Welcome to my sessions. Sessions is what, it is. My sessions I hope will inform you, educate you and hopefully enlighten you to some degree.
This session I'm going to call All Things For Sure. This is going to cover articals that you might find interesting. These may be topics or subjects that you know about, or might not know about. People, places, etc. Some of the topics may be silly, some of them may be profound. But I hope you find something under this heading that keeps you coming around.CRIME STUDY:
Genetic and Environmental Influences on Criminal Behavior
Caitlin M. Jones
Rochester Institute of Technology
Criminal behavior has always been a focus for psychologists due to the age old debate between nature and nurture. Is it the responsibility of an individual's genetic makeup that makes them a criminal or is it the environment in which they are raised that determines their outcome? Research has been conducted regarding this debate which has resulted in a conclusion that both genes and environment do play a role in the criminality of an individual. This evidence has been generated from a number of twin, family, and adoption studies as well as laboratory experiments. Furthermore, the research has stated that it is more often an interaction between genes and the environment that predicts criminal behavior. Having a genetic predisposition for criminal behavior does not determine the actions of an individual, but if they are exposed to the right environment, then their chances are greater for engaging in criminal or anti-social behavior. Therefore, this paper will examine the different functions that genetics and the environment play in the criminal behavior of individuals.
There is a vast amount of evidence that shows our criminal justice system is the new home for individuals with psychological problems. Although this may seem like a solution to some, it is creating a dilemma for our society. Once we label these individuals as criminals it creates a stigma for those who may suffer from psychological problems. Certain psychological problems have been shown to be heritable and if given the right circumstances, individuals with those genes could find themselves engaging in criminal activity. Therefore, should society look towards limiting the reproductive capabilities of individuals who suffer from certain psychological problems to better society?
That same question was asked back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the role of genetics in crime was widely accepted (Joseph, 2001). Prominent researchers believed that genes were fully responsible for criminal activity and that criminals could be identified by their physiological features. Along with this information and the idea of a eugenics movement during the same time period, it was not surprising to learn that acts of sterilization took place to rid society of “criminals, idiots, imbeciles, and rapists" (Joseph, 2001, p. 182). This period was therefore marked with inhumane treatment and the belief that genes were the sole reason behind criminal behavior.
Not long after the practices of controlled breeding, there was evidence to support the idea that the environment also played an important role in crime. Early family studies were conducted that showed a predisposition for criminal behavior as a result of inherited characteristics, but that an individual's characteristics and personality could still be modified by the environment (Joseph, 2001). Although these studies were void of high validity and reliability, it still raised the question of whether the environment can also influence individuals to act in a criminal manner. The debate between genetics and environment continues today with much more reliable research and data. Consequently, this paper will examine the various roles in which both genes and environmental factors influence criminal behavior.
Definition and Measurement of Criminal BehaviorTo fully understand the nature of how genes and the environment influence criminal behavior, one must first know how criminal behavior is defined. Law in our society is defined by social and legal institutions, not in biology (Morley & Hall, 2003). Therefore determining what constitutes criminal behavior can envelope a wide variety of activities and for that reason, researchers tend to focus on the wider context of antisocial behavior. Authors Morley and Hall (2003), who have investigated the genetic influences on criminal behavior, point out three different ways to define antisocial behavior. First is equating it with criminality and delinquency, which both involve engaging in criminal acts. Criminality can lead to arrest, conviction, or incarceration for adults, while delinquency is related to juveniles committing unlawful acts (Rhee & Waldman, 2002). Information can be collected using court and criminal records, as well as self report surveys to analyze the influences that were present. Secondly, they advise individuals to define antisocial behavior is through criteria used to diagnose certain personality disorders. More specifically, they mean those personality disorders, such as Antisocial Personality Disorder, which is associated with an increased risk in criminal activity. A final measure suggested for defining antisocial behavior is by examining personality traits that may be influential in the criminal behavior of individuals. Traits such as aggressiveness and impulsivity are two traits that have been investigated the most (Morley & Hall, 2003). Further details of disorders and personality traits associated with criminal behavior will be discussed later in the paper.
With regards to determining the effects the environment plays in criminal behavior there are fewer resources available. Observational studies and reports submitted by parents are two sources, but not everyone agrees on the validity of information collected from these sources. Three additional sources that most researchers cite when gathering information about both genetic and environmental influences are twin, family, and adoption studies (Tehrani & Mednick, 2000).
