What are the motivations of people who become volunteers at major Essay

What are the motivations of people who become volunteers at major sport events - Essay Example The purpose of the research was explained and the authorities were assured that names and information would not be shared. Once the University authorities granted permission, their help was sought in identifying students that had worked as sports and non-sport volunteers. The Universities came forward will all support. Once the participants for the focus group was identified, informed consent of the participants was then taken. The responses and communication over Skype was fairly stable although at times the researcher did have to ask the respondents to repeat their answers. Connectivity being good, all the participants could express their views clearly, except for two participants who had some issues with the English language. To combat this, efforts were made to make them repeat their views so that minimum distortion in understanding takes place. Care was taken to ensure that all the participants to the focus group were between the age of 20 and 25 years, since this was focused on students’ motivation in sports volunteering. Out of a total of 12 participants in three different groups, 4 were female students and 8 male students. Students were all of Chinese nationality and hence this was a homogenous group, which enhances the responses and participation in focus group studies. This helped the researcher to make the group relax with light comments about sports and general discussions about volunteering before steering the group towards specific questions. This was an effort by the researcher to guide the group. The first group that was interviewed comprised of those who volunteer for sports. More than 50% respondents agreed that they volunteer for sports based on their interest in sports such as football. In fact some of them even play while others are sports enthusiasts. However, one of the participants in the focus group admitted that he ‘did this to help others’. Strong correlation has been found between volunteering and career prospects.

Promoting Health Internationally Essay Example for Free

Promoting Health Internationally Essay Developing countries are beset with health crises to a greater extent than their more developed counterparts. The lack of resources and the presence of numerous demanding needs causes the insufficient allocation of such resources for the addressing of health issues. In other countries, there is simply no technology to produce the necessary cures for the bigger diseases besetting their populations. Whereas in more developed countries with greater storehouse of resources there is a greater capacity to address health problems, particularly with a more developed technological platform to work from. Not only this, but developing countries have a marked decline in addressing sanitation concerns thus making for environments more prone to diseases caused by bacteria, worms, and viruses.1 With more hygienic living conditions, this is not the observed case in developing countries. Thus, a combination of non-hygienic conditions and low access to healthcare creates atmospheres for developing nations making them more prone to experiencing severe health problems. The first concern regarding health problems in developing countries is the possibility of a disease to develop which is easily transmittable from person to person. The fear of infectious diseases, particularly the fear of such diseases causing a pandemic, has had significant impact on the manner in which the global community addresses global health problems. International agencies have come up with surveillance systems to enable member countries to report incidents of infectious diseases and to better equip non-affected nations against contamination.2 The mechanism of report requires member nations to define the nature and extent of infection of the disease. This is not particularly attractive to infected nations as the reporting of diseases would adversely affect the economy of the said country. With a fear of infection, foreign investors would lower their rates of importation. This would serve to lower the economic growth of the said country. Not only this, but tourists would be fearful of visiting said foreign country and income from such investments would also decline. The stigma against the affected country would translate to a decline in the status of their economy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is in this regard that health issues of individual nations affect the global view on health. The slightest change in the ability of individual countries to provide basic resources or to contribute to the global economy would affect all other countries as a result of global interconnectedness. 3 The dependence of nations, one to the other, cannot sustain the devolution of production of goods in any one nation. Apart from moral responsibilities, this is the weightiest argument to a global perspective on health promotion. The global market favors the ensuring of wealthier nations that less affluent nations will be able to participate fully in the global trade of goods.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   What is not considered in this model are non-infectious diseases plaguing the developing countries around the globe. There is little incentive for global agencies to address such problems since there is no showing that the same would affect citizens of foreign nations. Although the argument for providing aid for the same due to global trade considerations still stands, there is little to no initiative from private drug companies. The primary aim of such companies being profit, they are not drawn by the clamor for lower prices required in developing countries. Thus, the trend remains for drug companies to produce drugs and cures that will answer the needs of developed countries whom they can charge higher prices for the products and services they offer. Diseases plaguing impoverished nations such as malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis and the like are given little attention although they may present greater threats than hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. This is an unfortunate as developed nations should take it upon themselves to promote health in developing nations as well. The international community would benefit to a greater extent with the improvement of all component nations. The nations in the international community should not only consider giving aid to developing nations when the diseases may spread into their own localities but even so when the diseases may be contained domestically. The interest then should not be for global regulation of domestic plagues but it should be for international interest in holistic global health.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Although drug companies refuse to focus on answering the needs of the major diseases in impoverished nations this is not to say that no organized action is being undertaken for the same. Certainly there are individuals and groups who recognize the importance of promoting health on a global scale. The World Health Organization, for example has collaborated with large pharmaceutical companies in order to bring drugs for the cure of prevalent diseases into levels of access for developing nations.4 The proposed plan is to decrease drug prices for developing nations, if the free delivery of the same is not probable, by increasing prices in affluent countries. Such a scheme would permit the subsidization of drugs by developed countries. There would thus be an equitable division of required resources in order to gain access of available cures in the market. There has also been an observed trend in scientific laboratories. Scientists capable of performing research investigating cures for diseases of poverty have shown greater inclination for the same. Funding may be an issue in the matter however, more and more charities are focusing on the aim of global health and even domestic governments are supporting the bid for finding cures for large health issues. Not only this, but movements have been made to have pharmaceutical companies share the process of production if the matter of marketing drugs at a no-profit price is not possible. Local governments or corporations could then work on producing their own drugs using the process and information shared by foreign corporations. These matters are currently being pushed by advocates worldwide. However, the international community still has much ground to cover. The problem of international health is still a major issue receiving small priority in the global scale. The problem of politicking and bureaucracy hinders advances that could be made in this field. Thus, in order to more aptly answer the problem, local policies should first be reshaped and made to realize the importance of health in the governmental platform. Furthermore, local governments should not limit themselves to addressing only their own separate needs. Garrett aptly captures the issue: Tactically, all aspects of prevention and treatment should be part of an integrated effort, drawing from countries’ finite pools of health talent to tackle all monsters at once, rather than dueling separately with individual dragons. 5 Given limited resources, in the international sense as well as in the domestic, the pooling of these same resources is the best solution to the problem of both global and local health. The vision of individual nations should be enhanced to not only address their own problems but they should start to realize the relevance in investing in a global perspective in answering health issues. Certainly, with a view of the same, advances will be made not only for short term goals of fending off singular diseases in certain nations but more so the long term goal of eradicating debilitating diseases that could potentially reappear in similar conditions or in evolved forms. The answer then is to prepare internationally for the problem of global health as the strengthening of individual platforms in individual nations will address the root issue of recurring conditions. This will serve not only to strengthen the global health system but even other sectors of concern such as trade and global relations as more and more countries invest in programs reflecting amity and gratuity. BIBILIOGRAPHY Check, Erika,â€Å"Quest for the Cure,† Foreign Policy, (2006): 28-36. Garrett, Laurie, â€Å"The Challenge of Global Health,† Foreign Affairs 86(1), (2007): 14-38. Naim, Moises and Brundtland, Gro Harlem, â€Å"The FP Interview: The Global War for Public Health,† Foreign Policy 128, (2002): 24-36. Osterholm, Michael T., â€Å"Unprepared for a Pandemic,† Foreign Affairs 86(2), (2007): 47-57. Zacher, Mark W., â€Å"Global Epidemiological Surveillance,† in Inge Kaw, Isabelle Grunberg, and Marc A. Stern, â€Å"Global Public Goods: International Cooperation in the 21st Century (eds.),† (1999), NY: UNAP.

The Community of Female Voices in Arab Women Literature :: Fatima Mernissi Arab Culture Cultural Essays

The Community of Female Voices in Arab Women Literature In her memoir, Dreams of Trespass, Fatima Mernissi remembers asking her grandmother Yasmina how one can discern a true story from a false one. The wise old woman, Yasmina, told her granddaughter to relax and not look at life in extreme polarities because "there are things which could be both [true and false] and things which could be neither" (Dreams, 61). "Words are like onions," Yasmina explained further and "the more skins you peel off, the more meanings you encounter" (Dreams, 61). Thus, according to Yasmina, the real power of finding the "true" answer for oneself is to discover "multiplicities of meanings" because then right and wrong become irrelevant (Dreams, 61). Yasmina's image of words as onions can be used in one's understanding of the multilayered complexity of oppression in Arab women literature. Although in some novels, such as The Pillars of Salt and Drams of Trespass, female oppression is an obvious result of social norms, in other texts (In the Eye of the Sun, for example) the main female character, Asya Ulama, seems to be free of any form of social pressure. However, one has to keep in mind that no woman ever stands alone in her oppression, whether it is physical or psychological oppression, or both. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to "peal off all the skins of an onion" or to uncover all the different layers of female oppression presented in the five books: Pillars of Salt, A woman of Five Seasons, A Balcony Over Fakihani, Dreams of Trespass and In the Eye of the Sun. The Feminist Theory The feminist writer, Gloria Anzaldua, argues that in order for silence to "transform into speech, sound and words," the silence must first ‘traverse through our female bodies" (Making, XIII). According to Anzaldua, the female silence is richly layered and it hides important voices which once discovered lead to women's liberation. Many feminist writers would argue that women can only tell their stories when they listen to (and follow) their inner voices. These inner voices are not only singular voices of the "self" but also communal voices that connect women with past and future generations. Thus, if one is to explore the oppression of Muslim women through the work of Arab women novelists, one must keep in mind the multilayered complexity of women's voices, or what I call the "community of

