Understanding the Philosophy of Culture

The ability to transmit information across generations and peers by means other than genetic exchange is a key trait of the human species; even more specific to humans seems the capacity to use symbolic systems to communicate. In the anthropological use of the term, culture refers to all the practices of information exchange that are not genetic or epigenetic. This includes all behavioral and symbolic systems. The Invention of Culture Although the term culture has been around at least since the early Christian era (we know, for instance, that Cicero used it), its anthropological use was established between the end of eighteen-hundreds and the beginning of the past century. Before this time, culture typically referred to the educational process through which an individual had undergone; in other words, for centuries culture was associated with a philosophy of education. We can hence say that culture, as we mostly employ the term nowadays, is a recent invention. Culture and Relativism Within contemporary theorizing, the anthropological conception of culture has been one of the most fertile terrains for cultural relativism. While some societies have clear-cut gender and racial divisions, for instance, others do not seem to exhibit a similar metaphysics. Cultural relativists hold that no culture has a truer worldview than any other; they are simply different views. Such an attitude has been at the center of some of the most memorable debates over the past decades, entrenched with socio-political consequences. Multiculturalism The idea of culture, most notably in connection with the phenomenon of globalization, has given rise to the concept of multiculturalism. In one way or other, a large part of the contemporary world population lives in more than one culture, be it because of the exchange of culinary techniques, or musical knowledge, or fashion ideas, and so on. How to Study a Culture? One of the most intriguing philosophical aspects of culture is the methodology by means of which its specimens have been and are studied. It seems, in fact, that in order to study a culture one has to remove herself from it, which in some sense it means that the only way to study a culture is by not sharing it.The study of culture poses thus one of the hardest questions with respect to human nature: to what extent can you really understand yourself? To what extent can a society assess its own practices? If the capacity of self-analysis of an individual or a group is limited, who is entitled to a better analysis and why? Is there a point of view, which is best suited for the study of an individual or a society?It is no accident, one could argue, that cultural anthropology developed at a similar time at which psychology and sociology also flourished. All three disciplines, however, seem to potentially suffer from a similar defect: a weak theoretical foundation concerning their respecti ve relationship with the object of study. If in psychology it seems always legitimate to ask on which grounds a professional has a better insight into a patient’s life than the patient herself, in cultural anthropology one could ask on what grounds the anthropologists can better understand the dynamics of a society than the members of the society themselves.How to study a culture? This is still an open question. To date, there certainly are several instances of research that try and address the questions raised above by means of sophisticated methodologies. And yet the foundation seems to be still in need of being addressed, or re-addressed, from a philosophical point of view. Further Online Readings The entry on cultural evolution at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.The entry on multiculturalism at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.The entry on culture and cognitive science at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Abortion An Article By Pro Life New Zealand Essay

Any woman who doesn’t want a child would clearly want an abortion, however there are negatives to having abortion. An article by Pro-Life New Zealand talks about a young mother, aged 21 who hung herself over the guilt of having an abortion. Jade Rees, the 21 year old mother, left several handwritten notes to her family, one of which was to her two year old son. Jade Rees had already been a teenage mum and supposedly â€Å"coped exceptionally well as a doting single mother.† There are also many negative physical effects of an abortion, according to americapregancy.org some of these may include abdominal pain, cramping, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, spotting and bleeding.Some of the mental/emotional side effects of abortion, are regret, anger, guilt, shame, sense of loneliness or isolation, loss of self confidence, insomnia or nightmares, relationship issues, suicidal thoughts and feelings, eating disorders, anxiety and depression However, there is a much more negative impact on women, which comes with banning abortion. Dorothy Shaw, a clinical professor wrote about how women will have abortions, regardless of the law. One in five pregnancies end in abortion, legal or not. This is an insane amount of unsafe abortions we would get if society failed to provide sanitary, safe and legal abortions for women. Any pregnancy should be supported with the option of abortion, however rape, incest and teenage pregnancy especially deserve the option of abortion. According to Linda Lowen, aShow MoreRelatedEthical Issue Of Elective Abortion Essay1738 Words   |  7 PagesEthical issue in the news June 2016 Three online news articles, two of which are New Zealand-centric, on the subject of elective abortion were published on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of June. News The first article I read called attention to New Zealand’s elective abortion laws, which criminalises elective abortion. The article claimed that the laws are outdated and requires change. It mentioned the pro-elective abortion faction’s campaign to remove elective abortion from the 1961 Crimes ActRead MoreIs Abortion A Violation Of An Unborn Child s Right? Essay1709 Words   |  7 Pagesjudgments and forming conclusions Abortion has essentially been around since women have, yet this old issue, is still around and being heavily debated. But will allowing women to have an abortion be a violation of an unborn child s life, or is not allowing abortion violating a woman s right to choice, freedom, and control over her body? This is an important issue, as it will affect any foetus at random, and many women. What are the disadvantages of allowing abortion? Some women who are pregnantRead MorePro Abortion Essay931 Words   |  4 PagesThrough many years, abortion is still considerably a very controversial issue in the society. In 1973, the U.S Supreme Court case of Roe vs Wade, abortion is a legal choice for pregnant women (Center for Reproductive Rights, 2003). However, in some countries like Philippine, Chile, Nigeria, etc. Abortion is noticeably illegal (Center for Reproductive Rights, 2003). In addition, having abortion is a very risky taken because women lose a lot of blood and especially feeling pain. When woman decidesRead MoreShould Females Be The Abortion?1418 Words   |  6 PagesShould Females be aloud to have an Abortion? Millions are not alive today, because they were never given the chance to be born. Did you know four out of ten pregnancies end in abortion? In the United States, abortion one of the most controversial and most debated topics. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 22 percent of all pregnancies, excluding miscarriages, end in abortion. Abortion is when a woman chooses or is forced to terminate the fetus inside her body. Do you think that a fetus has theRead MoreThe History of Abortion and Its Effects2555 Words   |  11 PagesAbortion is the conclusion of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. It can also happen unconsciously, which is known as a â€Å"miscarriage.† For centuries the Church accepted abortion and the law did not punish it. Anti-abortion laws began in the United States in the 19th century and in the 20th century many states banished abortion. Abortion laws have been passed for many reasons such as the con cern for women’s health, the need of medical professionRead MoreAbortion: A Social Injustice Essay2006 Words   |  9 Pagesor daughter. Abortion is the surgical process of killing a baby by various means; and has been in effect since the Supreme Court ruling on Roe V. Wade in 1973 which legalized it nationwide. It was, at first, endorsed as being a woman’s right, but has more recently been viewed by most as the murder of an innocent child. Besides this shift in views, abortion has caused diverse effects on our culture and nation, as well as the death of upwards of 56 million children according to Life News. Our societyRead MoreHelen Clark as a Leader1141 Words   |  5 PagesHelen Clark was one of New Zealand’s most effective Prime Ministers to date; the 5th longest serving of our 38 antecedent Prime Ministers (Wishart, 2008). In this text one shall learn about Helen Clark’s characteristics as a Prime Minister, her achievements during her three terms, some of her legislative implications, rough conclusion of why Helen Clark was successful as a Prime Minister and some insights into Helen Clark’s personality. Helen Clark was known as an organiser and a â€Å"political machine†(WishartRead MoreThe Women s Suffrage Movement Essay3854 Words   |  16 PagesMovement On the 19th of September, 1893, New Zealand women experienced a monumental change in political status when the right to vote in parliamentary elections was extended to them. Prior to this it was only men who were permitted to vote. Intense protest against such came at full force in the late 19th century, from women who were seeking political and legal reforms. Achieving franchise for women was the primary focus of the first wave of feminism in New Zealand. This was of massive importance becauseRead MoreMonsanto: Better Living Through Genetic Engineering96204 Words   |  385 Pagesthe greens: Governance issues in Tasmania C A S E F O U R Succeeding in the Sydney indie music industry C A S E F I V E Nucor in 2005 C A S E S I X News Corp in 2005: Consolidating the DirecTV acquisition C A S E S E V E N Shanghai Volkswagen: Implementing project management in the electrical engineering division C A S E E I G H T Television New Zealand: Balancing between commercial and social objectives C A S E N I N E From greenï ¬ eld to graduates: University of the Sunshine Coast C A S E T E N WholeRead MoreTriple Bottom Line10664 Words   |  43 PagesQUARTERLY important functions of corporate governance and management, then we should welcome attempts to develop tools that make more transparent to managers, shareholders, and other stakeholders just how well a firm is doing in this regard. In this article we will assume without argument both the desirability of many socially responsible business practices, on the one hand, and the potential usefulness of tools that allow us to measure and report on performance along these dimensions, on the other.