Twin, Adoption, and Family StudiesThere has been great debate between researchers regarding the outcomes of twin, adoption, and family studies. Some claim that these studies support the notion of a genetic basis to criminal behavior (Tehrani & Mednick, 2000). On the other hand, some have concluded that there is not enough evidence from these twin, family, and adoption studies to profess that genetics do play a role in antisocial or criminal behavior (Lowenstein, 2003). To understand why there are such conflicting opinions, one must first look at the available studies that have been conducted.
Twin studies are conducted on the basis of comparing monozygotic (MZ) or identical twins and their rates of criminal behavior with the rates of criminal behavior of dizygotic (DZ) or fraternal twins. Ordinarily these studies are used to assess the roles of genetic and environmental influences. If the outcomes of these twin studies show that there is a higher concordance rate for MZ twins than for DZ twins in criminal behavior, then it can be assumed that there is a genetic influence (Tehrani & Mednick, 2000). A study conducted looked at thirty two MZ twins reared apart, who had been adopted by a non-relative a short time after birth. The results showed that for both childhood and adult antisocial behavior, there was a high degree of heritability involved (Joseph, 2001). This study was of particular importance because it examined the factor of separate environments. Another researcher studied eighty-five MZ and one hundred and forty-seven DZ pairs and found that there was a higher concordance rate for the MZ pairs. Ten years later after checking police records of these same twins, two other researchers concluded that there was a fifty-four percent heritability of liability to crime (Joseph, 2001). Around the same time of the study just mentioned, two researchers studied forty-nine MZ and eighty-nine DZ pairs, but found no difference in the concordance rates. They concluded therefore that in respect to common crime, hereditary factors are of little significance (Joseph, 2001). Many other twin studies have been conducted, but there is concern over the validity of those studies and their ability to separate out the nature and nurture aspects; therefore other sources of information should be examined.
Adoption studies are critical in examining the relationship that exists between adopted children and both their biological and adoptive parents because they assume to separate nature and nurture. Studies have been conducted that test for the criminal behavior of the adopted-away children, if their biological parents had also been involved with criminal activity. In Iowa, the first adoption study was conducted that looked at the genetics of criminal behavior. The researchers found that as compared to the control group, the adopted individuals, which were born to incarcerated female offenders, had a higher rate of criminal convictions as adults. Therefore this evidence supports the existence of a heritable component to antisocial or criminal behavior (Tehrani & Mednick, 2000). Another study in Sweden also showed that if a biological background existed for criminality, then there was an increased risk of criminal behavior in the adopted children. In Denmark, one of the largest studies of adopted children was conducted and found similar results to the previous studies. The defining feature of the Denmark study was that the researchers found a biological component for criminal acts against property, but not for violent crimes (Joseph, 2001). Children whose biological fathers had been convicted of property crimes were more likely to engage in similar behavior, when compared to those biological fathers who had been convicted of violent crimes. According to an article by Jay Joseph (2001), who studied all of the minor and major adoption studies, the majority of researchers have found and agreed upon the non-significance of genes in violent crime. This reestablishes the findings from the studies mentioned already in that there may be a genetic component to antisocial behavior or that genes influence criminal behavior, but specifically for property offenses.
Family studies are the third type of instrument used to assess the relationship between genetics and environmental influences on criminal or antisocial behavior. Research in this field has probably been the least accepted by psychologists and other scholars because of the degree of difficulty in separating out nature and nurture in the family environment. Children experience both the influence of their parents' genes and also the environment in which they are raised, so it is difficult to assign which behaviors were influenced by the two factors. Twin studies have this flaw, as stated earlier, but it is more prevalent in family studies. An additional concern with family studies is the inability to replicate the results, therefore leading to a small number of studies. Regardless of these drawbacks, one family study in particular should be acknowledged for its findings.
Brunner, Nelen, Breakefield, Ropers, and van Oost (1993) conducted a study utilizing a large Dutch family. In their study they found a point mutation in the structural gene for monoamine oxidase A (MAOA), a neurochemical in the brain, which they associated with aggressive criminal behavior among a number of males in that family (Alper, 1995). These males were reported to have selective MAOA deficiency, which can lead to decreased concentrations of 5-hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid (5-HIAA) in cerebrospinal fluid. Evidence suggests that low concentrations of 5-HIAA can be associated with impulsive aggression. These results have not been confirmed in any additional family studies, which lead to a need for more studies to determine if other families share similar results (Brunner et al., 1993). However, this one family study does seem to suggest that genetics play an important role in antisocial or criminal behavior.
