Meaning of the River in Siddhartha Essay -- Hesse Siddhartha Essays

Meaning of the River in Siddhartha Siddhartha, in Herman Hesse's novel, Siddhartha, is a young, beautiful, and intelligent Brahmin, a member of the highest and most spiritual castes of the Hindu religion, and has studied the teachings and rituals of his religion with an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Inevitably, with his tremendous yearning for the truth and desire to discover the Atman within himself he leaves his birthplace to join the Samanas. With the Samanas he seeks to release himself from the cycle of life by extreme self-denial but leaves the Samanas after three years to go to Gotama Buddha. Siddhartha is impressed by the blissful man but decides to lead his own path. He sleeps in the ferryman's hut and crosses the river where he encounters Kamala, a beautiful courtesan, who teaches him how to love. He is disgusted with himself and leaves the materialistic life and he comes to the river again. He goes to Vasudeva, the ferryman he met the first time crossing the river. They become great friends an d both listen and learn from the river. He sees Kamala again but unfortunately, she dies and leaves little Siddhartha with the ferrymen. He now experience for the first time in his life true love. His son runs away and Siddhartha follows him but he realizes he cannot bring him back. He learns from the river that time does not exist, everything is united, and the way to peace is through love. Siddhartha undergoes an archetypal quest to achieve spiritual transcendence. During his journey, he both embraces and rejects asceticism and materialism only to ultimately achieve philosophical wisdom "by the river". When Siddhartha is ... ...n, and all of the enjoyments and lavishes. He becomes entrapped in Samsara, the physical world, characterized by repeated cycles of birth, but finally breaks out of it after twenty years and returns to the river. At the river he joins the simple life of Vasudeva, according to Carl Yung would be considered the wise old man archetype, and for the next twenty years he listens and learns from the river. The river is no longer the divider between the material and spiritual worlds but now it symbolizes a unity in which past, present, and future, all people and their experiences, all features of life flow together. Siddhartha comes to realize that there is no conflict between the spiritual and the material, that all human occurrences are to be accepted, and that the only difference between the ordinary people and the sages is that the sages understand this unity.

Food, Values and Identity in the Middle Ages Essay

Food is one of the basic essentials for humans to live. The food we eat gives us the sustenance for our daily duties. Even during the ancient times, humans had a wide variety of foodstuffs to choose from with meat and plant food as the two general categories (Adamson, 2004). However, even if there are same food resources all around the world, what people eat vary from one culture to another, thus there were variations on how they cook different foods and how they eat. As time progressed, simple meals became elaborate with the continuous addition of different ingredients to make it more palatable to the taste of many. Diets of people evolve, depending on their needs, status, time periods and of course, the availability of the food itself. Through food, some people are able to show their values or principles that they believe in. For example, Muslims do not eat pork because the pig is considered as a dirty animal in their religion. The food people consume is sometimes used to characterize them (Scholliers, 2001), not only as individuals but as part of a group. All over the world, food portrayed a great role in shaping humans, their values, identity and the society and period they live in. One notable period in history is the Middle Ages. It was the time when there were many political, social, economic and social changes and the period which also led to the transformation of many European states (MSN Encarta, 1993-2008). What role did food play in the medieval ages? What was its relationship between values and identity in the period of the Middle Ages? It is interesting to note how food contributed to the culture of the people during these times of immense changes in the society and way of living of people. Eating in the Middle Ages was distinguished for the different social classes of people that lived during that time. For peasants and those who lived in poverty, their diet consisted mainly of vegetables and cereals. It was said by Mennell (1985) that descriptions of how the poor ate can be seen from the some of Chaucer’s and Langland’s writing. Serfs were provided by their lords’ limited variety and amount of foodstuffs, mainly consisting of bread, a morsel of cheese, ale or cider and dish of either fish or meat. This fish and meat were usually eaten during special occasions but it was still a known fact that meat was a luxury to the poor (Ferreires, 2006). It was also said that the poor was also associated to eating dairy products (Mennell, 1985) while the rich people had a disregard for them. Meat was always associated with the rich and it was them who always had a plentiful supply. Selling of meat was complicated during the time of the Middle Ages. There were many rules regarding butchering and