Collusive Behavior in Soft-drink Market Econometric Analysis

Tricky Behavior in Soft-drink Market Econometric Analysis Brief Summary This paper proposes a procedure to examine a firm’s vital conduct by joining game hypothetical ideas and ongoing monetary turns of events. It investigations different types of deceitful conduct of firms on two key factors cost and promoting in a separated market ruled by a duopoly. The econometric strategy embraced is completely auxiliary. The technique includes determination of interest and cost capacities and speculations about the key collaborations among players. The boundaries of the interest capacities and the cost capacities are evaluated under various key theories. Earlier work have demonstrated vital associations (yield and evaluating choices) in a non-helpful static technique utilizing static approximate variety models. In any case, late advancements in game hypothetical work just as test proof have indicated proof of participation among players in rehashed game settings much under the suspicion on non-agreeable conduct. Such sort of collaboration is alluded to as implicit arrangement. Given the multifaceted nature of experimental investigation of conniving conduct, the creators manage the black box of vital powerful associations by choosing an adequately rich scope of definitions communicating different degrees of conspiracy. With two noticeable instruments of rivalry cost and publicizing, the creators offer different straightforward definitions of deceitful conduct and select among them. The benefits of every detailing depends on the scope of potential degrees of agreement. Since the econometric models are nonnested, tests for nonnested theories is performed to choose the most sufficient model. The models are evaluated by full data greatest probability techniques. This investigation likewise broadens the conventional theoretical methodology for the exact examination of market power. The proposed strategy is then applied to the soda pop industry which is overwhelmed by The Coca-Cola Company and Pepsico duopoly. Three models of non-tricky conduct and three models of conniving conduct is evaluated. In view of the outcomes, the speculations of non-conniving conduct is dismissed. The outcomes recommend some unsaid conniving conduct in publicizing between the Coca-Cola Company and Pepsico for period secured by the example information. Be that as it may, plot on costs doesn't appear to be very much bolstered by the information. The technique takes into account different exchanging systems details in light of the fact that there is a possible difference in conduct in the example. The paper evaluated models with two systems when 1976. Results show that Coca-Cola is a Stackelberg pioneer in cost and publicizing until 1976, and after 1976 there is conspiracy in promoting and costs. Results likewise show an expansion in advertise power for both the organizations after 1976 dependent on the Lerner records counts. Key Strengths Rearranges request and cost determinations by forcing limitations on boundaries according to financial hypothesis On the more extensive level, there is an impressive errand of all the while evaluating request and cost capacities, and to decide the most sufficient tricky theories. In light of this gigantic interest on information, there is a requirement for basic details that limit the quantity of assessed boundaries with the danger of having results that can be firmly influenced by the suggested misspecifications. So a basic interest particular is picked for systematic and exact tractability. This is finished by forcing limitations on boundaries dependent on monetary hypothesis. So dependent on monetary hypothesis, requirements are forced on the boundaries signs. The given interest particular suggests unavoidable losses in publicizing and furthermore takes into account a wide scope of cross-promoting impacts. The impact of promoting has additionally been limited distinctly for the given quarter. This confined type of publicizing impacts diminishes the intricacy of the decreased structure. Imperatives are likewise forced on the boundaries of cost capacities dependent on financial hypothesis. A decision of steady minimal expense is made for expository and exact tractability. Considers model misspecification concerning factual deduction Model misspecification can happen when the models are rearranged as for this situation and when the models are not effectively indicated. So the models that are factually commanded by another contending model are misspecified. In any case, measurable derivation can be made on the boundaries of these models gave White strong t insights are utilized. Receives full data most extreme probability technique for getting solid appraisals Constrained or full data estimation by 2SLS and 3SLS strategies have certain disadvantages. One such disadvantage is that it doesn't give appraisals of some auxiliary boundaries, for example, the plot boundary and the coefficients in the cost capacities. Another disadvantage is that they produce untrustworthy evaluations. Likewise, the standard Wald insights can't be utilized straightforwardly in light of the fact that each arrangement of nonlinear limitations show up in the unequivocal or parametric structure. Rather one must utilize the summed up Wald measurements that requires a nonlinear minimization for each arrangement of limitations. The last downside is that determination among the models must be done by implication through these summed up Wald tests. This may prompt undesired results. To keep away from the previously mentioned issues, the creators embrace an immediate technique that gauges by most extreme probability (ML) each model with its characterizing set of nonlinear r equirements. This technique creates as a rule truly dependable appraisals. Figures numerous versatility measures to show signs of improvement handle of the greatness of boundary gauges The creators can ascertain own value, cross-cost and pay flexibilities for each request condition. They additionally compute the own and cross-publicizing versatilities. The cross promoting flexibility has been additionally disintegrated into ruthless publicizing versatility and worldwide publicizing flexibility dependent on the ideas of savage and overflow impacts presented by Roberts and Samuelson (1988). Ruthless promoting flexibility gives the pace of progress of the piece of the overall industry of firm j brought about by a 1% expansion in the publicizing of firm I. Worldwide promoting versatility gives the pace of progress of the complete market request brought about by a 1 % expansion in the publicizing of firm I. The overflow impact of promoting relates to an appropriation of the adjustment in all out interest because of the publicizing of firm I with respect to the portion of firm j. This can be characterized from the deterioration of cross publicizing flexibility. The model takes into consideration different exchanging systems determinations The cost of Coca-Cola indicated a strange increment in fall 1976 and was promptly trailed by a sharp fall. This period compares to the mid-1970s sugar emergency. So based on this perception the creators have broadened their work by defining and evaluating models with two systems when 1976. The two system models are evaluated utilizing an exchanging sham variable which has the job of forcing the correct arrangement of nonlinear limitations on the general straight model inside every period. The outcomes demonstrate that Coca-Cola is a Stackelberg pioneer in cost and publicizing until 1976, and that intrigue in promoting and rivalry in value happens after 1976. Broadens the approximate variety approach and contrasts it and the tricky models utilized The creators broaden the conventional speculative variety way to deal with the instance of separated items with two control factors cost and promoting. While differentiating this way to deal with theirs, the creators discover proof that their tricky models can't be seen as extraordinary instances of theoretical methodology. The theoretical model and any of the conniving models utilized in the paper are nonnested. Especially, the theoretical model forces an alternate arrangement of limitation on the boundaries of the general direct model in contrast with the limitations forced by tricky models.

Pride and Prejudice Themes and Literary Devices

Pride and Prejudice Themes and Literary Devices Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a great parody of habits that caricaturizes eighteenth century society and, especially, the desires put on ladies of the period. The epic, which follows the sentimental ensnarements of the Bennet sisters, incorporates topics of affection, class, and, as one may estimate, pride and partiality. These are completely secured with Austen’s signature mind, including the artistic gadget of free backhanded talk that allows a specific style of top to bottom, once in a while mocking portrayal. Love and Marriage As one would anticipate from a lighthearted comedy, love (and marriage) is a focal subject to Pride and Prejudice. Specifically, the novel spotlights on the various ways love may develop or vanish, and whether society has space for sentimental love and union with go together. We see all consuming, instant adoration (Jane and Bingley), love that develops (Elizabeth and Darcy), and captivation that blurs (Lydia and Wickham) or has blurred (Mr. what's more, Mrs. Bennet). All through the story, it becomes clear that the novel is contending that adoration dependent on veritable similarity is the perfect. Relationships of comfort are introduced in a negative light: Charlotte weds the disagreeable Mr. Collins out of financial realism and concedes so a lot, while Lady Catherine’s imperious endeavors at driving her nephew Darcy to wed her little girl to merge homes are introduced as obsolete, unreasonable, and, at last, a fruitless force get. Like a few of Austen’s books, Pride and Prejudice additionally alerts against fixation on excessively enchanting individuals. Wickham’s smooth way effectively charms Elizabeth, yet he ends up being misleading and childish and not a decent sentimental possibility for her. Genuine love is found in similarity of character: Jane and Bingley are appropriate in light of their supreme consideration, and Elizabeth and Darcy come to understand that both are solid willed however kind and shrewd. Eventually, the novel is a solid suggestion of affection as a reason for marriage, something that was not generally the situation in its time. The Cost of Pride The title makes it truly evident that pride will be a significant subject, however the message is more nuanced than simply the idea itself. Pride is introduced as entirely sensible somewhat, however when it turns crazy, it impedes the characters’ bliss. Hence, the novel proposes that an overabundance of pride is exorbitant. As Mary Bennet says in one of her essential statements, Pride relates more to our assessment of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others consider us. In Pride and Prejudice, there are a lot of prideful characters, for the most part among the well off. Pride in social position is the most widely recognized coming up short: Caroline Bingley and Lady Catherine both trust themselves prevalent as a result of their cash and social benefit; they likewise are vain in light of the fact that they are fixated on keeping up this picture. Darcy, then again, is seriously glad yet not vain: he does at first spot too high an incentive on social station, yet he is so pleased and secure in that pride that he doesn’t mess with even fundamental social comforts. This pride costs him Elizabeth from the start, and it isn't until he figures out how to temper his pride with empathy that he turns into a commendable accomplice. Preference In Pride and Prejudice, â€Å"prejudice† isn't as socially charged for what it's worth in contemporary utilization. Here, the topic is increasingly about assumptions and snap decisions as opposed to race-or sexual orientation based inclinations. Partiality is an imperfection of a few characters, above all and preeminent it is the primary blemish of our hero Elizabeth. She values her capacity to pass judgment on character, yet her perceptions additionally lead her to frame inclination rapidly and profoundly. The most evident case of this is her quick partiality against Mr. Darcy due to his excusal of her at the ball. Since she’s effectively framed this sentiment, she is inclined to trust Wickham’s stories of trouble ceaselessly to reconsider. This bias leads her to pass judgment on him unjustifiably and to dismiss him dependent on mostly erroneous data. <img information srcset=https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/CJbsFheUU_UKR8dK6481Po7VSTc=/300x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/MV5BNDc1NTcxNjAtOGRmNS00MzkyLThjYmQtNzNkZjRhNWJmNGFkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTQxMTIxMTk._V1_-5bd4fab7c9e77c0051716007.jpg 300w, https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/IRWsJ1pCBiVCoLEVuSV95OhNGMM=/525x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/MV5BNDc1NTcxNjAtOGRmNS00MzkyLThjYmQtNzNkZjRhNWJmNGFkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTQxMTIxMTk._V1_-5bd4fab7c9e77c0051716007.jpg 525w, https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/9sLLjOmSARgentjUhPMCNEePNBc=/750x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/MV5BNDc1NTcxNjAtOGRmNS00MzkyLThjYmQtNzNkZjRhNWJmNGFkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTQxMTIxMTk._V1_-5bd4fab7c9e77c0051716007.jpg 750w, https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/V8b19DywWXwmj3E5_AR6AtQrUBc=/1200x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/MV5BNDc1NTcxNjAtOGRmNS00MzkyLThjYmQtNzNkZjRhNWJmNGFkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTQxMTIxMTk._V1_-5bd4fab7c9e77c0051716007.jpg 1200w information src=https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/6VZj9_Cd4oVF0kmR4i9Ian76qS0=/1200x797/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/MV5BNDc1NTcxNjAtOGRmNS00MzkyLThjYmQtNzNkZjRhNWJmNGFkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTQxMTIxMTk._V1_-5bd4fab7c9e77c0051716007.jpg src=//:0 alt=Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy gazing each other down at the Netherfield ball class=lazyload information click-tracked=true information img-lightbox=true information expand=300 id=mntl-sc-square image_1-0-15 information following container=true /> Elizabeth and Darcys relationship typifies a considerable lot of the topics of Pride and Prejudice (Photo credit: Focus Features). Preference isn't really an awful thing, the novel appears to state, however like pride, it is just acceptable inasmuch as it is sensible. For example, Jane’s complete absence of inclination and over-ability to â€Å"think well of everyone,† as Elizabeth puts it, is negative to her joy, as it blinds her to the Bingley sisters’ genuine natures until it’s past the point of no return. Indeed, even Elizabeth’s preference against Darcy isn't altogether unwarranted: he is, truth be told, glad and thinks himself above a large number of the individuals around them, and he acts to isolate Jane and Bingley. When all is said in done, partiality of the good judgment assortment is a helpful device, yet unchecked bias prompts despondency. Societal position When all is said in done, Austen’s books will in general spotlight on upper class that is, non-titled individuals with some land property, despite the fact that of changing budgetary statuses. The degrees between the rich upper class (like Darcy and Bingley) and the individuals who aren’t so wealthy, similar to the Bennets, become an approach to recognize sub-layers inside the nobility. Austens delineations of inherited respectability are frequently somewhat sarcastic. Here, for example, we have Lady Catherine, who from the outset appears to be amazing and scaring. At the point when it truly comes down to it (that is, the point at which she attempts to stop the match among Elizabeth and Darcy), she is completely frail to do anything aside from shout and sound ludicrous. Despite the fact that Austen indicates that affection is the most significant thing in a match, she likewise matches up her characters with socially â€Å"appropriate† matches: the fruitful matches are all inside their equivalent social class, regardless of whether not of equivalent accounts. At the point when Lady Catherine affronts Elizabeth and cases that she would be an unacceptable spouse for Darcy, Elizabeth tranquilly answers, â€Å"He is a man of his word; I am a gentleman’s little girl. Up until this point, we are equal.† Austen doesn't overturn the social request in any extreme manner, yet rather tenderly ridicules individuals who fixate a lot about social and money related status. Free Indirect Discourse One of the most significant abstract gadgets a peruser will experience in a Jane Austen tale is free aberrant talk. This strategy is utilized to slide into a character’s mind and additionally feelings without venturing endlessly from third-individual portrayal. Rather than including a label, for example, â€Å"he thought† or â€Å"she supposed,† the storyteller transfers a character’s musings and sentiments as though they themselves were talking, however without parting from the third-individual point of view. For example, when Bingley and his gathering initially show up at Meryton and meet the individuals accumulated there, Austen utilizes free roundabout talk to put perusers legitimately in Bingley’s head: â€Å"Bingley had never met with pleasanter individuals or prettier young ladies throughout his life; each body had been generally kind and mindful to him, there had been no convention, no firmness, he had before long felt familiar with all the room; and as to Miss Bennet, he was unable to consider a heavenly attendant more beautiful.† These are but rather explanations of reality they are a hand-off of Bingley’s contemplations; one could without much of a stretch supplant â€Å"Bingley† and â€Å"he/his/him† with â€Å"I† and â€Å"me† and have a totally reasonable first-individual portrayal from Bingley’s point of view. This strategy is a sign of Austen’s composing and is valuable in a few different ways. Above all else, it’s a refined method of coordinating a character’s internal considerations into third-individual portrayal. It additionally offers an option in contrast to consistent direct citations and labels like â€Å"he said† and â€Å"she thought.† Free aberrant talk permits the storyteller to pass on both the substance of a character’s considerations and the tone, by utilizing language that takes after the words the characters themselves would pick. In that capacity, it’s an essential scholarly gadget in Austen’s sarcastic way to deal with nation society.

