Rituals and festivals Essay Example for Free

Rituals and festivals Essay Rituals and festivals have been a part of traditional European life for many years. They involved all religions, social classes and happened in almost all areas throughout Europe. Back in these times, there were no forms of entertainment like television, cell phones and video games. People depended on one another to entertain themselves. People in Europe would also be punished or tortured in front of the whole town to control public outbursts. An example of this is known as charivari. Some of these festivals and rituals were for political purposes too. Festivals and rituals of traditional European society mainly served as enjoyment, enforcement of public rules, and political purposes in daily life. Festivals and rituals were a type of fun and entertainment for Europeans. In a painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, it shows a picture of Europeans at a carnival, enjoying the days before Lent. Usually the days before lent people indulge themselves with alcohol. In the painting, it shows a man wearing a robe with a bucket as a crown of thorns and a stick as his cane. Jesus Christ is being mocked by representing the violence of Lent. This shows that the people are just enjoying the carnival because they are mocking their ruler (Wikipedia). The picture also shows people running around with drinks and food and also playing games with each other (Doc. 3). In a document by R. Lassels, a French traveler, he comments on Italian Carnival customs. He states â€Å"All this festival activity is allowed the Italians that they may give a little vent to their spirits, which have been stifled for a whole year and are ready to choke with gravity and melancholy† (Doc. 5). Since Lassels is from France, it means he really does not know Italians. So the fact that he said that the Italians really enjoy festivals is true because he could tell when he saw them at the carnival since he does not really know them (POV). In a comment made by Baltasar Rusow, a Lutheran pastor, he talks about the saint’s feast day festival. In one part of his comment, he states â€Å"Around these bonfires people danced, sang and leapt with great pleasure, and did not spare the bagpipes† (Doc. 2). This quote shows that the Europeans were enjoying the festival. Baltasar Rusow is a Lutheran pastor, so since it was the saint’s day feast, he probably was there so he saw first-hand how happy the Europeans actually were (POV). Festivals and rituals let Europeans forget all the bad and have fun with each other. When someone did something wrong in a town, the whole village would come and punish them too. In a  stang song from Lincolnshire England, they talked about a man who beat his wife and what they did to him. The song reads â€Å"Old Abram Higback has been beating his good woman; but he neither told her for what or for why, but he up with his fist, and blackened her eye. Now all ye old women, and old women kind, get together and be of a mind; collar him and take him to the out-house, and shove him in. Now if that does not mend his manners, then take his skin to the tanners† (Doc. 9). This shows that if one person is in trouble or was being abused, the whole town would help you get payback. If there were no rituals then he would have gotten away with it. There were also rituals such as charivari that punished Europeans for crimes. Charivari is also known as riding stang. A Russian official wrote about a woman who was ill after her punishment. He stated â€Å"A village policemen brought her before the village assembly, where they hung on her neck the basket of berries she had gathered, and the entire commune led her through the village streets with shout, laughter, songs, and dancing to the noise of washtubs, frying pans, and bells† (Doc. 10). Since the man was the officer that wrote the report, he may have been bias because he may have stretched the truth to make the situation worse than it actually was (POV). If there was not any ritual of punishment, the lady may have done it again. It shows the rest of the people what will happen to them if they commit a similar crime. Punishments for offenses and crimes were often public and embarrassing. Charivari was a very scary thing for a person. Elizabeth Gaskell, an English author, talked about a woman who forced to ride stang after abusing the other sex. She said â€Å"They hunt the delinquent and mount her on their horse astride with her face to the tail. So they parade her through the nearest village or town, drowning her scolding and clamour with the noise of frying pans, just as you would scare a swarm of bees† (Doc. 8). The purpose of riding was embarrassment. It makes an impact on the suspect and the rest of the town. This allowed the people in the town to enforce laws. Europeans also used rituals and festivals to help support political ideas. A man named Giovanni di Carlo, a Dominican monk, wrote about when rich fathers and their sons would switch positions so the sons will know what to do when they are older. Giovanni says â€Å"their very sons had put on their clothes and the sons had learned all of their gestures, copying each and every one of  their actions and habits in an admirable way† (Doc. 1). The sons learn everything about their father, even the clothes they wear. It gives the father a chance to know what the sons go through and the sons to know how their father’s lives are. If this ritual was not in place, then the sons wouldn’t know what to expect when they are older or they wouldn’t have been able to bond with their dad. Henry Bourne, a man from Great Britain, commented on the rituals in the Scilly Islands. Henry states â€Å"The servant and his master are alike and everything is done with an equal freedom† (Doc. 6). Since Henry is not from Scilly Bourne, he does not know for sure if the servants are treated fairly, making his point bias (POV). This quote shows that the king treats his servant like family because it is a ritual. A police inspector from Toulouse, France showed that certain festivals or arguments had a specific goal. The police officer said â€Å"When a royalist widower of the Couteliers neighborhood remarried, he began receiving raucous visits night after night. Most people who took too active a part were sent to the police court. But that sort of prosecution was not very intimidating† (Doc. 7). This quote is saying that people really respect rituals and customs and if someone is going to break them they will be punished. People really cared about rituals and used festivals and punishment to show that they need to be followed. Festivals and rituals of traditional European society mainly served as enjoyment, enforcement of public rules, and political purposes in daily life.

