Looking at the Romanesque tympanum carving of the Last Judgment at Autun, discuss the intended effect on the viewer through the selection of composition and symbolism.

"Looking for a Similar Assignment? Get Expert Help at an Amazing Discount!"

PLEASE SEE ATTACHED FILE Your essay response should be between two and three pages (500-750 words), double-spaced on paper with 1-inch margins and size 12 point Times New Roman font. Focus very specifically on one act that Americans do or one location that we use: 1. Examine anything and everything about the place or the action – what is involved? 2. Why do People do this? 3. Remember to use the type of technical terms that we often see in our text books. Talk about rituals, gestures, symbols, etc. 4. At the very end of your paper, provide a one sentence explanation of what you are talking about!”Body Ritual among the Nacirema”Most cultures exhibit a particular configuration or style. A single value or pattern of perceiving the worldoften leaves its stamp on several institutions in the society. Examples are “machismo” in Spanishinfluenced cultures, “face” in Japanese culture, and “pollution by females” in some highland New Guineacultures. Here Horace Miner demonstrates that “attitudes about the body” have a pervasive influence onmany institutions in Nacirema society.The anthropologist has become so familiar with the diversity of ways in which different people behave insimilar situations that he is not apt to be surprised by even the most exotic customs. In fact, if all of thelogically possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the world, he is apt tosuspect that they must be present in some yet undescribed tribe. The point has, in fact, been expressedwith respect to clan organization by Murdock (1949: 71).[2] In this light, the magical beliefs and practicesof the Nacirema present such unusual aspects that it seems desirable to describe them as an exampleof the extremes to which human behavior can go.¶1Professor Linton [3] first brought the ritual of the Nacirema to the attention of anthropologists twentyyears ago (1936: 326), but the culture of this people is still very poorly understood. They are a NorthAmerican group living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico,and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. Little is known of their origin, although tradition states that theycame from the east…. [4] ¶ 2Nacirema culture is characterized by a highly developed market economy which has evolved in a richnatural habitat. While much of the people’s time is devoted to economic pursuits, a large part of the fruitsof these labors and a considerable portion of the day are spent in ritual activity. The focus of this activityis the human body, the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern in the ethos of thepeople. While such a concern is certainly not unusual, its ceremonial aspects and associated philosophyare unique. ¶ 3The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and thatits natural tendency is to debility and disease. Incarcerated in such a body, man’s only hope is to avertthese characteristics through the use of ritual and ceremony. Every household has one or more shrinesdevoted to this purpose. The more powerful individuals in the society have several shrines in theirhouses and, in fact, the opulence of a house is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritualcenters it possesses. Most houses are of wattle and daub construction, but the shrine rooms of the morewealthy are walled with stone. Poorer families imitate the rich by applying pottery plaques to their shrinewalls. ¶ 4While each family has at least one such shrine, the rituals associated with it are not family ceremoniesbut are private and secret. The rites are normally only discussed with children, and then only during theperiod when they are being initiated into these mysteries. I was able, however, to establish sufficient[504 begins ->] rapport with the natives to examine these shrines and to have the rituals described tome. ¶ 5The focal point of the shrine is a box or chest which is built into the wall. In this chest are kept the manycharms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live. These preparations aresecured from a variety of specialized practitioners. The most powerful of these are the medicine men,whose assistance must be rewarded with substantial gifts. However, the medicine men do not providethe curative potions for their clients, but decide what the ingredients should be and then write them downin an ancient and secret language. This writing is understood only by the medicine men and by theherbalists who, for another gift, provide the required charm. ¶ 6The charm is not disposed of after it has served its purpose, but is placed in the charmbox of thehousehold shrine. As these magical materials are specific for certain ills, and the real or imaginedmaladies of the people are many, the charm-box is usually full to overflowing. The magical packets areso numerous that people forget what their purposes were and fear to use them again. While the nativesare very vague on this point, we can only assume that the idea in retaining all the old magical materialsis that their presence in the charm-box, before which the body rituals are conducted, will in some wayprotect the worshiper. ¶ 7Beneath the charm-box is a small font. Each day every member of the family, in succession, enters theshrine room, bows his head before the charm-box, mingles different sorts of holy water in the font, andproceeds with a brief rite of ablution.[5] The holy waters are secured from the Water Temple of thecommunity, where the priests conduct elaborate ceremonies to make the liquid ritually pure.