Hamlet Ophelia Madness Essay Example For Students

Hamlet Ophelia Madness Essay The NO, HE WAS SANE side:Hamlet reveals to Horatio that he will fake frenzy, and that if Horatio sees any abnormal conduct from Hamlet, it is on the grounds that he is faking it. Act I, Scene v, lines 166-180 Hamlets frenzy possibly shows itself when he is within the sight of specific characters. At the point when Hamlet is around Polonius, Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he carries on unreasonably. At the point when Hamlet is around Horatio, Bernardo, Francisco, The Players and the Gravediggers, he acts soundly. Claudius admits that Hamlets activities albeit bizarre, don't seem to originate from franticness. Act III, Scene I, lines 165-167 Polonius concedes that Hamlets activities and words have a strategy to them; there seems, by all accounts, to be a purpose for them, they are intelligent in nature. Act II, Scene ii, lines 206-207 Hamlets frenzy not the slightest bit reflects Ophelias genuine franticness, his activities differentiate them. Hamlet tells his mom that he isn't distraught, however frantic in make. Act III, Scene iv, lines 188-199 Hamlet has confidence in his mental soundness consistently. He never questions his power over mind. Technique in the Madness: Hamlets Sanity Supported Through His Relation to Ophelia and Edgars Relation to Lear In both Hamlet and King Lear, Shakespeare joins a subject of frenzy with two characters: one genuinely distraught, and one just acting frantic to serve a thought process. The frenzy of Hamlet is regularly questioned. This paper contends that the contrapuntal character in each play, specifically Ophelia in Hamlet and Edgar in King Lear, goes about as an adjusting contention to different characters frenzy or mental soundness. Lord Lears increasingly conclusive qualification between Lears slightness of brain and Edgars thought up franticness attempts to all the more likely characterize the connection between Ophelias breakdown and Hamlets north-north-west brand of madness. The two plays offer a character on each side of rational soundness, however in Hamlet the differentiation isn't as clear all things considered in King Lear. Utilizing the more express relationship in King Lear, one finds a superior comprehension of the relationship in Hamlet.While Shakespeare doesn't straightforwardly pit Ophelias craziness (or breakdown) against Hamlets franticness, there is rather an unmistakable completion in Ophelias condition and lear vulnerability in Hamlets frenzy. Clearly, Hamlets character offers more proof, while Ophelias breakdown is speedy, yet progressively indisputable in its precision.Shakespeare offers clear proof highlighting Hamlets mental soundness starting with the primary scene of the play. Hamlet starts with watches whose fundamental significance in the play is to give validity tothe phantom. If Hamlet somehow happened to see his dads phantom in private, the contention for his franticness would extraordinarily improve. However, not one, yet three men together observer the phantom before intuition to advise Hamlet. As Horatio says, being the main of the gatekeepers to assume a critical job in the remainder of the play, Before my God, I may notthis accept/Without the reasonable and genuine affirm/Of mine own eyes. (I.i.56-8) Horatio, who shows up as often as possible all through the play, goes about as a verifiably normal plausible excuse to Hamlet again when surrounding the King with his response to the play. That Hamlet addresses the apparition alone degrades to some degree from its validity, yet all the men are observer to the phantom requesting they talk alone. Horatio offers a shrewd warning:What in the event that it entices you toward the flood, my ruler, Or to the shocking highest point of the bluff That creepy crawlies oer his base into the ocean, And there expect some other ghastly structure Which may deny your sway of reason, And bring you into franticness? Consider it. (I.iv.69-74). Horatios remark might be the place Hamlet gets the plan to utilize a request of craziness to work out his arrangement. The significant reality is that the phantom doesn't change structure, but instead stays as the King and addresses Hamlet judiciously. There is likewise valid justification for the phantom not to need the gatekeepers to realize what he tells Hamlet, as the play couldn't continue as it does if the watchmen were to hear what Hamlet id. It is the apparition of Hamlets father who lets him know, however howsomever thou seeks after this demonstration,/Taint not thy mind. .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1 , .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1 .postImageUrl , .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1 .focused content territory { min-tallness: 80px; position: relative; } .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1 , .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1:hover , .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1:visited , .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1:active { border:0!important; } .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1 .clearfix:after { content: ; show: table; clear: both; } .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1 { show: square; change: foundation shading 250ms; webkit-progress: foundation shading 250ms; width: 100%; murkiness: 1; change: mistiness 250ms; webkit-change: haziness 250ms; foundation shading: #95A5A6; } .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1:active , .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1:hover { obscurity: 1; progress: darkness 250ms; webkit-change: murkiness 250ms; foundation shading: #2C3E50; } .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1 .focused content region { width: 100%; position: relat ive; } .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1 .ctaText { outskirt base: 0 strong #fff; shading: #2980B9; text dimension: 16px; textual style weight: intense; edge: 0; cushioning: 0; content beautification: underline; } .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1 .postTitle { shading: #FFFFFF; text dimension: 16px; textual style weight: 600; edge: 0; cushioning: 0; width: 100%; } .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1 .ctaButton { foundation shading: #7F8C8D!important; shading: #2980B9; fringe: none; outskirt range: 3px; box-shadow: none; text dimension: 14px; textual style weight: striking; line-stature: 26px; moz-outskirt sweep: 3px; content adjust: focus; content enhancement: none; content shadow: none; width: 80px; min-tallness: 80px; foundation: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/modules/intelly-related-posts/resources/pictures/straightforward arrow.png)no-rehash; position: supreme; right: 0; top: 0; } .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1:hover .ctaButton { foundation shading: #34495E!importa nt; } .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1 .focused content { show: table; tallness: 80px; cushioning left: 18px; top: 0; } .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1-content { show: table-cell; edge: 0; cushioning: 0; cushioning right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-adjust: center; width: 100%; } .u0e893a5bc9636d15ab468e913528dcf1:after { content: ; show: square; clear: both; } READ: Procrastination Essay (I.v.84-5) Later, when Hamlet sees the apparition

The Weirdest College Essay Prompts Ever

Supplemental articles are regularly the most close to home pieces of school applications. Your article lets you uncover parts of your life and character that just dont run over somewhere else. Sometimes, however, the exposition questions are abnormal to the point that they may appear to be more similar to puzzles than prompts. Take the accompanying models. 1. Tufts University Kermit the Frog broadly deplored, Its difficult being green. Do you concur? Tufts University as often as possible supplies mixed exposition prompts, and this is clearly one of them. All things considered, it cites somebody whos made of felt. By the by, its philosophical. It provokes understudies to characterize the existential condition green in their own particular manner. Most likely numerous respondents will feature an eccentricity that makes them unmistakable. It could be something physical like being tall, or it could be a character highlight like interest. In any case, candidates must choose whether that quality has caused them challenges. Look at our database of effective Tufts profilesfor more motivation! 2. College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill What do you would like to discover over the rainbow? This UNC brief is likewise encircled through the perspective of mainstream society. It references a tune from the great film The Wizard of Oz. Its asking understudies what they need their prospects to hold once they cross a specific edge. Once more, candidates must characterize their own terms. What is that limit, the rainbow, that they should pass? Is it school? Is it the quest for a genuine calling? These inquiries would most likely keep the Scarecrow up around evening time. Here are UNC Chapel Hill article models! 3. College of Chicago What is the starting point, and can you really return to it? With regards to asking odd exposition inquiries, the University of Chicago is Americas ruling champ. This one takes a recognizable figure of speech ― starting over from the beginning ― and presses out its otherworldly ramifications. When individuals end up on an inappropriate way throughout everyday life, to what degree would they be able to return and fix the issue? Will you truly present appropriate reparations with others? Is there a final turning point as far as dynamic? Investigate some UChicago examples of overcoming adversity. 4. Wake Forest University Give us your main ten rundown. This solicitation must rouse various sorts of reactions. Numerous understudies likely submit sincere arrangements of saints, profession goals or the battles theyve survive. Almost certainly others offer amusingness, maybe naming their most humiliating minutes or most loved move moves. Some bold soul may give ten reasons the person loathes top ten records. OK be genuine or contemptuous with your rundown? See what others did in their Wake Forest application! 5. College of Richmond Educate us concerning bugs. Heres another inquiry that is all the way not entirely clear. It likewise allows candidates to show their extraordinary sensibilities. You could settle on organic portrayals, an assessment of how creepy crawlies have been seen since the beginning, a personal tale about youth arachnophobia, an entertaining glance at the world from a bugs perspective or something different completely. You need to ponder, however, what number of confirmations officials get the creeps perusing these articles. Heres a rundown of Richmond profiles to support you. 6. Brandeis University In the event that you could decide to be raised by robots, dinosaurs or outsiders, who might you pick? Why? Given the craziness of its three decisions, this inquiry appears to be intended to test imagination and thinking abilities. How would you build an intelligent contention from an irrational reason? How would you advocate for a thought that is horrifying? Then again, perhaps a few people like the thought of robots changing diapers or outsiders singing bedtime songs. Look at Brandeis University profiles! Surprising school application articles unquestionably arent for everybody. Numerous understudies favor standard questions about motivating books or extracurricular exercises. Nonetheless, in the event that you have a desire to flaunt your creative mind and special composing style, you may begin chasing for a paper question as unusual as those above. Which article brief makes them scratch your heads? Tell us what other abnormal ones youve experienced this application season! On the off chance that you despite everything need some motivation, look at ’s database of 60,000+ successfulcollege application documents.

TEDxCambridge!

