Analysing the Concept of and Impact of Culture

Analysing the Concept of and Impact of Culture More than a half century ago noted American poet T. S. Eliot eloquently expressed the complexity of the term culture, a term that is used so freely and with so little aforethought today. As Eliot learned, culture is quite difficult to define. He succeeded in describing the term, as Lord Evans (2001) noted, but a definition eluded even someone with Eliots gift for words. But Eliot was not alone in wrestling with defining culture; experts in a variety of disciplines have yet to agree on a consensus definition and some even contest the concept of culture itself. As this essay will demonstrate, controversy surrounding the concept of culture can be attributed, to a large degree, to the failure by those who study the topic to adopt a widely-accepted definition that adequately captures the complexity of the term. After presenting the results of a literature review on various definitions of culture and the topic of culture as a contested concept, the focus of the essay turns to the significance of culture in conflict resolution, demonstrating that culture is a critical factor in successfully resolving conflicts and, further, that a consensus definition for culture that reflects the realities of modern society would facilitate the conflict resolution process. Culture Defined Experts may not be able to agree on a definition for culture, but they apparently experience no difficulty in agreeing that culture is a difficult term to define (Edensor 2002; Hall 1980, cited in Park 2005). Susan Wright (1998) reports the existence of at least 164 definitions for culture. Noted sociologist and anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn (1949) defined culture eleven different ways in his book Mirror for Man, and he and his colleagues (1952) catalogued more than 160 definitions for culture into six categories – descriptive, historical, normative, psychological, generic, and incomplete. Raymond Williams writes that, in the term culture, history has bestowed â€Å"one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language†, adding that culture can be used to refer to a wide range of phenomena and that the concept of culture has produced major political and philosophical disagreement (Williams 1983, cited in Chay 1990). Kluckhohn (1954) developed one of the most often cited definitions for culture in writing that it â€Å"consists in patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting, acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts†. Culture has also been defined as â€Å"that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society† (Tylor 1871, cited in Kluckhohn 1952); â€Å"the human-made part of the environment† (Herskovits 1955, cited in Earley and Randal 1997); â€Å"shared meaning systems† (Shweder and LeVine 1984, cited in Earley and Randal 1997); â€Å"the sum total and organization of the social heritages which have acquired a social meaning because of racial temperament and of the historical life of the group† (Park and Burgess 1921, cited in Kluckhohn 1952); â€Å"th e mode of life followed by the community or the tribe [including] all standardized social procedures† (Wissler 1929, cited in Kluckhohn 1952); â€Å"the sum of mens adjustments to their life-conditions†¦attained only through the combined action of variation, selection, and transmission† (Sumner and Keller 1927, cited in Kluckhohn 1952); and â€Å"a product of human association† (Groves 1928, cited in Kluckhohn 1952). In the aggregate, the various definitions just presented express the theme of shared meanings acquired then passed from generation to generation. They also describe culture at group and societal levels. Other experts describe the term from the perspective of the individual or otherwise provide for differences in cultural attributes within a group or society. Hofstede (1980, cited in Earley and Randel 1997) defines culture as â€Å"a set of mental programs that control an individuals responses in a given context†. Park (2005) describes culture as a â€Å"marker for difference† in society. And Rohner (1984, cited in Earley and Randel 1997) defines the term as â€Å"the totality of equivalent and complementary learned meanings maintained by a human population, or by identifiable segments of a population, and transmitted from one generation to the next†. The phrase â€Å"equivalent and complementary learned meanings† is critical to an understanding of Rohners definition, according to Earley and Randel, because it provides for individual variances in interpretations of â€Å"learned meanings† within a culture. Although these definitions represent only a small portion of those revealed from a review of the literature, they provide some insight into the range of thought on the topic of culture, especially perspectives on assessing culture at various levels – societal, group, and individual. As will be suggested, the difficulty experts have experienced in defining culture helps to explain why culture is a contested concept and why a solution to the definitional problem is important to resolving the debate about the role of culture in conflict resolution and, ultimately, to facilitating the conflict resolution process. Culture as a Contested Concept Fantasia and Hirsch (1995, cited in Ellis and Thompson, 1997) write, with a hint of sarcasm, that cultural theorists can take pride in their creation of a â€Å"contested terrain† in the study of culture. The literature review indicated that most experts who contest the concept of culture base their disputes on the belief that, in the modern world, there is no all-embracing culture in which everyone in a given society blindly holds precisely the same shared meanings, which is suggested by most traditional definitions of culture. The concept of culture has long been contested (Cooper and Denner 1998; Mathews 2000). Bhabha (1993) writes that, as people have increasingly migrated to other lands in modern times, they have only taken part of their total culture with them. The culture of these migrants becomes a mixture of the cultures from their native societies and those found in the society in which they entered. Heath (1997) writes that experts no longer consider culture to be a viable concept â€Å"in a world of volatile, situated, and overlapping social identities†, contending that various disciplines have taken issue with culture as a concept for various reasons. She writes that educators protest the concept on the basis of â€Å"its transmission of connotations of objectivity, discreteness, essentialism, and ahistoricism†; sociologists challenge the concept on the grounds of â€Å"production, mass consumerism, and popular entertainment†; and experts from the human sciences contest the â€Å"totalizing universalizing perspectives† of culture, replacing these â€Å"arbitrary constructions† with â€Å"permeable membranes† that are not â€Å"predictable or deterministic†. Heath (1997) also points to the â€Å"fuzzy boundaries† of culture, arguing that specific cultures are hard to isolate and claiming that variations are becoming apparent within groups that have been traditionally viewed as possessing unique cultures. Edensor (2002) writes that popular culture is having a major cross-cultural effect on traditional cultures. Childs and Storry (1999) claim that cultures are changing so quickly that â€Å"a snapshot of current cultural practices is inevitably going to be blurred†. Mathews (2000), in noting that even anthropologists are increasingly avoiding the term culture, poses the question as to whether â€Å"in todays world of global flows and interactions† cultural â€Å"labels† are appropriate and claims tha t individuals personally select which elements of a given culture to apply in their behavioural decisions. Brightman (1995, cited in Mathews 2000) notes that some experts are enclosing culture in quotation marks to indicate their â€Å"ambivalence, self-consciousness or censure† about the term. In closing, perhaps Earley and Randel (1997) offer the one of the more revealing insights into the controversy over the term culture: â€Å"We suggest that while the romance of culture as a grand concept capturing the complexity of society and life is tempting, this conceptualization is both limiting and misleading†. The Significance of Culture in Conflict Resolution Conflict resolution and culture are intrinsically intertwined. Rubin and colleagues (1994, cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry 1997) define conflict as â€Å"perceived divergence of interest, or a belief that parties current aspirations cannot be achieved simultaneously†. Hopmann (1998) contends that, in a complex world, conflict is unavoidable. Conflict is an inevitable consequence of the interdependence inherent in human interaction (Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry 1997). Processes used to resolve conflicts must be considered within a larger cultural context (Just 1991). Conflicts are cultural events in every sense of the word, according to Lederach (1991). Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry (1997) write that â€Å"conflict resolution is a cultural phenomenon†. Avruch (1991) refers to conflicts and conflict resolution approaches as â€Å"cultural events†. Various studies have confirmed that conflict resolution processes are culture-specific (Avruch and Black 1991; Avurch, Black and Scimec ca 1991, cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry 1997). Ross (1993, cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry 1997) originated the term culture of conflict to describe the norms and institutions that a society applies in conflicts. Beliefs, attitudes, and patterns of behaviours about conflict are internalised by people in their cultural settings and, in turn, strengthened by cultural norms and institutions. And, because conflict is a cultural phenomenon, the methods used to perceive and respond to conflict are typically transparent to those involved because these methods are based on assumptions that they do not question. (Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry 1997) Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry (1997) urge caution in applying conflict resolution approaches across cultural lines. For instance, they recommend that generic manuals prescribing conflict resolution procedures to be used in all cultural settings should be avoided (Avruch 1991). People involved in conflict resolution should be flexible and sensitive to cultural differences, according to Lederach (1991, cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist) and Benvenisti (1986, cited in Avruch 1991). Benvenisti chastises conflict resolvers â€Å"who believe that communal conflicts are like a chessboard where one can think up the best arrangement of chess pieces and move them all at once†. Cultures vary in the mechanisms they use in resolving conflict with some applying formal mechanisms such as court systems and others using informal approaches such as gossip, teasing, and exclusion (Black 1993; Fry 1992, 1994; Hollan 1988; White 1991, cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry 1997). Versi (2002) suggests that â€Å"if you know where the other person is coming from culturally†, you can develop a more effective approach to resolving conflict. Rubin (1994, cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry 1997), articulates four generic strategies used in conflict resolution: (1) contending, which involves a high level of concern for ones own results and a low level of concern for the others results; (2) problem solving, which involves high levels of concern for ones own results and those of the other party; (3) yielding, which involves a low level of concern for ones own results and a high level of concern for the others results; and (4) avoiding, which involves low levels of concern for ones own results and those of the other party. Of these, the authors argue that problem solving is the most effective strategy because it permits both contenders to win. Fortunately, the problem solving strategy is effective across a broad spectrum of cultures. In problem solving, the use of a non-partisan third-party facilitator has also been found to be effective across cultures (Black 1993, cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry 1997). The Culture Definition Dilemma and Its Effects on Optimal Conflict Resolution Outcomes The debate about culture, specifically the controversy surrounding the validity of culture as a concept, is important to the field of conflict resolution because cultural factors are so inexorably linked to conflicts and their effective resolutions. Results of the literature review of definitions for the term culture and the review of literature on culture as a contested concept suggest that definitions describing culture as a group or societal phenomenon without allowing for variance within the group or society may be at the root of the cultural concept validity dispute. As Bhabha (1993), Childs and Storry (1999), Edensor (2002), Heath (1997), and Mathews (2000) proffer, modern societies are increasingly integrating and, as this occurs, their members are mixing their unique cultural attributes with one another thereby blurring the distinctions that once defined individual cultures. But does this mean that the concept of culture is invalid? The answer to that question lies in the definitions of culture that allow for individual variance in cultural attributes. For instance, the definition offered by Rohner (1984, cited in Earley and Randel 1997), who defines the term as â€Å"the totality of equivalent and complementary learned meanings maintained by a human population, or by identifiable segments of a population, and transmitted from one generation to the next†, provides for individual variances in interpretations of â€Å"learned meanings† within a culture. This definition seems offer the flexibility to adequately define culture within the context of modern intermingled societies, thus revalidating the concept of culture. How, then, would a definition for culture that provides for individual variance relate to conflict resolution? Although a definition that considers everyone within a particular culture to share precisely the same cultural attributes would help to make conflict resolution a much more predictable process, such a definition does not reflect the realities of modern societies. However, knowing that members of a culture share â€Å"equivalent and complementary learned meanings†, as proposed by Rohner, permits a certain degree of predictability whilst simultaneously providing needed flexibility to accommodate individual variance. There may even be an additional benefit in this condition for practitioners in conflict resolution. Individual variance may actually serve to weaken strong cultural barriers that have, in the past, obstructed successful conflict resolution. For instance, as cultures integrate more fully, their members typically become more understanding of each others cultur al attributes. This understanding should provide an enhanced common basis for resolving conflicts and may even reduce the incidence of conflicts themselves. Conclusion In the modern global village, as opportunities increase for people and their cultures to interact, the need for effective conflict resolution has never been more critical or more difficult, yet experts in a variety of disciplines are engaged in seemingly endless philosophical arguments about the validity of culture as a concept, diverting their energies from what seem to be more productive endeavours such as developing new techniques for conflict resolution that could lead to a more peaceful world. Adopting a more flexible definition for culture – one that recognises individual variances and the realities of the modern world – would be a first step in achieving this worthy goal. References Avruch, K. (1991) Introduction: Culture and conflict-resolution, in K. Avruch, P. W. Black, and J. A. Scimecca, eds., Conflict Resolution: Cross Cultural Perspectives, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood. Avruch, K., and Black, P. W. (1991) The culture question and conflict resolution, Peace and Change 16. Cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry (1997). Avruch, K., Black, P. W., and Scimecca, J. A., (1991) Conflict Resolution: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. Cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry (1997). Benvenisti, Meron (1986) Conflicts and Contradictions, New York: Villard Books/Random House. Cited in Avruch (1991). Bhabha, Homi K. (1993) Cultures in between, Artforum International 32:1, September 1993. Bjà ¶rkqvist, Kaj, and Fry, Douglas P. (1997) Cultural Variation in Conflict Resolution: Alternatives to Violence, Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Black, D. (1993) The Social Structure of Right and Wrong, San Diego, California: Academic Press. Cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry (1997). Brightman, R. (1995) Forget culture: Replacement, transcendence, relexification, Cultural Anthropology 10:4. Cited in Mathews (2000). Chay, Jongsuk (1990) Culture and International Relations, New York: Praeger. Childs, Peter, and Storry, Mike (1999) Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture, London: Routledge. Cooper, Catherine R., and Denner, Jill (1998) Theories linking culture and psychology: Universal and community-specific processes, Annual Review of Psychology 49. Earley, P. Christopher, and Randel, Amy E. (1997) Culture without borders: An individual-level approach to cross-cultural research in organizational behavior, in Cary L. Cooper and Susan E. Jackson, eds., Creating Tomorrows Organizations: A Handbook for Future Research in Organizational Behavior, Chichester: John Wiley Sons. Edensor, Tim (2002) National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life, Oxford: Berg. Eliot, T. S. (1949) Notes Towards the Definition of Culture, New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 62. Ellis, Richard J., and Thompson, Michael (1997) Culture Matters: Essays in Honor of Aaron Wildavsky, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Evans, Lord (2001) The economy of the imagination, New Statesman 130:4544, July 2, 2001. Fantasia, Rick, and Hirsch, Eric L. (1995), Culture and rebellion: the appropriation and transformation of the veil in the Algerian Revolution, in Hank Johnston and Bert Klandermans, eds., Social Movements and Culture, Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. Cited in Ellis and Thompson (1997). Fry, D. P. (1992) Female aggression among the Zapotec of Oaxaca, Mexico, in K. Bjà ¶rkqvist and P. Niemelà ¤, eds., Of Mice and Women: Aspects of Female Aggression, San Diego, California: Academic Press. Cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry (1997). Fry, D. P. (1994) Maintaining social tranquillity: Internal and external loci of aggression control, in L. E. Sponsel and T. Gregor, eds., The Anthropology of Peace and Nonviolence, Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner. Cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry (1997). Groves, E. R. (1928) An Introduction to Sociology, New York. Cited in Kluckhohn (1952). Hall, S. (1980) Cultural studies: Two paradigms, in F. E. N. B. Dirk and S. B. Ortner, eds., A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Cited in Park (2005). Heath, Shirley Brice (1997) Culture: Contested realm in research on children and youth, Personality and Social Psychology Review 1:3. Herskovits, M. J. (1955) Cultural Anthropology, New York: Knopf. Cited in Earley and Randel (1997). Hofstede, G. (1980) Cultures Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values, Newbury Park, California: Sage. Cited in Earley and Randel (1997). Hollan, D. (1988) Staying cool in Toraja: Informal strategies for the management of anger and hostility in a non-violent society, Ethos 16. Cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry (1997). Hopmann, Terrence (1998) The Negotiation Process and the Resolution of International Conflicts, Columbia, South Carolina: Columbia South Carolina Press. Just, Peter (1991) Conflict resolution and moral community among the Dou Donggo, in Kevin Avruch, Peter W. Black, and Joseph A. Scimecca, eds., Conflict Resolution: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. Kluckhohn, C. (1949) Mirror for Man, New York: Wittlesey House. Kluckhohn, Clyde (1954) Culture and Behavior, New York: Free Press. Kluckhohn, Clyde et al. (1952) Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum. Lederach, John Paul (1991) Of nets, nails, and problems: The folk language of conflict resolution in a Central American settting, in Kevin Avruch, Peter W. Black, and Joseph A. Scimecca, eds., Conflict Resolution: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. Mathews, Gordon (2000) Searching for Home in the Cultural Supermarket, London: Routledge. Park, R. E., and Burgess, E. W. (1921) Introduction to the Science of Sociology, Chicago. Cited in Kluckhohn (1952). Park, Yoosun (2005) Culture as deficit: A critical discourse analysis of the concept of culture in contemporary social work discourse, Journal of Sociology Social Work 32:3. Rohner, R. R. (1984) Toward a conception of culture for cross-cultural psychology, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 15:2. Cited in Earley and Randel (1997). Ross, M. H. (1993) The Management of Conflict, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. Cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry (1997). Rubin, J. Z., Pruitt, D. G., and Kim, S. H. (1994) Social Conflict: Escalation, Stalemate and Settlement, New York: McGraw-Hill. Cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry (1997). Shweder, R. A. and LeVine, R. A. (1984) Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self, and Emotion, New York: Cambridge University Press. Cited in Earley and Randel (1997). Sumner, W. G., and Keller, A. G. (1927) The Science of Society, New Haven, Connecticut. Cited in Kluckhohn (1952). Tylor, E. B. (1871) Primitive Culture, Boston. Cited in Kluckhohn (1952). Versi, Anver (2002) Coping with culture clash, African Business, May 2002. White, G. M. (1991) Rhetoric, reality, and resolving conflicts: Disentangling in a Solomon Islands society, in K. Avruch, P. W. Black, and J. A. Schimecca, eds., Conflict Resolution: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood. Cited in Bjà ¶rkqvist and Fry (1997). Wissler, C. (1929) An Introduction to Social Anthropology, New York. Cited in Kluckhohn (1952). Williams, Raymond (1983) Keywords, London: Fontana. Cited in Chay (1990). Wright, Susan (1998) The politicization of culture, Anthropology Today 14:1.

Native American Heritage Essay

I have re-read this book in a relatively new edition. It is a mixture of Kiowa myths, family stories, history sketches, and personal experiences. For me it evokes a sense of community unknown in modern U. S. society. It also conveys, however dimly to the modern scientific mind, a deep sense of a peoples’ experience of the sacred where that term is entirely outside of modern theology and is steeped in the land and the memory of a people. It one opens ones mind and emotions the book can connect in a powerful way. However, a modern can never penetrate to the full depth of Kiowa sensibility. This was harshly expressed in an art object in the IAIA in Santa Fe, New Mexico some years ago. The object included the words: â€Å"Just because you stick a feather in your hat doen’t make you a Indian. † of another edition It seems enough to alert the reader this book exists, in case anybody is tired of consumer infatuation. These 90 page wonders full of meditation and forethought. It has to be his best, meaning simplest, clearest, but it is probably anthropology too. It ought to be read before or after viewing his http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=rbqzm6†¦ but to take it on its own it is about the alien and the unknown as feet in old age and death, that is to say that even though he calls himself Rock Tree Boy he i†¦ moreIt seems enough to alert the reader this book exists, in case anybody is tired of consumer infatuation. These 90 page wonders full of meditation and forethought. It has to be his best, meaning simplest, clearest, but it is probably anthropology too. It ought to be read before or after viewing his http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=rbqzm6†¦ but to take it on its own it is about the alien and the unknown as feet in old age and death, that is to say that even though he calls himself Rock Tree Boy he is A Man Without Fantasy. That’s the difference between being a bear and wearing a Jordan t-shirt with Hanes underwear. Nobody is Jordaned or Meadow Lark Lemoned from a laying on of their hands, but bear will move you. Dress in any of these masks or be naked as yourself as He Who Wears Only His Name. Either you stand naked in The Name or you hide in a mask. Groups function as masks to prevent nakedness, as if there were something other than The Name to stand in, but for the human there isn’t. It might be the landscape and the racial memory of landscape that â€Å"my parents and grandparents knew† (Schubnell, Conversations, 46). â€Å"I feel deeply about the landscape and I mean that literally. I think it is important for a person to come to terms with landscape. I think that’s important; it is a means to knowing oneself† (45). So it comes down to the meaning of landscape too, but this is intellectualized. The real question is, what is the meaning of wilderness? Superficial Existence in the Modern World Much of this is foreign today, Bear, landscape, even ancestry have been substituted with identities of no purpose to examine. The annihilation of the traditional in tribal societies and every assimilated subgroup is a negative. Assimilation is never good, although to say it that bald is offensive. This is also the point in that First Convocation of Indian Scholars (Ed.by Rupert Costo, 1970). In answering Hopi Charles Loloma about how to assume the traditional identity Momaday says, â€Å"I think that each of us who realizes that the native traditional values are important has a great obligation to convince the young of that, who may be wavering with alternatives†¦ [of] the dominant society which is destroying the world in which it lives† (9). â€Å"It’s really up to the older people†(10) to identify â€Å"the danger of superficial existence in the modern world† (10). To counter superficial existence he says â€Å"they have a primary obligation to tell their children and grandchildren about the traditional world, and try to show them by example and tell them explicitly that there is an option available to them, and that they’re damn fools if they don’t avail themselves of it† (10). Acculturation Thus acculturation is â€Å"a kind of one-way process in which the Indian ceases to be an Indian and becomes white man† (10). It is broader than that too, the PA German ceased to be himself and became an English-American. Acculturation to the modern translated means to steal the birth rite identity of the traditional, its language and customs and make the native a mascot of the modern. There is a continual excavation of the Caucasoid in every subgroup that assimilates, whether Pennsylvania German, Hispanic, black, Indian. The anthropologists should excavate themselves to give them something to do, since they otherwise are the inventors and stalking horse for the modern against the traditional, looking for power by stealing it. Modern here is not the pejorative it seems if the native takes his tradition into it to return what is stolen, or as Momaday says, that â€Å"it is good to go into the enemy’s camp† (12). Steal his horses! But he has stolen the children! Pull Out the Light Poles That said, it remains to learn tradition from the elder. In the face of radical destruction this takes more than effort, it takes surrender. Without surrender the traditional dies. Take your pick, you can think like Katie Couric and all the like spokespersons for the modern on Charlie Rose, or like grandfather. Momaday says it is a duty to teach the young. He addresses the elder’s reluctance: â€Å"I wonder if you have any idea of why they shut up at a certain point like that, why they won’t talk to you† (15)? Charles Loloma, the Hopi, had said that when the power company installed electric poles by force â€Å"the people came out and pulled the poles all back out. These people didn’t want the electricity'†(15). This is symbolic of the whole transmission of culture of the modern against the traditional. When the enemy enters the native camp it is called deliverance, but is really theft of the child. It is destruction of the tradition, which is obvious when white missionaries go to New Guinea but apparently not when the Internet sells social network. You have to live it, not be curious of it. Fight Against Electricity! Ben Barney, a Navajo, says he had a grandfather who taught him until the age of eight, but when he died he couldn’t find a replacement. Another says, â€Å"my grandfather died, and he was one of the last men in the village who knew the whole ritual cycle of songs. He died without letting me or my father, or any of us record any of it. I think he felt that this thing that he had was too precious to just give out, and have it exposed to someone whom he never knew well. And he’d rather die with it than have that happen to it. It seems to me he was saying, you’re not going to to live it. You’re one of these people that’s fighting for the electricity. (I am not, in fact)† (17). So the ticket to the traditional, the universal (! ) is that you have to live it, not be curious of it. Surrender to the traditional! If you will not surrender, and the elders have any pride, they take it to the grave in sorrow. But it is not to be studied by post docs. It is to be lived. How many young think their elders outweigh the modern? Lifeway That you have to live it goes a long way toward knowing both wilderness and identity. Living is not an intellectual function. â€Å"But he was saying, you’re one of these people who are fighting for this. My people never had electricity. We never lived that way. And if I give you my lifeway, if I tell you my lifeway, you’re going to sit and laugh at me, because you’re laughing anyhow just by your behavior† (17). Only among the remnants of American tribes does anyone dare thus to challenge the modern. Other subgroups embrace it like a drug. The life way is an iPhone. The elders won’t speak to this, â€Å"naturally they are not going to tell you. I mean, they can’t. I can see why he felt there is no way to communicate experience; the essence of it, the reality of it. I believe he was saying: I could give you words, and you could put them down, but that wouldn’t mean the same thing† (17). Is this reality versus the virtual? The track of a bear versus a video game? These things are important if you want to have anything left on the earth that isn’t homogeneous and interchangeable. Like babies. Everything said here of the American tribes transfers to every family and subculture. 2. Momaday avoids the satiric in his work, but it is a satiric haunt like a ghost river in every meadow, grove and stream the summer nights after the predators came. Then a foam appeared at the exit pipes of plants along the upper Allegheny. It is hard enough to name Bear and Wilderness when those subsequent masks upon masks cover up naked being. Surrender. Stand up and strip, confess, then kneel! Wilderness trees, canyons, streams and things under and in them, screeches in the night, wheat, bear, porcupine are symbols to show what they are standing for, something else, life mirrors that open doors and close the way we live. Only the sun has escaped our dominion. The sun escaped the nano tales that seine the atmosphere in a net, to take earth away. How To Know and Recognize the Alien These image masks are the ultimate reality that deny we are predators or aliens. If you want to know the alien go and be one. Sit in the Mogollon. Do you belong? Find a bear. Is he your friend? People wander out all the time, light fires to be found, but the ones that aren’t found bone up. Coyote Wound Dresser had a talk with Walt Whitman, Wound Dresser, but things did not turn out well for Whitman. The alien cannot be modeled, but it is knowable if Unknown. I’m going to tell you what it is. Talking to the Unknown we try to understand synergies of it in the anthropology of Edward Dorn http://osnapper. typepad. com/snappersj†¦ He says the alien is a crucifying self-consciousness of doubt at the root of his own being when he sees the Shoshone. Does he, Dorn, belong? His doubts serve against the Unknown. They are a mirror of loss and lack. The filth on the chair that gets on his pants is an image of it†¦ â€Å" I had a great desire to be off, to not take any more, or give any more†¦for I will say it, at the risk of blunder: It is impossible for myself and my people to offer themselves in any but the standard senses† (14). At least he knows of the surrender, that you have to live it. In some freak of Methodism he wants to wash this old man’s feet to tame him, this 102 year old who stands for all of Idaho, Utah, Nevada and the Great Basin before electricity, † a volume of Yaa-Aaa-Aaa† (14). â€Å"I was aware of the presumption of my thinking he would be relieved or made happy by having his feet washed† (13). Now Here is the Alien: If you want to confront the Unknown you must to do it in the feet of your old age and death. If we want to confront the Unknown we must to do it in the feet of our old age and death. â€Å"The place was intensely neglected, I gradually saw, and not just filthy as it looked to be at first glance. It was simply the remains of a life† (12). The comfort of the Unknown in Dorn’s account is that there are two that serve each other in it, but we don’t know why. One Unknown is the wife, ust like all our mothers and wives, who â€Å"should have died, by the rules of our biology, thirty years ago. But it was evident that she would stay on, the weaker of the two, until he smelled the summary message in his nostrils, then she would be free† (12). Is death that freedom? The alien doesn’t think in known terms, but makes Dorn harbor such thoughts as, â€Å"this man and woman were the most profoundly beautiful ancestors I’ve witnessed go before me’ (12,13). â€Å"He is the spirit that lies at the bottom, where we have our feet. The feet which step between the domains, the visible sign, the real evidence of the coming event†¦ where this man’s low, incantatory verbs spill down across the plateau and basin† (13)†¦not more Indian than man, still as much the flower as the fruit. â€Å" Wash his feet! Wash his hands, heart and head! Lay in the dust like a penitent Barry Lopez, close to the flagellate, and weep for the human lost. This Shoshone’s name is Willie Dorsey. We don’t get his real name, Alien. â€Å"I saw, the heat, the vociferous mosquitoes in the building’s shade, the slightly moist filth at the back door. † Alien old age and death look like â€Å"very old animals [that] have such coats over the eyes, a privacy impenetrable from the outside† (11). Cataracts, the blind, the lame, the sick, the living I know treated by some Doctor of the Alien. She operates her office practically as a charity, complete with science, intuition and healing to the â€Å"grim weight of bad condition, not especially outlined, more heavy with despair than one could possibly arrange with rubble† (11). This is not Ed Dorn. He is a spectator. This Doctor holds the hand, cuts the hair, absorbs the breast, the tear, weeping and praying within, but praising and thanking for the chance that comes out of the â€Å"wooden clapboard structures† (10) of lives that they could be so treated and revived. So that’s the alien, it’s human and knowable even if Unknown. Poetry Analysis Sherman Alexie is Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian. Alexie wrote a poem called â€Å"The Reservation Cab Driver†. The title contributes to understand the poem and understand who the cab driver was. In this poem, Alexie uses a symbolism he also uses some metaphor, irony and imagery. By examining the life portrayal in the reservation, the poem’s casual diction, the magic appearance of Crazy Horse, I will show how Alexie’s critique of the status of Indians on the reservation. The life in the reservation was hard. When anyone wanted to get out of the reservation the only choice the reservation had was hiring the cab driver who drives a ’65 Malibu with no windshield. The description of this cab driver car is an example of Imagery taking place you can see the car all beat up with no windshield. This particular cab driver waits outside the breakaway bar. He charges his costumers a beer a mile with no exception. This cab driver is not looking for money. The other people have to get this cab to take them places especially during the powwow. Also in stanza 8 during powwow, some imagery takes place. The imagery you see is people paying him with quilts, beads and fry bread and firewood. Imagery in this section is important because you can see what’s going on. In this stanza the imagery is very clear that it seems as if you are there in person watching everything. Also in stanza 7 you see use of metaphor also irony but the cab driver did not understand Seymour because the cab driver answers â€Å"Ain’t no pony, it’s a car†. Alexie shows us how hard it is for the reservation to have to take the cab and pay in a form that you do not see in other places of America. Alexie shows us an example of two different economies. Within the same country but how life in the reservation is completely different to the rest of the life outside the reservation. The reservation has many problems like having only one cab driver who charges a beer and a cigarette a mile. Another problem†¦ â€Å"The Man to Send Rain Clouds† The theme of Leslie Marmon Silko’s The Man to Send Rain Clouds revolves around the idea of maintaining your culture in the opposition of the â€Å"religious right. † Leon is faced with strong opposition about his tribe’s rituals in regard to the burying of one of their dead. That opposition comes from the Christian priest and his ideas of what is sacred. Cultures around the world embrace death in different ways. Some mourn and fear death; others accept it and find hope when the time comes. Unfortunately not all of those cultures are able to be open to the idea that they could be wrong, or that different methods could lead to the same ends. The Christian church of coarse has a history of killing, burning, and condemning things that disagree with their ideologies. Even today we see extremists in many religions that fight wars over their beliefs. In this story a man had to fight with himself regarding the decision. He has to wrestle with the pleas of the priest and the idea that his culture taught him regarding death. He believed as his tribe did that the ritual would bring rain and new life to the crops. The battle between cultures moves on when the priest is actually asked to be a part of the ritual and bless the body. At this point the priest enters his own battle with the things that he was taught and the opposition that he faces. He had to decide what would be the Christian thing to do. When all these battle are over both men learn a little about each other’s