Culture of Life vs. Death free essay sample

Today, we, activists and pro-life believers, are really counter culture. Why? We reject society’s culture of death. We are politically incorrect when we defend unborn human life. That is good. By our lives and actions we silently preach the culture of life. We stand up for human life and we will defend it. We celebrate and welcome each new child into our lives and families. In proclaiming the culture of life today here on the streets of Washington and before the Supreme Court, we need to consider and ask ourselves if we are consistent across the board in our pro-life thinking and beliefs.The culture of life recognizes the truth of the natural law. The culture of death confuses freedom with license, moreover making unlimited freedom the defining characteristic of a soulless man. The culture of life recognizes the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. We will write a custom essay sample on Culture of Life vs. Death or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The culture of death ridicules the very concept of life through its entire spectrum from conception to natural death. Babies are referred to as fetuses, euthanasia is called assisted death, and infanticide becomes dilation and extraction or a late term abortion procedure.The culture of life affirms the right of every human being to recognize the sacred value of human life and to have this primary good respected to the highest degree. The culture of death recognizes no such right and makes man independent of his neighbors in regard to his actions as the greater good of the human communities is ignored. The culture of life recognizes Gods creative action involved in every created thing or process especially in the case of the coming into being of a human person. I knew you before you were in the womb (Jeremiah). When man interferes with this creative process as is the case with artificial contraception, man is not letting God be God. Man becomes the arbiter of when life begins, not God. Man becomes the arbiter of when life ends. The culture of death redefines marriage, as the two genders of Genesis no longer suffice. Five genders are now required per recent UN women conferences to include homosexuals, bisexuals, and something called transgendered (transsexuals). Procreation becomes an enemy of the state.

Strong And Courageous Essay Example For Students

Strong And Courageous Essay Strong and CourageousStrong and courageous, it could be thought at in many different ways when it is used in the biblical realm. You could use it for a positive way to stay close to God if you are a Christian. Perhaps if you were a non-believer you would used it for worldly matters such as muscle and guts. For myself I am a believer of the Christian perspective of staying close to God. Throughout our world today we having so many hurting people and lost people that sometimes to be the most courageous person is the one who steps out of their own comfort zone to help another in a time of need. Then there are those people who have a difficult time withstanding temptation from fellow peers or co-workers. These are all issues we deal with in the world today and can be helped only through God. We will write a custom essay on Strong And Courageous specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Your strength that you have all comes from God. Many Christians I believe lose sight on what there means of stronghold is really from. In the beginning of their relationship with God they are on such a spiritual high that when they come down from cloud nine they are lost. In Deut. 6:5 it says â€Å"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.† This simply put, if you put everything with God he will not let you down. You will be in good hands that love you and all he ask is for you to love him back. The term courageous I believe falls in right behind strength. They work as one, for if you have strength in God you will have courage as well. In Deut. 31, it talks about how Moses summons Joshua to the people of Israel. He says.. â€Å"be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land,† this is a prime example of how if you are strong and courageous anything is possible. You need to be confident when doi ng something but there is a fine line between confidence and being cocky. Which can normally be ignored when you are totally dealing with the Lord. In 1 Samuel 17, it is the story about the Philistines violated the honor of God. In this case Paul to Saul to fight the Philistines. For they had done dishonor to our Lord. In this situation the phrase strong and courageous was used by force but only for the intentions to preserve the honor of God. There is countless stories that deal with the same basic reasoning for violence. It is to hold up honor or respect for ones country. In today’s society you do not have the strong and courageous people fighting to hold up the Lord’s name, for the most part they fight to get respect or popularity amongst peers. Which is not what the bible intended or spoke about. It was based on events like the Philistines and such. In Matthew Henry’s Commentary he deals with the statement of strong and courage or courageous deals with the l aw of God. Which is correct, God wants people to be willing for him so calls for strength and courage from us. This goes along with my thoughts on standing firm for what you believe. For without the loyalty for something, a person would learn no worth for anything in life. Henry also says â€Å"Fear him and serve him, (for, if he be a Master, we must both reverence him and do his work); and swear by his name, that is, they must not upon any occasion appeal to any other, as the discerner of truth and avenger of wrong.† What I believe that he is trying to get across is that if we fear and have so much for respect for God as we are suppose to then we will have no problem being strong and courageous for him. The dictionary meaning for courageous or courage is the quality that enables people to meet dangers without giving way to fear, bravery, spirit. This can be used in a biblical manner, for if we believe that God gives us the strength and power to be courageous then that is wha t enables us. The meaning for the strong is firm, solid, well fortified, having wealth or resources. This too can be put into Christian perspective. For is you stand strong in your faith and have the right mind set (which would be the resources), then you will have strength. This just re-affirms what I stated earlier about God and have yourself right with him. If you can just keep yourself on the right path, you can have courage and strength through the help of God. .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b , .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b .postImageUrl , .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b , .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b:hover , .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b:visited , .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b:active { border:0!important; } .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b:active , .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u7350900f0d108b758c380e4332c2d26b:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Child Abuse Essay WritingI believe the concept of strong and courageous has hurt Israel. It is not do to the term itself it is how people view it. The Israelites and Palestinians are fighting today over violent issues. Not of issues that deal with God, so this takes the saying â€Å"strong and courageous† out of text when putting it in biblical terms. For if the over the years Israel and other surrounding neighbors would not have fought over issues that were selfish, they would not have the problems that they do today. Everyday you hear about some violent act at the Gaza Strip. All of which is over land which has nothing to do with their spiritual well-being. For Is raelites and Palestinians deal with pride over land. This is not what God or the writers of the bible intended for this statement. Although this happens on a daily basis, I still feel with the right leadership the violence and selfishness could stop. The problem of the world today in the Christian realm, is the lack of strength and courage about their faith. In recent studies only 2% of the population of Christians fulfill the â€Å"Great Commission†, sadly enough it is because us as Christian are afraid of what people would think. If we are to change in our ways of shyness then perhaps the church will be able to grow and the family of God can expand. This is what ultimately our goal as Christians and we must have the strength and the courage to do this. Religion Essays

The History of the Freedom Riders Movement

The History of the Freedom Riders Movement In 1961, men and women from throughout the nation arrived in Washington, D.C. to end Jim Crow  on interstate travel by embarking on what were called â€Å"Freedom Rides.†Ã‚  On such rides, racially mixed activists traveled together throughout the Deep South- ignoring signs marked â€Å"for whites† and â€Å"for colored† in buses and bus terminals. The riders endured beatings and arson attempts from white supremacist mobs, but their struggles paid off when segregationist policies on interstate bus and rail lines were struck down. Despite these achievements, the Freedom Riders aren’t the household names like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., but they’re civil rights heroes nonetheless. Both Parks and King would be heralded as heroes for their roles in ending segregated bus seating  in Montgomery, Ala.   How the Freedom Rides Got Started In the 1960 case Boynton v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregation in interstate bus and rail stations unconstitutional. But the high court’s ruling didn’t stop segregation on interstate bus and rail lines in the South from persisting. Enter the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a civil rights group. CORE sent seven blacks and six whites on two public buses headed for the South on May 4, 1961. The goal? To test the Supreme Court ruling on segregated interstate travel in the Confederate states. For two weeks, the activists planned to flout Jim Crow laws by sitting on the front of buses and in â€Å"whites only† waiting rooms in bus terminals. â€Å"Boarding that Greyhound bus to travel to the Deep South, I felt good. I felt happy,† Rep. John Lewis recalled during a May 2011  appearance on â€Å"The Oprah Winfrey Show.† Then a seminary student, Lewis would go on to become a U.S. congressman. During the first few days of their trip, the mixed-race group of activists traveled largely without incident. They didn’t have security and didn’t need it- yet. After arriving in Atlanta on May 13, 1961, they even attended a reception hosted by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., but the celebration took on a decidedly ominous tone when King alerted them that the Ku Klux Klan was organizing against them in Alabama. Despite King’s warning, the Freedom Rides did not change their course. As expected, when they reached Alabama, their journey took a turn for the worse. A Perilous Journey On the outskirts of Anniston, Alabama, members of a white supremacist mob showed just what they thought about the Freedom Riders by bashing in their bus and slashing its tires. To boot, the Alabama Klansmen set the bus on fire and blocked the exits to trap the Freedom Riders inside. It wasn’t until the bus’ fuel tank exploded that the mob dispersed and the Freedom Riders were able to escape. After a similar mob attacked the Freedom Riders in Birmingham, the U.S. Justice Department stepped in and evacuated the activists to New Orleans. The federal government did not want more harm to come to the riders. The Second Wave Due to the amount of violence inflicted on Freedom Riders, the leaders of CORE had to abandon the Freedom Rides or continue sending activists into harm’s way. Ultimately, CORE officials decided to send more volunteers on the rides.  Diane Nash, an activist who helped to organize Freedom Rides, explained  to Oprah Winfrey: â€Å"It was clear to me that if we allowed the Freedom Ride to stop at that point, just after so much violence had been inflicted, the message would have been sent that all you have to do to stop a nonviolent campaign is inflict massive violence.† On the second wave of rides, activists journeyed from Birmingham to Montgomery, Alabama in relative peace. Once the activists touched down in Montgomery, though, a mob of more than 1,000 attacked the riders. Later, in Mississippi, Freedom Riders were arrested for entering a whites-only waiting room in a Jackson bus terminal. For this act of defiance, authorities arrested the Freedom Riders, housing them in one of Mississippi’s most notorious correctional facilities- Parchman State Prison Farm. â€Å"The reputation of Parchman is that it’s a place that a lot of people get sent . . . and don’t come back,† former Freedom Rider Carol Ruth told Winfrey. During the summer of 1961, 300 Freedom Riders were imprisoned there. An Inspiration Then and Now The struggles of the Freedom Riders garnered nationwide publicity. Rather than intimidate other activists, however, the brutality the riders encountered inspired others to take up the cause. Before long, dozens of Americans were volunteering to travel on Freedom Rides. In the end, an estimated 436 people took such rides. The efforts of the Freedom Riders were finally rewarded when the Interstate Commerce Commission decided on Sept. 22, 1961, to ban segregation in interstate travel. Today, the contributions the Freedom Riders made to civil rights are the subject of a PBS documentary called Freedom Riders. In addition, in 2011, 40 students commemorated the Freedom Rides of 50 years before by boarding buses that retraced the journey of the first set of Freedom Riders.

