The Lancaster Treaty Of 1744

The Lancaster Treaty Of 1744 The Lancaster treaty took place between June 28 and July 4, 1744 in the old courthouse. it was concluded by Iroquois( the Six Nations) and Maryland and Virginia colonies. The treaty focused on a land dispute between Virginia, Maryland and Iroquois. The dispute was centered on the Shenandoah Valley in Western Virginia where the interests of the populations and the three colonies tended to converge. Pennsylvania took part as an inter mediator with an attempt to play the part of a honest broker. Maryland and Virginia attended because Iroquois had threatened to extract payment forcibly form the frontier settlements which were claimed to have encroached their lands. The discussion between the Iroquois and the Colonial delegates was about the invasion by the Appalachians squatters of the eastern slopes. The Maryland and Virginia delegates did attend because the colonies were claiming the land in dispute. The Maryland and Virginia governors had for a period of two years been requested by the Iroquois to meet concerning the back part lands which they claimed to have aright over them.( James 2008, 45). The Iroquois complained that inhabitants from Maryland and Virginia had settled in their land without their permission. They also claimed that Maryland and Virginia had no right of settling in those land since they had no consent and also had not purchased the land neither. The Iroquois were possible of denying the French people passage through their territory due to this reason of land dispute. According to his 2008 edition James noted in page 50 that, the Maryland representatives said that neither the Great King of England nor his subjects had ever received a claim for a period of over one hundred years from the Iroquois or the Six Nations. Our Great King of England and his subjects have always possesssed the Province of Maryland free and undisturbed from any claims of the Six Nations for above hundred years past, and you are not saying anything before us, convinces us you though you had any lands in Maryland. They went ahead to tell the Iroquois that they were telling them nothing based on those grounds and that they had no pretense to any Maryland land. The Maryland also added that the Iroquois had no right to find out or make claims of any land under whatever title. The colonists were not pleased by the words of Canassatego saying that they were their elder brother or their claim to the American soil. (James 2008, 4). The Maryland said that the Iroquois had a small reason to keep complaining about land which they had first communicated about seven years ago and re communicated again two years ago to Pennsylvania (James 2008, 9). They said that the Six Nations had for a long time never complained about the land and it meant that they had no issue with the possession. The Maryland argued that there was no need to conflict bearing in mind that they were sons of one great king and are as one man and therefore no need to stir up quarrel. They convinced them with sweet words saying that past treaties have always emphasized that they stay like brothers. Through this they further told them that every misunderstanding between them should be done away with in every way through brotherly kindness and misunderstanding. when you spoke about the affair of land yesterday, you went back to old times and told us you had been in pocession of the province of Maryland above one hundred year: but what is one hundred years in comparison to when our claim began?(James 2008, 53). They insisted that the Maryland came out of the ground in a country that lies beyond the seas. They further argued that over hundred years the dutch had come in a ship to their land. They had brought with them goods such as knives, awls and guns and taught the Iroquois how to use them. This made the Iroquois think they were good people and went ahead and welcomed them telling them to tie their ship to the shore bushes.They further liked them and tied their ship to the trees and seeing that this was not secure enough, they allowed them to tie the ship to the rocks and even to the mountains. It was with time that they started allowing them use their land and resulted being the same people with the Iroquois. It was later that the dutch s tarted proving how they though they had actually helped us by bringing the tool; knives, awls and even guns and kept on saying that if it were not fro them the Iroquois could have perished lone time ago. They claimed this as false claiming that they lived even before that and may be in a better way. The speaker Conassatego added that the Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania had divided land amongst themselves and that was the reason they could not even tell how much each owned. The Virginia people claimed that they actually had right to the land since it had costed them a lot including blood. They demanded to be informed of the transactions which had been made and insisted that they even wanted to know the interpreter. They claimed that they conquered several nations including those back of the mountains in Virginia. They told them that what they were experiencing was merely from the fact that they were