Abstract This paper explains that the Shinnecock Indians, stricken by poverty and cultural predation that stripped them of their ancestral lands and any economic hope for the future, have no hope for the future unless they establish a casino. The author points out that the Shinnecocks are controlled, and to some degree marginalized, by the local law and state government because they are not recognized fully as a tribe by the federal government and, therefore, do not have the same rights and privileges of self-determination that many federally recognized tribes enjoy. The paper relates that the opponents to this casino are the wealthy Hampton residents who seem to worry about property values and community morals, but are not concerned about denying self-reliance and determination to the tribal people.
From the Paper "The Shinnecock have a proud and noble heritage, which predates their current impoverished state. However, historically the tribe has been taken advantage of by white Europeans and the new American government and settlers. They have consistently lost control of their native lands, in a series of unequal land swaps and hostile takeovers initiated by the white men and their government, which have also caused them to lose control of their economy. As one tribes spokesman says of the land swaps: ?They built on our ancestors bones and we never really did anything to stop it.? "
Abstract This paper presents a comparison of Korean shamanism rituals and the Korean royal ancestral rite, Jongmyo Jerye. The paper explains that the main differences between the two have to do with the (1) spirits the ritual is addressing and (2) the actual purpose for performing the ritual.
From the Paper "Korean shamanistic rituals revolve around the central figure of the ritual, namely the shaman. A shaman, focal point of our discussion, can be defined as "a person who mediates the relation between the natural world and an animated supernatural world (spirits) for the purpose of gaining some control over or knowledge of natural events" . The presence of a person that connected the mortals and their world to supernatural spirits can be seen present in almost all ancient civilizations. Whether called a priest, a shaman or an oracle, the functions they performed were somewhat similar and were requested by the necessity of the primitive peoples to feel protected and in a relationship with the supernatural."
Abstract This paper analyzes William Least Heat Moon's "Blue Highways", which is an account of his journey along the back roads of the United States. The papers relates that Heat Moon's writing style is so compelling that the reviewer feels as if he is riding along in the passenger seat. A central theme of the story is that, even in Heat Moon's search for his ancestral roots, the only thing that is constant is change.
Table of Contents:
The Adventure
Change: A Constant Theme Throughout
From Beginning to End and Past to Present
From the Paper "It seems that the looming issues in Heat Moon's life were a major influence on his decision to set out on this journey. After losing his wife to another man and losing his job, he decided to head out on a search for forgotten parts of America and the American experience by traveling the old back roads through old towns. This is an attempt to see passed the superficial nature of modern American culture by connecting with himself and nature by admiring idyllic, and not so idyllic, landscapes."
Abstract This paper describes the author's ancestral history, beginning with three hundred years ago when his ancestors lived in Senegal. The paper relates the entire saga of his family history from their lives in Senegal, to the kidnapping of one of the family members by another African tribe to be sold as a slave to a British slave trader, to the arrival of that slave to North Carolina. The paper continues by describing subsequent generations born in the US and ends with the writer's birth in 1925.
From the Paper "Great-grandfather Louis was very intelligent - and had a talent for music. Maybe that was from old Mbiti, who was forbidden to play drums as a slave. Louis was trained to be what they called a "house negro" - sort of a butler for a highbrow family. Well, old Pete Devereaux was a drunk, and his affairs caught up with him. Eventually, everything was sold off - including my great-grandfather."
Tags: drummer plantation light-skinned, first freeborn black, ragtime
Abstract This paper highlights difficulties with using sequence data to estimate parameters about human ancestral populations, particularly times of speciations (when new species evolved). The Y chromosome has been analyzed to infer various parameters about human ancestral populations and to provide clues as to human origins. The paper argues that the individual properties of this data source combined with a burgeoning list of refutable assumptions make any and all of these results utterly spurious. The paper argues that molecular experts claim that the old and imprecise science of paleontology has been superseded by their far more mathematically precise methods. These experts sideline the fact that all their estimates are fundamentally based on paleontologically acquired data. The paper includes illustrations and table.