Free Essays on Glory

The Civil war was a major part in our countries history. This is not better remembered than in the movie â€Å"Glory.† In the movie they show many trials and tribulations faced by the black soldiers. It illustrates the black soldiers’ feelings and hardships through the war. As the movie starts a white general is told he has to lead a black unit. He was not very excited at first. Many men would not dare lead them. After awhile you begin to meet some of the men and find that thy all are very different in their own way. Some wanted to fight with everybody and some didn’t want to fight anybody. The men’s personalities really began to come out and the general eventually takes a liking to his men. Training was no easy run through for the men either. Many of the white generals were very mean to the black soldiers. They would beat them and do things never attempted on white men. The general eventually tried to stick up for his men. As the war progressed, the men started getting down realizing they would never get to fight. They were denied the right. The general, however came up with a plan, he knew things about a higher officer who would not let the men fight. The blackmail proved successful and they got to see their first battle. They only suffered a few casualties and won part of the battle. Time in the war moved on and the blacks were made to do many other chores such as digging trenches. Blacks had to do much of the grunt work while the white soldiers never gave them any respect. They would almost start to fight each other every time they would pass by. All they wanted to do was to serve for ones country and they were still persecuted. Meanwhile the general is trying to lead the troops as best he can. One day a man who had been promoted from the black ranks asked for shoes. The general did not understand for he did not know that the men where all suffering from aching feet. The general was outrage... Free Essays on Glory Free Essays on Glory The Civil war was a major part in our countries history. This is not better remembered than in the movie â€Å"Glory.† In the movie they show many trials and tribulations faced by the black soldiers. It illustrates the black soldiers’ feelings and hardships through the war. As the movie starts a white general is told he has to lead a black unit. He was not very excited at first. Many men would not dare lead them. After awhile you begin to meet some of the men and find that thy all are very different in their own way. Some wanted to fight with everybody and some didn’t want to fight anybody. The men’s personalities really began to come out and the general eventually takes a liking to his men. Training was no easy run through for the men either. Many of the white generals were very mean to the black soldiers. They would beat them and do things never attempted on white men. The general eventually tried to stick up for his men. As the war progressed, the men started getting down realizing they would never get to fight. They were denied the right. The general, however came up with a plan, he knew things about a higher officer who would not let the men fight. The blackmail proved successful and they got to see their first battle. They only suffered a few casualties and won part of the battle. Time in the war moved on and the blacks were made to do many other chores such as digging trenches. Blacks had to do much of the grunt work while the white soldiers never gave them any respect. They would almost start to fight each other every time they would pass by. All they wanted to do was to serve for ones country and they were still persecuted. Meanwhile the general is trying to lead the troops as best he can. One day a man who had been promoted from the black ranks asked for shoes. The general did not understand for he did not know that the men where all suffering from aching feet. The general was outrage...

Social Entrepreneurism Module Case Study Coursework

Social Entrepreneurism Module Case Study - Coursework Example Therefore, their goals are short term, and they are the beneficiaries in the business venture. Parallel to this, social entrepreneurs invest in long-term investments where the society is the immediate beneficiary (Dees, Emerson & Economy, 2002). John Mackey started a healthy grocery using funds from savings and family borrowing. The main goal of John Mackey in starting the business was to help people acquire healthy groceries to reduce increased health problems. Later on, the business merged with two other groceries to form the ‘whole foods’. John Mackey is a social entrepreneur because his business had a long-term business venture with the first priority to promote societys prosperity to the maximum. He also confessed that he wanted to create a business venture that would promote human well-being for the community at large. He spent six years in school learning business entrepreneurship. He dropped from school frequently to support his social entrepreneurship venture. There are several characteristics that I learned from John Mackey’s entrepreneurship skills. There are various skills that I would relate to John Mackey’s entrepreneurship skills. First, he is skilled in the field of entrepreneurship. John Mackey spent years in college mostly learning the fields that he was interested in most. These skills helped him fulfill his entrepreneurship goal. This shows the need for one to have entrepreneurship knowledge, which helps one to make the right business decisions. Second, Mackey was determined to see his business venture succeed. He used six years in college learning and entrepreneuring at the same time. This shows how much determination it takes for a social entrepreneur to be successful. Third, Mackey was strategic in making his business decisions. He saw the need for his business to merge with two other groceries in order for the business to be more stable and increase the customer numbers. Lastly, Mackey was passionate in providing

Analysis of The Circus by George Seurat Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Analysis of The Circus by George Seurat - Essay Example The essay "Analysis of The Circus by George Seurat" examines the painting of famous artist Seurat. Due to the method’s demand for hard work, prevented its completion despite the published fact that he usually stays by himself working for long hours of the day and through the night on his paintings. The Circus as the title implies is the setting of the picture which shows the ringmaster on the forefront, the joyful dancing of the lady, prancing horse and the clown on his upside-down stunt. The painting depicts the gaiety going in the circus considered to have been a part of his experimentation of colors, as he also considered emotional characters coming out from his former mood of being very formal and static. Created during the years when Paris was still feeling the effects of the Franco-Prussian war, â€Å"The Circus† portrays the other side of the great devastation experienced during this time which recorded 36,000 people who died of starvation when the Germans besieg ed Paris and cut off all food supplies. Despite this fact, France rose to gather great minds from around the world and introduce their expertise and studies. It has been noted that Seurat and other impressionists never portrayed the dark side of the circumstances in France which could most probably be the reason behind the subject of this painting because Seurat would rather leave an impression to his audiences of the joyful pleasures the circus brings. During the time of Seurat, artworks have been a major contribution to the development of the country., attracting peoples from around the world not only in arts but also in other areas like philosophy, Sciences and Mathematics so that France then became the center of information and development. One of the developments produced in this era is what Seurat birthed as the Pointillism mentioned earlier which is also known as neo-impressionism. This was also the time when the ‘salon’, the French Academy of Art controlled the industry, dictating theme and style used in the artworks so that Seurat’s modern approach to his artwork was rejected because it was considered to be against the then generally accepted perception of art and beauty. The salon gave good exposure of artists and their works so it has been a very powerful tool to the success or fall of artists. Seurat was sneered at and his works have been despised by the impressionists but these did not thwart him in pursuing his personal style of performing arts in what he believed he could effectively use. He then joined hands with other artists whose works have also been rejected by the salon and formed an independent body where they coordinated their own exhibits. Contrary to what Seurat experienced with the impressionists, his artwork has been acclaimed by the increasingly educated population in the use of modern concepts. This gave Seurat a platform to continue with his style which he was known for and also to be the father of which, takin g a little following and influencing other successful artists during his time. The ringmaster’s whip and the whiplash is the motif repetitively expressed in

