May
4th, 2014
Word
Count: 376
Human Science
Article on East
African Athletes
It is a known and well – accepted
fact that East Africa has produced an array of the world’s best runners. The
mystery behind East African athletes is yet to be uncovered. However, many
suppositions have already been made regarding this. The article written by Max
Fisher on this very issue involves several ideas. Looking at it from a TOK
perspective, there is a combination of AOK human science, natural science, and ethics
which is discussed.
Scientists
have been speculating the different possibilities that may have caused the
unusual success of these runners. Journalist Malcolm Gladwell proposed an idea
in his book Outliers. In his opinion, the success of the East African
athletes depends on their “cultural values” and their “environmental factors”.
He suggested that since the children have to run to school due to poor
infrastructure, the environment aids them in the cause. Subsequently, East
Africans are encouraged to run as it is considered “prestigious” for them. In a
TOK perspective, this proposal would mainly come under the human sciences because
cultural and environmental factors are being considered.
Fisher
looked into the science behind this and found that the genetics factor may also
play an important role. Several studies were conducted in which comparisons
were made between Kenyan runners and Swedish runners. The results showed that
the Kenyans had outrun the Swedish by a huge margin. By looking into the genes
of the Kenyans, natural sciences are being explored in terms of TOK. The
article stated that most of Kenyan runners come from a single tribe called
Kalenjin. This allowed scientists to further investigate and then conclude that
the Kalenjin boys which were studied had “inborn, physical, genetic advantage”.
In their studies, they found that these boys had a higher red blood cell count
which made them more effective in oxygen consumption.
Till
now, the human and natural science perspectives were being explored. However,
ethics was also involved in this article. This research caused a lot of
controversies as the East African athletes saw this as a “downplay” of their
success. Also, the history concerning colonialism and slavery of Africans has
made this issue even more sensitive.
In
my opinion, it is possible for the East African runners to have genes which aid
them while running. The high altitudes of that region do help runners train well
as the red blood cell count increases due to the low oxygen levels.
Nevertheless, I feel that if the East African runners take offense in these
research’s being done than it is wrong to continue studying this topic.
