Free Essays on Wordsworth

worth is talking about. Porphyro is surrendering to the desire, â€Å"the fire,† of his heart; meanwh... Free Essays on Wordsworth Free Essays on Wordsworth Wordsworth’s Nature In most of Wordsworth’s poetry he seemed to try and make the reader aware of their environment, of their dependence on it for health, sanity and ultimate happiness. He wanted to nature to confirm that love, joy and beauty were not just fragile human values but cosmic absolutes. Often Wordsworth used unique methods of sensory perception as well as combining the physical world with nature on a more personal, subjective level. Much of his poems use these and other techniques to display the possibility of living contently, looking within nature for inspiration and fulfillment. Wordsworth’s poem Animal Tranquility and Decay, which he wrote in 1798, merely twenty-eight years into his existence, displays his early realization of such perceptions. This poem uses a oblivious man walking as a subject to demonstrate the possibility of absolute happiness outside of physical pain. Animal Tranquility and Decay represents a connection between nature, as the physical world, a nd how we live (or the subject of the poem in this case) as a result of it. Wordsworth begins the poem with an simple image. A useful technique to introduce the physical setting of the poem. The little hedgerow birds, That peck along the roads, regard him not. He travels on, and in his face, his step, His gait, is one expression: every limb, The image of this man walking and the birds not paying him any mind, not caring about his presence, is very effective in beginning to create the character’s personality. This is not unlikely for Wordsworth to develop the personality of the characters in his poems with a minimal amount of words and although it is not always possible to decipher whether or not this is intentional, it is none the less effective in turning the poem into something more personal for the reader. Even Wordsworth’s word ch... Free Essays on Wordsworth In â€Å"The World is Too Much with Us,† William Wordsworth presents a conflict between nature and humanity. He repeats the title in the first line of the poem, emphasizing his main point that the aspects of everyday living numb us to the emotions evoked by nature. Wordsworth includes himself in his conviction of mankind, using â€Å"us† rather than â€Å"you.† Something that is â€Å"too much,† is in excess, and therefore tends to cause harm, like the world for us. The harm that Wordsworth discusses includes â€Å"wasting our powers.† Obviously he does not see us as incapable, by describing our abilities as â€Å"powers.† He feels that we waste our passions on â€Å"getting and spending† and neglect to notice how nature is being sacrificed for this progress. We have exchanged our hearts for the materialistic progress of mankind. Not only does an artificial system cause an emotional deficit, but it also alienates people from each other in a very subtle fashion. Wordsworth saw this in the people who give their hearts away, which he equates with a â€Å"sordid boon.† Unlike society, Wordsworth does not see nature as a commodity. The verse, â€Å"Little we see in Nature that is ours,† shows that coexisting is the relationship envisioned. Nature is given human traits to convey a more personal relationship to people. The verse, â€Å"This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,† gives the image of a woman exposed to the heavens. Wordsworth does not see this as shameful but rather honorable. Like the Sea, he wants people to open themselves up to the passions around them; but instead, we are indifferent to the pleas from nature: â€Å"it moves us not.† He describes us as â€Å"out of tune,† which means that we are not completely doomed, that there is hope to be reconciled with nature. In â€Å"The Eve of St. Agnes,† Porphyro demonstrates the passion that Wordsworth is talking abou t. Porphyro is surrendering to the desire, â€Å"the fire,† of his heart; meanwh... Free Essays on Wordsworth Romantic Poets William Wordsworth writes in his â€Å"Preface to Lyrical Ballads† that â€Å"if the views, with which they [the poems] were composed, were indeed realized, a class of poetry would be produced, well adapted to interest mankind permanently, and not unimportant in the multiplicity and in the quality of its moral relation† (mallor & matlock 574). It has been over two hundred years since Wordsworth penned these lines and yet they have not been lost nor have they been forgotten. The face of poetry has changed since the time of Wordsworth, although mankind’s unwavering fascination with poetry is a testament to its eternal magnetism. In his â€Å"Preface,† Wordsworth defines his poetry and his motivation fastidiously and when comparing the theory to the practice in the case of â€Å"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,† the reader cannot help but notice his strict adherence. In fact, because the poem is written as a first person narrative, and Wordsworth is the subject of his poem, he is writing about how he thinks, thus it is the very essence of theory in practice. Wordsworth asserts that : Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility: the emotion is contemplated till by a series of reaction the tranquility gradually disappears, and an emotion, similar to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced and does itself actually exist in the mind (580). This explanation is exemplified in his poem, â€Å"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.† A lonely poet wanders through the country and is met with a â€Å"host† of daffodils. The tranquil scene affects him passively at first as he attempts to take in the scene, then later after returning home he contemplates his experience. After some contemplation, the poet realizes what â€Å"wealth this show has brought† (line 18). When the image is recollected during ... Free Essays on Wordsworth William Wordsworth William Wordsworth was, in my eyes one of the best know romanticist writers of his time. Most of his pieces talk about nature and religion. He, like most romantic poets of his time revolted against the industrial revolution and wrote many pieces about nature in order to go up against it. During the industrial revolution there were many factories being built up that took away most of the open countryside that everyone enjoyed. In these factories, workers were given long hours and little pay for their harsh working conditions. Wordsworth saw this and was appalled at how the factories could first come and take over the land and hire workers for practically no pay and long hours, so he wrote about nature to rebel against the factories. He wrote these poems to let people escape the reality of their lives and have something that was positive to live for. Wordsworth is considered a romantic because his writings were very imaginative, emotional, and visionary. He regularly discussed poetry with his friend Samuel Coleridge, who at the time was also a romantic writer. In their time as friends they wrote and discussed many poems, which later led to the writing of a prelude for his wife whom he had four children with. Originally Wordsworth was from England and was born in 1770 and graduated from Cambridge University. After he graduated he began his work on the idiom of the eighteenth century, which rebelled against the industrial revolution. Dorothy Wordsworth, William’s sister wrote a journal that her and her brother could read when he cared for her during the last twenty years of her life. Her works were not published for many years after she had died. Most of her writing was written without correct punctuation due to the fact that it would only be her and her brother that would be reading her writings. After his sister Dorothy died later on due to physical ailments which later drove her to insanity. ...

Using the Spanish Preposition Sobre

Using the Spanish Preposition Sobre Like many Spanish prepositions, sobre can be used in a variety of ways that dont seem to have any logical connection. One of the more common Spanish prepositions, sobre can be the equivalent of the English prepositions on, about, or over, among others. In some cases, it can help to know that sobre comes from the Latin super-, which, among other things, functioned as a preposition meaning above or beyond. But while a few of the uses of sobre have clearly related meanings, not all do. Be aware that sobre also can function as a masculine noun meaning envelope, packet, or, in informal usage, bed.) Most Common Ways in Which Sobre Is Used Nearly all the time, sobre is used in one of the following ways: Sobre as a Preposition of Location Sobre is often used to indicate that something is on top or or above something. In some such situations, sobre can be used more or less interchangeably with the preposition en. There usually isnt much significant difference, for example, between sobre la mesa and en la mesa, which both can be translated as on the table. Other times, over is a more suitable translation, such as when sobre means above. Coloca una pierna ​sobre el piso. (Place your knee on the floor.)La distribucià ³n correcta de la presià ³n del cuerpo sobre la silla es esencial para el confort. (The correct distribution of the bodys weight over the chair is essential for comfort.)Una lluvia de astillas volà ³ sobre el coche. (A shower of splinters flew onto the car.)Si pudieras volar sobre el ojo del huracn, al mirar hacia abajo verà ­as claramente la superficie del mar o la tierra. (If you could fly over the eye of the hurricane, upon looking down you would clearly see the surface of the sea or Earth.) Sobre Meaning ‘About,’ ‘Concerning,’ or ‘On the Subject Of’ When sobre is used to describe that something concerns or is about a subject, it functions in the same way that de can. In these situations, sobre is usually more formal than de. About is nearly always a good translation, although others such as of are possible. Ésta es la primera edicià ³n sobre un libro sobre nuestra mà ºsica popular. (This is the first edition of a book about our popular music.)Pelà © presenta documental sobre su vida en Nueva York. (Pelà © is presenting a documentary about his life in New York.) ¿Quà © piensas sobre el uso de los antibià ³ticos? (What do you think about using the antibiotics?) Using Sobre To Indicate Superiority or Influence Sobre often can translate over when it is used to indicate superiority in matters of influence or control. El uso del bus triunfa sobre el coche entre los universitarios. (Among university students, the use of buses triumphs over the use of cars.)La industria de salud posee una enorme influencia sobre las polà ­ticas de salud. (The health industry has a great influence over the politics of health.)Me es repugnante la dominacià ³n de un sexo sobre el otro. (The domination of one sex over the other is repugnant to me.) Sobre in Time Approximations Sobre is frequently used in time expressions to indicate that the time given is approximate. The English translations about or around are often used. Sobre is less commonly used in other types of approximations, such as for physical measurements. Sobre las seis de la tarde volvimos al hotel. (We are arriving at the hotel at about 6 in the evening.)Sobre 1940 el mercado de la ciencia ficcià ³n comenzà ³ a subir de nuevo. (Around 1940 the market for science fiction began to grow again.)La tormenta pasar sobre el mediodà ­a de este sbado. (The storm will pass through around noon on this Saturday.)Esperamos olas de sobre cuatro metros de altura. (We are hoping for waves about four meters high.) Sobre for Motion Around Sobre can be used to indicate rotation around an axis. About and around are the most common translations. El planeta gira sobre su eje una vez cada 58,7 dà ­as. (The planet rotates around its axis once each 58.7 days.)La Tierra rota sobre un eje imaginario que pasa a travà ©s de sus polos. (The Earth rotates about an imaginary axis which passes between its two poles.) Key Takeaways The Spanish preposition sobre is common, but it cant be translated by any single English preposition.One common meaning of sobre is to indicate that something is on top or above something else.Another common use of sobre is to indicate the subject that something else, such as a book, is about.

