Ancient Mayan Warriors and Warfare

Ancient Mayan Warriors and Warfare The Maya were a mighty civilization based in the low, rainy forests of southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize whose culture peaked around 800 A.D. before going into steep decline. Historical anthropologists used to believe the Maya were a peaceful people, who warred upon one another rarely if at all, preferring instead to dedicate themselves to astronomy, building, and other non-violent pursuits. Recent advances in the interpretation of stonework at Maya sites have changed that, however, and the Maya are now considered a very violent, warmongering society. Wars and warfare were important to the Maya for a variety of reasons, including subjugation of neighboring city-states, prestige, and capture of prisoners for slaves and sacrifices. Traditional Pacifist Views of the Maya Historians and cultural anthropologists began seriously studying the Maya in the early 1900s. These first historians were impressed with the great Maya interest in the cosmos and astronomy and their other cultural achievements, such as the Maya calendar and their large trade networks. There was ample evidence of a warlike tendency among the Maya - carved scenes of battle or sacrifice, walled compounds, stone, and obsidian weapon points, etc. - but the early Mayanists ignored this evidence, instead of sticking to their notions of the Maya as a peaceful people. As the glyphs on the temples and stelae began to yield their secrets to dedicated linguists, however, a very different picture of the Maya emerged. The Maya City-States Unlike the Aztecs of Central Mexico and the Inca of the Andes, the Maya were never a single, unified empire organized and administered from a central city. Instead, the Maya were a series of city-states in the same region, linked by language, trade, and certain cultural similarities, but often in lethal contention with one another for resources, power, and influence. Powerful cities like Tikal, Calakmul, and Caracol frequently warred upon one another or upon smaller cities. Small raids into enemy territory were common: attacking and defeating a powerful rival city was rare but not unheard of. The Maya Military Wars and major raids were led by the Ahau or King. Members of the highest ruling class often were military and spiritual leaders of the cities and their capture during battles was a key element of military strategy. It is believed that many of the cities, especially the larger ones, had large, well-trained armies available for attack and defense. It is unknown if the Maya had a professional soldier class as the Aztecs did. Maya Military Goals The Maya city-states went to war with one another for several different reasons. Part of it was military dominance: to bring more territory or vassal states under the command of a larger city. Capturing prisoners was a priority, especially high-ranking ones. These prisoners would be ritually humiliated at the victorious city: sometimes, the battles were played out again in the ball court, with the losing prisoners sacrificed after the â€Å"game.† It is known that some of these prisoners remained with their captors for years before finally being sacrificed. Experts disagree about whether these wars were waged solely for the purpose of taking prisoners, like the famous Flower Wars of the Aztecs. Late in the Classic period, when the warring in the Maya region became much worse, cities would be attacked, looted and destroyed. Warfare and Architecture The Maya penchant for warfare is reflected in their architecture. Many of the major and minor cities have defensive walls, and in the later Classic period, newly-founded cities were no longer established near productive land, as they had been previously, but rather on defensible sites such as hilltops. The structure of the cities changed, with the important buildings all being inside the walls. Walls could be as high as ten to twelve feet (3.5 meters) and were usually made of stone supported by wooden posts. Sometimes the construction of walls seemed desperate: in some cases, walls were built right up to important temples and palaces, and in some cases (notably the Dos Pilas site) important buildings were taken apart for stone for the walls. Some cities had elaborate defenses: Ek Balam in the Yucatan had three concentric walls and the remains of a fourth one in the city center. Famous Battles and Conflicts The best-documented and possibly the most important conflict was the struggle between Calakmul and Tikal in the fifth and sixth centuries. These two powerful city-states were each dominant politically, militarily and economically in their regions, but were also relatively close to one another. They began warring, with vassal cities like Dos Pilas and Caracol changing hands as the power of each respective city waxed and waned. In 562 A.D. Calakmul and/or Caracol defeated the mighty city of Tikal, which fell into a brief decline before regaining its former glory. Some cities were hit so hard that they never recovered, like Dos Pilas in 760 A.D. and Aguateca sometime around 790 A.D. Effects of Warfare on Maya Civilization Between 700 and 900 A.D., most of the important Maya cities in the south and central regions of the Maya civilization went silent, their cities abandoned. The decline of the Maya civilization is still a mystery. Different theories have been proposed, including excessive warfare, drought, plague, climate change and more: some belief in a combination of factors. Warfare almost certainly had something to do with the disappearance of the Maya civilization: by the ​late Classic period wars, battles and skirmishes were quite common and important resources were dedicated to wars and city defenses. Source: McKillop, Heather. The Ancient Maya: New Perspectives. New York: Norton, 2004.

