Research Paper African Folklore Essay Example

Research Paper African Folklore Essay Example Research Paper African Folklore Essay Research Paper African Folklore Essay Children wonder about the aspects of life and one of the best methods that is used to answer their young minds is literature. Children’s literature has is a new genre that has been growing vastly over the years. Like most genres there is no single or widely used definition.In this research, knowledge of Africa’s folklore and folktale will be discussed. Africa is a rich continent that has a strong history of producing folklore is Africa. Africa is the second largest continent in the world, and is the home to millions of folklores. Like other types of literature, African folklore started by oral tradition. Oral tradition was a part of everyday life for many Africans. Storytellers help capture time and the main idea of important facts. The art of storytelling is to capture the past and to give listeners an idea of why something is. Oral traditions have been the most influential factor of African folklore. The linkage between oral tradition and the written works are necessary for being able to understand the actual literary work. Just like the oral tradition written literature is a combination of real and some false events that may be believed as real.It combines, on one hand, real facts (contemporary world) and history (realistic world of the past) and, on the other, myth and hero, with metaphor being the agent of transformation. Myths are normally an emotional feature that involves the gods and creation, with the essence of a belief system. It is often descried as the driving force of a people, that emotional force that defines people. Typically, the image perceived of African literature is a combination of myth and history. The history that was once just told orally are now recorded and are known as folklore. According to Brian Sutton-Smith, â€Å"In earlier definitions, attention was given predominantly to traditional stories, dances, proverbs, riddles, poetry, material culture, and customs, passed on orally from generation to g