Assessment of Lipase Activity in Pancreatic Extracts Essay

Assessment of Lipase Activity in Pancreatic Extracts - Essay Example (Sizer, Piche and Whitney 2011). It binds the fat molecules on one end and the watery compounds on the other end. On binding to the fat, they form micelles. This process is called emulsification. Bile salts are the derivatives of cholesterol having both hydrophobic and hydrophilic domains. (Madenci and Egelhaaf 2010).The bile breaks down the large aggregates of triglycerides by binding them with the hydrophobic ends and separating the molecules from the aggregates. (Jenkins and Hardie, 2008).The droplets become smaller and smaller by binding to the bile. When the food enters the small intestine, the gall bladder contracts and sends the bile into the intestine. The gall bladder stores the end products of liver including bile salts. Pancreas is a long fat gland that is present behind the stomach and opposite to the first lumbar vertebra. Pancreas is made up of glandular epithelial cells. The clusters contain the acini cells called as acinar cells. (Williams 2001). Pancreas consists of a head, body and tail. Pancreas is connected to the duodenum by two ducts. Pancreas is the gland that contains both exocrine and endocrine parts. It has the retort shaped flask. It is 12-15 cm in length and weighs 90 grams. Every day pancreas produces 1200 – 1500 ml of pancreatic juice. (Pandol 2010). ... The exocrine pancreas secretes a juice containing two components: they are pancreatic enzymes and aqueous alkaline solution. The pancreatic enzymes are secreted by the acinar tissue containing the acini epithelial cells. (Williams 2001). The pancreatic enzymes are very important for our body because they can digest almost all the components of the food without the requirement of other enzymes. The aqueous water component is rich in sodium bicarbonate. The pancreatic enzymes are pancreatic amylase, pancreatic lipase, trypsin, chymotrypsin, carboxypeptidase, ribonuclease and deoxyribonulcease. The protein digestive enzymes are produced in the inactive form only. (Pandol 2010). Pancreatic lipases are the only enzyme that can digest the fat. The pancreatic lipase digests the triglycerides into mono glycerides and free fatty acids. The pancreas enzymes are very active in the neutral pH which is provided by the aqueous alkaline solution. Lipase binds to the oil-water interface of the trigl yceride water droplet and hydrolyzes the triglyceride. (Sherwood 2008). Bile acids and colipase are very important for the complete lipase activity. Bile acids increase the surface area for the action of the lipase enzyme. They form micelles with the fatty acid and monoglycerides. By this action the glycerides are removed from the oil-water interface. (Pandol, 2010). The triglycerides are now converted into mono glycerides, free fatty acids and glycerol. These molecules are not absorbed directly by the mucus lining of the digestive tract. The mucus lining have aqueous environment and glycerides are hydrophobic. (Reis et al. 2009). The bile salts shuttles the lipid molecules and enters the adsorptive cells of the intestinal villi. These cells are now

Bussiness Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Bussiness Communications - Essay Example The ones that have existed thus far have relied a great deal on the phenomenon attached with change and consistent upgrading of the needs as put forward by the business and its norms. Organization structure impacts the manner in which work is basically carried out. More than anything else it adheres to the different purposes of the discrete services and the related achievements with the passage of time. This brings to light the notion of discussing the structural basis of the organizations themselves. For starters, these organizations might not be that easy to understand at the very beginning. These can encompass a variety of different aspects, features and traditional mindsets which make up their structures. To start with, we see that an organization can either be formally aligned in its ways and means of doing things and different processes or the same might just be in a way informal in quite a few of its activities and tasks. The manner in which it runs across this paradigm is something that needs to be studied in depth before we reach further consensus on their purposes and the kind of achievements that they have had. The communication within an organization can flow in one of three ways or in all the three directions. This means that these three directions pave the way for the ease of communication and there are as such no barriers to arise from the whole equation. The first communication flow is from top to bottom, which means that the communication starts from the top management and goes down towards the middle and lower management. The second form could be the one that starts from the lower or middle management and goes up towards the top management. The third communication flow could be in the kind of peer to peer communication and interaction. This means that the employees and the workers at the same level communicate within their own capacities

Internal Audit Function and Fraud Detection in Government Essay Example for Free

Internal Audit Function and Fraud Detection in Government Essay CHAPTER ONE 1. 0Introduction This chapter will cover the background of the study, the statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, the objectives, the research questions, and the scope, the significance of the study and the structure of the report. 1. 1Background of the Study According to Hector Perela, (2009), Internal auditing function with other intervention mechanisms like financial reporting and external audit to helps maintain cost-efficient contracting between owners and managers. It is designed by government agencies to add value and improve organizational performance. It helps organizations accomplish their objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approaches to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes. † Internal audit helps organizations to ensure that financial and other records are reliable and complete. As well as ensuring that management adheres to policies and procedures for orderly and efficient conduct of the business, proper recording and safeguarding of assets and resources. The purpose of internal audit as far as the organization is concerned is to get accounting errors corrected and control weaknesses eliminated. The most testing time for the internal auditor is the report he/she writes to achieve this end. No precise legal definition of fraud exists; many of the offences referred to as fraud are covered by the Theft Acts of 1968 and 1978. Generally, the term is used to describe such acts as deception, bribery, forgery, extortion, corruption, theft, conspiracy, embezzlement, misappropriation, false representation, concealment of material facts and collusion. For practical purposes fraud may be defined as the use of deception with the intention of obtaining an advantage, avoiding an obligation or causing loss to another part. Internal Audit, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK) On one hand, fraud detection in government agencies involves employees or managers of the victim organization (commercial angles news letters 2001), the most effective tools for fraud detection are internal audit review, specific investigation by management, employee notification, and accidental discovery. Fraud detection helps Management to address its responsibility through development of an appropriate design of the system of internal control and the effective operation of that system. Numerous fraud prevention and detection techniques are now utilized to reduce the direct and indirect costs associated with all forms of fraud. These various techniques include but are not limited to: fraud policies, telephone hot lines, employee reference checks, fraud vulnerability reviews, vendor contract reviews and sanctions, analytical reviews , password protection, firewalls, digital analysis and other forms of software technology, and discovery sampling (Thomas and Gibson, 2003). Government departments implements the ideas and decisions of executive government in a particular area of governance. Each department is led by a minister in charge or commissioner, and the main work of the department is determined by legislation. Despite the internal audit function, many government agencies fail to detect fraud for example loss of huge monies in NAADS. The National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) is a Ugandan government agency created in 2001 to improve rural livelihoods by increasing agricultural productivity and profitability.

Cuba Essay example -- Cuban Politics, Communism, Fidel Castro,

Cuba is a very unique country with regards to government and politics. It is distinctive not only in its being the last communist country in Latin America, but also due the fact that it has and is continuing to undergo major changes with regards to government policy. Through analysis of the five criteria for democracy, and scrutiny of systems theory, political scientists can see that Cuba is on the path to momentous political change due to its rapidly deteriorating, soviet modeled, communist government. Before breaking down the components of the criteria for democracy and systems theory as they apply to Cuba, it is important to briefly consider the aforementioned countries history. Cuba’s current government began after President Batista was overthrown in a violent coup led by Fidel Castro in 1959. In 1961 Castro formally declared Cuba a socialist state; it is now recognized simply as a totalitarian communist state (US State dept, 3/25/10). While the Cuba does have a written constitution allotting civil rights, it for all intents and purposes, negates these liberties by declaring that, â€Å"any citizen attempting to prevent the growth of socialism† is exempt from said rights (US State dept, 3/25/10). The constitution also identifies the Cuban Communist Party as the only party with legal legitimacy. As one may have already inferred from these stringent governmental laws, the economy is also controlled entirely by the communist party, this however is one of the interest ing points in the analysis of the Cuban political the system as a large portion of the government employed workforce is soon to be fired in favor of a move to the private sector (The Economist, Nov. 2010). At the time of the US state departments report on Cuba, eighty-t... ... five criteria for democracy as presented by Charles Hauss, Cuba failed miserably in competitive elections and rule of law, on the other hand while certainly far from industrialized democracies, recent developments hint at the potential for improvements in civil rights and the prevalence of capitalism. As far as systems theory is concerned in Cuba, it is almost impossible until improvements are made In the aforementioned civil rights criterion. Finally as it compares to other communist countries, Cuba is showing signs of travelling the path of the USSR and facing collapse as Perestroika begins and the regime is restructured. All things considered, Cuba has become an immensely intriguing country for political scientists in recent years as it has begun several transitions toward far greater democratization than it had ever experienced under its former leader.