Healthcare services Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Healthcare services - Essay Example One manifestation of these policies is the appointment of Patient Information Strategy Project Manager (PISPM) at the North Devon Primary Care Trust (PCT). North Devon PCT developed a strategy to involve the public and provide multiple services to enhance the understanding of patient needs within the PCT. They also aim to improve the knowledge based from the patients and general publics' opinion. PISPM post's performances have strengths and weaknesses but they also play an important role in leading this strategy. By improving North Devon Information Strategy, value will be added in developing a greater public involvement in North Devon PCT. Patient & Public Involvement Definition Patient & Public involvement and other allied terms are used to covey a variety of meanings. Public involvement refers to the involvement of individual patients, together with health professionals, in making decisions about their own health care (Florin & Dixon 2004). According to the Department of Health, patient and public involvement is not just about structures, it is a cultural change. It is about empowering patients and the public to have a role in health care society. ... Through these practices, the way to address the needs of the growing number of people with chronic conditions will now be appropriate and effective. Hennessy (2002) pointed out that involving individual encourages and empowers them. The sense of ownership improves health outcomes and patient experiences. On the other hand, the Trusts will also benefit from this involvement. It will provide a more responsive service, which meets the local needs. Involvement in NHS activities encourages staff to consider alternative ways of meeting the care needs and look at providing services from a different perspective which is that of the patients' perspective. Florin & Dixon (2004) indicated that involving the public may help ensure health policy decisions better reflect the values of the community. It will make services more responsive to the individuals and communities who uses them and that more responsive services will lead to improved health. Patient & Public Involvement Policies Policies to encourage public involvement in the NHS are not new. Previous governments have used various policies in an attempt to encourage democratic and informal decisions in the NHS. A review of policies from 1948 to 1997 showed that public involvement in the NHS decreased over this period (Harrison, Milewa and Dowswell 2002). In contrast, Klein & New (1996) reviewed the period from 1990 and concluded that there had been a moderate increase in democracy in the NHS. Since the Labor government came to power in 1997, a new raft of policies has been introduced with the stated aim of increased public or patient involvement. The NHS Plan, published in July 2000, aimed to give the

Source of error Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Source of error - Lab Report Example It is expressed by the equation: A source of error is described as any factor that affects the final result of an experiment. However, careful evaluation of a source of error makes it possible for experimenters to improve on their techniques. One source of error in Newton’s second law of motion is found in the incomplete definition, this is because gravitational force usually causes mass to speed up. In Newton’s definition, he excludes mentioning the effect of gravitational force as a co-effect to the variables. Therefore Newton’s law can also be expressed as; Secondly, a source of error found in the law is the systematic failure to account for constancy in change as the net force changes. It is predicted that the speed of an object mass increases constantly when the net force acting on the object itself changes. For example in these calculations; In addition, the third source of error in this law is found in the systematic or random environmental factors where Newton did not account for possible effects of environmental condition for instance temperature and how they affect the final results. For example when measuring the mass of a stone, we avoid highly ventilated rooms and use small strings on a pulley instead of large ones to minimize the percentage error. Moreover, parallax and experimental apparatus errors is a common source of error in experiments, for instance when the observers eyes is not in proper alignment with the scale the mass recorded will be faulty. It is advisable to use the null difference method instead of measuring mass directly thus creating a sensitive measuring instrument. Finally, a source of error in Newton’s law involves the rate of variation of a body which is directly proportional to the applied force and follows the direction where the force acts upon. This force as earlier said is not in

