Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between Nok art and the long lost culture. It explains that the tragedy of looting and the loss of cultural/archaeological context for surviving artifacts has made a true exploration of the Nok history extremely difficult and speculative. It concludes that what can be known for certain is that, prior to 500 B.C.E, at a time when Africa was once thought to be completely plagued by intellectual darkness, there existed a civilization with the ability to create advanced and symbolic relics of a civilization where hierarchy, art, and science prevailed.

From the Paper
"The second vein of interpretation is based on surrounding tribes. For example, Gillan takes this tactic when he writes: "A number of heads and bodies, depicting deformities or ailments (similar to diseases portrayed in Ibibio masks), may well have been used for magico-medical purposes" (66) Taking this approach, there seem to be indications that the statues were used for a variety of religious purposes. Surrounding tribes in Benin have frequently used lifelike statues, not unlike the terra cottas found in Nok, as part of ancestral altars through which they either invoked the spirits of their ancestors or prayed for them. Statues may also have been used as representations of the divine. There are other options as well. They could have been used with funeral ceremonies, ancestor cults or other religious rituals. They might have been conceived as representations of chiefs--though not as their portraits--or as mythical beings and spirits... Others may have served as grave figures ...charms and fertility amulets, possibly worn as pendents. (Gillan, 66) Most surrounding cultures have been polytheistic/animistic and either worship or placate a wide range of deities. "Janus figures" found in Nok may have been used like those in surrounding cultures, to "express the male/female duality of human nature." (Gillan, 66) Additionally, even today ceramic figures are used as finials on many roofs and shrines, and Gillan speculates that terra cotta figures might have taken this place centuries before."

Tags:artifacts, science, civilization, africa

Abstract
A book report on Herman Vianna's "The Mystery of Samba", a cultural anthropology study of music in Brazil, particularly the use of 'racially-mixed' culture as a symbol for all of Brazilian culture.

Tags:book, report, samba

Abstract
In this article, the writer discusses how the mystery religions influenced the religion of Christianity. The writer explores a number of the ancient mystery religions. The secret rituals of these mystery religions as well as their similarities are discussed. Most importantly, the writer examines the impact of these religions on Christianity and discusses why they are no longer practiced.

From the Paper
"By the end of the first century small communities of Christians could be found in many of places in the Greco-Roman world. According to Jeffrey Sheler, writing for U.S. News World Report as the movement expanded during the second and third centuries, it proved to be anything but simple to deliver a consistent message. The early Christian church was torn by persecution and internal division as Christians struggled to understand and apply the meaning of Jesus' life, death and resurrection in the religious ... "

Tags:mystery religions and their impact on Christianity, historical context, Isis

Abstract
This paper analyzes a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" and discusses two more in relation to how Gatsby was seen as and performed himself as a mystery to those surrounding him. The paper addresses themes in relation to Gatsby and relates them to the national character of the United States during the 1920s as well.

From the Paper
"The man that is Jay Gatsby is a fascinating mystery to the narrator of "The Great Gatsby", Nick Carraway, and the other socialites and party-goers of Gatsby's weekly bashes. Gatsby seems to have come from nowhere and recounts tales of his past and his careers, war service, and travels that..."

Tags:gatsby, mystery, self

Abstract
The paper begins with a historical fictionalized account of a young man apprenticed in medieval York and his first experience in seeing the York Mystery Cycle, one of the oldest and best preserved English cycles. It has a great number of details that were researched from medieval texts, including information on guilds, the city of York, interesting facts, and the actual procession of the York cycle.

From the Paper
"The York Cycle of Mystery plays (1376-1569), also known in singular form as the Corpus Christi Play, is one of the oldest and best preserved of the surviving English cycles. There are four complete or nearly complete extant English cycles: The York Cycle of forty-eight pageants; the Towneley cycle of thirty-two pageants, the N Town cycle of forty-three pageants, and the Chester cycle of twenty-four pageants. Each pageant was presented by different guilds of craftsmen, which were also known as the 'mysteries', hence the name of the Plays. The feast of Corpus Christi is performed on the second Thursday after Whitsun, and depending on the date of Easter, it could fall any time from 21 May to 24 June*."