Andrew Marvell’s to His Coy Mistress

Marvell's To his Coy Mistress Author(s): Walter A. Sedelow, Jr. Source: Modern Language Notes, Vol. 71, No. 1 (Jan. , 1956), pp. 6-8 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www. jstor. org/stable/3043707 . Accessed: 29/12/2010 18:37 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www. jstor. org/page/info/about/policies/terms. jsp.JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www. jstor. org/action/showPublisher? publisherCode=jhup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the s creen or printed page of such transmission.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email  protected] org. The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Modern Language Notes. http://www. jstor. org Marvell's To His Coy Mistress f for tightness on Reflecting the measure of Marvell's celebrity we poetic organization, may find it ironic that the final,climactic lines in his mostwidelyacclaimedlyricremainformostreadersand critics essentiallydisjoined from the poem as a whole, and from their origin as well. AlthoughTillyard chose To his Coy Mistress as his allusionforthe typeof a highlyorganized(† plotted†) lyric,' Marvell's 2 demonstrated and Wallerstein and Tuve 3 have elaborately couplet images,the concluding Christian symbolic usage of traditional appears neverto have been loselyrelatedto the centralsignificance of the poem,nor to its Biblical source. T. S. Eliot, for example,in discussionof the poem never mentionsthe conhis distinguished for cluding lines,much less theircentralsignificance the whole,and 5 nor Macdonald has caughtthe 6 Margoliouth it appearsthat neither source of the images. Bradbrookand Thomas noted7 that â€Å"make but beyond our sun / Stand still† derivesfromJoshua and Jericho, that theirexplicationis this: that the lovers† are not Joshuas,they are gods,† for though they † cannot controlTime, yet . . it is whereby alone thatsuppliesthemotive powerof existence theirenergy Time is created. † Whatthis does not do is showthat † we will make him run† is also Old Testamentand that when seen against the of context its sourcein the Psalms we findnew essential meaningfor the coupletin the poem and forthe poem in the couplet. 8 on The modelforAddison'sOde († The spaciousfirmament high†), Psalm 19 († The heavensdeclarethe gloryof God â€Å") reads in verses 4-6 (King JamesVersion): Their [i. e. , the heavens'] line is gone out through all the earth, 1E.M. W. Tillyard, Poetry Direct and Oblique (London, 1934), p. 198. Ruth C. Wallerstein, Studies in Seventeenth Century Poetic (Madison, 1950). Rosemund Tuve, Elizabethan and Metaphysical Imagery (Chicago, 1947). 4 T. S. Eliot, Selected Essays (New York, 1950), pp. 251-263; also, in Andrew Marvell . . . Tercentenary Tributes, ed. W. H. Bagguley (London, 1922), pp. 63-78. 6 H. M. Margoliouth, ed. , The Poems and Letters of Andrew Marvell, 2 vol. (Oxford, 1927). 6 Hugh Macdonald, ed. , The Poems of Andrew Marvell (London, 1952). 7M.C. Bradbrook and M. G. Lloyd Thomas, Andrew Marvell (Cambridge, Eng. , 1940), p. 44. 8 Margoliouth indicated (p. v) that he would not include unnece ssary annotations, and perhaps the Joshua aspect of the image is obvious, but not so for the rest, for all Bradbrook and Thomas suggest here is Donne's The Sunne Rising, with which the parallel is comparatively loose. 2 Modern LaLnguageNotes And their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, And ejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, And his circuit unto the ends of it. Disregardingfor the nonce the apparentlyincidental,but by no between†end of the world† and correspondence means irrelevant, â€Å"by the Indian Ganges' side † (when takenin antipodalconjunction with† by the tide/ Of Humber†), we noticethat in bothpsalm and withthe poemthe image of the sun as runnerappearsin conjunction idea of the onset of the physicalphase of love.This double coincibut not likelyto be accidental, far moreconclusive, denceis, perhaps, i s far and, moreimportant, more significant the additionalmeaning of for the couplet and poem that a recognition the source provides, percept established of the evident, a it for,first, provides confirmation equivalent of intensity lovingin a brieftimethe thatwitha sufficient in experiencecan be achieved of slow-paced loving over a vast eternity(and we may urge that Time, the Sun, a strongman and would have to run long and hard to encompass runner hencea strong of the precise confirmation which see their accomplishment-for of below) ; second, the recognition Marvell's sun as a bridegroom recalls us to the firstidea of the poem,for the bridemagnificently groom† comingout of his chamber. . . who] rejoicethas a strong lover-and man to run a race,† is a splendidformforthe unhurried therebythe meaning of the third paragraph is enhanced by an as withthe first foil and a generalsense of unity contrast immediate is achievedby havingthe verylast line and last idea recall the first of third,the recognition the sun as a lines and firstidea; further, self-confident strong and perhapseven saunteringly â€Å") († bridegroom to â€Å") casual († comingout of his chamber whois to be compelled run for developed the poem'sthird brutality sustainsthe tone of vigorous if paragraph;fourth, the Sun (who createstime,and who by making also createsworld), if the Sun, man's standpoint life possible,from bave to run hard, then he must create a would a powerful runner, vast amount of time and a vast amount of world indeed-† world enough and time† one would think,for after all if he won't be of made to stand still (i. e. , to createan infinity time), this powerful runnerwill be â€Å"made to run† (i. e. , run hard) which is the next best thing (i. e. , to create a vast, if finite,time, and world), and VOL. LXXI, January 1956 7 s all that was asked for anyway: â€Å"world enough and time,† not â€Å"infinityand eternity. † Marvell m ay well have smiled as he thoughthow this runner's † goingforth from end of the heaven, And his circuituntothe / is the worldenough! And ends of it â€Å"-for all the worldmustbe precisely thus the lovers' sense of their iron straitsbecomesthe conditionof liberation:theycan forcethe sun to be his ownundoing. theirperfect Amherst College WALTER A. SEDELOW, JR. Pope, Sheffield, Shakespeare's and JuliusCaesar From 1721 through1724 Pope energetically pursuedtwo editorial tasks:he prepared publication collected for the works JohnSheffield, of Duke of Buckingham,and the plays of Shakespeare.His correspondencereveals that he was preoccupiedby his editorial duties, for in at least two lettersof 1721 and 1722, to Jacob Tonson and JohnCaryll,he pondered botheditions progress in ‘-clearly Sheffield and Shakespearewere at timesassociatedin his thoughts. It is my purposeto showthat,as a result,in his emendations Shakespeare's of Julius Caesar Pope let his judgmentas editorbe influen ced turns by of phraseand alterations Shakespeare'stext made by Sheffield in in his veryfreeadaptation,The Tragedyof Julius Caesar. † Because Sheffield, all otherAugustan† improvers of Shakelike speare,considered himselfunder no obligationto followhis original closely,he did not consistently retain the basic structure Shakeof speare's dialogueand action; often,in fact,he diverged wildlyfrom it.Obviously, onlythoseparts of Sheffield's Caesar mostresembling Shakespearemay be consideredas having affected Pope's decisions as editor,but a comparison them to parallel passages in Pope's of edition of Shakespeare'splay will reveal that Pope took five suggestionsfromthem. Three of these are verbal alterations, one is a † degradation of a passage Pope considered † and the fifth doubtful, transfers speechfromone character another. a to Of thetwelve doublecomparatives superlatives Shakespeare's and in 1 Pope to Tonson, George Sherburn, The Early Career of Alexander Pope (Oxford, 1934), p. 307; Pope to Caryll, Works of Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (London, 1871-1889), vI, 280. S Modern Language Notes