the sale of meat in Europe (Ferreires, 2006). These rules were created for health reasons and so as to create a good quality of products for the buyers. These rules were also specific; one of them is that any flesh or meat dying of other means aside from butchering must be burned. Slaughtering of an animal also had strict standards and the market was strictly supervised as well by the lords of the city. In this aspect, meat was not only used as part of a recipe or dish but also for political purposes because charters created for the sale of meat were watched over closely by the lords of the city (Ferreires, 2006). There were different kinds of butcher shops found around the city, the town butcher shop and the common butcher shop. These two kinds of shops were different because they sell different qualities of meats (Ferreires, 2006). These meats were mostly for the consumption of the rich because the town butcher shops sold high quality meats while the common butcher shop sold, though not low quality, meat sold there was considered as second rate Ferreires, 2006). Poor people had another option where they can buy meat and this was a free market where decaying meat could be bought. Although there were strict rules for selling of meat, selling rotting meat was not prohibited as long as they sell it outside the town so people can make a distinction on where they can buy fresh meat and where to but the decaying ones. Ferreires (2006, p. 48) noted that for those who live in the country though, it was not a problem for them to find food since they also produce their own and sometimes tended animals. On the other hand, those who lived in the city, though could also produce their own food, remained as consumers since most of the markets could be found in the city. Even if there was a social distribution of food among the people during the Middle Ages, how food was cooked was very simple for both rich and the poor. Slow boiling (Mennell, 1985) was the major method in which food was cooked during the Middle Ages primarily because the meals prepared during this time were dominated by soup. In most cases, the soup prepared for the meal contained meat, together with onions, cabbages and beans. For the poor, sometimes food was simply cooked in boiling water or milk. Little is known about the recipes that people cooked during the Middle Ages. However, cooking manuscripts were also created during these times (Mennell, 1985). Much of these manuscripts are similar to what we would call as recipe books or cookbooks. But these cooking manuscripts were generally created for the upper class because you will find recipes in these manuscripts as the ones prepared by cooks at the dinner tables of the rich and nobility. Most of the recipes in medieval cuisine particularly focused on the ingredients and the combination of flavors that is put into a dish. Unfortunately, the first recorded recipes were vague, written with lack of precision on how it was cooked, how much of an ingredient was needed and what utensils were used. Earliest recipes in the Middle Ages were seen simply as a list of ingredients. Most writers of the culinary manuscripts were anonymous and it was difficult to trace more information about the recipes. But with the emergence of the master-chefs, cooks who wrote recipes from personal experience, specifying details of the dish to be cooked, written recipes evolved. This evolution of recipes may have also been attributed to the evolving culinary techniques, practices and strategies of the cooks that time. Other factors, such as introduction of a new ingredient, new found use of a utensil contributed to the evolution or improvement of medieval recipes (Adamson, 1995). Food preparation became more elaborate. Together with the evolution of the recipes, more and more cooks and chefs came out from their anonymity and were recognized. They were then appropriately recognized for their collection of recipes. We can say that food was able to give identity to the chefs such as those who provided the people with new recipes in medieval cooking manuscripts. According to Mennell (1985, p. 49), there were four best known cookery manuscripts from late medieval Northern Italy which had many points in common with each other and probably has one source. Food would then be used to signify wealth and rank in the medieval cuisine. Food prepared for the rich may not necessarily taste delectable but they should certainly look appetizing. There were also certain foodstuffs that gave the rich their identity to the rich because they are the only ones who can easily access it, such as meat which was mentioned earlier. The saying â€Å"You are what you eat,† can be taken literally because whatever food that goes into our body contributes to how our bodies are made of. Whatever food an individual eats gives them the physical identity. Identity is the set of characteristics by which an individual possesses, as he or she is recognizable as a member of a certain group. All human beings have identities, so we will have something to identify with, to give us a sense of belongingness. Without people realizing it, the food we eat was a huge factor in determining our identity. For example, we usually identify countries with the foods that can commonly be found in them (not necessarily crops). We also sometimes identify certain groups of people to the food they eat. In