conquest. They denied the idea that the Great King of England and the people of that colony conquered the Indians who lived there arguing that it was not true. They claimed that what specifically lied beyond the mountains had been conquered by them and that the Virginians have a right to it. The Virginians further said that the mountains are the boundaries between them. They also reminded them of a treaty they held at Albany where they made a fence with the belt of Wampum and said that if any visitors came to the hill they would kill them. They argued that t hat was the same situation they were applying and asked the treaty to be confirmed on that (James 2008, 54-55). They also complained that the Iroquois came and lived to the wrong side of the hill contrary of the agreement and the Virginians never bothered after all they were not in a position to know what the people in the other side were doing. They also said that the Six Nations came and settled along the sides of the road of which they never complained of. They also demanded that the issue of settling along the roads be settled along the grant of the land. That the great river of potowmack and the high ridges which extend all along the frontiers on Virginia to the Westward of the present setlements of that colony, shall be for ever the established between the Indians subject to the Dominions of Virginia and the Indians belkonging and depending on the Five Nations (James 2008, 68). According to page 65 to 66 of the 2008 James edition, the Iroquois said that the Virginians had never possessed land there before. They also said that the treaty of Albany which they know was one made seventy years ago which was made for friendship and treated them as brethren which was by Colonel Henry Coursey.they also said that the other treaty was the Albany of fifty eight years ago in which the people of Virginia gave out their land to their Great King for his protection which was made by Lord Howard. The last treaty they talked about was the one made by Governor Spots wood which they claimed to have failed to recite. This treaty actually prohibited the Virginia to settle to westward of the mountains. They said that as the treaty said before, the Great River of Potomack and the high ridge mountains extending along the frontiers of Virginia shall be the boundaries between Indians and Virginia and the Indians of the Five nations. They said this treaty gave them no authority to wal k on those lands. They said that this is the treaty that they were referring and that it had been sent to their King had no action taken and to add it all some people had copies of the same treaty and still put their claims on the same land. The Virginia said that the Southern Indians also demanded the same land as the Iroquois. The Virginia however told them that they were ready by all means to live as brothers just as before and settle any disputes in a fair and honest way. They told the Six Nations that their complain should be made to the Great King who had the right to remove the people who had intruded. (James 2008, 67). the dispute between Virginia and you is setting up your right aginst the great King under whose grants the people you compalin are settled. Nothing but a command from the Great King can remove them. The three colonies had supporting evidence of how the land in question was theirs. At the end they came in to terms saying that the Connastoge and Sasquahannah indians had a right to sell the lands to the Virginia and Maryland. This is because the lands were theirs at those times but they had been conquered and they belonged to them. They argued that it was by no means that the Iroquois owned them since they have never sold or purchased any land (James 2008, 56). They actually demanded to be told how and when they conquered the Indians. At the end of the treaty, the Iroquois left with presents from both Maryland and Virginia. They were also able to reaffirm the importance of the centrality of the Iroquois confederacy and covenant chain. The Iroquois also at the end of the discussion put marks on two official deeds for the Virginia and the Maryland colonies to signify the extinguishing ownership of the land in dispute. The treaty ended in such a way that both sides were contended and happy of the outcomes (James 2008, 86-87). In conclusion, the treaty of Lancaster 1744 was about settling land disputes between the Virginia, Maryland and the Iroquois. The Pennsylvania was used to take part of an inter mediator and a honest broker. The Virginia claimed the land was theirs majorly because of the treaty of the roads. The Iroquois denied the argument saying that their was a treaty of Albany which gave them no right to settle in their lands. The Virginia further said that it was only the Great King who had authority to displace the people and no other force. The Maryland had settled in the land for over hundred years without any claim. The Iroquois demanded that the Maryland tell them how relevant hundred years was to the dispute in question. Despite all this arguments, the three came to agreement with Iroquois receiving lots of presents from both sides. Iroquois also gave them official deeds signifying the extinguishing land ownership.

