An Essay on Foraging Societies

An Essay on Foraging Societies Foraging society forms the oldest and the more basic political system of people- the band societies. For more than 1 million years, these people from hunter-gathering societies sustain their living doing this. The contemporary hunter/ gatherers form a small group or population of people with little density and nomadic type of living. Foragers remain egalitarian because they live in close kinship relations with others. They were tied with relations and they formed groups of unity. That is the reason why they exchange commodities or services among each other. The wealth circulated among themselves. This created an egalitarian group, where there were no great differences between people. An example of a foraging society, residing in the Kalahari Desert, is the society of King San or the Bushmen. They gather fruits, berries, melons, and nuts. It is estimated that women gather the food and the overall time spend on gathering is 2 or 3 days out of one week. Men from the tribe spend their spare time in performing rituals, resting or entertaining. They reside in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. An example of a foraging society in the tropical rain forests is the Mbuti Pygmies. In the gathering process everyone of the group is involved, even children- male pick up elephants, wild pigs and other animals, while females gather the vegetation. The third group of foragers dwells in the arctic regions where vegetation was scarce. Eskimos, the local people, hunt sea mammals (whales, seals) and value a lot the undigested vegetation. For that reason, female did not specialize in gathering food. In the summer both males and females gathered larvae and maggots. Fissioning among foraging people eccurs, when under certain conditions( like overpopulation) there is a need of migration of some people, and their fragmentation into smaller groups of people. Sometimes the subsistence food can become scarce, and not enough for the entire population. Infanticide occurs when a mother deliberately kills a newly born child. The reason is that sometimes, woman cannot afford to meet the needs of the baby, or because the baby has some deformed physical features. The fertility rate among foraging people is very low. There may be several reasons for this. Females from the San people are for example very slim and they do not weight more than 80 pounds. This can postpone the menstruation. Their puberty comes later, the average age is 16 years-old, compared to the average age in the US- 12years-old. Most of the foraging groups do not differ in their economic state. They share the same economic system based on reciprocity, the exchange and sharing of goods, food, and services. It is called a Reciprocal Economic system. Most commonly, families exchange their food with other families from the group. It is defined that there are three types of reciprocity. The first one is called Generalized Reciprocity, which is based on the assumptions that there is no return in the exchange. In other words, people do not expect to have a return for they favor, or exchange of goods or services. For example, it is even insulting among some foraging group to say thank you, after they have given you food. We also have in our societies Generalized Reciprocity- when your parents buy you clothes or give you pocket money, they do not expect you to return anything to them back. This system creates more mutual trust and bounds better kin and relations. It also strengthens the egalitarian status of people. The second type of Reciprocity is the Balanced Reciprocity. It involves an exchange with immediate return. This system is more like bargain and trade. It is used by groups of people who in a far distance between them. In modern foraging groups this reciprocity is not very common, because most of them exchange values and goods among kin groups only. The third type is the Negative Reciprocity, which involves no reciprocity of all. It is an attempt to get an exchange or a deal without returning anything. According to Lee and DeVores work, foraging people like the San are affluent in terms of their allocated time spent on finding subsistence. They estimated that foraging people easily find food enough for a couple of days, and that foraging people have adequate and well balanced diet. They called them Leisure and Affluent people. They found that the average death rate is not high and the average age of people from those societies is the same as people from more developed industrialized societies. According to another anthropologist Sahlins, foraging people did not accumulate goods and food, because of their nomadic living, and that makes them not so materially obsessed. However, recent studies challenged the hypothesis mentioned above. They found that these facts to not apply to every forage group. For example in the rain forests people could not easily find some certain type of food immediately and spend more than 30 , 40 hours a week, searching for it. Furthermore, it is estimated that other activities, such as making weapons or preparing the food also involves much time. Those recent studies do not challenge entirely the previous hypothesis, but expand the relativity that comes from the geographic locations of people. The social organization of foraging people is based on kinship, marriage, family, gender and age. The family can be Nuclear, which includes parents and their immediate offspring. Band includes several Nuclear Families. A band can include from 20 to 100 individuals, depending on the environment capacity of subsistence of those people. Cross cousin marriage appears when a male is married to the fathers sisters daughter or his mothers brothers daughter. Patrilocal residence- when the married couple resides with the males father. Restricted marital exchange is the combination of patrilocal residence and cross cousin marriage, where two groups exchange the females to tight the kinship alliances. Brideservice is when male resides in a females band for a period of time. Matrilocal residence- the husband lives with the brides family. Inuit tradition is the wife exchange where male individuals have sexual intercourse with each others wives. Egalitarian status of men is more common than the equal status of females in foraging group, compared to people from other societies. Patriarchal- when male dominates in political and social aspects. Gender and Age are important factors in evaluating the labor division. They vary between societies to societie and determine the social stratification and hierarchy. The warfare and violence in modern foraging societies differ from the past foraging socities. There are now lower at rate. Most of the problems that individual resolves are connected to relations between adultery.

