We then had to decide whether these appeals ultimately worked to convince the reader. Lastly we developed a thesis, where we took a stand on whether we believed the article was effective in its use of rhetorical strategies. After writing a rough…
An Analysis of the Ancient Greek Polis The illustrious philosopher, Aristotle, provides a vantage point to the practicality of a polis in antiquity by defining it as a “... partnership finally composed of several villages…” that has “...attained virtually complete self-sufficiency and thus while it comes into existence for the sake of life, it exists for the good of life” (Camp). In a versatile attempt to foster a sense of community among citizens, the conception of the polis set into motion the development of organized society and political ideologies, further shaping our understanding of Greek anthropology in antiquity.…
(text three) also does not use as many rhetorical devices as the Address to Congress on Women’s Suffrage. Text one used the most rhetoric and was the most effective; text two and three were the least effective and did not use the most…
Most of the other aspects of the opposition and data are ignored. Overall his article are not convincing for the well inform individual or expert in rhetorical, but for the neutral uninform citizen this may be very convincing. This article will be used as a weak point for the main research paper as a transitional point to discuss the opposing…
The “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” is a sardonic piece by Horace Miner that exposes Western civilization’s misconceptions of the behaviour and way of life of other cultures. He demonstrates how an etic or an outsider perspective can influence the perspective on the undetected culture. Miner introduces the Nacirema tribe who are to be perceived as an uncivilized culture with barbaric rituals. He highlights a few of the Nacirema body rituals which include the focus on the appearance and health of the human body, the holy mouth men, and medicine men. One of the main body rituals performed by the Nacirema is what Miner describes as “the focus of this activity is the human body, the appearance and health of which loom as a dominant concern…
Ancient Greek’s regarded hospitality with great importance in their culture. Being a good host was a reflection of power, as well as a form of honoring the gods, especially Zeus—who was associated with xenia. Xenia extended past hospitality rather it was a form of proper behavior between individuals, both host and guest. This mutual trust helped establish and create bonds. These bonds were often created through eating; food was associated with bonding and power, eating was seen as a luxury and a form of honoring the gods and themselves.…
The practically non-existent archival documents from the Byzantine era have forced historians to look to other sources as a means of understanding the significance of this great empire. Scholars have therefore turned to the abundance of surviving hagiographical documents such as lives of saints, passions of martyrs, collections of miracles, liturgical poetry, and translations of relics from Late Antiquity to the fall of the Eastern Empire. These accounts have been preserved in thousands of manuscripts and continue to be translated, studied, and modified by modern scholars. Not only are there so many diverse Byzantine saints’ lives produced throughout the empire’s existence, but a number of vitae have been written by more than one author. Older…
It is often said that during the Classical Period, Athens was one of the most sophisticated societies. James Davidson's Courtesans & Fishcakes: The Consuming Passions of Classical Athens, explores Athens’s passion for food, drinking, and sex and the reasons behind their sophistication. I tend to discuss James Davidson ability to provide ample examples and abstract language in order to give the reader a detailed description of classical Athenian culture. Indeed, James Davidson does a great job of describing the Athenian culture and the many connotations associated with the culture, but what really separates this book from others is the author's ability to include opposing arguments and even going so far as to pick a side. Nevertheless, the author…
Richard Sosis is an anthropology research professor with interests in human behavioral ecology. In his article, The Adaptive Value of Religious Ritual, Sosis questions the logic and purpose of the religious acts and rituals from around the world. Sosis looks deeper into the fundamental reasons for the rituals and how it affects the selected community as a whole and its benefits of overall survival. Sosis argues that the group cooperation that is found in these religious ceremonies creates trust and commitment within these groups, and this "membership" reveals who is worthy of this trust and commitment.…
Many authors have intended to dissect and analyze religions from a single perspective time and time again. While these researchers invariably understand certain aspects about a given religion, they tend to gloss over some of the more controversial and questionable activities that are practiced in other religions. In Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions, Walter Burkert attempts to analyze common threads found in early religions in an attempt to find out the underlying principles around the formation of religious beliefs. While some are more likely than others to be commonplace, such as practices of celibacy and sacrifice, others parallel behaviors of the society in which they were founded. In this piece, Burkert looks…
It is well known that the contributions Henri Hubert and Marcel Mauss made to the advancement of the study of sacrifice are groundbreaking and foundational. Whether or not later theorists have agreed with the concepts Hubert and Mauss have proposed, they cannot deny the influence that their Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function had. One commendable aspect about Hubert and Mauss is that they were self-reflective in their writing, stating that they “do not think of presenting [their theory] save as a provisional hypothesis: on a subject so vast and complex, new information in the future cannot fail to lead us to modify our present ideas” (1). They are aware that there will be research in the future that will challenge their understanding of sacrifice;…
Aztec rituals are very different from your modern day religious ceremonies. I am currently on a journey to understand this culture. By using google scholar and google I was able to find sources that will allow me to better understand this culture. While reading and understanding the Aztecs, I will determine whether a source is reliable or not. In this paper I will analyze the following websites: www.ancient.eu/Aztec_sacrifce/ and www.USHistory.org/civ/11d.asp concerning the topic of Aztec Rituals.…
Christian versus Non-Christian The world that we live in is an extraordinarily large place, and in it there coexist countless different views concerning religion. Imagine the world as a whole, religion can be broken down into two main categories: Christian views and non-Christian views. In order to view both of these cultures it becomes necessary to define exactly what each term encompasses.…
Throughout the period of 1150 B.C.E up until about 300 B.C.E the interaction between the Persian, Greek, Roman and Byzantine empires have shaped each culture. Through war, trade, religion, migration and expansion these Empire have clashed, and merged and scattered. Although Each Empire varies in core values, government, literature and art, it is easy to find connections to one another through the timeline of each individual Empire. The competition for territory and advancements pushed these cultures forward, in action and reaction to each other; each empire effected one another in unique ways. Some values and beliefs and customs carried on through time, changed to fit the needs of the individual culture or were tossed out altogether.…
This book may be viewed as an interpretation of primary and secondary writings (data) relating to early Christian worship in the first four centuries. The author provides a study of early Christian worship that extends from the practices of the earliest Christian communities and he shows the consequences that they have on our discernment of different aspects of early Christian worship. In the preface, the author uses the groupings of comparable linguistics which separates between “lumpers” (scholars that group different languages into families) and “splitters” (scholars that having viewed the resulting lumps, find fault with them). His work in this book clearly represents the splitters’ approach (page ix).…