Heuristic Evaluation Weakness And Strength Computer Science Essay

Heuristic Evaluation Weakness And Strength Computer Science Essay When choosing a usability evaluation method, it is important to understand what usability evaluation is. Usability evaluation evaluates how the interface of certain software or product works. How the test is conducted and how detailed the test can be, how it will react on tests and so on. For this study, heuristic evaluation is selected as the main analytical inspection method and for the empirical method, Usability Testing is selected. First introduced by Jakob Nielson in early 90s, the evaluation for usability was created to enhance evaluation method by taking elements such as, user interface(Rogers and Preece, 2007, p.686), dialog boxes, menus, navigation structure , online help and etc.(Rogers and Preece, 2007, p.686). This evaluation method was called heuristic evaluation and when its early establishment, usability evaluation guideline has a long list of method (Nielsen and Molich, 1990), and Nielson shorten the list to only ten of main heuristic evaluation which is(Nielsen, 2005); Visibility of system status: The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time. Match between system and the real world: The system should speak the users language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order. User control and freedom: Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked emergency exit to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo. Consistency and standards: Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions. Error prevention: Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action. Recognition rather than recall: Minimize the users memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate. Flexibility and efficiency of use: Accelerators unseen by the novice user may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions. Aesthetic and minimalist design: Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors: Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution. Help and documentation: Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the users task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large. These sets of rules or guideline set the benchmark on how to evaluate usability on interface designs. For example, Mook (2008) research on Microsoft Windows XP Usability testing that is conducted by Bloomberg University, Washington shows that several functionality testing is conducted with the participation of students from the same University, such as setting up an email account, writing an letter, saving a letter copy and sending the final were the part of a important study on how those interface function works. Heuristic Evaluation Strength Heuristic evaluation can be seen as one of the usability methods that is knows as Usability discount engineering (Useit, 2001). The main advantages of Heuristic Evaluation can be verified as cost efficient, intuitive, planning on evaluation doesnt need any advance feature and it can be used easily in early development phases (Nielson and Molich, 1990). Cost Efficient: Cost Efficient or cheap means that it can be implemented in any development phases. For example, when creating a System, evaluation can be done on interfaces that are in Prototype Development Phase. This evaluation can be easily done without jeopardizing the cost when evaluating.(Cockton et.al, 2003) Intuitive: Intuitive means that is it easy to ask people to evaluate using Heuristic evaluation method, for example, evaluation can be done both by students or professionals and independently. (Nielsel and Molich, 1990). Advance Planning not required: Heuristic Evaluation also doesnt need advance planning prior to evaluation, meaning that it is evaluated with the rules or guidelines, with reference to Ten Usability Guidelines. Can be used easily in early development phases: Evaluation or test can be done before the final finished product is out. Meaning that it can be tested within the prototype or beta version of the product. Heuristic Evaluation Weakness Not currently solving identified problems: According to Nielson and Molich (1990), one of the disadvantages of Heuristic evaluation is problem are identified regardless of suggestions how to solve them. For example, once the problem has been identified, evaluators doesnt tend to get information for how to resolve the current problems. Working on multiple number of problems: As suggested by Nielsen and Molich (1990), evaluators just tend to identify several small usability issues, though several more are experts are useful to identify multiple problems. Not suitable on complex interfaces: Because in heuristic evaluation uses small amount of evaluators, they tend to missed out several issues, such as minor issues in complex interfaces. Usability Testing Description The approach for Usability Testing is the test that is conducted toward a product or website to ensure that the product or website is in functional state. Meanwhile, empirical uses more approach towards the thorough observation of the current system. The goal of Usability Testing is to get feedback from users whether the product that is being developed is usable by its standards. Usability testing in earlier days is conducted to investigate the usability efficiency features on interfaces (Rogers and Preece, 2007, p.646). For example, tests conducted on twelve students, by the Wichita State University (Lenz, 2008), to test usability of several gaming peripherals, such as gaming joystick, gaming pad and mouse. Participants of this test firstly need to fill out a questionnaire based on their gaming experience (Lenz, 2008) and their objective is to eliminate 15 enemy robots as quickly and efficiency as possible (Lenz, 2008). These results are recorded and later processed to be