...American Intercontinental University Social Structure HUMA 215 – Topics in Cultural Studies 9/8/12 Abstract Cultural syncretism has transformed and shaped our world today; because of encounters years and centuries before our time we have religion and even art. Our modern culture was contributed to by the happenings of yesterday. Social Structure Introduction The legacies of cultural syncretism in the Americas and Africa can be compared and contrasted with the resistance to cultural change that westerners experienced in China and India. These encounters have left many legacies of change and differences in the culture today. Had syncretism not occurred or if syncretism had taken root during earlier encounters in China or India the world today would be different. Various cultural factors in would affect the outcome of syncretism tremendously. Compare/ Contrast Cultural Syncretism Cultural syncretism was active in some societies but not in all; syncretism was not affective in more cultures because some cultures were simply more developed. With the expansion of cultural syncretism, it was easier for Africa and the Americas to adapt than China and India Westerners. Africa and the Americas separated into different tribes which caused them to be weaker than China, India, and the Westerners who created a nation (Sayre, 2013). An example of this cultural syncretism is the Aztec tribe, which was a fairly large tribe; the Aztecs had so many neighboring enemies because of...
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...of cultural change have left on the world today and what are the legacies of cultural change. You could almost call this the evolution of societies and cultures through cultural encounters. The first step of globalization actually began with the encounters of cultures. In the last few weeks leading to this week’s assignment is we discussed how early civilization influenced each other we seen how the Roman and Greek civilizations had an impact on each other to some degree. We are now exploring how specific countries have all seen and dealt with the topic of cultural syncretism. Cultural Syncretism Still Waiting on First Question From Trya….. What cultural factors caused the differences in outcomes? Some of the cultural factors that caused the different outcomes that the Westerners encountered in both China and India are that they each had very different beliefs. Each culture had its own power, control or dominance (Sayre, 2010). In China, the Chinese would have rather stayed isolated that to be influenced by the Mongolians. In the Song dynasty prospered with their production of iron and therefore their government ended up being controlled by the merchants, they were extremely wealthy. They also had intelligent citizens due to the fact that they had an advance on their printing. They were able to print books and these books helped them get ready for their exams. The Chinese culture became very strong and was very dominate and did not accept change. Their religious...
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...behind we can also see the impact they have had on many diverse cultures and societies today. Cultural Syncretism and its Impact Introduction Cultural syncretism occurs when two opposite cultures mix and blend their cultural beliefs, whether they be political or religious, to produce or to start a new culture or religion. Historically, syncretism has been seen as an attempt to reconcile disparities between various cultures. Africa and the Americas both had help with other factors like weapons, religion, and technological advancements. When it came to cultural beliefs, China and India’s values were very different. They would operate from outside of the traditional beliefs, which made them much more resistant to syncretism. Compare and contrast the legacies of cultural syncretism in Africa and the Americas with the resistance to cultural change Westerners encountered in China and India. When different aspects of cultural philosophies or religions blend together and disparities are compromised, cultural syncretism occurs. According to the 1830 American census 2.3 million people were of African descent and there was only 12.8 million in the country (Joyner, 2003). Also of that 12.8 million 2.44% were free Africans, 15.56% were enslaved Africans and 82% were free white people (Joyner, 2003). Within the United States, the large number of Africans along with their culture greatly contributed to the culture and history of America. The people brought with them knowledge...
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...Compare and contrast the legacies of cultural syncretism in Africa and the Americas with the resistance to cultural change Westerners encountered in China and India. What cultural factors caused the differences in outcomes? What legacies have the differences in types of encounters and degrees of cultural change left today? Had syncretism not occurred in the Americas, how might modern culture be different? If cultural syncretism had taken root during early encounters in China or India, how might they be different today? The quest for wealth and power brought Europeans to Indian shores in 1498 when Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese voyager, arrived in Calicut (modern Kozhikode, Kerala) on the west coast. In their search for spices and Christian converts, the Portuguese challenged Arab supremacy in the Indian Ocean, and, with their galleons fitted with powerful cannons, set up a network of strategic trading posts along the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. In 1510 the Portuguese took over the enclave of Goa, which became the center of their commercial and political power in India and which they controlled for nearly four and a half centuries. Economic competition among the European nations led to the founding of commercial companies in England (the East India Company, founded in 1600) and in the Netherlands (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie--the United East India Company, founded in 1602), whose primary aim was to capture the spice trade by breaking the Portuguese monopoly in Asia...
