John Rawls Ethical Theory Essay Example for Free

John Rawls Ethical Theory Essay On February 21 on the year 1921 a man who’s in the future will be regarded as a prominent philosopher John Rawls in Baltimore Maryland was born. He graduated in Kent School in 1939; Rawls completed BA at Princeton University and received in here his Ph. D. in 1950. Great American Political Philosopher John Rawls was highly considered as an important person at the time, as the most prominent liberalisms’ advocate. He was also working as a Professor at Harvard University in his field of expertise, in the field of Political Philosophy. Rawls’ theory that often calls â€Å"justice as fairness† and its concepts presented in 1971 Theory of Justice, his primary published book. He is also the creator of 1993 Political Liberalism that means distinctive things into different people and The Law of Peoples in 1999. It presents a non-historical or hypothetical variation on the social contract theory. In the said theory, it declares that agents are making a balanced and rational social decision following a certain rule at the rear of â€Å"veil of ignorance†. The said theory makes them able to prevent from knowing in progress what condition and category they will hold. Rawls proclaimed that this method will be beneficial for all the citizens for it will surely produced a society in which the freedom of everyone embrace and their independence will be practiced. His proclamation also emphasized that this will maximize for the entire nation and social disparity will only happen when the circumstances prove that it will benefit a least favored constituents. In brief, what he has done is to combine the very strong principle of social and economic equality. In the issue entitled â€Å"When is creating a turnover situation the right thing to do†, the author, â€Å"MEK†, tells the story an employee who is really doing quite well in the job. However, it is also said that the employer of the said employee although willing to keep him for the job, is not willing and interested in making such investment for the development of the employee’s career. â€Å"MEK† also tells his story in regarding his past employer. In order to understand the situation let me first give a summary of the story. MEK once work as a shift supervisor in a certain company. By that time, the operations manager is really skilled not only in the job but as a leader too. After some time, the shift manager was promoted leaving MEK in charge of the vacant position. MEK works as acting operations manager for about 4 months and it can be said that he is doing a great job with increase in the sales and low turnovers during his time as the operations manager. Suddenly, after more than 160 days of working in the said position, it is said that he is to be replace by fresh graduate of BA degree. The said replacement had absolutely no experience in running a business. MEK is even asked to train the person who is to replace him. Thus, MEK was in actuality upset and decided not to work in the company to any further extent. The presence of ethical issue can be seen in this story. And this presence of issue can be resolved and accomplished using a concept formulated by John Rawls in what appear to us and popularly known as the â€Å"justice of fairness†. According to Rawls, two conditions must be satisfied for social and economic inequalities. First, fair equality of opportunity must be given when it comes to positions and as well as offices that are often to all who can be considered under condition. Second, it has to benefit those that are considered least advantage member of the society. Applying Rawls’s concept in the case of MEK, it can be said that MEK has the right remain as the operation manager of the said company. It can be said that MEK was not given equal opportunity because the company based their decision on the educational attainment of the individual (which is the main basis for most companies), something that MEK lacks. However, MEK had proven that although he does not have a BA degree, he is still able to do the job. Thus, applying Rawls concept in the situation, it would had been in goodwill and favor of MEK. Aside from what had been mentioned earlier, there had also been several concepts of Rawls that are considered of great value and importance in political philosophy. It is believed that John Rawls made an important contribution in the said field. Rawlss work not only attracted the attention of those who are interested and are in the field of philosophy but many other fields as well such as political scientist, economist and even legal scholars and theologians. This only proves that his ideology is well known and regarded as one of the best if not the best. Among all of the works of Rawls, his books of Justice as fairness, his original position, the reflective equilibrium, Rawls’ overlapping consensus, and public relations are the ones that had been given and receive extensive attentions. Rawls is regarded as unique among political philosophers in the contemporary time. Ethics involves the study of norms and values in particular action knowing what is right or wrong and the consequences of it weather bad or good and character virtue and this practices are importance in the fields of governance as well as in business world. Ethics aim was to provide a systematic explanatory account and inquiry that the people may actually have. The use of ethics in business and government world also imply public policy as a way of balancing or weighing relevant considerations usually identified by principles of common use. In my personal opinion, I also believe that in today’s business and government world study of ethics is of great value. In business, ethics examined moral and ethical problems that can arise and take it’s place in a business environment. Through this study, they will able to trace how the corporations conduct business, hold both within and outside workers of the company. Through this company can strengthens its relationship with the employees how they can manage and treat every member the right and most effective way, or workplace ethics, they can also formulate a proper governance, and make policies, decision making, appropriate techniques and understanding individual behavior. In the case of governance, it creates a leadership process and social responsibility to be able to administer and process the system. And so the governance for the organization, like a government would include such common feature such as a clear mission, a good responsibility, accountability, transparency, stewardship, flexibility, representation and most of all they may acquire success. The fulfillment of the organizations mission is a paramount concern be it to make profits do good works or act as a government.