world as the wind starts to come in, it is a wind of change. They wait to see if the storm will come to begin the circle of life anew. The Man to Send Rain Clouds Readers Reaction This was quite an interesting story. There were three sections to the story which broke the story in three different times in one day. The characters were all very nonchalant except for the priest who showed some emotion when he found out that old Teofilo died. The story kept our interest, however, it did not lead a very clear trail to the end, and there was no real climax where we felt there was a good peak. The story needs to be read more than once to really be appreciated. Plot Summary One ? Teofilo is at the sheep camp in the arroyo when he rests in the shade under a cotton tree and dies. ? After Teofilo missing for a few days, Leon and Ken come looking for him and find that he â€Å"had been dead for a day or more, and the sheep had wandered and scattered up and down the arroyo. † ? They gather the sheep and then come back to wrap Teofilo up in a red blanket. ? They paint his face with different colors and ask him to send them rain. ? On Leon and Ken’s way back into pueblow (town) they see Father Paul, who asked if they found their missing grandfather yet, and they tell him where they found him, but not that he’s dead. â€Å"Good Morning, father. We were just out to the sheep camp. Everything is o. k. now. † Two ? Louise and Teresa are waiting for them to get back with any news about Teofilo. ? Leon tells the girls that they found Teofilo died near â€Å"a cottonwood tree in the big arroyo near sheep camp. † ? Leon and Ken carry in red blanket with teofilo’s body, dress him in new clothes to be buried in. ? After a quiet lunch, Ken went to see when the gravediggers could have the grave ready, â€Å"I think it can be ready before dark. † ? Neighbors and clans people come by their house to console Teofilo’s family and leave food for the gravediggers. Three ? After the funeral, Louise tells her brother Leon that she wants the priest to sprinkle â€Å"holy water for grandpa. So he won’t be thirsty. † ? Leon gets in the truck†¦ Burial Rituals of Native American Culture At some point in our lives, we all come to realize that death is a part of life. Cultural diversity provides a wide variety of lifestyles and traditions for each of the unique groups of people in our world. Within these different cultures, the rituals associated with death and burial can also be uniquely diverse. Many consider ritualistic traditions that differ from their own to be somewhat strange and often perceive them as unnatural. A prime example would be the burial rituals of the Native American people. Leslie Marmon Silko’s story entitled The Man to Send Rain Clouds describes a funeral service carried out by a Native American Pueblo family. Though many perceive the funeral service narrated in this story to be lacking in emotion and also lacking respect for the passing of their loved one, it portrays a ceremony that is quite common for the Native American communities. There is also a hint of conflict occurring between the characters in the story that are carrying out their traditions while including an outside religious figure in the ceremony. The death of an old man sets the stage for this story and tells of the way his family goes about preparing him for his journey into the afterlife. A feather is tied into the old man’s hair, his face was painted with blue, yellow, green and white paint, pinches of corn meal and pollen were tossed into the wind and finally his body was wrapped in a red blanket prior to being transported. According to Releasing the Spirit: A Lesson in Native American Funeral Rituals by Gary F. Santillanes, â€Å"Pueblo Indians care for their own dead with no funeral director involved. The family will take the deceased, usually in their truck, back to the home of the deceased and place him or her on the floor facing east to west, on a native blanket. Depending on the deceased’s stature in the tribe, his face may be painted in the traditional nature. A powdery substance is placed†¦ AK English 217 – Reading Journal (The Way To Rainy Mountain) Scott Momaday uses nature to dictate the passage of life. He personifies the landscape as a person, he says the there is ‘perfect in the mountains but it belongs to the eagle and the elk, the badger and the bear. ’ To me, this tells me the mountains have a feeling of openness, but it is the home of many – not just humans. The mountain holds importance to the Kiowa’s because it is pure wilderness. The landscape that is described helps the reader recognize what the Kiowa’s were thinking upon reaching rainy mountain. The beautiful sights of the land made the Kiowa’s recognize a new passage of life. Their curiosity of the land’s landscape created legends in their tribe. The legends helped them escape through the wilderness by becoming part of it – through kinsmen in the sky and a boy turned into a bear at Devil’s Tower. Momaday describes the curiosity of the wilderness throughout the landscape. In order to build the larger idea of the tribe, the curiosity makes the landscape act as a character. The writer, Scott Momaday, describes the grandmother through details of her life. My favorite line was at the end when he wrote, â€Å"There, we it ought to be at the end of a long and legendary way, was my grandmother’sgrave. † This line sums up her entire life in a single sentence. She lived a long life and saw many things, her life was filled of legends that the tribe created. She had a reverence for the sun because she saw the Sun Dances when she was younger. In 1887, the grandmother was at the last sun dance; she bore a vision of deicide without any bitterness. At an old age, she began praying frequently. Momaday could not understand what she was saying but describes the tone of her voice as ‘sad in sound, some merest hesitation upon the syllables of sorrow. ’ No matter what the language, people inherently understand the sounds of sadness. It really brought the grandmother to life. Then finally, at the end, he†¦ Many Americans today believe that all students –no matter what race or ethnicity- have an easy path with our education and that all students are able to get a higher education without any problems. Yet this belief is not true for all students. However it’s a whole different story for the working class students. The working class student that goes for a higher education in life, in search for a better life and, a brighter future are faced with many obstacles and challenges on their path to achieve their goals and dreams. The working class students are put with many different challenges. As they the working class students goes forward with their education, there maybe people that will try to put them down in many forms. But you should know that you will survive and at the end you be a stronger, prepare student with the tools to overcome any obstacles in life. In the article â€Å"Indian Education† by Sherman Alexie, we read how being working class students we have obstacles to overcome. Some of this obstacles come from the people we less expected just like the example in Alexie Sherman Article â€Å"Indian Education†, how his own second grade teacher Miss Betty Towle try to put him down as many times as possible. She the teacher tries to put him down for being Indian, and for having working class parents. The Teacher Miss. Betty seems to not care for Alexie at all. The teacher ask Alexie to give a letter to his parents in which she ask for his parents to come to school so that they could have a conversation on what she calls his bad behavior in class. The teacher seems to not want to talk about his bad behavior. Instead, she wanted to insult Alexie in front of his parents by calling him Indian without any compassion or respect. â€Å"Indians, indians, indians, she said it without capitalization, she called me Indian, indian, Indian† (p. 1). Base on this citation we see that the teacher was trying to put him down for being Indian and for having parents that weren’t educated. By†¦

Economic Policy Essay

The essence of economic policy in the areas of urban housing, urban education, and urban transportation in the United States National Government is cored on the achievement of trade targets. Boosting its market efficiency and redistribution of supply and services grounded on public values are its primary interest (Feldstein, 1999). These economic policies make up a part of the body of agenda. These are of regulated policies prepared by the Federal Reserve System headed by the President of the United States of America and the legislative branch of government (Poole 1999). Body At the outset, economic policies are decisions. President Harry Truman was a decision maker of the land in his time (Mankiw, 1998). He mentioned of his need to find one-armed economist (Mankiw 1998). This is a manifestation that the concept of economic information is ambivalent (Mankiw, 1998). Decisions are taken initially based on individual principles of: trade offs in efficiency and equity, cost of something versus opportunity cost, marginal changes to a plan, and response of people to trade offs (Mankiw, 1998). Subsequently, societal interactions principles are considered based on: trade, markets, and governmental market policy (Mankiw, 1998). Finally, national economy is considered upon the principles of: production of goods and services, inflation, and tradeoff between inflation and unemployment (Mankiw, 1998). Three of the economic policies Of the United States of America National Government are in the areas of urban housing, urban education, and urban transportation. These are parts of the regulated competitive industries (Feldstein, 1999). The urban housing policy covers private and social benefits of homeownership (Haurin, 2003). Bush said, homeownership is the core American values of individuality, thrift, responsibility, and self-reliance (Haurin, 2003). It represents a pathway to pride and prosperity for many families, encourages values of responsibility and sacrifice, creates stability for neighborhoods and communities and generates economic growth that helps strengthen the entire nation (Haurin, 2003) Dietz and Haurin (2003) however showed that 25% more of spouses in owner-occupied households work or are employed. They also have to face up to inevitable tax revenues through mortgage deductions (Haurin, 2003). While the data presumes that the rest of the population in owner-occupied households does not work, this would mean, this group is above average income in the strata of society. The next issue then is to know why were governmental supports for homeownership projects in the scale of billions of dollars far exceeded expenditure on education (Haurin, 2003) when most homeowners have beyond workers financial capabilities. Were the determinants of families becoming homeowners covered by public policy (Haurin, 2003)? What economic public policy would justify lumping up of burdens on homeowners who are mere workers? What economic public policy would explain governmental support to boost the status of those who can afford a home? Would this public policy be in consistent with the targets of government as pronounced by the President? Enhancement of market efficiency is focused on: developing performances of industries by eliminating anticompetitive elements; providing consumer protection like making informed choices possible; and ensuring product cost would include externalities (Feldstein 1999). While redistribution of resources and services anchored on the policy of collecting higher taxes from those who earn more to provide for those who earn less (Feldstein 1999). These policies however are often influenced by international institutions like the International Monetary Fund or World Bank as well as political beliefs and the consequent policies of parties. Housing Policy for example is usually analyzed in economic industry, as a form of market. Market leads to efficient allocation through a complex process of matching supply and demand. This depends on competition, good information, the existence of multiple suppliers, and the existence of different multiple purchasers. At the beginnings of the 21st century the demographical changes in the United States shaped housing consumption (Masnick, 1990). This is marked though by the big problem in urban housing policy which became inadequate for the increased number of houses required to support increasing population (Masnick, 1990). The number of homeless people is constantly increasing annually (Masnick, 1990). Homelessness became a very complex problem (Masnick, 1990). This means, if there were not enough places for people to live, then there are really those who does not have any shelter of their own (Masnick, 1990). The housing market bloated beyond previous policy allocations (Masnick, 1990). As a consequence, those who were not originally included generally became the poorest constituents of society (Masnick, 1990). Subsequent to demographical changes is the alternative of the homeless to find shelter in temporary shanties on unoccupied lands (Dunleavy, 1981). This led to problems of land entitlements (Dunleavy, 1981). Squatters over time on squatted settlements built more stable houses (Dunleavy, 1981). Homelessness often led to development of individual characteristics such as alcoholism, psychiatric illness, unemployment, and marital breakdown (Dunleavy, 1981). The situation is further aggravated by the decrease in privately owned housing programs (Dunleavy, 1981). The local governmental systems then were obligated to absorb the market (Dunleavy, 1981). As it turned out, it is cheaper to buy houses than to rent (Dunleavy, 1989). Housing conditions in many cities which were particularly unsatisfactory being old and in poor condition were improved (Dunleavy, 1989). Looking back, series of policies since the late 1960s focused on the problems of deprivation in inner city areas (Dunleavy, 1989). Much of the concern was with the inner cities growth which was an attempt to produce an acceptable racial policy. Despite this, ethnic minorities have had no proportionate share of resources from policies for the inner cities (Dunleavy, 1989). However, local government economic policies today are more focused, and greatly in consistent with constant changes in the societal demographics regardless of ethnicity (Gabriel, 1990). Another consideration however must be made. This is because of: the limited availability of affordable rental units, mortgage finance, reduced housing and income assistance to very low income populations, problems of public housing, low income housing preservation, issues of equal opportunities in housing and housing finance market (Gabriel, 1990). Thus it could be said that housing trends are developed largely because of statistical increase in the number of people as well as their movements for relocation needs (Masnick, 1990). The individual household needs were then used as the foundation for the modification of housing policy. This is in addition to the different economic changes which were built-in, in the shifting demographic landscape (Masnick, 1990). In the area of education, improvements must be made in urban education policy (Hess, 2001). Urban districts are now facing hazardous problems in educating young people because of the lack of support from the local government (Hess, 2001). Many buildings in urban public schools are very old (Hess, 2001). Because of this, despite the big number of public schools in the United States, only one-fourth of the country’s students are attending the classes throughout districts (Hess, 2001). These are the main problems of the district official in the urban public area (Hess, 2001). They are unable to comply with the needs of their student population Hess, 2001). The rates of dropout students are also increasing (Hess, 2001). The urban education policy that would most likely fit implementation will be one that is site-based management throughout the district (Hess, 2001). This will allow officials and teachers at the school level to focus more on the specific needs of the students (Hess, 2001). Educational reform efforts and policy initiatives are now under way that shows commitment in improving the quality of education. It will include the proper raising of the student outcomes in the urban districts (Hess, 2001). A key issue though in urban education policy is the potential impact of market-based reforms (Hess, 2001). It will require more than the application of additional money in improving the quality of urban education (Hess, 2001). Allocations of school funds must be centered on the functions of