Pygmies Essays - African Pygmies, Mbuti People, Ef People

Pygmies Pygmy groups are scattered throughout equatorial Africa, from Cameroon in the west to Zambia in the southeast. In Zaire, there are three main groups of Pygmies: the Tswa in the west, the Twa between Lake Kivu and Lake Tanganyika, and the Mbuti (also referred to as Bambuti or BaMbuti) of the Ituri Forest. According to Schebesta, the author of the earliest reliable reports, only the Mbuti are true Pygmies, i.e., under 150 cm. in height and relatively unmixed with neighboring peoples. The other groups are referred to as Pygmoids, being highly intermixed with other peoples both physically and culturally (Turnbull 1965A: 159-B). The following summary refers only to the Mbuti Pgymies of the Ituri Forest in Zaire. The Mbuti are located at lat. 0 degrees-3 degrees N and long. 26 degrees-30 degrees E. Their territory is a primary rain forest. The Mbuti have conventionally been divided into three groups, which are distinct from each other linguistically, economically, and geographically. Each of the three groups speaks a different language (which corresponds to the language spoken by neighboring villagers), practices different hunting techniques, and is territorially distinct. The Aka speak the Mangbetu language (Sudanic family), hunt primarily with spears, and live in the north. These spear-hunters have not been extensively studied. The Efe speak the Lese language (Sudanic family), are archers, and are located in the east. The Efe were studied by Schebesta. The Sua speak the Bira language (Bantu branch of the Benue-Congo family), hunt with nets, and live to the south. They were studied by Putnam and Turnbull. The most profound difference between the three groups, the linguistic difference, is, according to Turnbull, of recent origin and is purely accidental (Turnbull 1965B 22-23). Furthermore, in spite of the fact that the three languages are very different, there are enough similarities in intonation to make it possible for Pygmies to recognize, if not comprehend, each other. All of the Pygmies of the Ituri Forest recognize themselves by the term Mbuti, and the only political identity they have is in opposition to the village cultivators. The Mbuti as a whole are clearly distinct from these village neighbors both racially and culturally, and, Turnbull says, the economic differences between the three Mbuti groups mask a basic structural unity (Turnbull 1965B: 22-23). Since there has never been an official demographic census, it is impossible to give an accurate estimate of the total Mbuti population. From discussion with missionaries and administrators and from his own experience, however, Turnbull guessed that the population was approximately 40,000 in 1958 (Turnbull 1965B: 26). The Mbuti live in territorially defined nomadic bands. The membership of these bands is very fluid. Bands have no formal political structure; there are no chiefs, and there is no council. An informal consensus among old respected men is the basis of decisions affecting the entire camp. In spite of Turnbull's insistence on basic structural unity, the differences in hunting techniques aqppear to have considerable effect upon the nature of the band organization. Net hunting is a cooperative venture, requiring the cooperation of the whole band, including the women and children. Archery, on the other hand, is primarily a family venture, requiring only two or three men. The most obvious distinction resulting from the economic differences is that of band size. Archer bands average about 6 huts per band, while net-hunting bands average about 15 huts. The Mbuti maintain relationships with surrounding village cultivators whose languages the Mbuti have adopted. Many accounts indicate that the Mbuti are highly acculturated and have adopted many features of villager lifestyle beyond language, such as the clan system and certain religious observances. Turnbull feels that these features are quite superficial, however. The relationship between the Mbuti and the villagers is maintained on several different levels, centering around trade. The Pygmies bring the villagers honey and meat in return for plantation products. This economic exchange can occur on several levels: between the band and the village as a whole (capita/chief), between lineage and lineage (lineage elder/Kpara), or between individuals (kare/kare). The first type of relationship does not occur very often, exchanges being more easily conducted on an interpersonal basis. The lineage relationship is hereditary on both sides. The kare brotherhood is established in nkumbi initiations. In the nkumbi initiation, male villagers and Mbuti are circumcised. The relationship established in the initiation is continued throughout life and centers around economic exchange. The religious life of the Mbuti is not at all clear. Early reports state that they had no religion at all, and later reports dwell on whether or not the Mbuti relationship to the supernatural structurally constitutes religion (usually defined by belief in one supreme being) or magic. In