Analysis of The Stronger by August Strindberg Essay -- Performance Art

The Stronger by August Strindberg is a play that is filled with irony. One of the first things noticed in this play is that the characters have no names, nor are they labeled by any type of status. Rather than having names like most plays, the two characters are differentiated by the letters "X" and "Y." Another ironic thing about this play, is how it is written; the dialogue of the play is not evenly spoken. Instead of the two characters conversing between one another, the play is written almost like a monologue where only Mrs. X speaks. Because Mrs. X is the only speaker, one would think that she is "the stronger," but ironically, she is not. One reason Mrs. X is not thought to be the stronger is that she goes back to her husband after she concludes that an affair had existed ironically thinking that the affair will not disable her marriage. The play implies that Mrs. X believes that the affair has and will somehow continue to make her marriage stronger. She says, "that only gave me a stronger hold on my husband," but actually her knowledge of the affair will eventually weaken the relationship. Knowing that her trust has been abused will normally cause her to question her husband's devotion: Were there other affairs? Is he cheating now? If so, is she someone I know? If not, will he cheat again? These are possible questions that will remain unanswered because Mrs. X has no intention of confronting her husband. This is a fact because in the last line of the play Mrs. X says, "Now I am going home - to love him." This quote also makes it seem like she is going home to live her normal life as if the affair never occurred, but making herself believe that it has disappeared will not solve anything. She believes th... ...would one put oneself in the situation to be vulnerable to such false mentality? It is because emotionally Mrs. X is weak, so to protect herself from any pain, she thinks of a way to logically persuade her mind and her emotions that she is the stronger, but she is not. Mrs. X can not be the stronger because Miss Y clearly shows more strength by saying nothing. Miss Y shows this strength by simply sitting there enduring Mrs. X's accusations and abuse. She sat there and faced it all when she could have easily matched Mrs. X's actions. Miss Y could have refused to listen to Mrs. X's accusations, or she could have made a scene by responding to Mrs. X's abuse. Instead of showing signs weakness, Miss Y chose to say nothing because there really was nothing that could be said to make the situation any better. By choosing to do so, Miss Y proves that she is the stronger.

Minority Report: The Book vs the Movie Essay example -- compare/contr

It is a fool-proof system born to ensure absolute safety†¦but when it crumbles, would you go against everything it stands for just to save it? This is the platform that Philip K. Dick, author of the sci-fi short story "The Minority Report" (MR), has given us. Set in a futuristic New York City, we see Police Commissioner John A. Anderton as the founder of a promising new branch of policing: Precrime, a system that uses "Precogs" (mutated and retarded oracles) to predict all future crimes. However, the system appears to backfire when Anderton himself is accused to kill a man he's never even heard of. The movie adaptation by the same name also centers on a younger Chief Anderton, a respected employee of Precrime, predicted to murder a complete stranger who he was unaware existed. Amidst scandal, betrayal, and distrust, both Andertons must run from the justice system they've worked so hard to put in place, and admit to themselves, as well as to society, that a perfect system cannot be born of imperfect humans. Though the basis of the film's plot and major conflict stayed true to the story's, many changes were made to the personalities and roles of the characters, as well as the nature and detail of the main conflict and the sub-conflicts. Dick presents our main character, Commissioner John Anderton, as the balding, pot-bellied founder of a revolutionary new crime detection system who's been showing his years for longer than he'd care to remember. In the short story, he has just acquired a new assistant, Ed Witwer, and fears being replaced by the younger man. In the beginning, Anderton is portrayed as slightly insecure about his job (to the point of near paranoia of being set-up), as well as his importance to society, though by the e... ...d. While in MR, Anderton is trying to accept the inevitability of retiring and what may be his less useful future, in the movie, much of his struggle is with his past, and the guilt he feels. His conflicts still revolve around evading Witwer and Lamar, whether to murder to prevent murder, and his own inner turmoil. Though the similarities in the most obvious conflicts, those between Anderton and Kaplan, the protagonist and antagonist, and fate remain intact, it is obvious that Philip Dick's story has been expanded upon and the main characters made to fit the "big screen". Both stories, however, address the contradictions and repercussions of trying to encourage free will and safety in an ultimately predetermined setting, the basic moral conflict of destroying what is meant to represent a utopian security, as well as the issue of trading freedom for protection.