Latino/a Sexuality and the Heteronormative

Latino/a Sexuality and the Heteronormative In his novel The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz examines Latino identities and sexuality, and the ways in which both are affected and informed by violence. This violence is enacted through institutions like the state, through representation and misrepresentation, and by the very nature of sex and sexuality. Diaz gives an analysis of identity and sexuality, pointing to the way in which it is not only formed and generated by oneself, but also put on and impressed, through violence or with violent repercussions. Reinaldo Arenas’s autobiography Before Night Falls conveys similar themes as Diaz’s novel about the way in which sexuality is policed through violence from the stateparticularly in the form of dictatorships. Arenas depicts life in Cuba at the time of Castro, discussing how Castro, and the state, presented homosexuality as evidence of being unpatriotic and against nationalism, as well as grounds for torture and imprisonment. Many of the men who engage in homosexual acts are not homosexual themselves, and it is in fact such policing that causes more sex acts to occur. This environment of violence and sexuality, then, also carries over to all other aspects of life. Similarly, Diaz discusses the way sexuality comes into play in the Dominican Republic, during the time of Trujillo. Oscar’s mother Beli falls prey to the violence of the state in the form of an attack sanctioned by Trujillo’s sister, who does not agree with her relationship with her husband, the Ga ngster. In this way Diaz, like Arenas, dismantles the idea of the state as a noble protector and enforcer of just laws, illustrating the ways in which it in fact carries out injustices, and performs its own agenda. Both authors also describe how such violent enforcement does not garner successBeli continues to have an amorous relationship with the Gangster, even after the attack, and Arenas continues to have sex with men, in fact gaining more opportunities for sex acts due to state oppression. Foucault, in his The History of Sexuality, discusses the idea of the repressive hypothesis, talking about how sexuality is thought of as having a history of repression, and discussions of sexuality have been withheld since the Victorian era. Foucault points to the inaccuracy of this claim, stating that silence itself performs a certain kind of discourse, and the repression of discourses on sexuality are instrumental in their formation. Diaz, too, discusses a similar idea regarding the withholding of informationhe relates a story in which Abelard, Oscar’s grandfather, is imprisoned and violently tortured by Trujillo for hiding away his daughter and wife from his rapacious sexual appetite. He then contrasts this narrative with mention of another possible reason for his imprisonment, relaying information about a possible book that Abelard could have written about Trujillo, displaying the supernatural qualities of Trujillo and his regime. In doing so, Diaz gives mentions la pagina blanca, the information that is missing or unknown from such narratives, and the ways in which it can speak louder than any words can. The erasure of violence from public knowledge, as well as the erasure for the reasons for its production, does not remove knowledge of its existence or its effects. In this way, sexuality and violence, even when being given the illusion of being silenced, emerge and are spoken about even through its absence from public discourse. Ricardo L. Ortiz, in his article â€Å"Cultural Erotics of Cuban America† analyses the impact of Arenas’s life and death. As a homosexual, Arenas was placed outside of the context of Cuban nationalism, even being categorized as a terrorist subject in regards to his homosexuality, and through his death, Arenas simultaneously reaffirmed his identity as a Cuban in spite of being outside of Castro’s nationalist project, and attacked him as the cause of his death. Ortiz discusses Arena’s death in a pro-life context of protest through calling attention to the flaws and injustices of the Cuban government, while claiming sexuality as an element necessary for sustaining life. Similarly, Diaz constructs a similar understanding of Oscar’s death in his novel. Oscar essentially commits suicide by choosing to stay with Ybin, in spite of knowing that her violently angry boyfriend will come after him. As Ybin’s boyfriend is employed by the state, he can be s een as a manifestation of its violence, as well as a re-embodying of the violence of state enacted in past times, to Beli. Oscar’s sexuality comes to be the cause of his death, and he comes to fulfill his Dominican identity through its expression. As such, both authors point to the nature of protest through death and beyond life, and Latino sexuality as crucial to understandings of Latino identity. Further, the state can be evidenced as manipulating representations of sexuality for its own aims. In A Queer Mother For a Nation, Licia Fiol-Matta analyzes how the state became encapsulated in the image of Gabriela Mistral, and why she became a symbol for the nation. Mistral’s masculine, gender-queer identity and demeanor allowed her to be taken seriously in spite of being female, and still encompass desired state-sanctioned feminine traits like motherhood. Mistral followed in the state’s racist rhetoric, maintaining an â€Å"othering† gaze against blacks and pushing for racial cleansing through producing more white-mixed offspring. This racist rhetoric provided the state with a language in which to â€Å"other† black populations through the passive violence of exclusion and negative representation. Similarly, Diaz presents the figure of Oscar Wao in an interestingly contradictory light. He does not possess any of the traits of a stereotypical Dominican, and throughout his life finds it extremely difficult to flirt, date, or have sex with any girls because of his extremely nerdy and socially awkward personalityeventually coming to do violence to himself in part because of his inability to perform this aspect of his identity and sexuality. In spite of this, he eventually fulfills the saying that no Dominican man dies a virgin, by having sex with his prostitute girlfriendand in doing so comes to exemplify the idea that even as an exception to the rule, he can perform his â€Å"Dominican-ness† to the fullest. As such, Diaz examines in a tongue-in-cheek manner the way Latino bodies are stereotyped, even inside of the Latino community, and the violence of this type of representation, as well as the affect it can have on identity. In this way, both authors discuss the politics of representation and the contradictory and performative nature of identity and sexuality. Philippe Bourgois, in his anthropological analysis of Puerto Rican street life depicted in In Search of Respect: Selling Crack en El Barrio performs a similar violence through his representation of Latino bodies. As an outsider to this community, Bourgois casts an â€Å"othering† gaze on Puerto Rican crack dealers and creates a culture of difference between readers (as well as himself) and the members of the community he depicts. One of the aspects of this distance comes from an eroticisation of violence in the name of providing unadulterated truth (and of course, for consumer marketability)which brings to mind questions of, when is it okay to reproduce structures of violence, when doing so produces the same violence? Diaz asks a similar question in his reproduction of stereotypes of oversexed, hypersexual Dominicans in the figures of Yunior and Oscarwhat is authorial responsibility, especially in regards to the understandings of readerships? How can this violence be avoided? Diaz himself constructs problematic depictions of females and female sexuality, describing women in a somewhat chauvinistic lightmany of the female figures are represented as objects for the males to conquer through sexual pursuit. For both authors, the replication of such structures supports and reproduces racist and sexist ideas through consumerism. Such ideas then become part of a system of capitalism, providing interesting implications regarding the â€Å"selling† of problematic constructions of identity and sexuality. And as sexuality plays a large part in understandings of the formation of identity, these types of representations can have the effect of creating an environment in which violence becomes normalized in everyday consciousness. In his theoretical work Disidentifications, Jos? Esteban Munoz discusses his theory of disidentification, stating the ways in which categorization through sexuality and race, among other things, allows for a dismissal of or limiting understandings of identity. Disidentification, then, becomes a survival strategy, a way of avoiding the way in which representation can be unrelatable, or reproduced through the systemic violence of rearticulation. Much as Munoz examines the work of Carmelita Tropicana or Marga Gomez, and how they reclaim possibly harmful representations through camp, Diaz reproduces tongue-in-cheek stereotypes of Dominican identity and sexuality, and provides alternative representations of Latino identity and sexuality through his characters. Lola, for example, is represented as having a very present sense of sexuality, but is costumed in the role of a â€Å"goth.† Both writers point to the importance of the multiplicity of identity, and find ways to articulate La tino identity and sexuality that do not conform with the violence of heteronormative ideals. Junot Diaz examines the nature of identity and sexuality in regards to Latino bodies, and the ways in which they are impressed, manipulated, or reproduced through violence. Disidentification, perhaps, provides a necessary step towards providing an alternative consciousness and understanding of identity that does not become enmeshed in the culture of differenceand asks further questions about the way hegemonic society, institutions, and normalized violence enforces and regulates these ideas. How, then, can we use disidentification to further remove ourselves from the violent and harmful heteronormative? And what are the ways we can imagine ourselves in a more broad, inclusive sense of being?