Cocos nucifera Essay -- Botany

Cocos nucifera Cocos nucifera is the scientific name of the common coconut. This very tall palm tree is always an inviting symbol of the tropics. The plant is one of the most valuable plants to man. It is a primary source of food, drink, and shelter. In Sanskrit the coconut palm is called "kalpa vriksha", which is defined as "the tree which provides all the necessities of life." Man can use every part of the coconut. The white nut-meat can be eaten raw or shredded and dried and used in most cooking recipes. A single coconut has as much protein as a quarter pound of beefsteak. Copra, the dried meat of the kernels, when crushed is the source of coconut oil. The husks, known as coir, is a short, coarse, elastic fibers used to make an excellent thatch roofing material for houses. This very diverse plant is also an excellent charcoal, which is produced from the shells, not only does it work as a cooking fuel, but also in the production of gas masks and air filters. The outer part of the trunk of the coconut palm furnishes, a construction lumber, known as porcupine wood for houses and furniture. The swollen base of the trunk, when hollowed, can be turned into a hula drum that the Hawaiians use for entertainment. These are just a few examples of how extraordinary the coconut palm can be utilized. The coconut was first mentioned in 545 AD by an Egyptian Monk named Cosmos Indicopleustes. He visited western India and Ceylon. In his "Topographia Christiana", Cosmos describes the coconut as the "great nut of India." The Mahavasma, an ancient chronological history of Ceylon, describes the planting of coconuts in that country in 589 AD. In 1280 Marco Polo, described coconut growing in Sumatra, as well as in Madras and Malabar... ...aried utilization of the coconut will always be important in the economic aspect. Raw Copra used to be the major export but as coconut oil is becoming more widely used its export is increasing. Another change is the export of coconuts in the shell to the exporting of desiccated coconut. Both of these changes have benefited the countries of origin by creating more employment in the tropics. The coconut has been a growing success since the time it was first discovered and to this day this very diverse plant is still showing great potential. REFERENCES Child, Reginald. "Coconuts". 2nd edition. Longman Group Ltd. 1974. Woodruff, Jasper Guy, Ph.D. "Coconuts: Production, Processing, Products." The Avi Publishing Co, Inc, 1970. Encyclopedia Americana. Vol. 7 1989. Collier's Encyclopedia. Vol. 6 1984. Dictionary of Archaeology "The facts of file."