¶8In the hierarchy of magical practitioners, and below the medicine men in prestige, are specialists whosedesignation is best translated as “holy-mouth-men.” The Nacirema have an almost pathological horror ofand fascination with the mouth, the condition of which is believed to have a supernatural influence on allsocial relationships. Were it not for the rituals of the mouth, they believe that their teeth would fall out,their gums bleed, their jaws shrink, their friends desert them, and their lovers reject them. They alsobelieve that a strong relationship exists between oral and moral characteristics. For example, there is aritual ablution of the mouth for children which is supposed to improve their moral fiber. ¶ 9The daily body ritual performed by everyone includes a mouth-rite. Despite the fact that these people areso punctilious [6] about care of the mouth, this rite involves a practice which strikes the uninitiatedstranger as revolting. It was reported to me that the ritual consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairsinto the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalizedseries of gestures.[7] ¶ 10In addition to the private mouth-rite, the people seek out a holy-mouth-man once or twice a year. Thesepractitioners have an impressive set of paraphernalia, consisting of a variety of augers, awls, probes,and prods. The use of [505 begins ->] these objects in the exorcism of the evils of the mouth involvesalmost unbelievable ritual torture of the client. The holy-mouth-man opens the client’s mouth and, usingthe above mentioned tools, enlarges any holes which decay may have created in the teeth. Magicalmaterials are put into these holes. If there are no naturally occurring holes in the teeth, large sections ofone or more teeth are gouged out so that the supernatural substance can be applied. In the client’s view,the purpose of these ministrations [8] is to arrest decay and to draw friends. The extremely sacred andtraditional character of the rite is evident in the fact that the natives return to the holy-mouth-men yearafter year, despite the fact that their teeth continue to decay. ¶ 11It is to be hoped that, when a thorough study of the Nacirema is made, there will be careful inquiry intothe personality structure of these people. One has but to watch the gleam in the eye of a holy-mouthman, as he jabs an awl into an exposed nerve, to suspect that a certain amount of sadism is involved. Ifthis can be established, a very interesting pattern emerges, for most of the population shows definitemasochistic tendencies. It was to these that Professor Linton referred in discussing a distinctive part ofthe daily body ritual which is performed only by men. This part of the rite includes scraping andlacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument. Special women’s rites are performed only fourtimes during each lunar month, but what they lack in frequency is made up in barbarity. As part of thisceremony, women bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour. The theoretically interesting pointis that what seems to be a preponderantly masochistic people have developed sadistic specialists. ¶ 12The medicine men have an imposing temple, or latipso, in every community of any size. The moreelaborate ceremonies required to treat very sick patients can only be performed at this temple. Theseceremonies involve not only the thaumaturge [9] but a permanent group of vestal maidens who movesedately about the temple chambers in distinctive costume and headdress. ¶ 13The latipso ceremonies are so harsh that it is phenomenal that a fair proportion of the really sick nativeswho enter the temple ever recover. Small children whose indoctrination is still incomplete have beenknown to resist attempts to take them to the temple because “that is where you go to die.” Despite thisfact, sick adults are not only willing but eager to undergo the protracted ritual purification, if they canafford to do so. No matter how ill the supplicant or how grave the emergency, the guardians of manytemples will not admit a client if he cannot give a rich gift to the custodian. Even after one has gainedand survived the ceremonies, the guardians will not permit the neophyte to leave until he makes stillanother gift. ¶ 14The supplicant entering the temple is first stripped of all his or her clothes. In everyday life the Naciremaavoids exposure of his body and its natural functions. Bathing and excretory acts are performed only inthe secrecy of the household shrine, where they are ritualized as part of the body-rites. Psychologicalshock results from the fact that body secrecy is suddenly lost upon entry into the latipso. A man, whoseown wife has never seen him in an excre- [506 begins ->] tory act, suddenly finds himself naked andassisted by a vestal maiden while he performs his natural functions into a sacred vessel. This sort ofceremonial treatment is necessitated by the fact that the excreta are used by a diviner to ascertain thecourse and nature of the client’s sickness. Female clients, on the other hand, find their naked bodies aresubjected to the scrutiny, manipulation and prodding of the medicine men. ¶ 15Few supplicants in the temple are well enough to do anything but lie on their hard beds. The dailyceremonies, like the rites of the holy-mouth-men, involve discomfort and torture. With ritual precision, thevestals awaken their miserable charges each dawn and roll them about on their beds of pain whileperforming ablutions, in the formal movements of which the maidens are highly trained. At other timesthey insert magic wands in the supplicant’s mouth or force him to eat substances which are supposed tobe healing. From time to time the medicine men come to