How have the Greek and Roman civilizations influenced the US essays

How have the Greek and Roman civilizations influenced the US essays The Greek and Roman civilizations influenced us today in many ways. There way of doing things 2000 years ago is now a structure on how we do things now. They influenced how we use politics like a congress and senate to democracies. The also help economical ways, by buying and trading things across seas. Also, they help us form Religions, like Judeo-Christian. Greek and Roman civilizations were a big help to us today. There are many ways that the Greek and Roman civilizations have influenced the USA. Many of the ways are political, in the Greek civilizations, also known as a Polis, would have group meetings of all the citizens in the city to discuss the public affairs, to choose officials, and to make and pass laws. That way of doing things has influenced our government in the way of our congress and senate. The congress and senate is people who are involved in the government, the Senators, get together to pass laws and discuss problems that we are having in this country. The Roman civilizations, also known as a Republic, started organizing 2 different branches of government, the executive branch and the legislative branch. The executive branch in the Roman culture ran the day-to-day affairs. And the legislative branch were an assembly of 100 men, called the senate. The senate would advise the consuls, the people who run the executive branch. Now we use the same branches of government the y had some 2000 years ago, but now we have one more, the judicial branch. In the Greek civilizations they had different types of government, oligarchy or democracy. An oligarchy is when wealthy people hold power. A democracy is when the people of the city, state or country vote to decide what happens. In the USA today we have a democracy; we wouldnt have a democracy if it werent for the Greeks. In the Greek community, the people of a wealthier class like nobles and landholding aristocrats took over power of the kings. In...

Cultural Relativism Definition and Examples

Cultural Relativism Definition and Examples Cultural relativism refers to the idea that the values, knowledge, and behavior of people must be understood within their own cultural context. This is one of the most fundamental concepts in sociology, as it recognizes and affirms the connections between the greater social structure and trends and the everyday lives of individual people. Origins and Overview The concept of cultural relativism as we know and use it today was established as an analytic tool by German-American  anthropologist Franz Boas in the early 20th century. In the context of early social science, cultural relativism became an important tool for pushing back on the ethnocentrism that often tarnished research at that time, which was mostly conducted by white, wealthy, Western men, and often focused on people of color, foreign indigenous populations, and persons of lower economic class than the researcher. Ethnocentrism is the practice of viewing and judging someone elses culture based on the values and beliefs of ones own. From this standpoint, we might frame other cultures as weird, exotic, intriguing, and even as problems to be solved. In contrast, when we recognize that the many cultures of the world have their own beliefs, values, and practices that have developed in particular historical, political, social, material, and ecological contexts  and that it makes sense that they would differ from our own and that none are necessarily right or wrong or good or bad, then we are engaging the concept of cultural relativism. Examples Cultural relativism explains why, for example, what constitutes breakfast varies widely from place to place. What is considered a typical breakfast in Turkey, as illustrated in the above image, is quite different from what is considered a typical breakfast in the U.S. or Japan. While it might seem strange to eat fish soup or stewed vegetables for breakfast in the U.S., in other places, this is perfectly normal. Conversely, our tendency toward sugary cereals and milk  or preference for egg sandwiches loaded with bacon and cheese would seem quite bizarre to other cultures. Similarly, but perhaps of more consequence, rules that regulate nudity in public vary widely around the world. In the U.S., we tend to frame nudity in general as an inherently sexual thing, and so when people are nude in public, people may interpret this as a sexual signal. But in many other places around the world, being nude or partially nude in public is a normal part of life, be it at swimming pools, beaches, in parks, or even throughout the course of daily life (see many indigenous cultures around the world). In these cases, being nude or partially nude is not framed as sexual but as the appropriate bodily state for engaging in a given activity. In other cases, like many cultures where Islam is the predominant faith, a more thorough coverage of the body is expected than in other cultures. Due in large part to ethnocentrism, this has become a highly politicized and volatile practice in todays world. Why Recognizing Cultural Relativism Matters By acknowledging  cultural relativism, we can recognize that our culture shapes what we consider to be beautiful, ugly, appealing, disgusting, virtuous, funny, and abhorrent. It shapes what we consider to be good and bad art, music, and film, as well as  what we consider to be tasteful or tacky consumer goods. The work of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu features ample discussion of these phenomena, and the consequences of them. This varies not just in terms of national cultures but within a large society like the U.S. and also by cultures and subcultures organized by class, race, sexuality, region, religion, and ethnicity, among others.