Bicycle Theives: the Unspoken Allure of Communism

Bicycle Thieves: The Unspoken Allure of Communism Bicycle Thieves is an exemplary demonstration of Italian neorealism that seeks to use non-professional actors to illustrate the struggle of average people surviving under a Fascist government. De Sica's use of film techniques such as close-ups heightens the effect of his neo-realist aesthetic, especially seen in his street-level depictions of Rome in the aftermath of World War II. The poverty and despair captured by De Sica's cinematography and narrative choices illustrates that capitalism has failed the Italian people, providing them only with grinding poverty and inward despair.By focusing on the mundane details of a simple man's life, rather than a narrative involving high drama, the film effectively captures the humiliating effects of class disparity while highlighting the role that communism could play in the improvement of life for the Italian people, if only a sense of community could be established. Director Vittorio De Sica u ses Bicycle Thieves as a vehicle in which to stress the burdens faced by the individual in a heartless and uncaring society.He has stated that his aesthetic intention with the film was to â€Å"reintroduce the dramatic into quotidian situations, the marvellous in a little news item [†¦ ] considered by most people throwaway material† (Cheshire), and so too is his main character, Antonio, a throwaway person. As an unemployed person, he has no value to the larger society and no apparent worth to his family as a provider. It is only once he secures a position as a poster-hanger that he begins to see himself as a productive member of society.De Sica illustrates the importance of this job by demonstrating Antonio's increasing desperation when his bicycle–an item he cannot do his job without–is stolen. His neorealistic style stems more from moral imperative than from necessity because, as critic Godfrey Cheshire notes in â€Å"Bicycle Thieves: A Passionate Commit ment to the Real,† the film was not shot in the low-budget style associated with neorealism, and instead was â€Å"mounted by a team of movie professionals working on a budget generous enough to allow for large-scale scenes, hundreds of extras, and even the apparatus necessary to create a fake ainstorm† (Cheshire). However, De Sica manages to retain an atmosphere of true realism that is heightened by scenes carefully chosen to display Antonio's quick downward spiral as he and his son ultimately fail to recover the lost bicycle. This devastating loss propels Antonio into a life of crime, demonstrating that under an uncaring government and without social support, the poor have no choice but to hurt each other for lack of a better outlet, and that those who are stolen from eventually become thieves as well. De Sica creates drama and illustrates his point by putting his protagonist in an unwinnable situation.Although Antonio has been offered a job, he can only take it if he has a bicycle. Due to financial circumstances, the bicycle has been pawned. In this way, De Sica establishes the character of Antonio's wife, Maria, who agrees to pawn their bed sheets to pay for the bicycle. This demonstrates that material comfort is secondary to the security that will come with stable employment. The actors themselves play a huge role in successfully portraying De Sica's message, and he sticks to the requirements of neorealism by using only non-professional actors.As film theorist Andre Bazin states, â€Å"none [of the actors] had the slightest experience in theatre or film. The workman came from the Breda factory, the child was found hanging around in the street, the wife was a journalist† (Bazin). An added level of realism can be found in using average people with faces that show the effects of time and experience. In his essay, â€Å"Bicycle Thieves: Ode to the Common Man. † Charles Burnett notes the effect of De Sica's choice to use non-professi onal actors, writing that â€Å"their faces are so expressive [†¦ ] they seem to be playing themselves† (Burnett).To further this realism, the director takes a similar approach with his background players. For example, in the pawn shop scene the director captures an elderly man with a tired, lined face who is trying, without success, to pawn a pair of binoculars. His expressiveness makes the scene seem more real, squalid, and filled with pain, while also illustrating that the Ricci family are not alone in their poverty. Indeed, the upwards panning shot that displays a towering pile of pawned sheets just like the set that Maria is exchanging for the bicycle, overwhelmingly shows the terrible effect of unrestrained capitalism on the poor.To further show the damage caused by a social and governmental system that doesn't value human needs, De Sica characterizes the upper class as the true villains of the piece. This is seen very clearly while Antonio is fruitlessly searching the stalls filled with disassembled bicycle parts while a good-looking young man blows bubbles into the air, filled with self-satisfaction and utterly unaware of Antonio's total terror. Symbolically, the bicycles can represent both the destruction of his ability to earn a living wage, and his own mental breakdown in having to confront the loss of such a vital mode of transportation.In this scene, also, a pedophile tries to lure Antonio's son, Bruno, into his clutches. Although the scene is populated with passerby, nobody pays any mind to the dangers faced by the vulnerable boy, let alone steps forward to offer assistance. By showing the oblivion of the group, De Sicoemphasizes the isolation of the individual, as well as demonstrating that no one, not even small children, are safe from the avaricious nature of the rich in a society where, as Burnett writes, â€Å"the predators are the rich and disconnected† (Burnett).The gripping conclusion of Bicycle Thieves further demonstr ates how the need to secure employment in order to survive can cause honest people to behave in a dishonest manner. De Sico uses a shot of Antonio sitting outside of a football stadium, hungrily eyeing countless parked bicycles; a temptation that is akin to showing a starving man a plate of food. Through the director's use of close-up shots of Antonio's pained expression, we experience his inner turmoil as morality fights with his baser needs.The climax occurs when he finally tries to steal a bicycle outside of an apartment building and is caught by a group of men who taunt and abuse while Bruno watches in horror. Cheshire writes that this point marks â€Å"where Antonio's solitary ordeal reaches a humiliatingly public climax† (Cheshire), and indeed it is a fitting conclusion for a film that has taken place entirely in the public environment of Rome.By making use of the city streets as his set, and the city's population as his background cast, De Sico manages to show all of t he missed opportunities where Antonio's life could have been changed for the better, were someone to have only taken an interest in his plight. As Bazin states in â€Å"Neorealism and Pure Cinema: The Bicycle Thieves,† â€Å"the thesis implied is wondrously and outrageously simple: in the world where this workman lives, the poor must steal from each other in order to survive.But this thesis is never stated as such, it is just that events are so linked together that they have the appearance of a formal truth while retaining an anecdotal quality† (Bazin). In such a manner, the irony of Antonio's predicament remains subtle, left for the viewer to determine based on their own experiences and observations. De Sico's film is most notable for what it avoids saying about the benefits of communism when held up against a corrupt, bloated style of capitalism that treats the working person as fodder for a greater machine.Rather than treat Bicycle Thieves as a propaganda device for his opinions, the director instead allows the audience to draw their own conclusions based on the realistic information he has provided to them. But the implication of Antonio's struggle is clear: community support is vital for the individual to survive under difficult circumstances. Without a collective group from which to seek solace and assistance in times of trouble, the individual is left as aimless and panicked as Antonio during his solitary and unsuccessful attempt to retrieve his stolen bicycle.Works Cited Bazin, Andre. â€Å"Neorealism and Pure Cinema: The Bicycle Thieves. † Theory Kit. 21 October 2007. Web. 1 May 2011. Bicycle Thieves. Dir. Vittorio De Sica. Perf. Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell. Criterion, 2007. DVD. Burnett, Charles. â€Å"Bicycle Thieves: Ode to the Common Man. † Criterion Film Essays. Criterion. 7 February 2007. Web. 1 May 2011. Cheshire, Godfrey. â€Å"Bicycle Thieves: A Passionate Commitment to the Real. † Cri terion Film Essays. Criterion. 7 February 2007. Web. 1