Sustainability in Construction and the Integration of Building Essay

Sustainability in Construction and the Integration of Building Services - Essay Example It is in this context, two documents were determined to provide solutions to the built environment designs. The solutions proposed were different from one another because the first one was a proactive solution and the second one was a reactive solution to climate change. The CIBSE Briefing 8 (2003) was focused on providing new buildings and refurbishments design and operation solutions. The purpose of this proactive solution was to minimise or reduce the use of energy, which was identified as the major source of carbon emission that causes climate change. Meanwhile, the CIBSE Briefing 10 (2004) provided solution that focused on the reduction on the impact of climate change on the built environment. It is considered as a reactive solution because the design responded to the effects of climate trend to the built environment particularly to the thermal comfort. On the other hand, the former briefing was considered as proactive solution because it tried to prevent the causation of climat e change before it emerges. Further, both the information on the briefings was considered useful. However, the application of the building designs could be practicable to new buildings and refurbishments. It could also be used for existing buildings at the expense that it would need massive renovation. Likewise, the built environment design strategies that will be presented in the discussion could be considered in designing a social housing development in an inner city because they ensure economic and environment sustainability. Discussion Designing buildings to address the cause of climate change In the first document, the high consumption of electricity was the key issue. Therefore, it provided several recommendations which will serve as guidelines for the engineers and building designers in designing new built environmnet. The purpose was to provide the required internal environment and services with minimum energy use in a cost effective and environmentally sensitive manner (CIB SE, 2003, 1). The recommendations have included the following: energy- efficiency should be integrated in the client’s brief with all the necessary details support such as energy consumption targets, power density, and energy-efficient equipments to be installed, i.e. CHP or variable speed drives. The energy-efficient plan document should be compared to the standards set by the regulation policies. At the same time to be constantly reviewed while the design is in its installation process. The briefing also recommended that in designing building, design team should be considered and appointed before the building started in order to ensure good interaction between the disciplines. Project targets and life cycle costing should be utilized to promote teamwork. Third recommendation, design built form and services carefully in order to keep energy demand to a minimum. Further, using renewable energy sources, ambient energy and passive solution was also suggested in order to achieve this objective. Fourth, the use of ventilation hierarchy (see diagram below) as a guide was also recommended in order to minimize uncontrolled air infiltration. If possible find economical and environment friendly way to generate ventilation. Avoid the use of air conditioning since it could consume up to 50% of energy. Source: CIBSE, 2003 In addition, the building designers should incorporate in the design to optimize the use of heat gains, natural ventilation, and