From the Paper "The Y-linked SRY gene triggers mammalian male-determining processes when expressed in the embryonic bipotential gonad. Sex chromosomes are thought to have evolved ~300Mya, probably replacing a mechanism based on gestational ambient temperature. Current opinion is that the Y-chromosomal SRY gene and its X-chromosome homologue (SOX3) are variants diverged from an ancestral non-sex-determining gene. When the ancient SRY-precursor gene gained a dominant and penetrant male-determining function the homologues became sex chromosomes and the process of dramatic degeneration and specialisation of the Y began. Pseudoautosomal regions (PARs) located at the tips of X and Y recombine at high frequency during male meiosis. Consequently, these regions are similar to autosomal sequences in base composition and gene diversity. PARs comprise 5% of the Y and the other 95% makes up the non-recombining region of the Y (NRY). Recombination deficiency of the NRY is thought to result from lack of homology with the X, due to several large inversions. Null mutations accumulate in NRY genes as they are "sheltered" by X-chromosome homologues."
This paper discusses the role of oracle bones, the earliest form of Chinese writing, as an important source for understanding the development of written Chinese and the Shang society.
Abstract This paper explains that, in the religion of the Shang civilization, which was based on the worship of ancestral spirits and Shang Di, the supreme God, important decisions were made in the ancestral temple through divination by the oracle bones. The author points out that oracle bones also were used to record astronomical events. The paper states that the character 'yue' appears quite often in the oracle bone inscriptions as a pictograph of one range of mountains above another and is the object of sacrifices.
From the Paper "The exact political status of the Huanbei Shang City is unknown, however, the walled city is probably one of the Shang capitals due to its huge size and geographic location. From traditional accounts, it was believed that the 19th king, Pan Geng, moved the capital to Yin, however, the oracle bone inscriptions from Yinxu only details the period from the reign of the 22nd king, Wu Ding to the 30th and last king of the Shang dynasty, Xin. Therefore, Yinxu probably did not become the capital until the reign of Wu Ding and Huanbei most likely was the capital of Pan Geng and the two succeeding kings. Moreover, inscribed oracle bones discovered in the area have enabled researchers to reconstruct the Shang royal genealogy. For nearly a century now, scholars have been reading the oracle bones to detail Chinese history."
Abstract This paper explains that "The Dreamtime" is the beginning of creation upon which "Ancestral Beings" emerged from the earth and moved around the land to form the mountains, the rivers, the trees, the animals and plants. All these places are very sacred to indigenous people as they hold their ancestral presence and power. The Iidigenous people are learning from the land and teaching that knowledge to their children. The paper relates that the indigenous people work together as a group and everyone has a role and responsibility: Men go hunting; women gather all the seeds and berries and look after the children.
From the Paper "Initiation is an integral part of Indigenous culture it's a celebration of becoming of age but also of sacred knowledge as it's through the ordeal of pain and separation that the young male and females are introduced to adult hood which involves greater responsibility among the group and also a defined role within the community. Young females are also subjected to the process of initiation, although the testing process is not as serve as the boys. The young females would at one stage be separated from the group when they reach a time of maturity usually around the first sign of puberty and spend time away from the group. In this time, the young females have older women with greater knowledge teaching her songs and stories but also teaching her the proper etiquette for when she marries, as both young males and females are unable to marry until they have been through initiation. In the final process of initiation, like the young males, the young females would also injure some form of scarring or teeth removal."
Abstract This paper explores horror actor Peter Cushing's ancestral ties with Sir Henry Irving, the great English stage actor and Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, in the context of the English stage and Irving's tours of America, from 1881 to 1889. It examines Bram Stoker's work in April of 1912, that used a new medium of artistic expression and brought Stoker his posthumous fame--the motion picture industry which catapulted Stoker's Gothic novel to the darkest realms of cinematic exploitation and created a new cultural icon in the form of a blood-sucking, malevolent human monster known as Count Dracula.
