Music Therapy Research Paper Example

Music Therapy Research Paper Example Music Therapy Paper Music Therapy Paper Professor Yankee 11/19/12 Music Therapy Why do people use this type of therapy exactly? Well music has been used as medicine for thousands of years and theres a growing field of health care known as music therapy, which uses music to heal. Those who practice music therapy find benefits in using it to help cancer patients, children with ADD, and others, and even hospitals are beginning to use music therapy to help with pain management, to help ward off depression, to promote movement, to calm patients, to improve communication, to ease muscle tension, and for many other benefits that music and music therapy can bring. A lot of people dont understand what kind of therapy this is, people have different assumptions about it but it is a real profession that takes a bachelor music degree. Music therapists work with a variety of physical, emotional, and psychological symptoms. It is often used in cancer treatment to help reduce pain, anxiety, and nausea caused by chemotherapy. Some people believe music therapy may be beneficial to the health care of children with cancer by promoting social interaction and cooperation. There is evidence that music therapy can reduce high blood pressure, rapid heart beat, depression, and sleeplessness. There are no claims music therapy can cure cancer or other diseases, but medical experts do believe it can reduce some symptoms, aid healing, improve physical movement, and enrich a patient’s quality of life. Ancient Greek philosophers believed music could heal both body and mind, Native Americans used singing and chants to heal millennia. More formal approaches begin in World War two when hospitals started using music to help soldiers with shell shock. In 1944, Michigan State University established the first music therapy degree program in the world. Music therapists design music sessions for individuals and groups based on their needs and tastes. Some aspects of music therapy include making music, listening to music, writing songs, and talking about lyrics. Music therapy may also involve imagery and learning through music. It can be done in different places such as hospitals, cancer centers, at home, or anywhere people can benefit from its calming or stimulating effects. The patient does ot need to have any musical ability to benefit from music therapy. Most peoples reaction to music is a burst of energy upon hearing an upbeat song or a sense of calm during a soothing classical piece. Music therapy uses this connection between music and mood. It has also been shown to lower amounts of the hormone cortisol, which becomes elevated under stress, and to increase the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good hormones. Researchers have found that music therapy, when used with anti-nausea drugs for patients receiving high-dose chemotherapy, can help ease nausea and vomiting. A number of clinical trials have shown the benefit of music therapy for short-term pain, including pain from cancer. Music therapy works by stimulating parts of the brain that are associated with music in a person with Alzheimer’s disease, the section of the brain that allows direct recall of memories is damaged. Musical memories, however, are associated not only with the music itself but also with the circumstances surrounding the musical experience. Listening to music can indirectly stimulate the recall of memory fragments that otherwise could not be retrieved. The ability to retrieve some memories can be comforting to people with dementia. In a different manner, music therapy can assist those with Parkinson’s disease. In a person with Parkinson’s, the part of the brain that organizes thoughts and movements into action is damaged. Music with a strong, rhythmic beat can stimulate motor control, movement and coordination. Studies show that gait training that uses music improves walking speed and coordination for people with Parkinson’s. In general, music therapy done under the care of a professionally trained therapist has a helpful effect and is considered safe when used with standard treatment. Musical intervention by untrained people can be ineffective or can even cause increased stress and discomfort. Relying on this type of treatment alone and avoiding or delaying conventional medical care for cancer may have serious health consequences. Besides that there are no real risks or dangers to using music to heal. But how far can music heal you? There was a study that examined 200-300 patients with diabetes participants in a three year study starting this April. Although we do know that music can help vasculature, mental states and mood, there is little to no evidence to suggest that music therapy will help the outcome of diabetes. Perhaps there will be some miraculous benefit for patients suffering from diabetes to engage in extreme music therapy, however previous research indicates that it is not the music itself that determines the benefits, but the emotional responses to the music that is the key. Even though there is little evidence to support that music will help diabetes. Scientific studies have shown the value of music therapy on the body, mind, and spirit of children and adults. Researchers have found that music therapy, when used with anti-nausea drugs for patients receiving high-dose chemotherapy, can help ease nausea and vomiting. A number of clinical trials have shown the benefit of music therapy for short-term pain, including pain from cancer. Some studies have suggested that music may help decrease the overall intensity of the patient’s experience of pain when used with pain-relieving drugs. Music therapy can also result in a decreased need for pain medicine in some patients, although studies on this topic have shown mixed results. Studies have shown that students who take music lessons have improved IQ levels, and show improvement in nonmusical abilities as well. Other studies have shown that listening to music composed by Mozart produces a short-term improvement in tasks that use spatial abilities. Studies of brain circulation have shown that people listening to Mozart have more activity in certain areas of the brain. This has been called the â€Å"Mozart effect. † Although the reasons for this effect are not completely clear, this kind of information supports the idea that music can be used in many helpful ways. What can be improved ? Verbal nonverbal communication, Gross and fine motor movement,Range of motion, Relaxation techniques, Anger management skills, Expression of emotion, Sensory integration, Academic skills, and Leisure skills. We use music to make your life better. Whether you need help socially, cognitively, physically, emotionally, or developmentally, music can help you get better and music therapists trained on how to do that. What’s more interesting, though, is why it works. When used properly, music can be an incredibly powerful treatment tool. And not just because it’s fun, relaxing, and motivating, but because music has a profound impact on our brains and our bodies. First off music is the core function of our brains, we have physiologic responses to music,Our brain is primed early on to respond to and process music. Every time your breathing quickens, your heart-rate increases, or you feel a shiver down your spine, that’s your body responding physiologically to music. Qualified music therapists can use this to help stimulate a person in a coma or use music to effectively help someone relax. Music often has a predictable steady beat, organized phrases, and a structured form. Most country/folk/pop/rock songs, they’re often organized with a verse-chorus structure. They’re organized in a way that we like and enjoy listening to over and over again. Even sound waves that make up a single tone or an entire chord are organized in mathematical ratios–and our brains really like this predictability and structure. Music is in our everyday lives, we hear it in the store, at school, church, music is part of our thoughts, how we speak, even when theres none around we can still it in our heads. With all these benefits that music can carry, its no surprise that music therapy is growing in popularity. Many hospitals are using music therapists for pain management and other uses. Music therapists help with several other issues as well, including stress. While music therapy is an important discipline, you can also achieve many benefits from music on your own. Music can be used in daily life for relaxation, to gain energy when feeling drained, for catharsis when dealing with emotional stress, and in other ways as well. Music therapy has been proven to be an effective form of therapy in a variety of areas for a multitude of ailments. However, there is still much more theorizing, discussion, and research that needs to be done in this area, and that fact makes it all the more interesting. Through technological advances and constantly evolving musical styles as well as cross-cultural influences, this is one form of therapy that will never cease to be innovative and topical. Hopefully, researchers will continue to treat this topic as a serious area of psychology and one that deserves to be molded into a more scientific pedagogy through advancement and refinement of research and therapeutic techniques. I believe there is much more to be discovered about music and its effect on humanity.

