...myth shares this particular idea. Some believe that life came from either above or below of where they are standing, others believe that the Earth was covered in water and the land was lifted up. In some cases, humans and animals lived in harmony one with the other, but that was short-lived due to the sins that humans did against their creators, or the animals used or deceived humans and were punished for that. Some of these myths start with a birth, which represents life, also this relates to the idea of a figure either maternal or paternal, and we all can relate to this right? Such stories are almost infinitely varied in detail, but they tend to include some basic themes. Popol Vuh is the religious history or “bible” for the ancient Mayan civilization. The Popol Vuh has a polytheistic religion. The Popol Vuh contains a series of four efforts at...
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...Mayan civilization that spanned from the borders of present day Honduras up to Mexico, but which only a certain amount is truly known. The principal reason why I chose to focus on these people was to challenge myself to try and gain a greater understanding of why they engaged in such strange rituals as bloodletting and even human sacrifice? What prompted them to commit such acts? I proposed that the performance of these actions, as they seemed to be so entwined with their culture, must have had something to do with their religious beliefs but which ones exactly, and how did they originate? It was with this in mind that I conducted an investigation into the sacrificial blood rituals of Maya culture. Thus, from conducting library based research - using books, Encyclopedias and the Internet - I found out that the Mayans had created for themselves a complex Creation Myth and pantheon of gods. It was to supposedly sustain these gods, who were constantly fighting against one another, that the Mayan conducted bloodletting and human sacrifices, believing that in return the gods would provide them the water needed to grow their maize. The gods, replenished by this blood, were able to maintain the harmony of the universe by preventing any one group of gods from becoming too dominant. How many of these sacrifices were voluntary, or were people picked randomly or slaves forced to do it depends on the authors who you read. What I do feel though, is that many people have called the...
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...TermPaperWarehouse.com - Free Term Papers, Essays and Research Documents The Research Paper Factory JoinSearchBrowseSaved Papers Home Page » Other Topics Historical Materialism In: Other Topics Historical Materialism INTRODUCTION "In the Marxian view, human history is like a river. From any given vantage point, a river looks much the same day after day. But actually it is constantly flowing and changing, crumbling its banks, widening and deepening its channel. The water seen one day is never the same as that seen the next. Some of it is constantly being evaporated and drawn up, to return as rain. From year to year these changes may be scarcely perceptible. But one day, when the banks are thoroughly weakened and the rains long and heavy, the river floods, bursts its banks, and may take a new course. This represents the dialectical part of Marx’s famous theory of dialectical (or historical) materialism." Historical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history first articulated by Karl Marx (1818–1883) as the materialist conception of history. It is a theory of socioeconomic development according to which changes in material conditions (technology and productive capacity) are the primary influence on how society and the economy are organised. Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans collectively produce the necessities of life. Social classes...
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...indigenous new world cosmographies, illustrate the important sociocultural role the plant has played for millennia. However, modern society has elevated Zea mays far above the status of mere plant, fashioning it into a commodity intimately connected to systems of control and capitalism. Consequently, corn has played an essential role in colonization, industrialization, and the advent of overproduction. The beliefs and literature of numerous new world cultures, along with the literatures of modern Western cultures, offer a striking analysis of corn's current position in western society. The far-reaching impacts that corn has on our socioeconomic and subsistence systems reveal a great deal about globalization, commodification, and dominance. This paper examines corn through a cultural studies lens, documenting the influence of this iconic foodstuff and analyzing its effects over historical and cultural boundaries. 2 Corn has long been located at the center of indigenous new world cultures, as well as at the center of modern Western society, and its presence spans and transcends boundaries between cultures and time periods. Corn’s genesis as a foodstuff, and its ascension to the status of...
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...COMPARATIVE LITERATURE: SHARING KNOWLEDGES FOR PRESERVING CULTURAL DIVERSITY – Vol. II - The Impact Of Media On Literature - William Egginton and Bernadette Wegenstein THE IMPACT OF MEDIA ON LITERATURE William Egginton and Bernadette Wegenstein The Johns Hopkins University Keywords: media, media studies, media theory, history of media, new media, comparative literature Contents U SA NE M SC PL O E – C EO H AP LS TE S R S 1. Introduction 2. Current Media Theory and Media Studies 2.1. Origins of Discipline 2.2. New Media Theory 3. Historical Examples 3.1. Oral Transmission 3.2. Pictography 3.3. The Andean Khipu 3.4. Manuscript 3.5. Print 3.6. Theater 3.7. Photography 3.8. Moving Image 3.9. Radio and Television 3.10. The Digital 4. Conclusion Acknowledgements Glossary Bibliography Biographical Sketches Summary The growing consensus among literary scholars is that the meaning of literature cannot be properly studied or understood outside of the specific medium of its transmission and archival. This realization can be considered a revolution in literary studies, and its fundamental ramification is the confluence of literary studies and theory with media studies and theory. The fields of media studies and media theory are dedicated to the analysis and understanding of the myriad media through which information is communicated. Under the influence of these fields, the media through which literature is communicated is no longer considered...
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...The Grand Design ALSO BY STEPHEN HAWKING A Brief History of Time A Briefer History of Time Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays The Illustrated A Brief History of Time The Universe in a Nutshell FOR CHILDREN George’s Secret Key to the Universe (with Lucy Hawking) George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt (with Lucy Hawking) ALSO BY LEONARD MLODINOW A Briefer History of Time The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives Euclid’s Window: The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace Feynman’s Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life FOR CHILDREN The Last Dinosaur (with Matt Costello) Titanic Cat (with Matt Costello) The Grand Design The Grand Design The Grand Design The Grand Design Copyright © 2010 by Stephen W. Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow Original art copyright © 2010 by Peter Bollinger All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Bantam Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Cartoons by Sidney Harris, copyright © Sciencecartoonsplus.com BANTAM BOOKS and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. eISBN: 978-0-553-90707-0 www.bantamdell.com v3.0 The Grand Design The Grand Design The Grand Design The Grand Design E EACH EXIST FOR BUT A SHORT TIME, and in that time explore but a small part of the whole universe. But humans are a curious species. We wonder, we seek answers. Living in this vast world that...
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...The Philosopher’s Stone by Colin Wilson PANTHER, GRANADA PUBLISHING London Toronto Sydney New York Published by Granada Publishing Limited in Panther Books 1974 Reprinted 1978 ISBN 0 586 03943 0 First published in Great Britain by Arthur Barker Limited 1969 Copyright © Colin Wilson 1969 Granada Publishing Limited Frogmore, St Albans, Herts, AL2 2NF and 3 Upper James Street, London, WIR 4BP 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020, USA 117 York Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia 100 Skyway Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Mgw 3A6 Trio City, Coventry Street, Johannesburg 2001, South Africa CML Centre, Queen & Wyndham, Auckland, New Zealand Made and printed in Great Britain by Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd Aylesbury, Bucks Set in Linotype Pilgrim This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Scanned : Mr Blue Sky Proofed : It’s Not Raining Date : 09 February 2002 PREFATORY NOTE Bernard Shaw concluded his preface to Back to Methuselah with the hope that ‘a hundred apter and more elegant parables by younger hands will soon leave mine... far behind’. Perhaps the thought of trying to leave Shaw far behind has scared off would-be competitors. Or perhaps - what is altogether...
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