From the Paper "While Ellen Terry and Henry Irving enjoyed some days of quiet and peace in the privacy of their drawing-rooms and staterooms, the rest of the (touring) company, the tons of scenery, the hundreds of costumes, the 1,200 wigs, the small-part actors, the supers and Bram Stoker, were sailing to America in a slow boat called The City of Rome." Although this quote from Madeleine Bingham's 1978 biography Henry Irving and the Victorian Theatre seems at first glance rather superficial, two specific points deserve closer examination--first, Henry Irving, the legendary British thespian, the Sir Laurence Olivier of his time, who dominated the English stage for more than thirty years and was the first actor to be knighted 1, and actress Ellen Terry, his longtime leading lady, must have thought of themselves as blue-blood royalty, due to sailing to America from Liverpool in October of 1883 aboard the luxurious steamship Britannic on their first U.S. tour; and second, as the remainder of the company trudged along on that "slow boat" The City of Rome, Irving's business manager, the Dublin-born Bram Stoker, apparently was not considered as deserving of better quarters during the long voyage across the Atlantic to the theatrical citadel of New York City. However, this may have been in Stoker's favor, for it is quite possible while separated from Irving's manic desire for control that Stoker retreated to his conjoined cabin ( No. 100, a few steps from the promenade bar 2 ) and took pen in hand to scribble in a "dogeared notebook (with) hieroglyphical entries in thick, half-obliterated pencil," 3 more notes concerning his ten years of research into the occultic sciences."
Abstract This paper examines E. Annie Proulx's novel "The Shipping News", which describes a modern family who to returns to their ancestral home of Newfoundland. The paper illustrates both the literal and psychological aspects of their new lifestyle and values. The author is critical of the novel, stating that the story is unoriginal without any twist to the theme of enduring the small tragedies of the human condition.
From the Paper "With this novel, Proulx seems to be providing us with a reworking of that axiom we have all heard: You cannot go home again. Home may be the place that has to take you in when you have to go there, but you will have forgotten how to speak the language, and the food will no longer satisfy you and there will be alarming noises in the night. You may be able to overlook these things for a time, but eventually you will realize that the only way we can live our lives is by stepping each day into the future. One of the tragic elements of much of human existence is the fact that we can only face the future if our back is toward home, and so all progress is in some ways a journey away from home and who we once were. "
Tags: canada, candian, family, home, human, existence
This paper discusses the background, detail and the aftermath of the foreceful eviction of the Cherokee tribe from its ancestoral lands in 1838, an event known as the "Trail of Tears."
Abstract The paper introduces the Cherokee - one of the largest tribes of Native Americans in the United States. It shows how their survival is a tribute to their remarkable resistance since in the harsh winter of 1838 and 1839, the entire Cherokee tribe was threatened with extinction during an event that is known as ?The Trail of Tears.? The paper examines one of the darkest moments in American history, when the Federal troops under the orders of the United States government forcibly evicted the entire Cherokee tribe from their ancestral lands in Georgia to Oklahoma during a cruel 1000 mile forced journey. Out of a total of 16,000 Cherokee people, over 4000 men, women, and children died of hunger, disease, and exposure to the elements on the trail. The paper discusses how "The Trail of Tears" symbolizes the callousness with which the United States government treated the Native Americans due to greed and prejudice inherent in human nature. It covers the background, events and aftermath of the "Trail of Tears."
From the Paper "The Cherokee tribe bravely suffered their ordeal on the Trail of Tears setting to work in their new home. They built homes, schools and churches. They set up a government and named their capital "Tahlequah" that is still the cultural center of the Cherokees and the source of documented evidence of their history. The Indians were on the way of recovery from their ordeal when another devastating event intervened: The American Civil War. The Cherokees aligned themselves with the Confederacy since the South had promised that when the war was over they would be permitted to form their own state. After having supported the British during the American War of Independence, the Cherokee had again chosen the wrong side. So when the North won the Civil War, the Indians, were duly penalized. Most of their lands guaranteed by previous treaties were taken from them and their sad plight continued."
Abstract Summary and discussion of Raboteau's book of how the experience of slavery and discrimination has shaped African-American religious tradition. How faith shaped attitudes and social institutions. The evolution of African ancestral rituals practiced by tribes. Use of Biblical references and adoption of Christianity by African slaves in U.S. Implications for the present day.