Political Culture and Good Citizenship

Political Culture and Good Citizenship Political culture is a widely shared set of ideas, attitudes, practices, and moral judgments that shape people’s political behavior, as well as how they relate to their government and to one another. In essence, the various elements of a political culture determine the people’s perception of who is and is not a â€Å"good citizen.† To an extent, the government itself can use outreach efforts like education and public commemorations of historical events to shape political culture and public opinion. When taken to excess, such attempts to control the political culture are often characteristic of the actions of totalitarian or fascist forms of government. While they tend to reflect the current character of the government itself, political cultures also embody the history and traditions of that government. For example, while Great Britain still has a monarchy, the queen or king has no real power without the approval of the democratically elected Parliament. Yet, while doing away with the now largely ceremonial monarchy would save the government millions of pounds per year, the British people, proud of their tradition of over 1,200 years of being ruled by royalty, would never stand for it. Today, as always, a â€Å"good† British citizen reveres the Crown. While political cultures vary greatly from nation to nation, state to state, and even region to region, they generally tend to remain relatively stable over time. Political Culture and Good Citizenship To a great degree, political culture implies the characteristics and qualities that make people good citizens. In the context of political culture, the traits of â€Å"good citizenship† transcend the government’s basic legal requirements for attaining citizenship status. As Greek philosopher Aristotle argued in his treatise Politics, simply living in a nation does not necessarily make a person a citizen of that nation. To Aristotle, true citizenship required a level of supportive participation. As we see today, thousands of lawful permanent resident aliens and immigrants live in the United States as â€Å"good citizens† as defined by the political culture without becoming fully naturalized citizens. Traits of Good Citizens Good citizens, in their daily lives, demonstrate most of the qualities considered important by the prevailing political culture. A person who lives an otherwise exemplary life but never works to support or improve the community by taking an active part in public life may be considered a good person but not necessarily a good citizen. In the United States, a good citizen is generally expected to do at least some of these things: Take part in the representative democracy by registering to vote and voting in elections.Run for elected office or volunteer to serve on appointed governing boards.Obey all federal, state, and local laws.Show up for jury duty if called.Be knowledgeable of the basic freedoms, rights, and responsibilities contained in the U.S. Constitution.Pay all applicable federal, state, and local taxes.Remain knowledgeable about political issues and government policy.Volunteer to take part in community improvement programs.Take part in patriotic observances and traditions, like standing for the National Anthem and knowing the Pledge of Allegiance. Even within the United States, the perception of political culture - thus good citizenship - may vary from region to region. As a result, it important to avoid depending on stereotypes when judging a person’s quality of citizenship. For example, people in one region may place more importance in strict observance of patriotic traditions than those in other regions. Political Culture Can Change Though it often takes generations to happen, minds - and thus political culture - can change. For example: Since its colonial period, America has seen periods during which the dominating political culture favored a policy of isolationism from foreign affairs, particularly foreign wars. In each of these cases, threats that foreign wars might directly threaten American lives and freedoms resulted in rapid reversals of the isolationist political culture.As part of President Lyndon Johnson’s sweeping Great Society social reform initiative, Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Passed after generations of post-Civil war racial discrimination, the law authorized the use of federal troops to supervise elections in several Southern states in order to protect the voting rights of black Americans. Forty years later, fearing that the racially-charged political culture in the South might still be a threat to the political freedom of blacks, Congress and President George W. Bush enacted the Voting Rights Extension Act of 2006. Today, multi-racial voting coalitions exist throughout the nation and Black-Americans are commonly elected to federal, state, and local offices. While some political cultures can be changed by the passage of laws, others cannot. In general, elements of a political culture based on deeply-seated beliefs or customs, such as patriotism, religion, or ethnicity are far more resistant to change than those based simply on the government’s policies or practices. Political Culture and US Nation Building While it is always difficult and sometimes dangerous, governments often try to influence the political culture of other nations. For example, the United States is known for its often-controversial foreign policy practice called â€Å"nation-building† - efforts to convert foreign governments to American-style democracies, often through the use of armed forces. In October 2000, President George W. Bush came out against nation-building, stating, â€Å"I dont think our troops ought to be used for whats called nation-building. I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war.† But just 11 months later, the September 11, 2001 terror attacks changed the president’s perspective. As an outgrowth of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States has attempted to establish democracies in those nations. However, political cultures have hindered those U.S. nation-building efforts. In both countries, years of long-standing attitudes toward other ethnic groups, religions, women, and human rights shaped by years of tyrannical rule continue to stand in the way.