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Police line streets of Benton Harbor after nights of riots Residents outraged by deadly police chase Wednesday, June 18, 2003 Posted: 8:57 PM EDT (0057 GMT) State and local police make their presence felt Wednesday in Benton Harbor, Michigan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Story Tools -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RELATED †¢ Interactive: Benton Harbor riots †¢ Map: Benton Harbor, Michigan -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- †¢ CNN Access: Mayor: Police relationship unkind to citizens VIDEO Bullets, fire and rage on the streets of Benton Harbor, Michigan. WSBT reporter Jennifer Kuk is on the scene (June 18) PLAY VIDEO BENTON HARBOR, Michigan (CNN) -- As many as 300 officers from the Michigan State Police and surrounding jurisdictions moved onto the streets of this economically depressed small town Wednesday, hoping to prevent more violence after two nights of rioting triggered by the death of a black motorcyclist fleeing white officers in a high-speed chase. The city has declared a state of emergency and imposed a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew for children under the age of 16. Adults going to and from work are not affected by the curfew. The rain that began Wednesday evening may also discourage people from gathering outside. Benton Harbor Mayor Charles Yarbrough urged residents to stay home. "The burning must stop, the rocks must stop, people must stop being hurt," Yarbrough said after Tuesday's violent protests left five homes burned and at least 10 people injured. Police used tear gas to break up a crowd of about 300 people early Wednesday. Some of the protestors shot at police, and as many as 12 people were arrested, mostly on charges of civil disturbance and vandalism, Yarbrough said. "It was very violent," Benton Harbor Police Chief Sam Harris said. "We had gunfire. They shot at our trucks, they shot at the captain of police, ran barricades." The violence followed the death Monday night of a black motorcyclist in a high-speed chase by white police officers from nearby Benton Township. The motorcyclist, 28-year-old Terrance Shurn, of Benton Harbor, was killed when he crashed into a vacant building in a neighborhood near the city's center. City Manager Joe Patterson said the Michigan State Police are investigating the incident. Wednesday afternoon, police officers from several different jurisdictions began arriving in Benton Harbor. Some carried riot gear, and several reinforced vans called "peacekeepers" were parked downtown. The bullet-proof vans help protect officers from gunshots, rocks and bottles. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said about 130 state police officers are assisting local law enforcement, but she urged local leaders to come together to restore calm.

