World Mythology Essays (806 words) - Greek Underworld,

World Mythology Nicole Boyd World Mythology Compare or contrast two major female fertility deities as to character, activities and role in the myth. In the myths of the ancient world, a great deal of importance is placed on the rhythmical cycle of birth, maturity, death and rebirth. Ancient agrarian people observed the world around them, and from this observation they realized that their lives as well as every other living thing on this planet was a part of an intricate continuing cycle. Everything withered and died, but not before reproducing and continuing the cycle of life. Since female plants and animals were directly responsible for the birth of new life, people worshipped female deities to ensure that the earthly cycle of life was maintained in proper balance. One such goddess can be found in Japanese mythology. The most ancient of Japanese deities, Amaterasu is the goddess of the sun. She is also the ruler of the gods and the universe. She is revered and given considerable praise, evidenced by the fact the Japanese imperial family traces its lineage directly to the Goddess Amaterasu. This reverence is understandable, given the suns extreme importance in the cycle of life. Without the sun, there would be no warmth, no plants, and certainly no humans. It also represents the important role that women played in early Japanese culture, where they occupied the same social roles as men. In the myth of Amaterasu, her brother Susano-o-no-Mikoto has offended her by defiling her home and not respecting her. He has also committed an act of physical violence against one of her servants. In one version of the myth, one of Amaterasus weaving women dies as a result of a wound to her vulva caused by Susano-o-no-Mikoto. This so enrages Amaterasu that she closes herself into a cave and refuses to come out. Without her life giving rays of sunshine the world begins to wither and die. Other Gods and Goddesses attempt to lure her out of the cave by throwing a celebration. They also set up a large mirror in a hope that when Amaterasu sees how brilliant she looks, she will want to come out and spread her radiance and glory. One of the Goddesses, Ame no Uzume, performs a dance in front of the entrance to the cave. The other Gods and Goddesses cheer so loudly in appreciation that Amaterasu becomes curious about why everybody is so happy. After all, they should all be depressed since she and her sunshine are gone. She comes out to satisfy her curiosity, and upon seeing herself in the mirror is so impressed that she returns to her position in the sky and life is renewed. Another similar fertility story is that of Demeter and Persephone from Greek mythology. Demeter and Persephone are two Goddesses, mother and daughter, who live together in a state of eternal abundance. Hades, God of the Underworld, wants Persephone for his bride and kidnaps her and takes her down to the Underworld. Demeter is so mournful over the loss of her daughter that the world begins to die. Persephone is finally allowed to return to her mother, but because Hades tricked her into eating a couple of pomegranate seeds she must go back to the Underworld for part of the year. The time when she is in the Underworld represents the barren winter, and the when she is with her mother on Earth represents abundant spring and summer. Despite originating at opposite ends of the globe, these two stories have a lot in common. In both stories, it is female deities who are responsible for perpetuating the cycle of life, causing plants to grow flowers to bloom and newborns to be born. In both myths men plead and make appeals for these women to return fertility to the Earth. Both deities are indispensable, and men in the myths do not realize how much they need these women in their lives until they are gone. In both myths it is also a women who is responsible for the return of the female fertility Goddesses to the world, Ame no Uzume in Amaterasu and Demeter in Persephone and Demeter. Another similarity lies in the fact that the catalyst for the destruction of

Robert Bruce essays

Robert Bruce essays Bruce, Robert lived from 1274-1329. In 1305 he was one of those who made the decision to make Scotland a province of England. In 1306 he met with and old enemy, the Scottish patriot john Comyn, a fight broke out and Bruce stabbed Comyn. Later Bruce proclaimed his right to the throne, and on March 27, 1306 he was crowned king of scone. Bruce was later kick out and in 1307 Edward's army forced him to a little island of Rathlin. Which is now in Northern Ireland. Soon Bruce recruited his followers and in 1314 he once again defeated the English in the Battle of Bannockburn. This lead to a truce with king Edward II for 13 years. After the accession of king Edward III in 1327 war broke out again. The Scots won again and this time in 1328 they secured a treaty that stated the independence of Scotland and the right of Bruce to the throne. He died from leprosy and David II his nephew took over. Then Robert II succeeded him and he was the first king of the Stuart house of English and Scottish royalty. We put Bruce Robert in our timeline because he was important to the Scottish people. He was able to gain their independence, which everyone deserves to have. We thought that his battle with his old enemy was cool. The way he stabbed him put chills down our backs. He was a brave man who dared to go against the odds. Any man like that should have a little recognition and even a big recognition like Dr. Martian Luther King Jr.. ...