Neurochemicals in Criminal and Anti-Social BehaviorNeurochemicals are responsible for the activation of behavioral patterns and tendencies in specific areas of the brain (Elliot, 2000). As seen in the Brunner et al. study, there have been attempts to determine the role of neurochemicals in influencing criminal or antisocial behavior. Included in the list of neurochemicals already cited by researchers are monoamine oxidase (MOA), epinephrine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine.
Monoamine oxidase (MAO) is an enzyme that has been shown to be related to antisocial behavior. Specifically, low MAO activity results in disinhibition which can lead to impulsivity and aggression (Elliot, 2000). The Brunner et al. study is the only one to report findings of a relationship between a point mutation in the structural gene for MAOA and aggression, which makes the findings rare. However, there has been other evidence that points to the conclusion that deficiencies in MAOA activity may be more common and as a result may predispose individuals to antisocial or aggressive behavior (Brunner et al., 1993). MAO is associated with many of the neurochemicals that already have a link to antisocial or criminal behavior. Norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine are metabolized by both MAOA and MAOB (Elliot, 2000). While, according to Eysenck (1996), MAO is related to norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine, which are all related to the personality factor of psychosis.
Serotonin is a neurochemical that plays an important role in the personality traits of depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder (Larsen & Buss, 2005). It is also involved with brain development and a disorder in this system could lead to an increase in aggressiveness and impulsivity (Morley & Hall, 2003). As Lowenstein (2003) states, “studies point to serotonin as one of the most important central neuro-transmitters underlying the modulation of impulsive aggression" (p.72). Low levels of serotonin have been found to be associated with impulsive behavior and emotional aggression. In addition, children who suffer from conduct disorder (which will be discussed later), have also been shown to have low blood serotonin (Elliot, 2000). Needless to say, there is a great deal of evidence that shows serotonin is related to aggression, which can be further associated with antisocial or criminal behavior.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that is associated with pleasure and is also one of the neurotransmitters that is chiefly associated with aggression. Activation of both affective (emotionally driven) and predatory aggression is accomplished by dopamine (Elliot, 2000). Genes in the dopaminergic pathway have also been found to be involved with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (Morley & Hall, 2003). In one study cited by Morley and Hall (2003), a relationship was found between the genes in the dopaminergic pathway, impulsivity, ADHD, and violent offenders. Obviously, from this list of neurochemicals it seems plausible that there is a genetic component to antisocial or criminal behavior.
Personality Disorders and TraitsPersonality traits and disorders have recently become essential in the diagnosis of individuals with antisocial or criminal behavior. These traits and disorders do not first become evident when an individual is an adult, rather these can be seen in children. For that reason it seems logical to discuss those personality disorders that first appear in childhood. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Conduct Disorder (CD), and Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD) are three of the more prominent disorders that have been shown to have a relationship with later adult behavior (Holmes, Slaughter, & Kashani, 2001).
ODD is characterized by argumentativeness, noncompliance, and irritability, which can be found in early childhood (Holmes et al., 2001). When a child with ODD grows older, the characteristics of their behavior also change and more often for the worse. They start to lie and steal, engage in vandalism, substance abuse, and show aggression towards peers (Holmes et al., 2001). Frequently ODD is the first disorder that is identified in children and if sustained can lead to the diagnosis of CD (Morley & Hall, 2003). It is important to note however that not all children who are diagnosed with ODD will develop CD.
ADHD is associated with hyperactivity-impulsivity and the inability to keep attention focused on one thing (Morley & Hall, 2003). Holmes et al. (2001) state that, “impulse control dysfunction and the presence of hyperactivity and inattention are the most highly related predisposing factors for presentation of antisocial behavior" (p.184). They also point to the fact that children diagnosed with ADHD have the inability to analyze and anticipate consequences or learn from their past behavior. Children with this disorder are at risk of developing ODD and CD, unless the child is only diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), in which case their chances of developing ODD or CD are limited. The future for some children is made worse when ADHD and CD are co-occurring because they will be more likely to continue their antisocial tendencies into adulthood (Holmes et al., 2001).