World Civilization Notes

HUM 1000: WORLD CIVILIZATIONS NOTES THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION IN AFRICA Definition of key terms As we begin this course, it is crucial to first discuss our understanding of the concept ‘civilization’. This is a comparative term which is usually applied in comparison to such words as ‘barbarian’ ‘savage’ and ‘primitive’. In classical antiquity the Europeans used the word ‘barbarian’ to refer to a foreigner who was regarded as inferior (Ogutu and Kenyanchui, An Introduction To African History, 1991 p33). Do you think this is still the way we use the word barbarian?The Latin speakers referred to hunters, food-gatherers as savage. In the 17th century this term ‘savage’ referred to a person without art, literacy, or society who lived in fear of existence and death. ‘Primitive’ on the other hand, in Latin meant ‘the first or original’. Europeans used these words interchangeab ly when referring to non-Europeans while the word civilization was preserved to describe historical developments of European people (ibid). Now the term civilization is no longer confined to the above development but also extends reference to non-European communities.Attributes of civilization includes observance to law, belonging to an organized society, having a society of literate people with advanced developments in urbanization, agriculture, commerce, arts and technology. The French thinkers of the 18th century referred to a person of the arts and literature as cultured. But at the present the term is used to cover more fields than just the arts and literature. Sometimes, therefore the words ‘civilization’ and ‘culture’ are interchangeably applied. In this unit, however, more use is confined to the word ‘civilization’ especially in reference to human developments over time and in all continents.Another term that requires discussion at this stage is ‘prehistory’. Just like ‘civilization’,’prehistory’ is used in comparative terms especially in relation to history. Both terms refer to the past human activities. But whereas history as used by historians refers to the inquiry, investigation or research into a totality of human past experience, prehistory is rather confined to an inquiry or research into a totality of human past experience before the invention of writing. In our course-text (Anthony Esler, The Human Venture vol 1, 2004) this prehistoric period stretches between 5000 and 3500 BC.This period is also known as Stone Age period. Archeology plays a vital part in enabling us learn more about this prehistoric period. Through excavation and dating , a lot of prehistoric information is obtained. The Prehistoric or Stone Age Period There are two versions which explain the origins of human species. These are creation and biological explanation. The creation version exists in the Judaeo-Christian: Old Testament and its African counterpart. This Judaeo-Christian Old Testament is captured in the book of Genesis 2:6-7 in which it is written ‘But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. There is more detail about the whole sequence of creation in Genesis 1. Indeed it is written that human beings were the last to be created specific in God’s own image. This is best explained in Genesis 1:27: ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them’. This creation story is vividly portrayed by Michelangelo on the ceiling of Sistine chapel in the Vatican at Rome .The pictures showing muscled, hugely bearded figure of Jehovah dividing light from darkness with a gesture rolling the sun and the moon into being, extending his powerful right hand to bestow upon Adam the ultimate gift of life attracts numerous tourists to the Vatican. There are various aspects of creation explanations in Africa. However we use the version in The Human Venture vol. 1 (p 7). According to this version, Doondari made humankind out of the five elements; fire, water, air, iron, and stone.The oldest of all creation stories, that of the Minnite Theology carved in stone at Memphis on the Nile almost five thousand years ago, calls the creator Ptah and says that he made the first sentient beings with weapons in their hands. Similar creation myths are found among other communities. This is because human beings are always concerned with understanding ‘first things’ and how they led to more complex ones. Such myths are reinforced by science which intimates that our earth developed from ‘a ring of glowing gases cooled and solidified into planets.Around the planet earth was water which spread over much of the world and above the earth was the atmosphere. HUM 1000: WORLD CIVILIZATIONS NOTES THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION IN AFRICA Definition of key terms As we begin this course, it is crucial to first discuss our understanding of the concept ‘civilization’. This is a comparative term which is usually applied in comparison to such words as ‘barbarian’ ‘savage’ and ‘primitive’. In classical antiquity the Europeans used the word ‘barbarian’ to refer to a foreigner who was regarded as inferior (Ogutu and Kenyanchui, An Introduction To African History, 1991 p33).Do you think this is still the way we use the word barbarian? The Latin speakers referred to hunters, food-gatherers as savage. In the 17th century this term ‘savage’ referred to a person without art, literacy, or society who lived in fear of existence and death. ‘Primitive’ on the other hand, in Latin meant ‘the first or original’. Eu ropeans used these words interchangeably when referring to non-Europeans while the word civilization was preserved to describe historical developments of European people (ibid).Now the term civilization is no longer confined to the above development but also extends reference to non-European communities. Attributes of civilization includes observance to law, belonging to an organized society, having a society of literate people with advanced developments in urbanization, agriculture, commerce, arts and technology. The French thinkers of the 18th century referred to a person of the arts and literature as cultured. But at the present the term is used to cover more fields than just the arts and literature. Sometimes, therefore the words ‘civilization’ and ‘culture’ are interchangeably applied.In this unit, however, more use is confined to the word ‘civilization’ especially in reference to human developments over time and in all continents. Another term that requires discussion at this stage is ‘prehistory’. Just like ‘civilization’,’prehistory’ is used in comparative terms especially in relation to history. Both terms refer to the past human activities. But whereas history as used by historians refers to the inquiry, investigation or research into a totality of human past experience, prehistory is rather confined to an inquiry or research into a totality of human past experience before the invention of writing.In our course-text (Anthony Esler, The Human Venture vol 1, 2004) this prehistoric period stretches between 5000 and 3500 BC. This period is also known as Stone Age period. Archeology plays a vital part in enabling us learn more about this prehistoric period. Through excavation and dating , a lot of prehistoric information is obtained. The Prehistoric or Stone Age Period There are two versions which explain the origins of human species. These are creation and biological explanati on. The creation version exists in the Judaeo-Christian: Old Testament and its African counterpart.This Judaeo-Christian Old Testament is captured in the book of Genesis 2:6-7 in which it is written ‘But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. ’ And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. There is more detail about the whole sequence of creation in Genesis 1. Indeed it is written that human beings were the last to be created specific in God’s own image. This is best explained in Genesis 1:27: ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them’.This creation story is vividly portrayed by Michelangelo on the ceiling of Sistine chapel in the Vatican at Rome . The pictures showing muscled, hugely bearded figure of Jehovah dividing light from darkness with a gesture rolling the sun and the moon into being, extending his powerful right hand to bestow upon Adam the ultimate gift of life attracts numerous tourists to the Vatican. There are various aspects of creation explanations in Africa. However we use the version in The Human Venture vol. 1 (p 7). According to this version, Doondari made humankind out of the five elements; fire, water, air, iron, and stone.The oldest of all creation stories, that of the Minnite Theology carved in stone at Memphis on the Nile almost five thousand years ago, calls the creator Ptah and says that he made the first sentient beings with weapons in their hands. Similar creation myths are found among other communities. This is because human beings are always concerned with understanding ‘first things’ and how they led to more complex ones. Such myths are reinforced by science which intimates that our earth developed from ‘a ring of glowing gases cooled and solidified into planets.Around the planet earth was water which spread over much of the world and above the earth was the atmosphere. From these basic settings, life emerged from single-celled bacteria and gradually evolved into bigger creatures in the sea. And even continued evolving outside the sea. Such creatures outside the sea include birds and other beasts. Besides vegetations also developed from the moss and horsetails to such bigger plants like trees. All this took place before the hominids emerged. Herein lies the biological or evolution explanation.The evolution process which continued resulted in great geographical features such as grassland, forest, desert among others. More than two thirds of the earth was covered with water. The protruded expanse of dry land formed the seven continents. They included Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, North and South America and Antarctica. Each continent and the islands that lay between them had a range of climate and topography which provided a variety of human beings. Human Developmen t Through the excavations of Mary and Louis Leakey at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, it was established that Africa is the origin of human species.The skeleton of Don Johansson’s Lucy found scattered over a hillside in Ethiopia pushed prehuman origin back several years. Hominids or hominid like bones from more recent times include those of Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal type first found in France and Germany and their kin Peking Man and Java Man discovered in Asia. Together with theses finds were also crude stone tools, later pots, pictures and bits of clothing were unearthed. The discovery of the ‘ice man’ an intact human corpse, discovered frozen in the alpine ice in 1991came complete with deerskin coat, fur hat, stone dagger, bow and arrows and a crude copper axe.The biological evolution of human beings dates back to tens of millions of years when small fury creatures with huge eyes and long tail lived in forests, balanced on high branches and snatched at insects. Fro m these there developed primates from who emerged as long as five million years ago the line of development known as hominids of which the humans are the only surviving descendants. There were various changes that the human ancestors underwent to adapt to the environment. For instance eyes of the tree dwellers changed and developed stereoscopic (depth) vision and color sightedness, very useful capacities for leaping from branch to branch.When these ancestors moved from forests to open grassland five million years ago more changes followed. Their legs and feet changed to permit erect bipedal walking on the African savanna. The posture in turn freed the hands for carrying game and foraged nuts and berries back to the family circle. The hands developed producing the most efficient thumb for the manipulation of any primate’s. The hominid brain grew, doubling and tripling in size and evolving a capacity that enabled human beings develop culture. Gradually, a number of hominid spec ies developed, flourished for a time then died out.The Australopithecines of