Creative Commons - America Needs Fair Use Licenses Essay

Creative Commons - America Needs Fair Use Licenses It’s likely happened to you before, you turn on your radio, or favorite music video network and begin listening to a song by some hot new pop starlet, hip-hop superstar, or aging rocker. The beat is catchy, inviting, and oddly familiar, almost too familiar in fact. You may think, â€Å"Didn’t David Bowie, or, hmm, wasn’t it that guy from Queen that played this riff in like ten years ago? Who is this Vanilla Ice guy and why is he rapping over it?† If you were old enough to remember Under Pressure and subsequently were listening Ice Ice Baby in 1990 (likely while cruising in your Mustang 5.0 convertible on your way to a Milli Vanilli concert), you would have experienced an†¦show more content†¦Thankfully, a solution called Creative Commons has been developed which addresses many of these issues in an effort to encourage new creative development through the open sharing of intellectual property. (Lessig) There are many issues with the current copyright laws that exist in the Canada and the United States today. Many critics of these laws like, Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig; believe that current copyright laws only exist to protect entrenched, and often uncreative interests at the expense of everyone else. (Plotkin) In the United States, back in 1790, copyright extended for 14 years after the document was published, and then for another 14 years if the author was still alive. (Plotkin) Today copyright laws in the US have been lengthened to 70 years after the death of the author, which means that companies can withhold releasing works into the public domain for almost a century. (Plotkin) In Canada copyright laws are similar, but instead of 70 years after death, an authors works are released into the public domain 50 years after their death. 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