The Surprising Day Jobs of 20 Famous Writers

The Surprising Day Jobs of 20 Famous Writers Sure, being a bestselling author sounds glamorous, but its a long road to the top, and sometimes that road starts out with a job mopping up a locker room floor. Most writers who have made a name for themselves in the field had to spend at least a few years toiling away at jobs where no one appreciated their quick wit or their skill for crafting a lovely turn of phrase. Some spent their entire lives working in service industries and didnt have their greatest works published until after their deaths. It makes sense that working for minimum wages in utter drudgery may have been the main inspiration for some of the most revered literary works in history. When creative minds are forced to work mindless jobs, sometimes theyre inspired to create extraordinary stories set in ordinary places. Check out The Expert Editors infographic on the surprising first professions of some of the worlds most famous writers.

Student organization reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Student organization reflection - Essay Example Consequently, while interacting in the student organizations students make lifelong friendships besides bettering their academic performances. The student organizations hold their meetings like any other formal meeting in their institution meeting room. Those who hold the senior posts in the organization or the executive leaders have their seats on one side while the other organization members seat on the opposite side facing each other. The student overall leader is the chairperson and as well he or she chairs all the meeting besides he or she gives out the agendas and reminds the other members their purpose or reasons of being in the meeting. In this way, the general leader seemed to promote the relational understanding of leadership. The students are able to interact freely but in an official manner whereby they do not interrupt their fellows or the meeting progression. The leader presented his ideas in a systematic way such that all the present members understood and were able to participate in the meeting by asking questions besides presenting their views and opinions. Throughout the meeting process, I learned that all the members were addressing their comments directly to the chairperson. This plainly indicated that the chairperson is the one who is responsible in ensuring smooth progression of the meeting. In that he kept order, facilitated the meeting, he declared the outcomes of the motion, he gave equal opportunities to all the members to contribute, he ensured the discussions reached consensus as well as conducting other tasks. Besides he or she should be at ease with the agenda as well as the other fundamental topics to be discussed in the meeting. As well the chairperson is entitled to summarize the meeting if the need be. For instance, in circumstances such as when the members have lost the focus of the agenda, when

Data warehousing and storage systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Data warehousing and storage systems - Essay Example These types of warehouses help in attaining different range and level of storage of data in a computing device. A data warehouse is useful because it can maintain replica of information from the source. This architectural convolution provides the prospect to alleviate the problem of database isolation level lock conflict in operation processing systems that is caused by long or large running attempts and queries related to analysis in the processing database of transaction (Silvers, 2008). The uses of data warehousing is not just limited to one prospect it also helps in compressing data into a single source from multiple sources so that only one query engine can be used. Data warehousing increases the efficiency of working and it improves the data quality by maintaining data history accurately even when the source transaction is unable to keep the record. It helps in keeping information secure and also updates if any alteration is done on any data. This is very important because stor age of data should always be in a secured mode in order to avoid isolation of information. The concept of data warehousing was brought forward in the later part of 1980, in order to deliver an architectural model for flow of information from operational systems to decision support systems (Becker, 2002). Data warehouses in order to obtain analytical access patterns are optimized. They involve in selecting specific fields of function unlike operational systems that use a common type of access pattern. Due to these differences analytical databases get benefited from column-oriented data base management system and operational database get benefited from row-oriented data base management system. Operational systems only maintain a picture or frame of business related information however data warehouses maintain the entire history that is implemented from ETL processes. The evolution of data warehousing in organization use is very sophisticated. There are mainly four levels of warehouses.