three and a half million years ago were perhaps four feet tall and had brain about a third of modern human’s. Hominids of the Neanderthal line were closer to us. Hominids who survived made stone tools, buried their dead with ceremony and decorated the walls of their caves with paintings of the animals they hunted. These survivors who emerged approximately thirty-five thousand years ago were the Cro-Magnon people, a subspecies of the hominid family called Homo sapiens (wise people). They were the last of the hominid line and biologically indistinguishable from us. Prehistoric MigrationsAs is established the homeland of human beings is in Africa. Around two million years ago, the ancestors began migrating to other continents of Europe and Asia. A skull found in China indicates that these ancestors reached East Asia two hundred thousand years ago. Between 70,000 and 40,000 BC human beings reached Austra lia between 40,000 and 20,000 BC they reached the Americas. Thus in about half a million years, prehistoric ancestors spread around the world. They evolved various cultures and ways of life which kept improving through the various ages. It is to these civilizations that we now turn. The Ancient Civilization of EgyptIn this topic we will look at the factors behind the rise of the ancient Egyptian civilization, the growth of the Egyptian Kingdom and its contribution to the ancient world. The Factors for the Rise of Ancient Egyptian Civilization Its appropriate to state that ancient Egypt was directly linked to the rest of Africa. Unlike at present, the Sahara desert had not developed. Hence movement between the northern and the southern parts of Africa were possible. This fact is true because some African communities in both East and West Africa argue that their ancestral homelands were in Misri which roughly refers to Egypt. 1)Egyptian civilization owes its origin and development lar gely to the water from River Nile whose Source is in the South especially in Lake Victoria. In addition, the Blue Nile which is a tributary of the White Nile flows from the Ethiopian Highlands. The heart of the land was that part of the river from the first cataract at Aswan to the fan shaped delta where it flowed into the Mediterranean Sea. The river winds six hundred miles from the cataracts to the delta. The Nile Valley is hardly more than a few miles wide, but for the last hundred miles the valley opens up into the flat triangular delta spread along the sea.It is because of this river that Egypt was described as ‘the gift of the Nile’. The river’s annual rise and fall were crucial for the life of Egypt. On its way from the south, the Nile on reaching Upper Egypt overflowed its banks and deposited over the narrow valley a layer of rich black mud, alluvium picked up along its way from the south. (2)The human resource was yet another factor. Perhaps as early as the fifth millennium BC the hunters and nomadic pastoralists who had moved to the Nile Valley realized the agricultural potential of the fertile valley. They settled into agricultural villages and planted wheat and flax for clothing.They organized themselves into clans having animal totems such as crocodile or the hippopotamus. Sometime between 3500BC and 3000BC cooperative economic effort appeared as the Egyptians began to attempt at controlling the Nile with dikes and catch basins. Copper was used more widely. The population grew. (3)There was influence from outside, for instance, there were the Mesopotamian style cylinder seals found in Egypt. Besides Sumerian pictograms appear among the earliest Egyptian hieroglyphics. In the growth of the Egyptian civilization, there was an intermediate stage rom the villages to the centralized Monarchial state. After the villages, there were the two lands of upper and Lower Egypt. The vulture of the goddess Nekhbet was sacred in Upper Egypt wh ile the cobra of Wadjet sacred in Lower Egypt. The kings of the upper valley wore white crown while those of the delta a red one. People in the upper and Lower Egypt often fought each other. The Old Kingdom This area covered approximately ten thousand square miles. In 3000 BC, this Old Kingdom was the largest or most centralized state in the world. The Pharaoh was officially the king of upper and Lower Egypt. The Lord of the two lands’ and as such was crowned and symbolically buried in each of the two lands. There were separate treasures for the two halves of his kingdom and much duplication of officials. The tendency toward fragmentation embodied in the nomes, the provinces of pharaonic Egypt posed challenge to the unity of the state. Independent totemic communities or clans prior to unification, the nomes could become centers of disunity under ambitious governors. To hold the nation together, the early pharaohs forged a powerful alliance with the temples and the priests.Thi s is because the pharaohs claimed that they themselves were incarnations of divinity. The pharaoh was believed to be the son of the sun god Re. The reigning pharaoh was also Horus, the sky god-symbolized by falcon. On his death, the Falcon flew to the horizon, and the dead pharaoh became Osiris, King of the Underworld. Therefore the Pharaoh among the ancient Egyptians was semi-divine. Every year the pharaoh performed religious ceremonies that guaranteed the rising of the river. He and his officials ruled the land in the spirit of Ma’at, a combination of truth, justice and order that was for the Egyptians the highest of virtues.In the underworld, the souls of the dead were weighed against Ma’at. In this world the pharaoh himself was its living embodiment and the guarantee that the land would be ruled in its spirit. The Egyptians developed an elaborate administrative system. The chief administrative officer under the pharaoh was the vizier whose roles included chief judg e, superintendent of public works and right hand to the king. Under the vizier were such offices as those of treasuries, agriculture, officials in charge of irrigation systems and a secretariat. There was also a provincial administration charged with governing the nomes.The rulers of these provinces, the nomarchs exercised considerable local authority. They controlled the local militia, the source of most of the military strength of the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt. The Egyptian bureaucracy was staffed by scribes . Scribes conducted census of land and people, estimated size of the harvest and calculated taxes in kind. They supervised the vital irrigation system, organized the care and feeding of the pharaohs and the building of the royal tombs. Old kingdom Egypt was an ordered state and the society was organized hierarchically .At the top was the pharaoh while at the bottom were the slaves . See the diagram on the next page. Pharaoh v Pharaonic family, Relatives and Courtiers v Th e vizier (PM) and his circle v The Priests v The Scribes v Soldiers v Workers v Peasants v Foreigners v Slaves Source: Ogutu & Kenyanchui, An Introduction To African history,1991 p. 35 The hierarchy was symbolized most massively by the pyramid tombs of the pharaohs of the fourth dynasty; the dynasty of Khufu (also known as Cheops) builder of the great pyramid at Giza, around 2550 B. C The Middle KingdomThis period which stretches from around 2200 BC to the emergence of the New Kingdom about 1550 BC is considered as a transition period between the two worlds. The period was characterized by political turbulence, famine and the invasion of marauding desert Bedouin in the delta. Egyptians longed for a return to the immemorial order of past centuries. What they got, however, was not a return to the past but a dynamic new direction to national life . Ambitious dynasts from Thebes City in Upper Egypt snatched the kingdom from the last royal house to rule in Memphis.During the twentieth an d nineteenth centuries BC, the powerful 12th dynasty restored prosperity and order along the Nile. Pharaohs during this period expanded their kingdom and trade . Egyptian merchants traded with Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia and Minoan Crete. Egyptian military pushed south along the Nile into Nubia and on into The Sudan . Egypt for the first time became involved in a large scale with regions in North-East Africa and the Near East However the pharaohs who succeeded those in the 12th dynasty were weak and did not continue the firm hold on the expanded kingdom .Before 1700 BC the Hyksos, an Asiatic speaking group seized power . Because they were less sophisticated than the ancient Egyptians ,the Hyksos were culturally assimilated ,adopted Egyptian names , worshipped Egyptian gods and followed other traditional royal rites.. The Hyksos introduced the use of bronze instead of softer copper . In addition they also introduced the two wheeled horse-drawn war chariot. After about one and a hal f centuries their rule was ended and more powerful pharaohs from Lower Egypt took over and established the New Kingdom. The New KingdomKing Ahmose was hailed by posterity as the father of the new kingdom and the founder of the eighteenth dynasty (Abu Bakri, ‘Pharaonic Egypt’ in G . Mokhtar, ed General History of Africa vol 2(Abridged Edition) 1990, 73) Around 1550 BC Ahmose attacked, defeated and expelled the Hyksos from Egypt to Palestine . He even followed them there and destroyed their base . Back at home he put down the rebellious nobility and Nubian princess who collaborated with Hyksos. All the loot from Ahmose’s victories, he heaped them at the feet of Amon, the sun god of Thebes .The priesthood of Amon thus became the most powerful in Egypt and Thebes the new capital. Pharaoh Hatshepsut (1490-1468BC) who married each of her half brothers in turn was, however, in her fifth year powerful enough to declare herself supreme ruler of the country. She declared h erself the child of Re; and the god’s designated ruler, had herself crowned with double crown and seated herself on the golden throne of pharaohs. The two peaceful decades of her reign were prosperous for Egypt . She concentrated her attention upon the country’s internal affairs and upon building enterprises, mainly her magnificent temple at Western Thebes .The two achievements of which she was most proud were:- 1. The expedition to punt where the Egyptian fleet obtained ebony and ivory perfumes and spices, apes ,monkeys ,leopard skins, slaves and thirty-one live myrrh trees which were ceremoniously replanted at the queen’s temple at Deir el Bahari. 2. The raising of two great obelisks at the temple of Karnak. At her death/ Thutmose the 3rd (1486-1436 BC) took over. He was a skilled archer and charioteer. The militaristic elements among the aristocracy who longed for more aggressive foreign policy loved him. He fought seventeen campaigns gainst a coalition of ci ty states of Palestine-Syria-Lebanon/region. The coalition had been plotting at Megiddo to revolt against Egypt’s domination. Consequently, the whole country as far as the southern Lebanon came under Egyptian control. Egypt was therefore firmly established as a world power with a far reaching empire (A. Abu Bakr/1990, 73). It stretched over much of the ancient Fertile Crescent, from the Euphrates to the forth cataract of the Nile. Thutmose the 3rd had well equipped army supplied with the latest swords, bows and amour of the late Bronze Age. The army also used well constructed chariots.He established garrison towns, local governors and a sophisticated system of puppet kings to control what he had conquered. He raised obelisks as far south as the fourth cataract to signify his imperial expanse. These obelisks were looted and are found in Rome, Istanbul, London and New York’s Central Park. Another outstanding pharaoh was Akhenaton (Amenhotep the 4th/ 1364-1347 BC) who was also described as heretic pharaoh, a religious visionary or the doom of his dynasty(Esler A, The Human Venture, 2004, 54). He was physically weak with a frail effeminate body with hardly the makings of soldier or statesman.He was mostly concerned with matters of the mind and spirit. In his youthful fascination, Akhenaton instituted a radical change of policy which led to the direct attack on the priesthood of Amon. Initially he continued to live at Thebes where he had a great temple to Aton (the sun disk erected east of Amon†s temple at Karnak. Later, because of resistance to his reform in Thebes Akhenaton withdrew from the city. He founded a new residence at El-Amarna in Middle Egypt which he called Akhetaton (the horizon of Aton) where he lived until his death.It was here that he changed his name from Amenhotep (Amon is satisfied to Akhenaton (He who is serviceable to Aton or spirit of Aton). Akhenaton proclaimed Aton as the sole true god to be worshipped throughout Egypt. He launched campaigns to destroy all the other cults and replaced them with the worship of Aton. Hence Akhenaton was the first ruler to advocate for monotheism thirteen and a half centuries before Christ. Aton was represented not in human form like other gods but simply by the solar disk. Rays spread down from it and at the ends of the rays there were hands.Temples of Aton were built without roofs so that the worshipper might commune directly with the god and feel his power in the sky above. The Atonist revolution did not survive the death of Akhenaton. His second successor Tutankhamun returned to the faith of his ancestors and became a worshipper of Amon. However it was not until the reign of Horemheb as the last king of the Eighteenth Dynasty that the persecution of Aton began with the same persistence that had formerly applied to Amon (Abu-Bakr, 1990, 75). The Decline of Ancient EgyptIts decline could be attributed to the following factors; 1. The empire had grown so big that it was not easy to hold it together against external attacks. The Hittites and the sea people (biblical philistines) constantly attacked the delta. 