From the Paper "In Alfred J. Raboteau's Fire in the Bones (1996), Raboteau discusses how the experience of slavery and discrimination has shaped the African-American religious tradition and how that faith has shaped attitudes, experiences, and social institutions in the United States. In view of Raboteau's findings, this paper will discuss the evolution of African ancestral rituals and religious experiences among African-American slaves, the use of Biblical references by African-Americans to define their experiences in America, and the meaning that present day African-Americans have found in light of their history.
The religions and rituals originally practiced by many African tribes were usually heavy on active participation by everyone in the tribe. These rituals included responsive chants between the shaman and other members of the tribe, physical ..."
Analyzes the themes, particularly that of initiation, of three stories by American author, Nathaniel Hawthorne - "Young Goodman Brown", "Rappaccini's Daughter" and "My Kinsman, Major Molineux".
2,400 words (approx. 9.6 pages), 6 sources, 2002, $ 89.95
Abstract Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, into an old Puritan family. Hawthorne's own 17th-century ancestors, as he frankly admitted, had been among the real-life Puritan zealots. "Young Goodman Brown" is a story of initiation. Evil is the nature of mankind. "Rappaccini's Daughter" is filled with symbols and symbolic allusions of both Hawthorne's time and his ancestral past. It serves to point up the significant contrast between Dante's Beatrice and Rappaccini's daughter Beatrice. Hawthorne repeatedly and with gentle irony characterizes Robin as "a shrewd youth." The religious polemic is the standard form of Hawthorne's writing. "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" blends yet another theme of initiation into the sobering responsibilities of adulthood with the historical movement of the American colonists in defiance of royal authority.
An overview of the events where the United States government forced the Cherokee on a "Trail of Tears" which ultimately led to the death of thousands and the downfall of this Native American tribe.
1,900 words (approx. 7.6 pages), 6 sources, 2002, $ 71.95
Abstract In 1838, the Cherokee nation was effectively removed, in its entirety, by the government of the Unites States of America. The forced removal was part of an effort to both neuter the Cherokee, one of the strongest native Nations and to grab all of the land upon which it had lived for, in various forms, thousands of years. The forced march was named, The Trail Of Tears, for a variety of reasons. It forced the natives from their ancestral home, it was a death march and it placed the Cherokee in an alien land, virtually devoid of anything which would allow them to continue living in their traditional manner. The Trail of Tears resulted in thousands of deaths, the separation of families and has been considered in hindsight as an attempt at genocide. The eviction and forced march, which came to be known as the Trail of Tears, took place during the fall and winter of 1838-39 and was badly mismanaged. Inadequate food supplies led to terrible suffering, especially after frigid weather arrived. About 4,000 Cherokees died on the one-hundred and sixteen-day journey, many because the escorting troops refused to slow or stop so that the ill and exhausted could recover. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the motivations for the forced exodus from the point of view of the U.S. government, the timeline of the march and the impact it had before, during and after on the Cherokee people. The point of this examination is to, hopefully, develop for the reader a clear understanding of one of the most tragic episodes in the enforcement of Indian Policy by the United States Government.
Abstract This paper provides a critical assessment to the book "Neanderthin : Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body" by Ray Audette and the Paleolithic diet in general.
Abstract This paper examines the manner in which Dee deals with her family heritage in "Everyday Use". It explains how this novel examines the way in which different members of a family view and deal with their heritage. It focuses on the character of Dee and how she manages to distance herself from her family history to embrace more ancestral customs and accept the freedoms the future harbors.
From the Paper "Dee's distinctive character prevents her from dealing with her heritage in the same way her sister and mother choose to. Starting from a very young age, Dee displayed "a style of her own, and knew what style was" (Walker 48). She possesses an overwhelming sense of confidence about her and lacks hesitation. Where her mother struggles to approach white people, Dee has no problem looking them straight in the eye (Walker 49). She is fearless and "determined to stare down any disaster", which she does without batting an eyelid (Walker 50). Quite the opposite, her sister Maggie is of meek character and comparable to a lame animal - walking with a shuffle, eyes glued to the ground (Walker 49). Clearly Dee's character is very different from that of her sister and mother who are quite satisfied with accepting the status quo. Dee is a determined fighter, resolute to make something of herself and unwilling to accept restrictions and boundaries in her life (Farrell 181)."
