Top Characteristics of Ancient Civilizations

Top Characteristics of Ancient Civilizations The phrase top characteristics of civilization refers both to the features of societies that rose to greatness in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, Chinas Yellow River, Mesoamerica, the Andes Mountains in South America and others, as well as to the reasons or explanations for the rise of those cultures. Why those cultures became so complex while others faded away is one of the great puzzles that archaeologists and historians have attempted to address many times. The fact that complexity happened is undeniable. In a short 12,000 years, humans, who organized and fed themselves as loosely associated bands of hunters and gatherers eventually developed into societies with full-time jobs, political borders, and detente, currency markets and entrenched poverty and wristwatch computers, world banks, and international space stations. How did we do that? So, What is a Civilization? The concept of a civilization has a fairly grubby past. The idea of what we consider a civilization grew out of the 18th-century movement known as the Enlightenment  and the term is often related to or used interchangeably with culture. These two terms are tied up with linear developmentalism, the now-discredited notion that human societies evolved in a linear fashion. According to that, there was a straight line that societies were supposed to develop along, and ones that deviated were, well, deviant. That idea allowed movements such as kulturkreis in the 1920s to brand societies and ethnic groups as decadent or normal, depending on what stage of the societal evolution line scholars and politicians perceived them to have achieved. The idea was used as an excuse for European imperialism, and it must be said still lingers in some places. American archaeologist Elizabeth Brumfiel (2001) pointed out that the word civilization has two meanings. First, the definition arising from the grubby past is civilization as a generalized state of being, that is to say, a civilization has productive economies, class stratification, and striking intellectual and artistic achievements. That is contrasted by primitive or tribal societies with modest subsistence economies, egalitarian social relations, and less extravagant arts and sciences. Under this definition, civilization equals progress and cultural superiority, which in turn was used by European elites to legitimize their domination of the working class at home and colonial people abroad. However, civilization also refers to the enduring cultural traditions of specific regions of the world. For literally thousands of years, successive generations of people resided on the Yellow, Indus, Tigris/Euphrates, and Nile rivers outliving the expansion and collapse of individual polities or states. That sort of a civilization is sustained by something other than complexity: there probably is something inherently human about creating an identity based on whatever it is that defines us, and clinging onto that. Factors Leading to Complexity It is clear that our ancient human ancestors lived a far simpler life than we do. Somehow, in some cases, in some places, at some times, simple societies for one reason or another morphed into more and more complex societies, and some become civilizations. The reasons which have been proposed for this growth in complexity range from a simple model of population pressure- too many mouths to feed, what do we do now?- to the greed for power and wealth from a few individuals to the impacts of climate change- a prolonged drought, a flood, or tsunami, or a depletion of a particular food resource. But single-source explanations are not convincing, and most archaeologists today would agree that any complexity process was gradual, over hundreds or thousands of years, variable over that time and particular for each geographic region. Each decision made in a society to embrace complexity- whether that involved the establishment of kinship rules or food technology- occurred in its own peculiar, and likely largely unplanned, way. The evolution of societies is like human evolution, not linear but branched, messy, full of dead ends and successes not necessarily marked by the best behavior. Nevertheless, the characteristics of burgeoning complexity in a prehistoric society are pretty much agreed upon, falling roughly into three groups: Food, Technology, and Politics. Food and Economics increasing sedentism- a reduction in the amount of mobility within a society, allowing or requiring people to settle down in one place for longer periodsthe need to produce a stable and reliable source of food for your group, whether by growing crops, called agriculture; or raising animals for milking, plowing or meat, called pastoralismthe ability to quarry and process tin, copper, bronze, gold, silver, iron and other metals into usable objects, known  as metallurgythe creation of tasks that require people who can dedicate part or all of their time to complete, such as textile or pottery production, jewelry production and referred to as craft specializationenough people to act as a workforce, be craft specialists and require the stable food source, referred to as high population densitythe rise of urbanism, religious and political centers, and socially heterogeneous, permanent settlementsthe development of markets, either to meet the demands of urban elites for food and status goo ds or for common people to enhance the efficiency and/or economic security of their households Architecture and Technology the presence of large, non-domestic buildings constructed to be shared by the community, such as churches and shrines and plazas and collectively known as monumental architecturea way to communicate information long distances within and outside of the group, known as a writing systemthe presence of a group level religion, controlled by religious specialists such as shamans or priestsa way to know when the seasons will change, by means of a calendar or astronomical observationroads and transportation networks that allowed communities to be connected Politics and People Control the rise of trade or exchange networks, in which communities share goods with one another, leading tothe presence of luxury and exotic goods, such as baltic amber), jewelry made from precious metals, obsidian, spondylus shell, and a wide variety of other objectsthe creation of classes or hierarchical posts and titles with different levels of power within the society  called social stratification and rankingan armed military force, to protect the community and/or the leaders from the communitysome way to collect tribute and taxes (labor, goods or currency), as well as private estatesa centralized​ rule, to organize all those various things Not all of these characteristics necessarily have to be present for a particular cultural group to be considered a civilization, but all of them are considered evidence of relatively complex societies. Sources Al-Azmeh, A. Concept . International Encyclopedia of the Social Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition). Ed. Wright, James D. Oxford: Elsevier, 2015. 719–24. Print.and History of CivilizationBrumfiel, E. M. Archaeology of States and Civilizations. International Encyclopedia of the Social Behavioral Sciences. Ed. Baltes, Paul B. Oxford: Pergamon, 2001. 14983–88. Print.Covey, R. Alan. Rise of Political Complexity. Encyclopedia of Archaeology. Ed. Pearsall, Deborah M. New York: Academic Press, 2008. 1842–53. Print.Eisenstadt, Samuel N. Civilizations. International Encyclopedia of the Social Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition). Ed. Wright, James D. Oxford: Elsevier, 2001. 725–29. Print.Kuran, Timur. Explaining the Economic Trajectories of Civilizations: The Systemic Approach. Journal of Economic Behavior Organization 71.3 (2009): 593–605. Print.Macklin, Mark G., and John Lewin. The Rivers of Civilization. Quaternary Science Reviews 114 (2015): 228â₠¬â€œ44. Print.Nichols, Deborah L. , R. Alan  Covey, and Kamyar Abdia. Rise of Civilization and Urbanism. Encyclopedia of Archaeology. Ed. Pearsall, Deborah M. London: Elsevier Inc., 2008. 1003–15. Print.