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...this earth five-thousand years ago happened during the Bantu migration; now moving forward to more current times of African people displaced by political oppressions, famine, economic factors, and conflicts. The slave trade encompassed four continents: Africa, Europe, North America, and South America. When slaves were forced to North America had not only brought people but different cultures within North America, too. Aside from African’s forced to North America, to understand cultural syncretism, one must take into account Asia and the Indian Ocean that took place a couple of hundred years earlier. The coerced labor from 1500 (Asia and the Indian Ocean) was an earlier account of cultural syncretism but Europeans found it more difficult to mingle two different beliefs into one. Over-time the different cultures in North America would not be so much forced syncretism, but would rather create a melting pot of beliefs (Lindenfield, 2008). Cultural Mergence Looking at the two different worlds that were oceans apart in some aspects may have been only miles apart. Thinking of what causes two different cultures to merge is usually simply religion. When settlers found the New World, had settled it in the image of Christianity. Everybody who lived on the New World’s land was expected to take in the ideology of Christianity, just like the Pilgrims did to the Native Americans (Lindenfield, 2008). Fast-forwarding to Africans forced to North America for forced labor were taught the ways of Christianity...
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...1894 by Milton Hershey, the Hershey Company has managed to withstand the ever changing economy and manage its workforce in a way that has resulted in extreme success. Companies often undergo organizational restructure as a means to keep up with today’s shifting workforce and in an effort to attract and maintain the best talent. Especially in the United States, which is now being considered the world’s melting pot, the workforce is becoming much more diverse and great effort is required to address these changes. This paper discusses recommendations for the redesign of Hershey’s performance management system in order to appeal to its diverse workforce. Also discussed is how an employee would interpret the Hershey Company’s values in relation to their role. Workforce trends will be examined and how they could impact Hershey. Finally, the mentoring program that Hershey has implemented will be discussed along with the effects that this program has on integrating the culture at the Hershey Company. Recommend the redesign of Hershey’s performance manageir ment system to appeal to the diverse groups that it employs. A performance management system is a system put into place that makes certain that the employees’ outputs and activities align with the goals of the company or organization (Noe et al, 2011). Hershey’s current performance management system caters more so to the younger generation of workforce that it hires. It satisfies their desire for autonomy, challenge and...
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...inequality, and the “white dream”. Traditions vs. progress or change was one of the most poignant themes throughout all three novels. There have been several universal biases against Africa implying that Africa is a resilient country that opposes change and as a result of their stubborn ways suffer, living an expired life struggling in poverty and disease. As a result, the authors of the novels write in a way that demonstrates how Westerners imposing their industrialization, religion, and cultural views upon the African people have in some ways handicapped the actual African society from revolutionizing themselves. For example in Things Fall Apart Okonkwu constantly resisted change and eventually let his resistance become his demise by committing the moral crime of suicide. However the majority of his Igbo society transitioned to Christianity, denying their own culture and joining the oppressors whom mocked their culture. Nonetheless, this proves that Africa is a society that can change because of the lasting legacy of colonization in Africa. What are the postcolonial themes and concerns of the novels we have read? Post-colonialism refers to the legacy of colonialism. It describes a post-modern era after the imposing of Westerners on Africa. Many African authors write descriptive tails about Africa after colonialization in order to withdraw bias views and revive the cultivating African culture. Several authors throughout the course also surfaced profound...
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...INTRODUCTION TO SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Have you ever noticed how the invention of one technology can have profound and unexpected effects on other seemingly unrelated technologies, on commercial enterprises, on people and even on culture as a whole? This phenomenon often called:- “THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES”. Today, computer software is the single most important technology on the world stage, and software is also a prime example of the “Law of Unintended Consequences”. No one could have foreseen that over the past 50 years, software become embedded in system of all kinds. i.e. Banking, Medical, Transportation, Entertainment and so on. And if we believe in the Law of Unintended Consequences, there are many more effects that we can not yet predict! As software’s importance has grown, the software community has continually attempted to develop technologies that will make it easier, faster and less expensive to build and maintain high quality computer programs. Some of the Software technologies are targeted at a Specific Application Domain (e.g. Web site design and implementation). Others focus on a Technology Domain (e.g. O.O System and programming) and still these are Broad-based software Applications domain (e.g. Operating Systems such as Linux), However we have yet to develop a Software technology that targeted to all the likelihood of one arising in the future is small. WHAT IS COMPUTER SOFTWARE? Computer Software is the product that Software...
