Retarding Lead Many societies in the history of the world have undergone a period of development. Usually, an area goes from an underdeveloped region to a modern civilization. Outside influences are major contributors to a society's development. Their acceptance and appreciation of these foreign assets enhance their culture. Eventually developed societies can not cope with rapid changes. Their difficulty in changing leads to their demise. Nothing fails like success. Anthropologists have coined a term for such a situation. The Law of the Retarding Lead is when the most successful societies have problems in changing and retaining their lead in a period of transition. On the other hand, less successful societies benefit form this period of transition. They forge ahead and become a prominent society. The Law of the Retarding Lead is evident in a few societies. Its effects are staggering. The Law of the Retarding Lead affects each country in the same manner. Ultimately, this law can change an entire civilization. The Law of the Retarding Lead is strikingly obvious in the Moslem civilization. Until the seventh century AD, the people of Arabia had never played a major role in the development if the Middle East. They lived in an area that was mainly covered by deserts. In the sixth century, the Arabs had not yet reached the high level of civilization that the Hebrews, Egyptians, and other people of the Middle East had attained centuries earlier. However, in the seventh century AD, Mohammed was responsible for initiating significant changes within the Arabic civilization. During this period, the Arabs conquered Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and North Africa. Mohammed recruited followers and increased the wealth o... ... middle of paper ... ... were focused on achieving great wealth from other countries, while others were influenced in a minor way. The ability to master change is the main message of this law. Technological advances occur at a rapid pace. It is a necessity for a society to grab on to this change in order to maintain their world status. If a society can hold on to its lead in a time of transition, the retarding lead would not apply. Unfortunately, this has never happened. The acceleration of change is the key to a society'' success. The Law of the Retarding Lead is correct. It is a true notion that has affected almost every society that has ever existed. Bibliography: Works Cited Rosenfeld, Erwin. Global Studies. New York: Barron's Books, 1987. Stavrianos, L.S. What it Means for Us Today. Stearns, Peter. World History. New York: Harper and Row, 1987
Jared Diamond, author of the Pulitzer Prize Winning, National Best Selling book Guns, Germs and Steel, summarizes his book by saying the following: "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves." Guns, Germs and Steel is historical literature that documents Jared Diamond's views on how the world as we know it developed. However, is his thesis that environmental factors contribute so greatly to the development of society and culture valid? Traditions & Encounters: A Brief Global History is the textbook used for this class and it poses several different accounts of how society and culture developed that differ from Diamond's claims. However, neither Diamond nor Traditions are incorrect. Each poses varying, yet true, accounts of the same historical events. Each text chose to analyze history in a different manner. Not without flaws, Jared Diamond makes many claims throughout his work, and provides numerous examples and evidence to support his theories. In this essay, I will summarize Jared Diamond's accounts of world history and evolution of culture, and compare and contrast it with what I have learned using the textbook for this class.
Pipes, Daniel. “How Elijah Muhammad Won.” Commentary. Jun. 2000, vol. 109 issue 6, p31, 6p. Academic Search Elite. EBSCOhost. .
Cobb, Paul. "Introduction." Ibn Munqidh, Usama. Book of Contemplation Islam and the Crusades. New York: Penguin Books, 2008. xv-xlii.
The world is filled with many different types of societies and cultures. This is due to the fact that many people share dissimilar beliefs and ideas, as well as diverse ways of life. People lived under different circumstances and stipulations, therefore forming cultures and societies with ideas they formulated, themselves. These two factors, society and culture, are what motivate people to execute the things that they do. Many times, however, society and culture can cause downgrading effects to an assemblage if ever it is corrupt or prejudiced. Society and culture not only influences the emotions individuals have toward things like age differences, religion, power, and equality but also the actions they perform as a result.
Hilāl, ʻAlī Al-Dīn. Islamic Resurgence in the Arab World. New York, NY: Praeger, 1982. Print.