Police Intervention Programs Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Police Intervention Programs - Research Paper Example Intervention program can be dangerous because in most cases it requires the police officer to tame the law enforcement side f his career and try to be friend with the criminal. The intervention needs the police officers to be well trained in order for them to successfully implement the intervention programs. According to Corey et al (2005), intervention programs can be regarded as a way to better deal with crime issues in the streets. The advantage with intervention programs is the fact the criminal is regarded in a different light and this allows for alternative, better way to deal with crime. This can be seen in what Corey et al (2005) report in their study. In the study, the police implemented an intervention program for street drug users. The issue with drug users is that this has two dimensions with regard to how it affects the society. Due to the fact that these drug users share the same syringe to inject the drugs, the rate of spread of HIV and other diseases such as hepatitis B is always high among these users. In the current study, the police implemented an intervention program to make sure that the rate of syringe sharing was reduced. According to Corey et al (2005), the rate of sharing was reduced, especially among the black male drug users. The study used an observation meth od to observe how the police intervention was done, a total of 89 participants were observed during the study. The results were that there was a general reduction in the sharing of street syringe users. Data indicated a higher rate of decrease of syringe sharing among the black male participants. The results of this research can be regarded in two perspectives. First, it shows that the intervention of police can lead to reduced crimes without necessarily having to arrest offenders. This solves the issue of congested prisons and police cells. On the other

Artical review on computer file mgmt Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Artical review on computer file mgmt - Essay Example In the block allocation method there are policies in place that determine sequence, locality and so on. When the block of data satisfies the requirement they are allocated the space. The difficulty in this method arises when files are deleted. The original relationships are discarded creating truncations in clusters. The relations need to be completely redone for each new block of data. The authors realize this to be an inefficient use of cpu power and time. The authors suggest that retaining the file layout instead of loosing it after a deletion is a more efficient way to retain block storage. If the file structure no longer has to be recreated each time a file is deleted then a tremendous amount of processor time will be realized. They propose a Storage Slab Allocator or SSA for an improved method of disk space management. Their novel approach appears to have merit as evidenced by the following file management policy. They propose to add a del_list, which tracks any deleted file original layout and a trunc_list, which likewise record any truncated space layout. These are attached to each block Group (BG) for their SSA. They use the binary strategy in the file layout with 1 identified as used and 0 identified as free; they have termed this the â€Å"invalid† bit. Thus the strategy becomes: The total blocks within the sub file layout whose head block number is free are all free. Otherwise, the next level ‘invalid’ need be checked until the last level. Not all the block number but only the head block of the sub file layout need set to be free when blocks are released. (Zhang, et. al., p. 296) They continue to illustrate the concept as a linear but progressive approach that retains the valuable file storage structures while being able to relinquish or delete the data more quickly. Then subsequently allowing new data to be allocated as a â€Å"slab† of information rather