Conduct Disorder is characterized with an individual's violation of societal rules and norms (Morley & Hall, 2003). As the tendencies or behaviors of those children who are diagnosed with ODD or ADHD worsen and become more prevalent, the next logical diagnosis is CD. What is even more significant is the fact that ODD, ADHD, and CD are risk factors for developing Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). This disorder can only be diagnosed when an individual is over the age of eighteen and at which point an individual shows persistent disregard for the rights of others (Morley & Hall, 2003). ASPD has been shown to be associated with an increased risk of criminal activity. Therefore, it is of great importance that these early childhood disorders are correctly diagnosed and effectively treated to prevent future problems.
Another critical aspect that must be examined regarding antisocial or criminal behavior is the personality characteristics of individuals. Two of the most cited personality traits that can be shown to have an association with antisocial or criminal behavior are impulsivity and aggression (Morley & Hall, 2003). According to the article written by Holmes et al. (2001), antisocial behavior between the ages of nine and fifteen can be correlated strongly with impulsivity and that aggression in early childhood can predict antisocial acts and delinquency. One statistic shows that between seventy and ninety percent of violent offenders had been highly aggressive as young children (Holmes et al., 2001). These personality traits have, in some research, been shown to be heritable.
Environmental InfluencesThus far it has been established through research and various studies that genetics do influence criminal or antisocial behavior. Researchers agree on the point that genes influence personality traits and disorders, such as the ones just mentioned. However, researchers also agree that there is an environmental component that needs to be examined. Environmental influences such as family and peers will be discussed, as well as a look into the social learning theory.
The family environment is critical to the upbringing of a child and if problems exist then the child is most likely to suffer the consequences. We have seen the problems associated with a child who is diagnosed with ADHD and how that can influence antisocial or criminal behavior. In relation to that, some researchers have claimed that it is the family environment that influences the hyperactivity of children (Schmitz, 2003). The researchers in this article specifically identify family risk factors as poverty, education, parenting practices, and family structure. Prior research on the relationship between family environment and child behavior characterizes a child's well being with a positive and caring parent-child relationship, a stimulating home environment, and consistent disciplinary techniques (Schmitz, 2003). Families with poor communication and weak family bonds have been shown to have a correlation with children's development of aggressive/criminal behavior (Garnefski & Okma, 1996). Therefore it seems obvious to conclude that those families who are less financially sound, perhaps have more children, and who are unable to consistently punish their children will have a greater likelihood of promoting an environment that will influence antisocial or delinquent behavior. Another indicator of future antisocial or criminal behavior is that of abuse or neglect in childhood. A statistic shows that children are at a fifty percent greater risk of engaging in criminal acts, if they were neglected or abused (Holmes et al., 2001). This has been one of the most popular arguments as to why children develop antisocial or delinquent behaviors.
One additional research finding in the debate between genetic and environmental influences on antisocial or criminal behavior has to deal with the age of the individual. Research seems consistent in recognizing that heritability influences adult behavior more than environmental influences, but that for children and adolescents the environment is the most significant factor influencing their behavior (Rhee & Waldman, 2002). As an adult, we have the ability to choose the environment in which to live and this will either positively or negatively reinforce our personality traits, such as aggressiveness. However, children and adolescents are limited to the extent of choosing an environment, which accounts for the greater influence of environmental factors in childhood behaviors.
Another significant factor in the development of antisocial or delinquent behavior in adolescence is peer groups. Garnefski and Okma (1996) state that there is a correlation between the involvement in an antisocial or delinquent peer group and problem behavior. One of the primary causes as to why this occurs can be traced back to aggressive behavior in young children. When children are in preschool and show aggressive tendencies towards their peers, they will likely be deemed as an outcast. This creates poor peer relationships and relegates those children to be with others who share similar behaviors. A relationship like this would most likely continue into adolescence and maybe even further into adulthood. The similar tendencies of these individuals create an environment in which they influence one another and push the problem towards criminal or violent behavior (Holmes et al., 2001).
Social learning theory has been cited as way to explain how the environment can influence a child's behavior. Using this theory to explain the aggressive or antisocial behavior of a child means that a child observes aggressive behavior between parents, siblings, or both. As a result, the children believes that this aggressive behavior is normal and can therefore use it themselves because they do not see the harm in acting similar to their parents (Miles & Carey, 1997).
As stated earlier, interaction between family members and disciplinary techniques are influential in creating antisocial behavior. Using the social learning theory these two factors are also critical in the development of aggression. Children who are raised in an aggressive family environment would most likely be susceptible to experiencing a lack of parental monitoring, permissiveness or inconsistency in punishment, parental rejection and aggression. The exposure to such high levels of aggression and other environmental factors greatly influences and reinforces a child's behavior. A significant point that should be known however is the fact that other research has supported the notion that genetics do influence levels of aggression, which stands in opposition to the social learning theory (Miles & Carey, 1997).