Social Science Disciplines Essay Example for Free

Social Science Disciplines Essay Demography is the study of populations and population changes and trends, using resources such as statistics of births, deaths and disease. †¢Social Statistics, Methods and Computing involves the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative social science data. Development Studies, Human Geography and Environmental Planning †¢Development Studies is a multidisciplinary branch of the social sciences which addresses a range of social and economic issues related to developing or low-income countries. †¢Human Geography studies the world, its people, communities and cultures, and differs from physical geography mainly in that it focuses on human activities and their impact for instance on environmental change. †¢Environmental Planning explores the decision-making processes for managing relationships within and between human systems and natural systems, in order to manage these processes in an effective, transparent and equitable manner. Economics, Management and Business Studies †¢Economics seeks to understand how individuals interact within the social structure, to address key questions about the production and exchange of goods and services. †¢Management and Business Studies explores a wide range of aspects relating to the activities and management of business, such as strategic and operational management, organisational psychology, employment relations, marketing, accounting, finance and logistics. Education, Social Anthropology, and Linguistics †¢Education is one of the most important social sciences, exploring how people learn and develop. †¢Social Anthropology is the study of how human societies and social structures are organised and understood. †¢Linguistics focuses on language and how people communicate through spoken sounds and words. Law, Economic and Social History †¢Law focuses on the rules created by governments and people to ensure a more orderly society. †¢Economic and Social History looks at past events to learn from history and better understand the processes of contemporary society. Politics and International Relations †¢Politics focuses on democracy and the relationship between people and policy, at all levels up from the individual to a national and international level. †¢International Relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of other organisations. Psychology and Sociology †¢Psychology studies the human mind and try to understand how people and groups experience the world through various emotions, ideas, and conscious states. †¢Sociology involves groups of people, rather than individuals, and attempts to understand the way people relate to each other and function as a society or social sub-groups. Science and Technology Studies †¢Science and Technology Studies is concerned with what scientists do, what their role is in our society, the history and culture of science, and the policies and debates that shape our modern scientific and technological world. Social Policy and Social Work †¢Social Policy is an interdisciplinary and applied subject concerned with the analysis of societies responses to social need, focusing on aspects of society, economy and policy that are necessary to human existence, and how these can be provided. †¢Social Work focuses on social change, problem-solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance social justice. This article is about the science studying social groups. For the integrated field of study intended to promote civic competence, see Social studies. Social science refers to the academic disciplines concerned with the society and the relationships of individuals within a society, which primarily rely on empirical approaches. It is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to anthropology, economics, political science,psychology and sociology. In a wider sense, it may often include humanities[1] such as archaeology, area studies, communication studies,cultural studies, folkloristics, history, law, linguistics, and rhetoric. The term may however be used in the specific context of referring to the original science of society, established in 19th century, sociology (Latin: socius, companion; Greek ÃŽ »ÃÅ'ÃŽ ³ÃŽ ¿Ãâ€š, là ³gos, word, knowledge, study.). Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx and Max Weber are typically cited as the principal architects of modern social science by this definition.[2] Positivist social scientists use methods resembling those of the natural sciences as tools for understanding society, and so define science in its stricter modern sense. Interpretivist social scientists, by contrast, may use social critique or symbolic interpretation rather than constructing empirically falsifiable theories, and thus treat science in its broader sense. In modern academic practice, researchers are often eclectic, using multiple methodologies (for instance, by combining the quantitative and qualitative techniques). The term social research has also acquired a degree of autonomy as practitioners from various disciplines share in its aims and methods The history of the social sciences begins in the Age of Enlightenment after 1650, which saw a revolution within natural philosophy, changing the basic framework by which individuals understood what was scientific. Social sciences came forth from the moral philosophy of the time and was influenced by the Age of Revolutions, such as the Industrial revolution and the French revolution.[3]The social sciences developed from the sciences (experimental and applied), or the systematic knowledge-bases or prescriptive practices, relating to the social improvement of a group of interacting entities.[4][5] The beginnings of the social sciences in the 18th century are reflected in various grand encyclo pedia of Diderot, with articles from Rousseau and other pioneers. The growth of the social sciences is also reflected in other specialized encyclopedias. The modern period saw social science first used as a distinct conceptual field.[6] Social science was influenced by positivism,[3] focusing on knowledge based on actual positive sense experience and avoiding the negative; metaphysical speculation was avoided. Auguste Comte used the term science social to describe the field, taken from the ideas of Charles Fourier; Comte also referred to the field as social physics.[3][7] Following this period, there were five paths of development that sprang forth in the Social Sciences, influenced by Comte on other fields.[3] One route that was taken was the rise of social research. Large statistical surveys were undertaken in various parts of the United States and Europe. Another route undertaken was initiated by Émile Durkheim, studying social facts, andVilfredo Pareto,  opening metatheoretical ideas and individual theories. A third means developed, arising from the methodological dichotomy present, in which the social phenomena was identifi ed with and understood; this was championed by figures such as Max Weber. The fourth route taken, based in economics, was developed and furthered economic knowledge as a hard science. The last path was the correlation of knowledge and social values; the antipositivism and verstehen sociology of Max Weber firmly demanded on this distinction. In this route, theory (description) and prescription were non-overlapping formal discussions of a subject. Around the start of the 20th century, Enlightenment philosophy was challenged in various quarters. After the use of classical theories since the end of the scientific revolution, various fields substituted mathematics studies for experimental studies and examining equations to build a theoretical structure. The development of social science subfields became very quantitative in methodology. The interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary nature of scientific inquiry into human behavior, social and environmental factors affecting it, made many of the natural sciences interested in some aspects of social science methodo logy.[8] Examples of boundary blurring include emerging disciplines like social research of medicine, sociobiology, neuropsychology, bioeconomics and the history and sociology of science. Increasingly, quantitative research and qualitative methods are being integrated in the study of human action and its implications and consequences. In the first half of the 20th century, statistics became a free-standing discipline of applied mathematics. Statistical methods were used confidently. In the contemporary period, Karl Popper and Talcott Parsons influenced the furtherance of the social sciences.[3] Researchers continue to search for a unified consensus on what methodology might have the power and refinement to connect a proposed grand theory with the various midrange theories which, with considerable success, continue to provide usable frameworks for massive, growing data banks; for more, see consilience. The social sciences will for the foreseeable future be composed of different zones in the re search of, and sometime distinct in approach toward, the field.[3] The term social science may refer either to the specific sciences of society established by thinkers such as Comte, Durkheim, Marx, and Weber, or more generally to all disciplines outside of noble science and arts. By the late 19th century, the academic social sciences were constituted of five fields: jurisprudence and amendment of the law, education, health, economy and trade, and art.[4] Around the start of the 21st century, the expanding domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as economic imperialism.[9] Branches of social science[edit source | editbeta] Social Science areas The following are problem areas and discipline branches within the social sciences.[3] †¢Anthropology †¢Area studies †¢Business studies †¢Communication studies †¢Criminology †¢Demography †¢Development studies †¢Economics †¢Education †¢Geography †¢History †¢Industrial relations †¢Information science †¢Law †¢Library science †¢Linguistics †¢Media studies †¢Political science †¢Psychology †¢Public administration †¢Sociology The Social Science disciplines are branches of knowledge which are taught and researched at the college or university level. Social Science disciplines are defined and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned Social Science societies and academic departments or faculties to which their practitioners belong. Social Science fields of study usually have several sub-disciplines or branches, and the distinguishing lines between these are often both arbitrary and ambiguous. Anthropology[edit source | editbeta] Main article: Anthropology Anthropology is the holistic science of man, a science of the totality of human existence. The discipline deals with the integration of different aspects of the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Human Biology. In the twentieth century, academic disciplines have often been institutionally divided into three broad domains. The natural sciences seek to derive general laws through reproducible and verifiable experiments. The humanities generally study local traditions, through their history, literature, music, and arts, with an emphasis on understanding particular individuals, events, or eras. The social scienceshave generally attempted to develop scientific methods to understand social phenomena in a generalizable way, though usually with methods distinct from those of the natural sciences. The anthropological social sciences often develop nuanced descriptions rather than the general laws derived in physics or chemistry, or they may explain individual cases through more general principles, as in many fields of psychology. Anthropology (like some fields of history) does not easily fit into one of these categories, and different branches of anthropology draw on one or more of these domains.[10] Within the United States, Anthropology is divided into four sub-fields:Archaeology, Physical or Biological Anthropology, Anthropological Linguistics, and Cultural Anthropology. It is an area that is offered at most undergraduate institutions. The word anthropos (ÃŽ ¬ÃŽ ½ÃŽ ¸Ã Ãâ€°Ãâ‚¬ÃŽ ¿Ãâ€š) is from the Greek for human being or person. Eric Wolf described sociocultural anthropology as the most scientific of the humanities, and the most humanistic of the sciences. The goal of anthropology is to provide a holistic account of humans and human nature. This means that, though anthropologists generally specialize in only one sub-field, they always keep in mind the biological, linguistic, historic and cultural aspects of any problem. Since anthropology arose as a science in Western societies that were complex and industrial, a major trend within anthropology has been a methodological drive to study peoples in societies with more simple social organization, sometimes called primitive in  anthropological literature, but without any connotation of inferior.[11] Today, anthropologists use terms such as less complex societies or refer to specific modes of subsistence or production, such as pastoralist or forager or horticulturalist to refer to humans living in non-industrial, non-Western cultures, such people or folk (ethnos) remaining of great interest within anthropology. The quest for holism leads most anthropologists to study a people in detail, using biogenetic, archaeological, and linguistic data alongside direct observation of contemporary customs.[12] In the 1990s and 2000s, calls for clarification of what constitutes a culture, of how an observer knows where his or her own culture ends and another begins, and other crucial topics in writing anthropology were heard. It is possible to view all human cultures as part of one large, evolving global culture. These dynamic relationships, between what can be observed on the ground, as opposed to what can be observed by compiling many local observations remain fundamental in any kind of anthropology, whether cultural, biological, linguistic or archaeological.[13] Communication studies[edit source | editbeta] Main articles: Communication studies and History of communication studies Communication studies deals with processes of human communication, commonly defined as the sharing of symbols to create meaning. The discipline encompasses a range of topics, from face-to-face conversation to mass media outlets such as television broadcasting. Communication studies also examines how messages are interpreted through the political, cultural, economic, and social dimensions of their contexts. Communication is institutionalized under many different names at different universities, including communication, communication studies, speech communication, rhetorical studies, communication science, media studies, communication arts, mass communication, media ecology, and communication and media science. Communication studies integrates aspects of both social sciences and the humanities. As a social science, the discipline often overlaps with sociology, psychology, anthropology, biology, political science, economics, and public policy, among others. From a humanities perspective, communication is concerned with rhetoric and persuasion (traditional graduate programs in communication studies trace their history to the rhetoricians of Ancient Greece). The field applies to outside disciplines as well, including engineering, architecture, mathematics, and information science. Economics[edit source | editbeta] Main article: Economics Economics is a social science that seeks to analyze and describe the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth.[14] The word economics is from the Greek ÃŽ ¿Ã¡ ¼ ¶ÃŽ ºÃŽ ¿Ãâ€š [oikos], family, household, estate, and ÃŽ ½ÃÅ'ÃŽ ¼ÃŽ ¿Ãâ€š [nomos], custom, law, and hence means household management or management of the state. An economist is a person using economic concepts and data in the course of employment, or someone who has earned a degree in the subject. The classic brief definition of economics, set out by Lionel Robbins in 1932, is the science which studies human behavior as a relation between scarce means having alternative uses. Without scarcity and alternative uses, there is no economic problem. Briefer yet is the study of how people seek to satisfy needs and wants and the study of the financial aspects of human behavior. Buyers bargain for good prices while sellers put forth their best front inChichicastenango Market, Guatemala. Economics has two broad branches: microeconomics, where the unit of analysis is the individual agent, such as a household or firm, andmacroeconomics, where the unit of analysis is an economy as a whole. Another division of the subject distinguishes positive economics, which seeks to predict and explain economic phenomena, from normative economics, which orders choices and actions by some criterion; such orderings necessarily involve subjective value judgments. Since the early part of the 20th century, economics has focused largely on measurable quantities, employing both theoretical models and empirical analysis. Quantitative models, however, can be traced as far back as the physiocratic school. Economic reasoning has been increasingly applied in recent decades to other social situations such as politics, law, psychology, history, religion,marriage and family life, and other social interactions. This paradigm crucially assumes (1) that resources are scarce because they are not sufficient to satisfy all wants, and (2) that economic value is willingness to pay as revealed for instance by market (arms length) transactions. Rival heterodoxschools of thought, such as  institutional economics, green economics, Marxist economics, and economic sociology, make other grounding assumptions. For example, Marxist economics assumes that economics primarily deals with the exchange of value, and that labor (human effort) is the source of all value. The expanding domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as economic imperialism.[9][15] Education[edit source | editbeta] Main article: Education Europes oldest university, the University of Bologna, Italy Education encompasses teaching and learning specific skills, and also something less tangible but more profound: the imparting of knowledge, positivejudgement and well-developed wisdom. Education has as one of its fundamental aspects the imparting of culture from generation to generation (seesocialization). To educate means to draw out, from the Latin educare, or to facilitate the realization of an individuals potential and talents. It is an application of pedagogy, a body of theoretical and applied research relating to teaching and learning and draws on many disciplines such as psychology,philosophy, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, sociology and anthropology.[16] The education of an individual human begins at birth and continues throughout life. (Some believe that education begins even before birth, as evidenced by some parents playing music or reading to the baby in the womb in the hope it will influence the childs development.) For some, the struggles and triumphs of daily life provide far more instruction than does formal schooling (thus Mark Twains admonition to never let school interfere with your education). Family members may have a profound educational effect — often more profound than they realize — though family teaching may function very informally. Human geography[edit source | editbeta] Main articles: Geography and Human geography Geography as a discipline can be split broadly into two main sub fields: human geography and physical geography. The former focuses largely on the built environment and how space is created, viewed and managed by humans as well as the influence humans have on the space they occupy. This mayinvolveCultural geography, transportation, health, military operations, and cities. The latter examines the natural environment and how the climate, vegetation life,soil, oceans, water and landforms are produced and interact.[17] Physical geography examines phenomena related to the measurement of earth. As a result of the two subfields using different approaches a third field has emerged, which is environmental geography. Environmental geography combines physical and human geography and looks at the interactions between the environment and humans.[18] Other branches of geography include Social geography,regional geography, and geomatics. Geographers attempt to understand the earth in terms of phys ical and spatial relationships. The first geographers focused on the science of mapmaking and finding ways to precisely project the surface of the earth. In this sense, geography bridges some gaps between the natural sciences and social sciences. Historical geography is often taught in a college in a unified Department of Geography. Modern geography is an all-encompassing discipline, closely related to GISc, that seeks to understand humanity and its natural environment. The fields of Urban Planning, Regional Science, andPlanetology are closely related to geography. Practitioners of geography use many technologies and methods to collect data such as GIS, remote sensing, aerial photography, statistics, andglobal positioning systems (GPS). History[edit source | editbeta] Main article: History History is the continuous, systematic narrative and research into past human events as interpreted through historiographical paradigms or theories, such as the Turner Thesis about the American frontier. History has a base in both the social sciences and the humanities. In the United States the National Endowment for the Humanities includes history in its definition of a Humanities (as it does for applied Linguistics).[19] However, the National Research Council classifies History as a Social science.[20] The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians useprimary sources and other evidence to research and then to write history. The Social Science History Association, formed in 1976, brings together scholars from numerous disciplines interested insocial history.[21] Law[edit source | editbeta] Main article: Law Law in common parlance, means a rule which (unlike a rule of ethics) is capable of enforcement through institutions.[22] However, many laws are based on norms accepted by a community and thus have an ethical foundation. The study of law crosses the boundaries between the social sciences and humanities, depending on ones view of research into its objectives and effects. Law is not always enforceable, especially in the international relations context. It has been defined as a system of rules,[23] as an interpretive concept[24] to achieve justice, as an authority[25] to mediate peoples interests, and even as the command of a sovereign, backed by the threat of a sanction.[26] However one likes to think of law, it is a completely central social institution. Legal policy incorporates the practical manifestation of thinking from almost every social sciences and humanity. Laws are politics, because politicians create them. Law is philosophy, because moral and ethical persuasions shape their ideas. Law tells many of historys stories, because statutes, case law and codifications build up over time. And law is economics, because any rule about contract, tort, property law, labour law,company law and many more can have long lasting effects on the distribution of wealth. The noun law derives from the late Old English lagu, meaning something laid down or fixed[27] and the adjective legal comes from the Latin word lex.[28] Linguistics[edit source | editbeta] Main article: Linguistics Ferdinand de Saussure, recognized as the father of modern linguistics Linguistics investigates the cognitive and social aspects of human language. The field is divided into areas that focus on aspects of the linguistic signal, such as syntax (the study of the rules that govern the structure of sentences), semantics (the study of meaning), morphology (the study of the structure of words), phonetics (the study of speech sounds) and phonology (the study of the abstract sound system of a particular language); however, work in areas like evolutionary linguistics (the study of the origins and evolution of language) and psycholinguistics (the study of psychological  factors in human language) cut across these divisions. The overwhelming majority of modern research in linguistics takes a predominantly synchronic perspective (focusing on language at a particular point in time), and a great deal of it—partly owing to the influence of Noam Chomsky—aims at formulating theories of the cognitive processing of language. However, language does not exist in a vacuum, or only in the brain, and approaches like contact linguistics, creole studies, discourse analysis, social interactional linguistics, and sociolinguistics explore language in its social context. Sociolinguistics often makes use of traditional quantitative analysis and statistics in investigating the frequency of features, while some disciplines, like contact linguistics, focus on qualitative analysis. While certain areas of linguistics can thus be understood as clearly falling within the social sciences, other areas, like acoustic phonetics and neurolinguistics, draw on the natural sciences. Linguistics draws only secondarily on the humanities, which played a rather greater role in linguistic inquiry in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Ferdinand Saussure is considered the father of modern linguistics. Political science[edit source | editbeta] Main articles: Political science and Politics Aristotle asserted that man is a political animal in his Politics[citation needed] Political science is an academic and research discipline that deals with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. Fields and subfields of political science include political economy, political theory and philosophy, civics and comparative politics, theory of direct democracy, apolitical governance, participatory direct democracy, national systems, cross-national political analysis, political development, international relations, foreign policy, international law, politics, public administration, administrative behavior, public law, judicial behavior, and public policy. Political science also studies power in international relations and the theory of Great powers and Superpowers. Political science is methodologically diverse, although recent years have witnessed an upsurge in the use of the scientific method [2]. That is the proliferation of formal-deductive model building and  quantitative hypothesis testing. Approaches to the discipline include rational choice, classical political philosophy, interpretivism, structuralism, and behavioralism, realism, pluralism, and institutionalism. Political science, as one of the social sciences, uses methods and techniques that relate to the kinds of inquiries sought: primary sources such as historical documents, interviews, and official records, as well as secondary sources such as scholarly journal articles are used in building and testing theories. Empirical methods include survey research,statistical analysis/econometrics, case studies, experiments, and model building. Herbert Baxter Adams is credited with coining the phrase political science while teaching history at Johns Hopkins University. Public administration [edit source | editbeta] Main article: Public administration One of the main branches of political science, public administration can be broadly described as the development, implementation and study of branches of government policy. The pursuit of the public good by enhancing civil society and social justice is the ultimate goal of the field. Though public administration has historically referred to as government management, it increasingly encompasses non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that also operate with a similar, primary dedication to the betterment of humanity. Its the government protocol to solve a public problem. According to Anne Schneider and Helen Ingram, policies constitute the discourses, text, regulations and laws. Also the making of public policies include the enforcement of such and the tools given to the institutions to do so.[3] Differentiating public administration from business administration, a closely related field, has become a popular method for defining the discipline by contrasting the two. First, the goals of public administration are more closely related to those often cited as goals of the American founders and democratic people in general.[citation needed][dubious – discuss] That is, public employees work to improve equality, justice, security, efficiency, effectiveness, and, at times, the profit.[citation needed] These values help to both differentiate the field from business administration, primarily concerned with profit, and define the discipline. Second, public administration is a relatively new, multidisciplinary field.  