2. The weak kings undermined the state especially in the face of invaders. During the thousand years that followed the end of the New kingdom in the eleventh century/ Theban priests, Libyan mercenaries, Nubian kings, Assyrians, Persians, Macedonians and Romans ruled Egypt in turns. The Art, Thought and Achievements in Ancient EgyptSome of the art, thought and achievements are already discussed under the previous topics. For instance the roles of art and religion as well as the establishment of empire have been discussed. Perhaps what follows is to briefly itemize others; 1. The discovery of the art of writing in Egypt began as picture writing i. e. hieroglyphics carved with reed pens on papyrus. As a working script therefore, hieroglyphic writing evolved over centuries into a cursive script called hieratic. The latter looked more like moder n Arabic. 2. Scientific knowledge; Astronomy, Egyptians divided the night sky into eparate constellations, compiled detailed records of the nightly positions of some heavenly bodies and constructed on this basis a calendar that is close to the solar one in use today. Mathematics: Ancient Egyptians used mathematics to survey and re-establish boundary lines after the annual inundation had washed out the line markers up and down the Nile. They also used measurement and calculation for architecture and engineering, for predicting harvests and totaling royal tax receipts. Medicine: Ancient Egyptian medicine operated on the basis of experience and rules of the thumb.Egyptian doctors indeed showed genuine clinical concern with symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. Some of the prescribed remedies include drugs, such as castor oil that may even have done the patient some good. 3. Construction; Ancient Egyptians were great builders. They built in stone. The old kingdom pyramids still stand out a s some of the wonders of the world. The forty five hundred years and the two and a half million cubic yards of solid stone in the great pyramid of Khufu is one example of human engineering feats. Obelisks were another Egyptian architectural specialist.They often stood almost a hundred feet high. Their hieroglyphic inscriptions described the achievements of the pharaohs who erected them i. e. Hatshepsut or Thutmose the 3rd. Other architectural feats include temples, tombs and sarcophaguses (stone coffins) 4. Polytheistic Religion; The sources of religion include ancient Egyptians need for supernatural help to ensure a supply of game, growing herds or desire for human support when dealing with life transition and with specific afflictions i. e. wars, pestilence, famine and oppression. 5. To express the inexpressible religious leaders turn to metaphor.This experience has brought religious discourse from the historically conditioned realities of a particular time and place i. e. the sun god sails down a celestial Nile in the mind of the Egyptian. 6. Egyptians worshipped many gods i. e. Amon-Ra, Osiris, Horus. The Origin of Civilization In The Rest Of Africa Since it is established that the earliest human species is in the land of the great lakes of East Africa, it becomes clear that the Egyptian civilization was not isolated from the areas where the earliest forms of human origins are situated. Hence there was a lot of interconnectedness between the north and the south.We use Kush and Nubia to illustrate this point. The Nubians supplied ancient Egypt with gold, ivory, ebony, ostrich, feathers and slaves. It also supplied cattle, grain, leopards (and their skins), giraffes (whose tails were used as fly whisks, oils and perfumes among others. During the Egyptian decline, Nubian army went into Egypt and even took control of the Egyptian throne. Between the 11th c. BC and the 4th c. AD, the Nubian territory constituted the state of Kush. This area generally stretches from the first cataract of the Nile and the confluence between the Blue Nile and the White Nile.The region is currently between Egypt’s Aswan Dam and the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. During around 1500 BC, the area fell under the expansionist New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. Egyptian Governors and garrisons, priests and artisans influenced Kush greatly. Sons of Kushite kings were educated at the Egyptian royal court at Thebes. Egyptian temples and gods royal rituals and hieroglyphics were all transplanted to the Sudan. The Egyptian religious complex at Napata in particular became a centre for the spread of the Egyptian culture among the Africans beyond the cataracts.During the decline of Egypt from around 1100 BC, the kingdom of Kush regained its independence and flourished, none the less; the Kushite kings still followed Egyptian ways and worshipped Egyptians gods. They recovered their deeds in hieroglyphics inscriptions and buried their dead under the pyramid like those of th e old kingdoms. Around 750 BC the Kushite kings Kashata and Piankhi marched north and liberated Egypt from Libyan rulers. For more than half a century later the Kushite pharaohs of the 25th Egyptian dynasty ruled a dual kingdom that stretched around 1400 miles from the Blue Nile to the shores of the Mediterranean.The Assyrians expelled the 25th dynasty and replaced the Kushite kings in Egypt. The golden age of Kushitic civilization was during Meroe’s ascendancy. Meroe built its cities in sun-dried bricks like Egyptians. Kushitic rulers’ succession was by consensus among the royal princes. The queen mother was uniquely powerful. Egyptian priesthoods i. e. the sun god was influential. But later it was replaced by the Kushite lion god Apedemek. The wealth of Kush lay in the location of its fertile land and its dynamic people. Kushite capital, Meroe was watered not only by the Nile but also by a significant annual rainfall.Hence there was expansive pasture and cropland. Th ere were such minerals as gold and iron. Kushite artisans exploited the iron ore so industriously that Meroe became one of the centers for the production of iron in Africa. Later Kush developed its own writing. The first centuries of Christian era witnessed the decline of Kush. Reasons could include limited land that ended up being overgrazed, the drying out of the land due to creeping of the Sahara southwards and the loss of its northern customers, Egypt. Trade in the east was taken over by Axum which destroyed the kingdom of Kush finally.THE ORIENTAL CIVILIZATION Introduction The oriental as an adjective derives from the ‘noun’ orient’ which refers to the ‘East’. The concept of ‘East as used in reference to countries in Asia was given by the Europeans. Therefore in our discussion, we will look at such civilization as those of Mesopotamia, Hebrew, Persia, India and China. THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATION OF MESOPOTAMIA Ancient Mesopotamia was situated between River Tigris and River Euphrates. Indeed it was because of these two rivers that the Greeks called the land Mesopotamia to mean land between the rivers. Between 3,500 and 539 B.C cities and temples emerged first in Sumeria in the delta at the head of the Persian Gulf. This was followed by more cities and temples in Akkladian, Babylon and climaxed in Assyria. All these constituted Mesopotamia. Gradual drying out of the sea covered delta at the mouths of the two rivers exposed the fertile side that may have attracted Neolithic farmers to migrate from the hilly areas and moved to settle in the villages at summer or Sumeria. These early inhabitants built reeds houses in the delta and hunted birds and speared fish. They were also farmers much as they hunted and gathered wild fruits.From this area, the ancient Sumerians built over centuries a type of civilization that was later emulated. The Sumerians first discovered how to tame the flooding waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. T hey constructed dykes, canals and irrigation ditches that converted the water from destructive actions to more productive uses like enabling the community to produce enough foods stuffs. The Sumerians planted barley and wheat. They cultivated date palm for fruit and palm wine. Sumerians reared sheep and goats from which wool and hair clothing was made.They used oxen to pull, plough, donkeys were beasts of burden, horses and camels were domesticated later. These latter animals were obtained during the Sumerian war encounters against their neighbouring foreigners. Mesopotamia developed such crafts as textiles, pottery and stone carving, smelting of copper and alloy of bronze. They also invented the wheel solid and spoked (The human venture vdl) P. 37) To go along with the wheel, the Sumerians invented the carts and wagons. It is assumed that they were the first to invent writing. However, their most important invention was city itself. The city became the centre of civilization.In Mes opotamia, cities had high and thick walls with special gateways. Inside the walls, the town was divided into four quarters by main streets that entered the city through four main gates. Dominant features in the city-state were king’s palace, the temple of gods, and large houses of leading citizens. Temples or Zigguarats were pyramidal, terraced towers visible from far beyond the city walls. Streets were mostly narrow and winding, crowded with shopkeepers, artisans, slaves, citizens and even priests. The city had the aristocrats who included royal officials, members of the royal family and the chief priest of the major temples.The middle class included textile manufacturers, metal work manufacturers in copper and bronze, and merchants. In the fields outside the walls were peasant, serfs and slaves. Among this lower cadre of society, very few peasants were free citizens. Most were tenant farmers holding their land in return for payment in kind to absentee landlords, serfs and s laves worked on land owned by the royal family and the chief gods of the city state. These cadres of lower members in society were subjected to strict rules enforced by supervisor who made sure that the workers irrigated farms to sustain city –life.The shadoof method was widely employed in irrigation. A shadoof was a long pivoted pole with a weight at one end and a bucket at the other. The tool was used to lift water from larger channels into the furrows where the seeds were planted. Other methods of irrigation included levees which were constantly strengthened, canals and ditches as irrigation methods were redredged to prevent silting up. Hence a good deal of cooperation was necessary for the success of the said group work. Mesopotamia women worked as weavers, pottery makers, farm workers and manual