Tags:christi, corpus, cycle, drama, guilds, medieval, mystery, pageant, pageants, play, plays, procession, wagons, york

Abstract
The following paper will argue that any description of cross-cultural similarities and differences is best founded on a consideration mainly of culture-specific dimensions rather than culture-general dimensions; beyond that (and just as importantly), if one wishes to be competent in cross-cultural communication and learning, a firm grasp of culture-specific dimensions is critical. With that in mind, the following paper will look at how emphasis upon culture-general dimensions can lead someone to overlooking the subtleties that distinguish various cultures. The paper will also, in the interests of fairness, highlight how knowledge of culture-general dimensions can allow someone to feel "more at home" in an alien culture - and it can humanize others in the minds of a person traveling to a new location for the first time. Lastly, the essay ends by returning to its support of culture-general communication by citing the time saved, by making it easier to distinguish the "real" commonalities between cultures, and because it makes possible more experiential opportunities.

From the Paper
Intercultural Study: Why Descriptions of Cross Cultural similarities and differences are best founded on consideration mainly of culture-specific dimensions rather than culture-general dimensions The following paper will argue that any description of cross-cultural similarities and differences is best founded on a consideration mainly of culture-specific dimensions rather than culture-general dimensions; beyond that (and just as importantly), if one wishes to be competent in cross-cultural communication and learning, a firm grasp of culture-specific dimensions is critical. With that in mind, the following paper will look at how emphasis upon culture-general dimensions can lead

Tags:specific, dimensions, culture

Abstract
The representation of popular culture is, it may be argued, as much revealing of the critic as of popular culture itself. While popular culture is, by definition, a culture created and shared by a large portion of the population, popular culture has also historically been criticized in gendered and condescending language. In this context, the thesis will be argued that the significance of David McGimpsey's collection Hamburger Valley, California lies in its deep, if sometimes critical and ambivalent, thematic participation in American popular culture.

From the Paper
Popular Culture in Hamburger Valley, California: The Poet as Participant The representation of popular culture is, it may be argued, as much revealing of the critic as of popular culture itself. While popular culture is, by definition, a culture created and shared by a large portion of the population, popular culture has also historically been criticized in gendered and condescending language. In this context, the thesis will be argued that the significance of David McGimpsey's collection Hamburger Valley, California lies in its deep, if sometimes critical and ambivalent, thematic participation in American popular culture.

Tags:literature, culture, poetry

Abstract
The paper states that it is not complicated to find some globalized places such as airline terminals, international hotels or CNN business news revealing the effects of globalization and its repercussions on our understanding of culture in the modern world. The paper relates that through the growing of global interconnections and the processes of ideas and global goods crossing national borders, cultures fuse across the globe. The paper also discusses the presence of English as an international language, and a homogenization of culture. The paper confirms that, culture is a set of values and practices characterized by its particularity, which nevertheless needs universal criteria as a reference to justify this particularity. It is also crucial to define culture as an "encompassing" concept and to keep in mind that it is difficult to know what is cultural.

From the Paper
"In addition, a shared global culture is also relevant as a global dissemination of an American or Western culture. Indeed the processes of globalization are providing fuel for a cultural imperialism, that is to say a global culture liable to be a hegemonic culture. Thus the assertion of a shared global culture seems to be linked to what Friedman describes as "the increasing hegemony of particular central cultures, the diffusion of American values, consumers goods and lifestyles" (Friedman, 1994: 195). The diffusion of dominant standard icons and references such as MacDonald's, Coca-Cola leads to think about an obvious Americanization. In a word, cultures are both confronted by a global dominance of the western culture and by the practices of global capitalism. The result is probably a decrease of cultural differences: a process which undeniably worked to the advantage of the USA and others Western nations. A striking example of this tendency of cultural imperialism is the United Nations Educations Scientific and Cultural Organization's call for a "new world information and communication order" and its politics on global culture."

Tags:shared, global, culture, diversity, national, differences, cultural, homogenization, synchronisation, cultural, proliferation

Abstract
The paper explains how every organization has its culture and like any other culture, the organizational culture is composed of group interactions within a structured framework. The paper discusses how an organizational culture possesses similar features to any other culture owning folklore heroes, communications network and rites and rituals. The paper notes that like any other culture, an organizational culture must be carefully maintained in order to prevent it from breaking down.

Tags:collaborative, educational, culture

Abstract
The question, What is popular culture and how does it relate to Eastern and Western societies? is an apparently simple query that conceals a complex range of social cultural and economic aspects. This essay examines this question, beginning with a provisional definition of popular culture and an attempt to distinguish it from other cultural forms such as high culture and mass culture. The thesis is argued that popular culture is, in its fundamental elements, a commercial culture that is dependent to an extraordinary degree upon the mass media as a technological vehicle for its messages and products.

Tags:pop, culture, asia