Genre analysis in poetry †the pragmatic approach Essay

Introduction Poetry has been a special genre and it is one of the many genres that remain consistent (structural means) even after being exploited for years. Looking back at the British poems in the late 80s, the stanzas and lines have not changed much, at least not the structure of it. Even until today, these shapes remained the same, although altered in position such as the use of indentation or tabulation in each line, alternatively. Besides, poetry has become a medium of communication in various situations and often used by the higher classes (they are more educated) to express their feelings or messages. Nonetheless, it takes a little intelligence to understand these corpuses of descriptive lexis because today, the poems are more straightforward due to the change of generations. The genre analysis on poetry or literary text covers a wide scope – from musical traditions to prayers (olden days) and from letters to advertisements. Therefore, it is safe to say that poems were widely used for communicative purpose, whether in general or specific aspect. Steinberg (2007) also stated that poems, like art, has been used as a communicative medium because they are easier to follow and learn by heart, after which they can be  combined with other genres such as songs and dances. Besides that, the exploitation of genres is also evident as we study on the pragmatics and structural cognition of a poem. Pragmatics is the study on the meaning behind the context; later in this research, the study will reveal the relationship between them as to how it affects the understanding of the cohort today. Furthermore, the paper will also discuss on the structural cognition of a poem – why the lines and stanzas are arrange in a certain manner , as well as does it bring any meaning or purpose towards the readers. 1 Literature Review  According to Taheri and Ahi (2013), it is a must for people to deal with all sorts of communication in our daily lives that uses some of the methods of poetry, including editorials, sermons, political speeches, advertisements and magazine articles. No doubt, our further research shows that poems are used to advertise a product in a creative way since the usual â€Å"paragraph-ish† sentences were too common in newspapers or printed mediums. The study of pragmatics are not clearly stated by author Dijk (1977), however he mentioned that a literary text may be pragmatically â€Å"vague† or ambiguous so to say, in which  both a literary or ritual function and a â€Å"practical† function may be assigned. Therefore, we conducted our research on a slight aspect of pragmatics to study on the relations with current generation and if it means anything to the message the poets are trying to tell. Our research questions are therefore: 1. How are â€Å"literary actions† and their context related to structures of literary text? 2. In which respect are these actions, context and textual manifestations similar to and/or different from those in other types of communication, both verbal and non- verbal? In short, our aim and purpose of this study is to find (if) there is anything dissimilar to the poetic genre and to understand the literary pragmatics better as well as to discover the rhetorical function of poetry respectively. 2 Methodology The research is qualitative overall. Eight poems in total are collected – four taken from two books and another four from websites. These collections are taken randomly just because we would like to study on the effectiveness of arbitrary decisions, but it will not be discussed in this research paper as it does not contribute to the main objective of our study, at  all. Following is the list of our materials: 1. An abstract from Sohrab and Rustum – Matthew Arnold (1853) 2. An abstract from Lines by Matthew Arnold (1951) 3. An abstract from A Battalion-Commander Complains to His Secretary by Ha Jin (1989) 4. An abstract from My Lost Youth by Henry Wadsworth (1855) 5. http://www. scribd. com/doc/67525005/Love-Letter-1#scribd 6. http://www. poets. org/poetsorg/poem/nothing-gold-can-stay 7. http://www. croftonacademy. org. uk/year%208%20Charlotte%20Dymond %20ballad. pdf 8. http://www. azlyrics. com/lyrics/nickiminaj/superbass. html Then, we compare and contrast between poems of different genre – lyric poem, traditional and modern poem, love letters and advertisement. As for the advertisement genre, it would be discussed separately as the effect of poems on the current generation later in the final wrap-up of our research. Nevertheless, the classifications of poems are as follow: 1. Lyric poem: (2), (4), (6) and (8) 2. Traditional and modern poem: (1), (3) and (7) 3. Love letters: (5) Data Analysis In this section, we will include the poems or abstracts used in the comparison stage. This section will also include the elements that touch on the context and textual manifestations of the literary actions. 