Comparing Rich Points

Comparing Rich Points: Understanding Japanese Languaculture Research Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for graduation with Research Distinction in Japanese in the Department of East Asian Languages & Literature at The Ohio State University by Andrew Gaddis The Ohio State University March 2012 Project Advisor: Professor James M. Unger, Department of East Asian Language and Literature 1 1. Introduction In this thesis, I attempt to show the linguistic and non-linguistic behaviors that are found prominently throughout Japanese society. This paper is divided into two major parts.The first is devoted to describing the prominence of the metaphorical concept LEARNING IS A JOURNEY in the linguistic behavior of Japan. The second describes how the same metaphorical concept is also found throughout the non-linguistic behavior of the Japanese culture. Based on Lakoff and Johnson’s (1979) general theory of meaning, this paper examines a particular instance of the r elationship between Japanese culture and language in detail, namely the Sino-Japanese noun doo ‘road, way’ ? and native noun miti. Lakoff and Johnson argue convincingly that metaphors are not just literary or poetic uses of words separate from ordinary language use.Metaphorical relations, in their view, are essential to how speakers of a language deal with meanings. One of their key examples is the journey metaphor seen in such English sentences as â€Å"We arrived at a conclusion† and â€Å"I don’t think our relationship is going anywhere. † For Lakoff and Johnson, such sentences illustrate the metaphors ARGUMENTS ARE JOURNEYS and LOVE IS A JOURNEY. Sino-Japanese doo is frequently used as a suffix in nouns with meanings that connote a spiritual path or way, or at least some method of self-cultivation. Since the character ? s customarily glossed miti, this native noun too has that metaphorical connotation. This character was adopted from China by wa y of the Korean peninsula in 2 the 1st millennium CE (Frellesvig 2010), where it long had a strong metaphorical connotation (spiritual path or way) already in the classics of the 1st millennium BCE, most notably the Daodejing of Laozi . Today, we see its widespread use in non-Daoist contexts. I argue that these expressions show that the underlying metaphor LEARNING IS A JOURNEY is particularly robust in Japan language life (gengo seikatu . By comparing Japanese doo and miti ‘road, path’ with English journey, we find similarities and differences that can be understood in terms of the concepts languaculture and rich points introduced by Michael Agar in his book Language Shock. As I will discuss in detail in Section 4, Agar argues (1) that language use cannot be understood outside the cultural context in which it is used, and (2) that conspicuous differences in the way two languacultures talk about the same or similar real-world facts and events reveal how they are struc tured.Human beings have much in common all over the world, so similarities in languacultures are numerous and expected, at least for people living in similar ecological circumstances. Rich points stand out precisely because they occur unexpectedly when one compares two languacultures. By comparing Japanese doo and miti with English journey in Lakoff and Johnson’s sense, I propose to show that the journey metaphor is a locus of an important rich point found within the two languacultures. I turn to the topic of pilgrimages in the second part of the paper (Section 5).Pilgrimages has long had played a significant role in Japanese religious practice. By the time of the Edo period, a gentleman was expected to cultivate skills in â€Å"medicine, poetry, the tea ceremony, music, the hand drum, the noh dance, etiquette, the 3 appreciation of craft work, arithmetic, calculation, literary composition, reading and writing† (Totman 1993,186). Once one has acquired considerable skil l in the art of pursuit, they would often go on a pilgrimage to learn more about the art and study the methods used in distant places. For this reason, pilgrimages were an important learning experience for the Japanese people.Here, I argue that the concept of LEARNING IS A JOURNEY exists even in the non-linguistic behavioral context. In the end of the section, I argue that LEARNING IS A JOURNEY is a common concept to both the linguistic domain and the non-linguistic domain of Japanese languaculture. I attempt to prove that the commonality found in the two domains is not due to a cause-and-effect relationship, where one domain causes the other. Instead, I suggest that both of these behaviors have their origins from a common set of historical circumstances, namely the impact of Chinese culture, Buddhism and Daoism.I argue that the impact of Buddhism and Daoism on Japanese intellectual thought have played a bigger role in shaping this conceptual metaphor that are prominently seen in bo th the linguistic and non-linguist domains of Japanese culture. 2. Theory of metaphor For most people, metaphorical expressions are assumed to be extensions of ordinary language, that is, instances of language outside of conventional usage intended to represent or suggest non-literal meaning. For this reason, metaphor is seen as extraordinary—a device of the literary or poetic imagination. Opposing this view, 4Lakoff and Johnson argue that metaphor is pervasive in everyday language, thought, and action. To understand metaphor, one must first identify its source. Lakoff and Johnson claim that metaphor originates in prelinguistic thought, not in language per se. Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people. Thus, our conceptual system plays a central role in defining our notions of reality. Since we are not consciously aware of most of the actions we do everyday, distinguishing the different components of our concept ual system is by no means straightforward.However, because communication is based on the same conceptual system that we use in thinking and acting, we can figure out just what that system is like through linguistic analyses. To give a concrete example, Lakoff and Johnson start off with the concept ARGUMENT and the conceptual metaphor ARGUMENT IS WAR. The following is a list of sentences that they cite to illustrate this point: ARGUMENT IS WAR Your claims are indefensible. He attacked every weak point in my argument. His criticisms were right on target. I’ve never won an argument with him. You disagree? Okay, shoot! (Lakoff & Johnson 1979, 4) 5Notice that these sentences are not just explicitly about war but the actions mentioned in the sentences only make sense in relation to the concept of war. Since argument is an attempt to persuade someone of something or to accept a particular conclusion, we can conceive of arguments as something to win or lose. We defend our position an d strategize a way to attack our opponent’s claims. Though a physical battle does not take place, a verbal one does, and many of the actions we perform in an argument reflect this. This instance well illustrates how metaphor pervades not just language but thought and action as well.The full significance of this theory does not come into sight when looking at a single language and its ambient culture. Try to imagine a culture where arguments are not viewed in terms or war, where no one wins or loses, or where there is no sense of attacking or defending. Imagine a culture where direct confrontation is shunned, where people are extremely cautious not to disprove the opinions of others, where the participants’ social statuses determine the amount of force that will be considered as appropriate in the conversation, and go-betweens are used to solve most conflicts.In such a culture, people would, according to Lakoff and Johnson, view, experience, perform, and talk about the arguments differently. But the people of our culture might not see them as â€Å"arguing† at all, because what they are doing does not fit our metaphorical understanding of what constitutes arguing. This is how a metaphorical concept structures what we do and how we experience it. It is not that arguments are a subspecies of war in any metaphysical sense. It is rather there is a type of conversation that, in English-speaking culture, is 6 viewed, experienced, performed, and talked about in terms of war.The concept is metaphorically structured, the activity is metaphorically structured, and, consequently, the language is metaphorically structured. Although metaphor plays a central role in structuring language, there is nevertheless an extensive range of concepts that are not comprehended with the use of metaphor, which often is referred to literal language. For example, the sentence â€Å"The apple fell on Newton’s head† can be deployed in a completely literal wa y. It could be an example sentence in an academic paper on generative syntax, or a sentence in a child’s book explaining a picture.But in our language, one is more likely to encounter this sentence in a context in which it is freighted with metaphorical meaning. It is typically deployed in contexts where the speaker wants to let the listener know that s/he sees a relevant comparison between something they have either observed or known about and beliefs they share about the invention and discovery. The sentence may be used in a humorous or ironic way (making fun of someone suddenly realizing something), or a dramatic, serious way (praising someone with a proverbial reference).By comparing our abstractions (ideas, emotions, etc. ) to what can be physically experienced, we can get a grasp on them in clearer terms. The JOURNEY metaphor is commonly used in many languages. In English, we have many expressions where the concept of love is often described as that of a journey, which will be referred to as LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphor. For example, take a look at the following common expressions: 7 Look how far we’ve come. We’re at a crossroads. We’ll just have to go our separate ways. We can’t turn back now. I don’t think this relationship is going anywhere.Where are we? We’re stuck. It’s been a long, bumpy road. This relationship is a dead-end street. We’re just spinning our wheels. We’ve gotten off the track. (Lakoff & Johnson 1979, 44) In every case, love is understood in terms of a journey. It is clear that the lovers are the travelers, and the relationship is the vehicle. The purpose of the journey is for the travelers to reach a destination, more precisely, for the lovers to accomplish their goals of common interest. What the dead-end street and spinning wheels are alluding to are the difficulties in reaching that destination.The purpose of these expressions is to encourage the listener to draw an inference. Take the expression â€Å"Where are we? † for example. Outside of the love metaphor context, it is a simple question. The metaphorical context invites the listener to reflect on how things came to be the way they are, how they might have turned out differently, and what could be done now to 8 change them. By accepting the scenario of making a journey toward the consummation of love, we can comprehend the analogy used to reason the human relationship of love.To end the section on a similar note, it is sometimes said that English secondlanguage learners have trouble with expressions like â€Å"We’re at a crossroads† or â€Å"it’s been a long, bumpy road. † The likely reason for this is because the difficult part of acquiring language proficiency does not so much lie in the process of mastering the vocabulary or grammar of a language, but mastering the metaphors typically used in the language. This is especially the case since dictionari es take only limited account of the metaphorical meaning of words and phrases.The problem is that ways of talking about the experience of love in English language are metaphorically absent in the learner’s language and culture. 1 Therefore, learning to recognize the metaphorical relations in language is key not only to understanding the way the speakers of the language conceptualize the world but also to acquiring language proficiency. The concept is metaphorically structured, the activity is metaphorically structured, and, consequently, the language is metaphorically structured. 3. doo and miti? Much like in the English language, the JOURNEY metaphor is a frequently used concept in the Japanese language.Take a look at the following examples of the LOVE 1 An idiom is a word or phrase that is morphologically or syntactically irregular with respect to the language in which it occurs. Native speakers often know an expression is idiomatic when asked. Metaphors, on the other hand, often occur below the level of consciousness. 