workers.In summer and Babylon, women could own property, sign legal contracts and engage in business themselves. Monarchies and cults of gods were central institutions in Sumeria n society. Temples came first. The pyramidal Ziggurats and broad temple complexes of gods and goddesses – Anu, Enhil, Enlil, Ninhursag and Imana (the last was also known as Ishtar) dominated the skyline of the Sumerian city. Each city had its own patron among the heavenly assembly, who was believed to bring rising rivers and rich harvests to keep misfortunes at bay and to maintain law and order.MESOPOTAMIAN EMPIRE An empire was the most common larger form of political organization beyond the city states. Several efforts were made at this empire building by such rulers as Sargon of Akkad, Hammurabi of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar in the New Babylonian empire. However Persians reduced these efforts by making Mesopotamia as a Persian satrapy or province. Several factors frustrated the Mesopotamia efforts at uniting. They included i. Attacks from the outsiders who included Akkadians Gadians, Kassites and Persians. ii. The existence of fragmented feudal order in Mesopotamia.This led to division of power among land owning aristocracy. iii. The tendency of a number of regions to break up into middle sized states which enjoyed their own hegemonies and resisted efforts from outside that aimed at imposing larger order on the entire Mesopotamia. iv. Polarization among rival Mesopotamian city –states frustrated efforts by any that aimed at uniting Mesopotamia. v. The unity which occurred temporarily was due to successful confrontations accompanied by losses in human lives and destruction of property. The following are some of the successful attempts.Sargon of Akkad king of Sumerian founded a dynasty around 2300 BC His dynasty governed most of Mesopotamia for about a century. From a lesser Sumerian city – state, Sargon replaced his royal master on the throne, overthrew the dynasty of Uruk and conquered most of the Tigris and Euphrates valley. He garrisoned his conquests with Akkadian troops and built himself a new capital at Agade. Sargon’s son an d grandson ruled after him. However, a volcanic eruption may have brought drought to the region. The violent Gatians swept down from neighbouring hills destroyed Agade and its imperial Mesopotamian domain.Sargon is thus remembered as the world’s first empire builder. Hammurabi, also known as the lawgiver of Babylon (1792 -1750 BC) was born king of Babylon. The sixth in the line of Amorite rulers, Hammurabi governed Babylon for about thirty years before embarking on his expansionist venture into the rest of Mesopotamia. Employing shrewd statecraft, good timing and military force, Hammurabi expanded his empire far beyond the confines of his predecessors. For a brief [period, he and his successors had authority over all the people of Mesopotamia (Human Venture, 42)Hammurabi the law-giver introduced a code of laws covering a range of civil and criminal matters. They tackled family relations, land laws, business laws, personal injury, military service, matters touching on witchcra ft and taxes. Some of his laws are harsh seen from the present times. For instance, a principle of ‘an eye for an eye’ ‘a life for a life’ is cited for being extreme. But looked at with knowledge about our present judicial system, would you consider them strange? Hammurabi’s code observed some social hierarchy. There were laws for slaves and laws for their masters.For example, a noble was punished more harshly for the same offence than his social inferiors. Here one gets the impression that ‘might is not always right’ Does it operate in our society? At his death, Hammurabi had built so expensive an empire that his successors were unable to hold together. Attacks from enemies like Kassites, from the east weakened the empire. Within a century and a half, the empire had crumbled away. It took some time before other unifiers, this time from Assyria emerged. As the Babylonian empire declined, the Assyrians emerged as a military power right fr om the fourteenth century BC.By the later part of the eighth century BC, they were incorporating their victims into a large and growing empire. In the seventh century BC under Sennacherib and Assurbanipal, Assyrians conquered Egypt and most of Mesopotamia. Thus under Assurbanipal Assyrian empire briefly ran from the Nile valley to the Persian Gulf. However, in the last part of the seventh century BC, chaos bedeviled the Assyrian empire. In 612 BC, an allied force of Chaldeans from Babylon and Medes from the eastern mountains attacked Assyria, defeated it and destroyed its city Nineveh.One lasting legacy the Assyrians were known for was savage brutality. The Assyrian decline prepared room for the rise of New Babylonian Empire. During the New Babylonian empire, Nebuchadnezzar II (605 -562) was a dominant figure. Soon after the fall of Nineveh, while still prince of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar commanded the Babylonian army which had defeated the Egyptian forces at (carchemish in 605 BC. As king, he repeatedly attacked Palestine, destroyed Jerusalem and forced Judeans into exile At its peak, the new Babylonian empire compared in size with the Assyrian empire at its climax.It thus stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea during the sixth century BC. Nebuchadnezzar II was a great builder of canals and caravan roads as well as temples and palaces. He raised huge new walls around his capital, eleven miles long and very wide. He opened the broad processional way through the heart of the city to the Ishtar gate. He built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, towering Ziggurat featuring terraces planted with trees and exotic plants. It is said he did this to please his Median wife who missed the hills of her mountains home.Nebuchadnezzar’s successors were not able to keep the huge empire safe from external attacks. Hence in 539 BC, the Persian conqueror, also known as ‘Cyrus the Great defeated the rulers of the New Babylon Empire and ushered in a new e ra. THE HEBREW CIVILISATION Introduction In this section, we look at the Hebrew (or Jews) as a people, their efforts at establishing their Jewish Kingdom and the lasting legacy to posterity. It is at their legacy that the aspect of monotheism is critically discussed. It is also worthy noting that Hebrew history is intertwined with the Old Testament story.. The Hebrew peopleAt the beginning of the second millennium BC the Hebrews were part of the nomadic population of Semitic speakers who wandered and settled along the shores of the Arabian Desert between Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations. Abraham, the founder or patriarch of the Hebrew community moved from Ur with his wives and children, servants, shepherds and flocks around him and settled for a time in Palestine (Canaan) situated around Jordan River. A section of the community moved into Egypt where tradition states they were oppressed in the New Kingdom of Egypt. Hence in the thirteenth century BC, these Hebrews resumed the ir wanderings.Their liberator, Moses held them together for forty years in the wilderness of Sinai. Moses rallied them behind a single God, Yaweh. Hence by the 1200’s BC, the Hebrews had become monotheists (The Human Venture, Vol. 1, p. 67) and promised to obey his commandments. It is believed, God’s messenger to the Hebrews, Moses wrote the Torah, also known as Pentateuch. These were the first five books of the Bible. Thus, through these books, Moses the liberator and law giver became a world historical figure. The Hebrews had some of their sections also known as Yehudim which when translated into English became Jews.Hence the genesis of the name that mostly refers to the present descendants of the Hebrews. The Hebrew Kingdom When the Hebrews ultimately settled at Palestine, all the twelve ethnic groups evolved into a kingdom. Earlier, before making this decision, the Hebrew communities were divided and disunited along clan and ethnic lines. Their leaders were called judges. At times they were also guided by charismatic prophets. Shortly before 1000 BC, however, all the twelve ethnic groups resolved to follow a single king who was to be also a war leader capable of winning wars against their enemies.Saul, David and Solomon were some of the first kings of the Hebrews. David (1010-960 BC) a gifted military leader defeated the Philistines and completed the conquest of Canaan. He cemented the political unity of the twelve ethnic groups, established a Hebrew state and began to build a Hebrew capital at Jerusalem. Generally regarded as the strongest of Hebrew rulers, David is reputed for founding a centralised kingdom of Israel in the tenth century BC. Indeed Soul, the first ruler made effort but could not score definitive victory against enemies of the Hebrews. Hence when he fell in battle, he was replaced by David.David was later succeeded by Solomon (960-920 BC), his son, reputed for his wisdom. Solomon was a shrewd diplomat and a great builder. He married many wives and kept many concubines, he built a magnificent palace for himself and a great temple for Yaweh. Solomon further strengthened and equipped his army with chariots and new iron-age weapons. Furthermore, he built, rebuilt and fortified a number of cities. Solomon also constructed ships and traded with the Phoenicians and even down the Red Sea. Hence, Solomon in a way symbolized the governmental ideals of wisdom and power in the service of the people.In his effort to ensure that the Hebrew Kingdom remained powerful in the region, Solomon employed huge amounts of labour and money. He used oppressive taxation, forced labour and other harsh measures that made him unpopular among his people. Differences among the urban and commercial northerners and the pastoral, agricultural and more religious southerners of his kingdom weakened the monarchy. The emerging rebellion split the kingdom after Solomon’s death. The Fall of the Hebrew Kingdom The split of the Hebrew Ki ngdom into Judah in the South and ruled from Jerusalem and Israel in the North marked the fall of the kingdom.The nation of Judah was made up of two of the Hebrew communities while Israel had ten of the original twelve ethnic groups. Neither of the two could withstand attacks from more powerful enemies who included the Assyrians and Babylonians. Hence in the eighth century BC, Israel was conquered by the Assyrians while Nebuchadnezzar II of New Babylonian empire defeated Judah in the sixth century (586) BC. Jerusalem and Solomon’s great temple were destroyed. Many Hebrews were held captive in Babylon. Others fled to Egypt and beyond, beginning the diaspora or dispersal of the Jewish people.Some captives escaped and returned to rebuild the temple of their Lord, Yaweh, before the end of the sixth century BC. But such short-lived Jewish states as what emerged in later periods could not withstand attacks from Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Arabs and Turks. It was not until 1948 t hat a new nation of Israel, approximating the size of the one ruled over by David, was declared. That nation of Israel is still busy fending off attacks from Arabs. The Birth of Monotheism The earliest Hebrews were organised along family, clan and ethnic lines.As earlier argued, the twelve ethnic groups were believed to have descended from the twelve sons of Abraham. Within the family, patriarchy prevailed. Male heads of families had power over wives and children. Polygamy was allowed for men wealthy enough to support several wives. Only sons could inherit property because daughters could marry away from the families. A wife retained control of the dowry she brought with her to her marriage. But she had few other property rights. Divorce was easy for men but difficult for women to secure. How does this compare with our present circumstances?There were exceptions though. Some women stepped outside the family centred system entirely. Some exercised political power – as judges, or religious authority as prophetesses e. g. Deborah. Some like Judith who slew the commander of an invading host (The Human venture, Vol. 1, p. 71) were hailed as national heroes for their