viewed as a full video. Data recorded such as how many enemies killed, time to be taken to kill an enemy and how many shots fired per kill are recorded (Lenz, 2008). Usability testing is divided into two groups, which is analytical and empirical, the analytical method means that the evaluated system are thoroughly checked and examined to crucially identify problems. Usability Testing Strength Usability Testing is a procedure that ensures that the final product is meeting the current specification and doing the tasks it supposed to do. Several advantages of Usability Testing can be identified, such as direct feedback from users, how to react to problems and resolving potential problems, if arises (McGregor, n.d) Direct Feedback from Users: Getting the required feedback from users is one of the advantages when using the usability testing. For example, questionnaires are such tools when using usability testing. Hands on users usage on interfaces are also one of the direct feedbacks that are used in usability testing. For example, testers on interactive websites can directly interact with websites and gives feedback to evaluators respectively. How to react to current problem: If problem arises, evaluators can react directly to specific problems and options. For example, when evaluating websites, if certain links are not working, the evaluators can directly spot the problems Resolving potential Problems: Launch of the final product can be done and fixing by the final product is launched. For example, once the problems are spotted, any problems can be fixed in mean time before the product is finalized. Usability Testing Weaknesses Costly in regards of equipment, staffing and facility: For example, when conducting tests, costs of equipment can be high, because of setting up of computers, questionnaires and so on. Analysis of data collected is complex: Once the tests are conducted, evaluators need to analyze those data. Usually these data are complex, for example going through hundreds of questionnaires to get the final data, this create more time consuming on staff. Require commitments by testers: For example, test on websites with a 10 students currently testing interfaces on websites will need full commitments of students, thus creating inflexible time rate with the testers. Task 2 Introduction LiveAtc Website is a live Air Traffic Control online website that enables visitors to hear live ATC from various airports in the world. Although overall look of the website is reasonable, but there are number of issues that will cause problems for users visiting to the site. Using heuristic evaluation of the website, users will generally satisfy when visiting the site. Heuristic Evaluation Heuristic Evaluation will be used upon evaluating of the website. The basic ten general heuristic are; Visibility of system status. Match between system and the real world. User control and freedom. Consistency and standards. Error prevention. Recognition rather than recall. Flexibility and efficiency of use. Aesthetic and minimalist design. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors. Help and documentation. Evaluated Website: http://www.liveatc.net Date Accessed: 20 November 2010. Nielsen(n.d) also suggested that a scale rating from 0(Zero) to 4(Four) should be used to identify the severity of the problem. Rating Description 0 No Usability Problem At All. 1 Cosmetic problem only; need not be fixed unless extra time is available on project. 2 Minor usability problem: fixing this should be given low priority. 3 Major usability problem: important to fix, so should be given high priority. 4 Usability catastrophe: imperative to fix this before product can be released. Table 1: Nielsen recommended severity table. Problem 1 Brief description of problem: Color hyperlink coding not available thus denying link recognition Problem for User: User has to remember each link page before moving to another one, thus making problem remembering where theyre left before. Heuristic conformed to: Recognition rather than recall, because User has to recall where theyve been before rather than having color hyperlink recognition. Severity of the problem: Rating number 3; Major usability problem: important to fix, so should be given high priority. Problem 2 Brief description of problem: Website doesnt have any back button to the link before it, thus making user have to use the back browser button instead. Problem for User: User will have problem navigation from each link to another without a back or forward button. Heuristic conformed to: User control and freedom, because user doesnt have any control and freedom for each link, thus will limit them on going back and forward on each link. Severity of the problem: Rating number 4, Usability catastrophe: imperative to fix this before product can be released. Problem 3 Brief description of problem: Website design is complicated. Banner and icons are not properly aligned. Webpage width and size for different links are not standardized. The content copyright footer doesnt align properly. Problem for User: On some pages, User have to scroll down to just click the About button, because there is no standardization between web links within the pages. Heuristic conformed to : Consistency and standards , because the website doesnt have consistency and standards such as , between pages, there is no standard size or page limit, certain web links have different size and confusing links. Severity of the problem: Rating number 3, Major usability problem: important to fix, so should be given high priority. Problem 4 Brief description of problem: On the Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page, it links to another site, which is a forum site. This hinder user from get quick help from the website but rather have to ask and wait for a required help. Problem for user: User