3 Figure 1 Lyric poems – rhymes: (8) and (2) Elements involved: Rhymes, lines, couple-rhymes Figure 2 Lyric poems – adverbs and conjunctions: (4) and (6) Elements involved: adverbs, coordinating, conjunctions, pronoun 4 Figure 3 Story poem – traditional: (1) Elements involved: context, illustration, approach, italics, emphasis Figure 4 Story poem – modern: (3) Elements involved: emotion, direct, simple 5 Figure 5 Story poem – modern: (7) Elements involved: adjective, direct, simple 6 Results and Discussion. The use of â€Å"system† and â€Å"up† as well as â€Å"deal†, â€Å"bill†, â€Å"ship† and â€Å"lip† in Figure 1 proves that the structure of poem is still maintained in the 20th century. One of the main elements of a poem is the rhymes – always come in pair but could be in a structure of alternate lines. For example, line 1 and line 2 of â€Å"Super Bass† (the repetition of â€Å"system† and â€Å"up†) and the alternation of â€Å"-od† and â€Å"-out† in line 1 and line 3 of â€Å"Lines†. As for Figure 2, there are repetition of adverbs â€Å"there† and coordinating conjunctions â€Å"so† and â€Å"and† in lyric poems. Another noticeable element would be the pronoun â€Å"her† and â€Å"she†. In short, they are more descriptive in nature. By looking at Figure 3, we found that traditional poems used to have italics for emphasis purpose. For instance, â€Å"Like some old miser, Rustum hoards his fame, And shuns to peril it with younger men. † – in this sentence, we know that Rustum is a proud man. The previous context (Gudurz’s reply) tells us that when they are being challenged, Rustum was hiding away. Hence, Gudurz was warning Rustum about what the others might say, that he rather keep his pride (miser: a stingy person/reluctant to spend) by trying to avoid (shun) the  danger (peril) with his troop because losing a battle means losing one’s pride in the older days. Thus, we can conclude that traditional poem is more objective due to the â€Å"flowerish† choice of words. Additionally, the poems are written through illustration approach – the italics allow readers to interpret the events of the context in any way they want – without knowing the importance of pride, one can also take Rustum’s action as being considerate and defensive as his plan to escape might save him and his team’s lives. 7 Contrary to the traditional poem, modern poem are more subjective. Meaning, it involves emotions and hence, more direct in terms of the language used. If we look closely to the lexis in each paragraph, there is nothing unique or interpretable about the words; they are simple and are â€Å"blasted† towards the readers. The emphasis on â€Å"blasted† is meant by the impact focus directly towards a reader’s emotion. This can be found in Figure 4: â€Å"It was no use†, â€Å"Damn it†, â€Å"begging me for help†, â€Å"If I got killed that way†, and â€Å"he got his head knocked off while fooling with a mortar in the barracks†, as well as in Figure 5: â€Å"And never  came home again†, â€Å"Never saw the razor†, â€Å"But they found her in the flood†, and â€Å"beaming with her blood†; there is simply no room to imagine the otherwise situation like what we found in Figure 3. Story poems, regardless of type, are free from the poetic rules in line – rhymes. However, they still follow the standard structure of stanza, which is in block. Moreover, each poem has their unique subjects or objects or nouns that catches the readers’ attention: â€Å"martyr†, â€Å"blood†, â€Å"April rain†, â€Å"Lady Day†, â€Å"battalion†, â€Å"killed†, â€Å"take heed† and â€Å"nature’s first green is gold†. Some subjects, though, are enhanced with adjectives to describe them, such as those found in Figure 5. This helps the present generation to understand the whole context of a poem in the fastest way possible, whilst not feeling bored or even to say, give up on poetry. 