The term, progress, is synonymous with phrases that denote moving forward, growth, and advancement. It seems unorthodox then that Ronald Wright asserts the world has fallen into a progress trap, a paradox to how progress is typically portrayed as it contradicts the conventional way life is viewed: as being a natural progression from the outdated and tried towards the new and improved. Wright posits that it is the world’s relentless creation of innovative methods that ironically contributes to the progress trap rather than to progress itself, the intended objective. Wright’s coinage of the term “progress trap” refers to the phenomenon of innovations that create new complications that are typically left without resolve which exacerbate current conditions; unwittingly then, matters would have been much better if the innovation had never been implemented. In his book, “A Short History of Progress,” he alludes to history by citing examples of past civilizations that collapsed after prospering, and ones that had longevity because they avoided the perilous progress trap. Wright recommends that societies of today should use indispensable resources, such as history, to learn and apply the reasons as to why certain societies succeeded, while also avoiding falling into the pitfalls of those that failed, the ones that experienced the progress trap. This can easily be interrelated with Godrej’s concept of “the overheated engine of human progress,” since humans for centuries have been risking environmental degradation for progress through ceaseless industrialization and manufacturing. This exchange is doomed to prevent improved progress and will lead to society’s inevitable decline since it is unquestionable that in the unforeseeable future, cl...
Jared Diamond author of “The Ends of the World as We Know Them” highlights the reasons for the disappearance of early civilizations. Civilizations like the Mayans, Incas and Aztecs once inhabited the earth for hundreds of years, However; when these advanced civilizations reached the pinnacle of their capability, they faced tragedies such as war, unusual weather, environmental deprivation, terminated trade markets and unscrupulous leaders who contributed to the destruction of their civilization. One significant idea portrayed from Diamond’s article is that there are many factors that threaten American civilization.
Ideology, Knowledge and the escalation of new ideas led to a better life and society that made positive impacts on Western Civilizations. There were many idea’s that were explored and implement into the daily lives of the people and for the most part it turned out to be a good impact. Although there were some bad ideas that caused suffering to the society at the time. They learned from what they witnessed and created something that would work better for the most part. In this essay I am going to use some primary sources that support my idea that society benefited from the new “ideas” but I will also use an example to explain how it caused a negative impact too.
Islamic civilization began in Arabia, but it spread to many areas in the proximity of the peninsula. It spread as far as Spain, as well as many areas between the two locations. The civilization reached the Eastern Roman Empire, Persia, Egypt, and Africa. The Muslim warriors were extremely courageous, and their religious zeal aided in the conquests of many empires surrounding Arabia. However, the weakn...
This theory also heavily relies on the idea that in order to modernize, the country must Westernize and lose their traditional culture. It is then proposed that although in present day many societies are modern, its does not mean they are all the same.
Since the origin of times, influences have been made; merging, converging, and transformation have happened, giving birth to new cultures all over the world. Transculturation has played a huge part in these unions since it a “give-and-take process” (Chasteen 71). Furthermore, hegemony also helped the merging of different cultures, taking in account that hegemony is “a kind of domination that implies a measure of consent by those at the bottom” (Chasteen 66). These two processes tried to impose uniformity among the cultures uniting, since they need to let go of certain traditions to accept the new ones brought by the other...
Griswold, W. (2013). Cultures and societies in a changing world. (4th ed.). United States of America: SAGE publications Inc.
The history of American civilization is the story of the rise and fall of the great American Dream. ‘The Progressive Era’ and ‘The Great Depression’ were the two prominent phases of American Civilization. The progress era witnessed the ideals of harmonious human community largely operative to bring the Dream of prosperity to core reality. The poverty, stagnation, pessimism and imperfection were considered un-American words whereas the depression decades shook ‘greatest society on the earth’. The ‘chosen few’ of ‘promise land’ realized poverty stagnation pessimism and imperfection which were inbuilt in its structure.
Lead is a lustrous, silvery metal that tarnishes in the presence of air and becomes a dull bluish gray. Soft and flexible, it has a low melting point (327 °C). Its chemical symbol, Pb, is from plumbum, the Latin word for waterworks, because of lead's extensive use in ancient water pipes. Itsatomic number is 82; its atomic weight is 207.19.
In 1250 the Mamluk rebellion overthrew the Ayyubid house for control of Egypt and named Aybeg, one of the Mamluk regimental leaders, as Sultan. The Mamluks, being a military slave society, were able to defend Syria against the Mongols in 1260 and also subsume the remaining Syria principalities and expel the Crusaders by 1291.1 The unity between Egypy and Syria that the Mamluks were able to achieve was reason that the Mamluk state was the largest Islamic states between the time of the Abbasids and the Ottoman empire.2 Moreover, t...