would have to search from a long list of FAQ and by the end of the list; they might not find the required answer. Asking in a forum would just make the user wait for answers rather getting the answer immediately. Heuristic conformed to: Help and documentation, because of the nature of the FAQ given on the site, long lists of FAQ are given. But not all would cater the needs of the user and the FAQ link is not so helpful on users. Severity of the problem: Rating number 2, Minor usability problem: fixing this should be given low priority. Problem 5 Brief description of problem: Website doesnt have an effective navigation menu. For example, the main page has a poor navigation menu. Links are not properly justified and creates confusion. Problem for User: User often gets confused on whether the link is as one or not because there is no separation between links. Heuristic conformed to: Visibility of system status. This is because lack of features such as effective navigation menu hinders the user to have easy usability of the website. Severity of the problem: Rating number 2, Minor usability problem: fixing this should be given low priority. Problem 6 Brief description of problem: There is no accessibility features for users who has problems viewing the icons and fonts on the website. Zoom feature or enlarging the site features should help. Problem for user: User who have accessibility problem will have difficulties going through the site as there is no accessibility features such as font enlargement or zoom features. Heuristic conformed to: Flexibility and inefficiency of use, because accessibility features are not anywhere in the website or in their links. Severity of the problem: Rating number 2, Minor usability problem: fixing this should be given low priority. Summary According to Nielsen (n.d), related usability problem can be found in four ways, that is, in a single location in the interface, at two or more locations that have to be compared to find. Overall structure of the problem interface and something that can be included in the interface but it is missing. In the Heuristic evaluation done above, the biggest single problem with the LiveAtc website is that, the design is too simple and would only cater with experienced visitor or user. Although problems can be identified more than six (6), but the most obvious problem is what has been evaluated above. Problems would occur if inexperience visitor is browsing through the site and would have difficulties such as navigating and understanding regardless the anonymity of the un-standardized of some web links it has. Severity rating when evaluating the website was from two (2) to four (4) rating, with reference to the Nielsen Severity Rating table. This shows that the website has problems range fro m cosmetic until problems that need to be fixed before publishing it to the internet. According to Nielsen experience with rating severity in heuristic evaluation (Nielsen, n.d), he suggested that, severity ratings from a single evaluator are too unreliable to be trusted and recommend a three (3) evaluator when doing heuristic evaluation. Accuracy and reliability of rating severity determines from how complicated the product or website that would want to be evaluated. LiveATC website is a very simple website and when judging from the Nielsen experience when rating severity, it could be that the accuracy of the evaluation would be more reliable because of the simplicity of the website evaluated.

Pre-Industrial Visual Cultures :: Culture Cultural Papers

Pre-Industrial Visual Cultures I remember my father's futile attempts at trying to get me interested in Eastern philosophy. He got me cartoon versions of Zen philosophy and the teachings of Chinese philosophers, and would try to draw parallels between their ideas and what was going on in our lives. Unfortunately, I was more preoccupied with my telephone-marathons and other such pressing issues. The effect of his words on me was like water rolling off a duck's back. As I got older and less oblivious to the world, old ways and ideas were no longer applicable and I found myself left with nothing to hold onto. My Christian background could not accommodate my intellectual and spiritual evolution - to question something even as fundamental as how our beings came into existence is blasphemy. I dislike how it encourages intellectual complacency and have problems with its inherently patriarchal and highly theatrical nature. The whole colorful and tragic production seems egotistical because the purpose of our existence is to worship God - and dire consequences await us should we do otherwise. And it doesn't matter if we were born in a non-western culture, where we will never hear the word 'Jesus'. It is still fire and brimstone for us for all of eternity through no fault of our own. It is not only very discriminating in the way the religion condemns the rest of the world but the whole production of creation and damnation seems really unnecessary if you t hink about it. Since God is supposedly all-knowing, he (assuming God is male - and no doubt white) must have known from the start that a part of his creation would acknowledge and worship him and the rest would be condemned to hell for eternity. Did he do it so he could say, "Oh, everything went as expected...too bad about all those in hell..." at the end of it all? The purpose of our existence in the Christian cosmos made no sense to me. Most of all, it's strange that all should be well and souls be saved as long as we obediently and unquestioningly follow some human interpretations (that Christians themselves cannot agree on) of some other human's words. At the same time I had trouble dealing with the transience of all things and feeling like I fell out of a UFO by accident because I felt as though I did not resonate with any human profoundly.