the Middle Ages, we already mentioned that the evolution of the recipe writing was able to give identity to the chefs of that time. They became more respected because they did not just conform to old traditional recipes but they created their own styles in making dishes. The social classes during the Middle Ages were also given identities by the food they eat. The rich and nobility for example was usually identified with meat and many other variety of food that was accessible to them. While for the commoner, it was vegetables and dairy that was clearly identified with them (Mennell 1985). More food was of course accessible to the rich because they had more money to buy a wider variety of foodstuffs than the commoner. Their diet consisted mainly of fresh bread, cheese, meat and wine. Relationship between identity and food in the Middle Ages could also be seen in the prescribed diets of the time. Foods that were coarse, heavy and inexpensive were prescribed to eat by those workers who had heavy physical work. They were supposed to become more accustomed to these kinds of foods because these foods would be able to sustain the energy they consume up in their work. Other foods which may not be acceptable and considered unpleasant to eat such as nerves, tendons, and innards were included in the list of prescribed foods for the laborer. These laborers then would be given the identity that they have tough stomachs because of the many repulsive foods that they can eat (Ferreires, 2006). On the other hand, the rich or those with inactive lifestyles such as the scholar were prescribed to eat lighter foods such as white bread, white wine and the white meat of the chicken because this foods suits best the brain activity (Ferreires, 2006). They were advised as well to lessen their physical activity, anything that may become hindrance to their brain activity. In turn, they would be more identified with gentler stomachs, one that cannot or should not digest or intake foods eaten by the laborers because they do not consume too much energy as workers do. Although food has a great role in the identity formation during the Middle Ages, it should not be deduced that food is a major factor in identity formation because there are still many factors such as in social, economic and political aspects that should be considered when looking at people’s identities. Another role that food may have a relationship with is values in the Middle Ages. The relationship between food and values goes a long way back to ancient history. Values were held by individuals as something that they believe in firmly. The relationship between food and values in the Middle Ages may be closely linked to religion. Early accounts of prescribed diets can be found in the Bible. Animal flesh was primarily used as sacrificial offering to God Adam and Eve were not allowed to eat meat and according to Adamson (2004), it was only after Noah and those who followed after him were the ones allowed to eat meat. It was under Moses that the dietary rules were changed and there were certain animals that cannot be eaten because they were unclean and consuming blood was also prohibited. People followed these rules strictly as it is written in the Bible. The holy meal of the body and blood of Christ were represented by the wine and bread which people must take to receive the Holy Spirit. Since the holy meal was represented at the body and blood of Christ, according to the religious teachings of the Middle Ages, people were eating the God who suffered and died on the cross. Therefore the act of eating the holy meal was like an act of suffering with God as well (Adamson, 2004). Another value important to people in the Middle Ages was the voluntary act of withholding food or fasting. It was also an act of suffering, because you are denying a basic need of your body. By withholding food, you are somehow telling the gods that you are willing to do anything for them to grant whatever wishes or prayers you have. Taking part in communal fasting also gives the feeling of belongingness of a person. People were striving for purity during this time and fasting was one ay of cleansing the body. Connections were made between gluttony (eating too much) and lechery (excessive indulgence in sexual activities) so many people took part in fasting to purify themselves. However, fasting was not an act of eating nothing at all but eating simple foods such as bread, salt and water only. Fasting was primarily done not to starve people who take part in it but to control themselves in indulging in too much food, thus controlling the desires of their body and to prepare themselves for receiving the divine truth (Adamson, 2004). Fasting was not only taken seriously by holy people such as monks but a number of girls who loved in the Middle Ages which became the cause of their deaths. This was termed â€Å"holy anorexia† according to Adamson (2004, p. 195) because these girls starved themselves to death and sometimes imposed immense pain to their bodies. Most of these girls were not really poor but wanted to be in control of their lives, seeing to it that at that time, the only options for females were either to marry or enter the convent. By denying themselves food, they were somehow able to gain control of their lives and not simply being a slave to the tradition. Lastly, the link of food and values to religion are