Islam in the modern world Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Islam in the modern world - Essay Example It is a distressing reality that people consider themselves superior to others in terms of economic conditions, financial resources, color, caste, creed and even gender. Racism has been divided into scientific racism that involves genetics as well in terms of defining black, white, brown and yellow people. Some authors believe it comes from scientific reasons and theories. However there is a class of believers who justify that racism arises from the ideologies of global capitalism which gives rise to the unequal social relations. However the truth is that racism does not exist in a single form but a combination of all types. It involves culture, traditions, language, people, history, class, politics, ideology, religion, gender and even economical conditions (Berg & Wendt, 2011) European Racism Over the past two hundred years, racism has taken many forms in Europe such as Anti-black racism, colonial racism and Anti-Semitic racism. One of the greatest examples of European Racism was th e series of Crusades which were an attempt against the Muslims in terms of religious differences. Their main purpose was the restoration of Christianity and they were a longitudinal series of violent wars that began hundreds of years ago. At the time when the first Crusade took place Palestine had been ruled by Muslims for over four hundred years. The primary cause of this series of Wars was the Muslim invasion of France as well as the decline of the Byzantine Empire by the Muslims of Turkey. The second crusade was then called after a long silence by both participants where many lives were lost in the barbarous attempts to let each other down. Nothing could have stopped them and the brutality continued to another series of dozens of more to be seen in the next few hundred years to come. Of course it raised the spirits of hatred between both parties for their generations to come and both had been blaming each other for the loss of their territories and people. It was something that w as imitated by the Europeans for the hatred that they felt for the Muslims for being their rulers for thousands of years. This was their last resort to get their power from Muslims. Another notable series of racial highlights was the colonial times where Europe had many colonies by the beginning of the First World War. These constituted of dozens of British French, Dutch and German colonies at that time. The consequences of colonialism were negative in nature, and still have an impact on the world as a whole. The seeds of racism sown by the Europeans have played a major role in making this world a more unfair place to live with unequal rights and discrimination in the name of race, religion, caste, color and history. Where some nations consider themselves superior in all ways, other nations and individuals are treated as second class citizens inferior to them with lesser rights to live a respectable life. The times of colonialism began by spreading diseases all over the world never to be cured and many people died because of these. It also led to people having unequal distribution of resources and strained social relations in terms of relations with other nations as well as individuals and even other religions along with people of a different color. This colonial period also gave way to slavery, as the territories that were conquered, the suppressed people belonging there were made slaves and

The Evolution of Complex Societies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Evolution of Complex Societies - Essay Example This paper is trying to investigate the rise of different complex societies or civilizations in various regions of the world. One key technique of facilitating this investigation is to recognize the common features of these complex societies and the aspects that have influenced their development that can be distinguished from the archaeological evidence. The renowned authors have provided various methods with their theories for the advance of complex societies, such as the multiple effect theory. According to their works, innovations in one subsystem or aspect of culture boost and influence other cultural aspects via positive feedback. The authors argue that the cumulative impact of the interaction between these diverse subsystems due to these innovations is the emergence of civilization. This theory of multiplier effect in force is demonstrated by deducing the assortment of artifacts from the diverse cultures of the Aegean Bronze Age during the 3rd millennium BCE and examining seeds , animal bones, and architectural remnants collected from archaeological sites located in the area that date to this period. The authors’ explanation of the evolution of complex cultures during the Aegean period has persisted to dictate the way Aegean archaeologists approach this subject. Their ideas have widely endured the examination of Aegean archaeologists, raising the question of whether this theory can effectively explain the evolution of various diverse complex cultures worldwide. ... For instance, questions have been raised as to whether the theory can explain the complex societies that emerged in the lower Mississippi valley in the 2nd millennium BCE. This culture is most recognized by the huge earthworks in northeast Louisiana at Poverty Point. Examination of the archaeological data and artifacts of the Poverty Point society offers a positive answer to the questions raised. Despite the despite the immense differences between the societies in terms of their religion, art, architecture, and economics, the archaeological data point out this theory, as the authors explain (Stanish 2005). For a study of two such contrasting societies, that exist in very different surroundings, showing that they were influenced by the same exact processes, the theory offers students an instrument which they can connect to the archaeological data to assist them understand the universal influence that the evolution of complex societies had on human societies. This comparative approach has an additional instructional advantage in that students are able to expand their appreciation for the distinctive factors of each specific culture based on the artifacts that each society produced (Tainter 1988). As a result, in the process of studying one early complex society after another, students can discover to acknowledge how particular kinds of relics expose similar practices at work in the evolution of complex societies and the diversity in these societies. This comparative approach can be demonstrated by first identifying the main factors that characterize a complex society as categorized by the two authors. The authors use the neutral terms "simple" and