Internet and foreign language education Essay Example for Free

Internet and foreign language education Essay A new technology has surfaced and now it has caught the imagination of millions of people on this planet. Surfing through it, the internet has put everybody eager to explore more of it and to become a real part of it. The effects of this technology have permeated both small and large establishments, schools, universities, and even governments. Composed of a collection of computers worldwide commonly connected via telephone lines, Internet’s main objective is to share information. From early beginning in 1960s as a decentralized network connecting some military and academic computers, the number of host computers on the Internet has ballooned much. The World Wide Web now forms the most popular part of the Net. With the development of the Web, which was first designed for using text links only, further refinement into multi-media links resulted with pictures, audio, and video links. This has made the Web more popular. Today, fast modems can carry extra large files of graphics and sound linking target resources on the Net. With the ballooning number of websites and Internet users worldwide, educators could benefit much from this. Internet and Foreign Language†¦3 Educators now see the application of the new technology in the field of learning and teaching as very promising. They now scrutinize a wider application of Internet and the Web in language education. The shifting scenes from laboratory-based educational setting, computer-assisted learning is now the fad. From monitored teaching process to interactive computer applications, the tedious and boring process has been replaced by promising results. Good software like CALL helps facilitate the language learning process though others see some degrees of â€Å"rigidity† of the program. Developers of CALL have to moderately go back to remedy the situation. Whatever type of computer, one can access the Net from any place, any time. Within the Internet is a multi-media information system called the World Wide Web or WWW or simply the Web. The Web has two systems: the Web servers and the Web clients. The former dispenses information while the other receives information. Through the use of Web browser, one receives educational webpages or otherwise. Educators are now reaping benefits from the use of the Internet. Language teachers so far are exploiting the electronic mail to create mutual interaction between and among students and teachers in learning language skills. With such innovation, multinational Internet and Foreign Language†¦4 student participants have been encouraged to develop communication and mental skills from varying cultural backgrounds. A study by Davis and Chang (1994) using electronic mailing system has set up an exploratory pattern as to what could be achieved in using electronic mail at improving the student writing in terms of fluency, usage, and organization. This study has practically defied language and cultural barriers. Knowing the culture is knowing the language. This adage holds true in learning languages preserved in a cultural environment. Accessing information on social, cultural, economic, and geographical data on a particular language increases one’s repository for both the learners and teachers. Searching the Net for a specific subject needs fine tuning. One should remember though that a series of messages having the same subject coming from the original message has replies and replies to replies that follow. And this is how one comes about learning incidentally. This interactive intercourse increases one’s learning experience applicable in the area of language teaching or learning. Besides, fellow language teachers offer site listings valuable to avid learners. Internet and Foreign Language†¦5 The use of the Net is not always in short order. It is not without fuss, which becomes a challenge to users. Technical glitches can spoil one’s plan. Similarly, little familiarity on computer and Internet use can block one’s initiative in pursuing to learn. Another roadblock in implementing such innovation is the cost of maintaining the system, which holds back institutions with little funding. Besides, censor may enter the scene when language program becomes offensive or indecent. Despite all odds, this technology will simply flourish as people continue to interact with each other. And with the emergence of a global community that seeks to find a common world language, the burden now rests upon the application of this technology today. Works Cited Davis, B. Chang, Ye Ling (1994/95). Long distance collaboration with on-line conferencing. TESOL Journal, 4(2), 28-31.

Good Sports Equal Aggressive Men? Essay -- Article Review

In sporting activity participation and televised sports, there is a noticeable difference between male and female interest and involvement. In the article Center of Attention: The Gender of Sports Media Michael A. Messner discusses the issues that involve all aspects of sports strictly being a man’s affair. Messner expresses ideas that men are not only the forefront of sports participation, but sports media as well. A point is made in the article about the leaders in sports being those who are the most aggressive. This point is the reasoning behind why men are the superior figures in sports. The aggressiveness of men causes there to be more interest into male sporting activity which makes men a dominant figure in sports. Messner uses the idea â€Å"Aggressive players get the prize; nice guys finish last† (480). The athletes who show the most aggression, are more likely to be acknowledged than those viewed as being weak or soft. Aggressiveness has been associated with toughness and physicality as if one balances the others. To be considered aggressive in professional sports means to not be afraid to get physical with opposing players, having a very large competitive streak, assertiveness, and being fearless. No matter how many times it is denied, men are the ones who are the most aggressive. There is a natural factor that falls into the aggression of men, that there is a shortage of in women. Societal influence has the most affect on the differences of men and women. Men being superior in not only sports but all aspects of live hadn’t just one day been set in stone as Messner makes it out to be. He doesn’t include the reasoning necessary to explain how sports became male dominant. The article Becoming Members of society: Learning... ...port; both played by men. Aggression doesn’t always explain the large difference in male and female sporting activity. Author Micheal A. Messner does have a point that male aggression does affect the response of an audience but it is only valid for sports that involved the need to be aggressive. Still, there is clearly more engaging aspects of male sporting events than women sports. Works Cited Messner, Michael A. â€Å"Center of Attention: The Gender of Sports Media.† Rereading America: Cultural Context for Critical Thinking and Writing. Ed. Gary Colombo. Et al. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. 477-487. Print. Devor, Aaron H. â€Å"Becoming Members of Society: Learning the social Meanings of Gender.† Rereading America: Cultural Context for Critical Thinking and Writing. Ed. Gary Colombo. Et al. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. 424-431. Print.

