A Peoples History Essay Example for Free

A Peoples History Essay ZINN QUESTIONS – A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn Chapter 1 – Columbus, the Indians and Human Progress http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html 1. According to Zinn, what is his main purpose for writing A People’s History of the United States? 2. What is Zinn’s thesis for pages 1-11? 3. According to Zinn, how is Columbus portrayed in traditional history books? 4. Why does Zinn dispute Henry Kissinger’s statement: History is the memory of states? 5. What is Zinn’s basic criticism of historian Samuel Eliot Morison’s book, Christopher Columbus, Mariner? 6. What major issues does Bartolome de las Casas bring up regarding Spanish expeditions in the Caribbean? 7. Identify one early and one subsequent motive that drove Columbus to oppress indigenous peoples. 8. What was the ultimate fate of the Arawak Indians? 9. What was the significance of Quetzalcoatl? 10. Compare the strategies and motives underlying the conquest of the Aztecs by Cortez and the conquest of the Incas by Pizzaro. 11. What were the major causes of war between the Powhatans and the English settlers? 12. Discuss the significance of Powhatan’s statement, Why will you take by force what you may have quietly by love? 13. Explain Governor John Winthrop’s legal and biblical justification for seizing Indian land. 14. Explain the main tactic of warfare used by the English against the Indians. 15. According to Roger Williams, how did the English usually justify their attacks on the Indians? 16. What ultimately happened to the estimated 10 million Indians living in North America at the time of Columbus’ arrival? 17. Evaluate the statement: If there are sacrifices to be made for human progress, is it not essential to hold to the principle that those to be sacrificed must make the decision themselves? 18. How does Zinn attempt to prove that the Indians were not inferior? Provide examples.

Radio B92: Unbiased Civil War Coverage by Serbia’s Own :: Free Essays Online

Radio B92: Unbiased Civil War Coverage by Serbia’s Own Fair and impartial reporting of the Balkan wars in the 1990s was a difficult and lone venture. Almost all of the international media had their own biases due to their countries’ part in the war (through NATO or their proximity to the conflict), their acceptance of parts of Serbian government propaganda, or simply their overly exaggerated partialities against the Serbians because of a common belief that all Serbians were entirely responsible for the war. It is also widely accepted that Bosnia and Serbia’s media, if not influenced or controlled by the government and Milosevic, struggled greatly to remain independent – if that. So, throughout the conflict in the 1990's, Radio B92 was the only independent audio news source. It served as the principal alternative to the government controlled media, especially for the former Yugoslavia, but also to the biased international press. According to Jasminka Udovicki and James Ridgeway, the editors of a book about the fall of Yugoslavia titled Burn This House: The Making and Unmaking of Yugoslavia: It took almost a century, from the emergence of the South Slavic unification movement in the early nineteenth century to the end of World War I, to create Yugoslavia. It took only a few years to destroy it [. . .] Visions of national liberation and modernization brought the South Slavs [. . .] together at last in 1919. Seventy years later, a retrograde, mythical, antimodern vision tore them apart (11). The fall of Yugoslavia was brought about by brutal military force, but the energy needed to utterly dismantle the country was supplied by the political ethno-kitsch (1). An idea emerging here, one expressed by many, is that Yugoslavia may have been alright, or at least far better off and not torn apart if it were not for Milosevic’s means of gaining political power. While these factions did have their differences, they had coexisted for thousands of years before WWI and Tito, the former leader, was able to keep them together. This idea of â€Å"ethno-kitsch† began around 1987, and involved a sort of new taste for an almost vulgar fascination with Serbian nationalism. According to Udovicki and Ridgweway, it, â€Å"was everywhere in Serbia.† At the root of this â€Å"ethno-kitsch† in the late 1980s was a progressively growing perception that Serbian people had been wronged and were hated – completely undeservedly – by other ethnic groups in Yugoslavia.