laws about clean and unclean foods and food preparation during religious rituals and festivals. According to Adamson (2004, p. 199) both Jews and Christians in medieval Europe observed the same Jewish festivals where food played an important role. There were certain foods that cannot be eaten during these festivals such as bitter and black foods. One of the rules Jews have is that animals should be slaughtered in such a way that all the blood must be drained out because it is prohibited for them to consume blood. Food in the Middle Ages was used to associate certain groups of people and individuals because the foods they ate were â€Å"identified† with them, such as the rich and meat and vegetables for the poor. These foods were the most accessible and available to them thus giving them the identity like, if you usually eat meat, you are considered as a rich person. However, it might be dangerous to conclude that food determines the identity of an individual or a group because there are still a lot of factors to be considered when determining one’s identity. The relationship between food and values is closely linked to religion because there were particular foods that were considered as â€Å"clean and unclean† by different religions. Values of the people are affected by the food they ate because they wanted to follow the set of laws in their religion. They show their beliefs through avoiding the foods considered unclean and eating only the clean. They also show these by following certain rules that some foods cannot be eaten on certain days. Lastly, food was also used as a powerful tool to show one’s value as some of the women in the Middle Ages were able to use food to gain control in their lives. Food truly portrayed a great role in the Middle Ages and how it came to shape the values and identity of how people lived during those times. Food was also able to contribute to the rich culture that medieval Europe had. Its contribution to identity and values in the Middle Ages can prove that eating is not simply a biological way of providing energy for individuals to keep up with daily life. References Adamson, M. W. (1995). Food in the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays. New York: Garland Publishing Adamson, M. W. (2004). Food in Medieval Times. Connecticut: Greenwood Press. Bynum, C. (1987). Holy Feast and Holy Famine. Berkley. Carlin M. and Rosenthal J. (Eds. ). (1998). Food and Eating in Medieval Europe. London. Ferreires, M. (2006). Sacred cow Mad Cow A History of food Fears. New York. Columbia University Press. Mennell, S. (1985). All Manners of Food: Eating and Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to Present. Oxford. MSN Encarta. (1993-2008). The Middle Ages. Retrieved May 6, 2008 from http://encarta. msn. com/encyclopedia_761578474/Middle_Ages. html Scholliers, P. (2001). Food, Drink and Identity: Cooking, Eating and Drinking in Europe since the Middle Ages. Oxford: Berg Woolgar, C. et al. (2006). Food in Medieval England: diet and Nutrition. Oxford.

MHCC is just for Me Essay

When I graduated high school, I knew that if I wanted to get ahead in life I was going to have to get into college. Not knowing exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up, made me worry about spending money on a traditional four year university. I realized that there were several cheaper options for a higher education were around my area. Starting my education at a community college seemed like the right step for me once I understood that the credits would all transfer to a university that I could choose at a later date. This was my first sensible step towards furthering my education. The problem was trying to decide which college to go to. I had to choose from Portland community college (PCC), Clackamas (CCC) or Mount Hood (MHCC). After sorting through the pros and cons, some of which were proximity to home and work, class availability and, helpful resources, it became clear which college was right for me. MHCC was my choice because it convenient for me. When choosing which community college to attend, the first thought was the distance from both work and home. I knew that I needed a place that was close enough to where I work so that I could take as many classes as I needed and not have to worry that I am going to be late for work because of traffic or some other distraction. Another reason that I need a place that was close is to save gas, as I am currently paying my own tuition and saving money is essential for a financially deprived student. It turns out Mt. Hood is only five miles away from my house, and even more convenient was that it was right down the street from where I work. With MHCC being so close to my work and home and I am only late to class because of my oversleeping. I have also been able to fit in extra classes every semester because of the time I save to squeeze it in without having to ask for any additional time off from work. I am currently working part time job at Bi-Mart so flexibility with scheduling is necessity for my schooling. My current situation for school is that I get to decide which two days I am off, and with those two days I can create my school schedule. MHCC scheduling is so convenient because that the same class that I may need could be taught by several different instructors which all have different times and different days allowing me to shape a