9 IS A JOURNEY metaphor in Japanese: (1) a. koi no katamiti kippu love GEN one-way ticket ‘One-way ticket to love’ b. koizi no yami love’s pathway GEN darkness ‘Love is blind’ c. miti naranu koi path will not love Illicit love affair’ d. huuhu no miti husband and wife GEN path ‘marital values’ Again, in every case love is understood in terms of a journey. It is clear that the lovers are the travelers, and the relationship is the vehicle. It is noteworthy to mention, that the relationship can take various forms of a vehicle in the journey. Notice that there 10 is no single consistent vehicle that the journey metaphors all use. In example (1a) the vehicle of the relationship is some mode of public transport. Consider a situation when this expression is used.Given that this expression about a relationship is understood in terms of travel, the kind of reasoning evoked should generally reflect a situation where the lovers (travelers) are in a quickly progressing relationship (vehicle) to their goal of common interest (destination). The one-way ticket most likely implies that returning back to the start of the journey is not considered for the travellers, and that they are fast approaching their destination as if they were traveling by some mode of public transport. The rest of the examples, unlike (1a), do not specify the means of transportation for the travelers.For examples (1b) and (1c), this is because the purpose of the expression is to describe the impediments the travelers encounter in pursuing the destination. The literal translation of the two would be ‘darkness of love’s pathway,’ and ‘path that will not lead to the destination of love. ’ What the darkness and misguided path are alluding to is the difficulties in reaching the destination, both of which implies that a change of action needs to be taken to successfully rea ch the destination. (1d) literally translates ‘the path of the married couple. This expression represents the ideal path a married couple should take. Take a look at the following for examples of the LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor, which is also commonly found in both languages. (2) 11 a. zinsei yama ari tani ari life mountain exists valley exists ‘Life has its ups and down’ b. ikiru miti live (vb) road ‘The road of life’ c. senri no miti mo ippo kara thousand-mile GEN road FOC one-step ABL ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’ Notice that the literal translation of these expressions in Japanese and English are highly idiomatic.This is why a word for word rendering of the expressions would seem unnatural. In example (2a), the lexical items yama ‘mountain’ and tani ‘valley’ are translated â€Å"ups† and â€Å"downs. † Knowing that this expression represents life as a sort of journe y with obstacles to overcome, we can conjecture the logic behind this expression without much effort. A traveler would occasionally encounter times of relative ease and difficulty throughout the journey. While walking up a mountain is a laborious task, walking down the mountain into the valley requires considerably less effort.What the metaphor suggests is that the experience of life is much like that. There are times of ups and downs, good and bad, easy and hard etc. Nevertheless, if the expression were to remain in its literal translation, â€Å"life has its 12 mountains and valleys,† it would not be too difficult for the English speaker to comprehend the message being communicated. Since LIFE IS A JOURNEY is a commonly used metaphor in the English language as well, the enormous amount of information that is not explicitly provided will be understood from the knowledge of how life is understood in relation to a journey.It is not that the languages do not have expressions th at are equivalent in meaning, but it is more that the lexical items used to construct a metaphorical expression in one language do not match the lexical items in the other. Therefore, even if the expression is uncommon to the hearer, given that it is a commonly used metaphor in the languages, an intelligent guess can be made to make sense of it all. The following is an example of the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY metaphor: (3) gakumon ni oodoo nasi scholarship DAT royal-road non-existent ‘There is no Royal Road to learning’Based on the meaning of this expression described in the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, the phrase is a translation of the proverbial expression ‘There is no Royal Road to learning’. This phrase is legendarily attributed to Euclid, who is said to have used it in reply to a king’s request for an easier way to learn geometry. A Persian Royal Road actually existed; it was a 1677-mile long highway stretching, in modern terms, from the center of Iran to northern Turkey. To get from the starting point to the end of the highway 13 is believed to have taken over 90 days on foot, but only a week by horse (Herodotus 1889, 213).By metaphorizing the process of learning geometry as a lengthy journey, the claim that a Royal Road did not exist not only signified that there was no shortcut but also that even a king could not make one, as the Persian kings had made the Royal Road. It is interesting to note that despite long survival and overuse, the metaphor retains an appeal for speakers of many languages and is still used. Even Sigmund Freud famously described dreams as â€Å"Royal Road to the unconscious† in The Interpretation of Dreams, 1889 [1998]. In the context of Japanese culture, however, there are many expressions where learning is understood in terms of a journey.The reason for this is because the metaphor LEARNING IS A JOURNEY is a more salient feature in the Japanese language. The following are commonly used expressions of the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY metaphor in Japanese: (4) a. manabi no miti o aruku learning GEN road ACC walk (vb) ‘Walk the way of learning’ b. manabi no miti-annai learning GEN guidepost ‘A guidepost of learning’ 14 c. manabi no sen-ri no miti learning GEN thousand-ri GEN road ‘The thousand-ri way of learning d. manabi no miti ni wa owari wa nai learning GEN the way LOC TOP end TOP non-existent There is no end in the way of learning’ The examples in (4) shows that a metaphorical noun phrase ? ’ â€Å"path† modified by â€Å"learning† can be used in the various expressions. In every case, learning is understood in terms of a journey, and it is clear that the learner is a traveler in pursuit of knowledge. The purpose of the journey is for the traveler to reach a desired destination, more specifically, acquiring knowledge. In these examples, learning relates to journey in the sense that the traveler will leave his or her known environment and venture into an unknown place where new discoveries will be made.In example (4a) the traveler is selfpropelled. That is to say, the traveler’s volition is the vehicle. The expression is probably used in situations where the person using the phrase is still in the progress of acquiring knowledge. Example (4b) illustrates a situation where the learner (traveler) makes use of available resources to alleviate the impediments of reaching the destination (acquiring knowledge). For instance, a traveler will often make use of guideposts as a guide for reaching the desired destination. Similarly, the learner will often rely on teachers, books, 15 r the like to guide them to acquiring knowledge. (4c) illustrates a situation where acquiring knowledge is an arduous task, and it compares this difficulty of attaining knowledge to long distance travel. (4d) is a common expression saying that there is no end to learning. Again, we know that all of these expressions are metaphorical because none of them would make sense literally. More examples are provided in (5): (5) a. zyoodoo become road (the way) ‘completing the path of becoming a Buddha’ b. zyuudoo gentleness road (the way) ‘judo’ c, aiki syuutoku e no miti aiki acquisition -to GEN road (the way) The way to aikido acquisition’ According to the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, zyoodoo is Buddhist terminology that refers to either the moment a Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha after completing certain 16 practices and attains enlightenment, or the time Shakyamuni became enlightened sitting under the Bo tree. This Sino-Japanese term in its literal sense originally meant to attain the way. Zyoodoo is metaphorical inasmuch as it referred in the first instance to the historical Buddha but could then refer to someone else becoming a Buddha; this was no doubt borrowed from a preexisting metaphor use in Chinese.In the case of judo, as shown in (5b), we know that this is in fact a native Japanese noun coined in the Meiji period by the scholar Kano Jigoro (Watson 2008, xv). Before this coinage, this style of fighting was referred to as zyuzyutsu. Which makes sense since martial arts terminology prior to the Meiji period generally used the suffix ? zyutu ‘art, means, technique’ instead of the suffix ? doo. Zyuzyutsu was a brutal method of open handed combat that Kano felt was too violent for the modern age. Thus, in the interest of safety and practicality, he turned it into a sport under the name judo.The new institution Kodokan that he opened in Tokyo was, in his eyes, a place where â€Å"one is guided along a road to follow in life† (Watson 2008, xvi). It must be the case that he applied the suffix doo due to the fact that the metaphorical connotations it carried was appropriate for his philosophy2. The example in (5c) is a title of a book written by Kimura Tatsuo, a mathematics professor at the University of Tsukuba and an aikido enthusia st, about the art of aikido. Syuutoku e no miti generally means ‘the road to acquiring. ’ This phrase is often used to modify the nominal it follows.Thus, aiki syuutoku e no miti in its metaphorical sense means ‘the road to gaining knowledge about aikido. ’ 2 Many other traditional arts and martial arts employed the suffix doo (e. g. kendoo ‘kendo,’ kyuudoo ‘archery,’ sadoo ‘tea ceremony, way of tea’). 17 The reason for the many LEARNING IS A JOURNEY expressions arising in the Japanese language is attributed to an earlier influence from the Chinese classic Daodejing of Laozi. The Chinese word dao (‘road, way’ ? ) has long had strong metaphorical connotation of spiritual path or way. When the oanword and character were adopted in Japanese in the 1st millennium CE, along with them came the connotation. As stated earlier, learning is understood in part by the journey metaphor. Since this thought is crucial to the formation of the meaning, we see an abundance of words whose meanings are shaped by this metaphor. Take the native Japanese verb mitibiku ‘to guide; to lead; to show the way,’ for example. It is a compound word of ? miti and hiku ‘to lead, pull’. This word has departed from the literal meaning based on the meaning of components miti and hiku.We can see this from the following excerpt written by the Japanese poet, Yamanoue no Okura in the Man’yoshu: (6) moromoro no oomikami-tati hunanohe ni mitibiki moosi various NOM god PLUR prow LOC guide request ‘Various gods, I request you to guide this ship by its prow’ The literal meaning based on the components of the word cannot be applied here; however, the metaphorical extension of the meaning can be applied. According to the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, the word has come to mean â€Å"guide† at least since the 8th 18 century, as we can tell from its use in the excerpt.The definition provided here is not the literal meaning, but the metaphorical. The fact that a metaphorical extension has been added to the literal meaning of the word, illustrates how a new metaphorical connotation may be incorporated into the original literal meaning of a word. In the case of , what probably happened was that the literal meaning it was originally associated with was bleached out over time, and took on the metaphorical meaning as its dominant meaning. Through these examples, we have seen that the journey metaphor has a significant role in the Japanese language. Since the expressions provided n this section are highly idiomatic, in most cases, a word for word rendering of the expressions may not intuitively make sense for the non-native speakers of Japanese. However, that does not take away the fact that the expressions in question surfaces from the same underlying metaphor. There are cases where both languages have an expression that serves the same purpose but the lexical matc hing is not quite the same, and there are cases where lexical matchings will be nearly exact. On the other hand, we have also seen how it is possible for a metaphor to be more salient in one language than in the other.These examples illustrate just how a metaphor common to both languages can manifest itself differently. 4. Languacultures and Rich Points To better understand the similarities and differences of the journey metaphor used in the English and Japanese language, I would like to present the concepts 19 languaculture and rich points introduced by Michael Agar in his book Language Shock. Languaculture refers to the notion that a system of conventionalized symbols, sounds, gestures, or the like used by a particular community for communication cannot be understood without also knowing the conventional behaviors and beliefs of that community.Therefore, he argues, it is necessary to tie the concept of language and culture together whenever talking about language (Agar 1994, 60). Rich point refers to a moment when a person is at a languacultural interface and encounters a difference in the ways of communicating from his or her cultural assumptions3. Let us look at the study of junkies by Agar to illustrate this example of rich points. Junkie is a term often used to refer to heroine addicts. During his two-year service in the U. S. Public Health Service, Agar worked to help treat heroin addicts.As a linguist, he started on a collection of terms used by the addicts. What he found peculiar about the collection of terms was that even though they spoke the same language as he did, they made use of certain words that was unique to the junkies. For example, the process of injecting heroin would be described in different terms by junkies, as opposed to people with background in the medical field. The premedical student will most likely begin describing the process like the following, â€Å"Well, you first take this hypodermic syringe, and then †¦ while the jun kie will say, â€Å"First, you take the works, and then †¦ † According to Agar, the heroin users he met during his service used what is referred to as the works to inject heroin; an assembly of the top of a baby pacifier fastened onto an eyedropper with a needle slipped over its narrow end and a gasket of thread or paper to hold it tight. For this reason, the term works is 3 The term languaculture refers to the notion that the use of language differs with respect to its culture. Therefore, differences in language use also occur within a language by various other subcultures. 