An Aberration or a Logical Outcome of the American Ideology Assignment

An Aberration or a Logical Outcome of the American Ideology - Assignment Example   Kramer insists that the increasing numbers of American couples opting to separate rather than stay together are the direct fallout of the value system and lifestyle that America collectively espouses. Kramer’s basic contention is that the contemporary emphasis on the autonomy of the individual as the foundation of a good relationship is what causes more frequent breakups. This emphasis may be in the form of the psychiatrist’s advice to the couple to stand their own ground in an argument; or may be reflected in classic American literature like Thoreau’s ‘self-help book’ Walden, which celebrates the individual spirit; or in the economic ideal of Capitalism that America proudly ‘exports’; and other such ideas fundamental to the American way of life. Despite the changed contexts and newer developments since the publication of Kramer’s article, it remains a text that is still valid and instructive in analyzing a pervasive social ph enomenon visible in the United States even today. Even though fifteen years have passed since it was first published, Kramer’s arguments still stand up to scrutiny. A recent article on CNBC reveals how because of the growing acceptance and maturing of the ‘two-income family model’, divorce rates have actually been falling over the last decade in America. It reveals how in the 1970s initially, there was a sudden surge in divorce rates with more and more women joining the workforce and divorce laws.

Pope Rebuking Priest Using Several Modern Day Christian Thinkers Essay

Pope Rebuking Priest Using Several Modern Day Christian Thinkers - Essay Example According to the church history, a lot has changed where there has been emergence of new technology and practices altering the way religious teaching are being done. Pope Paul III has also raised concerns about the modern changes of Christian teachings; he has pointed various modern day Christian thinkers, who have used their new perceptions, ideas and understandings to alter the traditional Christian religious teachings. These characters include Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Soren Kierkegaard, Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, Rudolph Bultmann, Karl Barth, Karl Rahner, and Dietrich Bohoeffer (Brown). Rogers states that Pope Benedict XVI, who in the past few years has guided the church’s doctrinal agency, delivered his homily in St. Peter’s Basilica during the time that priests recall the swearing they made when ordained (233). He sharply condemned a team of rebellious Austrian priest and laymen for going against major teachings of Catholic Church; this group is of ficially known as Pfarrer initiative and it has posed a lot of challenges to the church on issues such as banning of female priests and priestly celibacy. During a Maundy Thursday gathering in the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI made a speech that he was not to tolerate disobedience. He was actually referring to the current efforts made by priests in both Austria and Europe of disobeying the church. Speaking from the altar of St. Peter’s Basilica, Benedict said that despite these priests claiming their concerns for the church, they are influenced by their own ideas and preferences to create desperate actions for changing the church, and that they should instead be turned into radicalism of obedience. In the year 2006, a team of Austrian priest opened the Pfarrer initiative led by Rev.Helmut Schuller; the former leader of a Catholic aid organization, with the intentions for calling for disobedience. Their aim was to abolish priestly celibacy and opening clergy to women in order to relieve priest shortages. However, according to Italian news reports, together with priest across Europe and United states, the Pfarrer initiative claims to acquire more than 300 Austrian priest and deacons together with supporters in other nations. Its influence has therefore increased to such an extent that Vatican officials met with superior Austrian bishops with an aim of discussing on how to handle them. Benedict also mentioned that in June the same year, about 2000 Austria’s priests in the initiative, had essentially threatened a schism, claiming that Vatican’s refusal to consider their protests left them with no option but to follow their conscience and take action independently. These priests made a revised call to disobedience, stating that parishes were capable of celebrating Eucharistic services in absence of priest and that they would make public speech about female and married priesthood. Benedict rejects the dissident’s idea, made during the second Vatican committee, of fossilizing the church and reviews that on the contrary; the development of new religious society in recent decade illustrated the vitality and true rejuvenation of the church by the 1962 to 1965 Vatican II. Benedict’s message is one of the greatest – and most straight- speeches that have mostly been dominated by a scandal of sexual abuse, Vatican hierarchy in disarray and recurring tangles with other faiths. It also has made Benedict discover who has