Liberalism in Canadian Government Essay -- essays research papers

Liberalism is the best ideology for Canada’s government and is a good combination of both Socialism and Conservatism. Liberalism takes the finer parts from both ideologies to create a better form of government. Canadians now have a choice in which ideology they like better by this compromised form of government. The centre of the spectrum and the equilibrium of government and individual ownership is the definition of Liberalism. A good example of why Liberalism is the number one choice from most Canadians is public and privatized hospitals. Right now, Canada only has public hospitals that are free for everybody in need of medical assistance but require a health care plan. Public hospitals are paid by taxes, just like public education. The only downfall of publicized faculties is that they are normally very crowded, and you cannot always get help as fast. Private hospitals appeal more to people with money. People who are willing to pay the extra couple grand for faster and, some say, of better quality care. Since normally the best doctors would be working in their own pri...

Intro to Early Childhood Essay

Friedrich William Froebel (1782-1852) had a significant influence on early childhood education as we know it today. He is known as the inventor of kindergarten, a German word meaning â€Å"children’s garden†. The model of the modern day kindergarten was conceived by Froebel, who opened his own kindergarten in 1836, calling it a Play and Activity Institute. There he implmented such practices as promoting a child’s right to play, to have toys, and to be in the care of trained teachers. He believed that education should be pleasant for the child, because of his own unhappy childhood, instead of shifting the role of the teacher from strict disciplinarian to friendly facilitator. Froebel also had the idea that men as well as women should teach, which was not heard of in those times. His system of teaching was centered around self activity and the development of a child’s self- esteem rather than relying on sterile and rigid instructions. (Hewes 1993). Froebel observed the children and came to an understanding of how they learned and what they like to do. It was his belief that children learned much in the process of playing. (Ann Miles Gordon and Kathryn Williams Browne 21, 22) We can see the fruits of Froebel vision alive today in a variety of ways. For example, many early childhood programs are teacher-directed, with the focus being on planting ideas for the children to cultivate in their own time. Also, you may encounter a teacher of the male persuasion in your child’s classroom. Often, teachers in early childhood education are required to pursue some type of training and/or education relating to childcare, which was encouraged by Froebel. ( Ann Miles Gordon and Kathryn Williams Browne 21, 22) Froebel’s philosophy was that life was a school and the world was a classroom. He wanted the environment in which children learn to be full of discovery and adventure. He called the educational toys he created â€Å"gifts†, giving us insight into how he viewed learning and the teaching of the young mind. There are children in kindergarten all over the world thanks to the dedication of Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel. His work is an accomplishment that reflects on the way children are taught and cared for today. (Ann Miles Browne and Kathryn Williams Browne 21,22) Works Cited Gordon, Ann Miles and Kathryn Williams Brown. Beginnings and Beyond-Foundations in Early Childhood Education. 8th ed. California. Wadsworth. 2011, 2008.