Woodrow Wilsons The Study of Administration is frequently cited as the seminal work. Wilson advocated a more professional operation of public officials daily activities. Further, the future president identified the necessity in the United States of a separation between party politics and good bureaucracy, which has also been a lasting theme. The multidisciplinary nature of public administration is related to a third defining feature: administrative duties. Public administrators work in public agencies, at all levels of government, and perform a wide range of tasks. Public administrators collect and analyze data (statistics), monitor fiscal operations (budgets, accounts, and cash flow), organize large events and meetings, draft legislation, develop policy, and frequently execute legally mandated, government activities. Regarding this final facet, public administrators find themselves serving as parole officers, secretaries, note takers, paperwork processors, record keepers, notaries of the public, ca shiers, and managers. Indeed, the discipline couples well with many vocational fields such as information technology, finance, law, and engineering. When it comes to the delivery and evaluation of public services, a public administrator is undoubtedly involved. Psychology[edit source | editbeta] Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt was the founder of experimental psychology Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the study of behavior and mental processes. Psychology also refers to the application of suchknowledge to various spheres of human activity, including problems of individuals daily lives and the treatment of mental illness. The word psychologycomes from the ancient Greek ψυχÎ ®, psyche (soul, mind) and logy, study). Psychology differs from anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology in seeking to capture explanatory generalizations about the mental function and overt behavior of individuals, while the other disciplines focus on creating descriptive generalizations about the functioning of social groups or situation-specific human behavior. In practice, however, there is quite a lot of cross-fertilization that takes place among the various fields. Psychology differs from biology and neuroscience in that it is primarily concerned with the interaction of mental processes and behavior, and of the overall processes of a system, andnot simply the biological or neural processes themselves, though the subfield of neuropsychology combines the study of the actual neural processes with the study of the mental effects they have subjectively produced. Many people associate Psychology with Clinical Psychology which focuses on assessment and treatment of problems in living and psychopathology. In reality, Psychology has myriad specialties including: Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Mathematical psychology, Neuropsychology, and Quantitative Analysis of Behavior to name only a few. Psychology is a very broad science that is rarely tackled as a whole, major block. Although some subfields encompass a natural science base and a social science application, others can be clearly distinguished as having little to do with the social sciences or having a lot to do with the social sciences. For example, biological psychology is considered a natural science with a social scientific application (as is clinical medicine), social and occupational psychology are, generally speaking, purely social sciences, whereas neuropsychology is a natural science that lacks application out of the scientific tradition entirely. In British universities, emphasis on what tenet of psychology a student has studied and/or concentrated is communicated through the degree conferred: B.Psy. indicates a balance between natural and social sciences, B.Sc. indicates a strong (or entire) scientific concentration, whereas a B.A. underlines a majority of social science credits. This is not always necessarily the case however, and in many UK institutions students studying the B.Psy, B.Sc, and B.A. follow the same curriculum as outlined by The British Psychological Society and have the same options of specialism open to them regardless of whether they choose a balance, a heavy science basis, or heavy social science basis to their degree. If they applied to read the B.A. for example, but specialised in heavily science based modules, then they will still generally be awarded the B.A. Sociology[edit source | editbeta] Main article: Sociology Émile Durkheim is considered one of the founding fathers of sociology. Sociology is the systematic study of society and human social action. The meaning of the word comes from the suffix -ology which means study of,  derived from Greek, and the stem soci- which is from the Latin word socius, meaning companion, or society in general. Sociology was originally established by Auguste Comte (1798–1857) in 1838.[29] Comte endeavoured to unify history, psychology and economics through the descriptive understanding of the social realm. He proposed that social ills could be remedied through sociological positivism, an epistemological approach outlined in The Course in Positive Philosophy [1830–1842] and A General View of Positivism (1844). Though Comte is generally regarded as the Father of Sociology, the discipline was formally established by another French thinker, Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), who developed positivism as a foundation to practical social research. Durkheim set up the first European department of sociology at the University of Bordeaux in 1895, publishing his Rules of the Sociological Method. In 1896, he established the journal LAnnà ©e Sociologique. Durkheims seminal monograph, Suicide (1897), a case study of suicide rates amongst Catholic and Protestant populations, distinguished sociological analysis frompsychology or philosophy.[30] Karl Marx rejected Comtes positivism but nevertheless aimed to establish a science of society based on historical materialism, becoming recognised as a founding figure of sociology posthumously as the term gained broader meaning. Around the start of the 20th century, the first wave of German sociologists, including Max Weber and Georg Simmel, developed sociol ogical antipositivism. The field may be broadly recognised as an amalgam of three modes of social thought in particular: Durkheimian positivism and structural functionalism; Marxist historical materialism and conflict theory; Weberian antipositivism and verstehen analysis. American sociology broadly arose on a separate trajectory, with little Marxist influence, an emphasis on rigorous experimental methodology, and a closer association with pragmatism and social psychology. In the 1920s, the Chicago school developedsymbolic interactionism. Meanwhile in the 1930s, the Frankfurt School pioneered the idea of critical theory, an interdisciplinary form of Marxist sociologydrawing upon thinkers as diverse as Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche. Critical theory would take on something of a life of its own after World War II, influencing literary criticism and the Birmingham School establishment of cultural studies. Sociology evolved as an academic response to the challenges of modernity, such as industrialization, urbanization,  secularization, and a perceived process of enveloping rationalization.[31]Because sociology is such a broad discipline, it can be difficult to define, even for professional sociologists. The field generally concerns the social rule s and processes that bind and separate people not only as individuals, but as members of associations, groups, communities and institutions, and includes the examination of the organization and development of human social life. The sociological field of interest ranges from the analysis of short contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social processes. In the terms of sociologists Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, social scientists seek an understanding of the Social Construction of Reality. Most sociologists work in one or more subfields. One useful way to describe the discipline is as a cluster of sub-fields that examine different dimensions of society. For example, social stratification studies inequality and class structure; demography studies changes in a population size or type; criminology examines criminal behavior and deviance; and political sociology studies the interaction between society and state. Since its inception, sociological epistemologies, methods, and frames of enquiry, have significantly expanded and diverged.[32] Sociologists use a diversity of research methods, drawing upon either empirical techniques or critical theory. Common modern methods in clude case studies, historical research, interviewing, participant observation, social network analysis, survey research,statistical analysis, and model building, among other approaches. Since the late 1970s, many sociologists have tried to make the discipline useful for non-academic purposes. The results of sociological research aid educators, lawmakers, administrators, developers, and others interested in resolving social problems and formulating public policy, through subdisciplinary areas such asevaluation research, methodological assessment, and public sociology. New sociological sub-fields continue to appear — such as community studies, computational sociology, environmental sociology, network analysis, actor-network theory and a growing list, many of which are cross-disciplinary in nature. Additional fields of study[edit source | editbeta] Additional applied or interdisciplinary fields related to the Social Sciences include: †¢Archaeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, features, biofacts, and landscapes. †¢Area studies are interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/federal, or cultural regions. †¢Behavioral science is a term that encompasses all the disciplines that explore the activities of and interactions among organisms in the natural world. †¢Computational social science is an umbrella field encompassing computational approaches within the social sciences. †¢Demography is the statistical study of all human populations. †¢Development studies a multidisciplinary branch of social science which addresses issues of concern to developing countries. †¢Environmental social science is the broad, transdisciplinary study of interrelations between humans and the natural environment. †¢Environmental studies integrate social, humanistic, and natural science perspectives on the relation between humans and the natural environment. †¢Information science is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information. †¢International studies covers both International relations (the study of foreign affairs and global issues among states within the international system) and International education (the comprehensive approach that intentionally prepares people to be active and engaged participants in an interconnected world). †¢Journalism is the craft of conveying news, descriptive material and comment via a widening spectrum of media. †¢Legal management is a social sciences discipline that is designed for students interested in the study of State and Legal elements. †¢Library science is an interdisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and other areas to libraries; the collection, organization, preservation and disseminat ion of information resources; and the political economy of information. †¢Management in all business and human organization activity is simply the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives. †¢Marketing the identification of human needs and wants, defines and measures their magnitude for demand and understanding theprocess of consumer buying behavior to formulate products and services, pricing, promotion and distribution to satisfy these needs and wants through exchange processes and building long term relationships. †¢Political economy is the study of production, buying and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government. Methodology[edit source | editbeta] Social research[edit source | editbeta] Main article: Social research The origin of the survey can be traced back at least early as the Domesday Book in 1086,[33][34] whilst some scholars pinpoint the origin of demography to 1663 with the publication of John Graunts Natural and Political Observations upon the Bills of Mortality.[35] Social research began most intentionally, however, with the positivist philosophy of science in the 19th century. In contemporary usage, social research is a relatively autonomous term, encompassing the work of practitioners from various disciplines which share in its aims and methods. Social scientists employ a range of methods in order to analyse a vast breadth of social phenomena; from census survey data derived from millions of individuals, to the in-depth analysis of a single agents social experiences; from monitoring what is happening on contemporary streets, to the investigation of ancient historical documents. The methods originally rooted in classical sociology and statistical mathematics have formed the basis for research in other disciplines, such as political science, media studies, and marketing and market research. Social research methods may be divided into two broad schools: †¢Quantitative designs approach social phenomena through quantifiable evidence, and often rely on statistical analysis of many cases (or across intentionally designed treatments in an experiment) to create valid and reliable general claims. †¢Qualitative designs emphasize understanding of social phenomena through direct observation, communication with participants, or analysis of texts, and may stress contextual and subjective accuracy over generality Social scientists will commonly combine quantitative and qualitative approaches as part of a multi-strategy design. Questionnaires, field-based data collection, archival database information and laboratory-based data collections are some of the measurement techniques used. It is noted the importance of measurement and analysis, focusing on the (difficult to achieve) goal of objective research or statistical  hypothesis testing. A mathematical model uses mathematical language to describe a system. The process of developing a mathematical model is termed mathematical modelling (also modeling). Eykhoff (1974) defined a mathematical model as a representation of the essential aspects of an existing system (or a system to be constructed) which presents knowledge of that system in usable form.[36] Mathematical models can take many forms, including but not limited to dynamical systems, statistical models, differential equations, or game theoretic models. These and other types of models can overlap, with a given model involving a variety of abstract structures. The system is a set of interacting or interdependent entities, real or abstract, forming an integrated whole. The concept of an integrated whole can also be stated in terms of a system embodying a set of relationships which are differentiated from relationships of the set to other elements, and from relationships between an element of the set and elements not a part of the relational regime. Dynamical system modeled as a mathematical formalization has fixed rule which describes the time dependence of a points position in its ambient space. Small changes in the state of the system correspond to small changes in the numbers. The evolution rule of the dynamical system is a fixed rule that describes what future states follow from the current state. The rule is deterministic: for a given time interval only one future state follows from the current state.