Developing Cross-Cultural Capabilities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Developing Cross-Cultural Capabilities - Essay Example The company has its top management in the UK while it wants the rest of employees in the other countries to be locals. In the researcher's case, the manager would get adapted to the new culture easily. There are varieties of potential opportunities in the global markets. It requires managers of organizations to ensure there is the development of cross cultural capabilities. The managers should ensure their employees have the necessary knowledge that will see them blend well with foreign cultures. They have to conduct extensive research about foreign cultures. The lessons will ensure the employees have created sustainable working relations with the business community. They have to understand in depth the different communication styles and cultural patterns. The report recommends the top management of any organization has to engage in diversifying management. It will assist in creating an environment that promotes cross-cultural capabilities. It will assist in developing an interactive working environment. The report recommends for training and awareness of employees. It will play an important role in building cross-cultural capabilities. The report recommends for an organization that attracts, retain, and motivates its employees. It will be a means of the business improving its competitive margin. The business will be in a position to compete with highly competitive businesses in the global markets. Additionally, the organizations have to diversify its workforce in order to attract the top talents.

The Basic Economic Problem

The Basic Economic Problem Introduction The basic economic problem is the scarcity of resources. People want more than can be met with their available resources. The human needs are unlimited because they grow and evolve while the means of fulfilling the needs (financial assets) are limited (Stiglitz 1992: 48). The effort to overcome the relative lack of goods, in other words to solve the economic problem is the basis of the economic activity of people. If the satisfaction of a need does not have a shortage of the appropriate resource, the action for the acquisition of this instrument is not classified as economic. The effort, for example, for inhalation of air lacks is not an economic action because the air is in abundance. The economic goods, of course, are not created on their own. It is the result of peoples effort that use whatever is available to them, to create resources that meet the needs i.e. the goods. The elements that are necessary for the creation of goods are called productive assets. Consequently, when it is said that economic goods are in relative scarcity or shortage, in fact it is meant that there is a scarcity of productive assets (nature, labor, capital). The problem of scarcity of resources has as a result the allocation of resources. In other words the process of the selection of needs to be met and the amount of resources used to meet them. Thus economics is a social science, which deals with how society allocates scarce resources among unlimited wants and needs (Wilson Clark 1999:21). The question that arises is how people allocate scarce resources to get the most value. Scarcity of production assets The scarcity of the asset nature is obvious that is due to the fact that land is limited in size and productive forces. The scarcity of the asset labor is due to the limited number of people able to work and to the fact that each person can only work a certain number of hours a day. The asset capital is the result of nature and labor and these are in scarcity, the chapter will also be in scarcity. The Basic Economic Problem and the Market Mechanism The above mentioned definition, contained in most introduction to economic theory manuals conceals through a non historical generalization the fact that the main body of economic science has dealt with the analysis of capitalist societies which are characterized, on the one hand, by the private ownership of the means of production and unequal power relations between wage labor and capital and on the other from freedom of entrepreneurial activity and the competition of capital assets in the market. According to the orthodox economic analysis, the scarcity (= failure, lack of) of resources in relation to social needs, forces each society to choose which products should be produced and in what quantities (Gough 1979:120). Moreover, the scarcity of resources means that the production of a particular product has costs in the form of other goods and services that could be produced in its place with the same resources spent for its production. For example, the working time and the machines that are used for car production cannot be used placed for the construction of schools. The cost of producing a product, defined as the equivalent of the cost of products that could be produced alternatively in its place, is called opportunity cost. Each product has an opportunity cost only when social resources are fully utilized. When there are idle production assets, that means productive resources are underemployed (unemployment or incomplete use of existing machines), then the production of a product has zero opportunity cost because it does not deprive already productive resources form the production of other products (Le Grand et al. 1992:75) The scarcity of resources and the opportunity cost impose the non-wasting of resources to maximize the product, consumption and hence social welfare. This is achieved on the one hand through the harmonization of the allocation of resources among productive uses of the social needs and preferences, and on the other through the savings of resources during the production of goods. So, the society avoids to produce useless products that nobody wants to consume or produce useful products but with more resources than those that it could use if it combined them better. The avoidance of the waste of the productive resources of society through a continuous effort of their saving and comprehensive utilization is related to the concept of economic efficiency. An economy is effective when it does not waste its limited resources by producing useless products when it maximizes the produced goods by ensuring their full use and their excellent combination. Because the capitalist system has as structural component unemployment and periodic phases of overproduction or underemployment of resources, it suffers from permanent economic inefficiency (Barr 1998:75). A social system to be cost effective is an important achievement, because it maximizes the production and consumption abilities of the society and hence social welfare. But a cost-effective social system is not necessarily fair, because social welfare can be unequally distributed among members of society. The wealth of some people can coexist with the poverty of others. The methods of analysis of the economists can be used to evaluate the different modes of economic organization in achieving both efficiency and equity, as well as to evaluate other objectives such as the promotion of consumer choices and social solidarity. Although, as mentioned above, the determination of social goals is the result of the ideological and political confrontation, economic argumentation can contribute significantly to the process of clarifying objectives and options. Generally in capitalist societies, it is possible to have a relation of reverse ratio between the objectives of economic efficiency and social justice. Thats because when the employees and other social classes and strata achieve redistribution of income to their benefit, then it is possible that the profit rate may fall, and as a consequence capital reduces the amount of investment and the rate of product slows down. So the efficiency of the economy may be reduced as a result of the redistribution of income, although the latter contributes to achieving social justice. In summary, it can be said that social welfare that is based on the satisfaction of social needs through consumption depends on : the harmonization of social preferences for product consumption with the allocation of social resources in their production, the effective use of resources in goods production the fair distribution of income and the fair distribution of wealth, which ensure that social welfare is distributed equitably among all members of society. The harmonization of social preferences for product consumption with the distribution of social resources for their production and the efficient use of resources in the production of goods, refer directly to the goal of economic efficiency whereas the equitable distribution of income and the equitable distribution of wealth refer to social justice. The two objectives may conflict in capitalist societies. Conclusion The economic problem is a permanent problem for human societies. In the immediate future there is neither a limitation of the needs nor a substantial increase in the resources to satisfy needs. On the contrary, indeed, as the pessimistic scholars support the economic problem will become more intense. This forecast is based on three elements: 1) the continuous increase in world population, 2) the depletion of energy sources and 3) the negative effects of the production of many products in the natural environment e.g. contamination of rivers, etc. But along with such bleak prospects there is the evolution of technology and the possibility to find new energy sources that tend to dampen the intensity of the economic problem. However, to the degree that developments can be predicted, the basic economic problem seems to be permanent.