deeds. Religion played a central role in Hebrew life. In fact, the many ancient Hebrew laws recorded in the Old Testament had a deep religious touch much as they also reflected the traditional Hebrew values. One such law was the principle of ‘an eye for an eye’.Other Hebrew laws also prescribed kinds of foods to be eaten, persons and communities from which to marry or be married among, or what punishments to be given out against violations of these taboos. Hebrew prophets carried the words of their god, Yaweh, carved on two stone tablets in a chest as they preached to their people. They proclaimed their divinely ordained rule in a promised land in Palestine. Over a millennium and half between Abraham and the return to Jerusalem from Babylon, the Hebrews evolved a unique conception of divinity and of humanity’s relationship to it.During Abraham’s time, the Hebrew worshipped their own god without interfering with the other community’s way of worship. But by Moses’ time, Hebrew spiritual leaders began to insist that Yaweh demanded exclusive worship in return for his special patronage. The spiritual leaders further insisted that Yaweh was the only real God in the universe. During the second millennium BC, the Hebrew began believing that Yaweh demanded exclusive devotion from Hebrews. They believed that Yaweh was a jealous god and would tolerate no others. Over the centuries, Hebrews believed that Yaweh could not tolerate any images of himself.He thus remained a purely spiritual presence. He remained an incarnation of such superhuman qualities as all knowledge, absolute power and benevolent caring who had miraculously selected the ancient Hebrews as his chosen people. Yaweh’s prophets of the first millennium BC preached ethical mon otheism, stressing the moral dimension of the worship of one God. In sermons to the Hebrews, preachers like Samuel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah insisted that Yaweh demanded believers to obey the commandments that forbade murder, theft, lying, covetousness and many other sins.The prophets also preached that Yaweh demanded social justice from his people. The rich were not to oppress the poor, nor the mighty oppress the weak. The prophets preached that God had made a Special Covenant with the Hebrews. Whenever they sinned, God punished them severely i. e. by having them enslaved in Egypt or held captives in Babylon. But if they remained loyal to him alone and kept his commandments, they would get a promised land where they would have respect among nations. It is this monotheistic legacy that the Hebrews have bequeathed to posterity.For instance, in the first century AD, Jesus Christ, born and raised in the Jewish community of Northern Palestine, became the founder of the Christian faith, a fa ith that later spread around the world. In the Seventh Century AD, the Prophet Muhammad, an Arabian merchant conversant with both Judaism and Christianity, founded the third major world religion, Islam. Down through the centuries Hebrew leaders like Moses and Solomon would be honoured not only in later Judaism, but also in the Christian Old Testament and the Muslim Quran. ANCIENT PERSIA Ancient Persia is situated in the Middle East.A region known to have given rise to many civilizations including Mesopotamia. During the millennium of the Christian era, the broad diversified Middle Eastern region had intermittent unity under a series of Persian dynasties. Some of the leading Persian unifiers include the Achaenemids (550-331 BC). The Achaenemids are a royal house which was founded by Cyrus the Great. The Persians were Indo-European descendants who had migrated into the Iranian Plateau hundreds of years earlier. In the 6th C BC, Persians were still a war-like semi-pastoral people livin g in the mountains of what is present day Western Iran.There they were within easy reach of the Euphrates and Tigris valley. Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Shepherd was a self made emperor. He was merciful with defeated enemies, tolerant of all religions and very courageous. He was a brave fighter. By the middle of the 6th C, the Medes who had participated in the destruction of the Mesopotamian Empire were weak. This enabled Cyrus, a hereditary chief of the Persian people who were tributary to the Medes to rise. In 550BC, Cyrus invaded and overthrew the last Medean king of the Medes and crowned himself king of the Medes and Persians.For the next twenty years, Cyrus waged many victorious campaigns. Cyrus’ horse soldiers wore leather breeches and heavy felt boots, sat on their rugged mountainous ponies and were armed with compound bows. In his reign and that of his successors, Persia expanded to become the largest empire in the 6th century. About three years after sei zing control of the Median confederacy, Cyrus crossed the Taurus Mountains into present day Turkey and overthrew king Croesus of Lydia. Using the wealth acquired from Croesus, Cyrus marched eastwards subduing residents of present day Iran and Afghanistan.In the process of expanding Persian Empire, Cyrus also expanded his troops so that by the time he invaded the New Babylonian Empire, the weaker and disunited Babylonian leaders were no match for him. About 539 BC Cyrus easily occupied Babylon, bringing to an end the Mesopotamian independence. Persia became the greatest power in the Middle East. About nine years later, Cyrus was killed in war in eastern part of today’s Iran. Cambyses, his son succeeded him and conquered Egypt. Cambyses’ successor, Darius 1(522-486) further extended Persian Empire into northern India and Macedonia, on the northern frontier of Greece.Darius 1 also known as Darius the Great thus governed over a huge empire, from the Egyptians, Babylonians, Lydians, Greeks, Persians and Medes among others. To administer the expansive empire effectively, it was divided in provinces (satrapies). Each satrapy was under a Satrap (governor) who was often a member of the imperial family or a leading local nobleman. The satraps were granted political, military and financial autonomy on a large scale. As long as a satrapy paid its tribute on time and provided its share of recruits for the army, the province could be left on its own in local matters.But to avert any rebellious satrapies, garrisons of royal troops were strategically situated across the huge empire. In addition, there were also royal agents (the king’s eyes and ears) who monitored on the satraps and regularly briefed the rulers of the empire. Darius formulated a single imperial code of laws based on the Mesopotamian model. He also borrowed the idea of minted coinage from the Lydians and began minting gold and silver coins. Besides he established a common set of weights an d measures, a system of royal couriers and mail, a common calendar borrowed from Egypt and Aramaic, as a lingua franca.Aramaic was already widely used by business people in the general area. Darius was also a builder. He set up a network of hundred of miles of roads linking the far removed places of Persian Empire. Some ran from the capital at Susa to the Western City of Sardises Darius and his successors loved relaxing in gardens which they called ‘Paradises’ and in great palaces at Susa, Bablylon and Persepolis. From the fifth century B. C. some Satrops began revolting against the Persian rule. For instance, the Ionian Greek City-states revolted and were supported by Athens. Gradually palace intrigues undermined the power of the empire.Even women were ruthlessly conspiratorial and by the fourth century B. C. Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia attacked and destroyed Achaemenid Empire. Attempts to revive the empire by such groups as the Seleucids (323-250 B. C. ) an d the Parrthians (250 B. C. -224A. D. ) could not succeed. The two were not Persians and from 224 A. D. , the Sassanids, an Iranian group took over and ruled Persia until 641A. D. The four hundred year reign of the Sassanids is thus viewed as a restoration of the Achaemenid rule (Esler, A. , The Human Venture Vol. 1 p. 153). The Sassanids constructed an elaborate system of power.The bureaucracy, the Iranian barons and the Magi (Priests of Zoroaster) were most influential. The Grand Visier, was the King’s right hand man and operational head of the state. Other powerful officials included the chief priest, head scribe, and general of the armies. Iranian barons granted estates along the frontiers of the empire and provided a flexible border defense. While defending their own lands, the barons by the same means also protected the Sassanid Empire. The Magi collected the peasant land tax on which the government depended and also provided religious sanction for Sassanid imperial pow er.Indeed under the Sassanids, Persian Empire emerged to the expansiveness of the earlier Achaemenid Empire under Darius and Xerxes. During its greatest the empire reached today’s Pakistan in the east and Egypt in the west. In the north the empire reached Central Asia upto the suburbs of Constantinople. The expansion of the empire made it fall into conflict with such western powers as Ancient Rome and Medieval Byzantine Empire. At one time the struggle took on a religious overtone between Zoroastrianism (Persia) and Christianity (Rome and Byzantium).Finally the Sassanid Empire was overwhelmed by the Muslim conquerors. The Persian Society and Culture Ancient Persian Empire was a class based society. The classes included the aristocrats, officials, priests, merchants, artisans, peasants, workers and slaves. In terms of gender relations, it depended on regions. In Mesopotamia women worked in handicraft industries while in Egypt women enjoyed legal rights. For example, a marriage contract guaranteed the bride to return her dowry in the event of the marriages dissolution and also receive a third of the husband’s earnings. The Faith of ZoroasterInitially, Persians were polytheists. They worshipped Anahita, goddess of the life-giving waters and Mithra, god of the Sun. Sacrificial fire played a central part in the religion of the early Persians. But from the sixth century, Prophet Zoroaster founded a new religion, Zoroastrianism. Six hundred years before Christi, Zoroaster preached a faith that resembled present day Christianity. He preached belief in one god, Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord, god of light, goodness and truth. Ahura Mazda was the creator of all things, the judge of all people, and the rewarder of virtue with spiritual blessings.Zoroastrianism proclaimed Liar as the prince of darkness. Liar was also known as Abriman. He preached that the universe was the battle ground between Ahura Mazda and his agent Mithra on the one hand against Abriman on t he other. Zoroaster urged all human beings to take a stand in the struggle between the two forces. He predicted victory for Ahura Mazda and his followers would enter paradise while those who served Liar (Abriman) will be cast into the bridge of judgment into a pit of darkness and torment. The faith became a faith of the royal family and nobility in Persia.Ahura Mazda was symbolized in a small human figure at persepolis. Zoroastrianism was largely a religion, therefore of the aristocrats given that Persians seldom sought converts to it. Nonetheless Zoroastrianism spread eastwards to India where the Parsi sect comprises the largest body of Zoroastrians in the world today (Elser, The Human Venture, p. 156). The cult of Mithra the sun god, champion of light against darkness spread westwards into Rome. Even Liar found a place in foreign pantheons such as Satan of the Christians. The Indian Civilization IntroductionIn this sub-topic we look at the general overview of the Indian subcontine nt, its earliest organization, and invasion from outside before eventually discussing the evolution of the empire. There after we will examine the major philosophical and religious contribution of India to the rest of humankind. The Indian Subcontinent Indian subcontinent is made up of raised areas such as the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas as well as the river valleys and coastal plains. It is in these valleys that the Indian civilization was born and later expanded to cover the entire sub continent.It is argued that the subcontinent is about two thousan