Nuclear war :: essays research papers

The Next Episode Would you like to play a game? The infamous words muttered by the WOPPER computer in the movie War Games. In this movie an amuter hacker looking for some cool games nearly sets off a nuclear war by just some simple manuevers. Although just a movie it put light on the easiness of one person to start an all out nuclear war. This movie was made in the 80’s when we didn’t rest on the power of computers to control a system and still we almost had an all out nuclear war. Now we reali on computers making us twice as vulnerable. With that in mind I feel that it is my responsibility to affirm the resolution that the possession nuclear weapons is immoral. For clarification of this round I offer the following definitions Black’s Law, 5th Edition. Possession: The detention and control of anything which may be subject of property, for one’s use and enjoyment. Nuclear: anything with radioactive materials. Weapons Something used to destroy someone or something. From the Lexicon-Webster dictionary Immoral: not conforming to accepted patterns of what is considered right and wrong behavior in a culture Nuclear weapons are a strange weapon they are one of the feew weapons that can kill long after the initial blast. The radiation emited from this blast would infect all the surrounding nations thus causing a global catastrophy. That is why I would like to adopt the value of Global Security. Along with this value I will use the criterion of Safty because Safty is the only way to obtain global security. Contention One: Nucs have no target only death. The sole purpose for nuclear weapons is to kill large amounts of people very quickly without the threat of losing men. Let me repeat to kill with out being killed. This sounds like a great strategy except it is no strategy at all. If you have a thousand nucs you are not going to target them at military bases no, you are going to inflict the most damage and that is the civilian population. People innocent of any crime put to death by a faceless weapon. Subpoint A: Nuclear war is inevitable. The only reason to create a new weapon is to use it not to have just sit around and collect dust. History has shown the minute a new weapon is invented people are standing line to use it and show its effectiveness. The bombs we dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki were only one weapon now we have unused missles and bombers that are unused wasting money.

The Sun Never Sets on the English Language Essay -- Language

English has evolved in the last hundred years from being a fragment of the old Latin realm to being widely spoken around the new world. Despite living in America, we see international meetings where leaders of many countries all speak it to communicate with each other. Is it possible that English has become the lingua franca and will continue into the future to be the global language? There are many sources that indicate that future can only hold English as its selected language. In the future we will have a variety of â€Å"Englishes† that will dominate global communication, and this will occur because the dominance is believed to be ‘inevitable’, practical to foreign nations, and finally it appeals to a multicultural perspective for a cosmopolitan society. Everywhere you look around the world you can find the English language. In The Mother Tongue: English & How it got that Way, Bill Bryson explains, â€Å"In Yugoslavia they speak five languages. In not one of them does the word stop exist, yet every stop sign in the country says just that† (Bryson 179). Around the world we see examples of countries that don’t natively speak English but use it as a marketing scheme. Continuing Bryson mentions, â€Å"†¦On the bottom of the eraser is a further message: ‘We are ecologically minded. This package will self-destruct in Mother Earth’. It is a product that was made in Japan solely for Japanese consumers, yet there is not a word of Japanese on it† (Bryson 180). We can see the rise in world distributors producing ‘English’ products as the world looking for a common language; it’s seen as trendy, and obviously something that the people want. With its history starting at relatively the sam e time as the romance languages, it’s hard to argue that the people... ... at Essex Conference." Essex Chronicle [Chelmsford] 15 Mar. 2012, News sec.: 34. Proquest. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. http://search.proquest.com.accarcproxy.mnpals.net/docview/928036123/1359728E7DD36B71E65/5?accountid=48834 Liston, Enjoli. "Say Hello to a New Language." The Independent [London] 18 Jan. 2012: 40. Proquest. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. http://search.proquest.com.accarcproxy.mnpals.net/docview/916426138/13597240297686A7755/5?accountid=48834 Zhang, Xiaohong, and Margaret Zeegers. "Redefining The Role Of English As A Foreign Language In The Curriculum In The Global Context." Changing English: Studies In Culture & Education 17.2 (2010): 177-187. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. http://web.ebscohost.com.accarcproxy.mnpals.net/ehost/detail?sid=9cea4021-16db-43c9-96b8-6c68973bc7ad%40sessionmgr14&vid=1&hid=18&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=51624034