Malcolm X :: essays research papers fc

1. Many believed that the "oppressed people" needed a leader or savior who could improve their life conditions, and Marcus Garvey would fit that description. Marcus Garvey was a black leader who started a "Back-to-Africa" movement in the United State. Garvey's main beliefs were that blacks would never receive justice in the countries where most of the people were white. He preached that blacks should go back to Africa, their homeland, and settle there. With Malcolm X's father strong belief in the ministry of Garveyism, Malcolm took Garvey as true; that the only way to achieve anything would be hard if the white man is ruling the country. Malcolm had to be strong while preparing for the civil rights movement; that strength would be very necessary in accomplishing anything. His father's ministry opened up the doors of truth of the harm of the white man on the blacks in America. Malcolm said that the black people would benefit in uniting the black race. Marcus Garve y was "convinced that success demanded the building of a strong economic base so that blacks will be self-sufficient" (Internet, Marcus Garvey). Because of Marcus Garvey's beliefs, many African Americans, found new strength and renewed their vision of success. Therefore, Garvey's teaching brightened up the chance for Malcolm to achieve change during the civil rights movement; providing a chance that everything would be all right and blacks would be equal to whites. Even though Marcus Garvey's helped and wanted the best for his fellow black people, he slammed fellow African-American leaders as being white puppets. Many blacks saw Marcus Garvey a lot in Malcolm X in that they both believed that the black race needs to stay just black to have real power, that the white people are the enemies, and that blacks should not mix with whites. Malcolm learned that the road would be tough because of the great power the white man has in America and that where the black man can have pow er would be where there is no white man in control, such as in Africa. 2. Martin Luther King Jr., shared more in common with Malcolm X, then any other contemporary civil rights leader. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X had more in common after Malcolm broke away from Elijah Mohammed. Before Malcolm broke away, he was an angry man who could never see anything positive and the reason why he could not see anything positive was because the whites had no "moral conscience.