WRL media coursework, Amnesty

In June 2007 amnesty international, an organisation who have traditionally partnered the Catholic Church, changed there policy on abortion after there research in Dafur. They looked into rape and how in many countries it is being used as a weapon of war and once a tribe has defeated another tribe the women of the area would be raped as a signal of victory. After these findings amnesty who previously neutral on abortion has stated that it supports abortion in certain circumstances such as rape, incest and as a weapon of war. Over the years both the Catholic Church and amnesty have worked together on freeing political prisoners and highlighting human rights. However since amnesty changed its policy on abortion against there's they have advised all Catholics to quit there membership to amnesty. In my coursework I'll be looking at two articles on there views on the preceding and be comparing and contrasting between them. The first article is from the guardian, a paper which is well known for its liberal thinking and belief of free will. It believes the Catholic Church is wrong for banning amnesty and both starts and finishes ridiculing the Catholic's view as â€Å"nonsensical. † They also mention how out of the 1/4 million catholic members of amnesty only 222 quit and how most of these where from the clergy who may of lost there jobs if they had refused. It also mocks the catholic mentioning how â€Å"105 Catholics have even increased there donations†. To show what side the guardian is really on it talks about how 2000 Catholic schools will suffer from not being able to use amnesty's teachings. The final part of the article talks about amnesties policies and talks about there research in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, overall the guardian makes a very convincing argument which undermines the Catholic's view. Meanwhile the Telegraph is a much more traditional paper and believes in the Catholic Church, however does not rebuff amnesty too much. The telegraph relies on statistics to present a case and uses numbers such as â€Å"2000 secondary schools† and â€Å"5000 Catholic parishes† and if the telegraph were to present a case where the numbers aren't available they would probably struggle. The article contradicts the guardian by claiming the number of Catholic's leaving Amnesty as â€Å"exodus†. However unlike the guardian admits how the splitting has made a lot of Catholic's look at there faith. The article also does not insult the Catholic's decision as the telegraph has a large catholic following which it would not want to upset. I believe each of the articles support one side, the guardian supports amnesty and the telegraph supports the Catholic Church's view. After reading both articles I believe the guardian puts up a much more convincing and uses the information carefully to make me believe it is a pointless decision for the Catholics to turn there back's on amnesty and will do them no good. I personally feel neutral about abortion, I believe that abortion is a serious decision and unnecessary abortion is wrong. However just like amnesty I believe abortion is ok if caused by rape or it may affect the women's life. This just goes to show maybe the Catholic's attack is unfounded and that there is no point in splitting of amnesty and the Catholics, as I am a catholic and like many share these views. What I have learnt from this coursework is how influential the media can be and how they can pick up a topic, twist it, put people against each other and make a profit from it. Newspapers can create evil figures and change the public's view of a character for example the way the tabloids have changed the way people think of Heather McCartney during her divorce. However everybody has there own opinions on what the Catholic Church has done and all have these opinions for different reasons. Some peoples religions change there view many Catholics will back there Church and fully support there church. Others will be altered by there upbringing and many will follow what they were brought up to believe so if they were brought up to follow amnesty they are more than likely to stick with them. Newspaper's change people's views and can create a bias between sides and if the public are constantly battered with the information it is only a matter of time before the minds change. A final factor that can change peoples view is there own good and bad experiences and if someone has a bad experience with a person, group or organisation there view of them will be altered. This may not be an issue that effects everyone, however it is a very important event for Catholic's or anyone associated with the Catholic Church, especially those who are members of Amnesty as it put there religion and personal beliefs in conflict and can cause some important personal decision to be made on there religious future. So it goes to show moral views and religious views for Catholics are not identical and issues such as this just highlight this. Finally we come to what may happen from now on and what the future paths are for the Catholic Church and amnesty. Firstly the Catholics may ignore what the church has to say on amnesty and carry on supporting both amnesty and being a catholic and in the end ant feud will be dropped. Secondly the media may carry on picking up on the story and use it as a daily article, this may result in publicity neither side wants and the whole topic becoming out of hand and both sides being made a mock of. The final option is for both amnesty and the Catholic Church to come to a compromise and to forget there one minor difference and focus on there many similarities and soon the media will get bored of the whole topic and move onto a more interesting news. As for both amnesty and the catholic church this is the result which suits them both but what happens from here is down to them and the media.