Music and Racial Formation in Leroi Jones’ Essay

In many ways, music is inseparable from culture. In the context of those cultures that have been dominated and marginalized by others, music takes on a special significance. Leroi Jones’ Blues People fit into the framework of trying to understand the role that music plays in the cultural lives of people who belong to displaced communities. In his book, he identifies the ways in which genres in music culture develop, which may be linked to Omi and Winant’s (1994) conception of racial formation. As Omi and Winant (1994) observed in their seminal theory on racial formation, â€Å"We define racial formation as the sociohistorical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed† (p. 55). The authors debunk the accepted notions that race is either biological or an illusion, suggesting instead that it is a distinctly sociological phenomenon. Race is also identified as based on a power hierarchy, definable in terms of â€Å"the pattern of conflict and accommodation which takes place over time between racially based social movements and the policies and programs of the state† (p.78). This model of racial formation may be applied to Jones’ text, particularly in terms of their assertion that â€Å"racial formation is a process of historically situated projects in which human bodies and social structures are represented and organized† (pp. 55-56). In Blues People, the author examines how the process of being enslaved affects the people of Africa, situating the racial conflict in terms of geographical as well as historical contexts. Jones’ thesis rests on the concept of difference. He outlines the manner in which the slavery of Africans in America was different from other kinds of slavery. An important point that Jones raises is that slavery was prevalent in Africa as well, long before the whites arrived. He likens the process to the way in which the Greeks treated their slaves, showing us that in every other system of slavery, the enslaved people were allowed to retain their sense of cultural identity, but not so in the case of African slaves on the American plantations: Melville Herskovits points out, â€Å"Slavery [had] long existed in the entire region [of West Africa], and in at least one of its kingdoms, Dahomey, a kind of plantation system was found under which an absentee ownership, with the ruler as principal, demanded the utmost return from the estates, and thus created conditions of labor resembling the regime the slaves were to encounter in the New World. † But to be brought to a country, a culture, a society, that was, and is, in terms of purely philosophical correlatives, the complete antithesis of one’s own version of man’s life on earth — that is the cruelest aspect of this particular enslavement. (p. 1) As Jones points out, it was extremely difficult for Africans, who later became â€Å"African-Americans,† to retain a sense of cultural identity in a foreign culture that refused to give any validity to something it did not understand. According to Omi and Winant, racial formation may also be linked to the â€Å"the evolution of hegemony, the way in which society is organized and ruled† (p. 56). In such a hegemonic society driven by concepts of hierarchy and social superiority, the identity of a marginalized class may become problematic. Jones opines that music such as jazz and blues was in some ways the only medium through which Africans could try and retain a sense of who they were. In this context, the integration of music into their existence as slaves allowed Africans to retain a sense of the past, and also come to terms with the effect that the process of being enslaved had had on their psyches. Cultural domination was an insidious process of identity-negation, and music culture was one of the prominent ways through which the enslaved people could enable themselves to survive within a hostile foreign culture. In Blues People, an interesting aspect of performance is brought in when the author shows us a ‘typical’ American reaction to the African native in the form of an excerpt from the actress Frances Anne Kemble’s Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation: The only exception that I have met with yet among our boat voices to the high tenor which they seem all to possess is in the person of an individual named Isaac, a basso profundo of the deepest dye, who nevertheless never attempts to produce with his different register any different effects in the chorus by venturing a second, but sings like the rest in unison, perfect unison, of both time and tune. By-the-by, this individual does speak, and therefore I presume he is not an ape, orangoutang, chimpanzee, or gorilla; but I