schedule that will fit. This has really allowed me to appreciate the classes that are held twice a week for that reason. My usually schedule for school can sometimes take me all day. It starts with a morning class around eight all the way through the day until an evening course till around eight. Without the classes held only two days a week I don’t know how long it would take for me to graduate. One of the resources that I keep constantly using at Mt. Hood is the Learning Center’s tutors up on the second floor of the main campus l ibrary. I know that I am not the only student in the class room, so when I cannot get a meeting with the teacher to go over class items that I do not understand clearly I go to the tutor center. When I am up there I can receive all the help that I need for any school work that I am behind in. I know this because I go to the math tutor all the time for help just to get help that I need. I also have gone to the writing tutor in the past to help with papers that I get stuck on. I know that I am not a very strong writer and not all the rules of grammar stick with me, so knowing that there is a person that can help me makes me a more confident student and it makes me feel like I can achieve more. The convenience of the tutoring center has allowed me to be a better student. To be honest without MHCC, I don’t know if I would have the drive to go to another school. When thinking about the future it makes me cringe sometimes. If anything I have learned from working at Bi-Mart, I know that working dead end jobs as a lifestyle is not going to be in my best interest if I want to achieve something in my life. For that I consider Mount Hood to be a great school to attend. I am glad that I could find a school that could fit into my life and my future goals. At MHCC I have learned so much, and have improved both my writing and math. I know that furthering myself with an education is only going to benefit me in the time ahead and with the education at Mt. Hood I know that when I am able to transfer to that four year university I know that I will have the tools to be able to succeed not only there but beyond the university as well.

A Dolls House

You have, perhaps, never heard a discussion or symposium on the subject, â€Å"Men-their role in the society. The discussion is always about women. Men have, perhaps, no role!Men can as well do, some of the jobs normally done by women. Even today, the best chefs are men! The never-ending talk to give equal rights to women has been going on since time immemorial. But all the Acts of Parliaments all over the world will not bring equality to the female gender.he change has to be achieved within-both men and women! How can equal rights to women be given? God has created her, given her the status of more-equal. Nobody can take that right away.It is the mother, who gives protection during the initial nine months to the divine creative force of the future-male or female! A female child is victimized at every step of life, from the moment of birth, and she sacrifices at every stage.   Women need to be the legal and spiritual equals of men!The three Act play by Henrik Ibsen is dominated by the main character Nora. The Doll’s House is symbolic—how Nora has been living within the specified rules applicable to housewife-submission, submission and more submission to the wishes of her husband! Before marriage, she submitted to her parents (mostly to the wishes of her father); now the place of submission is changed, but the procedure of male-dominance is the same-God bless her!With no scope to develop her own personality she is obliged to live under the ‘protective’ umbrella of her husband but not for long! Nora turns to be a dynamic rebel, gives up the structure that is considered sacred by the society and seeks the path of total transformation and rehabilitation of her own personality. What is marriage?Two distinct individuals, two separate personalities, born, bred and brought up in two different set of circumstance, try to come together from the day of marriage( if not courting earlier!) to find a common identity, a common goal and to be prec ise a common all! But soon the affected one finds out that idealism and the reality are poles apart!Why the scale of social justice tilts heavily against the womenfolk and their individual liberties are at a discount? Why one finds Nora in every family in one form or the other even during the 21st century? How long need the woman contain her suppressed emotions and move forward   to establish her own identity?It is the same old story through the Ages—it is between Him and Her! The family is run as per the dictates of Torvald, though his commands are honey-tongued. An attitude of ‘I know everything’ and ‘you know nothing’ is evident in his relationship with Nora.The sweet nothings he addresses to his wife like, â€Å"Is my little lark twittering there?†(Ibsen, 2007, p. 6) â€Å"Is it my little squirrel bustling about?†(p. 6) â€Å"Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?†(p. 6) â€Å"You extravagant little personâ₠¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  (p.8) â€Å"Hasn’t Miss Sweet-Tooth been breaking rules in town today?