0 generally used in their culture to refer to the instrument used for injecting heroin. Now, suppose a context where two junkies are walking up the stairs in a building. Here is what they say: (7) â€Å"Say man, you got your works with you? † â€Å"Yeah, they’re right here in my pocket. Don’t worry about it. † (Agar 1994, 90) After learning what the term works refers to, a n ordinary person may infer that this is a situation where a junkie inquires another to make sure he has the necessary equipment for getting intoxicated. However, that was not the reason for their exchange.Instead, they were concerned about the possibility of an authority being in the proximity. Since the possession of this instrument justifies arrest, the junkies were concerned because they were confined in an enclosed space; an enclosed space does not have much room to run or get rid of the evidence. The reason for the exchange quoted above is that one junkie is worried about the possibility of an authority being in the proximity, and the other reassured that he could get rid of the instrument quickly if an authoritative figure were to appear, since they are right in his pocket.This sort of encounter that arises from one’s languacultural assumptions is what Agar refers to rich points. Human beings have much in common all over the world, so similarities in languacultures are numerous and expected, at least for people living in similar ecological circumstances. However, occasionally an unexpected use of language will arise which reflects a difference between the underlying conceptual systems between the two languacultures. These conspicuous differences found in the 21 way two languacultures talk about the same or similar real-world facts and events reveal how they are structured.Having established these points, we can now see the similarities and differences that can be understood in terms of languaculture and rich point. As we have seen, the journey metaphor in Japanese languaculture is similar in many respects to that of the English languaculture. A person of the English languaculture can apply many similar uses of the journey metaphor used in his language to convey messages in Japanese. However, once we took a look at the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY metaphor, we noticed that there is some underlying difference between the two systems of languacultures.This rich point shows that the journey metaphor used in the Japanese languaculture is not always congruent to its uses in the English languaculture, more precisely that the conceptual metaphor LEARNING IS A JOURNEY is a much more salient feature of the Japanese languaculture. The reason why this rich point stands out to the English speaking community is precisely because we place a higher emphasis on knowledge as an entity that can be acquired. Take for example common English expressions like â€Å"I was hunting for the facts,† â€Å"I had to track that down,† â€Å"he won his degree at Oxford. The emphasis for these examples is that knowledge is something to be collected, whereas in Japanese, they place a stronger emphasis on knowledge as something that is to be transmitted to the learner through the process of engaging in the act, as we have seen in the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY examples. 22 5. Pilgrimages in Japan Now that we have made this point that the LEARNING IS A JOU RNEY metaphor is a more prominent feature of Japanese languaculture than English languaculture, let us see how it relates to observations we make about English and Japanese behavioral culture.For one, pilgrimages are loaded with rich points. As we can tell from such classical literary works like Heike monogatari and Sarashina nikki, pilgrimages have been an important religious practice for the Japanese people from at least the Heian period. Although it was originally an aristocratic practice, all classes of people were allowed to go on pilgrimages by the time of the Edo period (Vaporis 2008, 165). Due to the development of a national infrastructure provided with lodging, towns, and horses, this period of peace allowed for the masses to travel comfortably in search of spiritual fulfillment.The commoners were permitted to travel by the authorities as long as they were going on a pilgrimage or had familial purposes. Among the many temples and shrines in Japan, the amount of people maki ng pilgrimages to the Ise shrine increased rapidly. The Ise shrine is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the goddess Amaterasu in the city of Ise in Mie prefecture. Since ancient times, the festivals and offerings of the Ise shrine has been scheduled based on the cycle of agriculture. People would go to Ise to give thanks to the kami and pray for a plentiful harvest. ()The desire to make a pilgrimage to Ise Shrine, at least once in one’s life was universal among Japanese people of the day. The people who have had the opportunity to undertake the pilgrimage would share the things that they had seen and heard on the 23 journey. These travelers’ tales inspired others to undertake the journey, in a cycle that perpetuated the legendary status of the Ise pilgrimage as something that everyone should do at least once in their lives. The Edo period is often referred to as a time of peace and stability in Japan, and as such the people had the means and leisure time to pursue their aes thetic enjoyment.To explain, Tokugawa ideology grouped higher cultural attainments into two categories, bu and bun, military and literary arts. A gentleman of the time were expected to show interest in bun, more so than bu. Bun embraced reading and writing, Chinese thought, poetry, history and literature, noh dance and drama, tea ceremony, and other customary arts (Totman 1993, 186). Once one has acquired considerable skill in the art of pursuit, they would often go on a pilgrimage to learn more about the art and methods used in distant places. Thus, pilgrimages were an important learning experience for the Japanese people.Take the renowned haiku poet Matsuo Basho for example. In his travel diary Oku no hoso miti (Keene 1996), Basho journeys on foot to see the sites that had inspired famous poets before him. He knew the location of the places the poems described, and it was important for him to get a direct experience with the inspiration the poets must have felt when composing thei r poem. Basho’s descriptions of the places he visited, many of which were at shrines and temples, were significant not just because the sites were awe-inspiring, but because of the legends and poems associated with the locations.Like the poems that inspired Basho to take on the journey, his own work have in turn inspired others to travel and learn about the places he talk about from a first hand experience. 24 Sangaku pilgrimages are another example. Sangaku are geometrical puzzles written on wooden tablets, which were placed as offerings at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. In Japan, it is fairly natural to hang wooden tablets at shrines and temples; for centuries before sangaku came into existence, worshippers would bring gifts like the sort to local shrines. The kami, it was said, loved horses, but horses were expensive.So a worshipper who could not afford to offer a living one, offered a horse drawn on a piece wood instead. In fact, many tablets from the fifteenth cent ury and earlier depict horses (Fukagawa & Rothman 2008, 8). However, there was also a practical purpose in hanging the tablets. Ordinary people at the time could not afford to publish books with their novel mathematical problems. Therefore, as an alternative solution to gain recognition, they took up the ancient custom of bringing votive tablets to temples and began to hang sangaku to advertise their work (Fukagawa & Rothman 2008, 21).Just like the poets who would travel for the sake of knowledge and experience, a number of geometers including Hodoji Zen, and Sakuma Yoken took â€Å"sangaku pilgrimages† to teach mathematics, encourage amateurs and lovers of geometry, and to hang and see previously hung sangaku in temples around the country. Among these itinerants was Yamaguchi Kanzan, a mathematician from the school of Hasegawa Hiroshi. In his journeys, he recorded a substantial travel diary that describes the sights, meetings with friends and other mathematicians, and the sa ngaku, problems he came across.With many distant mathematicians, he has discussed new technical methods of solving mathematical problems. â€Å"If you buy this book,† he claimed, â€Å"then you will be able to know and obtain without traveling the new technical 25 methods of solving problems of far-away mathematicians† (Fukagawa & Rothman 2008, 244). () Pilgrimages were an important method of self-cultivation for people from all walks for life, with interests ranging from martial arts to moral philosophy. There are many reasons for the rise in popularity of pilgrimages, but it is probably the case that the roots of this trend come from Zen Buddhism.The history of Zen begins in Japan with the samurai class of Kamakura. Zen Buddhism had little chance of becoming popular in Heian period Kyoto due to the strong opposition of the older schools of Buddhism. Where as in Kamakura, there were no such difficulties. Due to its philosophical and moral nature, Zen appealed greatly to the military classes (Suzuki 1959, 60). As the samurai’s became a new force in politics, they brought with them the newly embraced religion to the court.This in turn had significant influence in not only the court, but through general cultural life of the Japanese people all the way to the Edo period. Buddhist models inspired many of these pilgrimages that we see throughout history. The prototypical pilgrimages example in Japan is when Zen priests go on angya ‘pilgrimage’ , which literally means, â€Å"to go on foot. † Historically, angya referred to the common practice of Zen monks and nuns travelling from master to master, or monastery to monastery, in search of someone to practice Zen with (Baroni 2002, 8).So pilgrimages in Japan took the introduction of Buddhism, which later became associated with prominent Chinese cultures like Daoism, as we can tell from the various pilgrims mentioned earlier. The interesting thing about it is that this religious practice of undertaking a pilgrimage as a method of self-cultivation is emulated by 26 various other disciplines like the ones mentioned in example (5). It is also interesting to note the varying degree of prominence the intellectual journey has in the context of Japanese culture as opposed to the anglophone culture.Although the concept of an intellectual journey exists in the English-speaking world (e. g. visiting national parks, field trips etc. ), it is not quite as common or close to everyday consciousness as it is in Japan. The lack of explicit metaphors that reflect the notion of LEARNING IS A JOURNEY in English languaculture suggests a correlation of this difference with cultural behavior. The question then arises, what is the nature of the correlation between the observations we make in the linguistic and non-linguistic behavior we see about the Japanese?Is it the fact pilgrimages have had played a big role in the history of Japanese culture that because of the metaphorical bias of LEARNING IS A JOURNEY? Or is the causal relation the other way around? Or is there some third explanation? The main reason for the correlation we find between these two types of behavior is probably not a direct causal relationship between the two. Instead, the impact of Daoism and Buddhism on Japanese thought have probably played a role in making both the metaphor and the pilgrimage behavior prominent in Japan.This is indicated by the fact that many pilgrimages were inspired by Buddhist models, which also had a great impact on vocabulary and the content of literature; the relationship therefore seems the result of a common set of historical circumstances affecting both linguistic and non-linguistic behaviors. Both are an expression of this influence. 6. Concluding remarks 27 In this paper, I have given a contrastive analysis of the role the journey metaphor plays in the English and Japanese languages.I have argued that although there are many similarities in the use of the journey metaphor in the two languages, there also are remarkable differences in that the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY metaphor is a much more salient feature of the Japanese language. Based on the concepts languaculture and rich points, I have attempted to show that the LEARNING IS A JOURNEY metaphor is a locus of an important rich point in Japanese culture, in the sense that it is an underlying conceptual metaphor, which manifests itself in both the linguistic and nonlinguistic behavior of the Japanese culture.To illustrate how this finding might be applied to non-linguistic behavior, I have also examined the issue of pilgrimages. It seems that the correlation between the salience of the metaphor and pilgrimages are due to a common set of historical causes; it does not seem to be the case that the salience of the metaphor was caused by the practice of pilgrimages or vice versa. A contrastive analysis of metaphorical conceptualization proves to be a useful method when examining behavioral differences between two cultures.Further research of this kind should help understand similarities and differences in cultural cognition, linguistics, sociology, and ideology. 28 Work Cited: Agar, Michael. 1994. Language Shock: Understanding the Culture of Conversation. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. Baroni, Helen. 2002. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. Deutscher, Guy. 2010. Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different In Other Languages. New York: Metropolitan Books Frellesvig, Bjarke. 2010.A History of the Japanese Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Freud, Sigmund. 1889 [1998]. The Interpretation of Dreams. Trans. James Strachey. New York: Avon. Fukagawa, Hidetoshi & Rothman, Tony. 2008. Sacred Mathematics: Japanese Temple Geometry. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Keene, Donald. 1996. The Narrow Road to Oku. Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd. Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark. 1979. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 29 Herodotus. 1889. The History of Herodotus: A New English Version.Trans. Rawlinson, George, Rawlinson, Henry, & Wilkinson, John. New York: D. Appleton and Company Suzuki, Daisetz. 1959. Zen and Japanese Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press Totman, Conrad. 1993. Early Modern Japan. Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press Vaporis, Constantine. 2008. Tour of Duty: Samurai, Military Service In Edo, and The Culture of Early Modern Japan. Hawai’i: University of Hawai’i Press Watson, Brian N. 2008. Judo Memoirs of Jigoro Kano. Victoria: Trafford Publishing 30