TEDxCambridge! Dear EA applicant, Youre almost there. Its Friday/13/13, so if today is the unluckiest day, then maybe tomorrow is the luckiest? If not in the decision, then probably in something else, if you keep your mind open to it. Its 11:44 am right now and there are 24 hours and 30 minutes left before EA decisions. Given that the average length of a TED talk is 17.5 minutes, and that youre probably too excited to sleep tonight, that gives 84 TED talks you can watch in your rapidly diminishing waiting time. Not only will they keep your mind away from agonizing circular thoughts, youll become more illuminated in 84 topics. That can be useful no matter where you go. Bon voyage! Your internet friend,                                                                                                                                                 Anastassia TED Talks TED talks, for those unfamilar, are riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world. I started watching them in high school, and learned a lot more about current research, global problems, and technological initiatives than I ever did in class. They really opened up my mind to not only ways I can cause change on a large scale, but also within myself. Some of my favorites have been: The game that can give you 10 extra years of life How schools kill creativity This video is a great followup: Changing Education Paradigms. My stroke of insight Have any of you guys watched these or other TED talks before? Here you can find the videos with the most views.  Also the TED youtube channel. TEDxCambridge I watched so many of these inspiring talks that I created a goal to have my own one day. Hmm.. whats a good first step but to watch them live? You can imagine my astonished elation when I learned that we were going to host a TED Conference right in our very own Kendall Square! Tickets were limited, so I had to fill out a short application asking who I was and why I wanted to attend. I ended up getting a discounted seat for only ~$20 in the outdoors section. All photos courtesy of TEDxCambridge 2013 official photos page. Psst: Im in 3 of these photographs if you can find me. Yippee! The outdoors section. Where were the actual speakers? Inside the neighboring building, presenting and being filmed, while we got a live stream to the screen outside. Afterwards, there was a reception of food, drink, and conversation with the speakers themselves! Who were the speakers? Ariel Diaz, Educational Entrepreneur. Inverting the Curriculum. Manolis Kellis, Computational Biologist. Decoding a Genomic Revolution. Zeynep Ton, Business Professor. The Good Jobs Strategy. Deepak Jagdish and Daniel Smilkov, Data Scientists. The Power of Metadata. Todd Rogers, Mobilization Expert. Turning Mass Intention into Mass Action. Bruce Schneier, Security Technologist. The Battle for Power on the Internet. Sara Seager, Galactic Explorer (what a cool title). A Real Search for Alien Life. You can find all the videos from the TEDxCambridge event here. Any feelings about TED talks, videos, learning, waiting, learning through video talks while waiting, any permutation thereof, or anything at all, please comment below! I read all of them. Feel free to post questions or email me at [emailprotected] (though I might be studying for finals). :) Bye for now and happy holidays!

Fighting for Women Suffrage - Free Essay Example

Today on August 18, 1920, as I am sitting in the breakfast shop, I hear cheering and celebration outside as I take a sip of my coffee. I walk outside and hear Yay, we finally got it! Looking at the woman next to me, celebrating along with the crowd, I inquire of her what are they celebrating and cheering for? She replies, They finally gave us the right to vote! I could not believe it; they finally passed it. After years of trying to convince President Woodrow Wilson that us women also deserved the right to vote, it finally came to pass! After so many protests and so much hate, we achieved the one thing we have been wanting. I rush home to listen to the radio. I get home, and I hear President Wilson giving his speech. Today on August 18, 1920, the Constitution was ratified with the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. They have been fighting and they deserve the right to vote. Congratulations!, said President Wilson. For so many years, we have been questioning why men did not feel women should not be given the right to vote. Surprisingly, though, we were not only fighting our male counterparts, but we were also going to war with our female counterparts. More and more groups are being formed due to our suffrage movement. Some of those groups, though, include the women of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage (NAOWS), A political movement called Anti-suffragism, who believe that women should not have the right to vote. One of the major concerns for the anti-suffrage group was that women would neglect their primary responsibilities of motherhood. They think that we are too busy and consumed with domestic life to keep up with politics. Their concerns are valid, but they dont realize the damage they are causing is holding us back. Not allowing women to have the right to vote, means that women have little to no influence on the constitution of the United States. Not having a voice is why w omens wages will always be compromised, even for hundreds of years to come. We wont stand for it, though, we will be radical in enough to have our voices heard. We will participate in hunger strikes and any other forms of protests to get the attention of Congress. The votes of women would influence laws and legislation related to women. Laws that would normally take years to amend or pass would move through Congress and local governments quickly. Girls have historically graduated at a higher rate than boys. It goes without saying that more female voters would mean more educated voters. Women can come together as leaders and become a force to be reckoned with. Giving women the right to vote will move this country closer to actual democratic practices. In conclusion, I would like to continue to encourage women of all backgrounds, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, black, white from the north to the south to come together to fight for our rights. We deserve to be recognized as citizens of this great nation, as contributing members of the nations democracy. Our organizing and campaigning has not been in vain. We have changed the way this country views women. We have changed the political process for women. Who knows maybe one day we will have a female President. Anything is possible.

Performing Gender And Being In Nepantla. In Judith Butler’S

Performing gender and being in Nepantla In Judith Butler’s Performative Acts, and Gloria Anzaldà ºa’s Light in the Dark, they explore concepts of the performance of gender and sexuality, and clashes between one’s identities they impose upon themselves, and the structure of identities imposed upon them by external actors. In both works, there’s a push by the authors to redefine gender and sexuality performances in ways that radically challenge the social norms. While there is much value in altering standard gender/sexuality performances, a brief discussion in class had me wondering about my own performance of these things, and the substance approach I take when constructing my own gender/sexual identity. Butler speaks of gender identity as†¦show more content†¦In respect to both sides, I feel as though I owe some part of myself, my being, and my performance of gender, to an overarching queer identity. More clearly, I feel as though I have an obligation to portray myself in a way that questions typically masculine behaviors, counteracting, and pushing back upon, a society that demands that I act in typically masculine ways. This is my performance of gender within the broader â€Å"queer community.† That is not to say that I do not believe my performance of gender to be obligated to one set definition or idealistic representation, but that, to borrow from Anzaldà ºa, I experience a state in which I am in a constant nepantla, â€Å"the place where my cultural and personal codes clash, where I come up against the world’s dictates† (Anzaldà ºa p.2). If using a process understanding, there is no reason to resign myself to binary ways of being, or allowing self-creation of my identity to be limited to only gender or sexuality performances, or to the structures set in place by the queer community or a heteronormative-masculinist society. Anzaldà ºa similarly rejects traditional labels regarding race, sexuality, gender, and more, because she believes them to be â€Å"stuck in binaries, trapped in jaulas (cages) that limit the growth of our

Understanding Cosmology and Its Impact

Cosmology can be a difficult discipline to get a handle on, as it is a field of study within physics that touches on many other areas. (Although, in truth, these days pretty much all fields of study within physics touch on many other areas.) What is cosmology? What do the people studying it (called cosmologists) actually do? What evidence is there to support their work? Cosmology at a Glance Cosmology is the discipline of science that studies the origin and eventual fate of the universe. It is most closely related to the specific fields of astronomy and astrophysics, though the last century has also brought cosmology closely in line with key insights from particle physics. In other words, we reach a fascinating realization: Our understanding of modern cosmology comes from connecting the behavior of the largest structures in our universe (planets, stars, galaxies, and galaxy clusters) together with those of the smallest structures in our universe (fundamental particles). History of Cosmology The study of cosmology is probably one of the oldest forms of speculative inquiry into nature, and it began at some point in history when an ancient human looked toward the heavens, asked questions such as the following: How did we come to be here?What is happening in the night sky?Are we alone in the universe?What are those shiny things in the sky? You get the idea. The ancients came up with some quite good attempts to explain these. Chief among these in the western scientific tradition is the physics of the ancient Greeks, who developed a comprehensive geocentric model of the universe which was refined over the centuries until the time of Ptolemy, at which point cosmology really didnt develop further for several centuries, except in some of the details about the speeds of the various components of the system. The next major advance in this area came from Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543, when he published his astronomy book on his deathbed (anticipating that it would cause controversy with the Catholic Church), outlining the evidence for his heliocentric model of the solar system. The key insight that motivated this transformation in thinking was the notion that there was no real reason to assume that the Earth contains a fundamentally privileged position within the physical cosmos. This change in assumptions is known as the Copernican Principle. Copernicus heliocentric model became even more popular and accepted based upon the work of Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler, who accumulated substantial experimental evidence in support of the Copernican heliocentric model. It was Sir Isaac Newton who was able to bring all of these discoveries together into actually explaining the planetary motions, however. He had the intuition and insight to realize that the motion of objects falling to the earth was similar to the motion of objects orbiting the Earth (in essence, these objects are continually falling around the Earth). Since this motion was similar, he realized it was probably caused by the same force, which he called gravity. By careful observation and the development of new mathematics called calculus and his three laws of motion, Newton was able to create equations that described this motion in a variety of situations. Though Newtons law of gravity worked at predicting the motion of the heavens, there was one problem ... it wasnt exactly clear how it was working. The theory proposed that objects with mass attract each other across space, but Newton wasnt able to develop a scientific explanation for the mechanism that gravity used to achieve this. In order to explain the inexplicable, Newton relied on a generic appeal to God, basically, objects behave this way in response to Gods perfect presence in the universe. To get a physical explanation would wait over two centuries, until the arrival of a genius whose intellect could eclipse even that of Newton. General Relativity and the Big Bang Newtons cosmology dominated science until the early twentieth century when Albert Einstein developed his theory of general relativity, which redefined the scientific understanding of gravity. In Einsteins new formulation, gravity was caused by the bending of 4-dimensional spacetime in response to the presence of a massive object, such as a planet, a star, or even a galaxy. One of the interesting implications of this new formulation was that spacetime itself wasnt in equilibrium. In fairly short order, scientists realized that general relativity predicted that spacetime would either expand or contract. Believe Einstein believed that the universe was actually eternal, he introduced a cosmological constant into the theory, which provided a pressure that counteracted the expansion or contraction. However, when astronomer Edwin Hubble eventually discovered that the universe was in fact expanding, Einstein realized that hed made a mistake and removed the cosmological constant from the theory. If the universe was expanding, then the natural conclusion is that if you were to rewind the universe, youd see that it must have begun in a tiny, dense clump of matter. This theory of how the universe began became called the Big Bang Theory. This was a controversial theory through the middle decades of the twentieth century, as it vied for dominance against Fred Hoyles steady state theory. The discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation in 1965, however, confirmed a prediction that had been made in relation to the big bang, so it became widely accepted among physicists. Though he was proven wrong about the steady state theory, Hoyle is credited with the major developments in the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis, which is the theory that hydrogen and other light atoms are transformed into heavier atoms within the nuclear crucibles called stars, and spit out into the universe upon the stars death. These heavier atoms then go on to form into water, planets, and ultimately life on Earth, including humans! Thus, in the words of many awestruck cosmologists, we are all formed from stardust. Anyway, back to the evolution of the universe. As scientists gained more information about the universe and more carefully measured the cosmic microwave background radiation, there was a problem. As detailed measurements were taken of astronomical data, it became clear that concepts from quantum physics needed to play a stronger role in understanding the early phases and evolution of the universe. This field of theoretical cosmology, though still highly speculative, has grown quite fertile and is sometimes called quantum cosmology. Quantum physics showed a universe that was pretty close to being uniform in energy and matter but wasnt completely uniform. However, any fluctuations in the early universe would have expanded greatly over the billions of years that the universe expanded ... and the fluctuations were much smaller than one would expect. So cosmologists had to figure out a way to explain a non-uniform early universe, but one which had only extremely small fluctuations. Enter Alan Guth, a particle physicist who tackled this problem in 1980 with the development of inflation theory. The fluctuations in the early universe were minor quantum fluctuations, but they rapidly expanded in the early universe due to an ultra-fast period of expansion. Astronomical observations since 1980 have supported the predictions of the inflation theory and it is now the consensus view among most cosmologists. Mysteries of Modern Cosmology Though cosmology has advanced much over the last century, there are still several open mysteries. In fact, two of the central mysteries in modern physics are the dominant problems in cosmology and astrophysics: Dark Matter - Some galaxies are moving in a way that cannot be fully explained based on the amount of matter that is observed within them (called visible matter), but which can be explained if there is an extra unseen matter within the galaxy. This extra matter, which is predicted to take up about 25% of the universe, based on most recent measurements, is called dark matter. In addition to astronomical observations, experiments on Earth such as the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) are trying to directly observe dark matter.Dark Energy - In 1998, astronomers attempted to detect the rate at which the universe was slowing down ... but they found that it wasnt slowing down. In fact, the acceleration rate was speeding up. It seems that Einsteins cosmological constant was needed after all, but instead of holding the universe as a state of equilibrium it actually seems to be pushing the galaxies apart at a faster and faster rate as time goes on. Its unknown exactly what is causing this r epulsive gravity, but the name physicists have given to that substance is dark energy. Astronomical observations predict that this dark energy makes up about 70% of the universes substance. There are some other suggestions to explain these unusual results, such as Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and variable speed of light cosmology, but these alternatives are considered fringe theories that are not accepted among many physicists in the field. Origins of the Universe It is worth noting that the big bang theory actually describes the way the universe has evolved since shortly after its creation, but cannot give any direct information about the actual origins of the universe. This isnt to say that physics can tell us nothing about the origins of the universe. When physicists explore the smallest scale of space, they find that quantum physics results in the creation of virtual particles, as evidenced by the Casimir effect. In fact, inflation theory predicts that in the absence of any matter or energy, then spacetime would expand. Taken at face value, this, therefore, gives scientists a reasonable explanation for how the universe could initially come into being. If there were a true nothing, no matter, no energy, no spacetime, then that nothing would be unstable and would begin generating matter, energy, and an expanding spacetime. This is the central thesis of books such as The Grand Design and A Universe From Nothing, which posit that the universe can be explained without reference to a supernatural creator deity. Humanitys Role in Cosmology It would be hard to over-emphasize the cosmological, philosophical, and perhaps even theological importance of recognizing that the Earth was not the center of the cosmos. In this sense, cosmology is one of the earliest fields that yielded evidence that was in conflict with the traditional religious worldview. In fact, every advance in cosmology has seemed to fly in the face of the most cherished assumptions that wed like to make about how special humanity is as a species ... at least in terms of cosmological history. This passage from The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow eloquently lays out the transformation in thinking that has come from cosmology: Nicolaus Copernicus heliocentric model of the solar system is acknowledged as the first convincing scientific demonstration that we humans are not the focal point of the cosmos.... We now realize that Copernicus result is but one of a series of nested demotions overthrowing long-held assumptions regarding humanitys special status: were not located at the center of the solar system, were not located at the center of the galaxy, were not located at the center of the universe, were not even made of the dark ingredients constituting the vast majority of the universes mass. Such cosmic downgrading ... exemplifies what scientists now call the Copernican principle: in the grand scheme of things, everything we know points toward human beings not occupying a privileged position.