Le Silence De La Mer Analysis

Le Silence De La Mer Analysis Analyse the depiction of Franco-German collaboration in the short story ‘Le Silence de la mer. How effective is it in contesting the imagery and ideals of collaboration? The imagery and ideals (and indeed questions on their authenticity) regarding Franco-German collaboration are perceived and presented through means of a German soldiers transition from ignorance to knowledge. At the beginning of the story Werner von Ebrennac is idealistic, almost delusional, in his perspective on the German occupation. Towards the final ‘episodes of the story, however, an austere sense of darkness and truth pervades as he undergoes a transformation in his outlook which directly results from the revelations he faces in Paris. Vercors is highly effective in illustrating the fundamental flaws in idealising such a notion because by presenting the reader with an optimistic character and one whose naivety is flagrantly exaggerated to the point of being implausible he succeeds in juxtaposing the ideal and the actuality of Franco-German collaboration, thus inviting readers to witness their stark contrast. This question cannot be answered without incorporating an analysis of one of the short storys most significant images. Ubiquitous within it is the concept of a ‘marriage between France and Germany. As von Ebrennac himself says of Briand, ‘â€Å"Il va nous unir, comme mari et femme†. France, as is usual in her traditional guise of ‘Marianne, is the feminised party; the ‘femme of the metaphor, whilst Germany is portrayed as the husband; the ‘mari. Written at a time when women could not, particularly in the context of Nazi and Vichy ideals, expect the same rights as their husband, this pervasive symbol can be interpreted as one which casts France in a role of subjugated female to Germanys dominant male rather than a collaborator on an equal footing with her invader. This device is deployed in more detail on pages 29 and 30, when von Ebrennac tacitly compares France and Germanys relationship and on a lesser scale the unfeasible liaison between himse lf and the narrators niece – to the fairytale ‘The Beauty and the Beast. On a superficial level Vercors is suggesting that the so-called ‘collaboration between the two countries exists solely in the realm of myth and legend; that the ‘polite invasion of the early years of German occupation was a fantastic smokescreen designed to disguise its true tyrannical nature. On a deeper level it becomes clear that von Ebrennacs idealisations conceal an underlying recognition of Nazi values in spite of his seemingly personable demeanour. With the fairytales protagonists evidently serving as symbols of the two countries, the soldier inverts the emotional dynamics of the story by focusing on the torment of the Beast (Germany) rather than the capture of Beauty (France), creating an unusually positive portrayal of the former. Much like Nazi propaganda, the true train of events is glossed over and undermined. Furthermore, there lies a sinister undercurrent beneath the ‘bonheur sublime that this union is supposed to give rise to, namely ‘â€Å"leu rs enfants, qui additionnent et mà ªlent les dons de leurs parents, sont les plus beaux que la terre ait portes.† In this sentence von Ebrennac, whether he realises it or not, is indirectly referring to the Nazi aspiration to create a ‘Herrenvolk, or ‘master race, of Aryan people to improve their breeding stock. Finally, the very act of translating a traditional French story into German (La Belle et la bà ªte becomes Das Tier und die Schà ¶ne) represents far more than a linguistic practicality; it is symbolic of translating French culture, society and politics into German as well. From this we can glean that Franco-German ‘collaboration isnt the ideal which the Nazi propaganda machine, and of course the German soldier in this story, would have us believe. It is by no means a symbiotic relationship, but an invasion in which only one country will prevail; that of the invader. Although the complicity of France in advocating Nazi ideology during the war years has been brought into question in decades since, Vercors French characters are unquestionably resisters. ‘Le Silence de la mer is most easily interpreted as an allegory of passive resistance; the narrator and his nieces refusal to speak to the soldier who lives in their home uninvited is an act of great self-sacrifice and patriotism; an imprisonment of the mind which serves to protect the values of the culture and country they hold so dearly. In the nieces case, her silence and failure to make eye-contact with von Ebrennac is also a complex denial of her blossoming feelings for him. She forfeits what might, in other historic circumstances, have been a happy and suitable union in order to serve the best interests of her country. An analysis of the narrators library reveals how incompatible a ‘marriage France and Nazi Germany would be. For gracing its shelves (as observed on page 28) is a long list of classic authors, mainly French, with two things in common: they all uphold the Republican emphasis on intellectualism and individualism, and most would have been banned under the occupation. Although the two characters never verbalise their beliefs, the titles contained in this library are the literary manifestation of their convictions; the value they place on civil liberties and democracy. The inclusion of great writers of other nationalities, for example Shakespeare, is no doubt intended to symbolise resistance on a wider, European level. In short, the protagonists interests lie in resistance, not collaboration. The closing line of ‘Le Silence de la mer – ‘Dehors luisait au travers de la brume un pà ¢le soleil. Il me sembla quil faisait trà ¨s froid – epitomises, through means of pathetic fallacy, the deception of the early years of the German occupation. The relationship between France and Germany is not ‘un amour partagà ©, but, as the references to Shakespearean plays Macbeth and Othello imply, a tragedy, as one seeks to erase the spirit of the other. Von Ebrennacs compatriots words expose the true nature of Franco-German collaboration: ‘â€Å"Nous ne sommes pas des fous ni des niais: nous avons loccasion de dà ©truire la France, elle le sera. Pas seulement sa puissance: son à ¢me aussi. Son à ¢me surtout. Son à ¢me est le plus grand danger.† Not a collaboration at all, but a conquest.