Life of Pi Pre-Read Socratic Seminar

Pi reflects on religion constantly, but he does mention that he always goes back to his Hindu customs and rituals that he grew up with. Do you believe that religious or people with strong belief systems growing up always have that religion as their bases for many decisions in their life? Does that religious belief ever change? I feel as though the religion will always be the base for decisions. Even if the person may stray away from that religion, the foundation that was put into their mind by that religion will stay. I know that for me, I grew up in a Christian environment.I went to all the Sunday school classes, VBS activities, volunteered at church, but I remember soon getting very agitated with the very people who I knew to be Christian. My family were leaders within the Christian community: pastors, musicians, teachers, wives of pastors, so it didn’t quite make sense that I saw them in acts of betrayal, dishonesty, and anger toward one another. Despite my becoming Atheist at that point in my life, I couldn’t relinquish the morals that I had grown up with: unconditional love for others, forgiveness, non-violence and conservation of the body and mind.I may not have sensed God’s presence then and there, but the religion was still there. In all instances of my life, I still find myself trying my best to follow the morals I grew up with no matter what I come to believe. I see that today in society it is important to raise our children in a well-mannered household. If a parent wants them to grow up well, they must teach them first the morals they want their family to uphold. But they must also place a certain amount of importance on it and let the child understand that it IS important and MUST be followed or it won’t stick with them.I don’t think that the religion or morals change, however meld themselves to fit the new beliefs of the person. If they believe so strongly toward something, they WILL keep it and honor it. Pi state s that the compulsion to make life more livable by inventing a better story is natural instinct both to mankind and animals alike. Is this so of society today? Do we still have the need to conform? How much of a â€Å"better story† can one make before it becomes too unrealistic? Psychologically it is a need to make ourselves look and feel good. It is a way for us to maintain an image of ourselves.It’s a way we attract our mates and a good self-esteem booster. Confidence and consistency is key in this world for us to achieve our desires. We want to be agreeable, make a social situation run smoothly, and avoid disagreement and discord at all costs, yet we do that with the price of breaking the intimacy and trust that holds a bond together. I believe that in order for humanity to survive it needs to face the facts and deal with the blows as they come. Then and only then will true strength of an individual and that individual’s relationship will come forth.I feel th at if humanity continues to lie to themselves, things will not get done. Global Warming for example is considered a myth by many because we don’t want to accept the reality that it will cause our Earth great harm; that it will cause US great harm. The same with the re-invention of stories to make a person more appealing. We don’t think they will cause harm, but they do. We break down trust and make in the end lose our loved ones and ourselves in the process. I believe ir is at this point we begin to question who we actually are and what we can truly achieve.However, I do also feel that as humanity grows deeper into crisis we need a way to escape from the harsh reality of the world. I think that as long as we are in our confines of our own mind, we can keep altering ourselves for betterment. In Pi’s case he seems to want to escape the past and pass the burden of his story to another person. When Orange Juice fights the hyena, the almost human-like nature of the o rangutan disappears and she becomes violent. Pi realizes that personality that one shows does not always beat natural instinct.Name examples where this is true or provide evidence of where it doesn’t. Can personality triumph over instinct? Personality is a big part of how we shape ourselves. The similarities and differences are shown through how we react to the diversity in the world and how we create or destroy relationships with one another. When a person feels threatened by something, or similarly with an animal, they will react almost instinctively in order to protect their being. If a person feels threatened they will yell, kick, and go bat-shit crazy. So will an animal.There is a fine line between instinct and personality. Over the years we have learned to overcome it, but in times of stress it comes out no matter how hard a person or animal has trained to keep it within. It’s like in the Jungle Book: â€Å"You can take the boy out of the jungle, but you canâ₠¬â„¢t take the jungle out of the boy. † The instinct is our body’s natural way of protecting ourselves. I do feel though that over time and through much work a person and an animal can overcome their fears and obstacles to becomes a less threatening being. So yes, personality will triumph both in my heart and in Pi’s.I think that Pi saw this fine line of personality vs instinct and knew full well how even though society has become more modern, there are still things in this world that offset the balance: natural disasters, politics, and religion. That is why I think Pi puts so much stress on the detail that to him religions were based off love and compassion toward everyone and everything. He is confused with how people react like animals when it comes to their beliefs. Simply put, they are threatened. Scared that the balance will now be leaning more towards one side and that another will gain the power and become the â€Å"Alpha† being.

