Second Exam
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer the exam by e-mailing me your answer at jbindon@tenhoor.as.ua.edu no later than Wednesday, May 4, by 11:30 a.m. Since this is a take-home exam, you are expected to provide well written, well organized, and complete answers. Remember that this exercise will be graded for writing skills as well as for appropriateness of responses. I will grade no more than words. Any text in excess of this limit will not count in your grade! I will acknowledge receipt of your exam by return e-mail as soon as I open it. I will assign course grades and e-mail you the results as soon as I have graded the exams.
GOOD LUCK!
Create a fictional isolated population of either horticulturists or hunter/foragers. In constructing your population, take care to see that they are subjected to at least three of the following stresses:
 | UV radiation (too much or too little) |
| High altitude hypoxia |
| Heat or Cold |
| Malnutrition |
| Infectious disease |
Describe each of the following features for your population:
| Their general geographic locale (e.g., Tropical sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, Amazonia, Andes, Himalayans, arctic circle, etc.), consistent with the stresses you are positing for your population |
| Their environment (temperature, rainfall, plant life, anything else relevant to your answer, including all aspects of the environment that are contributing to their stress load) |
| Their ecology and demography (energy flow, optimal foraging, population growth models--remember the question everyone avoided on the first exam?) |
Describe the nature of the adaptations that the population expresses (or the individuals within the population express) to the stressors. In establishing the nature of adaptations, be sure to draw extensively on the material read for and discussed in class. For example, if you are discussing the adaptation of your population to high altitude hypoxia, the process must be consistent with what we learned about altitude adaptation in Colorado, the Andes, and the Himalayas. You should note where your population has similar adaptations to those we studied, and where they differ (remember that altitude adaptation is different for natives in the Himalayas and in the Andes!). In other words, carefully construct your adaptations to be logically consistent with what we have learned throughout the semester.
Finally, consider the contact of your population with a modernizing influence such as outside traders or missionaries (it doesn’t matter what the influence is). Describe the changes in adaptational patterns for the population due to the rapid sociocultural and socioeconomic changes associated with contact and modernization. At this point, be sure to consider how chronic disease morbidity and mortality will change.
BE SURE TO JUSTIFY ALL ASPECTS OF YOUR ANSWER WITH REFERENCE TO OUR LECTURES, READINGS, OR OUTSIDE SOURCES. As always, if you use outside sources, be sure to include a list of references cited.