Philosophy Vocabulary Essay

Individual:? single separate.? ? Existentialism:? a? philosophical? theory? or? approach? that? emphasizes? the? existence? of? the? individual? person? as? a? free? and? responsible? agent? determining? their? own? development? through? acts? of? the? will.? ? Consequentialism:? the? doctrine? that? the? morality? of? an? action? is? to? be? judged? solely? by? its? consequences.? ? Nihilism:? the? rejection? of? all? religious? and? moral? principles,? often? in? the? belief? that? life? is? meaningless.? ? Absurdity:? the? quality? or? state? of? being? ridiculous? or? wildly? unreasonable.? ? Hedonism:? the? pursuit? of? pleasure sensual? self? indulgence.? ? Objectivism:? the? belief? that? certain? things,? especially? moral? truths,? exist? independently? of? human? knowledge? or? perception? of? them.? ? Individualism:? the? habit? or? principle? of? being? independent? and? self? reliant.? ? Determinism:? the? doctrine? that? all? events,? including? human? action,? are? ultimately? determined? by? causes? external? to? the? will.? Some? philosophers? have? taken? determinism? to? imply? that? individual? human? beings? have? no? free? will? and? cannot? be? held? morally? responsible? for? their? actions.? ? Society:? the? aggregate? of? people? living? together? in? a? more? or? less? ordered? community.? ? Oppression:? prolonged? cruel? or? unjust? treatment? or? control.? ? Altruism:? the? belief? in? or? practice? of? disinterested? and? selfless? concern? for? the? well? being? of? others.? ? Utilitarianism:? the? doctrine? that? actions? are? right? if? they? are? useful? or? for? the? benefit? of? a? majority.? ? Biopower:? is? a? term? coined? by? French? scholar,? historian,? and? social? theorist? Michel? Foucault.? It? relates? to? the? practice? of? modern? nation? states? and? their? regulation? of? their? subjects? through? â€Å"an? explosion? of? numerous? and? diverse? techniques? for? achieving? the? subjugations? of? bodies? and? the? control? of? populations†.? ? Totalitarianism:? state? is? a? concept? used? by? some? political? scientists? in? which? the? state? holds? total? authority? over? the? society? and? seeks? to? control? all? aspects? of? public? and? private? life? wherever? possible.? ? Reciprocity:? the? practice? of? exchanging? things? with? others? for? mutual? benefit,? especially? privileges? granted? by? one? country?or? organization? to? another.? ? Socialism:? a? political? and? economic? theory? of? social? organization? that? advocates? that? the? means? of? production,? distribution,? and? exchange? should? be? owned? or? regulated? by? the? community? as? a? whole.? ? Communism:? a? political? theory? derived? from? Karl? Marx,? advocating? class? war? and? leading? to? a? society? in? which? all? property? is? publicly? owned? and? each? person? works? and? is? paid? according? to? their? abilities? and? needs.? ? Capitalism:? an? economic? and? political? system? in? which? a? country’s? trade? and? industry? are? controlled? by? private? owners? for? profit,? rather? than? by? the? state? ? Neoliberalism:? the? resurgence? of? ideas? associated? with? laissez? faire? economic? liberalism? beginning? in? the? 1970s? and? 1980s,? whose? advocates? support? extensive? economic? liberalization,? free? trade,? and? reductions? in? government? spending? in? order? to? enhance? the? role? of? the? private? sector? in? the? economy.? ? Neoconservatism:? relating? to? or? denoting? a? return? to? a? modified? form? of? a? traditional? viewpoint,? in? particular? a? political? ideology? characterized?  by? an? emphasis? on? free? market? capitalism? and? an? interventionist? foreign? policy.? ? Anthropocentrism:? the? belief? that? human? beings? are? the? central? or? most? significant? species? on? the? planet,? or? the? assessment? of? reality? through? an? exclusively? human? perspective.? ? Utopianism:? an? imagined? place? or? state? of? things? in? which? everything? is? perfect.? The? word? was? first? used? in? the? book? Utopia? (1516)? by? Sir? Thomas? More.? ? Deontology:? the? study? of? the? nature? of? duty? and? obligation.? Ontology:? the? branch? of? metaphysics? dealing?with? the? nature? of? being.? ? Epistemology:? the? theory? of? knowledge,? especially? with? regard? to? its? methods,? validity,? and? scope.? Epistemology? is? the? investigation? of? what? distinguishes? justified? belief? from? opinion.? View as multi-pages TOPICS IN THIS DOCUMENT Epistemology, Philosophy, Truth, Capitalism, Karl Marx, Classical liberalism, Communism, Political philosophy RELATED DOCUMENTS A Closer Look on the Effects of Reading to the Vocabulary Range of Readers and Non-Readers †¦ words. These words are called vocabulary words. Reading helps people improve their word range. Readers tend to search for the meaning of an unfamiliar word which improves their vocabulary. Readers are also able to widen their vocabulary when they use context clues. Readers have different vocabulary range. Most of the people have the impression that a bookworm have a wide range of vocabulary. But, in reality, not all†¦ 580   Words | 7   Pages READ FULL DOCUMENT Powerful Ways of Widening Vocabulary †¦ TS: I have learned four simple ways on which we can expand our vocabulary. I. Exercise wide independent reading. A. Through books B. Through magazines C. Through newspapers II. Keep tools for learning vocabularies handy. A. Such as pocket dictionaries B. Such as thesauruses C. Such as vocabulary notebooks III. Create a deep interest in word consciousness and awareness. A. By engaging in word play B. By†¦ 580   Words | 4   Pages READ FULL DOCUMENT Difficulties in Teaching Vocabulary †¦ language vocabulary. Two further distinctions in vocabulary are required to complete our model. We need to distinguish between a common core vocabulary known to all the members of a language community and specialized vocabularies, known only to special groups. We are of course primarily interested in the common core vocabulary.