Gene-Environment InteractionsThere are theories, however, concerning genetic and environmental influences, which seem to suggest an interaction between the two and one such theory is the general arousal theory of criminality. Personality psychologist Eysenck created a model based on three factors known as psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism, or what is referred to as the PEN model (Eysenck, 1996).
Psychoticism was associated with the traits of aggressive, impersonal, impulsive, cold, antisocial, and un-empathetic. Extraversion was correlated with the traits of sociable, lively, active, sensation-seeking, carefree, dominant, and assertive. Finally, neuroticism was associated with anxious, depressed, low self-esteem, irrational, moody, emotional, and tense (Eysenck, 1996). Through research and surveys, Eysenck found that these three factors could be used as predictors of criminal behavior. He believed this to be especially true of the psychoticism factor and that measuring it could predict the difference between criminals and non-criminals. Extraversion was a better predictor for young individuals, while neuroticism was a better predictor for older individuals (Eysenck, 1996). An important point about these factors and the personality traits associated with them is that most of them have already been found to be heritable (Miles & Carey, 1997).
Understanding Eysenck's original model is critical to assessing the general arousal theory of criminality, which suggests an interaction between factors. Research has shown that criminality is strongly correlated with low arousal levels in the brain. Characteristics related to low arousal levels include lack of interest, sleepiness, lack of attention, and loss of vigilance. Eysenck (1996) believed that these characteristics were similar to the personality factor of extraversion. Individuals with low arousal levels and those who are extraverts need to seek out stimulation because they do not have enough already in their brains. Therefore, the premise of the general arousal theory of criminality is that individuals inherit a nervous system that is unresponsive to low levels of stimulation and as a consequence, these individuals have to seek out the proper stimulation to increase their arousal. Under this theory, the proper stimulation includes high-risk activities associated with antisocial behavior, which consists of sexual promiscuity, substance abuse, and crime (Miles & Carey, 1997). A significant fact that must be pointed out though is that not every individual with low arousal levels or those who are extraverts will seek those high risk activities just mentioned. It takes the right environment and personality to create an individual with antisocial or criminal tendencies and that is why this theory can be considered to take into account both factors of genetic and environmental influences.
ConclusionThere cannot be enough possible evidence to conclude the point that genetics play the most important role in the outcome or behavior of an individual. The opposing viewpoint of environmental factors is not without its doubts either as to being the prominent factor influencing antisocial or criminal behavior of an individual. In this paper, there is more evidence supporting the genetics viewpoint, but that does not mean it is more important. With the research and studies having numerous flaws and the inability to adequately separate nature and nurture, there is still a great debate between genetic and environmental factors.
Researchers, however, have certainly come far in their progression, to the point where there is a large consensus of the fact that genes do influence behavior to a certain extent. Although not as widely publicized, it is the belief of the author that these same researchers also believe that environmental factors account for what cannot be explained by genes. Therefore it seems obvious to reach the conclusion that an individual's antisocial or criminal behavior can be the result of both their genetic background and the environment in which they were raised.
One researcher has proposed a theory relating to sociopaths and their antisocial behavior. According to the theory, a primary sociopath is lacking in moral development and does not feel socially responsible for their actions. This type of sociopath is a product of the individual's personality, physiotype, and genotype. A secondary sociopath develops in response to his or her environment because of the disadvantages of social competition. Living in an urban residence, having a low socioeconomic status, or poor social skills can lead an individual to being unsuccessful in reaching their needs in a socially desirable way, which can turn into antisocial or criminal behavior. The first type of sociopath is dependent on their genetic makeup and personality, while certain factors of the second type can also be heritable. Notwithstanding, the second type has a greater dependence on environmental factors (Miles & Carey, 1997).
Perhaps from this review of both genetic and environmental factors, it seems clear to support the idea of the secondary sociopath type. An individual can inherit certain genes and when combined with the right environmental factors can lead them to engage in antisocial or criminal behavior.
