Cultural Materialism Essay example -- essays research papers

When it comes to anthropological theory the combination of several established ways of thought often result in a completely new and independent way of thinking. Cultural Materialism is one of these children theories that resulted from a coming together of social evolutionary theory, cultural ecology and Marxist materialism (Barfield). The goal of cultural materialism is to explain politics, economics, ideology and symbolic aspects of a culture with relation to the needs of that society. From a cultural materialist point of view society is indisputably shaped by the factors of production and reproduction. From this all other facets of society, such as government and religion, must be beneficial to that society’s ability to satisfy the minimum requirements to sustain themselves (Harris 1996). An example of this would be the invention and continued use of industry because it increased the ability to produce needed materials and food. One important aspect of the cultural material istic approach is that it operates completely from the etic perspective. Marvin Harris, one of the founders of cultural materialism, believed that a holistic approach is vital to correctly analyzing culture and believed that the emic approach failed at providing a wide enough scope. Harris tried to employ the scientific method and incorporated it into his theory. The result of this is that cultural materialism focuses only on events that are observable and quantifiable and replicable (Harris 1979). Cultu...

Why Junk Food Should Be Banned

Emily McLaughlin Ban Junk Food! DID YOU KNOW junk food has been linked to obesity, diabetes, and even cancer? Sure, junk food is totally yummy, but it is definitely not good for us or for the children in this country. Junk food also makes the quality of life worse. It makes you tired, and it can make you very unhealthy. There is a law going through congress right now about banning junk food in schools, and before you state your opinion, please open up your mind to see how junk food is affecting the quality of life in this country.One factor that affects the quality of life are the various diseases that affect the people in this country. 24-28% of Children in America are overweight, with 16% of them being obese. I believe that a lot of these problems could be solved if the lunches at school are healthier. These lunches at school would teach children how to put together nutritious lunches and/or snacks. Of course we cannot control what students eat outside of school, but I truly believ e that once they see how great they feel after eating a healthy meal they will want to eat better at home, too.Not only do diseases affect the quality of life, but so does your energy level. Don’t you feel more energized after you eat a healthy meal? Sometimes you feel like you can conquer anything. A Journal of American Public Health Association study concluded that children who ate healthy had significantly higher math scores than kids who didn’t. If children ate a healthy lunch, and had a test after, I guarantee you they’d do better on it because they would feel more awake and energized. The test scores in America would show an increase and our students would have more confidence.Along with diseases and energy level, your health affects your quality of life. In an AARP study people said that the key to happiness was health and family. When you’re healthy, you’re happy. Eating right can change how you view yourself and it gives you the energy to make other changes in your life, too. It’s important to eat right, but it’s also very important to teach the children in this country how to eat right, too. I know there are many people that oppose my view on this ban, but do they really realize what junk food can do to someone’s body?I can name five things that junk food does to your body. Number one: Junk food can make wrinkles appear earlier than they actually should! Number two: Bloating! Ladies, don’t we just hate that? Number three: Heartburn. Number four: Mood swings. Number five: Junk food can cause headaches. These are just a few of the things that junk food can do to you. I hope I have enlightened you. Before you vote on this law remember that junk food causes various diseases, makes energy levels go down, and causes moods to drop. Remember to vote YES to banning junk food in schools.