could not, I confess, have conceived it possible that the presence of articulate sounds, and the absense of an articulate tail, should make, externally at least, so completely the only appreciable difference between a man and a monkey, as they appear to do in this individual ‘black brother. ’ (pp. 2-3). The actress’ biased and judgmental perception of the natives places them in such a position as not to be considered human at all. Interestingly, she examines their tones of voices as indicative of the degree to which they are ‘human,’ or not; they all have voices of a high tenor. She says this is the manner that one might say that all dogs bark, or all lions roar. Language is almost completely redundant in this context. Unable to understand the languages of Africa, Kemble contents herself with ruminating on the tones in which the foreigners speak. The ‘exception’ to the other slaves is determined by Kemble on the basis of the fact that he has a bass voice, while the others use higher tones of voice. Even in this exception she says that it is only the absence of a tail that reluctantly, albeit wonderingly, forces her to accept that he is a human being and not an animal. Even under this extreme racial perspective, it is the musical tones of voice that the actress and performer relies upon to make her judgments.

Coming of Age in Mississippi-Book Report

â€Å"Coming of Age in Mississippi† by Anne Moody is an autobiographical account of a black woman living in South struggling against the centuries old racial discrimination by the white. She passed through almost identical incidences like other members of her race bearing humiliation and disgraceful treatment from the upper white class. Anne Moody narrates the story of herself growing up in Mississippi when racial discrimination against the blacks was the peak.In her account, Anne Moody describes the adversities of living in the â€Å"south† where the black population had just started their struggle for equal rights. The life was pathetic for the Negroes with little hopes for emancipation. The details are well described in an easy language and style moving the reader by the depth and emotional appeal it contains. The sentence structure is not so good for Moody not being a professional writer. Anne Moody tells the incredible events of her early childhood living in a hous ehold of divorced parents and extreme poverty.She provides a glance over the several death warnings and intentional massacre of her family members and friends by the powerful whites. She developed a consequent hatred not only for the whites for her own race too as she writes in the book, â€Å"I was 15 years old when I began to hate people†¦ I hated all the whites who were responsible for the countless murders†¦ But I also hated Negroes. I hated them for not standing up and doing something about the murders† (129).The life for her and other blacks was no different from that in the slavery days of pre-Civil War period. She tells about a society in which no one wanted to live in peace and tranquility. Anne Moody’s narrative includes events comparable to both Martin Luther King’s and Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Rights tactics, Anne was highly influenced by King. Her book is written in into four parts covering different stages of her life; childhood , high school years, college years and participation in the civil rights movement.These stages greatly resemble King’s four point program of gathering facts, self-purification, negotiation, and direct action (King 290). â€Å"Black Boy† by Richard Wright is another account similar to Anne’s. an autobiography initially published in 1945, focus on the many hardships African Americans faced as individuals and families. Similar to Anne’s, Richard's father his family when he was very young. They were left with their mother making her to be devastated by and ending up with a stroke.Richard had to start working at a prime age to look after his mother and siblings. The two narratives are only different being penned by and from a male and female perspective. Anne’s book is about the inner struggle within her and about the conflicts she had with society and her own fellow blacks. The title of the book, â€Å"Coming of Age in Mississippi† clearly talks of the subject matter inside. It is a story of growing up or coming of age, getting mature in a highly divided society in the state of Mississippi undergoing a struggle and change.It provides an insight and understanding of historical importance of the events taking place in the years of Civil Rights Movement. The book gives a good evaluation of the sufferings of the black population and their hard struggle for getting petty and basic rights. Works Cited King, Martin Luther Jr. â€Å"Letter from Birmingham City Jail† from A Testament of Hope. Harper Collins, 1991 Moody, Anne. Coming of Age in Mississippi. Delta, New York, February 2004 Wright, Richard. Black Boy. Harper Perennial Modern Classics. September 1, 1998