Poverty and Obesity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Poverty and Obesity - Essay Example Additionally, individual view on obesity contributes to the prevalence. Obese children are at risk of developing high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, metabolic syndrome, behavior, and learning disorder, psychosocial health problems such as low self-esteem, and depression (Ogden et al, 2010). Indeed, there are various healthcare teams involved in health care education that include practicing nurses, parental and healthcare professionals, community and government health workers. These healthcare teams help in identifying children at-risk, provision of medical referrals, educating parents on the resultant health risks, encouraging consumption of nutritional balanced diets, promoting increased physical activities, and offering counseling for physical and emotional support. Indeed, through the healthcare teams we can clearly assess childhood obesity and promote obesity prevention. Ogden, C., Molly, M., Lamb, M., Carroll, M., & Flegal, K. (2010). Obesity and Socioeconomic Status in Children and Adolescents: United States, 2005-2008. NCHS Data Brief No. 51 Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health

The Computer’s Positive Impact on Education :: Teaching Learning Essays

The Computer’s Positive Impact on Education Once upon a time there was a teacher and a classroom full of bright and ambitious students. One day a bit of brand new technology was introduced into the classroom. This new technological tool was designed to enable teachers to save time and better instruct groups of students. Students would also be able to utilize this new tool for practicing math problems and spelling words. This new tool is also proven to be very easy to use to compose and edit information on it. In spite of all these wonderful qualities this new advanced technology can bring to the classroom, it was approached with much skepticism. In the early 1900’s, people were concerned and worried about the kinds of problems "the chalkboard" would bring to education! A century later, teacher across the country teachers and students are still successfully utilizing chalkboards in the classroom for teaching and learning. This little story is true and significantly compares to computers entering the education turf. I’m going to take this opportunity to expand on the positive contributions compu ters have and will make in the education field. Computers are having a positive affect on education in many ways. Some of the optimism about computers in education is due to the fact that computers offer diverse collections of resources, variations of media type, increased communications, as well as provision of a records management tool for teachers. The diversity of resources teachers and students have access to through the use of computers is phenomenal. Basically, software and the Internet are the methods used to obtain access to overwhelming amounts of data. The information may be in the form of written material, audio material, games, user-interaction, animation and many more. The Teacher Resource Center (TRC) in Indiana maintains an updated website of teacher resources at "www-ed.fnal.gov/programs/ed_mat_trc.html". Software provides age-appropriate instructional design in the math and science disciplines, as well as in language arts and social studies. Many of these are interactive and/or re-create models of items ranging from complex graphs, historical events, to science experiment labs. Reference libraries are also available on software. There are complete electronic encyclopedia software with color graphics and audio. Information can be printed out, which is convenient for students who are conducting research. Another software area relating to the educational field is pre-school software. Pre-schoolers use computers for "coloring/painting", playing memory games and learning basic letters, numbers, shapes etc.