Definition and Examples of Paragraph Breaks in Prose

A paragraph break is a single line space or an indentation (or both) marking the division between one paragraph and the next in a body of text. It is also known as a  par break. Paragraph breaks conventionally serve to signal the transition from one idea to another in a stretch of text, and from one speaker to another in an exchange of dialogue.  As Noah Lukeman observes in A Dash of Style, the paragraph break is one of the most crucial marks in the  punctuation  world. History Few readers would think of the  paragraph break  as a  punctuation mark, but it certainly is, says Lukeman: In ancient times there were no paragraphs—sentences simply flowed into one another without interruption—but over time text became segmented into paragraphs, first indicated by the letter C. During medieval times, the mark evolved into the paragraph symbol  [ ¶] (called a  pilcrow or a paraph) and eventually became the modern-day paragraph break, which is now indicated by only a line break and indentation. (By the  17th century, the  indented  paragraph had become  the standard paragraph break in Western  prose.) The indentation was originally inserted by early  printers so that they would have space for the large illuminated letters that used to herald paragraphs. Purpose Today, the paragraph break is used not for the convenience of printers but to give readers a break.  Paragraphs that are too long leave readers with dense blocks of text to wade through. To fully understand when to insert a paragraph break or paragraph breaks, its helpful to know that a  paragraph  is a group of closely related sentences  that  develop  a central idea. A paragraph conventionally begins on a new line. Paragraphs are generally two to five sentences—depending on the type of writing you are doing or context of your essay or story—but they can be longer or shorter. The art of creating paragraphs is called  paragraphing, the practice of dividing a  text  into  paragraphs. Paragraphing  is a kindness to your  reader because it divides your thinking into manageable bites, say  David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen in Writing Analytically. They add, More frequent paragraphing provides readers with convenient resting points from which to relaunch themselves into your thinking. Paragraphs used to be longer, but with the advent of the internet, which gave readers access to literally millions of sources of information from which to choose, paragraphs have become increasingly briefer. The style for this website, for example, is to make paragraphs no more than two to three sentences. The Little Seagull Handbook, a grammar and style reference book widely used at many colleges, includes mostly two- to four-sentence paragraphs. Using Paragraph Breaks Correctly Purdue OWL, an online writing and style resource published by Purdue University, says you should start a new paragraph: When you begin a new idea or pointTo contrast information or ideasWhen your readers need a pauseWhen you are ending your introduction or starting your conclusion For example, a story published in the  New York Times  on July 7, 2018 (North Korea Criticizes ‘Gangster-Like’ U.S. Attitude After Talks With Mike Pompeo) covered a complex subject—high-level talks between U.S. and North Korean officials regarding the denuclearization of North Korea. Yet the story contained paragraphs that were no more than two or three sentences, each providing self-contained units of information and linked by transition terms. For example, the second paragraph of the article reads, Despite the criticism, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, still wanted to build on the friendly relationship and trust forged with President Trump during their summit meeting in Singapore on June 12. The ministry said Mr. Kim had written a personal letter to Mr. Trump, reiterating that trust.​ And the third paragraph reads, The two sides have a history of veering between harsh talk and conciliation. Mr. Trump briefly called off the Singapore summit meeting over what he called North Korea’s open hostility, only to declare it back on after receiving what he called a very nice letter from Mr. Kim. Note how the first paragraph contains a self-contained information topic: that despite some kind of criticism (described in the opening paragraph of the article), there are two sides involved in denuclearization talks and at least one of the sides, North Korea, wants to retain friendly relations. The next paragraph is joined to the first with transition phrases—the  two sides and the letter—but it covers a totally different topic, the history of tense relations between the two sides. The paragraphs are also roughly equal in size—they are both two sentences long, while the first contains 52 words and the second is made up of 48. Breaking up the paragraphs in any other way would have been jarring to readers. The first paragraph clearly refers to the present situation between the two countries, while the second talks about their up-and-down history. Thoughts on Paragraph Breaks Paragraph breaks allow the writer to change the subject and give the readers eye a rest, says  John Foster, author of Writing Skills for Public Relations: Style and Technique for Mainstream and Social Media. He says that when the text moves from one point to another, that is the time for a paragraph break: However, much will depend on the style of the publication or document and on the column width. For news-style print jobs, using double or multicolumn format, paragraph breaks are usually needed after every second or third sentence—say about every 50 to 70 words. Foster says that for single-column reports, books, manuals, leaflets, and  brochures, it is usually better to have slightly longer paragraphs with perhaps four or five sentences. Much depends on the context, your audience, and the medium in which the work is published. If you remember that each paragraph should discuss one unified topic and that you should use a paragraph break before each new topic, your writing will flow and youll help the reader proceed through your writing in a logical fashion and without straining to get to the last line. Source Rosenwasser, David. Writing Analytically. Jill Stephen, 8th Edition, Cengage Learning, January 1, 2018.