Sir Mohammed Iqbal Biography Essay

Sir Mohammed Iqbal was born at Sialkot, India (now in Pakistan), on 9th November, 1877 of a pious family of small merchants and was educated at Government College, Lahore. He is commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal (Ø ¹Ã™â€žÃ˜ §Ã™â€¦Ã›  Ø §Ã™â€šÃ˜ ¨Ã˜ §Ã™â€žÃ¢â‚¬Å½, Allama meaning â€Å"Scholar†). In Europe from 1905 to 1908, he earned his degree in philosophy from the University of Cambridge, qualified as a barrister in London, and received a doctorate from the University of Munich. His thesis, The Development of Metaphysics in Persia, revealed some aspects of Islamic mysticism formerly unknown in Europ On his return from Europe, he gained his livelihood by the practice of law, but his fame came from his Persian- and Urdu-language poetry, which was written in the classical style for public recitation. Through poetic symposia and in a milieu in which memorizing verse was customary, his poetry became widely known, even among the illiterate. Almost all the cultured Indian and Pakistani Muslims of his and later generations have had the habit of quoting Iqbal. Before he visited Europe, his poetry affirmed Indian nationalism, as in Naya shawala (â€Å"The New Altar†), but time away from India caused him to shift his perspective. He came to criticize nationalism for a twofold reason: in Europe it had led to destructive racism and imperialism, and in India it was not founded on an adequate degree of common purpose. In a speech delivered at Aligarh in 1910, under the title â€Å"Islam as a Social and Political Ideal,† he indicated the new Pan-Islamic direction of his hopes. The recurrent themes of Iqbal’s poetry are a memory of the vanished glories of Islam, a complaint about its present decadence, and a call to unity and reform. Reform can be achieved by strengthening the individual through three successive stages: obedience to the law of Islam, self-control, and acceptance of the idea that everyone is potentially a vicegerent of God (na`ib, or mu`min). Furthermore, the life of action is to be preferred to ascetic resignation. Three significant poems from this period, Shikwah (â€Å"The Complaint†), Jawab-e shikwah (â€Å"The Answer to the Complaint†), and Khizr-e rah (â€Å"Khizr, the Guide†), were published later in 1924 in the Urdu collection Bang-e dara (â€Å"The Call of the Bell†). In those works Iqbal gave intense expression to the anguish of Muslim powerlessness. Khizr (Arabic: Khidr), the Qur`anic  prophet who asks the most difficult questions, is pictured bringing from God the baffling problems of the early 20th century. Notoriety came in 1915 with the publication of his long Persian poem Asrar-e khudi (The Secrets of the Self). He wrote in Persian because he sought to address his appeal to the entire Muslim world. In this work he presents a theory of the self that is a strong condemnation of the self-negating quietism (i.e., the belief that perfection and spiritual peace are attained by passive absorption in contemplation of God and divine things) of classical Islamic mysticism; his criticism shocked many and excited controversy. Iqbal and his admirers steadily maintained that creative self-affirmation is a fundamental Muslim virtue; his critics said he imposed themes from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche on Islam. The dialectical quality of his thinking was expressed by the next long Persian poem, Rumuz-e bikhudi (1918; The Mysteries of Selflessness). Written as a counterpoint to the individualism preached in the Asrar-ekhudi, this poem called for self-surrender. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. . Lo, like a candle wrestling with the night †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. . O’er my own self I pour my flooding tears †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ I spent my self, that there might be more light, †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. .. More loveliness, more joy for other men. The Muslim community, as Iqbal conceived it, ought effectively to teach and to encourage generous service to the ideals of brotherhood and justice. The mystery of selflessness was the hidden strength of Islam. Ultimately, the only satisfactory mode of active self-realization was the sacrifice of the self in the service of causes greater than the self. The paradigm was the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the devoted service of the first believers. The second poem completes Iqbal’s conception of the final destiny of the self. Later, he published three more Persian volumes. Payam-e Mashriq (1923; â€Å"Message of the East†), written in response to J.W. von Goethe’s West-à ¶stlicher Divan (1819; â€Å"Divan of West and East†), affirmed the universal validity of Islam. In 1927 Zabur-e ‘Ajam (â€Å"Persian Psalms†)  appeared, about which A.J. Arberry, its translator into English, wrote: â€Å"Iqbal displayed here an altogether extraordinary tal ent for the most delicate and delightful of all Persian styles, the ghazal,† or love poem. Javid-nameh (1932; â€Å"The Song of Eternity†) is considered Iqbal’s masterpiece. Its theme, reminiscent of Dante’s Divine Comedy, is the ascent of the poet, guided by the great 13th-century Persian mystic Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi, through all the realms of thought and experience to the final encounter. Iqbal’s later publications of poetry in Urdu were Bal-e Jibril (1935; â€Å"Gabriel’s Wing†), Zarb-e kalim (1937; â€Å"The Blow of Moses†), and the posthumous Armaghan-e Hijaz (1938; â€Å"Gift of the Hejaz†), which contained verses in both Urdu and Persian. He is considered the greatest poet in Urdu of the 20th century. Upon his return to India in 1908, Iqbal took up assistant professorship at the Government College in Lahore, but for financial reasons he relinquished it within a year to practice law. During this period, Iqbal’s personal life was in turmoil. He divorced Karim Bibi in 1916, but provided financial support to her and their children for the rest of his life. While maintaining his legal practice, Iqbal began concentrating on spiritual and religious subjects, and publishing poetry and literary works. He became active in the Anjuman-e-Himayat-e-Islam, a congress of Muslim intellectuals, writers and poets as well as politicians, and in 1919 became the general secretary of the organisation. Iqbal’s thoughts in his work primarily focused on the spiritual direction and development of human society, centred around experiences from his travel and stay in Western Europe and the Middle East. He was profoundly influenced by Western philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson and Goethe, and soon became a strong critic of Western society’s separation of religion from state and what he perceived as its obsession with materialist pursuits. The poetry and philosophy of Mawlana Rumi bore the deepest influence on Iqbal’s mind. Deeply grounded in religion since childhood, Iqbal would begin intensely concentrating on the study of Islam, the culture and history of Islamic civilization and its political future, and embrace Rumi as â€Å"his  guide.† Iqbal would feature Rumi in the role of a guide in many of his poems, and his works focused on reminding his readers of the past glories of Islamic civilization, and delivering a message of a pure, spiritual focus on Islam as a source for socio-political liberation and greatness. Iqbal denounced political divisions within and amongst Muslim nations, and frequently alluded to and spoke in terms of the global Muslim community, or the Ummah. Iqbal’s first work published in Urdu, the Bang-e-Dara (The Call of the Marching Bell) of 1924, was a collection of poetry written by him in three distinct phases of his life.[4] The poems he wrote up to 1905, the year Iqbal left for England imbibe patriotism and imagery of landscape, and includes the Tarana-e-Hind (The Song of India), popularly known as Saare Jahan Se Achcha and another poem Tarana-e-Milli (Anthem of the (Muslim) Community), which was composed in the same metre and rhyme scheme as Saare Jahan Se Achcha. The second set of poems date from between 1905 and 1908 when Iqbal studied in Europe and dwell upon the nature of European society, which he emphasized had lost spiritual and religious values. This inspired Iqbal to write poems on the historical and cultural heritage of Islamic culture and Muslim people, not from an Indian but a global perspective. Iqbal urges the global community of Muslims, addressed as the Ummah to define personal, social and political existence by the values and teachings of Islam. Poems such as Tulu’i Islam (Dawn of Islam) and Khizr-e-Rah (The Guided Path) are especially acclaimed. Iqbal preferred to work mainly in Persian for a predominant period of his career, but after 1930, his works were mainly in Urdu. The works of this period were often specifically directed at the Muslim masses of India, with an even stronger emphasis on Islam, and Muslim spiritual and political reawakening. Published in 1935, the Bal-e-Jibril (Wings of Gabriel) is considered by many critics as the finest of Iqbal’s Urdu poetry, and was inspired by his visit to Spain, where he visited the monuments and legacy of the kingdom of the Moors. It consists of ghazals, poems, quatrains, epigrams and carries a strong sense religious passion.[4] The Pas Cheh Bayed Kard ai Aqwam-e-Sharq (What are we to do, O Nations of the East?) includes the poem Musafir (Traveller). Again, Iqbal depicts Rumi as a character and an exposition of the mysteries of Islamic laws and Sufi perceptions is given. Iqbal laments the dissension and disunity among the Indian Muslims as well as Muslim nations. Musafir is an account of one of Iqbal’s journeys to Afghanistan, in which the Pashtun people are counseled to learn the â€Å"secret of Islam† and to â€Å"build up the self† within themselves.[4] Iqbal’s final work was the Armughan-e-Hijaz (The Gift of Hijaz), published posthumously in 1938. The first part contains quatrains in Persian, and the second part contains some poems and epigrams in Urdu. The Persian quatrains convey the impression as though the poet is travelling through the Hijaz in his imagination. Profundity of ideas and intensity of passion are the salient features of these short poems. The Urdu portion of the book contains some categorical criticism of the intellectual movements and social and political revolutions of the modern age. While dividing his time between law and poetry, Iqbal had remained active in the Muslim League. He supported Indian involvement in World War I, as well as the Khilafat movement and remained in close touch with Muslim political leaders such as Maulana Mohammad Ali and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. He was a critic of the mainstream Indian National Congress, which he regarded as dominated by Hindus and was disappointed with the League when during the 1920s, it was absorbed in factional divides between the pro-British group led by Sir Muhammad Shafi and the centrist group led by Jinnah. In November 1926, with the encouragement of friends and supporters, Iqbal contested for a seat in the Punjab Legislative Assembly from the Muslim district of Lahore, and defeated his opponent by a margin of 3,177 votes. He supported the constitutional proposals presented by Jinnah with the aim of guaranteeing Muslim political rights and influence in a coalition with the Congress, and worked with the Aga Khan and other Muslim leaders to mend the factional divisions and achieve unity in the Muslim League. His philosophical position was articulated in The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1934), a volume based on six lectures delivered at Madras,  Hyderabad, and Aligarh in 1928-29. He argued that a rightly focused man should unceasingly generate vitality through interaction with the purposes of the living God. The Prophet Muhammad had returned from his unitary experience of God to let loose on the earth a new type of manhood and a cultural world characterized by the abolition of priesthood and hereditary kingship and by an emphasis on the study of history and nature. The Muslim community in the present age ought, through the exercise of ijtihad–the principle of legal advancement–to devise new social and political institutions. He also advocated a theory of ijma’–consensus. Iqbal tended to be progressive in adumbrating general principles of change but conservative in initiating actual change. During the time that he was delivering these lectures , Iqbal began working with the Muslim League. At the annual session of the league at Allahabad, in 1930, he gave the presidential address, in which he made a famous statement that the Muslims of northwestern India should demand status as a separate state. After a long period of ill health, Iqbal died in April 1938 and was buried in front of the great Badshahi Mosque in Lahore. Two years later, the Muslim League voted for the idea of Pakistan. That the poet had influenced the making of that decision, which became a reality in 1947, is undisputed. He has been acclaimed as the father of Pakistan, and every year Iqbal Day is celebrated by Pakistanis. Aspects of his thought are explored in K.G. Saiyidain, Iqbal’s Educational Philosophy, 6th ed. rev. (1965), a standard analysis of the relevance of Iqbal’s ideas about education written by a distinguished Indian educationist; Annemarie Schimmel, Gabriel’s Wing, 2nd ed. (1989), a thorough analysis of Iqbal’s religious symbolism, including a comprehensive bibliography in English; Syed Abdul Vahid, Iqbal: His Art and Thought, new ed. (1959), a standard introduction; Hafeez Malik (ed.), Iqbal, Poet-Philosopher of Pakistan (1971), representative Pakistani views; and S.M .H. Burney (S.M.H. Barni), Iqbal, Poet-Patriot of India (1987), focusing on nationalism and secularism in his poetry.