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...planning and legacy systems management. The authors have developed a framework to help managers successfully plan and implement an ERP project. A Critical Success Factors Model For ERP Implementation FROM THE TRENCHES: Wolfgang B. Strigel, editor • wstrigel@spc.ca Christopher P. Holland and Ben Light, Manchester Business School ompanies are radically changing their information technology strategies by purchasing prepackaged software instead of developing IT systems in-house. Price Waterhouse predicts that by 2000, two-thirds of all business software will be bought off the shelf. More specifically, Deloitte and Touche states that businesses prefer to replace legacy systems with enterprise resource planning systems. According to AMR Research, the ERP systems market was $15.68 billion in 1997 and is likely to increase at a compound rate of 36 percent, to $72.63 billion, by 2002. The associated consultancy market is approximately $30 billion. These statistics clearly indicate a shift in the ERP market. There are mixed reports concerning the outcome of ERP projects. Successful ERP implementations are certainly publicized, such as Pioneer New Media Technologies (see http://Datamation.com/PlugIn/erp/index.htm) and Monsanto,1 but less successful projects have led to bankruptcy proceedings and litigation against IT suppliers.2 Approximately 90 percent of ERP implementations are late or over budget,3 which may be due to poor cost and schedule estimations or changes in project scope...
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...dealing with the legacy that Nazism had left behind as well as dealing with the legacy of the war itself. When focusing on the Nazi legacy the allies faced the issues of the political vacuum of power now that the leading party of the nation for the last 12 years, also the systems and culture created by this. Their main ways of tackling the Nazi legacy boiled down to several major areas; denazification, democratisation and the Nuremberg trials. The success of dealing with the Nazi legacy was fairly limited especially with the division of germany, also in such a short time period the ally powers struggled to find their feet. The Nuremberg trials which took place from the 20 november1945 -1 october 1946, were the trials of the leading Nazi war criminals or what was left of them. There were 13 trials in total over this time period and was the most tangible form of dealing with the Nazi legacy and holding those who were responsible. The prisoners were tried for; crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity and conspiracy, most of the evidence only came to light at the trials and are now what we consider most of the Nazi plans and actions. By the end of the trials 3 were acquitted and 12 were sentenced to death including Goring. The trials were able to sentence the remaining Nazis but aren’t the major way of dealing with the legacy they left. The trials set a president for what would happen to the Nazis and were rather symbolic of destroying the legacy, also by killing...
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...Immigration and America’s core culture If one spontaneously were to mention a couple of prominent American figures in the 21st century, names such as Oprah Winfrey, George W. Bush, Jennifer Lopez, Steven Spielberg and the recently elected president Barack Hussein Obama, would usually come to mind. They do all have different religious backgrounds, ethnicities and to some extent culture, but to identify one of them as being “more American” than the others would occur as being weird for most people. Because it’s indeed the high degree of diversity, seen in iconic, grand cities such as New York or Los Angeles, that is representative of the American people today, and therefore the country has become to be known as a nation of immigrants. However, in his book, who are we?(2004), Samuel P. Huntington, argues that this high level of cultural diversity prevalent in the USA can disintegrate the country, as it’s experiencing a growing cultural gap between the adherents of the Anglo-protestant culture and the immigrants, who have not yet assimilated into this culture. Key features of the Anglo-protestant culture include; “Christian religion with emphasize on the protestant values and morals, a work ethic, the English language, British traditions, justice and the limits of government power, and a legacy of European art, literature, philosophy, and music”. As a consequence hereof the American people can lose their national identity and unity, as ideology alone is a weak glue to hold people...