The Theory Of Differential Association Essay - 1501 Words

Introduction Why do criminals commit crime? How to we learn to commit crime? These questions can be answered using social learning theory. Social learning approach is the assumption that all human behavior is socially learned (Thompson, Bynum 2013 115). The theory of differential association was developed by Edwin Sutherland to try and explain the development of criminal behavior. Essentially what this theory says is that deviant group behavior results from normative conflict. Normative conflict arises when multiple probable rules exist, specifying how one ought to behave in a given situation. Conflicts among norms affect deviant people of a variety of social groups. An individual is part of many social groups including friends, family, and school. Every group has its own set of social norms. Sometimes the norms between these groups can conflict with each other resulting in the possibility of deviant behavior Delinquency is a learned behavior and is learned in the same way we learn everything else. It is learning through social interactions with others in your close personal groups. When the groups that you are a part of participate in delinquent behavior that individual is more likely to learn and engage in that delinquent behavior. Not only are you learning how to be delinquent or the techniques that go along with this deviant behavior, one also learns the motivation behind this behavior. When you learn and identify with these motivations you re a lot more likely toShow MoreRelatedDifferential Association Theory1790 Words   |  8 PagesThe famous criminologist Edwin Sutherland developed Differential Association Theory in 1939. He felt that criminal behavior is behavior, learned, and is learned in face-to-face interactions with others. Differential association, which operates on the individual level, is where behavior is learned through interaction with others. Through this interaction an individual will learn the techniques and skills necessary to commit crime as well as the motives, rationalization, and attitudes necessary forRead MoreThe Theory Of The Differential Association Theory2539 Words   |  11 PagesVarious criminological theories have been constructed attempting to determine factors that contribute to how individuals begin to engage in deviant behavior. The Differential Association Theory established in 1947 by Edwin Sutherland, an American Criminologist, evaluates how delinquent behavior is learned through social interaction as well as learning from the legal definitions of laws and crimes. For example, an individual learning definitions that are favorable to breaking the law from peers orRead MoreDefinition Of Differential Association Theory917 Words   |  4 PagesDifferential Association In Edwin Sutherland theory has been around for over 30 years which is one of the most popular theories that there is in criminal behaviors. The differential association theory is considered to be one of the most and best formulation of theory of criminality, holds, in essence, that criminality in learned interactions from others through a way of communication (Cressey, 1954). Sutherland he explains how individual behaviors are learned behaviors and that people are notRead MoreDifferential Association Theory Essay1671 Words   |  7 PagesThis essay will discuss three theories, the differential association theory, the labelling theory and the rationale choice theory. The theories will discussed and how they can explain crime will also be discussed, and then a comparison of the theories will be given in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses in explaining youth crime. Theories within criminology try to explain why and how crime occurs. This is done through examining variou s facts that are related to the individual s criminalRead MoreSutherlands Differential Association Theory1430 Words   |  6 PagesSutherland’s Differential Association Theory Ryan Herron Dr. Patrick Parnaby SOC 2070 9 November 2017  There are many theories used by Sociologists to explain deviance. One such theory is differential association theory, proposed by Edwin Sutherland. There are many strengths and weaknesses of differential association that will be laid out in this paper after differential association theory is fully explained. When discussed, it becomes apparent that differential association theory has many strengthsRead MoreDifferential Association Theory Essay1292 Words   |  6 PagesThe Differential Association Theory, established by Edwin Sutherland in 1947, explicit the deviance of an individuals behavior and how it is learned through interaction with others or associations. There are several components that play a role in this theory that determines the main causes of delinquency. One of the components of this theory is, a person do not inherently become a criminal, it is a learned behavior. A person cannot decide one day he wants to commit a crime if he is not influenceRead MoreDifferential Association Theory Essay1739 Words   |  7 Pagescriminological theory and bullying to help explain the behavior of those individuals who participate in bullying. Differential Association Theory was introduced in 1939 by Edwin H. Sutherland and aimed at explaining how and why certain individuals commit deviant (criminal) acts. Additionally, Differential Association theory, believes that the behaviors of an individual are influenced and shaped by others they associate with. To support this assertion, I will provide a description of Differential AssociationRead MoreThe Association Between Differential Association Theory and Burglary1358 Words   |  6 Pagesan explanation into how differential association theory explains burglary. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) considers burglary a Type 1 Index Crime because of its potentially violent nature. The FBI breaks burglary down into three sub-classifications. This paper discusses the elements of the crime of burglary and what constitutes a structure or dwelling. It will discuss a brief history of the deviance, trends, rates, and how it correlates to the specific theory that this paper will alsoRead MoreThe Strengths Of Labelling Theory And Differential Association Theory1703 Words   |  7 PagesLabelling Theory can explain the factor of low socioeconomic status while Differential Association Theory can explain how the factor of family as reasons why some youth join gangs. This paper compares the relative strengths and weaknesses of Differential Association theory and Labelling theory and I argue that Labelling Theory offers the most compelling theoretical perspective to help account for how these factors influence youth to join gangs. I also argue that unlike the other two theories, a MarxistRead MoreDifferential Association and Social Bonding Theory1852 Words   |  8 PagesDifferential Association and Social Bonding Theory Introduction The purpose of the following study is determine what, if any, the components of social bonding theory and differential association play on the lives of college students. This study is composed of three hypotheses: A) If the amount of commitment to the college goes up will deviance go down?; B) If involvement with the college is increased then does deviance go down?; and C) If a student associates, or attaches, themselves to deviant

The Role Of Ethics And Culture On An International...

Abstract Geert Hofstede is one of many sociologists that studied and emphasized the importance of ethics and culture in an international business environment. He contended how the culture of the leaders and staff can help one to determine the achievement or ineffectiveness of that business. Rue Byars described leadership as an ability to influence people and willingly follow one’s guidance or adhere to one’s decisions (Rue, Byars, 2009). The most successful CEO’s and leaders have a well-defined strategic vision, strong passion for the job and the people that work for them and most importantly excellent communication skills. The leaders and managers are the ones the set, define, and shape the culture. They have to be aligned with the culture they intend to lead in order for it to be effective. They must also have a culture that is inseparable from the company they are employed at. Ethics, culture, and global business responsibilities are an integral part of everything the business does. The overall goal is to connect globally and build multinational industries. Unfortunately, due to the number of increasing public scandals international entities have developed various strategies such as policies, processes, and codes of conduct to prevent ethical issues. It’s not only the leader that should be held responsible but the entire corporation. Their lack of responsibility or unethical behavior are one of the many reasons that a business reputation can be damaged. It also preventsShow MoreRelatedEssay about Ethics in International Business1657 Words   |  7 Pages Ethics in International Business Abstract International business ethics challenges the corporate world to deal with questions of what to do in situations where ethical standards come into conflict as a result of the different cultural practices in the nation. Since, there is this dilemma that has progressively troubled the large multinational corporations, international business ethics has arisen to help address these adhesive subject matters. There are several international business ethicsRead MoreEthics in International Environments Essays1348 Words   |  6 PagesEthics in International Environments Introduction Global marketing opportunities usually form the pillar under which viability and profitability of international marketing depend upon. This merged with globalization of market today makes international marketing practices a concern globally that calls for moral responsibility (ethics) in conducting business (Danley, 1983). Ethics in international marketing poses many dilemmas and this is because value judgments differ among different culturesRead MoreChanging Role of Hr Management959 Words   |  4 PagesThe Changing Role of Human Resources Management The ever-changing roles within human resources management (HRM), in response to trends, are from a dynamic environment and the importance of HRM. Every changing organization has a need for a HRM to respond and implement changes. The organizations driven by e-business and technology need to be ready to respond and adapt to the environmental changes and should focus on satisfying the company’s customer needs. In this role, the HRM contributesRead MoreThe Earth Charter : A Declaration Of Fundamental Principles1460 Words   |  6 Pageslong, world-wide, multi-cultural study on common goals and shared values. The Earth Charter can also be viewed as a people’s treaty, because there was little interest among governments in negotiating new and stronger commitments regarding the environment and sustainable development. Thousands of individuals and several organizations from Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East participated in developing the Earth Charter. Forty- five Earth Charter national committeesRead MoreEthics And Ethics Of Globalization1500 Words   |  6 Pages ETHICS OF GLOBALIZATION Ethics are generally accepted set of rules and principles guiding the social and moral interaction among a certain group of people, society, and organization and so on, basically to tackle the issue of biasness when various parties are involved in dealings. Ethics can either be legally binding so any one who goes against is punished by law, or with the option of not being legally binding and get punished by the forces of market interaction. In an organizational setup, theRead MoreSks7000-8 Assignment 31572 Words   |  7 Pagesto expand operations in Asia. In order to be able to do expansion in Asia the XYZ Construction Inc. needs to find out more about the ethical and social issues that may affect the business, project managers and engineers. Moreover, the XYZ Construction Inc. may need to train staff or hire a staff that would fit the culture. Ethical and social issues within the global market of Asia South Asia is one of the most densely populated regions of the world, where despite a slow growth, agriculture remainsRead MoreEthical Challenges Faced By Mcdonald s1338 Words   |  6 Pagesinfluenced international business and ethics to consider a different approach to culture. There are certain perspectives to culture which demand change in the organizational and managerial functions. International companies today formulate separate business plans to strategically overcome cultural and ethical challenges in host countries. Globalization has internationally integrated the world with respect to products, ideas and different aspects of culture. The word culture regulates international businessesRead MoreImportance of Ethics in International Business1541 Words   |  7 PagesImportance of Ethics in International Business Executive Summary Ethics in the business world is important and global. Ethics  indicate what is right and what is wrong in  business branches and also lead employees and stakeholders with moral values. Due to the globalization of markets and production processes, business people have to deal with ethical issues in cross-cultural settings at an increasing number. The purpose of this paper is to explain the importance of international business, emphasiseRead MoreEthics Codes And The World Of International Business1404 Words   |  6 PagesEthics or what it is sometimes known as moral philosophy is an idea that involves the decision or right or wrong conduct. Ethics play a very vital role in any business and especially in the world of international business. In an international business setting the set of ethically right doings expands greatly due to a particular countries ethics standards. Not all ethics standards are the same especially when dealing with countries across the seas from the United States of America. Due to differentRead MoreInformation On Culture Shock : How Employees Identity Is The Impact By Culture959 Words   |  4 Pagesarchived on culture shock. How employees identity is the impact by culture. Dealing with organizations how training plays an important role on teaching employees how to overcome the negative effects of culture shock. A given explanation would be on how women work in the new environment today. And finally, a brief discussion on what is the work ethic of the new region. What is culture shock? Culture is believed to be a shared system of attitudes, values, beliefs and behavior. Hofstede (2003) culture is learned

