...COR 130 Individual Research Paper The Aztecs and the role of Human Sacrifice The Aztec was a culture that dominated the Valley of Mexico in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. All the Nahua-speaking peoples in the Valley of Mexico were Aztecs, while the culture that dominated the area was Tenochca. At the time of the European conquest, they called themselves either "Tenochca" or "Toltec," which was the name assumed by the bearers of the Classic Mesoamerican culture, stated in Manuel Aguilar-Moreno’s book, Handbook to Life in the Aztec World. Sadly, many of the Aztec didn't survive after the arrival of the Europeans. But during the earlier years, the Aztec became one of the most advanced civilizations because of their religion, war, and agriculture. The Aztecs gained an infamous reputation for their bloodthirsty human sacrifices with explicit tales of the beating heart being ripped from the still-conscious victims, decapitation, skinning and dismemberment. All of these things did happen but it is important to remember that for the Aztecs the act of sacrifice was a strictly ritualized process that gave the highest possible honor to the gods and was regarded as a necessity to ensure mankind’s continued prosperity. The Aztecs were not the first civilization in Mesoamerica to practice human sacrifice; human sacrifice was practiced to some extent by many peoples in Mesoamerica and around the world for many centuries. But it was the Aztec empire that really took the ritual...
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...A Doll’s House: Supervised Writing In the play A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen is set in the 19th century about a woman named Nora who receives a loan for her husband, Torvald, who was gravely ill. In the play there are many symbols, images and motifs help incorporate in the story such as freedom, self-realization, and the sacrificial role in women and how Nora sees freedom. All these symbols, images and motifs help contribute within the play by helping the readers realize the issues that were going on during the 19th century. During that time women were ruled out by society and women were only meant to take care of their children and stay at home. Throughout Nora’s life she has been struggling with finding freedom and...
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...A Doll’s Transformation: Henrik Ibsen’s feminist heroine in A Doll’s House Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House, written in 1879, is often considered one of the first feminist plays ever written, exposing, among other social commentary, women’s oppression and subordination through “the anatomy of a marriage where the wife was no more than a legal infant and her husband’s virtual slave” (Fjelde 475). Through one of history’s first female protagonists, Nora, Ibsen challenges the Victorian ideal of a woman’s role in her marriage and in society, painting a bleak picture of living life as a woman at the time. In A Doll’s House, Ibsen explores the sacrificial role of women in society, women’s oppression, and chauvinistic 19th century marriage customs through the life and transformation of his heroine, Nora. One tool Ibsen uses to present his feminist ideals is the theme of the sacrificial role that the play’s female characters must play. Nora has made a huge sacrifice in taking out a loan in secret and working to pay it back without allowing Helmer to find out; she has become a prisoner of her secret and of her necessity to pay off the loan with what little legal rights she possesses as a female in her society. Mrs. Linde, similarly, has made sacrifices as a woman, having found it necessary to abandon her true love and marry a wealthier man. The nanny, Anne-Marie, who proclaims she is a “poor girl “ and insinuates she had no other options, was forced to abandon her child to support...
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...The Turn of the screw Superficially, Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw seems to reinforce the status quo of American literature as male, whereby men are viewed as having power over women leaving women to become mere objects. James creates a nameless female protagonist whose story is told through the guise of a male narrator. She becomes an object viewed by Douglas’s audience and is used simply as means for the master on Harley Street to avoid being bothered by his charges. She is then set up as naïve and love-struck, willing to do just about anything, including risking her own sanity, for the sake of keeping the master undisturbed. However, on closer examination, James actually creates a novella that subverts the traditional idea of men having power over women as it is the governess who has the final word in her story, not the male Douglas, and it is the male heir Miles who becomes the scapegoat leaving the governess free, “awfully clever and nice”. James’s unfinished frame tale creates frustration and confusion but his experiment with form also draws attention to what has largely been left unconscious. Through Douglas’s initial telling of the governess’s story she is reduced to a nameless object that they all raptly listen about rather than listen to. While at the start, Douglas does have power over the governess’s story, in the end it is the governess who has the final word and Douglas, who disappears after only the first seven pages, is never to be heard from again. James...