An analysis of Mark Rothko's Essay Example For Students

An analysis of Mark Rothkos Essay There seems to be no shadowing and modeling is poor which makes it difficult to locate one individual light source. It also gives the figures a two dimensional appearance and makes them seem vacant and somber. The tonal range is wide but the use of cool colors (in particular grey and blues) has the effect of distancing the spectator from the scene. Furthermore, emphasis is placed on color rather than detail because the brushwork is crude. These factors lend the scene a cold and somewhat eerie feeling. Rotators repeated use of vertical lines (specifically the railings and pillars) segregates the figures from one another and more significantly, from the spectator. The overlapping of these objects gives the scene perspective, but long with the idea of segregation and a high picture plane, this only serves to further distance the spectator. The two left most pillars are arranged in such a way that they run parallel with the two right most pillars and with the wall at the back left of the scene. Furthermore the figures on the descending staircase and the figures around the ticket booth are along the same parallel plane, and are framed within the pillars. The effect is that the eye is drawn towards the booth along this line, Perhaps then it is no coincidence that the ticket booth also mess to be the location for the vanishing point. These factors would suggest that the implied spectator position is further back along the same line as the ticket booth and the figures on the descending stairs. Roth uses the methods have discussed to distance and segregate the spectator from the scene. Along With his brushwork, lighting and choice Of colors, this lends the painting an eerie atmosphere. As such, Subway Scene is a bleak and cold image that stresses a feeling Of alienation to the spectator.

Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 11

Philosophy - Essay Example Stoicism was founded by three early thinkers – Zeno of Citium in Cyprus (344-262 BC), Cleanthes (d. 232 BC) and Chrysippus (d. ca. 206 BC). â€Å"Chrysippus was particularly prolific, composing over 165 works, but we have only fragments of his works. The only complete works by Stoic philosophers that we possess are those by writers of Imperial times, Seneca (4 BC-65 AD), Epictetus (c. 55-135) and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180) and these works are principally focused on ethics† (Baltzly, 2004). On the surface, Stoicism emphasized the idea that the true sage, in his zealous pursuit of wisdom, would find all the happiness he could want in his knowledge and subsequent inner tranquility. The ultimate source of this tranquility is achieved through the fire of the soul as it becomes connected with the fire of God, who permeates everything. Because they felt that the laws of nature were absolute and that the essential nature of humans was reason, they felt people could d o no other than ‘live according to nature.’ The Epicureans, on the other hand, felt that the greatest goal in life was to experience pleasure. Founded on the ideas of Epicurus (340-270 BC), Epicureanism centers on the idea that pleasure in moderate amounts as well as an absence of bodily pain was necessary for one to gain a state of tranquility and freedom from fear. This was obtained through the obtaining of knowledge, friendship and by living a virtuous and temperate life. The key to how this philosophy differed from other forms of pleasure-seeking philosophies was in the term ‘moderation.’ Although it was all right to have sex, to become involved in an all-consuming passionate affair or to have sex too often could easily throw one out of balance, making it preferable to simply abstain. In addition, this philosophy was firmly grounded upon scientific, rather than divine, principles presuming that an understanding of the world around us, and a physical understanding of

