Human Variations In High Altitude Populations

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

high altitude
populations which I will examine in this paper are the Tibetan people of the
Asian Himalayas and the Quechua of the South American Andes.
The Quechua are an Indian people who inhabit the highlands of Peru and
Bolivia. They speak Quechua, which is a branch of the Andean-Equitorial stock.
They show many remnants of Inca heritage by their houses, music, and religion
which has pagan rites under the Roman-Catholic surface. Their villages consist
of kin groups . Their marriage partners are taken from within each village.
Agriculture is the dominant subsistence pattern in the central Andean
region but the Nunoa region where the Quechua reside can only support a few
frost-resistant crops. Which include bitter potato, sweet potato, and a few
grain crops of quinoa and canihua. The rest of the fruits and vegetables of the
Quechua come from the eastern mountains on it’s way to the markets. The most
important subsistence pattern for the Quechua is stock raising. Which is ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

of oxygen finally available to
the tissue(Moran,147-148).” The adaptations to hypoxia are all geared towards
increasing the oxygen to the tissues.
One adaptation to hypoxia is an increase of red blood cells in
circulation. A person living in high altitude conditions is likely to have “30%
more red blood cells(Molinar,218)” than a person living at sea level. “This
greater number of red blood cells increases the hemoglobin concentration, which
in turn increases the oxygen -carrying capacity per unit volume of
blood(Molinar,219).” This then increases the oxygen sent to the tissues.
Respiration and cardiac output are also increased. There is an increase in the
capillary network to aid ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: