Advertising- the seven sins of memory Essay

INTRODUCTION As if effective marketing communication were not hard enough to achieve, even if we succeed in getting our message attended to and processed, and a positive intention formed, the very nature of memory may step in and upset everything. Memory distortion and plain old forgetting are unfortunate facts of life. The important question, however, is: can we do anything about it? As with most things, if we are to have any hope of dealing with memory problems and their impact upon advertising and other marketing communications, we must first understand what is going on. In this paper we will be looking at what Daniel Schacter (2001) has called ‘the seven sins of memory’: transcience, absent-mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias and persistence. Most of what Schacter is dealing with involves declarative memory and not procedural memory, and as a result is highly dependent upon activity in the hippocampus. Although other brain structures are involved in mediati ng declarative memory, the hippocampus is critical, especially for tasks emphasising the representational as opposed to temporal properties of declarative memory. The hippocampus is always active in encoding new information for declarative memory. Nondeclarative emotional memory is also involved here, especially in the cases of bias and persistence, which means activity in the amygdala as well. There is compelling evidence that the amygdala is critical to emotional learning and memory (cf. Griffiths 1997). Imperfections in memory have obvious implications for the successful processing of advertising. Even if a positive intention is formed as a result of exposure to an advert, if a memory malfunction interferes with that intention, the advertising will be ineffective. The problems associated with these ‘seven sins of memory’, and what advertisers can do about it, are discussed below. THE SIN OF TRANSIENCE Forgetting that naturally occurs over time may be thought of as transcience. While the memory of what one did yesterday may be all but perfect, over time those memories tend to become more a generic description of what one expects to happen under those circumstances rather than what actually did happen. †¢Advertising implication: The sin of transience implies that what people ‘recall’ from advertising is much more likely to reflect a generic description of what is expected about a brand rather than the specific benefits that are part of the message. This has clear implications for interpreting recall measures of advertising messages. But, more importantly, it also suggests that the specific content of marketing communication should be consistent with, or carefully integrated with, prior understandings of the brand. A recent advert for Reynolds Wrap illustrates this can be done with a headline ‘Sticky Foods Won’t Stic’ spelled out in cheese on a pan of lasagne, with a portion cut out of the corner cutting off the last letter of ‘stick’, revealing the aluminium foil, clean, beneath. Transcience increases with age. While older adults those over 50 years of age have the same ability to remember in the short term as younger people, over time, memory of specific detail deteriorates more rapidly. As a result, older adults tend to rely upon a general sense of ‘knowing’ rather than specific recall. The problem of memory transience can be mediated by more elaborative encoding, essentially by stimulating the lower left frontal cortex. One popular way of trying to encourage more elaborate encoding is by using visual imagery mnemonics to facilitate memory. In fact, this idea goes back to the early Greeks. Unfortunately for marketing communication, not only does using visual mnemonics require a great deal of concentration and effort (and there is no easy way to encourage such effort), but for most people there is really very little evidence of general memory improvement using such techniques. †¢Advertising implication: However, one way to encourage more elaborative encoding to help reduce transcience is to relate information the target audience is interested in remembering with something they already know. In advertising, this could be encouraged with questions in the copy to stimulate elaboration: for example, in a recent advert for the Dodge Caravan with the headline ‘What Idiot Coined the Phrase ‘Stay at Home Mom’?’ THE SIN OF ABSENT-MINDEDNESS When one fails to pay proper attention to something and as a result does not encode it properly, or when the information is actually in memory, but overlooked when needed to be retrieved, one experiences the sin of absent-mindedness. Absent-mindedness manifests itself both in failing to  remember past experiences as well as in failing to remember to do something in the future. Both, of course, can prove troublesome for marketing communication. Also, the fact that absentmindedness is more likely for routine experiences that do not in and of themselves require elaborative encoding (e.g. exposure to advertising) adds to the problem. Unfortunately, routine behaviour (which certainly includes such things as reading magazines and watching television) is associated with low levels of prefrontal cortex activity in the left inferior area, which makes it difficult to form vivid memories. Such automatic or superficial levels of encoding can also lead to something known as ‘change blindn ess’ (Simons & Levin 1998), where people fail to detect changes over time, because of an inability to recall details. This has obvious implications for the introduction of new benefits over time in advertising campaigns, or for repositioning. Memories for past experiences may be classified as either recollections or familiarity. Recalling specific details from memory (e.g. remembering specific benefit claims from an advert) is defined as recollection. Familiarity is when one has a sense of simply being aware of something without recalling specific details (e.g. remembering ‘seeing’ an advert, but not particular content). This difference is important, because when there is divided attention during exposure, there is a significant effect upon recollection, but little or no effect upon familiarity (cf. studies by Craik et al. 1996). †¢Advertising implication: Because one is more likely to pay partial attention rather than full attention to advertising, familiarity with advertising is more likely than recollection of specifics from the advertisement. This underscores the importance of maintaining a consistent ‘look and feel’ over time (Percy et al. 2001), encouraging familiarity, and utilising imagery that will elicit a positive benefit (associated with the brand) even at low or even sub-cognitive levels of attention. Additionally, too much exposure, especially massed exposure, could lead to lower levels of specific ‘recollection’ (as we understand from as long ago as Ebbinghaus 1885). Spaced exposures generally result in better memory, a finding demonstrated in Strong’s simulations (1974) of various media schedules based upon Zielske’s work, and more recently in fMRI studies conducted by Wagner et al. (1998). Remembering to do something in the future (e.g. buying an advertised brand the next time you are shopping) is described by psychologists as  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœprospective memory’. Einstein and McDaniel (1990, 1997 with Shaw) have offered a useful way of looking at this idea of prospecti ve memory, distinguishing between what they call ‘event-based’ prospective memory, where we want to remember to do something at a specific event, and ‘time-based’ prospective memory, when one wishes to remember to do something at a specific time in the future. An example of event-based prospective memory would be wanting to buy a new brand the next time you are at the store. An example of time-based prospective memory would be making sure you are home at 3p.m. to meet the delivery man. Why people experience prospective memory failure is that they are usually so preoccupied with other things in their lives that when the event occurs, or the time arrives when it is necessary to remember to do something, the correct associations in memory are not activated. †¢Advertising implication: Prospective memory failure may be minimised in advertising by using distinctive cues that are unlikely to be associated with other long-term memories (especially for competitive brands). It is important to establish links in memory with the appropriate category need in such a way that when a purchase or usage occasion occurs, it will trigger a memory of the intention to act. This is especially true for recognition-driven brand awareness, which means for most package goods products. In the store point-of-purchase material as well as packaging must be both sufficiently informative to trigger the stored memory of an intention to buy, and be distinctive enough to minimise confusion with other brand memories. Shoppers are almost always in a hurry and preoccupied with other things when they are in a store, and this may get in the way of attending to the appropriate prospective memory cue. This is just the sort of thing that goes on when a salesman creates a distraction, hoping you will forget all about your initial good intentions not to be influenced by his pitch, as we know from the literature on compliant behaviour (cf. Cialdini 2001). THE SIN OF BLOCKING We are all familiar with the sin of blocking, that all-too-familiar experience of recognising someone but not being able to remember their name. According to Schacter (2001), blocking is not the same thing as absent-mindedness or transience. In the case of blocking, the memory has been encoded and stored, unlike absent-mindedness. In fact, an appropriate  retrieval cue could be in place, but the association is just not made. Unlike transience, with blocking, the information is still in memory, but remains just out of reach when required. Because blocking generally occurs when trying to remember names, it potentially can be a problem for brand names. Blocking seems to originate in the left temporal pole, where there is a breakdown in the link made between the characteristics associated with something and the name by which it is known. The reason people often have trouble remembering someone’s name is that a person’s name tends to be isolated in memory from any conceptual knowledge about that person and, as a result, difficult to retrieve. Most models of name retrieval hold that activation of phonological representations in memory occur only after activation of conceptual and visual representations. This is why it is easier to recall something about a person than to recall their name. It is also what can lead to remembering something about a product without being able to recall the brand name. Interestingly, names that are most likely to be blocked are familiar ones which have not recently been encountered (Burke et al. 1991. †¢Advertising implication: Brand names that are not well integrated or related to obvious associations with category need will be highly susceptible to blocking. If there are no logical and immediate links in memory between a brand name and the category need, there is the ri sk of occasional blocking. Arbitrary or more abstract brand names will be blocked more often than descriptive brand names, even when those names are equally familiar to people (cf. Brdant & Valentine 1998). Brand names such as Vitalegs (a herbal gel that relieves tired legs) and Soft Scrub (a cleanser that enables you to clean without harsh scratching) illustrate good descriptive brand names that are less likely to be susceptible to blocking. To minimise blocking, it is necessary to suppress the retrieval of recently encountered information that is related to a recall cue so that the mind is not cluttered with irrelevancies that could interfere with the desired memory. †¢Advertising implication: When a brand possesses identical or similar benefits as the leading brand in its category, it will be that much harder to build an association for those benefits with the brand because of learned interference from advertising for the leading brand. This again suggests the need to have copy (and packaging as well as other marketing communication) unique to a brand in order to avoid multiple connections in  memory that could minimise or override the desired brand-related memory. Certain retrieval inhibitions that lead to blocking can be ‘released’ if we encounter a sufficiently powerful cue (e.g. nondeclarative emotional memories) that helps us re-experience something in the same way in which it was initially experienced. Appropriate triggers in advertising or other marketing communication that elicit the correct emotional memories may help overcome retrieval inhibitions, and release positive memories for a brand. A wonderful advert for Nestl’s Toll House chocolate chips showing a mother with a pan of chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven with a little girl looking on in anticipation perfectly illustrates this point. THE SIN OF MISATTRIBUTION If one correctly remembers something learned, but attributes it to the wrong source, this is misattribution. Often referred to as ‘unconscioustransference’, it causes real problems with eyewitness identification. The problem stems from a strong sense of general familiarity, coupled with an absence of specific recollection. While the consequences of misattribution in advertising are obviously not as serious as they are with eyewitness identification, it can nevertheless cause marketers real problems. †¢Advertising implication: Avoiding misattribution requires more than simply retrieving appropriate benefits from memory. The benefit must be linked together in memory in such a way that you make the correct association of the brand with its benefit claim. This linking process is known as ‘memory binding’. All of the important brandbenefit associations in advertising must be bound together by the receiver into a unifying whole at the time of encoding. When advertising for different brands is visually or verbally similar, this memory binding is unlikely to occur, leading to memory conjunction error. Memory conjunction errors occur because people misattribute strong familiarity with similar (even if not identical) things from more than one source as coming from a single source; brand advertising in our case. Interestingly, a strong visualverbal congruence can help minimise misattribution (cf. Schacter et al. 1999). A recent series of adverts for Good Humor-Breyers uses the exact format and headline (‘Less fat, fewer calories, no guilt’) for three brands: Popsicle, Breyers and Klondike. This would seem to almost encourage misattribution. THE SIN OF SUGGESTIBILITY Suggestibility in memory occurs because one tends to include information that has been learned from an outside source as something personally experienced. This information may come from any external source, including advertising or other marketing communication. While suggestibility is similar to the sin of misattribution, misattribution does not require suggestions from outside sources. But when the two combine, it is quite possible for us to develop memories of something which in fact never occurred. †¢Advertising implication: Interestingly, while suggestibility may be a ‘sin’ of memory, in the world of marketing communication this sin may often become a blessing. For example, suggestive questions may produce memory distortions by creating source memory problems. As a result, advertising that utilises questions that remind people of a favourable brand association could occasion a ‘memory’ for that positive experience, even if it never occurred, e.g.: ‘Remember how easy it is to remove those nasty stains when you use our brand?’ Schacter has suggested that if you embellish a fake memory with vivid mental images it should make it look and feel like a true memory. This is based upon work done by Hyman and Pentland (1996) in successfully creating false childhood memories via suggestion, simply by asking subjects about things that never occurred. One of the important conclusions they drew from their work is that these false memories produce vivid visual images. †¢Advertising implication: The application to advertising is obvious. If a suggested favourable experience with a brand is reinforced with a strong visual image of such an experience, it should help seed a memory of a positive experience. In an extension of th ese ideas, we know that one of the best ways to elicit early childhood memories is to ask someone to ‘visualise’ themselves as children. While there is no evidence that anyone can remember anything much earlier than about two years of age, because the areas of the brain needed for episodic memory are not fully mature until that age, with suggestive visualisation techniques one can create false ‘memories’ for events going back almost to birth (cf. Spanos et al. 1999). The key here, as in all suggestibility, is expectancy. If one is instructed to expect something, and it seems plausible, it is possible to create rather strong false memories. †¢Advertising implication: It is very difficult to  suggest a false memory for something that runs counter to a recent or strong existing memory. If you don’t like a brand, advertising is not likely to create a false memory that you do; nor should you try. But if a brand is one of a set of brands used by the receiver, it is certainly possible to suggest more positive experiences with that brand. And if it is a brand they have not used, if the advertising c an relate it to a positive experience from childhood, it is quite possible to suggest positive memories for the benefit, and then link it to the brand. THE SIN OF BIAS The sin of bias reflects how current understandings, beliefs and feelings have the ability to distort how one interprets new experiences and the memory of them. Biases that are associated with memory of past experiences will greatly influence how one perceives and understands new information or situations. Schacter talks about five major types of bias: consistency, change, hindsight, egocentric and stereotypical biases. Gazzaniga (1998) has identified something in the left brain that he calls an ‘interpreter’ that continuously draws upon people’s experiences and understanding of things in order to provide some stability to their psychological world. This would seem to be the neurological source of biases, and utilises such things as inferences, rationalisations and generalisations in relating the past with the present, enabling people to justify their present attitudes with past experiences and feelings. The left brain interpreter, however, is mediated by systems in the right brain that are more attuned to actual representations of what is going on in the world around us. Consistency and change bias Consistency bias reflects a tendency to behave (or believe) today in a fashion consistent with how one remembers similar previous experiences. When this happens, current experiences and feelings are filtered through and made to match memories of those past experiences and feelings. Because memories are not ‘exact’, people tend to infer their past beliefs, attitudes and feelings from what they are experiencing today. †¢Advertising implication: This suggests that for people who hold current positive attitudes toward a brand, advertising could imply they are of long standing. For brand switchers who include a particular brand in their purchase set, advertising  could imply a long standing preference for that brand: ‘You know you have always liked this brand, why not buy more?’ Something similar occurs with change bias, where one remembers something being worse than it actually was, making what they feel now an improvement by comparison. Both consistency and change bias can occur because they help reduce cognitive dissonance, even when someone is not really aware of the source of the inconsistency they are trying to manage (Lieberman et al. 2000). Hindsight bias Hindsight bias is that familiar feeling that one has always known something would happen after becoming aware of the outcome. One is reconstructing the past to make it consistent with the present. The key here seems to be an activation of general knowledge. The new information is integrated with other general knowledge in semantic memory, and is not distinguished as such in making judgements. There is evidence that this selective recall is a function of the general knowledge that influences perception and comprehension, and a vulnerability to misattribution. †¢Advertising implication: Hindsight bias would seem to indicate that when exposed to advertising or other marketing communication one will ‘recall’ benefit claims that are not actually made, but which would have been expected to be there because of the claims that actually were made. Work by Carli (1999) tends to support this idea. Recent adverts for Infusium 23 set up a ‘beforeafter’ case, but lea ve out the ‘before’ picture, with the headline ‘You really think I would let them publish the before picture?’ This clever execution encourages hindsight bias as you imagine the ‘before’ hair problem. Egocentric bias The ‘self ‘ plays an important role in one’s ongoing mental life, and is at the root of egocentric bias. When encoding new information by relating it to the self, memory for that information will be better than other types of encoding. This is because people are more likely to value their own understanding of things, among other reasons because the self-concept plays a key role in regulating mental activity. As Taylor (1989) and her colleagues have pointed out, individuals do not see themselves objectively. †¢Advertising implication: The implication is obvious: include personal references in advertising and other marketing communication. Moreover, given  our tendency to see ourselves in a positive light, it follows that memories related to ourselves will be seen in a self-enhancing light. This suggests that copy asking people to remember a situation in a positive light should encourage an egocentric memory bias, e.g.: ‘remember when you ‘. In the same way, egocentric bias can result from exaggerating the difficulty of past experiences: ‘remember how hard it was to ‘. This idea is well illustrated in a campaign for National Rail’s Senior Railcard, where a dated-looking picture of a young child is featured, with headlines like ‘Remember what it was like to go somewhere for the first time’ and ‘Remember how it felt just to let yourself go’. THE SIN OF PERSISTENCE Research has shown that emotionally charged experiences are better remembered than less emotional occasions. The sin of persistence involves remembering things you wish you would forget, and it is strongly associated with one’s emotional experiences. †¢Advertising implication: Emotionally-charged information automatically attracts attention; and even in the briefest exposure, the emotional significance of it will be retrieved from nondeclarative emotional memory, and evaluated as to how that information will be encoded. Understanding the emotional associations generated by specific advertising is critical. Because people are more likely to remember the central focus of emotionally arousing information rather than peripheral details, it is essential to tie the brand in marketing communication to the appropriate emotion. Otherwise, it will become peripheral to the information conveyed (a problem with a lot of highly entertaining advertising). There is evidence that persiste nce thrives in negative emotional situations such as disappointment, sadness and regret. One’s memory of traumatic experiences is persistent, and while these unwanted memories may occur in any of the senses, visual memories are by far the most common. Research reported by Ochsner (2000) supports this idea. He found that when people recognise a positive visual image they tend to just say it is familiar to them. But when they recognise negative visual images, people relate detailed, specific memories of what they thought and felt when they were originally exposed to the picture. †¢Advertising implication: All of this underscores the importance of the visual images in advertising and other forms of marketing communication. Because persistence thrives in a negative emotional climate,  if advertising illustrates disappointment or problems dealing with a situation, which is resolved by using the brand, this should tap into any persistent memories of product dissatisfaction (always assuming such dissatisfaction). It also suggests that for appropriate product categories (especially those reflecting high-involvement informational decisions such as medical or other insurance, financial planning, and so forth) visual ‘reminders’ of past problems which could be avoided with a b rand should be an effective strategy. Such a strategy should also be equally effective in situations where there is strong psychological risk involved, e.g. reminding young people of a social ‘disaster’ which would never occur if they used our brand. The root of much of this kind of activity is centred within the amygdala, the source of nondeclarative emotional memory. It is the amygdala that regulates memory storage, and can release hormones that can ‘force’ us to remember an experience vividly (LeDoux 1996). And as we have already noted, this response by the amygdala is much more likely to occur for negative than positive experience. †¢Advertising implication: For appropriate product categories, it could make sense to create situations in advertising that suggest possible threats to the receiver’s wellbeing. This ‘threat’ may then well intrude upon active memory when thinking about the category, with our brand linked to avoiding the trouble. This is well illustrated in a recent advert for Imitrex, an ethical drug for migraine, that uses the headline ‘I can’t let a migraine call the shots that’s why I use Imitrex’. SUMMARY Schacter has provided us with an extremely useful framework for looking at memory problems: his seven sins of memory. Each of these ‘imperfections’ (in his words) has the potential for interfering with the successful processing of advertising and other marketing communication. Recent work in neurobiology, utilising the recent technology of fMRIs (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and PET scans (positron emission tomography), has shown us that our earlier understanding of memories as ‘snapshots’ stored away in the mind ready to be recalled is not how the brain works. Memories for objects and experiences are decomposed into a number of different parts and those parts are stored in various areas of the brain, waiting to be reassembled and ‘remembered’. This underscores why memories are rarely  perfect, and why they can be potentially unreliable. As this discussion makes clear, effective communication faces a number of formidable hurdles in m emory. However, forewarned with this knowledge, we are in a better position to avoid or at least minimise some of these potential problems. To help advertising communication overcome the seven sins of memory, advertisers should: †¢ensure the message is carefully integrated with how a brand is understood (transcience) †¢encourage elaboration of points the target is interested in remembering (transcience) †¢use personal references, especially to positive memories (bias) †¢imply current positive brand attitudes are of long standing (bias) †¢tie brands to appropriate emotions (blocking, persistence) †¢use distinctive cues not likely to be associated with other longterm memories (absent-mindedness) †¢create a unique brandbenefit claim link (misattribution) †¢establish links in memory to appropriate category need (absentmindedness) †¢make sure those links are well integrated with obvious associations to the category need (blocking) †¢ensure a consistent ‘look and feel’ over time to encourage familiarity (absent-mindedness) †¢use strong visual images to create or reinforce positive memories associated with the brand (suggestibility) †¢utilise reminders of past problems that could be avoided or solved by the brand (persistence). If these points are considered in the creation of advertising executions, one is well on the way to avoiding, or at least minimising, problems inherent in how memory works. REFERENCES Brdant, S. & Valentine, T. (1998) Descriptiveness and proper name retrieval. Memory, 6, pp. 199206. Burke, A., Mackay, D.G., Worthley, J.S. & E. Wade (1991) On the tip of the tongue: what causes word failure in young and older adults? Journal of Memory and Language, 30, pp. 237246. Carli, I.L.L. (1999) Cognitive reconstruction, hindsight, and reactions to victims and perpetrators. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, pp. 966979. Cialdini, R. (2001) Influence: Science and Practice (4th edn). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Craik, F.I.M., Govoni, R., Naveh-Benjamin, M. & Anderson, N.D. (1996) The effects of divided attention on encoding and retrieval processes in human memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 125, pp. 159180. Ebbinghaus, H. (1885/1964) Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. New York: Dover. Einstein, G.O. & McDaniel, M.A. (1990) Normal  aging and prospective memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 16, p p. 717726. Einstein, G.O., McDaniel, M.A. & Shaw, P. (1997) Aging and prospective memory: the influence of increased task demands at encoding and retrieval. Psychology and Aging, 12, pp. 479488. Gazzaniga, M.S. (1998) The split brain revisited. Scientific American, 279, pp. 5055. Griffiths, R.E. (1997) What Emotions Really Are. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Hyman, I.E. Jr. & Pentland, J. (1996) The role of mental imagery in the creation of false childhood memories. Journal of Memory and Language, 35, pp. 101117. LeDoux, J.E. (1996) The Emotional Brain. New York: Simon and Schuster. Lieberman, M.D., Ochsner, K.N., Gilbert, D.T. & Schacter, D.L. (2000) Do amnesiacs exhibit cognitive dissonance reduction? 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Religion: Meaning of Life and Karen Armstrong Essay

Religion should have an impact on everyone’s life. According to Karen Armstrong, without religion, people would not be able to discover their own personal reason of life with a pure reason or purpose set by any guidelines. As a result of obtaining a good foundation of faith in your religion, it will not only positively affect your life on a personal level, but the community as a whole. If we look back at human antiquity, we commonly find that people of many different religions, traditions, and cultures had one main goal of finding the meaning of peace and purity in their own â€Å"selves†. In the seventeenth century BCE, the Hindus created a book of philosophical texts called the Upanishads, holding the main idea of finding ones sacred self, or atman. This sacred book led tranquility and serenity into the everyday lives of many Hindus. According to Armstrong, the purpose of religion has been and always should be to help us live peacefully, creatively, and even joyously. Armstrong also states that by engaging in religious practices and forms of life, people can live their lives on a higher divine plane and thus discover their own true selves. Karen Armstrong believes that religion does help people to find beneficial meanings in their lives and does allow people discover their inner selves. Throughout the passage â€Å"Homo Religiosus† written by Karen Armstrong, there are many historical events coming from various cultural and religious backgrounds that support her belief in which religion does and should play a crucial part in everyone’s lives. However, not only does religion bring harmony and principle in people’s lives, but religion also aids people in finding a legitimate meaning in their life and in the world. It helps to positively strengthen the relationship between the people leading to the elimination of greed, hatred, and pride in communities. Like Confucius beliefs, the Buddhists had a state of peace of their own. Nirvana was the natural result of a life lived according to the doctrine of Buddha’s anatta. Anatta required Buddhists to live as if though the self did not exist, which led to corruption fading away. It is stated, â€Å"His (a monk’s) greed fades away, and once his cravings disappear, he experiences the release of the mind† (Miller and Spellmeyer 37). This text states that when the people  heard about annata, their hearts were occupied with joy and they immediately experienced Nirvana. As a result, people were living between each other with love, care, and ease towards one another which led to a better life style overall. The famous Confucius practice Golden Rule is also another example of religion brining peaceful meanings in ones life. Confucius, the most famous religious icon in Chinese history, clarifies the meaning behind the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule states that an individual should treat another the same way he/she would like to be treated by others. Confucius would later explain that the practice of the Golden Rule would bring people into a state of ren, which is a state of compassion and love. Although ren did bring peace and love between the people of Confucius, it is stated that it was so hard to entirely be in this state. It was stated that people had a hard time achieving a full state of ren. Nonetheless, people desired being in this pure state. Yan Hui, Confucius’s greatest student, said with a deep sigh, Yan Hui stated, â€Å"The more I strain my gaze towards it, the higher it soars. The deeper I bore down into it, the harder it becomes. I see it in front, but suddenly it is behind. Step by step, the Master skillfully lures one on. He has broadened me with culture, restrained me with ritual. Even if I wanted to stop, I could not. Just when I felt that I have exhausted every resource, something seems to rise up, standing over me sharp and clear. Yet though I long to pursue it, I can find no way of getting it all† (Miller and Spellmeyer 38). This passage explains how hard people were trying to obtain this state. Religion as defined by the mentors of great countries like India, China, and the Middle East was not something impossible, yet it was a realistic one. It was not about believing in a God or believing in a divine being. Religion was based on physical activities, disciplined work, and robust undertakings on a daily basis. Back then, religion had its real meaning of organizing ones life and basing ones life on religion. Sadly, religion has its own different inappropriate meaning nowadays. Which leads to my point of Karen Armstrong talking about how many people find the concept of God and religion so troublesome simply because they have lost sight of this important understanding. She also explains how for each separate religion, there is an ontological approach to understanding it. Many people have simply just given up on God because of self-corruption like greed, stubbornness, and impatience. In Greek mythology, it is stated, â€Å" No god can survive unless he or she is actualized by the practical activity of ritual, and people often turn against gods who fail to deliver. The rites and practices that that once made him a persuasive symbol of the sacred are no longer effective, and people have stopped participating in them. He has therefore become otiosus, an etiolated reality who for all intents and purposes has indeed died or gone away† (Miller and Spellmeyer 31). If God does not comply the peoples needs, then they will turn against this god and he/she will no longer be effective. In the passage, it is also explains how religion requires a disciplined cultivation of a different mode of consciousness. This basically means that before you perform any religious task, you must pursue ekstasis, which literally means stepping out the norm you are accustomed to. Unfortunately, nowadays people are either to lazy or lost desire to seek any religious salvation simply because many things have taking over our world like media, entertainment, sports, music etc. They pursue other means to stand outside the norm. It is like they almost feel free when they are listening to the type of music they desire, or play the type of sport they seek, or are entertained by media that they desire. Karen Armstrong proves her point â€Å" Today people who no longer find it in a religious setting resort to other outlets: music, dance, art, sex, drugs, or sport. We make a point of seeking out these experiences that touch us deep within and lift us momentarily beyond ourselves. At such times, we feel that we inhabit our humanity more fully than usual and experience an enhancement of being† (Miller and Spellmeyer 27) In conclusion, Armstrong strongly anchors her belief of religion having a positive influential affect on people’s lives, helping them find a purpose in their life, and aiding them in discovering their true selves. She has her belief backed up by many famous religious icons from different backgrounds like Buddha, Confucius, and even Greek mythology. She explained how it helps organize people’s lives, better the relationship between two people and last but not least, it helps purify a person’s whole entire life. Reassuringly, religion, does quite in fact, impacts the lives of many. Works Cited 1)Miller, Richard E. , and Kurt Spellmeyer. â€Å"Homo Religiosus. † The New humanities reader. 4th ed. Boston, Massachusetts: Lyn Uhl, 2009. 38. Print. 2) â€Å"Vinaya Texts, Part I (SBE 13) – Mahavagga – First Khandaka. † Internet Sacred Text Archive Home. N. p. , n. d. Web. 13 Sept. 2013. 3) Miller, Richard E. , and Kurt Spellmeyer. â€Å"Homo Religiosus. † The New humanities reader. 4th ed. Boston, Massachusetts: Lyn Uhl, 2009. 37. Print. 4) Miller, Richard E. , and Kurt Spellmeyer. â€Å"Homo Religiosus. † The New humanities reader. 4th ed. Boston, Massachusetts: Lyn Uhl, 2009. 27. Print. 5) Miller, Richard E. , and Kurt Spellmeyer. â€Å"Homo Religiosus. † The New humanities reader. 4th ed. Boston, Massachusetts: Lyn Uhl, 2009. 31. Print.

African American Culture Essay Example for Free (#4)

African American Culture Essay ? Although slavery greatly restricted the ability of Africans in America to practice their cultural traditions, many practices, values and beliefs survived and over time have incorporated elements of European American culture. There are even certain facets of African American culture that were brought into being or made more prominent as a result of slavery; an example of this is how drumming became used as a means of communication and establishing a community identity during that time. The result is a dynamic, creative culture that has had and continues to have a profound impact on mainstream American culture and on world culture as well. After Emancipation, these uniquely African American traditions continued to grow. They developed into distinctive traditions in music, art, literature, religion, food, holidays, amongst others. While for some time sociologists, such as Gunnar Myrdal and Patrick Moynihan, believed that African Americans had lost most cultural ties with Africa, anthropological field research by Melville Hersovits and others demonstrated that there is a continuum of African traditions among Africans in the New World from the West Indies to the United States. The greatest influence of African cultural practices on European cultures is found below the Mason-Dixon in the southeastern United States, especially in the Carolinas among the Gullah people and in Louisiana. African American culture often developed separately from mainstream American culture because of African Americans’ desire to practice their own traditions, as well as the persistence of racial segregation in America. Consequently African American culture has become a significant part of American culture and yet, at the same time, remains a distinct culture apart from it. History From the earliest days of slavery, slave owners sought to exercise control over their slaves by attempting to strip them of their African culture. The physical isolation and societal marginalization of African slaves and, later, of their free progeny, however, actually facilitated the retention of significant elements of traditional culture among Africans in the New World generally, and in the U. S. in particular. Slave owners deliberately tried to repress political organization in order to deal with the many slave rebellions that took place in the southern United States, Brazil, Haiti, and the Dutch Guyanas. African cultures,slavery,slave rebellions,and the civil rights movements(circa 1800s-160s)have shaped African American religious, familial, political and economic behaviors. The imprint of Africa is evident in myriad ways, in politics, economics, language, music, hairstyles, fashion, dance, religion and worldview, and food preparation methods. In the United States, the very legislation that was designed to strip slaves of culture and deny them education served in many ways to strengthen it. In turn, African American culture has had a pervasive, transformative impact on myriad elements of mainstream American culture, among them language, music, dance, religion, cuisine, and agriculture. This process of mutual creative exchange is called creolization. Over time, the culture of African slaves and their descendants has been ubiquitous in its impact on not only the dominant American culture, but on world culture as well. Oral tradition Slaveholders limited or prohibited education of enslaved African Americans because they believed it might lead to revolts or escape plans. Hence, African-based oral traditions became the primary means of preserving history, morals, and other cultural information among the people. This was consistent with the griot practices of oral history in many African and other cultures that did not rely on the written word. Many of these cultural elements have been passed from generation to generation through storytelling. The folktales provided African Americans the opportunity to inspire and educate one another. Examples of African American folktales include trickster tales of Br’er Rabbit and heroic tales such as that of John Henry. The Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris helped to bring African American folk tales into mainstream adoption. Harris did not appreciate the complexity of the stories nor their potential for a lasting impact on society. Characteristics of the African American oral tradition present themselves in a number of forms. African American preachers tend to perform rather than simply speak. The emotion of the subject is carried through the speaker’s tone, volume, and movement, which tend to mirror the rising action, climax, and descending action of the sermon. Often song, dance, verse and structured pauses are placed throughout the sermon. Techniques such as call-and-response are used to bring the audience into the presentation. In direct contrast to recent tradition in other American and Western cultures, it is an acceptable and common audience reaction to interrupt and affirm the speaker. Spoken word is another example of how the African American oral tradition influences modern American popular culture. Spoken word artists employ the same techniques as African American preachers including movement, rhythm, and audience participation. Rap music from the 1980’s and beyond has been seen as an extension of oral culture. Harlem Renaissance [pic] Zora Neale Hurston was a prominent literary figure during the Harlem Renaissance. Main article: Harlem Renaissance The first major public recognition of African American culture occurred during the Harlem Renaissance. In the 1920s and 1930s, African American music, literature, and art gained wide notice. Authors such as Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larsen and poets such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen wrote works describing the African American experience. Jazz, swing, blues and other musical forms entered American popular music. African American artists such as William H. Johnson and Palmer Hayden created unique works of art featuring African Americans. The Harlem Renaissance was also a time of increased political involvement for African Americans. Among the notable African American political movements founded in the early 20th century are the United Negro Improvement Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The Nation of Islam, a notable Islamic religious movement, also began in the early 1930s. African American cultural movement The Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s followed in the wake of the non-violent American Civil Rights Movement. The movement promoted racial pride and ethnic cohesion in contrast to the focus on integration of the Civil Rights Movement, and adopted a more militant posture in the face of racism. It also inspired a new renaissance in African American literary and artistic expression generally referred to as the African American or â€Å"Black Arts Movement. The works of popular recording artists such as Nina Simone (Young, Gifted and Black) and The Impressions (Keep On Pushin’), as well as the poetry, fine arts and literature of the time, shaped and reflected the growing racial and political consciousness. Among the most prominent writers of the African American Arts Movement were poet Nikki Giovanni; poet and publisher Don L. Lee, who later becam e known as Haki Madhubuti; poet and playwright Leroi Jones, later known as Amiri Baraka; and Sonia Sanchez. Other influential writers were Ed Bullins, Dudley Randall, Mari Evans, June Jordan, Larry Neal and Ahmos Zu-Bolton. Another major aspect of the African American Arts Movement was the infusion of the African aesthetic, a return to a collective cultural sensibility and ethnic pride that was much in evidence during the Harlem Renaissance and in the celebration of Negritude among the artistic and literary circles in the U. S. , Caribbean and the African continent nearly four decades earlier: the idea that â€Å"black is beautiful. † During this time, there was a resurgence of interest in, and an embrace of, elements of African culture within African American culture that had been suppressed or devalued to conform to Eurocentric America. Natural hairstyles, such as the afro, and African clothing, such as the dashiki, gained popularity. More importantly, the African American aesthetic encouraged personal pride and political awareness among African Americans. Music [pic] Men playing the djembe, a traditional West African drum adopted into African American and American culture. The bags and the clothing of the man on the right are printed with traditional kente cloth patterns. African American music is rooted in the typically polyrhythmic music of the ethnic groups of Africa, specifically those in the Western, Sahelean, and Sub-Saharan regions. African oral traditions, nurtured in slavery, encouraged the use of music to pass on history, teach lessons, ease suffering, and relay messages. The African pedigree of African American music is evident in some common elements: call and response, syncopation, percussion, improvisation, swung notes, blue notes, the use of falsetto, melisma, and complex multi-part harmony. During slavery, Africans in America blended traditional European hymns with African elements to create spirituals. Many African Americans sing Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing in addition to the American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, or in lieu of it. Written by James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson in 1900 to be performed for the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the song was, and continues to be, a popular way for African Americans to recall past struggles and express ethnic solidarity, faith and hope for the future. The song was adopted as the â€Å"Negro National Anthem† by the NAACP in 1919. African American children are taught the song at school, church or by their families. Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing traditionally is sung immediately following, or instead of, The Star-Spangled Banner at events hosted by African American churches, schools, and other organizations. In the 1800s, as the result of the blackface minstrel show, African American music entered mainstream American society. By the early twentieth century, several musical forms with origins in the African American community had transformed American popular music. Aided by the technological innovations of radio and phonograph records, ragtime, jazz, blues, and swing also became popular overseas, and the 1920s became known as the Jazz Age. The early 20th century also saw the creation of the first African American Broadway shows, films such as King Vidor’s Hallelujah! and operas such as George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Rock and roll, doo wop, soul, and R;B developed in the mid 20th century. These genres became very popular in white audiences and were influences for other genres such as surf. The dozens, an urban African American tradition of using rhyming slang to put down your enemies (or friends) developed through the smart-ass street jive of the early Seventies into a new form of music. In the South Bronx, the half speaking, half singing rhythmic street talk of ‘rapping’ grew into the hugely successful cultural force known as Hip Hop. Hip Hop would become a multicultural movement. However, it is still important to many African Americans. The African American Cultural Movement of the 1960s and 1970s also fueled the growth of funk and later hip-hop forms such as rap, hip house, new jack swing and go go. African American music has experienced far more widespread acceptance in American popular music in the 21st century than ever before. In addition to continuing to develop newer musical forms, modern artists have also started a rebirth of older genres in the form of genres such as neo soul and modern funk-inspired groups. Dance [pic] The Cakewalk was the first African American dance to gain widespread popularity in the United States. [pic] African American dance, like other aspects of African American culture, finds its earliest roots in the dances of the hundreds of African ethnic groups that made up African slaves in the Americas as well as influences from European sources in the United States. Dance in the African tradition, and thus in the tradition of slaves, was a part of both every day life and special occasions. Many of these traditions such as get down, ring shouts, and other elements of African body language survive as elements of modern dance. In the 1800s, African American dance began to appear in minstrel shows. These shows often presented African Americans as caricatures for ridicule to large audiences. The first African American dance to become popular with White dancers was the cakewalk in 1891. Later dances to follow in this tradition include the Charleston, the Lindy Hop, and the Jitterbug. During the Harlem Renaissance, all African American Broadway shows such as Shuffle Along helped to establish and legitimize African American dancers. African American dance forms such as tap, a combination of African and European influences, gained widespread popularity thanks to dancers such as Bill Robinson and were used by leading White choreographers who often hired African American dancers. Contemporary African American dance is descended from these earlier forms and also draws influence from African and Caribbean dance forms. Groups such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater have continued to contribute to the growth of this form. Modern popular dance in America is also greatly influenced by African American dance. American popular dance has also drawn many influences from African American dance most notably in the hip hop genre. Art [pic] Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City by Henry Ossawa Tanner 1859-1937 From its early origins in slave communities, through the end of the twentieth century, African-American art has made a vital contribution to the art of the United States. During the period between the 1600s and the early 1800s, art took the form of small drums, quilts, wrought-iron figures and ceramic vessels in the southern United States. These artifacts have similarities with comparable crafts in West and Central Africa. In contrast, African American artisans like the New England–based engraver Scipio Moorhead and the Baltimore portrait painter Joshua Johnson created art that was conceived in a thoroughly western European fashion. During the 1800s, Harriet Powers made quilts in rural Georgia, United States that are now considered among the finest examples of nineteenth-century Southern quilting. Later in the 20th century, the women of Gee’s Bend developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional African American quilts with a geometric simplicity that developed separately but was like that of Amish quilts and modern art. After the American Civil War, museums and galleries began more frequently to display the work of African American artists. Cultural expression in mainstream venues was still limited by the dominant European aesthetic and by racial prejudice. To increase the visibility of their work, many African American artists traveled to Europe where they had greater freedom. It was not until the Harlem Renaissance that more whites began to pay attention to African American art in America. [pic] Kara Walker, Cut, Cut paper and adhesive on wall, Brent Sikkema NYC. During the 1920s, artists such as Raymond Barthe, Aaron Douglas, Augusta Savage, and photographer James Van Der Zee became well known for their work. During the Great Depression, new opportunities arose for these and other African American artists under the WPA. In later years, other programs and institutions, such as the New York City-based Harmon Foundation, helped to foster African American artistic talent. Augusta Savage, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and others exhibited in museums and juried art shows, and built reputations and followings for themselves. In the 1950s and 1960s, there were very few widely accepted African American artists. Despite this, The Highwaymen, a loose association of 27 African American artists from Ft. Pierce, Florida, created idyllic, quickly realized images of the Florida landscape and peddled some 50,000 of them from the trunks of their cars. They sold their art directly to the public rather than through galleries and art agents, thus receiving the name â€Å"The Highwaymen†. Rediscovered in the mid-1990s, today they are recognized as an important part of American folk history. Their artwork is widely collected by enthusiasts and original pieces can easily fetch thousands of dollars in auctions and sales. The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s was another period of resurgent interest in African American art. During this period, several African-American artists gained national prominence, among them Lou Stovall, Ed Love, Charles White, and Jeff Donaldson. Donaldson and a group of African-American artists formed the Afrocentric collective AFRICOBRA, which remains in existence today. The sculptor Martin Puryear, whose work has been acclaimed for years, is being honored with a 30-year retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York starting November 2007. Notable contemporary African American artists include David Hammons, Eugene J. Martin, Charles Tolliver, and Kara Walker. Literature [pic] Langston Hughes, a notable African American poet of the Harlem Renaissance. African American literature has its roots in the oral traditions of African slaves in America. The slaves used stories and fables in much the same way as they used music. These stories influenced the earliest African American writers and poets in the 18thcentury such as Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano. These authors reached early high points by telling slave narratives. During the early 20th century Harlem Renaissance, numerous authors and poets, such as Langston Hughes, W. E. B. Dubois, and Booker T. Washington, grappled with how to respond to discrimination in America. Authors during the Civil Rights era, such as Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about issues of racial segregation, oppression and other aspects of African American life. This tradition continues today with authors who have been accepted as an integral part of American literature, with works such as Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, and Beloved by Nobel Prize-winning Toni Morrison, and series by Octavia Butler and Walter Mosley that have achieved both best-selling and/or award-winning status. Museums The African American Museum Movement emerged during the 1950s and 1960s to preserve the heritage of the African American experience and to ensure its proper interpretation in American history. Museums devoted to African American history are found in many African American neighborhoods. Institutions such as the African American Museum and Library at Oakland and The African American Museum in Cleveland were created by African Americans to teach and investigate cultural history that, until recent decades was primarily preserved trough oral traditions. Language Generations of hardships imposed on the African American community created distinctive language patterns. Slave owners often intentionally mixed people who spoke different African languages to discourage communication in any language other than English. This, combined with prohibitions against education, led to the development of pidgins, simplified mixtures of two or more languages that speakers of different languages could use to communicate. Examples of pidgins that became fully developed languages include Creole, common to Haiti,and Gullah, common to the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. African American Vernacular English is a type variety (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of the American English language closely associated with the speech of but not exclusive to African Americans. While AAVE is academically considered a legitimate dialect because of its logical structure, some of both Caucasians and African Americans consider it slang or the result of a poor command of Standard American English. Inner city African American children who are isolated by speaking only AAVE have more difficulty with standardized testing and, after school, moving to the mainstream world for work. It is common for many speakers of AAVE to code switch between AAVE and Standard American English depending on the setting. Fashion and aesthetics [pic] A man weaving kente cloth in Ghana. Attire The cultural explosion of the 1960s saw the incorporation of surviving cultural dress with elements from modern fashion and West African traditional clothing to create a uniquely African American traditional style. Kente cloth is the best known African textile. These festive woven patterns, which exist in numerous varieties, were originally made by the Ashanti and Ewe peoples of Ghana and Togo. Kente fabric also appears in a number of Western style fashions ranging from casual t-shirts to formal bow ties and cummerbunds. Kente strips are often sewn into liturgical and cademic robes or worn as stoles. Since the Black Arts Movement, traditional African clothing has been popular amongst African Americans for both formal and informal occasions. Another common aspect of fashion in African American culture involves the appropriate dress for worship in the Black church. It is expected in most churches that an individual should present their best appearance for worship. African Americ an women in particular are known for wearing vibrant dresses and suits. An interpretation of a passage from the Christian Bible, â€Å"†¦ very woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head†¦ â€Å", has led to the tradition of wearing elaborate Sunday hats, sometimes known as â€Å"crowns. † Hair Hair styling in African American culture is greatly varied. African American hair is typically composed of tightly coiled curls. The predominant styles for women involve the straightening of the hair through the application of heat or chemical processes. These treatments form the base for the most commonly socially acceptable hairstyles in the United States. Alternatively, the predominant and most socially acceptable practice for men is to leave one’s hair natural. Often, as men age and begin to lose their hair, the hair is either closely cropped, or the head is shaved completely free of hair. However, since the 1960s, natural hairstyles, such as the afro, braids, and dreadlocks, have been growing in popularity. Although the association with radical political movements and their vast difference from mainstream Western hairstyles, the styles have not yet attained widespread social acceptance. Maintaining facial hair is more prevalent among African American men than in other male populations in the U. S. In fact, the soul patch is so named because African American men, particularly jazz musicians, popularized the style. The preference for facial hair among African American men is due partly to personal taste, but because they are more prone than other ethnic groups to develop a condition known as pseudofolliculitis barbae, commonly referred to as razor bumps, many prefer not to shave. Body image The European aesthetic and attendant mainstream concepts of beauty are often at odds with the African body form. Because of this, African American women often find themselves under pressure to conform to European standards of beauty. Still, there are individuals and groups who are working towards raising the standing of the African aesthetic among African Americans and internationally as well. This includes efforts toward promoting as models those with clearly defined African features; the mainstreaming of natural hairstyles; and, in women, fuller, more voluptuous body types. Religion While African Americans practice a number of religions, Protestant Christianity is by far the most popular. Additionally, 14% of Muslims in the United States and Canada are African American. Christianity [pic] A river baptism in New Bern, North Carolina near the turn of the 20th century. The religious institutions of African American Christians commonly are referred tocollectively as the black church. During slavery, many slaves were stripped of their African belief systems and typically denied free religious practice. Slaves managed, however, to hang on to some practices by integrating them into Christian worship in secret meetings. These practices, including dance, shouts, African rhythms, and enthusiastic singing, remain a large part of worship in the African American church. African American churches taught that all people were equal in God’s eyes and viewed the doctrine of obedience to one’s master taught in white churches as hypocritical. Instead the African American church focused on the message of equality and hopes for a better future. Before and after emancipation, racial segregation in America prompted the development of organized African American denominations. The first of these was the AME Church founded by Richard Allen in 1787. An African American church is not necessarily a separate denomination. Several predominantly African American churches exist as members of predominantly white denominations. African American churches have served to provide African American people with leadership positions and opportunities to organize that were denied in mainstream American society. Because of this, African American pastors became the bridge between the African American and European American communities and thus played a crucial role in the American Civil Rights Movement. Like many Christians, African American Christians sometimes participate in or attend a Christmas play. Black Nativity by Langston Hughes is a re-telling of the classic Nativity story with gospel music. Productions can be found a African American theaters and churches all over the country. Islam [pic] A member of the Nation of Islam selling merchandise on a city street corner. Despite the popular assumption that the Nation represents all or most African American Muslims, less than 2% are members. Generations before the advent of the Atlantic slave trade, Islam was a thriving religion in West Africa due to its peaceful introduction via the lucrative trans-Saharan trade between prominent tribes in the southern Sahara and the Berbers to the North. In his attesting to this fact the West African scholar Cheikh Anta Diop explained: â€Å"The primary reason for the success of Islam in Black Africa†¦ onsequently stems from the fact that it was propagated peacefully at first by solitary Arabo-Berber travelers to certain Black kings and notables, who then spread it about them to those under their jurisdiction† Many first-generation slaves were often able to retain their Muslim identity, their descendants were not. Slaves were either forcibly converted to Christianity as was the case in the Catholic lands or were besieged with gross inconviences to their religious practice such as in the case of the Protestant American mainland. In the decades after slavery and particularly during the depression era, Islam reemerged in the form of highly visible and sometimes controversial heterodox movements in the African American community. The first of these of note was the Moorish Science Temple of America, founded by Noble Drew Ali. Ali had a profound influence on Wallace Fard, who later founded the Black nationalist Nation of Islam in 1930. Elijah Muhammad became head of the organization in 1934. Much like Malcolm X, who left the Nation of Islam in 1964, many African American Muslims now follow traditional Islam. A survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations shows that 30% of Sunni Mosque attendees are African Americans. African American orthodox Muslims are often the victims of stereotypes, most notably the assumption that an African American Muslim is a member of the Nation of Islam. They are often viewed by the uneducated African-American community in general as less authentic than Muslims from the Middle East or South Asia while credibility is less of an issue with immigrant Muslims and Muslim world in general. Other religions Aside from Christianity and Islam, there are also African Americans who follow Judaism, Buddhism, and a number of other religions. The Black Hebrew Israelites are a collection of African American Jewish religious organizations. Among their varied teachings, they often include that African Americans are descended from the Biblical Hebrews (sometimes with the paradoxical claim that the Jewish people are not). There is a small but growing number of African Americans who participate in African traditional religions, such as Vodou and Santeria or Ifa and diasporic traditions like Rastafarianism. Many of them are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from the Caribbean and South America, where these are practiced. Because of religious practices, such as animal sacrifice, which are no longer common among American religions and are often legally prohibited, these groups may be viewed negatively and are sometimes the victims of harassment. Life events For most African Americans, the observance of life events follows the pattern of mainstream American culture. There are some traditions which are unique to African Americans. Some African Americans have created new rites of passage that are linked to African traditions. Pre-teen and teenage boys and girls take classes to prepare them for adulthood. They are typically taught spirituality, responsibility, and leadership. Most of these programs are modeled after traditional African ceremonies, with the focus largely on embracing African ideologies rather than specific rituals. To this day, some African American couples choose to â€Å"jump the broom† as a part of their wedding ceremony. Although the practice, which can be traced back to Ghana, fell out of favor in the African American community after the end of slavery, it has experienced a slight resurgence in recent years as some couples seek to reaffirm their African heritage. Funeral traditions tend to vary based on a number of factors, including religion and location, but there are a number of commonalities. Probably the most important part of death and dying in the African American culture is the gathering of family and friends. Either in the last days before death or shortly after death, typically any friends and family members that can be reached are notified. This gathering helps to provide spiritual and emotional support, as well as assistance in making decisions and accomplishing everyday tasks. The spirituality of death is very important in African American culture. A member of the clergy or members of the religious community, or both, are typically present with the family through the entire process. Death is often viewed as transitory rather than final. Many services are called homegoings, instead of funerals, based on the belief that the person is going home to the afterlife. The entire end of life process is generally treated as a celebration of life rather than a mourning of loss. This is most notably demonstrated in the New Orleans Jazz Funeral tradition where upbeat music, dancing, and food encourage those gathered to be happy and celebrate the homegoing of a beloved friend. Cuisine [pic] A traditional soul food dinner consisting of fried chicken, candied yams, collard greens, cornbread, and macaroni and cheese. The cultivation and use of many agricultural products in the United States, such as yams, peanuts, rice, okra, sorghum, grits, watermelon, indigo dyes, and cotton, can be traced to African influences. African American foods reflect creative esponses to racial and economic oppression and poverty. Under slavery, African Americans were not allowed to eat better cuts of meat, and after emancipation many often were too poor to afford them. Soul food, a hearty cuisine commonly associated with African Americans in the South (but also common to African Americans nationwide), makes creative use of inexpensive products procured through farming and subsistence hunting and fishing. Pig intestines are boiled and sometimes battered and fried to make chitterlings, also known as â€Å"chitlins. Ham hocks and neck bones provide seasoning to soups, beans and boiled greens (turnip greens, collard greens, and mustard greens). Other common foods, such as fried chicken and fish, macaroni and cheese, cornbread and hoppin’ john (black-eyed peas and rice) are prepared simply. When the African American population was considerably more rural than it generally is today, rabbit, possum, squirrel, and waterfowl were important additions to the diet. Many of these food traditions are especially predominant in many parts of the rural South. Traditionally prepared soul food is often high in fat, sodium and starch. Highly suited to the physically demanding lives of laborers, farmhands and rural lifestyles generally, it is now a contributing factor to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes in a population that has become increasingly more urban and sedentary. As a result, more health-conscious African-Americans are using alternative methods of preparation, eschewing trans fats in favor of natural vegetable oils and substituting smoked turkey for fatback and other, cured pork products; limiting the amount of refined sugar in desserts; and emphasizing the consumption of more fruits and vegetables than animal protein. There is some resistance to such changes, however, as they involve deviating from long culinary tradition. Holidays and observances [pic] A woman wearing traditional West African clothing lighting the candles on a kinara for a Kwanzaa celebration. As with other American racial and ethnic groups, African Americans observe ethnic holidays alongside traditional American holidays. Holidays observed in African American culture are not only observed by African Americans. The birthday of noted American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr has been observed nationally since 1983. It is one of three federal holidays named for an individual. Black History Month is another example of another African American observance that has been adopted nationally. Black History Month is an attempt to focus attention on previously neglected aspects of the African American experience. It is observed during the month of February to coincide with the founding of the NAACP and the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, a prominent African American abolitionist, and Abraham Lincoln, the United States president who signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Less widely observed outside of the African American community is Emancipation Day. The nature and timing of the celebration vary regionally. It is most widely observed as Juneteenth, in recognition of the official reading of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865 in Texas. Another holiday not widely observed outside of the African American community is the birthday of Malcolm X. The day is observed on May 19 in American cities with a significant African American population, including Washington, D. C.. One of the most noted African American holidays is Kwanzaa. Like Emancipation Day, it is not widely observed outside of the African American community, although it is growing in popularity within the community. African American scholar and activist â€Å"Maulana† Ron Karenga invented the festival of Kwanzaa in 1966, as an alternative to the increasing commercialization of Christmas. Derived from the harvest rituals of Africans, Kwanzaa is observed each year from December 26 through January 1. Participants in Kwanzaa celebrations affirm their African heritage and the importance of family and community by drinking from a unity cup; lighting red, black, and green candles; exchanging heritage symbols, such as African art; and recounting the lives of people who struggled for African and African American freedom. Names African American names are often drawn from the same language groups as other popular names found in the United States. The practice of adopting neo-African or Islamic names did not gain popularity until the late Civil Rights era. Efforts to recover African heritage inspired selection of names with deeper cultural significance. Prior to this, using African names was not practical for two reasons. First, many African Americans were several generations removed from the last ancestor to have an African name since slaves were often given European names. Second, a traditional American name helps an individual fit into American society. Another African American naming practice that predates the use of African names is the use of â€Å"made-up† names. In an attempt to create their own identity, growing numbers of African American parents, starting in the post-World War II era, began creating new names based on sounds they found pleasing such as Marquon, DaShawn, LaTasha, or Shandra. Family When slavery was practiced in the United States, it was common for families to be separated through sale. Even during slavery, however, African American families managed to maintain strong familial bonds. Free, African men and women, who managed to buy their own freedom by being hired out, who were emancipated, or who had escaped their masters, often worked long and hard to buy the members of their families who remained in bondage and send for them. Others, separated from blood kin, formed close bonds comprised of fictive kin; play relations, play aunts, cousins and the like. This practice, perhaps a holdover from African tradition, survived Emancipation, with non-blood family friends commonly accorded the status and titles of blood relations. This broader, more African concept of what constitutes family and community, and the deeply rooted respect for elders that is part of African traditional societies may be the genesis of the common use of the terms like â€Å"aunt†, â€Å"uncle†, â€Å"brother,† â€Å"sister†, â€Å"Mother† and â€Å"Mama† when addressing other African American people, some of whom may be complete strangers. Or, it could have arisen in the Christian church as a way of greeting fellow congregants and believers. Immediately after slavery, African American families struggled to reunite and rebuild what had been taken. As late as 1960, 78% of African American families were headed by married couples. This number steadily declined over the latter half of the 20th century. A number of factors, including attitudes towards education, gender roles, and poverty have created a situation where, for the first time since slavery, a majority of African American children live in a household with only one parent, typically the mother. These figures appear to indicate a weak African American nuclear family structure, especially within a large patriarchal society. This apparent weakness is balanced by mutual aid systems established by extended family members to provide emotional and economic support. Older family members pass on social and cultural traditions such as religion and manners to younger family members. In turn, the older family members are cared for by younger family members when they are unable to care for themselves. These relationships exist at all economic levels in the African American community, providing strength and support both to the African American family and the community. Politics and social issues Since the passing of the Voting Rights Act, African Americans are voting and being elected to public office in increasing numbers. As of January 2001 there were 9,101 African American elected officials in America. African Americans are overwhelmingly Democratic. Only 11% of African Americans voted for George W. Bush in the 2004 Presidential Election. Social issues such as racial profiling, the racial disparity in sentencing, higher rates of poverty, institutional racism, and lower access to health care are important to the African American community. While the divide on racial and fiscal issues has remained consistently wide for decades, seemingly indicating a wide social divide, African Americans tend to hold the same optimism and concern for America as Whites. In the case of many moral issues such as religion, and family values, African Americans tend to be more conservative than Whites. Another area where African Americans outstrip Whites in their conservatism is on the issue of homosexuality. Prominent leaders in the Black church have demonstrated against gay rights issues such as gay marriage. There are those within the community who take a more inclusive position most notably, the late Mrs. Coretta Scott King, and the Reverend Al Sharpton, who, when asked in 2003 whether he supported gay marriage, replied that he might as well have been asked if he supported black marriage or white marriage. Neighborhoods African American neighborhoods are types of ethnic enclaves found in many cities in the United States. The formation of African American neighborhoods is closely linked to the history of segregation in the United States, either through formal laws, or as a product of social norms. Despite this, African American neighborhoods have played an important role in the development of nearly all aspects of both African American culture and broader American culture. Due to segregated conditions and widespread poverty some African American neighborhoods in the United States have been called â€Å"ghettos. † The use of this term is controversial and, depending on the context, potentially offensive. Despite mainstream America’s use of the term â€Å"ghetto† to signify a poor urban area populated by ethnic minorities, those living in the area often used it to signify something positive. The African American ghettos did not always contain dilapidated houses and deteriorating projects, nor were all of its residents poverty-stricken. For many African Americans, the ghetto was â€Å"home† a place representing authentic blackness and a feeling, passion, or emotion derived from the rising above the struggle and suffering of being of African descent in America. Langston Hughes relays in the â€Å"Negro Ghetto† (1931) and â€Å"The Heart of Harlem† (1945): â€Å"The buildings in Harlem are brick and stone/And the streets are long and wide,/But Harlem’s much more than these alone,/Harlem is what’s inside. Playwright August Wilson used the term â€Å"ghetto† in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984) and Fences (1987), both of which draw upon the author’s experience growing up in the Hill district of Pittsburgh, an African American ghetto. Although African American neighborhoods may suffer from civic disinvestment, with lower q uality schools, less effective policing and fire protection. There are institutions such as churches and museums and political organizations that help to improve the physical and social capital of African American neighborhoods. In African American neighborhoods the churches may be important sources of social cohesion. For some African Americans the kind spirituality learned through these churches works as a protective factor against the corrosive forces of racism. Museums devoted to African American history are also found in many African American neighborhoods. Many African American neighborhoods are located in inner cities, These are the mostly residential neighborhoods located closest to the central business district. The built environment is often row houses or brownstones, mixed with older single family homes that may be converted to multi family homes. In some areas there are larger apartment buildings. Shotgun houses are an important part of the built environment of some southern African American neighborhoods. The houses consist of three to five rooms in a row with no hallways. This African American house design is found in both rural and urban southern areas, mainly in African-American communities and neighborhoods. African American Culture. (2018, Nov 09).

Glider 3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Glider 3 - Assignment Example The glider fuselage has a rounded nose and sleek thus allowing easy flow of air can flow efficiently around it. The feature is also enhanced by the presence of the tapered body of the fuselage (Yechout & Morris, 2003). The wing design for the glider represents intrinsic part of the glider. It has various arrangements of braces, ribs, edges and many other parts designed to strengthen the wing part of the glider. The glider wing has planform exhibiting high aspect ratio, variable and tapered aerofoil shape. The wing allows for straight model of sweeping by entailing wing motion through the right angles to anticipated line of flight. The selection of the type of the glider wing focuses on allowing of low-speed design. The wings provide essential lift force, and therefore is most imperative lift-producing element of the glider (Yechout & Morris, 2003). The four spars mainly provide the lateral strength for the wing. Ribs are attached to the spars to complete the structural parts. There is a rising angle is called the dihedral which aids in keeping the airplane from rolling suddenly while on flight. AOI or the angle at which the wing is linked to the fuselage is mainly 5o. The wings have variable b and c features on it. The empennage has rudder, vertical stabilizer, engine pylon, elevator and horizontal adjustable stabilizer as the main typical parts. There is well designed to provide stability and enhanced control for the glider. The main two parts entailing the empennage includes vertical stabilizer otherwise called fin on which the rudder is normally attached. There is another segment called horizontal stabilizer on which the elevators are conventionally attached. The typical stabilizers facilitate proper pointing of the glider to the wind as normally, when the tail section of the glider swing to any side, the wind thrust against the tail sides and surfaces. This action maintains the proper place of the

To what extent can a states promotion of its culture further its Essay

To what extent can a states promotion of its culture further its national interests and influence on the world stage - Essay Example In this case each country is seeking to prove its cultural heritage as a really valuable for the world’s success or even progress. Following this idea, the measure between the most or less influential countries of the world slowly becomes vague, so to speak. However, if the main features of such a discussion are that it is really the fact to keep in mind. Definitely, as Snow & Taylor (2008, p. x) admit, this kind of â€Å"primacy-of-culture perspective dominates much of our thinking about public diplomacy and calls for a more balanced perspective that takes into account cultural difference but also recognizes and utilizes influence universals.† Hereby, this question still remains to be answered. On the other hand, the truth of cultural diversity seems to be of less concern for powerful countries of the world inclined more and more to impose their cultural peculiarities along with the way of living on other communities. Here comes a mere extent of imitation in a global scope. One of the most apparent examples is the American cultural influence. On the other hand, less people have an idea of cultural life in Jakarta, for instance. Needless to say, such cultural ideals are mostly stereotyped and have much of copyism. Foreign and Commonwealth Office (2008, p. 34) pays more attention to the following fact in terms of the cultural aspect: â€Å"Images of foreign countries are in fact part of the culture of the country that holds the perceptions: Japan’s image in China, for example, is part of Chinese culture, and vice versa.† Thus, countries are constantly trying to earn more appreciation from the rest of the world forgetting about some national priorities and, therefore, amplifying the need for the cultural promotion as it is. Everyone desires to look well or even better before the rest. Thereupon, countries urge for better reputation in order to show their status in the world arena. Once such

Strategic Analysis on Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Strategic Analysis on Industry - Essay Example The report concludes with key drivers for change and success in the selected industry. The UK Hotels and Motels Industry comprises of establishments that are providing short-term lodging including hotels, motor hotels, resort hotels, and motels. In addition to the lodging services they also offer services, such as food and beverage services, recreational services, conference rooms and convention services, laundry services, parking, and other services1. The UK hotels and motels industry could be segregated into different groups according to the type of customers they serve including domestic consumers, domestic business and international business & consumers. Evaluation of the UK hotels and motels industry suggest that the main revenue drivers other than providing accommodation are from services such as casinos, conferences, matrimonial gatherings, social functions, shops and telecommunication services. A recent survey carried out by Data Monitor, a research company, highlighted that the total revenues of the UK Hotels and Motels Industry were $35 billion in 2008 that implies a CAGR of 5.6% over the period 2004-2008. However, the same report expects that the industry will slow down because of the poor economic conditions currently prevailing in the global market and lower spending on travel and tourism. The industry is expected to grow at a lower CAGR of 3% till 2013 to reach a level of $40.1 billion2. The international political scenario is negating the growth prospects of the hotels and motels industry. The political risks have direct correlation with the investment decisions of international hotel companies in developing countries. Political instability in a country creates social unrest that could affect the flow of travellers to that country that may in return affect the sales of hotels and motels. These political risks could also be viewed as

The growth of modern street gangs and police enforcement on gangs Term Paper

The growth of modern street gangs and police enforcement on gangs - Term Paper Example The big concern is that outside the United States, terrorists like al-Qaida are not killing people, but gang violence is killing many people every single day (Larry, 2007). Like most other indicators of criminal activity, gang related homicides decreased in the late 1990s. The trend has reversed itself in the 2000s, however: between 1999 and 2002, gang violence increased by over fifty percent. According to the US Department of justice, there are over thirty thousand criminal gangs with close to a million members in the United States. A street gang refers to any group of people who form an allegiance for a common purpose and engage in violent, unlawful, or criminal activity. The department of justice further estimates that the Los Angeles metropolitan area alone is home to over seven hundred gangs, with over hundred thousand members (Larry 2007). This group is responsible for half of the city’s homicides. Like all other upsurges in violent gang activity over the past several de cades, particularly in the late 1980s, the current increase is closely related to the illegal drug trade and use of firearms to protect the trade. The difference, according to some experts, is that more people are becoming involved in gangs for purely economic reasons, rather than the cultural or territorial motives that have traditionally fuelled gang membership. One in every three gangs runs drug-dealing operations. In addition, some researchers believe that some gangs have superior weapons than most police forces, making it very difficult for the law enforcers to control their activities. Although superior gangs, such as the Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings and Gangster Disciples are still responsible for their share of gang-related criminal activity in the United States, a relative newcomer has gained the attention of the law enforcement community because of its rapid growth and brutality. To escape the violence, thousands of immigrants fled to the United States, particularly to Los A ngeles. Their children found themselves easy prey to the existing local gangs and formed the MS-13 as a protective measure. The gang soon became involved in crime rings of its own, and the authorities responded by deporting the members - and their violent gang culture-en masse back to Central America. A large number of its members now operate in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico, where they have killed thousands of people over the last decade. MS-13, in particular, has gained reputation of attacking the wives and other family members of rivals. In 2003, the El Salvadorian government responded with a legislation, which makes gang membership illegal. Furthermore, as part of operations to eliminate the gang, Salvadoran police gained the freedom to arrest anyone they thought was a gang member, often based on nothing more than suspects clothing and tattoos (Bruce 1999). This legislation led to deadly reactions from the gang in protest. On December 23 2004, some six gang member s boarded a bus in the northern city of San Pedro Sula and killed twenty-eight passengers, including six children, in protest to the crackdown. The law enforcement measures have been very popular with the populace; however, gang activity dropped significant following their implementation. American law enforcement agencies cannot respond with a similar operation. Under most circumstances, the fourth amendment

Impact of Technology on Small Businesses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Impact of Technology on Small Businesses - Essay Example In the present paper the impact of technology is critically analyzed to understand whether adopting technology in its various forms is profitable to small businesses or not through qualitative research methodology. Small businesses drive the economy by leading in innovation and very crucial for national economies because of their large contribution in terms of employment and turnover (Burns, 2007). Small Medium Enterprises (SME) according to the Bolton committee is defined as an independent local firm whose ownership and management is vested in the same individuals and market share is small. A firm is termed as SME when it meets two of the three criteria’s namely consisting â€Å"up to 250 employees, up to  £50 million annual turnover and  £43 million annual statement of financial position total† as given by the European Commission of 2003 (Amm, 2011, p.1). Small businesses like large firms, in their operations try to apply latest technologies in order to be competitive, knowledgeable, more efficient and eventually more profitable (Kierman, 1995). However it has been found that technology is also negatively affecting the small businesses by decreasing the personal aspect of the business relationship, surveillance and constant monitoring using technology is decreasing employee morale and productivity significantly and brick and mortar small stores are losing their market share to large companies who use technology extensively (Hanley, 2013) moreover technology brings change that might not be adopted well by employees and is expensive and keeps changing (Keirman, 1995 and Burgess, 2002). SME’s compared to larger firms respond quickly to market threats and opportunities because they are more market-driven than larger firms who are more research driven. And use innovative technology or technology innovatively in developing new markets and about ten percent of SMEs are technology based and can be termed as innovative.  

Analyse the market for Tesco Groceries within the UK Essay

Analyse the market for Tesco Groceries within the UK - Essay Example Founded in 1924, Tesco is the largest retailer in the UK market as well as the largest UK based international supermarket chain with 1,780 stores in the UK and 586 outlets internationally. The company which originally focused on food retailing has now expanded in to retailing of clothing, household electronics, fincial services, internet and telecommunications. Company is displaying tremendours financial performance with over 15% growth in its revenue reaching  £ 34 billion in year 2005 and a widely publicised operating profit of  £ 2 billion. With over 1780 stores spread across UK and a strong presence in Ireland and a host of other countries, with its 586 international outlets, Tesco retail operations employ over 240,000 employees. The UK supermarket segment operates on a highly differentiated platform where the segmentation is done on customer profiles, geographic locations as well as product and image offer of each player. The focus on differentiation in the industy is evident in the total expenditure of  £150 million on advertising by key players. Tesco initially positioned itself on â€Å"Best Value† platform and based its operations on the principle of "Pile it high, sell it cheap" approach of the founder Jack Cohen. While this positioning attracted the lower income classes, it created a cheap image of the company and alianated the middle class consumers. To counter this negtive image, the company revised its approach to "inclusive offer" a phraseused by Tesco to describe its aim of catering to all stratas of income gorups from the same stores (Tesco.com 2005) . Under this approach the company offers â€Å"Finest and Luxuary† range as well as low priced â€Å"Value† range to cater t o varying disposable income levels of its differentiated customer bases. The company also differentiate its outlets through five formats, which differ in shop floor size and the range of products sold. These

Universal Health Care Is Socialism Essay Example for Free

Universal Health Care Is Socialism Essay Europe is considered one of the most ideal places to live. Its fascinating history and being home to some of the worlds most beautiful sights, who wouldn’t want to live there. While those are great incentives, some educated might argue that there are better amenities if one decides to reside there. Aside from what I just listed, Europe is home to some of the best working conditions. A 30-hour workweek, lengthy vacation packages, its wide-ranging early retirement benefits and its government sponsored health care coverage (Goldman). While some call this desirable, everyone calls it socialism. Socialism is an act of government stepping into the free market in an attempt to equally distribute goods to the public. Therefore the liberal agenda to enforce a universal healthcare system in America is an act of socialism. America was built and is where it is today due to our free market, or for a better term, capitalism. Capitalism is having the power in the people, letting the people decide how and what they want to spend their money on with no interference from the government. Letting the people strive and attempt to achieve the highest paycheck is the best way to motivate workers, therefore increasing the economic output as well as GDP. When a government takes more money away from the rich in hope to provide more for the lower classes with generous benefits for little work, it can erase the incentive for hard work. Therefore decreasing workflow as well as total economic prosperity. Merriam Webster defines socialism as any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. Socialism dates back to the 1700’s during the French Revolution. The Industrial Revolution was seen as machinery replacing human labor. With poor housing, poor working conditions, slave labor, and the richer, all led to the envy for a society that was more equal, and with these conditions continuing to grow, the socialist ideas caught on rapidly (truth-it). The socialist movement is instilled in Europe and, here in America, the Democratic party has pushing and pressuring the federal government into developing political and economic system, similar to Europe’s. This movement led by President Obama and his left leaning supporters has been bringing America’s capitalistic system closer to the socialist left, that of Europe. Universal health care being a front-runner of his massive government spending plans has only been a glimpse of the socialist agenda and the true desires the President has for this country. The people of America needed to decide if they wanted to move in this direction or stick with our roots and continue on our free market economy. I believe that after this recent election and the Republicans winning a majority in the House of Representatives shows the direction most Americans want to focus our effort and energy as a country. That being in a more, free market, free of universal health care. This increase in government spending can only be financed by increasing taxes or government borrowing. While we should be open to all ideas, we should take a look at how socialism has affected Europe. The people of Europe are just now facing the reality of their lavish lifestyle for the past few years, many people were not making as much as they were spending. Leading a breakdown in their economy and now facing the hurt of a deep recession. Universal health care falls into the realm of Socialism due to the fact that government would be responsible for funding this massive new program. Government would be controlling the distribution of the health care as well as funding. That definition could also describe the regulations already set in Europe, where is widely accepted as a socialist policy. Universal health care would be an attempt to properly cover all Americans with adequate health care for a very low, if not a free, price. Stating that all Americans deserve health insurance and anything else is unacceptable. For this to become true government would have to own and regulate the vast majority of health care therefore taking responsibility for the use and distribution health care. While many people are reluctant to dub universal health care as socialism, the truth of the matter it is. They need to realize if we go ahead with this act we will be drifting away from our roots of a capitalistic society. Socialism has taken over Europe and is to blame for their current state.