Fredrick Douglas Paper

Fredrick Douglass The analysis By Justin Ruano 11/14/11 Hist Am Civ 1607-1877 [pic] Have you ever wondered to yourself if you firmly belief in something that you could understand the opposite side of it? Well if you just so happened to believe in slavery and I were to tell you a story about an American born slave that is making his case to abolish I, would you listen? In the book Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, An American slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Fredrick Douglass in his portion of the book goes on to make his case that slavery should be abolished.The way he goes about reasoning why it should be abolished is first he tells us about his experience during his period of slavery and in that experience it explains with a main point why and how it works. Secondly, he uses this book as a tool to help expose the true evil of slavery and uses once again experience which is a helpful thing. Lastly, he uses the fact that slave owners make the slaves ignorant o f their age, where they were born, and who their parents are. Fredrick Douglass throughout this book uses experiences to show why slavery should be abolished.Fredrick Douglass was born in 1818 and he died in 1895, and he was born into slavery in Talbot Country, Maryland. (Fredrick Douglass facts page) In chapter 1, Fredrick Douglass said that he had witnessed these beatings and that it had happened often. â€Å"I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child, but I well remembered it. †¦ It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Douglass pg 21) For example, the last paragraph of( page 21) going to( page 22) is the first experience of the beatings he witnessed. He took her into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back entirely naked†¦. † By using experiences, he is able to show people that even some s lave owners kill their slaves from beating. Murder is a sin especially for the religious people who were not so affected by this. For example on the bottom of (page 25) Fredrick Douglass Notes that Mr. Severe was called a very cruel man. Also noted that he had seen him whip a woman and take great pleasure in doing so. Since when does anyone take pleasure in torturing people is my question.For Fredrick Douglass, this book was his greatest resource to convincing people to abolish slavery because, slavery did not affect many people and especially for white people, they of course were not going to care. The challenge fir Douglass was that people didn’t know and they didn’t care. That was his biggest challenge. Books don’t lie. For Fredrick Douglass, he would have liked to be alive during the time slavery was officially gone. For example why this book helped him make his case is because he went through these things and witnessed these events. His biography of how sla very really was like back then.Beatings to the point slaves would die due to a lot of bleeding. The main point for this reason of how he went about to explain his case is this book. He wrote it with events, names, dates. Things that define what history is. Another example of how his book was a tool to help him make his case is that throughout this whole book he talked about a lot of violence from the beatings that he witnessed. In the First chapter he mentioned how he was roughly 7 years old and he witnessed a brutal beating his master gave one of the salves that was with Fredrick Douglass. Pg 21) Finally, by using this book as a tool he exposed evil by once again talking about his experiences about slavery. Fredrick Douglass a few times in the book says that the slave-owners tend to make the slaves ignorant of their age, where there from, and even their parents. For example, he says on the very first page of chapter one that, â€Å" By far the large part of the slaves know as litt le of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. †(Douglass pg 17) For someone to not know their age or mainly anything about themselves is pretty ridiculous.He also says on the same page that he doesn’t really know anyone who even knows their own birthday, nor is he knowledgeable of his age. For him just trying to make his case about slavery should be abolished is hard enough. To even have a hard time to find out his age is also pretty unbelievable. Also for him once again trying to make a case that it should be abolished was very difficult but to not even recall his mother’s death or anything is pretty sad. For the people he is trying to convince is also an advance fro his case because he must know that none of them would want to be like him not remembering or knowing anything about himself.Lastly, For Fredrick Douglass to be able to learn his year of birth from a conversation he overheard from his master when trying to make his case would in his mind help him to win the audience he has. Throughout the course of the book Fredrick Douglass makes his case about how slavery should be abolished. The way he goes about that is he talks about his experiences so that his audience will get a good view of exactly what is going on and then determine what works. He then uses the book as a tool so that he has an even stronger case about why it should be abolished.Finally, he talks about how the slave-owners would rather have their slaves to be ignorant about how exactly they are and when they were born, age, and even parents. Hes uses these three things to make his case of why slavery should be abolished and the biggest â€Å"how† is using the book as a tool. Personal Reaction to Fredrick Douglass Part of reading My personal reaction to the book is that I thought there was a lot of emotion that he spilled out into this book and that is what truly made this book enjoyable for me to read. Biographies are my favorite types of books.When I first picked up this book I though it wasn’t going to be a very good book because reading books about someone’s slavery story isn’t what I like to read but as I started to get into the book I thought it was very hard to put down and it was one of the best books that I have read. It was something new to me by reading it but to me it was very good about learning how his life basically went dealing with being a slave and then trying to argue how slavery should be abolished. Very good narrative and I would defitnely recommend this book for someone to read.