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...Describe the roles and duties of man and women in ATR In the African traditional religion both men and women have important roles they play in the proceedings. Most noted belief in the African traditional religion is that there is only one creator who is above all things .They believe that the creator has all the attributes of God in that he is all powerful , all present all knowing . In this paper the writer would mainly focus on the roles of women and men in the African traditional religion in zimbabwe. The major difference in African traditional religion is the way the Africans communicate or worship God. Different names like Mwari, Musikavanhu and uNkulunkulu are given to God in Zimbabwe. Notable is that, the names are in singular not plural indicating one God. In Zimbabwe there are different ways they practice to worship God .The God is believed to provide the needs of the people, heal them in sickness and protect them from evil powers .However the God is not contacted directly, he is communicated to through the hierarchy of the spirits of dead ancestors. This means that for one relay his or her message to God the generational hierarchy that will pass on the message until it reaches God. The name Mudzimu is used for the spirit of the dead ancestors. In the process women would brew beer which is believed to appease the spirit of the dead. This act cause the spirit to possess one of the living then communication starts. Women play a vital role in the brewing of...
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...Wanted: More Crappy Roles for Women In the article, “Summer Blockbusters Need More Crappy Roles for Women”, Gwynne Watkins examines how movies have been lacking strong roles for women. She explains how box office revenues have been suffering due to the lack of people showing up to big studio films. She discusses the impact of this uneven male to female ratio and how it creates “a world defined by men”. Although there are movies that portray females as the leading role, there aren’t many. Some movies include great female characters, but ultimately those characters step aside to let the male hero take the lead. It’s said that strong female characters are bad because it means they lack other personality traits. Giving more roles to women isn’t impossible and should be done more frequently. She focuses on how people default to giving strong roles to males when women are just as capable of playing that same part. So, why not provide these women with such roles?...
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...A wise woman wishes to be no one's enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone's victim. -Maya Angelou For all the years that I have developed a consciousness like mine, I was constantly slapped in the face by the incandescent standards of the universe and its littlest portion on how women should be. A woman is always portrayed as a gift from the skies, pretty and elegant, or a royalty in distress saved by a hero who makes her swoon, or an evil witch behind every man's failure. But a woman is not a gift, she is not a possession, she is not an asset. A woman is not someone to be saved, if she is to be protected, then from what? And yes, this paragraph is always present on my feminist articles. The most tiring thing about being a woman is the fact that we should still have to battle for our image as individuals, which is an inflection of how I came into the idea that the purpose of human kind is to breakout from the chains of the stereotypical. Humans try to debunk and destroy what exists, from beliefs to lifestyles and even to the right color of pants to match your socks. This urge to be free is the reason why Jose was shot in a park, why Romeo and Juliet died, and why all the revolutions and wars occurred. Grace Ogot or Grace Emily Akinyi, the Kenyan writer who happens to be the author of the story 'The Rain Came' and many other stories, presented the "Breaking-out" moment through the characters' struggle against the binding chains of traditions and culture. Many of her stories...
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...In the story it is mentioned that “The women, wearing faded house dresses and sweaters, came shortly after their menfolk” (Jackson). This description sums up the entire ideology the town has that men are more superior. This ideology can be linked to the feeling of resentment in the women of the town. Tessie seems to be rebellious when she arrives late to the lottery making the claim the villagers would not want her to leave her dishes in the sink—a subtle attack women’s restricted role outside of the home. Furthermore, Jackson’s allusion to Anne Hutchinson reinforces the lurking sense of rebellion within Tessie (Oehlschlaeger 261). Even after she is elected, the story portrays her as a “poor sport” trying to include the rest of her family in the final selection to improve her odds of survival (Whittier 359). While Tessie is the main character and most rebellious villager, there is another woman who offers a sense of disobedience to the story. Mrs. Adams points out that “some places have already quit lotteries” suggesting that the ritual ought to be reevaluated (Jackson). After Tessie is chosen, there is no description of Mrs. Adams participating in the execution as a mark of rebellion and disagreement with the lottery (Oehlschlaeger 260). These two women embody a desire to...