David Henry Hwang - M. Butterfly Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

David Henry Hwang - M. Butterfly - Essay Example The Act 1 Scene 1 of the play describes his cell and his fame for some monumental event in his past and later the apparent hallucination of Song Liling, a Chinese woman performing in the opera Madame Butterfly. The opera has symbolic significance and there is a reference to it off and on in the play. The character of Gallimard has been presented as in contrast to Pinkerton in Giacomo Puccini’s Madam Butterfly (produced, 1904; published, 1935). Gallimard evaluates himself as gauche and inept in love making, but is quite surprising that he could woo Song Liling, the charming Oriental woman. Gallimard was totally unaware of the fact that Liling is a communist agent, assigned to extract the information about the Vietnam War. Though Gallimard could attain high positions because of his Oriental affairs, he was demoted and sent back to France when his analysis on East-West relations proved wrong. To pursue their plans, the communists sent Liling to France to resume his affair with Gallimard. When Liling is arrested and produced before the court for espionage, he agrees that Gallimard had handed over him confidential documents and supported him and his son for fifteen years. At the court, Liling reveals his real gender and appears in men’s clothes. Towards the last part of the play Gallimard realises his own faults that he had kept the false concepts about an Oriental woman who can sacrifice everything for him. The last scene of the play witnesses the death of Gallimard.

Intellectual Freedom - It Isnt Free :: Politics Political

Intellectual Freedom - It Isn't Free We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us, and we drown. T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Very few of us are unfamiliar with the Genesis account of creation, where it is written that "God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." [1] The obvious point is that God creates the world; but later writings have chosen to focus on the idea that the divine being both creates and destroys by the power of His word alone. God spoke, and "it came to be." [2] By the time of the Gospel of John was put to paper, we are informed that the word is not merely an expression of God: it is, in fact, no less than God himself. [3] The word is divine. Especially after Augustine, who articulated Christian doctrine as the road to God passing directly within self, the inner word has been seen not only as the source of innermost self, but of conscience as well. [4] In terms of Augustinian inwardness, "God is to be found in the intimacy of self-presence." [5] The inner triangulation of self involves what the Athanasian Creed referred to as the "reasonable soul and the flesh" as two elements, with God the third in between. [6] In fact, it is clear that the original construction of the First Amendment was devoted to protecting precisely this Augustinian notion of inner light, this inner word and presence of God. [7] This is what Tom Paine, chaplain to the American Revolutionary soldiers (and author of Common Sense) referred to when he wrote his well-known dictum that "my own mind is my church." [8] As early as the 1740s, for example, it was the New Light Congregationalists (ironically similar in theological outlook to the ill-fated Anne Hutchinson [9] ), who posed what became the central axiom of the American revolution: the idea that "liberty of conscience" is the "inalienable right of every rational creature." [10] Note how similar Paine's notion of his own mind being his inner sanctum is to the Quaker notion of the "inner light," which Staughton Lynd described as "the preamble to the political faith of the Dissenter, as of the subsequent Declaration of Independence.

