of Mongoloids and Europeans showed no dif ference in heat retention capacity. Thus, there is no experimental evidence to uphold Allen's ecological rule for human or nonhu man homeotherms in extreme cold.…”

“…Among anthropologists, who have accepted the val idity of the ecological rules of Bergmann and Allen and expressed some reservations mainly on the ground that there are local exceptions to them [ Lasker, 1961: Schneider, 1968Hulse, 1971: Birdsell, 1972Poirier, 1974;Weiss and Mann, 1975], Steegmann[ 1970Steegmann[ , 1972 exposed young men of European and Japanese ancestry to cold (0°C) for 70 min and found that facial surface temperatures remained lower in the presence of high cheek thickness, protrusive malar area and probably a shorter head in the Japanese group. He therefore rejected the Coon-Garn-Birdsell theory of the 'coldengineered face' of Mongoloids.…”

Race-related variation of facial features: Anthropometric data I

“…A somewhat more comprehensive source of information about Japanese-white feature complexity is available by comparing the Hawaiian-born white and the Hawaiian-born Japanese samples (Columns 1 and 2) shown in Table 1. On 21 of Steegmann's (1972) 26 measures (about 80%), Japanese men's facial features are more complex than white men's features . Unfortunately, only 25 white and 33 Japanese men were measured in Steegmann's study, so conclusions involving these data should be drawn with caution.…”

“…Asterisks call attention to measures taken by Montague , 1960;Oliv ier, 1969). For measures with asterish«, see Steegmann (1972) ; for instrument developed to take thew measures, see Steegmann (1970 Steegmann (1972) with a specially developed contourometer (Steegmann, 1970) , a device that measures the fairly complex geometric relationships formed when nose, chin, and cheek surfaces interset.…”

Developmental variation in facial forms in Japan

“…The cold engineering model set up by Coon (1955) is still a possible explanation of the factors contributing to the flat faces of post-Jomon Japanese (Omoto, 1995;Yamaguchi, 1999;Nakahashi, 2005). Numerous investigators have reached this conclusion despite the fact that experimental studies do not support the relationship between relatively flat faces and the risk of cold stress (Steegmann, 1965(Steegmann, , 1967(Steegmann, , 1970(Steegmann, , 1972.…”