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...that's important in a marriage, it is the couple's covenant commitment before God and men. Marriage was designed for companionship and intimacy, as the Scriptures say, "A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one." Husbands are urged to lay down their lives in sacrificial love and protection, while women are to submit to their husband. Marriage is also defined as a legally sanctioned contract between a man and a woman.Entering into a marriage contract changes the legal status of both parties, giving husband and wife new rights and obligations. The traditional principle upon which the institution of marriage is founded is that a husband has the obligation to support a wife, and thata wife has the duty to serve. In the past, this has meant that the husband has the duty to provide a safe house, to pay for necessitiessuch as food and clothing, and to live in the house. A wife's obligation has traditionally entailed maintaining a home, living in the home, having sexual relations with her husband, and rearing the couple's children. Changes in society have modified these marital roles to aconsiderable degree as married women have joined the workforce in large numbers, and more married men have become more involved in child rearing. Monogamy: Monogamy is a form of...
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...During the nineteenth century, many restrictions and limitations were place on women in society. Marital roles, social roles, and work roles were very different for women during the nineteenth century than they are today (Hartman, 1999). Henrik Isben’s playwright, “A Doll House”, actively voices women rights many years ago. The marital life Nora Helmer is portrayed throughout the play, conveying subordination, condemnation, sacrifice, and inequality that women felt from men in the roles that they were expected to accept and play in a very conventional society. During the 19th century, men were thought to be superior, while women as inferior beings (Barksdale, 2012). Nora Helmer The plays main character, Nora Helmer depicts women behavior during the nineteenth century. In the beginning of the play Nora seems to portray to the image of most women during her time. She is very submissive and obedient to her husband, Torvald. Nora leads a double life in the play as a sheltered wife of an attorney and an independent risk taker, At first, Nora seems happy and affectionately responds to Torvalds’s teasing. However, this is just an act of Nora Helmer that we all later discovered. During the nineteenth century, women could not conduct business affairs and had no control over family finances (Hartman, 1999). Permission to do so was sought from the husband before doing such acts. Nora, “the little featherbrain”, a nickname given by her Torvald was just the opposite of that (Isben...
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... Orientalism in M. Butterfly: a Struggle from Gender Identity to Political Balance Long before Song Liling made her debut as M. Butterfly on stage, there was a woman called Cho-cho-san, playing Madama Butterfly with the fullest of her life. M. Butterfly’s counterpart Madama Butterfly presents readers Cho-cho-san, a pitiful and submissive Oriental Butterfly. Cho-cho-san’s character traits fit in almost every single aspect of the ideal of Oriental women, for instance, Cho-cho-san is a geisha, an exotic representation of Japanese women in the eyes of westerners, Cho-cho-san eventually dies of seppuku, which is the Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment, and her ultimate sacrifice of her everything from her religion to her very life. The attributes of Cho-cho-san are not exclusive to this character only but imposed on all Asian women. The western presupposition of some certain fixed and bounded Asian attributes defines the identity of Asian women and thus, creates an image of the sacrificial and submissive Oriental women. Moreover, the historical backgrounds of Hwang’s Butterfly and Puccini’s Butterfly are, in fact, the extension of gender tension to international power struggle. Cho-cho-san’s love story happens in the Meiji Period in which Japan first opened its door to foreigners; while Gallimard and Song Liling begins having an affair in the 1960s, in the midst of Cold War. Hwang’s M. Butterfly parodies Puccini’s Madama Butterfly by reversing the conventional narrative...