Coronation Street Essay

Coronation Street Discuss how ‘Coronation Street' has contributed to the representation of Brutishness and how Brutish people deal with universal Issues and themes. Coronation Street or ‘Coerce' is an award winning, prime time soap opera, set and produced in Manchester, created by Tony Warren. The show was first broadcast in December of 1960 on TV and is now the longest running and most watched soap opera of British television.Coronation Street introduced Britain to the society of Northwest England; It Is arguable as to how accurate the representation of Brutishness Is within the show In how society deals with universal Issues and themes. The late asses and early asses witnessed the rise of British New Wave, a trend in flimflamming which took up serious social issues and were placed within the contemporary cultural context. Coronation Street follows this pattern portraying the lives and struggles of the working class to its audience whilst offering an escapist break from It.Though ‘Coronation Street' avoids the grittier aspects of social reality In Its early years, It focuses on relatable Issues for Its audience demographic. The Issues of the show are mainly familial in nature presenting challenges, fights and tensions thin the home. Sometimes called kitchen-sink dramas, these storyline offer validity to viewers experiencing the same situations in their own lives. Not everyone can relate to drug abuse, domestic violence, hate crimes and teenage pregnancy however many viewers can relate to family arguments, financial stress, and parental expectations.Tony Warren said that he wanted to write something that â€Å"resembled closely the places where he grew up. † The accents. Clothing and representation of society are reflective of this as they are typical of British life. In ‘Coronation Street' life evolves around the pub or the cafe © and everybody in this close-knit community wishes to know each other's business. The show has been criticized for its inaccurate representation of British life as it does not portray a variety of people from ethnic minorities and the level of crime and tragedy would be far lower in real life.Soaps contain multiple narratives based around a diverse range of characters and their complex Inter-relationships. These narratives are the pleasure which serve to attract audiences; the melodramatic narratives may hinder levels of cultural verisimilitude f the soap however they serve as a form of escapism for the audience. Coronation Street has been chronicling its characters' lives since 1 960, with a mix of social realism, melodrama and humors that has won it millions of regular viewers globally.Over 10 million people watched the soap as Halley Cropper, sick with Incurable pancreatic cancer, took an overdose of drugs and died peacefully In the arms of her husband Roy. Whilst some critics praised the storyline for its sensitive handling of terminal illness and death, others said it risked encouraging suicides as anti- euthanasia group ‘Care Not Killing' said the program was â€Å"in great danger of normalizing an occurrence that is actually very rare indeed. LTV said in a statement that â€Å"Coronation Street regularly features storyline that concern sensitive medical and social Issues and It was recognized that Halley becoming terminally Ill would provided a relevant telephone helpline for its audience, calls for the suicide helpline tripled after the broadcast of Halley death suggestive of the fact that soap opera presents a realistic representation of British life whilst also providing emotional relief and support for its audience.Audiences expect what they see on soap operas to have some connection with their own lives and experiences, or for them to be based on some sort of recognizable reality. This helps the audience to identify and understand the text and its meaning. Coronation Street is noted for its depiction of a down-to-earth working class comm unity combined with light-hearted humor and strong characters. The show is imbued with a definite feeling of community; through its account of everyday British life the soap opera shows a high degree of social realism making it the second most award-winning British soap opera in the I-J.