World Civilization Notes Free Essays

string(82) " present the term is used to cover more fields than just the arts and literature\." HUM 1000: WORLD CIVILIZATIONS NOTES THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION IN AFRICA Definition of key terms As we begin this course, it is crucial to first discuss our understanding of the concept ‘civilization’. This is a comparative term which is usually applied in comparison to such words as ‘barbarian’ ‘savage’ and ‘primitive’. In classical antiquity the Europeans used the word ‘barbarian’ to refer to a foreigner who was regarded as inferior (Ogutu and Kenyanchui, An Introduction To African History, 1991 p33). We will write a custom essay sample on World Civilization Notes or any similar topic only for you Order Now Do you think this is still the way we use the word barbarian? The Latin speakers referred to hunters, food-gatherers as savage. In the 17th century this term ‘savage’ referred to a person without art, literacy, or society who lived in fear of existence and death. ‘Primitive’ on the other hand, in Latin meant ‘the first or original’. Europeans used these words interchangeably when referring to non-Europeans while the word civilization was preserved to describe historical developments of European people (ibid). Now the term civilization is no longer confined to the above development but also extends reference to non-European communities. Attributes of civilization includes observance to law, belonging to an organized society, having a society of literate people with advanced developments in urbanization, agriculture, commerce, arts and technology. The French thinkers of the 18th century referred to a person of the arts and literature as cultured. But at the present the term is used to cover more fields than just the arts and literature. You read "World Civilization Notes" in category "Essay examples" Sometimes, therefore the words ‘civilization’ and ‘culture’ are interchangeably applied. In this unit, however, more use is confined to the word ‘civilization’ especially in reference to human developments over time and in all continents. Another term that requires discussion at this stage is ‘prehistory’. Just like ‘civilization’,’prehistory’ is used in comparative terms especially in relation to history. Both terms refer to the past human activities. But whereas history as used by historians refers to the inquiry, investigation or research into a totality of human past experience, prehistory is rather confined to an inquiry or research into a totality of human past experience before the invention of writing. In our course-text (Anthony Esler, The Human Venture vol 1, 2004) this prehistoric period stretches between 5000 and 3500 BC. This period is also known as Stone Age period. Archeology plays a vital part in enabling us learn more about this prehistoric period. Through excavation and dating , a lot of prehistoric information is obtained. The Prehistoric or Stone Age Period There are two versions which explain the origins of human species. These are creation and biological explanation. The creation version exists in the Judaeo-Christian: Old Testament and its African counterpart. This Judaeo-Christian Old Testament is captured in the book of Genesis 2:6-7 in which it is written ‘But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. There is more detail about the whole sequence of creation in Genesis 1. Indeed it is written that human beings were the last to be created specific in God’s own image. This is best explained in Genesis 1:27: à ¢â‚¬ËœSo God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them’. This creation story is vividly portrayed by Michelangelo on the ceiling of Sistine chapel in the Vatican at Rome . The pictures showing muscled, hugely bearded figure of Jehovah dividing light from darkness with a gesture rolling the sun and the moon into being, extending his powerful right hand to bestow upon Adam the ultimate gift of life attracts numerous tourists to the Vatican. There are various aspects of creation explanations in Africa. However we use the version in The Human Venture vol. 1 (p 7). According to this version, Doondari made humankind out of the five elements; fire, water, air, iron, and stone. The oldest of all creation stories, that of the Minnite Theology carved in stone at Memphis on the Nile almost five thousand years ago, calls the creator Ptah and says that he made the first sentient beings with weapons in their hands. Similar creation myths are found among other communities. This is because human beings are always concerned with understanding ‘first things’ and how they led to more complex ones. Such myths are reinforced by science which intimates that our earth developed from ‘a ring of glowing gases cooled and solidified into planets. Around the planet earth was water which spread over much of the world and above the earth was the atmosphere. HUM 1000: WORLD CIVILIZATIONS NOTES THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION IN AFRICA Definition of key terms As we begin this course, it is crucial to first discuss our understanding of the concept ‘civilization’. This is a comparative term which is usually applied in comparison to such words as ‘barbarian’ ‘savage’ and ‘primitive’. In classical antiquity the Europeans used the word ‘barbarian’ to refer to a foreigner who was regarded as inferior (Ogutu and Kenyanchui, An Introduction To African History, 1991 p33). Do you think this is still the way we use the word barbarian? The Latin speakers referred to hunters, food-gatherers as savage. In the 17th century this term ‘savage’ referred to a person without art, literacy, or society who lived in fear of existence and death. ‘Primitive’ on the other hand, in Latin meant ‘the first or original’. Europeans used these words interchangeably when referring to non-Europeans while the word civilization was preserved to describe historical developments of European people (ibid). Now the term civilization is no longer confined to the above development but also extends reference to non-European communities. Attributes of civilization includes observance to law, belonging to an organized society, having a society of literate people with advanced developments in urbanization, agriculture, commerce, arts and technology. The French thinkers of the 18th century referred to a person of the arts and literature as cultured. But at the present the term is used to cover more fields than just the arts and literature. Sometimes, therefore the words ‘civilization’ and ‘culture’ are interchangeably applied. In this unit, however, more use is confined to the word ‘civilization’ especially in reference to human developments over time and in all continents. Another term that requires discussion at this stage is ‘prehistory’. Just like ‘civilization’,’prehistory’ is used in comparative terms especially in relation to history. Both terms refer to the past human activities. But whereas history as used by historians refers to the inquiry, investigation or research into a totality of human past experience, prehistory is rather confined to an inquiry or research into a totality of human past experience before the invention of writing. In our course-text (Anthony Esler, The Human Venture vol 1, 2004) this prehistoric period stretches between 5000 and 3500 BC. This period is also known as Stone Age period. Archeology plays a vital part in enabling us learn more about this prehistoric period. Through excavation and dating , a lot of prehistoric information is obtained. The Prehistoric or Stone Age Period There are two versions which explain the origins of human species. These are creation and biological explanation. The creation version exists in the Judaeo-Christian: Old Testament and its African counterpart. This Judaeo-Christian Old Testament is captured in the book of Genesis 2:6-7 in which it is written ‘But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. ’ And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. There is more detail about the whole sequence of creation in Genesis 1. Indeed it is written that human beings were the last to be created specific in God’s own image. This is best explained in Genesis 1:27: ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them’. This creation story is vividly portrayed by Michelangelo on the ceiling of Sistine chapel in the Vatican at Rome . The pictures showing muscled, hugely bearded figure of Jehovah dividing light from darkness with a gesture rolling the sun and the moon into being, extending his powerful right hand to bestow upon Adam the ultimate gift of life attracts numerous tourists to the Vatican. There are various aspects of creation explanations in Africa. However we use the version in The Human Venture vol. 1 (p 7). According to this version, Doondari made humankind out of the five elements; fire, water, air, iron, and stone. The oldest of all creation stories, that of the Minnite Theology carved in stone at Memphis on the Nile almost five thousand years ago, calls the creator Ptah and says that he made the first sentient beings with weapons in their hands. Similar creation myths are found among other communities. This is because human beings are always concerned with understanding ‘first things’ and how they led to more complex ones. Such myths are reinforced by science which intimates that our earth developed from ‘a ring of glowing gases cooled and solidified into planets. Around the planet earth was water which spread over much of the world and above the earth was the atmosphere. From these basic settings, life emerged from single-celled bacteria and gradually evolved into bigger creatures in the sea. And even continued evolving outside the sea. Such creatures outside the sea include birds and other beasts. Besides vegetations also developed from the moss and horsetails to such bigger plants like trees. All this took place before the hominids emerged. Herein lies the biological or evolution explanation. The evolution process which continued resulted in great geographical features such as grassland, forest, desert among others. More than two thirds of the earth was covered with water. The protruded expanse of dry land formed the seven continents. They included Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, North and South America and Antarctica. Each continent and the islands that lay between them had a range of climate and topography which provided a variety of human beings. Human Development Through the excavations of Mary and Louis Leakey at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, it was established that Africa is the origin of human species. The skeleton of Don Johansson’s Lucy found scattered over a hillside in Ethiopia pushed prehuman origin back several years. Hominids or hominid like bones from more recent times include those of Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal type first found in France and Germany and their kin Peking Man and Java Man discovered in Asia. Together with theses finds were also crude stone tools, later pots, pictures and bits of clothing were unearthed. The discovery of the ‘ice man’ an intact human corpse, discovered frozen in the alpine ice in 1991came complete with deerskin coat, fur hat, stone dagger, bow and arrows and a crude copper axe. The biological evolution of human beings dates back to tens of millions of years when small fury creatures with huge eyes and long tail lived in forests, balanced on high branches and snatched at insects. From these there developed primates from who emerged as long as five million years ago the line of development known as hominids of which the humans are the only surviving descendants. There were various changes that the human ancestors underwent to adapt to the environment. For instance eyes of the tree dwellers changed and developed stereoscopic (depth) vision and color sightedness, very useful capacities for leaping from branch to branch. When these ancestors moved from forests to open grassland five million years ago more changes followed. Their legs and feet changed to permit erect bipedal walking on the African savanna. The posture in turn freed the hands for carrying game and foraged nuts and berries back to the family circle. The hands developed producing the most efficient thumb for the manipulation of any primate’s. The hominid brain grew, doubling and tripling in size and evolving a capacity that enabled human beings develop culture. Gradually, a number of hominid species developed, flourished for a time then died out. The Australopithecines of three and a half million years ago were perhaps four feet tall and had brain about a third of modern human’s. Hominids of the Neanderthal line were closer to us. Hominids who survived made stone tools, buried their dead with ceremony and decorated the walls of their caves with paintings of the animals they hunted. These survivors who emerged approximately thirty-five thousand years ago were the Cro-Magnon people, a subspecies of the hominid family called Homo sapiens (wise people). They were the last of the hominid line and biologically indistinguishable from us. Prehistoric Migrations As is established the homeland of human beings is in Africa. Around two million years ago, the ancestors began migrating to other continents of Europe and Asia. A skull found in China indicates that these ancestors reached East Asia two hundred thousand years ago. Between 70,000 and 40,000 BC human beings reached Australia between 40,000 and 20,000 BC they reached the Americas. Thus in about half a million years, prehistoric ancestors spread around the world. They evolved various cultures and ways of life which kept improving through the various ages. It is to these civilizations that we now turn. The Ancient Civilization of Egypt In this topic we will look at the factors behind the rise of the ancient Egyptian civilization, the growth of the Egyptian Kingdom and its contribution to the ancient world. The Factors for the Rise of Ancient Egyptian Civilization Its appropriate to state that ancient Egypt was directly linked to the rest of Africa. Unlike at present, the Sahara desert had not developed. Hence movement between the northern and the southern parts of Africa were possible. This fact is true because some African communities in both East and West Africa argue that their ancestral homelands were in Misri which roughly refers to Egypt. 