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...Women On Screen In China Film, as a unique art form, has come to China nearly centuries. In 1920s, female images just can be seen as the tools in silent movies, which own not only very vague character, but also lack of adequate connotation of the times, not to mention women’s awareness of self-consciousness. However, after the establishment of People's Republic of China, government vigorously promotes that the "men and women are alike". Also with the influence of western feminist movement, the status of women began to turn upside down. Women are demanding equal status with men, and these demands also reflected in the films. Until now, women as a sign of beauty, some are gentle and virtuous, some are sweetie and pleasant, and some are full of unique personality but still attractive enough. In such a representation, it is hard to notice, even their own aesthetic values are deeply affected by the male views. Not so much a woman as a sign of beauty, as it is a sign to attract male attention. In many generations of Chinese directors, only one of the few is female director. In the Male-dominated film industry, obviously, female characters are created by them, reflecting men’s centralism’s view of women. This paper applies feminist film theory, by analyzing the feminine images in a famous Chinese director—Jiang Wen’s films, to reveal the hidden gender inequality as well as the phenomenon of “male gaze”. Through the criticism and introspection of these hidden and potential...
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...Children are young people that are not ready to face the world on their own. They need help and, their source of help is their mother and father. A mother and father are the people who have responsibilities over their children. Both parents have different tasks and jobs they do for their children. As a parent, they both have very different obligations. The responsibilities a mother has are very different compared to the responsibilities a father has. A mother’s job is to nurture her child, and a father’s job is to protect his child. A mother’s obligations for her child start right away. From the moment the baby begins to grow in her womb, the list of responsibilities begins. A mother is responsible for safely carrying her baby in her womb for nine months. She has to do everything carefully and cautiously. The baby in a mother’s belly is so fragile. A mother also has to watch what she is eating and drinking during her pregnancy. For nine whole months, a mother is sacrificing her wants and desires in order to create a healthy child. After the baby is born, even more responsibilities come a mother’s way. A mother is responsible for nurturing her child. She’s there to care for and encourage the growth of her child. If her child is hurt, the mother is expected to take care of him and make him feel better. If he is sick, the mother is the one that stands by his side, making sure that all his needs are met. A mother usually cooks and cleans for her children. She makes sure her kids...
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...Native women have been highly sexualized throughout pop culture and history. There are a number of examples that come to mind–the story of Pocahontas, or Tiger Lily in Peter Pan, or Gwen Stefani in her “Looking Hot” video, or even the Land ‘O’ Lakes Girl–the “Indian Princess” stereotype is far and wide. A current example of an American Indian stereotype happened in 2012. The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show caused some controversy as their model, Karlie Kloss, strutted along the catwalk. She wore a tiny leopard print bikini, high heels with leather fringes around her ankles and hips, a large turquoise pendant, matching rings, bracelets and a belt. Her most alarming accessory, however, was a lofty Native American headdress. Kloss’s garb was designed...
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...0202 / مجلة ديالى العدد الرابع و االربعون The Bird as a Sacrificial Hero in Oscar Wilde’s “The Nightingale and the Rose” and “The Happy Prince” BY ASST. INST. Shaima’ Fadhil Hassan UNIVERSITY OF KOYA/ COLLEGE OF LANGUAGES/ DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH Heroism and sacrifice are not new concepts; they can be traced back to the early days of human life. These concepts developed throughout history as a result of the development of human thought. In literature, the idea of heroism appears on a large scale. It has been dealt with by different writers in different periods. As far as terminology is concerned, the terms of heroism and sacrifice are interchangeable. The hero must be a sacrificer and the one who sacrifices himself must be a hero, for this reason these two terms (hero and sacrificer) cannot be separated. Thus, both of them go hand in hand in so many works of literature. Heroism and sacrifice are not confined to human beings only. Some writers present their heroes as gods as in mythology, and some of them present animals as in fables. 809 0202 / مجلة ديالى العدد الرابع و االربعون The idea of having an animal as a sacrificial hero is shown in many of Oscar Wilde’s short stories. He developed this theme as a reaction towards his age which lacked, in his view, moral as well as human values. For this reason, he chooses a bird to be his tragic hero. He epitomizes this idea in such short stories like “The Nightingale and the Rose” and “The Happy Prince”....
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