Traveling With Children :: Parenting Internet Papers

Traveling With Children About four years ago a friend of mine guided me into a couple of chat rooms. The subject of the rooms had to do with sports. It was very strange how the other members of the community knew when you logged in or logged out. Sometimes the members would see that you were there but not participating in the "conversation". They would try to bring you into the conversation or come right out and ask you what you were there for. The conversations can go quite quickly so I had a hard time keeping up sometimes. They were friendly, though, and would just ask again if a person did not answer in enough time. I have not been in a chat room since. It seems easier when you already know another person in the room. I actually think it is kind of creepy. I will not know who these people are. Do I want them to know my log on name? What if they are weirdoes and look up my personal information on the internet? Do they even have this capability? It is pretty obvious that I do not know much about the internet. I do know how to E-Mail someone. I do not have a problem going to a web site if I know the address. If I am searching for something I actually get very frustrated, because it takes so much time if you do not know what you are doing. One link leads to another, then another, then another and then you forget where you started. The community I am most curious about is the chat room community. I am going to plung right in and face my fears. Will I feel comfortable to participate in the conversations? Will the people in the chat room be talking about something that interests me? Will I be able to keep up? I assume it will be difficult. My topic is "Traveling with Children". I have no idea if there are even any chat rooms out there about this subject. I read an article in the travel section of the Los Angeles Times every other week about traveling with children, so there must be some sort of audience out there. I assume there must be resources on this subject because traveling is so popular. The internet seems like it would be a useful tool for research and if I find the chat rooms I imagine it will be very helpful. Traveling With Children :: Parenting Internet Papers Traveling With Children About four years ago a friend of mine guided me into a couple of chat rooms. The subject of the rooms had to do with sports. It was very strange how the other members of the community knew when you logged in or logged out. Sometimes the members would see that you were there but not participating in the "conversation". They would try to bring you into the conversation or come right out and ask you what you were there for. The conversations can go quite quickly so I had a hard time keeping up sometimes. They were friendly, though, and would just ask again if a person did not answer in enough time. I have not been in a chat room since. It seems easier when you already know another person in the room. I actually think it is kind of creepy. I will not know who these people are. Do I want them to know my log on name? What if they are weirdoes and look up my personal information on the internet? Do they even have this capability? It is pretty obvious that I do not know much about the internet. I do know how to E-Mail someone. I do not have a problem going to a web site if I know the address. If I am searching for something I actually get very frustrated, because it takes so much time if you do not know what you are doing. One link leads to another, then another, then another and then you forget where you started. The community I am most curious about is the chat room community. I am going to plung right in and face my fears. Will I feel comfortable to participate in the conversations? Will the people in the chat room be talking about something that interests me? Will I be able to keep up? I assume it will be difficult. My topic is "Traveling with Children". I have no idea if there are even any chat rooms out there about this subject. I read an article in the travel section of the Los Angeles Times every other week about traveling with children, so there must be some sort of audience out there. I assume there must be resources on this subject because traveling is so popular. The internet seems like it would be a useful tool for research and if I find the chat rooms I imagine it will be very helpful.

Come Back to the Bush Analysis Essay

The poem â€Å"come back to the bush† is an Australian poem written by Thomas a spencer. The poem describes Australia and the Australian outback and how incomparable it is to the city life of London. The poem explores why the outback is unique and great and creates an image in the readers mind representing the Australian outback. The man in the poem has left his home in the outback to go live the high life in London. The verse â€Å"so I brought my folks to London, and we’ve settled down in style†, gives the expression the man is ecstatic and overjoyed living in London. Although the poem explores this particular emotion of the persona, the composer is yet to reveal the personas ‘rough Australian outback man’. This side of him has not left him and voice haunts him to come back home â€Å"to the bush and the wallaby track, to the home in the clearing, the sheep and the sheering†. For those who have not experienced the Australian outback the poet may be perplexing (confusing). The outback is very harsh and barren; the Australian men who have lived in the outback are made for the desolate terrain. The outback is one like no other and has a special connection to many who reside there. This connection has been made with the man. In the poem the voice represented is that of the man who talks about his life in London and how he is living a wonderful life in London. The man later talks about the Australian outback calling him back home. This crushes him and he is baffled with what to do next. The poem addresses the man and talks about how the man is reminded of his home country and where he belongs. The poem addresses men who have left the outback for the city life. The poem calls to men and women who are being haunted on making the life changing decision on whether to leave or stay in the outback. The man has made his decisions but his now reconsidering what to do. The poem shows the distress the man is in and how unaware he is on what to do. The situations the words are spoken in are helplessness, regret and confusion. The persona is regretful of the move and is helpless on making the decision on what to do next. The main argument in the poem is should the man go back home to the outback and why the man had left and weather it was the right decision to make. The reader of the poem is given the perspective that the man is regretting his decision and the question is asked to the audience, is it alright to leave your home and who you are for money and a high life? The reader is quiet involved in the poem which is a very effective strategy used my Thomas spencer. In the poem the reader is invited to see the effect of leaving your identity behind. We as the readers see the regret in the man and his helplessness towards the decision he had made and how that decision had impacted his life. The poem is very meaning full and is interesting. It relates to many readers and is a great poem with the theme belonging embedded in the poem.