Foundations of Mythology Short Answers Essay

How is the word myth used popularly? For example, what does the statement, â€Å"It’s a myth† mean? In contrast, how is the word myth used in the academic context? After considering the things in the definition in your textbooks and course materials, write a definition in your own words. The word myth is used in stories told people don’t know if the stories told are true or not. My personal belief is that a myths can be both true and not true tales. My reason for this because things in the area that happened more than fifty years ago or longer could be turned into false information after the years and years of being restated, no one knows because this area has happened so long ago in time. Myths are stories that were passed on from one generation to the next one its fiction and non -fiction. Myth is used in academic context as being an explanatory narrative, & illustrates how people should act and the existing social order. They are collectively authored and are created by people traditions and oral traditions are told and retold over time. My definition of myth is something that has reason for it could be true or untrue depending on the topic; you just have to use logic to determine the truth of the quote or statement. Why do myths from different cultures around the world address such similar or universal themes? Think about how myths explain the unknown and the tribulations of mankind. The reasoning why myths from other cultures are similar is because of their story lines, they are different because every couture has their own behalf’s and way of doing things accordantly and the ways in which it has been done for generation after generation most people believe that this way is best. They share a way that is perspective, and has value and interest and could  be their own stories. In many myths your able to format we connect to each other no matter the religion choice or aspect on the different types of myths. Myths are great in explaining the unknown and the tribulations of mankind. Myths give meaning into our lives, they explain things that are unexplaning they encourage or give us great ideas about different events and in schools helping students learn the different myth types. By doing this it enables us to learn different myths that are out there and the background of them. Myths give you laughter or tears and a clearer understanding of different things going on in our current life and events that happened before our time. What is the relationship between belief, knowledge, mythology, and religion? Where do mythology and religion intersect? Where do they diverge? Think about the function of myth and religion in helping human beings cope with change, suffering, loss, and death. There are many huge differences between religion and myth they can be overlapping mythology is one component or aspect of religion knowledge is very eternal and ever changing axiom. Mythology and religion intersect at they start as explanation accepted by people are two different things, mythology isn’t a religion but a myth of stories and the studies it can explain the unexplainable religions are surely traditional stories. They diverge easily but are both the same type of things with just different labels in difference between the two is that mythology is about anything a belief which has existed with not any proof. Religion is that of what you worship or reveres the persons or objects. In cases religion and myth always help us cope with change, suffering, with loss and deaths no matter what we will all deal with these things in our own personal ways, no one will ever grieve with lose the same as another person.  How would you defend mythology’s relevance in contemporary culture? Think about familial and cultural traditions. Also, consider how mythology is used in the arts and in advertising to typify human experience. I would defend mythology’s relevance in contempary culture as being very relevant and great need in society it gives us insight on all cultures from around the entire world. I would defend the mythology perspective my family  has a tradition of having yearly trail rides in the town I am from and getting together at least once a year either thanksgiving or Christmas time this helps our family find out how we all are doing in our lives because we all become very busy Mythology is used in the arts and advertising to typify the human experiences. References www. Askville.amazon.com www.eridu.co.uk/Author/myth_religion/myth_religion. Html mythsdreamssymbols.com/Importance of myth. Html EBOOK COLLECTION: Leonard, S., & McClure, M. (2004). Myth & knowing: An introduction to world mythology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

The Spanish American War s Impact On America - 892 Words

The Spanish American War’s Impact on America When addressing the Spanish-American War, and the changes that it ushered in for America, it’s important to look at more than just the war itself. The people involved in the war, weather individuals or groups of people, were the real force of change. From people who fought in the war itself, mindsets that emerged from the victory, or the economic advantages gained; all point to one important thing. America became a larger world power in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War. Before discussing the long term implications of a war, it important to understand the war itself. Why did we go to war with Spain? What did we hope to gain? What did we plan on doing if we won? These questions will likely sound more familiar to most American’s now, than they did when the war itself began. We went to war with Spain, in order to liberate the peoples of Cuba from Spanish control. Approximately 95,000 Cubans had died after being forced into concentration camps by the Spanish (Green). This was something that appalled most Americans, and convinced many that the US. Needed to intervene. This effect was multiplied by the ever growing American press, who were able to sell more papers by covering the loss of life. Prior to the start of the Spanish-American War, America was still recovering from its own civil war. Neither northern or southern states had been in a situation to wage war since. The Spanish-American War changed that, uniting formerShow MoreRelatedThe Liberator By Alberto Arvelo896 Words   |  4 Pagesliberation of Latin America during the 1800s as well as the various obstacles Simà ³n Bolà ­var had overcome in order to free his country. 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