Ethnic America by Thomas Sowell

Ethnic America by Thomas Sowell Today, America is made up of many different kinds of people. There are so manycultures that make America unique. Ethnic America, by Thomas Sowell, gives an excellentexample about why these different groups immigrated from there homelands to come toAmerica. Sowell also mention's the economic and cultural contributions made by thesedifferent cultures to our nation. The author didn't leave any stone unturned, and traceseach culture from thier homeland to thier economic standing in today's society.Most of the people that immigrate to America today are fleeing poverty orpersecution in thier own countries. This is not only true today, but the same reasons peoplecame to America in the past. The immigrants from Europe demonstrate the largestquantity of immigrant looking for freedom. The Irish although free, lived as 'a conqueredpeople.' (pg. 19) The British controlled every aspect of their lives. Irish life expectancywas low, and they were extremely poor.United StatesThe Germans however fled to escape the powerof petty rulers, and religious persecution. In reality, the Germans that flocked to Americawere Prussians who left thier homelands before Germany was formed. Their lives wereplayed against each other by their rulers, which seemed to have never changed until theremoval of the Berlin wall, or Iron Curtain. The Jews left their homes over a span of timefor one reason, and one reasonably, religious persecution. From 70 AD , to the earlytwentieth century Jews have been seeking religious freedom in countries other than thierown. Italian immigrants came for reasons varying from poverty to the varying languagesand cultures of Italy. Cultural freedom is not the only reason that immigrants leave thiercountries though. The Asian immigrants came to the new world to escape political upset.the Chinese and Japanese...