†(p.10) are all indicators of his superiority complex. And Torvald very clearly issues his edict as for planning the family budget. He says, â€Å"That is like a woman! But seriously, Nora you know what I think about that. No debt, no borrowing.There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt. We two have kept bravely on the straight road so far, and we will go on the same way for the short time longer that there need be any struggle.† (p.7) Ibsen has tackled several themes, mixed them very well, like a woman’s illusion in marriage, wealth, feminism, betrayal, etc.How A Doll’s House has been created within the house, how the woman functions inside the demarcated boundaries—such issues are dealt with intelligently. In the later part of the play Nora walks away from her family. Her undoing and the reason for falling from the à ¢â‚¬Ëœgrace’ of her husband is– she forged a bank note to save her husband’s life when no one else could. How she is compelled to tell a series of lies, and it looks as though such behavior is part of her personality. She does not feel guilty about it but for Torvald it is a major and fundamental issue.â€Å"It is better to have the world united than the world divided; but it is better to have the world divided than the world destroyed,† said Mr. Winston Churchill at the time of II World War. Similarly instead of destroying the family and the psyche of children, by endless misunderstandings, honorable separation is better!Amin Maalouf in his book, â€Å"Leo the African†, describes a poignant situation of the woman in the medieval society   thus: â€Å"Gaudy Sarah   came to see me†¦to sell amulets, bracelets, perfumes made from lemon, ambergris, jasmine and water lilies, and to tell fortunes†¦.without lifting her eyes, she said these words, which I remember to this day.‘For us, the women of Granada, freedom is a deceitful form of bondage, and slavery a subtle from of freedom. Then saying no more, she took out a tiny greenish stopper bottle from her wicker basket.‘Tonight, you must pour three drops of this elixir in to a glass of orgeat syrup, and offer it to your husband with your own hand. He will come to you like a butterfly towards the light. Do it again after three nights, and again after seven.†(Maalouf, 1994, p.6) For the sake of getting the attention of her husband, what abnormal steps the woman is compelled to take!Conclusion:Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen was born in 1828. The play was written in 1879. It was performed in London in 1889.Nearly thirteen decades after the play is written, the issues touched upon and discussed in the play are like the counseling sessions for the female gender, in today’s materialistic civilization, highly impacted by the industrial and internet revolutions.Women have taken great strides and have already caught up with men in several important areas. This need not be construed as the race between the male and female genders—rather it is the reality! Equality is the birthright of one and all.

The Methods of Selection in the Recruitment Process Assignment

The Methods of Selection in the Recruitment Process - Assignment Example If the organization does not come to terms with these methods of selection, it hires other companies which search for the required talent. However, what is needed here is an understanding that shall reach upon the premise of hiring people who are skilled enough to deliver the goods as and when required. Recruitment process is important to understand within an organization because it is the basis of resource provision that employers look forward to having (Bierman, 2002). The recruitment process paves the way for the growth and development domains of an organization since it finds the ways and means through which success will be deciphered in a proper way. What is even more significant is the way under which the human resources management department deals with the process of recruitment that shall only make the entire process understandable to the publics who are outside the domains of the organization (Noe, 2009). These publics would want to know what kind of recruitment strategies a re in place within the organization and where the hiring regimes are coming into full action. Since these publics have a fair amount of say within the working methodologies, it is only natural to think of the discussion of stakeholders because these stakeholders have one or the other stake within the organization. Either the shares are being looked after by these stakeholders or they have invested a fair bit under the aegis of the organization (Laser, 1994). The need is to realize where the stakeholders deem the company in a positive way and what kind of optimism they have in mind regarding the chosen organization. In the same light, the organizational discourse must find a way through which the recruitment processes are handled in an ethical and moral way. If the hiring and firing domains are settled properly by the selection methodologies which are in place, then this should mean that the organization is doing something right for the new hires. This would be translated in the form of people joining its fore and aspiring to become a part of it in the coming times as well (Mckinney, 1991). However, many organizations are not well equipped to tackle all these issues and end up being at the receiving end of the public wrath for a number of reasons. The recruitment processes within China and the United Kingdom are important to understand because it outlines the basis of properly utilizing the resources within the domains of an organization. If the recruitment process manifests time delays and similar issues, then it would mean that there are serious problems that exist within the fore of hiring individuals within an organizational setting. Therefore the role of the human resources management department