How Architecture Reflects Ancient Cultures †History Essay

How Architecture Reflects Ancient Cultures – History Essay Free Online Research Papers How Architecture Reflects Ancient Cultures History Essay â€Å"As men journeyed to the east, they came upon plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, ‘come, let us make bricks and bake them hard’; they used bricks for stone and bitumen for mortar.† As we look back thousands years back, history tells us a story about people and how they struggled for food and shelter, how they, like Book of Genesis describe, found ways to use the environment to survive. To built shelter protecting from sun, wind and rain was one of the most fundamental humans needs. As this concern goes beyond necessity, people express their intellect and skills to find creative ways to shape material. Civilization could be created only if people freed themselves from hunter gatherer economy. The freedom came with development of agriculture, which allowed people to live more sedimentary life. Few villages scattered across Asia Minor, especially two rivers, Tigris and Euphrates. Severe geographical conditions forced people to create irrigation systems and more centralized government. As a result, first cities Uruk, Lagash, Umma, and others, formed first Civilization, Mesopotamia. The city was distinguished by public buildings and strong city wall. The most distinctive buildings in the cities, called ziggurats, were rising into the sky and were possible to approach through ramps and stairs. â€Å"Fully developed, a ziggurat looked much like a modern stepped-back skyscraper or like a jagged pyramid.†(Vincent M. Scramuzza, 30) That’s what Herodotus wrote about them: â€Å"On the summit there is a spacious shrine, inside which there is an exceptionally large bed, richly decorated, with a golden table beside it. No statue of any kind is erected there, and no one occupies the room at night except a single woman the god, so the priests say, has specially chosen for himself. They also say that the god comes to the room in person and sleeps on bed. I do not believe it myself.† (Herodotus) Ziggurat also appeared in the Bible as a tower of Babel: â€Å"And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.† There Babel was a symbol of diffusion of languages and beginning of kingdom whose name was â€Å"scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.†(Bible) It is believed that Mesopotamians believed that the ziggurat was an initial base on which universe was built. Also they literally perceived ziggurat as â€Å"house of gods†. That suggests that people were highly religious. The structure of the building also shows that: it was built as several terraced stories on which a temple stood. Its purpose was to get the temple as close to the heavens and to provide an entrance to the temple through the steppes. The ziggurats were not built for public worshiping, but they were places through which gods could get closer to people. Ziggurats symbolized power of the gods, they were imitations of mountains and Mesopotamian people thought of them as the main power of the earth. â€Å"Urban centers often grew because of their temples, which served religious needs of people, and also because of their administrative and economic functions.†(Karen Rhea, 102). Temple organized society and controlled most aspects of society and economy. Only priests were allowed to go inside the temple and take care of the ziggurat. As a result they were very powerful in the society. The temples were vertical bond between earth and heaven (spiritual function) and as a horizontal bond, through the priests, between the lands (economical function). Above priests were kings – lugals. Kings had the highest authority in Mesopotamia. Kings were god’s representatives and therefore elected by gods to rule people. Palaces, such as Palace of Sorgon at Korsabad, showed high authority of the king. Poor geographical conditions determined a warlike form of Mesopotamia. Records show quarrels over land, materials and other economic reasons, for example ancient proverbs show struggles of this type: â€Å"If you go and take a field of an enemy, the enemy will come and take your field.† â€Å"The city whose weapons are not strong the enemy before its gates shall not be thrust through.† To protect the city from invaders Mesopotamians had to build a protective wall. Ancient descriptions left a good record about them, even they are destroyed now. The top of the wall was a roadway so that people could walk. It was built of two parts – the outer wall made of baked brick and interior wall made of mud brick and space in between filled with rubble. The entrance gate, for example Ishtar gate to Babylon, was decorated with glazed bricks showing bulls and dragons symbolizing the power of the king. King Nebuchadnezzar expressed his proud of the city walls around 590 B.C.: â€Å"I built a mighty moat-wall of brick and bitumen, and linked it to the moat-wall built by my father. I built its foundations on the underworld. I made it as high as a mountain.† Mountain as mentioned earlier was perceived as the highest power of the earth. Ziggurats, temples and palaces defended by fortified walls, describe highly stratified and warlike society conformable to the order of gods. Egypt Pyramids perpetuated static, never expecting to change society. Egypt was also influenced by religion and many aspects of the life had mythological explanation, but their outlook had more enjoyment and secureness in life. The pyramids built in Old Kingdom, like Khufu pyramid in Giza plateau, rose as high as 481 feet, was built from 2,300,000 blocks of stone and has been the tallest building for 4000 years. What made people built such vast buildings that would rise up high for so long that deserve to be called a symbol of eternity? Secured life provided by Nile shaped a complicated and a vaguely understandable religion. Many deities’ secured peoples houses and lives, goods were truly divine and mystical, like god of sky (Ra), god of river (Osiris), who provides life and wealth. Rulers of people, Pharaohs, unlike the Mesopotamian kings, who were mortals, were gods on earth. Their duties were to make sure that the sun rises and Nile floods. Pyramids were built to contain pharaoh’s body after death and ensure happy and eternal afterlife. They were built to assist kings journey to heaven and its shape could be interpreted as a ramp to the sky. Also pyramid could be solar symbol representing rays of sun breaking through the sky. Whatever the interpretation, but it is obvious that kings were trying to build tallest building possible. The pyramids reflect that rulers not only were able to develop very religious concepts about afterlife, but also the ability of its rulers to marshal the agricultural wealth of the land† (Chester G. Starr, 59). The king governed all aspects of people’s lives and the peasants who built pyramids left qualified, detailed, and honest work. They were not slaves, because they were taken care of for working for king and considered work for king as great honor and believed that it will earn happy afterlife. The architecture of pyramids suggests â€Å"simplicity, concentration and the earthy riches of the civilized society that erected them.† (Chester G. Starr, 63). Even there was no law like Hamurrabi code, the society was more developed than Mesopotamian: â€Å"we owe [Egypt] a calendar of 365 days, [†¦] 12 months of 30 days each were added 5 days at the end of the year†, 24 hour day, 360 degree circle. The accurate building technique shows accomplishments in math, geometry, and astronomy. The pyramids were built from limestone and cut with high precision. The sides of pyramid were laid precisely directing North, South, East, and West. The pyramids of Gizeh (Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure) lay precisely as {will find out later} asterism. The kings of Middle and New Kingdoms continued to build complex buildings, but not as big projects as pyramids. For example The Temples of Carnak was a huge complex of temples, which served as religious centers, storage, service, workshop spaces, and gardens. This temple was not built by one Pharaoh; it was responsibility to enlarge the temple of the each ruler. I think this new religious complex served as an urban center also and was a necessity for Egyptians they started to interact with other states more. I think that Egypt and Mesopotamia were similar in a way; just the reasons and conditions that formed these cultures were different. Geographical conditions determined the nature of Egypt and Mesopotamia – both were river valley cultures. One person’s cult was exalted and king had almost absolute power over people in both cultures. Even though the science progressed in Egypt and Mesopotamia, people’s knowledge was still limited and most aspects of the life were explained with religion. Even the architecture was expressed through vast buildings which were joints of earth with gods. These cultures are so different from a Aegean cultures, which was emerging around 1700 B.C.E. The palaces and tombs found in Crete and mainland are archeological evidence of Minoan and Mycenaean cultures which laid the roots for Greek civilization. The complex of Knossos found in Crete suggests that Minoan culture consisted of small kingdoms. Large storage areas found within the palace suggest that economy was based on trades. The location (Crete was located at the crossroads) supports the evidence. Trades with Egypt influenced arts. Elegant architecture, vitality, grace and sophistication of the paintings show high cultural level of this civilization. â€Å"A history of Greeks is one of the most improbable success stories in all of the world history. A small people inhabiting a poor country on the periphery of civilization of Egypt and near East, the Greeks created one of the world’s most remarkable cultures.† (Sarah B. Pomeroy, xiv) It is almost every area in arts, science, and politics that Greeks made fundamental contributions. Greece started developing as its cities Athens, Corinth, and Sparta started growing politically and separate. A social unit has formed, named as polis, which means â€Å"city state†. Polis made Greece different from river valley civilizations and it became a political center allowing all citizens participate in political control. A new political system, democracy, emerged from the Greek word demos. Polis also left two important heritages: Socratic system and Platonic thought. The growth of the city fueled more building projects. As agora was a place for politics, open-air theater was a place for drama, temple became as an example of architecture, which had all the attributes of Greek values – proportion, balance, grace, precision and subtlety. The heritage from Egypt influenced columned temple. Rectangular form of temple plan probably came from Protogeometric style, which was purely Greek. Thus, rectangular temple with low pitched roof and surrounding colonnade – the peristyle – became main form of temple. Greece was not an integral state, each polis was separate state with its own political system, culture and economics, rather than it was united network. Architecture also did not have one style; there were three orders, the Doric, Ionian, and Corinthian. The Doric was the earliest and the simplest one. It had plain capital and no base and associated with Dorian area of Greece, particularity Sparta and Corinth. The Ionian part of the culture was more open for influences from richer east and intellectual development. Flouted columns and vaulted capitals made Ionic architecture more elegant. Corinthian order developed later and was the most ornate with its richly carved capital bristling with acanthus leaves. Contrary to Egypt and Mesopotamia, Greeks concentrated their attention to people and their life on earth. No vast buildings for worshiping gods, or kings were built. Temple was not an object of glory, but served as public building, where people gathered to celebrate and play games. The most popular ones were at sanctuaries of Zeus at Olympia and Apollo at Delphi. The games in honor of Zeus attracted many competitors to Olympia from all Greece. â€Å"Contests and rituals fostered the idea of Greeness, of sharing the same language, religion, customs, and values.† Athenian system was challenged by Persian wars at the beginning of fifth century, and later by Peloponnesian wars between Sparta and Athens. However, Athenian power depended a lot on Delian League’s city states and their funds. On this substance Athens reached highest point of culture and economic. Achievements were reflecting a â€Å"perfect† society but at the same time it was filled with contradictions: Greece was democracy, but at the same time Imperialistic, exalted was freedom for people, but women and slaves were excluded. In architecture precision was within limits too. The temple, structurally, was not much different from temple of Karnak or Stonehenge. Instead trying to find more advanced building techniques Greeks were interested in fascinating details, like joining stones, and obsessed with mathematical proportions. Between the Persian wars and Peloponnesian wars Greece reached the peak of its economy and culture. Athens at this time was the richest state in the Greece. Political control was in the hands of Perickles, who started building programs in Athens to establish political dominance in Greece. Parthenon, the most known building in the world was a result of political influences as Pericles spent the funds to beatify Athens instead of getting ready for another possible Persian attack: â€Å"Greece was seen to be suffering a grievous insult and to be ruled by an open tyranny, as it watched the Athenians gilding their polis with the moneys which it had been compelled to contribute for the war and beautifying it like a wanton woman, decorated with precious stones and statues and thousand-talent temples.† (Plutarch, Pericles 12.I-2) Parthenon – a masterpiece of Ichtinius was precise in proportion and detail. The whole building system was optical correction, so that the lines of the building would appear straight from far. To achieve that the architect swelled the columns at the middle, leaned them outwards, and made the corner columns bigger, because the sun is shining directly at them and make them look smaller. All the curved lines would straighten out as watched from distance to make the building look perfectly rectangular. At the same time the building was exquisitly intertwined with nature and had that romantic feeling as the sun playfully casts shadows through the columns. All these details show that â€Å"Greek architects took from their work that special kind of satisfaction that comes from exercising creativity within the limits posed by an elaborate code of constraints.† (Sarah b. Pomeroy,275) The Greek architecture shows how political and economical conditions influence cultural achievements, but at the same time powerful and ingenious people can create masterpieces within these influences. It also shows that architecture express what people believe they need not only for survival, but how advanced they are as civilization by using style, certain believes, knowledge and technology. 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Cultural Relativism Definition and Examples