Yuchanyan and Xianrendong - Oldest Pottery in the World

Yuchanyan and Xianrendong - Oldest Pottery in the World Xianrendong and Yuchanyan caves in northern China are the oldest of a growing number of sites which support the origins of pottery as having occurred not just in the Japanese island Jomon culture of 11,000 to 12,000 years ago, but earlier in the Russian Far East and South China some 18,000-20,000 years ago. Scholars believe these are independent inventions, as were the later inventions of ceramic vessels in Europe and the Americas. Xianrendong Cave Xianrendong Cave is located at the foot of Xiaohe mountain, in Wannian county, northeast Jiangxi province of China, 15 kilometers (~10 miles) west of the provincial capital and 100 km (62 mi) south of the Yangtze river. Xianrendong contained the oldest pottery in the world yet identified: ceramic vessel remains, bag-shaped jars made some ~20,000 calendar years ago (cal BP). The cave has a large inner hall, measuring some 5 meters (16 feet) wide by 5-7 m (16-23 ft) high with a small entrance, only 2.5 m (8 ft) wide and 2 m (6 ft) high. Located some 800 m (about 1/2 mile) from Xianrendong, and with an entrance some 60 m (200 ft) higher in elevation, is the Diaotonguan rock shelter: it contains the same cultural strata as Xianrendong and some archaeologists believe it was used as a campsite by Xianrendongs residents. Many of the published reports include information from both sites. Cultural Stratigraphy at Xianrendong Four cultural strata have been identified at Xianrendong, including an occupation spanning the transition from Upper Paleolithic to Neolithic times in China, and three early Neolithic occupations. All seem to represent primarily fishing, hunting and gathering lifestyles, although some evidence for early rice domestication has been noted within the Early Neolithic occupations. In 2009, an international team (Wu 2012) focused on the intact pottery bearing levels layers at the base of the excavations, and a suite of dates between 12,400 and 29,300 cal BP were taken. The lowest sherd-bearing levels, 2B-2B1, were subjected to 10 AMS radiocarbon dates, ranging from 19,200-20,900 cal BP, making Xianrendongs sherds the earliest identified pottery in the world today. Neolithic 3 (9600-8825 RCYBP)Neolithic 2 (11900-9700 RCYBP)Neolithic 1 (14,000-11,900 RCYBP) appearance of O. sativaPaleolithic-Neolithic Transition (19,780-10,870 RCYBP)Epipaleolithic (25,000-15,200 RCYBP) only wild oryza Xianrendong Artifacts and Features Archaeological evidence suggests the earliest occupation at Xianrendong was a permanent, long-term occupation or reuse, with evidence for substantial hearths and ash lenses. In general, a hunter-fisher-gatherer lifestyle was followed, with emphasis on deer and wild rice (Oryza nivara phytoliths). Pottery: A total of 282 pottery sherds were recovered from the oldest levels. They have uneven thick walls between .7 and 1.2 centimeters (~1.4-1.5 inches), with round bases and inorganic (sand, mainly quartz or feldspar) temper. The paste has a brittle and loose texture and a heterogeneous reddish and brown color which resulted from uneven, open-air firing. Forms are mainly round-bottomed bag-shaped jars, with rough surfaces, the inner and outer surfaces sometimes decorated with cord marks, smoothing striations and/or basket-like impressions. They appear to have been made with two different techniques: by sheet laminating or coil and paddle techniques.Stone Tools: The stone tools are by and large chipped stone tools based on flakes, with scrapers, burins, small projectile points, drills, notches, and denticulates. Hard-hammer and soft-hammer stone tool making techniques are both in evidence. The oldest levels have a small percentage of polished stone tools compared to chipped, parti cularly in comparison with the Neolithic levels. Bone tools: harpoons and fishing spear points, needles, arrowheads, and shell knives.Plants and animals: Predominant emphasis on deer, bird, shellfish, turtle; wild rice phytoliths. The Early Neolithic levels at Xianrendong are also substantial occupations. The pottery has a wider variety of clay composition and many sherds are decorated with geometric designs. Clear evidence for rice cultivation, with both O. nivara and O. sativa phytoliths present. There is also an increase in polished stone tools, with a primarily pebble tool industry including a few perforated pebble disks and flat pebble adzes. Yuchanyan Cave Yuchanyan Cave is a karst rock shelter south of the Yangtze River basin in Daoxian county, Hunan province, China. Yuchanyans deposits contained the remains of at least two nearly complete ceramic pots, securely dated by associated radiocarbon dates at having been placed in the cave between 18,300-15,430 cal BP. Yuchanyans cave floor includes an area of 100 square meters, some 12-15 m (~40-50 ft) wide on its east-west axis and 6-8 m (~20-26 ft) wide on the north-south. The upper deposits were removed during the historical period, and the remaining site occupation debris ranges between 1.2-1.8 m (4-6 ft) in depth. All of the occupations within the site represent brief occupations by Late Upper Paleolithic people, between 21,000 and 13,800 BP. At the time of the earliest occupation, the climate in the region was warm, watery and fertile, with plenty of bamboo and deciduous trees. Over time, gradual warming throughout the occupation occurred, with a trend towards replacing the trees with grasses. Towards the end of the occupation, the Younger Dryas (ca. 13,000-11,500 cal BP) brought increased seasonality to the region. Yuchanyan  Artifacts and Features Yuchanyan cave exhibited generally good preservation, resulting in the recovery of a rich archaeological assemblage of stone, bone, and shell tools as well as a wide variety of organic remains, including both animal bone and plant remains. The floor of the cave was purposefully covered with alternating layers of red clay and massive ash layers, which likely represent deconstructed  hearths, rather than  the production  of clay vessels. Pottery: The sherds from Yuchanyan are some of the earliest examples of pottery yet found. They are all dark brown, coarsely-made pottery with a loose and sandy texture. The pots were hand-built and low-fired (ca. 400-500 degrees C); kaolinite is a major component of the fabric. The paste is thick and uneven, with walls up to 2 centimeters thick. The clay was decorated with cord impressions, on both the interior and exterior walls. Enough sherds were recovered for the scholars to reconstruct a large, wide-mouthed vessel (round opening 31 cm in diameter, vessel height 29 cm) with a pointed bottom; this style of pottery is known from much later Chinese sources as a fu cauldron.Stone Tools: Stone tools recovered from Yuchanyan include cutters, points, and scrapers.Bone Tools: Polished bone awls and shovels, perforated shell ornaments with notched-tooth decorations also were found within the assemblages.Plants and animals: Plant species recovered from the caves deposits include wild grap es and plums. Several rice opal phytoliths and husks have been identified, and some scholars have suggested that some of the grains illustrate incipient domestication. Mammals include bears, boar, deer, tortoises, and fish. The assemblage includes 27 different types of birds, including cranes, ducks, geese, and swans; five kinds of carp; 33 kinds of shellfish. Archaeology at Yuchanyan and Xianrendong Xianrendong was excavated in 1961 and 1964 by the Jiangxi Provincial Committee for Cultural Heritage, led by Li Yanxian; in 1995-1996 by the Sino-American Jiangxi Origin of Rice Project, led by R.S. MacNeish, Wenhua Chen and  Shifan  Peng; and in 1999-2000 by Peking University and the Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics. Excavations at Yuchanyan were conducted beginning in the 1980s, with extensive investigations between 1993-1995 led by Jiarong Yuan of the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology; and again between 2004 and 2005, under the direction of Yan Wenming. Sources Boaretto E, Wu X, Yuan J, Bar-Yosef O, Chu V, Pan Y, Liu K, Cohen D, Jiao T, Li S et al. 2009. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal and bone collagen associated with early pottery at Yuchanyan Cave, Hunan Province, China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(24):9595-9600.Kuzmin YV. 2013. Origin of Old World pottery as viewed from the early 2010s: when, where and why? World Archaeology 45(4):539-556.Kuzmin YV. 2013. Two Trajectories in the Neolithization of Eurasia: Pottery Versus Agriculture (Spatiotemporal Patterns). Radiocarbon 55(3):1304-1313.Prendergast ME, Yuan J, and Bar-Yosef O. 2009. Resource intensification in the Late Upper Paleolithic: a view from southern China. Journal of Archaeological Science 36(4):1027-1037.Wang W-M, Ding J-L, Shu J-W, and Chen W. 2010. Exploration of early rice farming in China. Quaternary International 227(1):22-28.Wu X, Zhang C, Goldberg P, Cohen D, Pan Y, Arpin T, and Bar-Yosef O. 2012. Early pottery at 20,000 years ago in Xianrendong Ca ve, China. Science 336:1696-1700. Yang X. 2004. Xianrendong and Diaotonghuan Sites at Wannian, Jiangxi Province.In: Yang X, editor. Chinese Archaeology in the Twentieth Century: New Perspectives on Chinas Past. New Haven: Yale University Press. vol 2, p 36-37.Zhang C, and Hung H-c. 2012. Later hunter-gatherers in southern China, 18,000–3000 BC. Antiquity 86(331):11-29.Zhang W, and Jiarong Y. 1998. A preliminary study of ancient excavated rice from Yuchanyan site, Dao County, Hunan province, PR China. Acta Agronomica Sinica 24(4):416-420.Zhang PQ. 1997. Discussion of Chinese domesticated rice - 10,000 year-old rice at Xianrendong, Jiangxi Province. Second Session of International Symposium on Agricultural Archaeology.Zhao C, Wu X, Wang T, and Yuan X. 2004. Early polished stone tools in South China evidence of the transition from Palaeolithic to Neolithic Documenta Praehistorica 31:131-137.