1)Egyptian civilization owes its origin and development largely to the water from River Nile whose Source is in the South especially in Lake Victoria. In addition, the Blue Nile which is a tributary of the White Nile flows from the Ethiopian Highlands. The heart of the land was that part of the river from the first cataract at Aswan to the fan shaped delta where it flowed in to the Mediterranean Sea. The river winds six hundred miles from the cataracts to the delta. The Nile Valley is hardly more than a few miles wide, but for the last hundred miles the valley opens up into the flat triangular delta spread along the sea. It is because of this river that Egypt was described as ‘the gift of the Nile’. The river’s annual rise and fall were crucial for the life of Egypt. On its way from the south, the Nile on reaching Upper Egypt overflowed its banks and deposited over the narrow valley a layer of rich black mud, alluvium picked up along its way from the south. (2)The human resource was yet another factor. Perhaps as early as the fifth millennium BC the hunters and nomadic pastoralists who had moved to the Nile Valley realized the agricultural potential of the fertile valley. They settled into agricultural villages and planted wheat and flax for clothing. They organized themselves into clans having animal totems such as crocodile or the hippopotamus. Sometime between 3500BC and 3000BC cooperative economic effort appeared as the Egyptians began to attempt at controlling the Nile with dikes and catch basins. Copper was used more widely. The population grew. (3)There was influence from outside, for instance, there were the Mesopotamian style cylinder seals found in Egypt. Besides Sumerian pictograms appear among the earliest Egyptian hieroglyphics. In the growth of the Egyptian civilization, there was an intermediate stage rom the villages to the centralized Monarchial state. After the villages, there were the two lands of upper and Lower Egypt. The vulture of the goddess Nekhbet was sacred in Upper Egypt while the cobra of Wadjet sacred in Lower Egypt. The kings of the upper valley wore white crown while those of the delta a red one. People in the upper and Lower Egypt often fought each other. The Old Kingdom This area covered approxima tely ten thousand square miles. In 3000 BC, this Old Kingdom was the largest or most centralized state in the world. The Pharaoh was officially the king of upper and Lower Egypt. The Lord of the two lands’ and as such was crowned and symbolically buried in each of the two lands. There were separate treasures for the two halves of his kingdom and much duplication of officials. The tendency toward fragmentation embodied in the nomes, the provinces of pharaonic Egypt posed challenge to the unity of the state. Independent totemic communities or clans prior to unification, the nomes could become centers of disunity under ambitious governors. To hold the nation together, the early pharaohs forged a powerful alliance with the temples and the priests. This is because the pharaohs claimed that they themselves were incarnations of divinity. The pharaoh was believed to be the son of the sun god Re. The reigning pharaoh was also Horus, the sky god-symbolized by falcon. On his death, the Falcon flew to the horizon, and the dead pharaoh became Osiris, King of the Underworld. Therefore the Pharaoh among the ancient Egyptians was semi-divine. Every year the pharaoh performed religious ceremonies that guaranteed the rising of the river. He and his officials ruled the land in the spirit of Ma’at, a combination of truth, justice and order that was for the Egyptians the highest of virtues. In the underworld, the souls of the dead were weighed against Ma’at. In this world the pharaoh himself was its living embodiment and the guarantee that the land would be ruled in its spirit. The Egyptians developed an elaborate administrative system. The chief administrative officer under the pharaoh was the vizier whose roles included chief judge, superintendent of public works and right hand to the king. Under the vizier were such offices as those of treasuries, agriculture, officials in charge of irrigation systems and a secretariat. There was also a provincial administration charged with governing the nomes. The rulers of these provinces, the nomarchs exercised considerable local authority. They controlled the local militia, the source of most of the military strength of the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt. The Egyptian bureaucracy was staffed by scribes . Scribes conducted census of land and people, estimated size of the harvest and calculated taxes in kind. They supervised the vital irrigation system, organized the care and feeding of the pharaohs and the building of the royal tombs. Old kingdom Egypt was an ordered state and the society was organized hierarchically . At the top was the pharaoh while at the bottom were the slaves . See the diagram on the next page. Pharaoh v Pharaonic family, Relatives and Courtiers v The vizier (PM) and his circle v The Priests v The Scribes v Soldiers v Workers v Peasants v Foreigners v Slaves Source: Ogutu Kenyanchui, An Introduction To African history,1991 p. 35 The hierarchy was symbolized most massively by the pyramid tombs of the pharaohs of the fourth dynasty; the dynasty of Khufu (also known as Cheops) builder of the great pyramid at Giza, around 2550 B. C The Middle Kingdom This period which stretches from around 2200 BC to the emergence of the New Kingdom about 1550 BC is considered as a transition period between the two worlds. The period was characterized by political turbulence, famine and the invasion of marauding desert Bedouin in the delta. Egyptians longed for a return to the immemorial order of past centuries. What they got, however, was not a return to the past but a dynamic new direction to national life . Ambitious dynasts from Thebes City in Upper Egypt snatched the kingdom from the last royal house to rule in Memphis. During the twentieth and nineteenth centuries BC, the powerful 12th dynasty restored prosperity and order along the Nile. Pharaohs during this period expanded their kingdom and trade . Egyptian merchants traded with Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia and Minoan Crete. Egyptian military pushed south along the Nile into Nubia and on into The Sudan . Egypt for the first time became involved in a large scale with regions in North-East Africa and the Near East However the pharaohs who succeeded those in the 12th dynasty were weak and did not continue the firm hold on the expanded kingdom . Before 1700 BC the Hyksos, an Asiatic speaking group seized power . Because they were less sophisticated than the ancient Egyptians ,the Hyksos were culturally assimilated ,adopted Egyptian names , worshipped Egyptian gods and followed other traditional royal rites.. The Hyksos introduced the use of bronze instead of softer copper . In addition they also introduced the two wheeled horse-drawn war chariot. After about one and a half centuries their rule was ended and more powerful pharaohs from Lower Egypt took over and established the New Kingdom. The New Kingdom King Ahmose was hailed by posterity as the father of the new kingdom and the founder of the eighteenth dynasty (Abu Bakri, ‘Pharaonic Egypt’ in G . Mokhtar, ed General History of Africa vol 2(Abridged Edition) 1990, 73) Around 1550 BC Ahmose attacked, defeated and expelled the Hyksos from Egypt to Palestine . He even followed them there and destroyed their base . Back at home he put down the rebellious nobility and Nubian princess who collaborated with Hyksos. All the loot from Ahmose’s victories, he heaped them at the feet of Amon, the sun god of Thebes . The priesthood of Amon thus became the most powerful in Egypt and Thebes the new capital. Pharaoh Hatshepsut (1490-1468BC) who married each of her half brothers in turn was, however, in her fifth year powerful enough to declare herself supreme ruler of the country. She declared herself the child of Re; and the god’s designated ruler, had herself crowned with double crown and seated herself on the golden throne of pharaohs. The two peaceful decades of her reign were prosperous for Egypt . She concentrated her attention upon the country’s internal affairs and upon building enterprises, mainly her magnificent temple at Western Thebes . The two achievements of which she was most proud were:- 1. The expedition to punt where the Egyptian fleet obtained ebony and ivory perfumes and spices, apes ,monkeys ,leopard skins, slaves and thirty-one live myrrh trees which were ceremoniously replanted at the queen’s temple at Deir el Bahari. 2. The raising of two great obelisks at the temple of Karnak. At her death/ Thutmose the 3rd (1486-1436 BC) took over. He was a skilled archer and charioteer. The militaristic elements among the aristocracy who longed for more aggressive foreign policy loved him. He fought seventeen campaigns gainst a coalition of city states of Palestine-Syria-Lebanon/region. The coalition had been plotting at Megiddo to revolt against Egypt’s domination. Consequently, the whole country as far as the southern Lebanon came under Egyptian control. Egypt was therefore firmly established as a world power with a far reaching empire (A. Abu Bakr/1990, 73). It stretched over much of the ancient Ferti le Crescent, from the Euphrates to the forth cataract of the Nile. Thutmose the 3rd had well equipped army supplied with the latest swords, bows and amour of the late Bronze Age. The army also used well constructed chariots. He established garrison towns, local governors and a sophisticated system of puppet kings to control what he had conquered. He raised obelisks as far south as the fourth cataract to signify his imperial expanse. These obelisks were looted and are found in Rome, Istanbul, London and New York’s Central Park. Another outstanding pharaoh was Akhenaton (Amenhotep the 4th/ 1364-1347 BC) who was also described as heretic pharaoh, a religious visionary or the doom of his dynasty(Esler A, The Human Venture, 2004, 54). He was physically weak with a frail effeminate body with hardly the makings of soldier or statesman. He was mostly concerned with matters of the mind and spirit. In his youthful fascination, Akhenaton instituted a radical change of policy which led to the direct attack on the priesthood of Amon. Initially he continued to live at Thebes where he had a great temple to Aton (the sun disk erected east of Amon†s temple at Karnak. Later, because of resistance to his reform in Thebes Akhenaton withdrew from the city. He founded a new residence at El-Amarna in Middle Egypt which he called Akhetaton (the horizon of Aton) where he lived until his death. It was here that he changed his name from Amenhotep (Amon is satisfied to Akhenaton (He who is serviceable to Aton or spirit of Aton). Akhenaton proclaimed Aton as the sole true god to be worshipped throughout Egypt. He launched campaigns to destroy all the other cults and replaced them with the worship of Aton. Hence Akhenaton was the first ruler to advocate for monotheism thirteen and a half centuries before Christ. Aton was represented not in human form like other gods but simply by the solar disk. Rays spread down from it and at the ends of the rays there were hands. Temples of Aton were built without roofs so that the worshipper might commune directly with the god and feel his power in the sky above. The Atonist revolution did not survive the death of Akhenaton. His second successor Tutankhamun returned to the faith of his ancestors and became a worshipper of Amon. However it was not until the reign of Horemheb as the last king of the Eighteenth Dynasty that the persecution of Aton began with the same persistence that had formerly applied to Amon (Abu-Bakr, 1990, 75). The Decline of Ancient Egypt Its decline could be attributed to the following factors; 1. The empire had grown so big that it was not easy to hold it together against external attacks. The Hittites and the sea people (biblical philistines) constantly attacked the delta. 2. The weak kings undermined the state especially in the face of invaders. During the thousand years that followed the end of the New kingdom in the eleventh century/ Theban priests, Libyan mercenaries, Nubian kings, Assyrians, Persians, Macedonians and Romans ruled Egypt in turns. The Art, Thought and Achievements in Ancient Egypt Some of the art, thought and achievements are already discussed under the previous topics. For instance the roles of art and religion as well as the establishment of empire have been discussed. Perhaps what follows is to briefly itemize others; 1. The discovery of the art of writing in Egypt began as picture writing i. e. hieroglyphics carved with reed pens on papyrus. As a working script therefore, hieroglyphic writing evolved over centuries into a cursive script called hieratic. The latter looked more like modern Arabic. 2. Scientific knowledge; Astronomy, Egyptians divided the night sky into eparate constellations, compiled detailed records of the nightly positions of some heavenly bodies and constructed on this basis a calendar that is close to the solar one in use today. Mathematics: Ancient Egyptians used mathematics to survey and re-establish boundary lines after the annual inundation had washed out the line markers up and down the Nile. They also used measurement and calculat ion for architecture and engineering, for predicting harvests and totaling royal tax receipts. Medicine: Ancient Egyptian medicine operated on the basis of experience and rules of the thumb. Egyptian doctors indeed showed genuine clinical concern with symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. Some of the prescribed remedies include drugs, such as castor oil that may even have done the patient some good. 3. Construction; Ancient Egyptians were great builders. They built in stone. The old kingdom pyramids still stand out as some of the wonders of the world. The forty five hundred years and the two and a half million cubic yards of solid stone in the great pyramid of Khufu is one example of human engineering feats. Obelisks were another Egyptian architectural specialist. They often stood almost a hundred feet high. Their hieroglyphic inscriptions described the achievements of the pharaohs who erected them i. e. Hatshepsut or Thutmose the 3rd. Other architectural feats include temples, tombs and sarcophaguses (stone coffins) 4. Polytheistic Religion; The sources of religion include ancient Egyptians need for supernatural help to ensure a supply of game, growing herds or desire for human support when dealing with life transition and with specific afflictions i. e. wars, pestilence, famine and oppression. 5. To express the inexpressible religious leaders turn to metaphor. This experience has brought religious discourse from the historically conditioned realities of a particular time and place i. e. the sun god sails down a celestial Nile in the mind of the Egyptian. 