Creative Process Essay

When I think about artistic profession I often wonder why artists want to be artists. The very idea of beginning every day with the obligation to create something of strong value, something that never existed before, seems really hard work and at the same time activity that has a strange beauty in itself. How does an artist engage in the creative process and make something-out-of-nothing to come into existence? How does the creative process begin? Does it have structure, or the creative process consists just of imagery and an elusive sparkle that lights the creative fire in the artist’s mind? I spent a lot of time examining professional life and work of many creative artists and how they are engaged in the creative process. This paper will make some generalizations about creativity and genius that are fundamental to the understanding of the creative process and then will analyze the creative process in the lives of four notable artists who are Langston Hughes, Alvin Ailey, Quincy Jones, and George Lucas. The insights of the creative process then will lead to the exploration of creative process in my own life. The Creative Process Creativity is a constantly stimulating process and ultimately causing excitement. To observe and experience it fully is some of the most gratifying aspects of the artistic life and professional activity. One of the possible difficulties of exploring or analyzing the creative process is that it can become uninspired. Really, one of the most recent debates in this sphere is whether or not creativity is simply an instance of rational and analytical problem solving or consists of other, more magic processes. Nevertheless, one thing is obvious – the main benefit of exploring creativity and the creative process is that one will ultimately come to the understanding of the processes experienced and more importantly will be able to improve the development and stimulate cultivation of creativity in himself and other people. What is known about the creative process? Let us consider the main components of the creative process. At first, one should know difference between the creative product and the creative process. A general distinction is that the creative product is the output of the artistic activity. It is the artistic output that is to be determined as creative or not creative. What are the characteristics of a product that is considered as creative? Torrance (1988), for example, in an analysis of definitions of creativity, stated that newness is a principal defining characteristic of the creative product. Newness, however, is not the only criteria. It is also of great importance that the product is good (that is, artistically appealing). Vernon (1989) proposed a more comprehensive definition of the creative product stating that, â€Å"Creativity means a person’s capacity to produce new or original ideas, insights, restructuring, inventions, or artistic objects, which are accepted by experts as being of scientific, aesthetic, social, or technological value† (p. 94). It can be seen that cultural values and norms are a necessary part of the criteria for considering some artistic output to be creative. A major question then that emerges is â€Å"what are the creative processes that lead to the creative output? † What the creative process is involved that increases the chances that an artist will generate a creative output? If one can recognize the constituting processes involved and the character of their interaction, then one can begin to get a picture of the fundamental essence of the creative process. To do this, I will examine the major stages of the creative process in the next sections. One of the first well-known attempts to study and theorize the creative process was by Wallas in 1926. Wallas proposed the major stages that reflect different processes of the creative process. Although the stages proposed by Wallas are generalized and global, his model provides a good foundation for the understanding of the creative process. This two-stage model involves the following creative processes: 1. Preparation Stage. In this stage the artist gathers different information, becomes thoroughly proficient, and identifies the problem. It is in this stage that the fundamental techniques and knowledge base for realization of a particular goal are mastered. Usually, the fundamental cognitive processes of logic, associations, and creative problem finding should be primary in this first stage. The first creative problem finder I would like to mention is named Langston Hughes. Like many other noble artists, Langston Hughes found problems to solve with art. Langston Hughes found problems to solve with his creative writing. He loved to communicate with people and observe the sights and sounds of his district in Harlem and then incorporate this experience into his works. The artist found many fascinating ideas for poems during this process. Actually, some of his most renowned poems tell about the things he perceived with his creative mind and people he met in Harlem. In the same manner, Alvin Ailey found problems to solve with his own choreography. Thus, for example, Ailey made Afternoon Blues (1953), his first creative dance work. Working with a musical piece from Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town, Ailey performed the hypersensual, animalistic role of the Faun (Latham, pp. 481–482). In this great work of the artist, Ailey produced a mental image of dance as a liberation from heterosexual white domination, he found a safe place in his creative work where he could travel into his inner world as a fully sensual human being free from usual problems of race and sexuality. Another example of problem solving by the artist is Ailey’s creative reaction to Horton’s death (he was Ailey’s mentor): the artist decided to make dances that tell dance stories about dear people he knew. He created his first choreographic works to â€Å"pay tribute to Lester Horton, to demonstrate the strength of James Truitte, and to emphasize the beauty and dramatic ability of Carmen de Lavallade† (Latham, pp. 485–486). Ailey was creative problem solver: â€Å"I knew nothing about making dances for a group so I put everything about modern dance which I had read or seen into the work. In addition, I did everything the way that I thought Lester would have done it†¦. I was just trying to be like Lester because I thought that was the way to be creative† (Latham, p. 488). 2. Illumination Stage. In this stage of the creative process ideas are generated using the analytical thinking and logical working on the problem. It is in this stage that Wallas introduced the process of the unconscious associations. Creative problem solving is not consciously made, but much organizing in a different way and free associating takes place outside of conscious awareness of the artist. In the next sections, there are several descriptions of creative artists and their experience in this illumination stage. During this process thoughts are permitted to roam in an uncontrollable manner. It is here that creative processes may play a particularly important role. Artist may want to examine works of the past centuries or creations from different cultures for generating new images that are based on the already created idea. This type of exercise can be thought of as an essential part of the analytical and associative skills necessary for the creative process. To better understand how this works let us examine the history of film that is full of analogical and associative thinking. One of the most famous and popular examples of movie creativity is George Lucas’s original Star Wars film of 1977. The success of the film is legendary. Moreover, it completely changed how movies are produced. Interestingly, none of the visual images that the film producer used during the writing of the plot were themselves original. Film observers state that most of Lucas’s imagery was taken from previous film stories and George Lucas himself admits that his original models were the Flash Gordon movie serials and Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter of Mars series of books: â€Å"I wanted to make an action movie – a movie in outer space like Flash Gordon used to be. . . . I wanted to make a movie about an old man and a kid. . . . I also wanted the old man to be like a warrior. I wanted a princess, too, but I didn’t want her to be a passive damsel in distress† (Interview with George Lucas). It seems that the screenwriter wanted to return to the sense of wonder and adventure movies that had expired him as he was a child but to update that sense for popular tastes of contemporary public and make good use of all the technological and cinematic new methods and devices that developed in the period that had passed since Flash Gordon. He one can see how Lucas was truly creative in this stage by incorporating in Star Wars the myth narrative; the screenwriter used a creative analytical and associative thinking and he succeeded. But this process was not a burst of inspiration; it evolved over a five-year period of rewriting and editing of the script: I began writing Star Wars in January 1973 – eight hours a day, five days a week, from then until March 1976, when we began shooting. Even then I was busy doing various rewrites in the evenings after the day’s work. In fact, I wrote four entirely different screenplays for Star Wars, searching for just the right ingredients, characters and storyline. . . . What finally emerged through the many drafts of the script has obviously been influenced by science fiction and action adventure I’ve read and seen. And I’ve seen a lot of it. I’m trying to make a classic sort of genre picture, a classic space fantasy in which all the influences are working together. There are certain traditional aspects of the genre I wanted to keep and help perpetuate in Star Wars (Zito 1977, p. 13). Important analyses on the cognitive processes involved in the creative process have been performed by a number of researchers. For example, Sternberg (Sternberg & Davidson, 1982) gave emphasis to the importance of insight in creative process. Sternberg and Davidson (1982) indicate that three types of insights are found in the creative process. First, the artist selectively separates relevant from irrelevant images. Selective union of separate parts brings about synthesizing isolated pieces of images into united wholes. In this way images are organized in new ways. This type of information gathering sets the stage for creative insights. Usually, creative artists have been transformed, have been inspired by, and often have plagiarized the ideas of other artist and from various cultures through the whole of history. This process can also be seen in Ailey’s work that echoed literary traditions of black cultural heritage, registering â€Å"the existence of a ‘black self’ that had transcended the limitations and restrictions that racism had placed on the personal development of the black individual. † Incorporating African American tradition and culture, Ailey’s creative work became an embodiment of African American culture. The artist’s creative process into concert dance was built on African American works and childhood memories. Ailey wrote about Redonda, later retitled Cinco Latinos (21 December 1958) that: â€Å"The innate sense of melodrama of the primitive ritual is exploited in this interpretation of an Afro-Brazilian fetishistic ritual, with movements based on both the sensual and animalistic elements of these rites† (Ailey program note). Ailey succeeded in the connecting the whole generation of African-American individuals with the mainstream U. S. culture. It is perhaps the ability to shift between stages that is important to the creative process. Such ability allows the artist to gain access to creative cognitive and affective processes. It enables the artist to transform or revise what he or she knows and to find new patterns. Like so many others in his time and after, creative record producer Quincy Jones in his creative process is both fascinated and inspired by the new media. He is enthusiastic about technology’s potential to move musical art one step further. This allowed Quincy Jones to succeed in creating real hits from ordinary singers and songs. When artists are engaged in these creative processes, they feel they are performing at the peak of their abilities. In my life I also feel that my creative work gives me insights and makes my live rich. Moreover, I think that creativity is part of what makes me really human allowing me to reach the highest levels of creative performance. Analyzing the creative artists’ professional life and creative act I identified the major personality traits that relate to tests of creativity and that I also try to develop. They include: †¢ openness to experience; †¢ independence of judgement; †¢ curiosity; †¢ preference for challenge and complexity; †¢ self-confidence; †¢ natural tendency to risk-taking; †¢ and strong motivation. These personality traits allow me to bring together various ideas and generate a new point of view or to create a new combination. I believe that analogies and associations are among the most powerful tools of the creative process because they can produce a great variety of ideas. Conclusion Study of the creative process is important for many reasons. Explaining the creative process helped me identify and realize noble artists’ unique creative talents. It is true that the creative artist may prefer to ignore the stages of the creative process and break all of the conventions. But my point of view is that this is the wrong way to think about creativity. Instead, I think of the creativity as a kind of the creative process language. Obviously, one has first to learn a language before he or she can talk. Similarly, it is nearly impossible to create anything without the foundation. And just because the artist uses the background from previous works or different cultures does not mean they are not creative. Examination of the artists’ creative process in this paper suggests that analogical thinking is important to the creative process. In general, access to and use of history, myths, legends, experience of other people and different cultures and creativity are related processes. For me, creative process is really a form of problem solving – not a miraculous, unexplained process. Wallas’ model of the creative process is a good start for analyzing creativity of other people. References Ailey program note, Kaufmann Concert Hall Dance Center of the 92nd Street YM-YWHA, 21 December 1958. Interview with George Lucas printed in the Star Wars souvenir program (New York: S. W. Ventures, 1977). Latham, Jacqueline Quinn. â€Å"A Biographical Study of the Lives and Contributions of Two Selected Contemporary Black Male Dance Artists: Arthur Mitchell and Alvin Ailey. † Ph. D. diss. , Texas Women’s University, 1973, pp. 481–482. Sternberg R. , & Davidson J. (1982, June). â€Å"The mind of the puzzler†. Psychology Today, 16, pp. 37-44. Torrance E. P. (1988). The nature of creativity as manifest in its testing. In R. Sternberg (Ed. ), The nature of creativity (pp. 43-75). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vernon, P. E. (1989). The nature-nurture problem in creativity. In J. Glover, R. Ronning, & C. Reynolds, R. (Eds. ), Handbook of creativity (pp. 93-110). New York: Plenum. Wallas C. (1926). The art of thought. New York: Harcourt Brace. Zito, Stephen. â€Å"George Lucas Goes Far Out†, American Film, April 1977, p. 13.