8 Conclusion With such exploitation on poems throughout the century, many new genres came about, noticeably in the advertising genre as shown in Figure 6. As we view these poems in the contemporary period, we can see the effect of poems on the advertising industry – the changed in written creativity. Following that, the poems also hit right to the point, in terms of human needs: â€Å"the objects are closer than they appear† and â€Å"pay less† and â€Å"experience success†. It may seem as though the poems are confusing at times, such as the disconnection of â€Å"Got milk? Go get the feeling†, which allows reader to interpret it freely. On the other hand, this type of poems does not follow coherent rules. According to Lieb (2009), â€Å"Flick my Bic† means to start a fire because during the 1970s, Bic made the famous disposable lighter with their slogan â€Å"Flick my Bic†, and was well received by the society. Thus, the term â€Å"Flick my Bic† is often used to replace words like â€Å"help me out†, â€Å"light up my cig’† or even in sexual context, referring to the clit when performing oral sex. Figure 6 Advertising poem 9 Following that, long loss tradition of love letter writing is revived by a famous poet, Louise Bennett, shown in Figure 7. Love letter poem uses comparison or representation between human, food, or environment. These ranges of elements are usually the favourites of the writer. Apart from being much more flexible and not tied to grammatical rules, it is sometimes cultural based. The poet is an African, so the words used are spoken based, and seemly hard to understand at one point of a time. Words like â€Å"gizada†, â€Å"pen-nib† and â€Å"yeye! † are only known to their culture, perhaps. Figure 7 Love letter poem Nevertheless, other types of poem include a certain way of starting. Some was created to aid amateurs in poetry like the â€Å"Roses are†¦Ã¢â‚¬  poem, shown in Figure 8, 9 and 10 below. 10 Figure 8 Amateur aid poem Figure 9 Amateur aid poem Figure 10 Amateur aid poem 11 References Dijk, T. A. (1977). The pragmatics of literary communication. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam. Lieb, L. (2009). What do people mean when they say ‘wanna flick my Bic? ‘. Retrieved March 29, 2015, from ChaCha: http://www. chacha. com/question/what-do-people-mean- when-they-say-‘wanna-flick-my-bic%3F’ Steinberg, Sh. (2007). An Introduction to Communication Studies. Cape Town, South Africa: Juta, 120. Taheri, M. , & Ahi, M. (2013). LITERARY COMMUNICATION AND ITS ROLE IN POETICS. In (3rd ed. , Vol. 3, pp. 221-232). Hamadan: International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World (IJLLALW). 12 Table of Contents Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 1 Literature Review†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 2 Methodology†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ . 3 Data Analysis†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 4 Results and Discussion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. †¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 7 Conclusion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 9 References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦ †¦. 12 13 GEN RE ANALYSIS IN POETRY – THE STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS An Analysis on Literary Text By D. Chan, E. Elleanae, S. Smith & I. Al-Khaldi

Understanding Ancient Maya Storage Systems

A chultun (plural chultuns or  chultunes, chultunob in Mayan) is a bottle-shaped cavity, excavated by the ancient Maya into the soft limestone bedrock typical of the Maya area in the Yucatan peninsula. Archaeologists and historians report that chultuns were used for storage purposes, for rainwater or other things, and after abandonment for trash and sometimes even burials. Chultuns were early noted by westerners like Bishop  Diego de Landa, who in his â€Å"Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan† (On the Things of Yucatan) describes how the Yucatec Maya dug deep wells near their houses and used them to store rainwater. Later explorers  John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood  speculated during their trip in Yucatan about the purpose of such cavities and were told by local people that these were used to collect rainwater during the rainy season. The word chultun probably comes from the combination of two Yucatec Mayan words which mean rainwater and stone (chulub and tun). Another possibility, suggested by archaeologist Dennis E. Puleston, is that the term comes from the word for clean (tsul) and stone (tun). In modern Yucatecan Maya language, the term refers to a hole in the ground that is wet or holds water. Bottle-Shaped Chultuns Most of the chultuns in the northern Yucatà ¡n peninsula were large and bottle-shaped, a narrow neck and a wider, cylindrical body extending as much as 6 meters (20 feet) into the ground. These chultuns are usually located near residences, and