their clients and jab magically treated needlesinto their flesh. The fact that these temple ceremonies may not cure, and may even kill the neophyte, inno way decreases the people’s faith in the medicine men. ¶ 16There remains one other kind of practitioner, known as a “listener.” This witch-doctor has the power toexorcise the devils that lodge in the heads of people who have been bewitched. The Nacirema believethat parents bewitch their own children. Mothers are particularly suspected of putting a curse on childrenwhile teaching them the secret body rituals. The counter-magic of the witch-doctor is unusual in its lackof ritual. The patient simply tells the “listener” all his troubles and fears, beginning with the earliestdifficulties he can remember. The memory displayed by the Nacirema in these exorcism sessions is trulyremarkable. It is not uncommon for the patient to bemoan the rejection he felt upon being weaned as ababe, and a few individuals even see their troubles going back to the traumatic effects of their own birth.¶ 17In conclusion, mention must be made of certain practices which have their base in native esthetics butwhich depend upon the pervasive aversion to the natural body and its functions. There are ritual fasts tomake fat people thin and ceremonial feasts to make thin people fat. Still other rites are used to makewomen’s breasts larger if they are small, and smaller if they are large. General dissatisfaction with breastshape is symbolized in the fact that the ideal form is virtually outside the range of human variation. A fewwomen afflicted with almost inhuman hypermammary development are so idolized that they make ahandsome living by simply going from village to village and permitting the natives to stare at them for afee. ¶ 18Reference has already been made to the fact that excretory functions are ritualized, routinized, andrelegated to secrecy. Natural reproductive functions are similarly distorted. Intercourse is taboo as atopic and scheduled as an act. Efforts are made to avoid pregnancy by the use of magical materials orby limiting intercourse to certain phases of the moon. Conception is actually very infrequent. Whenpregnant, women dress so as to hide their condition. Parturi- [507 begins ->] tion takes place in secret,without friends or relatives to assist, and the majority of women do not nurse their infants. ¶ 19Our review of the ritual life of the Nacirema has certainly shown them to be a magic-ridden people. It ishard to understand how they have managed to exist so long under the burdens which they haveimposed upon themselves. But even such exotic customs as these take on real meaning when they areviewed with the insight provided by Malinowski [10] when he wrote (1948: 70): ¶ 20Looking from far and above, from our high places of safety in the developed civilization, it is easy to seeall the crudity and irrelevance of magic. But without its power and guidance early man could not havemastered his practical difficulties as he has done, nor could man have advanced to the higher stages ofcivilization.[11]¶ 21REFERENCES CITEDLinton, Ralph1936 The Study of Man. New York, D. Appleton-Century Co.Malinowsli, Bronislaw1948 Magic, Science, and Religion. Glencoe, The Free Press.Murdock, George P.1949 Social Structure. New York, The Macmillan Co.Take an aspect of our culture and detail it much like the Nacirema example given in this weeksadditional reading assignments. You may find it helpful to read the article on Key American Values tohelp you better understand which values and activities are unique to the US. Please note: You may findit helpful to pretend that you are a sociologist who has just stepped off a plane and into a new and exoticculture. Look at the cultural practices or traditions with a critical eye, as though you are seeing them forthe first time. In the Nacirema example, Miner doesnt say that people brush their teeth he writesabout a mouth rite that consists of inserting a small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along withcertain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of “gestures.” Pleasehave some fun with this! This should almost feel like a creative writing exercise.Your essay response should be between two and three pages (500-750 words), double-spaced on paperwith 1-inch margins and size 12 point Times New Roman font.Focus very specifically on one act that Americans do or one location that we use:1. Examine anything and everything about the place or the action – what is involved?2. Why do People do this?3. Remember to use the type of technical terms that we often see in our text books. Talk about rituals,gestures, symbols, etc.4. At the very end of your paper, provide a one sentence explanation of what you are talking about!

"Looking for a Similar Assignment? Get Expert Help at an Amazing Discount!"

You must select a company and show the company applies any strategy concept we discussed in class. You can find a company in Wall Street, Business Magazines like Forbes and Entrepreneurship. Do not company and existing brief. Your brief should be your own based on an article you select

Slide 1 Your topic Title and your name

Slide 2 Information about the company you selected

Slide 3 Copy from Chapter PowerPoint the application or concept you are reinforcing in your article to show its application

Slide 5: Describe the application of the strategy concept by this company and how this impacted the company’s performance

Slide 5Reference

"Looking for a Similar Assignment? Get Expert Help at an Amazing Discount!"

Theimpact of social security on the individual’s simultaneous decisionabout retirement and savings . . .

"Looking for a Similar Assignment? Get Expert Help at an Amazing Discount!"