instruction, administration, operations, and maintenance of almost the same statistical number of clients (Picus, 1996). Urban transportation policies must likewise be modified as societal demographics evolved (Norton, 1955-1970). Many states have still no urban freeways (Norton, 1955-1970). The ever increasing numbers of privately owned cars warrants improvement in policies (Norton, 1955-1970). Evolving Americans have to face up to transport problems in the cities (Norton, 1955-1970). The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 made a beginning at bringing highways to the city (Barranda, 2004). It set aside 25 percent of federal highway funds for urban projects and called for the designation of a â€Å"National System of Interstate Highways† (Barranda, 2004). Although funding of these projects in the late 1940s and early 1950s was at more than two and a half times the prewar levels, total annual federal highway appropriations remained a half billion dollars or less (Barranda, 2004). The problem was that while government and industry both wanted highways, neither wanted to foot the bill (Barranda, 2004). Industry opposed excise taxes and tolls, while government opposed special bond issues and debt increases (Barranda, 2004). Divisions between pro-highway industries impeded their ability to lobby for an effective highway program (Barranda, 2004). However, eventually, the highway system that the government-industry partnership built was urban (Barranda, 2004). The unique degree of private participation in U. S. ransportation policymaking, and a federal policy treated all transportation problems as matters for highway engineers to solve (Barranda, 2004). In 1954, President Eisenhower suggested that â€Å"metropolitan area congestion† be â€Å"solved† by â€Å"a grand plan for a properly articulated highway system (Larsen, 1995). In 1956, the House Committee on Public Works urged â€Å"drastic steps,† warning that otherwise â€Å"traffic jams will soon bring down our growing economy (Larsen, 1995). The demise of the highways-only policy stemmed also from serious flaws in the policy itself (Larsen, 1995). At the end of World War II, the federal government began a significant intervention in urban transportation (Larsen, 1995). It was one which had increased to enormous proportions by 1960 (Larsen, 1995). But the funds were provided exclusively for the construction of urban highways (Larsen, 1995). Thus, urban transportation systems necessarily became imbalanced in favor of automotive transport (Larsen, 1995). Even the automotive transport systems were imbalance too (Larsen, 1995). Inequality was brought about by the ways in which federal dollars were allocated (Larsen, 1995). For example, while new freeways were providing automobiles unprecedented ease of access to cities, substantially, less federal allocations was provided for the downtown streets that had to bear the increased load (Larsen, 1995). No budgets were also allocated to provide the record numbers of cars for parking areas (Norton, 1955-1970). The US new urban transportation policy serves greater idea in resolving congestion problems in the cities (Barranda, 2004). Highway-Only Policy is one of those new integrated ideas (Barranda, 2004). Industry, not government, took the initiative in proposing that highways go downtown (Barranda, 2004). Eisenhower’s coalition was composed of industries â€Å"associated with the highway problem† and â€Å"interested in highway development,† in the words of the Clay Committee report (Barranda, 2004). Although the Clay Committee conferred with the American Railway Association in drafting its report, this group was the only one of twenty-two trade organizations consulted which had an interest in rail transport (Barranda, 2004). Fourteen of the groups consulted were expressly concerned with roads (Barranda, 2004). But these industries were not simply developing a highway policy (Barranda, 2004). This is their foundation in creating a new national transportation policy (Barranda, 2004). However, many cities in the United States have recently built light-rail systems to combat congestion problems and at the same time avoid pollution (Barranda, 2004). To some critics oppose this policy is not fit because of the function in some small downtown areas (Barranda, 2004). The application of this light-rail however, after its almost universal domination in the 20th century is one of the greatest twists in transportation history. This application policy is an exclusive idea whose time appears to have come (Barranda, 2004). Local government now hopes that the light-rail will gain moderate transportation that will reduce the traffic problems around the country (Barranda, 2004). Fighting congestion was the main rationale for making American highways enter cities to a degree unmatched elsewhere in the world (Barranda, 2004). The consequences of the improved policies ultimately transformed U. S. urban transportation system (Barranda, 2004). Critics of the policy, in government, and outside of the government circles achieved broad bases of support by confronting this problem (Barranda, 2004). Expertise in urban transportation matters, which had been the exclusive domain of highway industry, emerged in other institutions, both governmental and private (Barranda, 2004). The road builders’ promises to end congestion, to keep downtowns vital visibly failed to pan out (Barranda, 2004). In brief, the vigor of the government-industry partnership that brought the freeways into the cities did not last, but is envisioned to trigger interest on alternative prospective partners (Barranda, 2004). Conclusion The basic portfolio principles of economics provides conceptual structures underlining maintenance of flexibility of economic policies whether it is in housing, education, or transport, or even in prices where speculators are left with the liberty to discern and give value to market stocks so long as it is within the economic parameters of the United States of American government, its Federal Reserve System, its legislature as well as its executive governmental administrators that works within the framework of Federal Democracy.

OBriens Things They Carried Essay An American Nightmare

History has shaped every country and their people, in particular negative experiences like the Holocaust in Nazi-Germany or the Vietnam war, involving the United States in a grueling controversy from 1964 until 1975. The author Tim OBrian confronts an American audience in his short stories The Things They Carried with the inhumane consequences of political and military power decisions by rewriting history from a subjective,individual point of view. Thus he forces the audience to take a stand, to ask questions, to get morally and ethically involved. The narrative structure of the Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong and How to Tell a True War Story contains two levels, the first on being a discourse about the characters of Vietnam†¦show more content†¦This place is ambiguous, even treacherous. While it is in reality isolated and vulnerable with virtually no security there is according to Rat a sense of safety there. Symbolically this characterizes the guerilla aspect of the Vietnam war, its uncertainties and dangers. The impression that the war seemed to be somewhere far away is definitely the reason for this comfortable situation which sets the scene for Mark Fossies decision to import his girlfriend. In this island of apparent normality it doesnt seem too farfetched to complete the picture of a normal life. Mark and Mary, a typical young American couple, high school sweethearts, want, what is considered the norm - a fine gingerbread house near Lake Erie, and have three healthy yellow-haired children. Gingerbread connotates sweetness, but also contains an association to fairy tales, which is ironic, considering the seriousness of Marks plans. The yellow-haired children remind us that the picture of the American dream family was and is tainted with racial prejudice. Mary Ann, the cute blond with the cosmetic bag and pink sexy sweater portrays the perfect picture of a high school sweetheart of the seventies. She is being imported with the daily resupply shipment and presented as an object of the mens enjoyment. The men genuinely liked her means they liked what they saw, her body. But this image of Mary