Spain Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Spain Economy - Essay Example The ERM is essentially a managed float exchange rate regime where the currencies of the participating countries are allowed to float at a specific band. Most of the currencies of participating countries are allowed with a fluctuation band of 2.25% against a central rate while the Portuguese escudo and the Spanish peseta were allowed a broader band of 6%. Constant intervention of the participating countries' central banks became prevalent to control exchange rate. As the German mark is the most stable currency of the group, it became the yardstick or the central rate with which all the other currencies are measured. The mark has become the unofficial reserve currency, meaning that if Spain was intervening to buy pesetas it would be selling marks in exchange for pesetas (Weerapana, 2004). The reunification of East and West Germany commenced the collapse of the ERM in 1992. It is important to note that the reunification necessitated the transfers of huge amounts from the large rich economy of the West Germany to the smaller, poorer East. These huge transfers which accounts for 50% of the West Germany's savings created a budget deficit which reached 13.2% from the original 5%. As the German government is becoming nervous on the prospects of high inflation, it started pursuing contractionary monetary policy. However, the combination of the expansionary fiscal policy (transfers to East Germany) and contractionary monetary policy yield to a surge in German interest rate (Weerapana, 2004). As inflation raged through Germany, the world interest also rose. Due to these, there was an outflow of money from European countries thereby causing the devaluation of ERM currencies like peseta.... The regime of General Franco left an essentially fascist economy to Spain which is characterized by lack of economic freedom. The economy is dominated by large public institutions controlling all sectors and monopoly was prevalent. However, the accession of the country in the European Union during 1986 necessitated Spain to â€Å"open its economy, modernize its industrial base, improve infrastructure, and revise economic legislation to conform to EU guidelines.† These huge developments in the country’s policies and structure irrefutable introduced changes in its economy. The immediate years following the country’s ascent to the EU marked Spain’s economic boom. It should be noted that from 1986-1990, Spain saw substantial mount in Gross Domestic Product, reduced the ratio of public debt to GDP, decreased unemployment from 23% to 10%, and curb inflation to under 3%. By the end of 1990, GDP reached more than 50 trillion pesetas while the annual per capita income amounted to 1.1 million pesetas. However, this economic boom was followed by a recession in the mid-1992 to 1994 which was the most severe economic depression since the international oil crisis. Spain faced huge challenges which greatly affected its financial system and international relations. Meanwhile, changes in trade policies, specifically lowering trade restrictions facilitate a freer movement of merchandise among Spain and its trading partners, while promoting efficiency in the economy. The situation in the United States in very much different by the economic state of the European Union. Europe is currently considered as the largest economy at the moment while the United States is recognized the largest and one of the most technologically advanced nations.