Katherine Mansfield stories “Prelude” and “At the Bay” Essay

Two of Katherine Mansfield’s most famous stories are â€Å"Prelude† and â€Å"At the Bay†, both of them portraying a New Zealand family. Both stories, are revolving around the female characters, but the one link that connects all of them is Stanley Burnell, member and provider of the family. The New Zealand critic Carl Stead affirms that Stanley Burnell is a ‘benevolent despot’ meaning that he is a kind person, and a tyrant in the same time. I agree with Stead affirmation, but as it seems somewhat incomplete, I would want to add a few words to it: Stanley character is benevolent but unconsciously despot. Stanley is dynamic and doesn’t like to rely on other people; he is eager to put down roots and settle down. He has no inherited wealth or special education; only his own intellect on which to rely. He is not only responsible for Linda and his children, but he has assumed responsibility for her mother and unmarried sister, Beryl. He works hard and makes sacrifices to support his family. For example, when they are all on holiday in â€Å"At the Bay†, Stanley catches the bus in to work .To have such a busy life, Stanley demands constant support from everyone else into covering his insecurities. He is not only looking for support, but he also expects for other people to try and achieve something on their own as he does. Because Beryl lacks money, Stanley expects her to try and work hard: ‘By Jove, if she can’t do a hand’s turn occasionally without shouting about it in return for†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢. Stanley does not finish his sentence, being not sure exactly what it is Beryl owes him. This shows that it became a routine for him to financially take care of everybody in the family, and that he does not expect a material reward, even though he wants to see people try. In ‘At the Bay’ there is a moment when all the women seem to enjoy Stanley’s departure: ‘Oh, the relief, the difference it made to have the man out of the house. Their very voices were changed as they called to one another; they sounded warm and loving as if they shared a secret’. But Katherine Mansfield uses this passage to highlight how much they all depend on him. Anyone in Mansfield’s fiction who uses slang or truncated sentences, such as Stanley is suspect of having controversy in the character. Usually, in  Stanley’s dialogs, Katherine Mansfield uses short sentences as trying to prove that he speaks fast. Stanley also seems to use slang and to swear in front of the kids: ‘†What the hell†¦ Damnation take it†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ. All this demonstrate that he is a voluble and an action men, as he does not have time to fix his language. There is a tension in Stanley’s life: he is controlled by the need of always to be on time; he can rarely relax. In â€Å"At the Bay†, even going for an early morning swim, he flung, cleared, rushed staggered, raced, swooped, in order to be first in, and once in, he can not stop to enjoy it: â€Å"I have no tie to fool about†. This is a good example of life authenticity (a recreation of life) that Mansfield achieves. The scene happens in early morning, to highlight that Stanley was used to getting up early. Mansfield uses a very subtle mixture of precision and action, to portray exactly his enthusiasm. She has run every step behind him and she slows down the motion by using the word ‘staggered’ – ‘staggered up the sandy hillock’. Mansfield intends to slow down Stanley’s race not because he was tired, but because his feet were sinking into the sand. This race might represent the symbol of his life. Stanley’s life is a race in which he wants to be the best. But just as his feet sink in the sand, in real life he meets obstacles and becomes insecure, needing the family support to give him the strength to keep going, ‘racing for dear life’. In the passage the atmosphere seems to be filled with excitement, even joy, which shows that Stanley is happy with his complicated life. Mansfield uses lots of words like â€Å"exulting†, â€Å"swoops† and â€Å"souse† to convey his thoughts and feelings. He wades out ‘exulting’. He ‘swoops’ to ‘souse’ his head and neck, delighted with himself for being first in the water again. Then he hears Jonathan Trout’s voice and he realizes that he is not first after all and small explosions occurring inside his head. ‘†Great Scott! Damnation take it! Why the dickens didn’t the fellow stick to his part of the sea?†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ To escape from Jonathan conversation, which he thinks of as ‘piffle’ and ‘rot’, he turns over on his back and kicks with his legs till he is ‘a living water-spout’. Stanley seems ridiculous as we witness his confidence, delights and disappointments because he is acting like a child and is hard to understand that he is the same person that is very successful in business. This is why I added the word unconsciously to Carl Stead affirmation that Stanley is a benevolent despot. He pushes people to work hard and be like him, but he does not realize that this might be harder for some people than he thinks. If he would know that he is hurting his family, especially Linda, he would stop bullying them. He loves Linda too much and would never want to hurt her. He thinks he will punish her by going off in the morning without saying goodbye, but he regrets he did that and he suffers all day â€Å"I’ve been in tortures† . He arrives home ready to apologise for something that was unnoticed. Linda cares about him too but she keeps him away from getting to close by misinterpreting his actions on purpose. When he arrives home with ‘all the harvest of the earth’, expensive gifts for her – oysters, a pineapple, and cherries – she refers to them as ‘these silly things’; she drapes a cluster of cherries over his ear, knowing full well that he hates to appear foolish. She acts this way because Stanley is the antithesis with her. He has all the energy she lacks. He becomes more successful at business, more prosperous, and more secure in the home while she loses strength. His quick movements and rapid speech exhaust her. When he worries bout running to fat, Linda replies â€Å"You are far too energetic† and he interprets her answer as a reassurance, when it can also mean that he is to energetic for her, as when she wants to scream at him â€Å"You are killing me†. He seems to dominate her, like when she does not resist his sexual acts. Linda admires Stanley’s best qualities: his goodness, his reliability, and his honesty. She compares Stanley with Jonathan Trout, whom she finds attractive and whom she has much in common. Stanley doesn’t like a person like Trout, a person of dreams and impractical ideas, because he, Stanley is a man of action. Linda also cares about Stanley because she is aware of the fact that he is providing the money for the family, and admires his devotion. Katherine Mansfield, at first sight, seems to make Stanley Burnell look as if he is a tyrant, a despot, because he is pushing everybody to work hard, but he is actually a positive character, because he has the dignity and the morality to deal with his life and take the responsibility of looking after his family.

How to Write a Family History Project

How to Write a Family History Project Writing a family history may seem like a daunting task, but when the relatives start nagging, you can follow these five  easy steps to make your family history project a reality. Choose a Format What do you envision for your family history project? A simple photocopied booklet shared only with family members or a full-scale, hard-bound book to serve as a reference for other genealogists? Perhaps youd rather produce a family newsletter, cookbook, or website. Now is the time to be honest with yourself about the type of family history that meetings your needs and your schedule. Otherwise, youll have a half-finished product nagging you for years to come. Considering your interests, potential audience, and the types of materials you have to work with, here are some forms your family history can take: Memoir/Narrative: A combination of story and personal experience, memoirs,  and narratives do not need to be all-inclusive or objective. Memoirs usually focus on a specific episode or time period in the life of a single ancestor, while a narrative generally encompasses a group of ancestors.Cookbook: Share your familys favorite recipes while writing about the people who created them. A fun project to assemble, cookbooks help carry on the family tradition  of cooking and eating together.Scrapbook or Album: If youre fortunate enough to have a large collection of family photos and memorabilia, a scrapbook or photo album can be a fun way to tell your familys story. Include your photos in chronological order and include stories, descriptions, and family trees to complement the pictures. Most family histories are generally narrative in nature, with a combination of personal stories, photos, and family trees. Define the Scope Do you intend to write mostly about just one particular relative, or everyone in your family tree? As the author, you need to choose a focus for your family history book. Some possibilities include: Single Line of Descent:  Begin  with the earliest known ancestor for a particular surname and follows him/her through a single line of descent (to yourself, for example). Each chapter of your book would cover one ancestor or generation.All Descendants Of...:  Begin  with an individual or couple and cover all of their descendants, with chapters organized by generation. If youre focusing your family history on an immigrant ancestor, this is a good way to go.Grandparents:  Include  a section on each of your four grandparents, or eight great-grandparents, or sixteen great-great-grandparents if you are feeling  ambitious. Each individual section should focus on one grandparent and work backward through their ancestry or forward from his/her earliest known ancestor. Again, these suggestions can easily be adapted to fit your interests, time constraints,  and creativity. Set Realistic Deadlines Even though youll likely find yourself scrambling to meet them, deadlines force you to complete each stage of your project. The goal here is to get each piece done within a specified time frame. Revising and polishing can always be done later. The best way to meet these deadlines is to schedule writing time, just as you would a visit to the doctor or the hairdresser. Choose a Plot and  Themes Thinking of your ancestors as characters in your family  story, ask yourself: what problems and obstacles did they face? A plot gives your family history interest and focus. Popular family history plots and themes include: Immigration/MigrationRags to RichesPioneer or Farm LifeWar Survival Do Your Background Research If you want your family history to read more like a suspense novel than a dull, dry textbook,  it is important to make the reader feel like an eyewitness to your familys life. Even when your ancestors didnt leave accounts of their daily lives, social histories can help you learn about the experiences of people in a given time and place. Read town and city histories to learn what life was life during certain periods of interest.  Research timelines  of wars, natural disasters, and epidemics to see if any might have influenced your ancestors. Read up on the fashions, art, transportation, and common foods of the time. If you havent already, be sure to interview all of your living relatives. Family stories told in a relatives own words will add a personal touch to your book. Dont Be Afraid to Use Records and Documents Photos, pedigree charts, maps, and other illustrations can also add interest to family history and help break up the writing into manageable chunks for the reader. Be sure to include detailed captions for any photos or illustrations that you incorporate. Include an Index and Source Citations Source citations are an essential part of any family book, to both provide credibility to your research, and to leave a trail that others can follow to verify your findings.