6. Egyptians worshipped many gods i. e. Amon-Ra, Osiris, Horus. The Origin of Civilization In The Rest Of Africa Since it is established that the earliest human species is in the land of the great lakes of East Africa, it becomes clear that the Egyptian civilization was not isolated from the areas where the earliest forms of human origins are situated. Hence there was a lot of interconnectedness between the north and the south. We use Kush and Nubia to illustrate this point. The Nubians supplied ancient Egypt with gold, ivory, ebony, ostrich, feathers and slaves. It also supplied cattle, grain, leopards (and their skins), giraffes (whose tails were used as fly whisks, oils and perfumes among others. During the Egyptian decline, Nubian army went into Egypt and even took control of the Egyptian throne. Between the 11th c. BC and the 4th c. AD, the Nubian territory constituted the state of Kush. This area generally stretches from the first cataract of the Nile and the confluence between the Blue Nile and the White Nile. The region is currently between Egypt’s Aswan Dam and the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. During around 1500 BC, the area fell under the expansionist New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. Egyptian Governors and garrisons, priests and artisans influenced Kush greatly. Sons of Kushite kings were educated at the Egyptian royal court at Thebes. Egyptian temples and gods royal rituals and hieroglyphics were all transplanted to the Sudan. The Egyptian religious complex at Napata in particular became a centre for the spread of the Egyptian culture among the Africans beyond the cataracts. During the decline of Egypt from around 1100 BC, the kingdom of Kush regained its independence and flourished, none the less; the Kushite kings still followed Egyptian ways and worshipped Egyptians gods. They recovered their deeds in hieroglyphics inscriptions and buried their dead under the pyramid like those of the old kingdoms. Around 750 BC the Kushite kings Kashata and Piankhi marched north and liberated Egypt from Libyan rulers. For more than half a century later the Kushite pharaohs of the 25th Egyptian dynasty ruled a dual kingdom that stretched around 1400 miles from the Blue Nile to the shores of the Mediterranean. The Assyrians expelled the 25th dynasty and replaced the Kushite kings in Egypt. The golden age of Kushitic civilization was during Meroe’s ascendancy. Meroe built its cities in sun-dried bricks like Egyptians. Kushitic rulers’ succession was by consensus among the royal princes. The queen mother was uniquely powerful. Egyptian priesthoods i. e. the sun god was influential. But later it was replaced by the Kushite lion god Apedemek. The wealth of Kush lay in the location of its fertile land and its dynamic people. Kushite capital, Meroe was watered not only by the Nile but also by a significant annual rainfall. Hence there was expansive pasture and cropland. There were such minerals as gold and iron. Kushite artisans exploited the iron ore so industriously that Meroe became one of the centers for the production of iron in Africa. Later Kush developed its own writing. The first centuries of Christian era witnessed the decline of Kush. Reasons could include limited land that ended up being overgrazed, the drying out of the land due to creeping of the Sahara southwards and the loss of its northern customers, Egypt. Trade in the east was taken over by Axum which destroyed the kingdom of Kush finally. THE ORIENTAL CIVILIZATION Introduction The oriental as an adjective derives from the ‘noun’ orient’ which refers to the ‘East’. The concept of ‘East as used in reference to countries in Asia was given by the Europeans. Therefore in our discussion, we will look at such civilization as those of Mesopotamia, Hebrew, Persia, India and China. THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATION OF MESOPOTAMIA Ancient Mesopotamia was situated between River Tigris and River Euphrates. Indeed it was because of these two rivers that the Greeks called the land Mesopotamia to mean land between the rivers. Between 3,500 and 539 B. C cities and temples emerged first in Sumeria in the delta at the head of the Persian Gulf. This was followed by more cities and temples in Akkladian, Babylon and climaxed in Assyria. All these constituted Mesopotamia. Gradual drying out of the sea covered delta at the mouths of the two rivers exposed the fertile side that may have attracted Neolithic farmers to migrate from the hilly areas and moved to settle in the villages at summer or Sumeria. These early inhabitants built reeds houses in the delta and hunted birds and speared fish. They were also farmers much as they hunted and gathered wild fruits. From this area, the ancient Sumerians built over centuries a type of civilization that was later emulated. The Sumerians first discovered how to tame the flooding waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. They constructed dykes, canals and irrigation ditches that converted the water from destructive actions to more productive uses like enabling the community to produce enough foods stuffs. The Sumerians planted barley and wheat. They cultivated date palm for fruit and palm wine. Sumerians reared sheep and goats from which wool and hair clothing was made. They used oxen to pull, plough, donkeys were beasts of burden, horses and camels were domesticated later. These latter animals were obtained during the Sumerian war encounters against their neighbouring foreigners. Mesopotamia developed such crafts as textiles, pottery and stone carving, smelting of copper and alloy of bronze. They also invented the wheel solid and spoked (The human venture vdl) P. 37) To go along with the wheel, the Sumerians invented the carts and wagons. It is assumed that they were the first to invent writing. However, their most important invention was city itself. The city became the centre of civilization. In Mesopotamia, cities had high and thick walls with special gateways. Inside the walls, the town was divided into four quarters by main streets that entered the city through four main gates. Dominant features in the city-state were king’s palace, the temple of gods, and large houses of leading citizens. Temples or Zigguarats were pyramidal, terraced towers visible from far beyond the city walls. Streets were mostly narrow and winding, crowded with shopkeepers, artisans, slaves, citizens and even priests. The city had the aristocrats who included royal officials, members of the royal family and the chief priest of the major temples. The middle class included textile manufacturers, metal work manufacturers in copper and bronze, and merchants. In the fields outside the walls were peasant, serfs and slaves. Among this lower cadre of society, very few peasants were free citizens. Most were tenant farmers holding their land in return for payment in kind to absentee landlords, serfs and slaves worked on land owned by the royal family and the chief gods of the city state. These cadres of lower members in society were subjected to strict rules enforced by supervisor who made sure that the workers irrigated farms to sustain city –life. The shadoof method was widely employed in irrigation. A shadoof was a long pivoted pole with a weight at one end and a bucket at the other. The tool was used to lift water from larger channels into the furrows where the seeds were planted. Other methods of irrigation included levees which were constantly strengthened, canals and ditches as irrigation methods were redredged to prevent silting up. Hence a good deal of cooperation was necessary for the success of the said group work. Mesopotamia women worked as weavers, pottery makers, farm workers and manual workers. In summer and Babylon, women could own property, sign legal contracts and engage in business themselves. Monarchies and cults of gods were central institutions in Sumerian society. Temples came first. The pyramidal Ziggurats and broad temple complexes of gods and goddesses – Anu, Enhil, Enlil, Ninhursag and Imana (the last was also known as Ishtar) dominated the skyline of the Sumerian city. Each city had its own patron among the heavenly assembly, who was believed to bring rising rivers and rich harvests to keep misfortunes at bay and to maintain law and order. MESOPOTAMIAN EMPIRE An empire was the most common larger form of political organization beyond the city states. Several efforts were made at this empire building by such rulers as Sargon of Akkad, Hammurabi of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar in the New Babylonian empire. However Persians reduced these efforts by making Mesopotamia as a Persian satrapy or province. Several factors frustrated the Mesopotamia efforts at uniting. They included i. Attacks from the outsiders who included Akkadians Gadians, Kassites and Persians. ii. The existence of fragmented feudal order in Mesopotamia. This led to division of power among land owning aristocracy. iii. The tendency of a number of regions to break up into middle sized states which enjoyed their own hegemonies and resisted efforts from outside that aimed at imposing larger order on the entire Mesopotamia. iv. Polarization among rival Mesopotamian city –states frustrated efforts by any that aimed at uniting Mesopotamia. v. The unity which occurred temporarily was due to successful confrontations accompanied by losses in human lives and destruction of property. The following are some of the successful attempts. Sargon of Akkad king of Sumerian founded a dynasty around 2300 BC His dynasty governed most of Mesopotamia for about a century. From a lesser Sumerian city – state, Sargon replaced his royal master on the throne, overthrew the dynasty of Uruk and conquered most of the Tigris and Euphrates valley. He garrisoned his conquests with Akkadian troops and built himself a new capital at Agade. Sargon’s son and grandson ruled after him. However, a volcanic eruption may have brought drought to the region. The violent Gatians swept down from neighbouring hills destroyed Agade and its imperial Mesopotamian domain. Sargon is thus remembered as the world’s first empire builder. Hammurabi, also known as the lawgiver of Babylon (1792 -1750 BC) was born king of Babylon. The sixth in the line of Amorite rulers, Hammurabi governed Babylon for about thirty years before embarking on his expansionist venture into the rest of Mesopotamia. Employing shrewd statecraft, good timing and military force, Hammurabi expanded his empire far beyond the confines of his predecessors. For a brief [period, he and his successors had authority over all the people of Mesopotamia (Human Venture, 42) Hammurabi the law-giver introduced a code of laws covering a range of civil and criminal matters. They tackled family relations, land laws, business laws, personal injury, military service, matters touching on witchcraft and taxes. Some of his laws are harsh seen from the present times. For instance, a principle of ‘an eye for an eye’ ‘a life for a life’ is cited for being extreme. But looked at with knowledge about our present judicial system, would you consider them strange? Hammurabi’s code observed some social hierarchy. There were laws for slaves and laws for their masters. For example, a noble was punished more harshly for the same offence than his social inferiors. Here one gets the impression that ‘might is not always right’ Does it operate in our society? At his death, Hammurabi had built so expensive an empire that his successors were unable to hold together. Attacks from enemies like Kassites, from the east weakened the empire. Within a century and a half, the empire had crumbled away. It took some time before other unifiers, this time from Assyria emerged. As the Babylonian empire declined, the Assyrians emerged as a military power right from the fourteenth century BC. By the later part of the eighth century BC, they were incorporating their victims into a large and growing empire. In the seventh century BC under Sennacherib and Assurbanipal, Assyrians conquered Egypt and most of Mesopotamia. Thus under Assurbanipal Assyrian empire briefly ran from the Nile valley to the Persian Gulf. However, in the last part of the seventh century BC, chaos bedeviled the Assyrian empire. In 612 BC, an allied force of Chaldeans from Babylon and Medes from the eastern mountains attacked Assyria, defeated it and destroyed its city Nineveh. One lasting legacy the Assyrians were known for was savage brutality. The Assyrian decline prepared room for the rise of New Babylonian Empire. During the New Babylonian empire, Nebuchadnezzar II (605 -562) was a dominant figure. Soon after the fall of Nineveh, while still prince of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar commanded the Babylonian army which had defeated the Egyptian forces at (carchemish in 605 BC. As king, he repeatedly attacked Palestine, destroyed Jerusalem and forced Judeans into exile At its peak, the new Babylonian empire compared in size with the Assyrian empire at its climax. It thus stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea during the sixth century BC. Nebuchadnezzar II was a great builder of canals and caravan roads as well as temples and palaces. He raised huge new walls around his capital, eleven miles long and very wide. He opened the broad processional way through the heart of the city to the Ishtar gate. He built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, towering Ziggurat featuring terraces planted with trees and exotic plants. It is said he did this to please his Median wife who missed the hills of her mountains home. Nebuchadnezzar’s successors were not able to keep the huge empire safe from external attacks. Hence in 539 BC, the Persian conqueror, also known as ‘Cyrus the Great defeated the rulers of the New Babylon Empire and ushered in a new era. THE HEBREW CIVILISATION Introduction In this section, we look at the Hebrew (or Jews) as a people, their efforts at establishing their Jewish Kingdom and the lasting legacy to posterity. It is at their legacy that the aspect of monotheism is critically discussed. It is also worthy noting that Hebrew history is intertwined with the Old Testament story.. The Hebrew people At the beginning of the second millennium BC the Hebrews were part of the nomadic population of Semitic speakers who wandered and settled along the shores of the Arabian Desert between Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations. Abraham, the founder or patriarch of the Hebrew community moved from Ur with his wives and children, servants, shepherds and flocks around him and settled for a time in Palestine (Canaan) situated around Jordan River. A section of the community moved into Egypt where tradition states they were oppressed in the New Kingdom of Egypt. Hence in the thirteenth century BC, these Hebrews resumed their wanderings. Their liberator, Moses held them together for forty years in the wilderness of Sinai. Moses rallied them behind a single God, Yaweh. Hence by the 1200’s BC, the Hebrews had become monotheists (The Human Venture, Vol. 1, p. 67) and promised to obey his commandments. It is believed, God’s messenger to the Hebrews, Moses wrote the Torah, also known as Pentateuch. These were the first five books of the Bible. Thus, through these books, Moses the liberator and law giver became a world historical figure. The Hebrews had some of their sections also known as Yehudim which when translated into English became Jews. Hence the genesis of the name that mostly refers to the present descendants of the Hebrews. The Hebrew Kingdom When the Hebrews ultimately settled at Palestine, all the twelve ethnic groups evolved into a kingdom. Earlier, before making this decision, the Hebrew communities were divided and disunited along clan and ethnic lines. Their leaders were called judges. At times they were also guided by charismatic prophets. Shortly before 1000 BC, however, all the twelve ethnic groups resolved to follow a single king who was to be also a war leader capable of winning wars against their enemies. Saul, David and Solomon were some of the first kings of the Hebrews. David (1010-960 BC) a gifted military leader defeated the Philistines and completed the conquest of Canaan. He cemented the political unity of the twelve ethnic groups, established a Hebrew state and began to build a Hebrew capital at Jerusalem. Generally regarded as the strongest of Hebrew rulers, David is reputed for founding a centralised kingdom of Israel in the tenth century BC. Indeed Soul, the first ruler made effort but could not score definitive victory against enemies of the Hebrews. Hence when he fell in battle, he was replaced by David. David was later succeeded by Solomon (960-920 BC), his son, reputed for his wisdom. Solomon was a shrewd diplomat and a great builder. He married many wives and kept many concubines, he