Propaganda in Movies Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Propaganda in Movies - Movie Review Example I will also analyze the techniques used in each movie to present the propagandistic content, including camera techniques, in order to determine what these propaganda movies have in common. Narrator: Significantly, the opening text of the film does not offer the spectator a clear idea about Aidid who was a clan leader that was militarily more powerful than any of the other groups contending for the control of the city. "As a clan that is seeded deep in Somalia's past and present culture, the killing of Aidid would more likely have caused citizens of the clan's areato be angry." (Smith, et al.) Ridley Scott has been highly effective in combining severe action with excruciating and building tension all through the film, which greatly influenced the overall effect of the film as a propagandist film. In one of the most catching scenes of the film, the director presents a long-drawn-out street battle between a small force of elite American troops and thousands of Somalian militia. Every frame of this scene captures the mind and heart of the audience and the director creates the tension in the minds of the viewers. Narrator: The street battle between a small force of American troops and thousands of Somalian militia can best be realized as a means of propagandist treatment. Here, the narrator presents the American troops as elite groups while much of the tension amplifies this awareness. The representation of the Somalis in the film attracts the viewers. The film is relevant to the people living in Western democracies for the way it depicts Somalis, the most recent refugee group to enter many of their countries in large numbers. Montage of clips from the battlefield: Through the helicopter shots in the film, especially at night, the director suggests the unfolding battle and these shots are greatly exciting to the audience. The mixture of sound effects and the helicopter shots help the audience recognize the internal component of the film as well as the intension of the director. Close-up scenes of war: All through the film, the director provides the carnage of war close up. Sound: The carnage of war close up scenes is adequately supported by the background music and sound mixing. Presbey: The viewers are able to recognize the power of shots that build up tension in the film and the minds of the viewers. "In Black Hawk Down, we see the carnage of war close up. We see people's heads and limbs blown off, reduced to quivering pulp Exposed to the carnage of the Vietnam War on their televisions, many US citizens decided the war was cruel and unjust. Government control of access to war areas and information is clearly an attempt to minimize coverage of the carnage, apparently fearing the pacifist prediction is correct." (Presbey) Therefore, the techniques used in the film suggest the propaganda elements in it. American soldiers vs. the Somalis villains: In the film, the director presents the A