6 ms·

Plenty of melanin, and habits that didn't involve being out in the direct sun at its hottest probably helped. As for the British officers of the time, I assume

Plenty of melanin, and habits that didn't involve being out in the direct sun at its hottest probably helped. As for the British officers of the time, I assume a key factor was having people (slaves and/or other subordinates) to order to do work while they stayed out of the direct sun as much as possible, in their relatively luxuriant accommodations.

TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago
Does melanin help with the heat, though? I thought it just protected from skin cancer.
- uwuhn 7y ago
  It does if you spend time in the sun.
- ASalazarMX 7y ago
  It doesn't. Fairer skin would reflect more radiation, than darker skin, but it gets burned in the process. I don't think skin color has much of an impact when withstand heat, as sweat is a much stronger temperature regulator. If it's humid heat, it becomes a matter of circulatory efficiency, body mass and plain endurance, as sweat can't evaporate and actually makes it worse. Source: grew up in tropical coastal region.
jrochkind1 7y ago
How did those servants live in the scorching heat then? But yeah, the article says as much: > Finally, the British had servants. Even common British soldiers had servants. Most of the work the British did in India was mental - writing and reading reports, making decisions, giving orders. They spent a lot of time sitting down in the shade. Nearly all of the physical work that supported British lives in India was done by Indians. Intense physical exertion, in fact, could be deadly; if a British regiment had to perform a forced march, for instance, there was a real likelihood that at least a few of the men would die. It's a weird question. "How does one survive in the heat?" "Well, one just has servants to do all the work." Uh what? Melanin really doesn't have anything to do with it. If it leads to a suggestion that it was somehow appropriate for the British rulers of India to have Indians do all the manual labor, because somehow Indians were "better" at it (while the British were "better" at ruling, naturally), well, of course not. The division of labor in British colonial India had nothing to do with biology, literally nothing.

TazeTSchnitzel 7y ago

Does melanin help with the heat, though? I thought it just protected from skin cancer.

uwuhn 7y ago
It does if you spend time in the sun.
ASalazarMX 7y ago
It doesn't. Fairer skin would reflect more radiation, than darker skin, but it gets burned in the process. I don't think skin color has much of an impact when withstand heat, as sweat is a much stronger temperature regulator. If it's humid heat, it becomes a matter of circulatory efficiency, body mass and plain endurance, as sweat can't evaporate and actually makes it worse. Source: grew up in tropical coastal region.

jrochkind1 7y ago

How did those servants live in the scorching heat then? But yeah, the article says as much: > Finally, the British had servants. Even common British soldiers had servants. Most of the work the British did in India was mental - writing and reading reports, making decisions, giving orders. They spent a lot of time sitting down in the shade. Nearly all of the physical work that supported British lives in India was done by Indians. Intense physical exertion, in fact, could be deadly; if a British regiment had to perform a forced march, for instance, there was a real likelihood that at least a few of the men would die. It's a weird question. "How does one survive in the heat?" "Well, one just has servants to do all the work." Uh what? Melanin really doesn't have anything to do with it. If it leads to a suggestion that it was somehow appropriate for the British rulers of India to have Indians do all the manual labor, because somehow Indians were "better" at it (while the British were "better" at ruling, naturally), well, of course not. The division of labor in British colonial India had nothing to do with biology, literally nothing.