Slash and burn

of work, and creating a burden on society before the Industrial Revolution. In contrast, America had plenty of land for all, allowing for even the poorest settler to have his own farm, but also leading to the abuse and waste of land, such as slash-and-burn farming. Some parts of the colonies were more land poor than others, such as the comparison on New England 's generally rock soil to Virginia 's open forests, but in comparison to Europe, land was…

These Words Will Kill Me In my life I have heard the old adage: “sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never break me,” in many different contexts and phrasings, and each time I hear it I think to myself- ‘no greater a lie have I ever heard.’ Words do not need the intent of a human voice behind them, they do not need tone or inflection to make a point. Language is the greatest human tool, and like any other tool, it can build or destroy. In fact, its capacity for destruction is…

America is currently at an energy crossroads. On one side, the country can lazily continue on its current path of disillusioned comfort with fossil fuels. However, oil, the fossil fuel we rely on most, has the shortest supply left and when it finally depletes it will take the country’s energy, economy, and environment. To avoid the catastrophic aftermath of the depletion of fossil fuels, the United States needs to change its path and abandon oil for a switch to clean renewable energy. The United…

His nude body was found at 11 a.m. near Liberty Canyon and the off ramp of the Ventura Freeway. Donald had been strangled by ligature and stabbed. He had been sodomized and it appeared that attempts had been made to cut off his testicles and slash his throat. On September 9, 1979, in the early morning, David Murillo, 17, was bicycling to the movies in La Mirada when the defendant and co-defendant Butts abducted him. David's nude body was found three days later on a Ventura Highway offramp.…

Imagine what it would be like to live in an overpopulated area. Now imagine what an overpopulated world would be like to live in. In today’s world the population is constantly increasing and will continue to for years. The continuous growth of Earth’s population will eventually lead to a population that is incredibly dense. Over population is when the community becomes so dense that it starts to deteriorate the community and its standard of living. This is an issue that needs to be taken very…

Globalization is the process where different countries interconnect, and trade goods for the purpose of making business out of what each other can produce, often these trades impact each country differently. Kenneth Pomeranz, and Steven Topik, discuss in their book “The World That Trade Created” how globalization has impacted the world since early history. Trade creates a wider gap between rich and the poor, this being a negative impact for the poor, where they continue to get even poorer. Where…

Linguistic Evidentiality in Arawan, Luchuan, and Livonian An often overlooked yet fascinating aspect of the plethora of languages spoken throughout the planet, is the information they require their speakers to provide whenever describing something. For example, in the English language, there are many nouns to describe humans that do not differentiate between male and female, like friend. However, in Spanish, if one wants to refer to someone they consider a friend, it is necessary to use either…

The Portuguese discovered a society that did not have an advanced civilization with copious amounts of precious metals to plunder. Brazilian Indians were basically hunter–gatherers, however, some were moving towards agriculture using slash–and–burn techniques to cultivate cassava (Skidmore, 2009 37-38). In the first century of occupation, it was evident that it was difficult to use Indians as slave labor. Brazilian Indians were viewed as docile and had high mortality due to exposure to western…

Planet earth has witnessed a vast amount of highs and lows that define humans through patterns of world history. Relating back to the birth of civilization, mankind has come a way to be far from that starting point in the early B.C. In order to relate to this beginning time William Goulding wrote during World War II, Lord of the Flies, expressing the innocent can easily be shaped for the destruction of their own people. According to Goulding, mankind is initially wicked; therefore its man-made…

The Relationship between Ritual and the Construction of Space in Mapungubwe. The following events take place whilst I am a minor in the K2 culture, once we had relocated to Mapungubwe. The essay encapsulates what I see around me and how I feel about it, the types of spaces created, and the alteration in space to suggest the move from profane to sacred. My emotions correspond and add value to the exploration of ideas and themes that I have investigated, namely: The background and meaning of…