built a magnificent palace for himself and a great temple for Yaweh. Solomon further strengthened and equipped his army with chariots and new iron-age weapons. Furthermore, he built, rebuilt and fortified a number of cities. Solomon also constructed ships and traded with the Phoenicians and even down the Red Sea. Hence, Solomon in a way symbolized the governmental ideals of wisdom and power in the service of the people. In his effort to ensure that the Hebrew Kingdom remained powerful in the region, Solomon employed huge amounts of labour and money. He used oppressive taxation, forced labour and other harsh measures that made him unpopular among his people. Differences among the urban and commercial northerners and the pastoral, agricultural and more religious southerners of his kingdom weakened the monarchy. The emerging rebellion split the kingdom after Solomon’s death. The Fall of the Hebrew Kingdom The split of the Hebrew Kingdom into Judah in the South and ruled from Jerusalem and Israel in the North marked the fall of the kingdom. The nation of Judah was made up of two of the Hebrew communities while Israel had ten of the original twelve ethnic groups. Neither of the two could withstand attacks from more powerful enemies who included the Assyrians and Babylonians. Hence in the eighth century BC, Israel was conquered by the Assyrians while Nebuchadnezzar II of New Babylonian empire defeated Judah in the sixth century (586) BC. Jerusalem and Solomon’s great temple were destroyed. Many Hebrews were held captive in Babylon. Others fled to Egypt and beyond, beginning the diaspora or dispersal of the Jewish people. Some captives escaped and returned to rebuild the temple of their Lord, Yaweh, before the end of the sixth century BC. But such short-lived Jewish states as what emerged in later periods could not withstand attacks from Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Arabs and Turks. It was not until 1948 that a new nation of Israel, approximating the size of the one ruled over by David, was declared. That nation of Israel is still busy fending off attacks from Arabs. The Birth of Monotheism The earliest Hebrews were organised along family, clan and ethnic lines. As earlier argued, the twelve ethnic groups were believed to have descended from the twelve sons of Abraham. Within the family, patriarchy prevailed. Male heads of families had power over wives and children. Polygamy was allowed for men wealthy enough to support several wives. Only sons could inherit property because daughters could marry away from the families. A wife retained control of the dowry she brought with her to her marriage. But she had few other property rights. Divorce was easy for men but difficult for women to secure. How does this compare with our present circumstances? There were exceptions though. Some women stepped outside the family centred system entirely. Some exercised political power – as judges, or religious authority as prophetesses e. g. Deborah. Some like Judith who slew the commander of an invading host (The Human venture, Vol. 1, p. 71) were hailed as national heroes for their deeds. Religion played a central role in Hebrew life. In fact, the many ancient Hebrew laws recorded in the Old Testament had a deep religious touch much as they also reflected the traditional Hebrew values. One such law was the principle of ‘an eye for an eye’. Other Hebrew laws also prescribed kinds of foods to be eaten, persons and communities from which to marry or be married among, or what punishments to be given out against violations of these taboos. Hebrew prophets carried the words of their god, Yaweh, carved on two stone tablets in a chest as they preached to their people. They proclaimed their divinely ordained rule in a promised land in Palestine. Over a millennium and half between Abraham and the return to Jerusalem from Babylon, the Hebrews evolved a unique conception of divinity and of humanity’s relationship to it. During Abraham’s time, the Hebrew worshipped their own god without interfering with the other community’s way of worship. But by Moses’ time, Hebrew spiritual leaders began to insist that Yaweh demanded exclusive worship in return for his special patronage. The spiritual leaders further insisted that Yaweh was the only real God in the universe. During the second millennium BC, the Hebrew began believing that Yaweh demanded exclusive devotion from Hebrews. They believed that Yaweh was a jealous god and would tolerate no others. Over the centuries, Hebrews believed that Yaweh could not tolerate any images of himself. He thus remained a purely spiritual presence. He remained an incarnation of such superhuman qualities as all knowledge, absolute power and benevolent caring who had miraculously selected the ancient Hebrews as his chosen people. Yaweh’s prophets of the first millennium BC preached ethical monotheism, stressing the moral dimension of the worship of one God. In sermons to the Hebrews, preachers like Samuel, Jeremiah, and Isaiah insisted that Yaweh demanded believers to obey the commandments that forbade murder, theft, lying, covetousness and many other sins. The prophets also preached that Yaweh demanded social justice from his people. The rich were not to oppress the poor, nor the mighty oppress the weak. The prophets preached that God had made a Special Covenant with the Hebrews. Whenever they sinned, God punished them severely i. e. by having them enslaved in Egypt or held captives in Babylon. But if they remained loyal to him alone and kept his commandments, they would get a promised land where they would have respect among nations. It is this monotheistic legacy that the Hebrews have bequeathed to posterity. For instance, in the first century AD, Jesus Christ, born and raised in the Jewish community of Northern Palestine, became the founder of the Christian faith, a faith that later spread around the world. In the Seventh Century AD, the Prophet Muhammad, an Arabian merchant conversant with both Judaism and Christianity, founded the third major world religion, Islam. Down through the centuries Hebrew leaders like Moses and Solomon would be honoured not only in later Judaism, but also in the Christian Old Testament and the Muslim Quran. ANCIENT PERSIA Ancient Persia is situated in the Middle East. A region known to have given rise to many civilizations including Mesopotamia. During the millennium of the Christian era, the broad diversified Middle Eastern region had intermittent unity under a series of Persian dynasties. Some of the leading Persian unifiers include the Achaenemids (550-331 BC). The Achaenemids are a royal house which was founded by Cyrus the Great. The Persians were Indo-European descendants who had migrated into the Iranian Plateau hundreds of years earlier. In the 6th C BC, Persians were still a war-like semi-pastoral people living in the mountains of what is present day Western Iran. There they were within easy reach of the Euphrates and Tigris valley. Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Shepherd was a self made emperor. He was merciful with defeated enemies, tolerant of all religions and very courageous. He was a brave fighter. By the middle of the 6th C, the Medes who had participated in the destruction of the Mesopotamian Empire were weak. This enabled Cyrus, a hereditary chief of the Persian people who were tributary to the Medes to rise. In 550BC, Cyrus invaded and overthrew the last Medean king of the Medes and crowned himself king of the Medes and Persians. For the next twenty years, Cyrus waged many victorious campaigns. Cyrus’ horse soldiers wore leather breeches and heavy felt boots, sat on their rugged mountainous ponies and were armed with compound bows. In his reign and that of his successors, Persia expanded to become the largest empire in the 6th century. About three years after seizing control of the Median confederacy, Cyrus crossed the Taurus Mountains into present day Turkey and overthrew king Croesus of Lydia. Using the wealth acquired from Croesus, Cyrus marched eastwards subduing residents of present day Iran and Afghanistan. In the process of expanding Persian Empire, Cyrus also expanded his troops so that by the time he invaded the New Babylonian Empire, the weaker and disunited Babylonian leaders were no match for him. About 539 BC Cyrus easily occupied Babylon, bringing to an end the Mesopotamian independence. Persia became the greatest power in the Middle East. About nine years later, Cyrus was killed in war in eastern part of today’s Iran. Cambyses, his son succeeded him and conquered Egypt. Cambyses’ successor, Darius 1(522-486) further extended Persian Empire into northern India and Macedonia, on the northern frontier of Greece. Darius 1 also known as Darius the Great thus governed over a huge empire, from the Egyptians, Babylonians, Lydians, Greeks, Persians and Medes among others. To administer the expansive empire effectively, it was divided in provinces (satrapies). Each satrapy was under a Satrap (governor) who was often a member of the imperial family or a leading local nobleman. The satraps were granted political, military and financial autonomy on a large scale. As long as a satrapy paid its tribute on time and provided its share of recruits for the army, the province could be left on its own in local matters. But to avert any rebellious satrapies, garrisons of royal troops were strategically situated across the huge empire. In addition, there were also royal agents (the king’s eyes and ears) who monitored on the satraps and regularly briefed the rulers of the empire. Darius formulated a single imperial code of laws based on the Mesopotamian model. He also borrowed the idea of minted coinage from the Lydians and began minting gold and silver coins. Besides he established a common set of weights and measures, a system of royal couriers and mail, a common calendar borrowed from Egypt and Aramaic, as a lingua franca. Aramaic was already widely used by business people in the general area. Darius was also a builder. He set up a network of hundred of miles of roads linking the far removed places of Persian Empire. Some ran from the capital at Susa to the Western City of Sardises Darius and his successors loved relaxing in gardens which they called ‘Paradises’ and in great palaces at Susa, Bablylon and Persepolis. From the fifth century B. C. some Satrops began revolting against the Persian rule. For instance, the Ionian Greek City-states revolted and were supported by Athens. Gradually palace intrigues undermined the power of the empire. Even women were ruthlessly conspiratorial and by the fourth century B. C. Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia attacked and destroyed Achaemenid Empire. Attempts to revive the empire by such groups as the Seleucids (323-250 B. C. ) and the Parrthians (250 B. C. -224A. D. ) could not succeed. The two were not Persians and from 224 A. D. , the Sassanids, an Iranian group took over and ruled Persia until 641A. D. The four hundred year reign of the Sassanids is thus viewed as a restoration of the Achaemenid rule (Esler, A. , The Human Venture Vol. 1 p. 153). The Sassanids constructed an elaborate system of power. The bureaucracy, the Iranian barons and the Magi (Priests of Zoroaster) were most influential. The Grand Visier, was the King’s right hand man and operational head of the state. Other powerful officials included the chief priest, head scribe, and general of the armies. Iranian barons granted estates along the frontiers of the empire and provided a flexible border defense. While defending their own lands, the barons by the same means also protected the Sassanid Empire. The Magi collected the peasant land tax on which the government depended and also provided religious sanction for Sassanid imperial power. Indeed under the Sassanids, Persian Empire emerged to the expansiveness of the earlier Achaemenid Empire under Darius and Xerxes. During its greatest the empire reached today’s Pakistan in the east and Egypt in the west. In the north the empire reached Central Asia upto the suburbs of Constantinople. The expansion of the empire made it fall into conflict with such western powers as Ancient Rome and Medieval Byzantine Empire. At one time the struggle took on a religious overtone between Zoroastrianism (Persia) and Christianity (Rome and Byzantium). Finally the Sassanid Empire was overwhelmed by the Muslim conquerors. The Persian Society and Culture Ancient Persian Empire was a class based society. The classes included the aristocrats, officials, priests, merchants, artisans, peasants, workers and slaves. In terms of gender relations, it depended on regions. In Mesopotamia women worked in handicraft industries while in Egypt women enjoyed legal rights. For example, a marriage contract guaranteed the bride to return her dowry in the event of the marriages dissolution and also receive a third of the husband’s earnings. The Faith of Zoroaster Initially, Persians were polytheists. They worshipped Anahita, goddess of the life-giving waters and Mithra, god of the Sun. Sacrificial fire played a central part in the religion of the early Persians. But from the sixth century, Prophet Zoroaster founded a new religion, Zoroastrianism. Six hundred years before Christi, Zoroaster preached a faith that resembled present day Christianity. He preached belief in one god, Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord, god of light, goodness and truth. Ahura Mazda was the creator of all things, the judge of all people, and the rewarder of virtue with spiritual blessings. Zoroastrianism proclaimed Liar as the prince of darkness. Liar was also known as Abriman. He preached that the universe was the battle ground between Ahura Mazda and his agent Mithra on the one hand against Abriman on the other. Zoroaster urged all human beings to take a stand in the struggle between the two forces. He predicted victory for Ahura Mazda and his followers would enter paradise while those who served Liar (Abriman) will be cast into the bridge of judgment into a pit of darkness and torment. The faith became a faith of the royal family and nobility in Persia. Ahura Mazda was symbolized in a small human figure at persepolis. Zoroastrianism was largely a religion, therefore of the aristocrats given that Persians seldom sought converts to it. Nonetheless Zoroastrianism spread eastwards to India where the Parsi sect comprises the largest body of Zoroastrians in the world today (Elser, The Human Venture, p. 156). The cult of Mithra the sun god, champion of light against darkness spread westwards into Rome. Even Liar found a place in foreign pantheons such as Satan of the Christians. The Indian Civilization Introduction In this sub-topic we look at the general overview of the Indian subcontinent, its earliest organization, and invasion from outside before eventually discussing the evolution of the empire. There after we will examine the major philosophical and religious contribution of India to the rest of humankind. The Indian Subcontinent Indian subcontinent is made up of raised areas such as the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas as well as the river valleys and coastal plains. It is in these valleys that the Indian civilization was born and later expanded to cover the entire sub continent. It is argued that the subcontinent is about two thousan How to cite World Civilization Notes, Essay examples