Although not mentioned extensively in the text of the paper, there is a great need to try and identify those individuals, especially children, who may become susceptible to certain disorders or personality traits that can lead into antisocial, delinquent, or criminal behavior. Society should not try to imitate the era of controlled breeding, but rather focus on the treatment and rehabilitation of those individuals in need. Certain educational, environment enrichment programs have been shown to have a lasting effect on children if given by a certain age (Raine, Mellingen, Liu, Venables, & Mednick, 2003). If more of these programs could be developed, society could help prevent the future antisocial or criminal behavior of children.
Peer Commentary
Men Are Not the Only Criminals:
Insights Into Criminal Behavior in WomenLisa C. BurtRochester Institute of Technology
Jones addressed how both genes and environment affect the outcomes and predispositions of criminals. This paper goes into great detail on whether criminal behavior is in a person's genes or environment. Having a genetic predisposition for criminal behavior and the right environment can definitely increase the likelihood of criminal activity. Jones took criminal behavior further to describe actions relating to antisocial behavior. This identification of an antisocial personality with criminal behavior leads to the idea that criminal mischief is more prevalent in males. Although our justice system is heavily loaded with male criminals, women are still part of the criminal "world."
It has been determined that men are much more physically violent than women. A few points are essential when discussing women and violence. First, women should not be entirely eliminated from the spectrum of criminality just because of their smaller predisposition toward aggression. Second, women are just as capable as men of committing a violent act. Jones discussed how certain neurochemicals are associated with criminal behavior. These neurochemicals might be more active in men, but women can still grow up in environments in which certain tendencies are brought on.
Family environment is crucial in the development of a child's brain and personality. Genetics can only go so far, and environment works to shape a child's mind after the child has left a mother's womb. Jones discussed how poor communication and weak family bonds are correlated with the development of aggressive and criminal tendencies. She also mentioned how a financially unstable family and child abuse or neglect are associated with criminal behavior. Environment is important for a child to grow and develop into a normal, prospering adult. Without proper nurturance, guidance, and support, no child, male or female, will learn coping strategies, learn life skills, or grow up with a strong sense of right and wrong and respect other people. Whether one is male or female, growing up in an environment in which one is beaten or neglected is going to cause serious traumatic repercussions. The aggressive tendencies in males lead them to become more aggressive in adulthood, which in turn is why they are more apt to commit violent crimes. Yet women have been known to commit those same violent crimes, regardless of the prevalence relative to males--women are capable of criminal behavior. Men have committed more crimes and are known to be more violent, yet women should not be eliminated from the discussion. It has not been shown that genes or environment alone determine criminal behavior, as Jones mentioned in her paper, so there should be no reason why only men are mentioned, whether directly or by implication.
Criminal Behavior and Personality Disorders
Jeffrey C. TatarRochester Institute of Technology
In addition to the research showing that the gene responsible for production of monoamine oxidase has a possible link to criminality, some evidence has also shown a possible link between other genes. One area of personality research in molecular genetics that has received a lot of attention is the trait of novelty-seeking, and novelty seeking is a personality trait often associated with criminality. Research has indicated that the single DRD4 gene may account for 10% of the genetic variance in relation to novelty-seeking (Sloan, 2000). This conclusion is highly controversial because in subsequent studies there has been both replication of the original findings, and failure to replicate in other studies. It seems most molecular genetic approaches in relating heritability of personality characteristics such as criminality to a single gene frequently suffer from failures in replication.
The author also proposed that some studies have demonstrated a genetic link between ADHD, CD, and ODD and criminality. However, there are possible alternate explanations for a greater rate of criminality for those who have suffered from these disorders that the paper failed to mention. It has been shown that people evoke certain responses from their environment. It is plausible that children suffering from these disorders are treated in a different manner than normal children due to the responses that they evoke, and it is because of these environmental differences that they are more prone to criminal behavior. Say a child suffering from ADHD is having problems in school, they may be placed in a remedial class in which there is a greater rate of delinquency. This would be a very important environment difference that could contribute greatly to future criminality. Other children may also socialize less with children with these disorders, which could plausible lead to anti-social behavior.
While it is possible that in some cases the relationship between these disorders and criminality is not direct byproduct of genes, but rather as a byproduct of the same environment. There have been studies on ADHD in relation to a multitude of environmental factors, including everything from nutrition to environmental toxins. For example, a studies have been done that indicate an increased time spent viewing television in children was related to a decreased attention span and ADHD. There have also been studies showing a relationship between television viewing and desensitization to violence, which could influence criminal behavior. I am not proposing that it is watching TV that is the major factor in these disorders, or in criminality, I am just trying to illustrate that perhaps there is some environmental factor that could influence criminality as well as disorders such as ADHD.