Art And Culture, 1920-1945, An Exhibition Curated By Dr....

Between February 13 and July18, 2015 the Brigham Young University Museum of Art is exhibiting Deco Japan: Shaping Art and Culture, 1920-1945, an exhibition curated by Dr. Kendall Brown. The exhibit was collected in an attempt to detail the cultural transformation that took place in Japan from the Roaring Twenties all the way through the end of World War II. The exhibit displays the tension between the deep national culture and the up and coming cosmopolitan lifestyle. Dr. Brown gathered art of all variations, ranging from paintings to sculptures to ordinary household objects. Deco Art itself is a reflection of changing world cultures. It was born in France post-World War I as a sort of marriage between craft motifs and the industrial age, characterized by wealthy and bold-looking colors and shapes. The art form is well depicted in the decoration of the Rockefeller Center in New York or any of the art and decor found in the movie The Great Gatsby. This striking form represented the glamour of the age. In a great sense, the period represented a change from conservative to a more liberal view on life. This was no different in Japan. The period observed through the art pieces is one of extreme tension between two very different lifestyles. During this time, many Japanese youth were reaching out to Western Modernism and the allure of the big city and Jazz culture. The â€Å"Moga,† short for Modan Gaaru (modern girl) and the â€Å"Mobo,† the modern boy, were paving the way for a new

The Issue Of Same Sex Marriage And Homosexuality - 1082 Words

A Brief Explanation of Where the Culture Now Stands and What It Means to Christians I wish to share some thoughts with you on the issue of same-sex marriage and homosexuality, though most of what you will read here seems somewhat distant from that topic. From some of the rhetoric I have read, the growth of these practices in our society establishes a sin of special significance, a sin that denotes God’s rejection of America and a proof of judgment against our nation. Granted, scriptural passages support this interpretation. I do believe that America is under God’s judgment, but those who point to the radical sexualization of our culture confuse cause and effect. For example, were one to enter an abandoned house to find a thick layer†¦show more content†¦Those affected by these ideas may not even understand them; nonetheless, these ideas motivate and direct the reasoning of tens of millions of people. Presuppositions always work this way, and these presumptive ideas have been working throughout culture for some time. But such ideas are al most invisible as they do their work, like the air people breath. They are the intellectual background of modern life, quite different from what governed the learning, thinking, and doing, of past generations not so distant from today. These modern presuppositions focus people upon the material, the sensual, and the expedient. As a result, average people very likely embrace a social utilitarian ethic as the natural approach to deciding moral and legal issues. They also have a tendency to reject established authority. These opinions are logically inconsistent and generate social and intellectual tensions. When people create values based upon the material, the sensual, and the expedient, popular opinion and the latest polling results become the justifying foundations for moral claims. One might expect that this would intensify moral skepticism within a society already suspicious of authority. In one sense, it does; traditional moral opinion has come under relentless attack. But popularly supported moral claims today, based as they are on the shifting sands of social preference, take on