Oracle Bones Predicting the Future in Shang, China

Oracle bones are a type of artifact found in archaeological sites in several parts of the world, but they are best known as a significant characteristic of the Shang dynasty [1600-1050 BC] in China. Oracle bones were used to practice a specific form of divination, fortune-telling, known as pyro-osteomancy. Osteomancy is when shamans (religious specialists) divine the future from the pattern of the natural bumps, cracks, and discolorations in animal bone and turtle shell. Osteomancy is known from prehistoric east and northeast Asia and from North American and Eurasian ethnographic reports. Making an Oracle Bone The subset of osteomancy called pyro-osteomancy is the practice of exposing animal bone and turtle shell to heat  and interpreting the resulting cracks. Pyro-osteomancy is conducted primarily with animal shoulder blades, including deer, sheep, cattle, and pigs, as well as turtle plastrons--the plastron or undercarriage of a turtle being flatter than its upper shell called the carapace. These modified objects are called oracle bones, and they have been found in many domestic, royal and ritual contexts within Shang Dynasty archeological sites. The production of oracle bones is not specific to China, although the largest number recovered to date are from Shang Dynasty period sites. Rituals describing the process of creating oracle bones were recorded in Mongolian divination manuals dated to the early 20th century. According to these records, the seer cut a turtle plastron into a pentagonal shape and then used a knife to incise certain Chinese characters into the bone, depending on the seekers questions. A twig of burning wood was repeatedly inserted into the grooves of the characters until a loud cracking noise was heard, and a radiating pattern of cracks produced. The cracks would be filled with India ink to make them easier for the shaman to read for important information about the future or current events. The History of Chinese Osteomancy Oracle bones in China are much older than the Shang Dynasty. The earliest to date related use are unburned tortoise shells incised with signs, recovered from 24 graves at the early Neolithic [6600-6200 cal BC] Jiahu site in Henan province. These shells are incised with signs which have some similarity to later Chinese characters (see Li et al. 2003). A Late Neolithic sheep or small deer scapula from inner Mongolia may be the earliest divination object recovered yet. The scapula has numerous intentional burn marks on its blade and is dated indirectly from carbonized birchbark in a contemporaneous feature to 3321 calendar years BC (cal BC). Several other isolated finds in Ganzu province also date to the late Neolithic, but the practice did not become widespread until the beginning of the Longshan dynasty in the latter half of the third millennium BC. The patterned carving and scorching of pyro-osteomancy began somewhat haphazardly during the early Bronze Age Longshan period, accompanying a significant increase in political complexity. Evidence for early Bronze Age Erlitou (1900-1500 BC) use of osteomancy is also present in the archaeological record, but like Longshan, also relatively unelaborated. Shang Dynasty Oracle Bones The shift from generalized use to elaborate  ritual took place over hundreds of years  and was not instantaneous over the entire Shang society. Osteomancy rituals using oracle bones became most elaborate during the end of the Shang era (1250-1046 BC). Shang Dynasty oracle bones include complete inscriptions, and their preservation is key to understanding the growth and development of the written form of the Chinese language. At the same time, oracle bones came to be associated with an expanded number of rituals. By Period IIb at Anyang, five main annual rituals and many other supplemental rituals were conducted accompanied by oracle bones. Most significantly, as the practice became more elaborate, access to the rituals and the knowledge derived from the rituals became restricted to the royal court. Osteomancy continued to a lesser degree after the Shang Dynasty ended and up into the Tang era (A.D. 618-907). See Flad 2008 for detailed information about the growth and change of divinatory practices with oracle bones in China. Practice-Engraved Divination Records Divination workshops are known at Anyang in the late Shang (1300-1050 BC) period. There, practice-engraved divination records have been found in abundance. The workshops have been characterized as schools, where student scribes used the same writing tools and surfaces (i.e., the uninscribed portions of used divination bones) to practice everyday writing. Smith (2010) argues  that the main purpose of the workshops was divination, and education of the next generation of diviners simply took place there.   Smith describes curricula that started with ganzhi (cyclical) date tables and buxà ºn (divining for the week ahead) records. Then the students copied more complex model texts including actual divination records as well as specially composed practice models. It appears that the Oracle Bone Workshop students worked with the masters, at the place where divination was performed and recorded.   History of Oracle Bone Research Oracle bones were first identified in the late 19th-century, at archaeological sites such as Yinxu, a late Shang Dynasty capital near Anyang. Although their role in the invention of Chinese writing is still being debated, research into the large caches of oracle bones has demonstrated how the script developed over time, the structure of the written language, and the variety of topics about which the Shang rulers required divine advice about. Over 10,000 oracle bones were found at the site of Anyang, primarily ox shoulder blades and turtle shells carved with archaic forms of Chinese calligraphy, used for divination between the 16th and 11th century BC. There is a bone artifact-making workshop at Anyang which apparently recycled sacrificial animal carcasses. Most of the objects produced there were pins, awls, and arrowheads, but the shoulder blades of the animals are missing, leading researchers to surmise this was a source for oracle bone production elsewhere. Other research on oracle bones is focused on the inscriptions, which do much to enlighten scholars about the Shang society. Many include the names of Shang kings, and references to animal and sometimes human sacrifice dedicated to natural spirits and ancestors. Sources Campbell Roderick B, Li Z, He Y, and Jing Y. 2011. Consumption, exchange Antiquity 85(330):1279-1297.and production at the Great Settlement Shang: bone-working at Tiesanlu, Anyang. Childs-Johnson E. 1987. The jue and Its Ceremonial Use in the Ancestor Cult of China. Artibus Asiae 48(3/4):171-196. Childs-Johnson E. 2012. Big Ding and China Power: Divine Authority and Legitimacy. Asian Perspectives 51(2):164-220. Flad RK. 2008. Divination and power: A multiregional view of the development of oracle bone divination in Early China. Current Anthropology 49(3):403-437. Li X, Harbottle G, Zhang J, and Wang C. 2003. The earliest writing? Sign use in the seventh millennium BC at Jiahu, Henan Province, China. Antiquity 77(295):31-43. Liu L, and Xu H. 2007. Rethinking Erlitou: legend, history Antiquity 81:886–901.and Chinese archaeology. Smith AT. 2010. The evidence for scribal training at Anyang. In: Li F, and Prager Banner D, editors. Writing and . Seattle: University of Washington Press. p 172-208.Literarcy in Early China Yuan J, and Flad R. 2005. New zooarchaeological evidence for changes in Shang Dynasty animal sacrifice. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 24(3):252-270. Yuan S, Wu X, Liu K, Guo Z, Cheng X, Pan Y, and Wang J. 2007. Removal of contaminants from Oracle bones during sample pretreatment. Radiocarbon 49:211-216.