Cultural Relativism Definition and Examples Cultural relativism refers to the idea that the values, knowledge, and behavior of people must be understood within their own cultural context. This is one of the most fundamental concepts in sociology, as it recognizes and affirms the connections between the greater social structure and trends and the everyday lives of individual people. Origins and Overview The concept of cultural relativism as we know and use it today was established as an analytic tool by German-American  anthropologist Franz Boas in the early 20th century. In the context of early social science, cultural relativism became an important tool for pushing back on the ethnocentrism that often tarnished research at that time, which was mostly conducted by white, wealthy, Western men, and often focused on people of color, foreign indigenous populations, and persons of lower economic class than the researcher. Ethnocentrism is the practice of viewing and judging someone elses culture based on the values and beliefs of ones own. From this standpoint, we might frame other cultures as weird, exotic, intriguing, and even as problems to be solved. In contrast, when we recognize that the many cultures of the world have their own beliefs, values, and practices that have developed in particular historical, political, social, material, and ecological contexts  and that it makes sense that they would differ from our own and that none are necessarily right or wrong or good or bad, then we are engaging the concept of cultural relativism. Examples Cultural relativism explains why, for example, what constitutes breakfast varies widely from place to place. What is considered a typical breakfast in Turkey, as illustrated in the above image, is quite different from what is considered a typical breakfast in the U.S. or Japan. While it might seem strange to eat fish soup or stewed vegetables for breakfast in the U.S., in other places, this is perfectly normal. Conversely, our tendency toward sugary cereals and milk  or preference for egg sandwiches loaded with bacon and cheese would seem quite bizarre to other cultures. Similarly, but perhaps of more consequence, rules that regulate nudity in public vary widely around the world. In the U.S., we tend to frame nudity in general as an inherently sexual thing, and so when people are nude in public, people may interpret this as a sexual signal. But in many other places around the world, being nude or partially nude in public is a normal part of life, be it at swimming pools, beaches, in parks, or even throughout the course of daily life (see many indigenous cultures around the world). In these cases, being nude or partially nude is not framed as sexual but as the appropriate bodily state for engaging in a given activity. In other cases, like many cultures where Islam is the predominant faith, a more thorough coverage of the body is expected than in other cultures. Due in large part to ethnocentrism, this has become a highly politicized and volatile practice in todays world. Why Recognizing Cultural Relativism Matters By acknowledging  cultural relativism, we can recognize that our culture shapes what we consider to be beautiful, ugly, appealing, disgusting, virtuous, funny, and abhorrent. It shapes what we consider to be good and bad art, music, and film, as well as  what we consider to be tasteful or tacky consumer goods. The work of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu features ample discussion of these phenomena, and the consequences of them. This varies not just in terms of national cultures but within a large society like the U.S. and also by cultures and subcultures organized by class, race, sexuality, region, religion, and ethnicity, among others.

The Rise of the Global Economy following WWII Research Paper

The Rise of the Global Economy following WWII - Research Paper Example This calls for a system that can stabilize the economy. Following the need to have a control system, the 44 nations that convened in Breton woods charted the way forward. A British economist by the name John Maynard stressed the significance of rule based regimes that can stabilize the international business. His suggestions were accepted in Briton wood fixed exchange rates. This article discusses the Breton wood system, which was established in 1944 at Breton wood conference. It begins with the analysis of the economic situation after the First World War, and afterwards discusses the significance of creating a supranational organization that assist in trade flows. In addition, the most significant adjustment resulting from the establishment of this system is explained. The system started to develop immediately after the Second World War, when several countries wanted to go back to the old financial security system that existed before the war. This was the gold system. It was require d that every country that took part in the international trade should have their money backed by reserves of gold and foreign currencies. However, many mistakes during implementation of the gold standard resulted in the collapsing of financial and economic relations between countries. To curb these problems, all countries tried to raise the competitiveness of their export so as to decrease the payment of deficit through deflation of the currency. However, this worsened the situation and resulted in international deflation competition that brought about mass unemployment, bankruptcy of companies, failing of credit organizations, and high inflation in affected countries. As such, a stabilization modality was necessary (O'Hara, 1994). These issues occasioned several monetary conferences. During the Second World War, there was a need to set up a system that could stabilize the currency, and at the same time avoid the mistakes that were made in the past. During the conferences, it was pl anned to put in place innovative monetary systems and an independent institution that could oversee all the actions that were taken. The main negotiations took place in Breton in 1944. Forty four countries attended the conference to find a solution to the past problems. International Monetary Fund and World Bank were created in the process of these negotiations. There was also an agreement to have a system of fixed exchange rates, with United States dollar as the main currency. The plan on how the system could operate was put forward by two notable economist of that time, that is, John Maynard (British economist) and Harry White (an American minister of state in treasury). Harry called for the establishment of bank of recovery (World Bank) and International Stabilization Fund. On the other hand, Maynard was calling for the same, but he differed with Harry because he wanted the International Monetary Fund to create funds and have powers to take any action on a larger scale. When ther e was an imbalance in payment, Maynard wanted both the creditors and debtors to change their policies - he wanted nations with surplus payment to increase their imports from nations with deficit, hence creating foreign trade equilibrium. However, white saw the problem of imbalance as concerning the nation that has a deficit. In the conference, the value of US dollar was defined in terms of gold and all