Israel-Palestine Conflict and the Role of Egypt Essay

Israel-Palestine Conflict and the Role of Egypt - Essay Example The Israel-Palestinian conflict is one of the most important issues in the international politics and various efforts have been initiated by United Nations and various countries to resolve the issue and bring about a compromise between the two parties of the conflict but none of the efforts has been able to achieve success (Harms and Ferry). There are many other issues related to the conflict which include the economic failure of the Palestinian authority and the deplorable condition the Arabs in the region, the terrorist activities of the Islamic extremist, violation of international laws by both parties of the conflict and the human rights violations in the region. The conflict has gained extraordinary importance because of the fact that Jerusalem is the sacred city of the three major religious communities of the world; Christians, Jews and Muslims and due to the dismal security situation of the region, a large number of pilgrims are not allowed to visit their holy places. Both par ties of the conflict are not willing to show any type of flexibility in their stances and thus a deadlock persists despite repeated international interventions and efforts. The most feasible solution presented by the United Nations and the international community is the establishment of two states in the region, a Palestinian State for the Arabs and an Israeli state for the Jews; majority of people in the region agree on this solution, however they have failed to come up with an acceptable partition plan. The acts of violence committed by the Palestinian armed groups and the Israeli army have also complicated the whole peace promotion process. Important international actors in the conflict include United Nations, United States, Russia and the Arab League particularly Egypt. The history of the Israel-Palestine conflict can be traced back to the end of the 19th century when the first Zionist Congress was held in Switzerland with the establishment of the World Zionist Organization. The Jews of the world aspired to return to Zion (Jerusalem) as part of their religion, and that is why in the latter half of the 19th century the Jews started to organize themselves and started to strive for an independent Jewish homeland in the region of Palestine. The World Zionist Organization established a Jewish National Fund for encouraging the immigration of the Jews from various regions of the world to the Palestinian regions and large sums of money were spent on the purchase of land from the Ottoman rulers and later the from the British rulers. During that time, for the first time in history, Arab Nationalism also started to become popular among the Arabs of the world, particularly in this region. The Jews managed to buy large areas of land in the Palestinian regions and started to build the Jewish settlements and at the same time Jews from all over the world were encouraged to migrate to the Palestinian regions in the newly constructed settlements. During the beginning the mi nor conflicts stirred up because of the accidental killings by the Jews and Arabs in the regions, however the Arabs soon became aware of the Zionist ambitions of the Jews, particularly the peasants and farmers of the lands where the Jews have started to build settlements. These farmers, known as fellaheen felt dispossessed of their lands and started to protest before the Ottoman leaders about the increasing Jewish settlements

Legal Concepts Worksheet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Legal Concepts Worksheet - Essay Example Federal courts - supercede jurisdiction over state courts. In order to file a lawsuit in federal court there must be a federal question or diversity in jurisdiction. A state action will not lie in federal court. Decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court - The US supreme court trumps all courts. It is the law of the land and all courts bow to it. The decisions of the supreme court guide all courts in the nation on how to rule on a specific issue. A judge must not rule in a manner that is contra to established supreme court law. Judicial restraint - The court will restrain itself from ruling on areas not with in the ambit of the legal question before them. However sometimes, we can take a guess on their stance on a particular issue by reading the dissenting opinion, stare decisis or dicta. Subject-matter jurisdiction - the court must have the authority to decide a particular issue. For example, the small claims courts in New York cannot have jurisdiction in a matter that requests over three thousand in damages. Personal jurisdiction - the defendant must either reside, or live in the state that the action is commenced in or there is no jurisdiction. When this happens, you start to look at long arm jurisdiction possibilities. Class-action suits - an action that is brought by a class of people. This does not mean that a group of friends get together to bring a suit.

Nursing Leadership Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Nursing Leadership - Case Study Example a result of the general assumption that nursing probably has the least status in healthcare something that has been a cause for bad treatment of nurses by other employees who look down upon them (Manojlovich, 2007). On a more important note, if their leader does not exude confidence and some control over her environment, the nurses under her similarly end up lacking in confidence. Manojlovich advances that nurses can find power in three ways. Control over content of nursing practice where they establish their area of expertise and act as they know. It implies that they can gain power by being professionally autonomous where they have control over their work. Secondly she posits that they can attain power through control over context of nursing practice. This entails involvement of nurses in the running of the hospitals where they are informed and participated in the decision making process. According to research, reveals Manojlovich, control over content and context are the defining characteristics of the rated magnet hospitals. Lastly, nurses can gain power through control over competence of nursing practice. Here, nurses need to gain sufficient competence in their work and this can only be achieved via proper training. It has been argued that the low level education that nurses are offered before joining the practice has been a major contributing factor to nurses feeling powerless. Compared to other employees, nurses have been traditionally viewed as less learned thus the mistreatment. To attract staying nurses would therefore require that they are offered higher level training so that they feel confident enough while dispensing their duties. It is understandable that without proper feeling of power among the nurses, their work will be poor and turnover rates would probably remain high or even increase. Therefore, it is an utter necessity for Nancy to motivate her staff into their gaining some confidence and therefore power. First, as a manager herself, she