Hungary essays

Hungary essays The history of Hungary started with the migration of the Magyar tribes around the year 896. The first settlements in Obuda along the Danube plains were due to the attacks of the Bulgarians. In 955 the Magyar were defeated by Otto I, and the conversion to Christianity started (Herbbert, 55). The region was divided into the three cities of Obuda, Buda, and Pest. In 1873, the three cities were merged together to form the modern day Budapest. The Danube river divides Budapest into two main parts, the Buda side on the western bank and the Pest side on the eastern bank. Four main bridges connect the two sides of Buda and Pest. Buda Castle and Gellert Hill are the two major historical sites on the Buda side, which was settled between 1242 and 1244. The Buda Castle is a historical quarter that includes the Royal Palace, the Castle District, Mary Magdalene Tower, and Fishermans Bastion (Lukacs, 68). The first town of Budapest was located along the slopes of Gellert Hill. The hill includes the Liberation Monument and the terraces of the Citadel. The Royal Palace is located on the southern part of the castle. The medieval palace that stood here was destroyed during the battles against Turkish invaders, leaving only the fortified walls as the memento (Herbbert, 40). King Charles III of Habsburg built a new palace between 1714 and 1723. It was designed in a Baroque style by Fortunato de Prati and supervised by Johann Holbling (Herbbert, 40). Today the Royal Palace is used to house historical museums. The Castle District is a medieval little town with atmospheric streets, picturesque houses, gas lamps, and beautiful monuments (Brief). The main street includes Trinity Square, Matthias Church, and the Cave system. Trinity Square is the centerpiece of the Castle District, which features a monumental Holy Trinity statue and Matthias Church. Matthias Churc...

High Cost of Living Essay Example

High Cost of Living Essay Example High Cost of Living Essay High Cost of Living Essay Janira Sanchez Professor Bruno Microeconomics May 5, 2011 High Cost of Living A rise in prices, economists say, is a sigh of development and prosperity. But during the last two decades, prices of almost all the essential commodities have been increasing at an alarming rate. These soaring prices have caused great unrest and frustration among the people. All the more, the soaring prices have become a big threat and an open challenge to the government It has shaken the faith of the people in the government. There is no let-up in the situation. Life has become very hard. Also things of dairy use are sometimes not available in the market. The prices of petrol, cooking gas, kerosene oil and several other items of daily use are increasing every year. Also the railway fares, air fares and bus and taxi charges also increasing regularly. The rich make a display of their wealth while the poor find it difficult to make both their ends meet. Life has lost its charm for the average bread-winner. The indiscriminate rise in prices of essential commodities has left many a people tense and helpless. No one can foresee what is in store for the common people. There are many causes of the unprecedented rise in prices. Inflation, black marketing, hoarding, faulty credit system, over population, and improper system of distribution arc some of the major causes of hike in prices. The standard of living of the people has improved. People need more things than they needed earlier. This increasing demand leads to hike in prices. Sometimes, natural factors like flood and drought also contribute to rise in prices. Production of food is not in proportion with the increase in population.. With the breaking of joint-family system, the cost of living has gone up. The purchasing power of the rupee is continuously calling. It is now being increasingly felt that large scale corruption by some political leaders in power and some senior officers in the government is also the cause of constant rise in prices. In the recent past, several scams have come to light that involve big amounts said to have been pocketed by the big-wigs of the country without any shame or remorse. Several cases are pending in the courts. It is, however, feared that influential and moneyed people have the ower to so circumvent the legal process in their favor that they go free. These huge amounts of black money produce a very bad effect on the economy of the country and lead to a rise in prices. It is the duty of the government to bring down the prices of the essential commodities at least. Price line is the life line of a nation. Black marketers, hoarders and profiteers must be brought to book. Family Planning programs should be stepped up to check over-population. More fair-price shops should be opened in different locations. There should be an equitable distribution through the fair-price shops. Shopkeepers should be directed to display the stock of essential commodities along with their prices. Those people who buy things in the black market should be punished. Production of food should be increased. Sincere efforts should be made to stabilize prices of essential commodities. Corruption, bribery, smuggling and illegal gratification deep-rooted in the society must be rooted out to control rising prices. References   www. fao. org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000845/index. html

Word Class Definition and Examples

Word Class Definition and Examples In English grammar, a word class is a set of words that display the same formal properties, especially their inflections and distribution. The term word class is similar to the more traditional term, part of speech. It is also variously called grammatical category, lexical category, and  syntactic category (although these terms are not wholly or universally synonymous). The two major families of word classes are lexical (or open or form) classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) and function (or closed or structure) classes (determiners, particles, prepositions, and others). Examples and Observations When linguists began to look closely at English grammatical structure in the 1940s and 1950s, they encountered so many problems of identification and definition that the term part of speech soon fell out of favor, word class being introduced instead. Word classes are equivalent to parts of speech, but defined according to strict linguistic criteria. (David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2003)There is no single correct way of analyzing words into word classes...Grammarians disagree about the boundaries between the word classes (see gradience), and it is not always clear whether to lump subcategories together or to split them. For example, in some grammars...pronouns are classed as nouns, whereas in other frameworks...they are treated as a separate word class. (Bas Aarts, Sylvia Chalker, Edmund Weiner,  The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2014) Form Classes and Structure Classes [The] distinction between lexical and grammatical meaning determines the first division in our classification: form-class words and structure-class words. In general, the form classes provide the primary lexical content; the structure classes explain the grammatical or structural relationship. Think of the form-class words as the bricks of the language and the structure words as the mortar that holds them together. The form classes also known as content words or open classes include: NounsVerbsAdjectivesAdverbs The structure classes, also known as function words or closed classes, include: DeterminersPronounsAuxiliariesConjunctionsQualifiersInterrogativesPrepositionsExpletivesParticles Probably the most striking difference between the form classes and the structure classes is characterized by their numbers. Of the half million or more words in our language, the structure words- with some notable exceptions- can be counted in the hundreds. The form classes, however, are large, open classes; new nouns and verbs and adjectives and adverbs regularly enter the language as new technology and new ideas require them. (Martha Kolln and Robert Funk, Understanding English Grammar. Allyn and Bacon, 1998) One Word, Multiple Classes Items may belong to more than one class. In most instances, we can only assign a word to a word class when we encounter it in context. Looks is a verb in It looks good, but a noun in She has good looks; that is a conjunction in I know that they are abroad, but a pronoun in I know that and a determiner in I know that man; one is a generic pronoun in One must be careful not to offend them, but a numeral in Give me one good reason. (Sidney Greenbaum, Oxford English Grammar. Oxford University Press, 1996) Suffixes as Signals We recognize the class of a word by its use in context. Some words have suffixes (endings added to words to form new words) that help to signal the class they belong to. These suffixes are not necessarily sufficient in themselves to identify the class of a word. For example, -ly is a typical suffix for adverbs (slowly, proudly), but we also find this suffix in adjectives: cowardly, homely, manly. And we can sometimes convert words from one class to another even though they have suffixes that are typical of their original class: an engineer, to engineer; a negative response, a negative. (Sidney Greenbaum and Gerald Nelson, An Introduction to English Grammar, 3rd ed. Pearson, 2009) A Matter of Degree [N]ot all the members of a class will necessarily have all the identifying properties. Membership in a particular class is really a matter of degree. In this regard, grammar is not so different from the real world. There are prototypical sports like football and not so sporty sports like darts. There are exemplary mammals like dogs and freakish ones like the platypus. Similarly, there are good examples of verbs like watch and lousy examples like beware; exemplary nouns like chair that display all the features of a typical noun and some not so good ones like Kenny. (Kersti Bà ¶rjars and Kate Burridge, Introducing English Grammar, 2nd ed. Hodder, 2010)