their internal walls often have a thick layer of plaster to make them waterproof. A smaller plastered hole provided access to the interior subterranean chamber. Bottle-shaped chultuns were almost certainly used for water storage: in this part of the Yucatan, natural water sources called cenotes are absent. Ethnographic records (Matheny) illustrate that some modern bottle-shaped chultuns were built for just that purpose. Some ancient chultuns have huge capacities, ranging from 7 to 50 cubic meters (250-1765 cubic feet) of volume, capable of holding between 70,000-500,000 liters (16,000-110,000 gallons) of water. Shoe-Shaped Chultuns Shoe-shaped chultuns are found in the Maya lowlands of southern and eastern Yucatan, most dating to late Preclassic or Classic periods. Shoe-shaped chultuns have a cylindrical main shaft but also with a lateral chamber that extends out like the foot part of a boot. These are smaller than the bottle-shaped ones, only about 2 m (6 ft) deep, and they are typically unlined. They are dug into slightly elevated limestone bedrock and some have low stone walls built around the opening. Some of these have been found with tight-fitting lids. The construction seems to be intended not to keep water in but rather to keep water out; some of the lateral niches are large enough to hold large ceramic vessels. Purpose of the Shoe-Shaped Chultun The function of the shoe-shaped chultuns has been debated among archaeologists for some decades. Puleston suggested they were for food storage. Experiments on this use were carried out in the late 1970s, around the site of Tikal, where many shoe-shaped chultuns had been noted. Archaeologists dug chultuns using Maya technology and then used them to store crops such as maize, beans, and roots. Their experiment showed that although the subterranean chamber offered protection against plant parasites, local humidity levels made the crops such as maize decay very quickly, after only a few weeks. Experiments with seeds from the ramon or breadnut tree had better results: the seeds remained edible for several weeks without much damage. However, recent research has led scholars to believe that the breadnut tree did not play an important role in the Maya diet. It is possible that chultuns were used to store other types of food, ones that have a higher resistance to humidity, or only for a very short period of time. Dahlin and Litzinger proposed that chultuns could have been used for the preparation of fermented drinks such as maize-based chicha beer  since the chultuns internal microclimate seems particularly favorable for this kind of process. The fact that many chultuns have been found in the close proximity of public ceremonial areas in several sites of the Maya lowlands, could be an indication of their importance during communal gatherings when fermented beverages were most often served. The Importance of Chultuns Water was a scarce resource among the Maya in several regions, and chultuns were only part of their sophisticated water control systems. The Maya also built canals and dams, wells, and reservoirs, and terraces and raised fields to control and conserve water. The chultuns were very important resources to the Maya and may well have had a religious significance. Schlegel described the eroded remains of six figures carved into the plaster lining of a bottle-shaped chultun at the Maya site of Xkipeche. The largest one is a 57 cm (22 in) tall monkey; others include toads and frogs and a few have explicitly modeled genitalia. She postulates that the sculptures represent religious beliefs associated with water as a life-giving element. Source:AA.VV. 2011, Los Chultunes, in Arqueologia Maya Chase AF, Lucero LJ, Scarborough VL, Chase DZ, Cobos R, Dunning NP, Fedick SL, Fialko V, Gunn JD, Hegmon M et al. 2014. 2 Tropical Landscapes and the Ancient Maya: Diversity in Time and Space. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 24(1):11-29. Dahlin BH, and Litzinger WJ. 1986. Old Bottle, New Wine: The Function of Chultuns in the Maya Lowlands. American Antiquity 51(4):721-736. Matheny RT. 1971. Modern Chultun Construction in Western Campeche, Mexico. American Antiquity 36(4):473-475. Puleston DE. 1971. An Experimental Approach to the Function of Classic Maya Chultuns. American Antiquity 36(3):322-335. Schlegel S. 1997. Figuras de estuco en un chultun en Xkipche. Mexicon 19(6):117-119. Weiss-Krejci E, and Sabbas T. 2002. The Potential Role of Small Depressions as Water Storage Features in the Central Maya Lowlands. Latin American Antiquity 13(3):343-357.