History of Garde Manager

The History of Garde Mange Aaron avers The garde manger profession began with peoples need to preserve food. The practice of food preservation is very much older than the term garde manger. In medieval times, castles and large homes were equipped with underground larders, or cold food storage rooms. The food storage areas in these castles and manor houses were usually located in the lower levels, since the cool basement-like environment was ideal for storing food. These cold storage areas developed over time into the modern cold kitchen. In France, the larder was called the garde manger.So one meaning of the culinary term garde manger can be a person in charge of cold foods preparation and preservation. Today, in the industry, I have been taught that the garde manger is now referred to as the â€Å"pantry chef. † Garde manger is also known as the place in which cold foods are prepared and stored, and the person or chef of cold foods preparation. Garerde Manger was being used l ong before it was a commonly used term. Perishable foods like meat and fish were dried in the sun or packed with salt to preserve them. The first dependable method of preserving foods was actually drying. Also you can read about  History of the Culinary Arts.Smoking foods was derived from placing the meat on poles over a smoky fire to prevent insects and other animals from feeding while it was curing. Farming families began using spices along with the salt, and discovered that tough meats can be tenderized. In the Middle Ages and in the early renaissance, foods that were prepared for the upper classes were overly complicated and heavily spiced. La Varenne, a French chef with Italian influences, went against medieval tradition,    and stressed the importance of natural flavors and lighter sauce.Salads and vinaigrettes took the place of heavier cooked foods and became the standard side to roasted meats. It was at this point that the role of garde manger expanded from food preserva tion to the actual preparation of all cold foods consumption, moving them out of the basement and into the kitchen. By the end of the twentieth century the prepackaging of our industry has allowed some great advances in garde manger. Garde manger, â€Å"keeper of the food†, or pantry supervisor, refers to the task of preparing and presenting cold foods.These typically include such food items as salads, hors d'? uvres, cold soups, aspics, and charcuterie. Larger restaurants and hotels may have the need for the garde manger to perform additional duties, such as creating elements for buffet presentation like edible centerpieces made from materials such as ice, cheese, butter, salt dough or tallow. In most modern kitchens the garde manger is synonymous with pantry chef, having duties focusing on salads, soups, cold food items, and dessert plating’s. It is usually the entry level line cook position within a restaurant.The term â€Å"garde manger† originated in pre-Re volutionary France. At that time, maintaining a full supply of food was a symbol of power, wealth and prestige. Noble families had a household steward who would manage their cold store room. The steward was referred to as the â€Å"officer de bouche†, a title that was eventually replaced with â€Å"garde manger†. This position was extremely important, because most of the food was butchered, pickled, salted, cured, or smoked during the fall season and stored for months, all the way into the spring months.It is because of this duty of supervising the preserving of food and managing its use that many interpret the term â€Å"garde manger† as â€Å"keeping to eat†. The position of â€Å"butcher† first developed as a specialty within the garde manger kitchen. As both the cost of and demand for animals for food increased, more space was required for the fabricating and portioning the raw proteins. This need for space was due not only to an upswing in the number of protein sales, but also to the need for separating raw proteins from processed foods to avoid cross-contamination and the resulting possibility of food borne illness.Special â€Å"butcher shops† were created where portion sizes, product deployment, and temperature could be highly controlled. Today butcher shops exist both as standalone establishments and alongside kitchens in large hotels, country clubs and high volume restaurants. Modern garde manger can refer to different things in the professional kitchen. In many restaurants it is a station which is generally an entry level cooking position within the restaurant, as it involves preparing salads or other smaller plates which can be cooked and plated without significant experience.In other high-profile classically influenced restaurants and hotels, the position pertains to the classical preparations. Today Garde Manger is referred to as â€Å"The Art of the Cold Kitchen†. Some may even say it is the arts a nd crafts of the culinary industry. Today's Garde Mangers must behold more than simple food preservation skills. They must have the knowledge and skills to create everything as small as a batch of mayonnaise to something as large and elaborate as ice carving. Some food establishments use the word pantry instead of Garde Manager.Some may even refer to it as the salad station†¦ the list goes on and on. In the restaurant scene the Garde Manger's job is typically plating salads and preparing cold appetizers. In some situations it may even be their job to plate desserts. Some find the experience of working in the Garde Manger extremely challenging and stimulating that they often decide to make it their life long career. The skills needed for the Garde Manger are so extreme that it is often the walkway that leads some to the path of being a great chef, possibly even a famous chef.