Greek and Roman art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Greek and Roman art - Essay Example The Greek Architecture is roughly divided into the Archaic Age, Classical age and the Hellenistic age. The period starting from 800-500 BC is known as the Archaic age (Pedly, 2007).. Structured temples with a rectangular shape centre and portico in the front started to appear in the Archaic Age. Excavations dating earlier to this age were found in Heroon at Lefkandi a village in Euboea Island (Catling et al., 1991). This structure was referred to as â€Å"Heroon† meaning the â€Å"Heroes Grave†. The mound is nearly 13.8 meters wide. The excavation here dated back to 950 BC. A cemetery like structure with the remains of a man’s ash and a women’s body were found here in 1960 (Lemos, 2009). The Lefkandi excavations are considered quite significant in the history of Greek Architecture because they provide ample insight into the late bronze and early ion age civilizations like Xeropolis (Lemos, 2009). Excavations carried out in Lefkandi in 2003 bought up severa l cemeteries in the area similar to the Heroon of Lefkandi. The structures of these cemeteries are the base of later Greek temples built in the Archaic age. There is a wooden veranda similar to the later days Greek temples Portico. The ashes of the man were stored in a bronze amphora with carvings depicting hunting scenes (Catling et al., 1991). ... The area surrounding Lefkandi is widely known as Old Eretria. These people who settled here should have live here from the early Bronze Age till the beginning of the Archaic period (Catling et al., 1991). They might have moved away from the area because of the Lelantine War. Another notable cemetery found close to the Heroon of Lefkandi is the cemetery for Toumba1. The building should have been erected around tenth century BC. The burial mound has a main entrance on the eastern side, three rooms and a wide corridor. Rows of wooden columns supported the roof and the building ends with an apsidal on the west (Catling et al, 1991). There is a row of post-holes on the walls facing north and south. There is a huge wooden veranda known as peristrasis. This veranda and the post-holes are found in early Greek temples constructed during the Archaic age too (Lemos, 2009). The people buried here are considered to be quite rich as several costly offerings starting from pots to jewellery were exc avated along with the bodies. They should have been offered to the dead as a token of love and gratitude (Lemos, 2009). The Heroon at Lefkandi is considered as a prominent archaeological discovery due to various reasons. The Archaic period is often considered as the beginning of Greek architecture and civilization. But, the Lefkandi excavations proved civilizations and occupations dating back to two hundred years or before prevailed in the area. These excavations were the substantial proof for the culture of Late Helladic IIIC2 period which prevailed around 1075 BCE (Evley, 2006). Many more cemeteries constructed exactly in the style of later day Greek temples like Skoubris and Palia Perivolia was found in the area (Catling et al., 1991). The

Economics for Managers Japan Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Economics for Managers Japan Case - Essay Example For almost a decade, the Japanese have started to adopt a risk-averse mindset after the fall of the dotcoms. Due to the circumstances, zero-return in cash has become the mindset of the people. While prices continue to drop, people further delay their consumption for the hope of lower prices. This hoarding of cash or investing in zero-return or non-interest-bearing savings leads to stagnation and later, worsening deflation in the economy. Thus the country wishes for some inflation to happen by increasing aggregate demand either through an increase in consumer spending, or channeling of money to some real investments in order to stimulate growth in the economy. Because of inflation, the relatively low or zero-return of investments most Japanese consumers have produces a negative interest rate. The Japanese Central Bank now hopes that consumers will then shift their investments to interest-bearing or higher-yielding investments to offset the effect of inflation, such as shares and real estate in order to give a boost to the economy. The cost-push inflation in the economy thus requires the Japanese Central Bank to use some monetary policy to curb it. However, Japanese Central Bank cannot just increase the interest rate in the meantime. While the global economy seems to pose a threat, increasing the interest rate will hurt the economy and worsen the impact of this threat if it happens. Thus, the Japanese Central Bank will keep the interest rates low in order to lessen the impact of the economic crisis abroad to the Japanese economy. The aggregate prices or the overall inflation within an economy is set by the interaction of the aggregate demand and aggregate supply. On one hand, aggregate demand is determined by the total amount  of consumption, investment, government spending and net exports in an economy.