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...The Story of Success (2008), authored by Malcolm Gladwell. The theory is further defined by the premise that holds that success is enabled by a person’s culture, environment, when and where they were born, and a strong work ethic. These theories and examples of success are analyzed using the textbook, Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills (2013) by Andrew DuBrin. Several examples are provided in this paper that illustrate and support Gladwell’s thoughts on opportunity and cultural legacy. Keywords: cultural legacy, success, leadership, Leader Member Exchange Model, in-group, out-group, cognitive factors, behaviors, task-related attitudes An Analysis of Outliers: The Story of Success The author of the book Outliers: The Story of Success, (2008) Malcolm Gladwell, leads us through several compelling chapters of discussion regarding selected individuals who are extremely intelligent, driven, some famous and ambitious. These are the characteristics of individuals that are perceived as being the highly successful members of our society. Successful individuals are termed as “outliers”, people who fall outside the normal acumen of human experience. Gladwell (2008) maintains that the way in which success is measured is wrong. Further, he argues that people are more a product of their environment, culture, life experiences and even when a person was born. Andrew DuBrin in his textbook Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills, provides theories...
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...they were responsible for overseeing all the existing IT structure for RR. Due to the number of legacy systems that Roll Royce’s had, they decided on SAP/R3 an ERP platform consisting on 12 modules would be implemented in it aerospace division. Due to company culture and business processes RR faced many challenges for the implementations. Lots of changes had to be made within the company in order to successfully implement the ERP system. Rolls Royce’s ERP Implementation Rolls Royce, is one name to come to mind when dealing with well recognized, powerful, yet elegant engines. Unlike Volvo and Saab which have been in the market of powerful machines for many years, Rolls Royce has been the one to manage to be ahead of the game in the engine industry by creating each and every machine a masterpiece of their own. In the late 1900’s, Rolls Royce underwent a crucial implementation of a new, yet challenging system that the organization has seen itself since the early years of the company. Such implementation was needed to continue ruling the world of engines, technology and to continue to provide excellence to the company, to the end users and consumers as well. This ERP implementation consisted in changes not only of the organization itself, but also to their culture within and to their technical procedures as well. This fast growing organization was screaming for a legacy change after acquiring other companies around the world. Northern Engineering Industries acquired in...
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...children from the post-war baby boom became teenagers and young adults. The movement away from the conservative fifties continued and eventually resulted in revolutionary ways of thinking and real change in the cultural fabric of American life. No longer content to be images of the generation ahead of them, young people wanted change. The changes affected education, values, lifestyles, laws, and entertainment. Many of the revolutionary ideas which began in the sixties are continuing to evolve today (Bradley & Goodwin, 2010). Because of the sixties, I was able to grow up in a neighborhood where different cultures live harmoniously. Before the sixties, non-white people were not allowed to mixed-in with the white families. It is because of the 60s that one neighborhood can include a Hispanic family, and Asian family and an African-American family (Carter, 2010). The Civil Rights Act of 1965 gave more people the right to vote and took down the obstacles which prevented many people from participating in democracy and exercising their full rights as citizens. This enabled me to exercise my right as an individual living in the United States. The Civil Rights Act provided not only me but a lot of people the right to be vote, be heard, and express their opinion (Farber, 1994). The legacy of the 1960s can be seen including society and family structure in America. America. American society is more open now and could be described as being more flexible because, for example, there...
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...Art and culture goes hand in hand, and both are influential to the production of art and culture. Art is defined as the expression of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. Culture can be defined as the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively. Artist can draw inspiration from their culture that gives them ideas for the art that they produce. Art can tell the story of the culture of the person who produced the work of art. Art can be animation, architecture, photography, and music just to name a few. Art was used many years ago to sometimes tell the story or culture of the artist. The Ashcan School, also known as the Ash Can School, was an artistic movement in the United States during the early twentieth century that is best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York, and the city’s poorer neighborhoods. The Ashcan school artist was realist who set themselves apart from the American Impressionist. The Ashcan artist selectively documented an unsettling, transitional time in American culture that was marked by confidence and doubt, excitement and trepidation. The Ashcan School members were Arthur B. Davies, Robert Henri, George Luks, William Glackens, John Sloan, and Everett Shinn. The influence of the Exposition extended beyond the confines of the World's Fairs. Trends...
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