In addition to ADHD, CD, and ODD, other disorders have shown to influence criminality as well. Studies have shown that there is a higher occurrence of disorders such as schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, just to name a few. It is possible that having these personality disorders gives one a greater predisposition toward criminal behavior. A Swedish study found that the occurrence of major mental disorders in prisoners to be 5%, as well as a 20% occurrence of personality disorders (Rasmussen, 1999). Other studies have given different values for the occurrence, but in most cases the research agrees that there is a much higher incidence of these mental disorders in those who commit crimes.
Genetics has shown to be a major factor in the occurrence of many of these disorders. There have been studies that examine the rate of personality disorders such a schizophrenia, psychosis, and manic?depressive illness in adopted children. We can hypothesize that if adopted children are more likely to suffer from such disorders if their biological parents are or were afflicted, it would be indicative of a genetic basis for the disorder. Research done by Leonard Heston in 1960 examined children of schizophrenic mothers that were removed after birth and raised by foster parents. Out of a total of 47 children examined, Heston found that nine of them were diagnosed with sociopathic personalities and antisocial behavior, and four of the 47 children developed schizophrenia. Heston also found behavioral abnormalities in many of the other children (Eysenk, 1982). This study shows a significant increase in the rate of personality disorders in the progeny of an affected parent, in comparison to population statistics on these mood disorders. In fact, when both parents are affected by a personality disorder the rate of occurrence in their offspring is even higher.
Not only do adoption studies support a genetic basis for personality disorders that are shown to have a relation to criminality, but twin studies as well. Statistics show a high concordance between identical and non-identical twins for schizophrenia and manic depression. Analysis of the statistics clearly show the genetic basis for these disorders: For schizophrenia the concordance in identical twins was 60%, compared to only 10% in non-identical twins, and the normal frequency being 1% in northern European populations. Similarly, manic depression showed a 70% concordance between identical twins, a 15% concordance between non-identical twins, and again only a 1% frequency in the normal population (Russo & Cove, 1995). This research supports the theory that genetics play a crucial role in these personality disorders.
Criminality Is a Product of Genes and EnvironmentMaureen E. WoodRochester Institute of Technology
In considering the roles of genetics and environment on criminal behavior, or any behavior for that matter, I think the best explanation is that there is a complex interaction between one's inherited traits and the environment in which he or she lives. Although the idea of environmental influences seems rather intuitive, regardless of knowledge regarding heredity and biological factors, it is surprising that some may have considered criminal behavior to be solely a result of genetics. I propose that the debate of nature versus nurture now is not whether genetics or environment influence behavior, but how complex the interaction between these factors is.
Despite the relative lack of reliability and validity in twin, adoption, and family studies, they still provide valuable insight into the roles of heredity and environment in criminal behavior. However, it seems that most studies of this kind focus on the role of heredity in influencing behavior. It would be interesting to see whether any studies with adopted children have examined the role of environment in criminal behavior. Most adoption studies examine the correlation between criminality in the biological parents of adopted children, but what about the correlation between the children and their adopted parents who are crucial to their environment?
I agree with Jones that the influence of neurochemicals on criminal and antisocial behavior are indicative of a genetic component to such behaviors. However, I think a more complete explanation of neurochemical influences is that they reflect the complex interactions between genetics and environment. There is evidence that the expression of genes is influenced by a wide variety of environmental factors. Therefore, it is very possible that disorders relating to such chemicals as serotonin and dopamine could be caused by stressful environmental situations. If environment affects the regulation of gene expression and, in turn, the activity of neurotransmitters that modulate behavior, this kind of interaction may be a significant factor in the development of criminal and antisocial behavior.
Jones's argument regarding the extent to which environmental and genetic factors influence antisocial and criminal behavior in childhood versus adulthood seems somewhat incomplete. While it is true that adults have more control of their environment than children, I do not think that children are necessarily affected more by environment and adults are influenced more by heredity. Inherited traits provide the foundation by which people are able to learn and respond to their environment. An adult's personality is the combination of traits and learned behavior patterns that have been established throughout childhood. Thus, although it is true that adults have more control over their current environment, I believe that they are still heavily influenced by both their current environment and by past exposure to environmental factors.
The social learning theory is a good way to explain the influence of environment on antisocial behavior in children, and does not necessarily have to oppose the notion of genetic influence on behavior as well. Rather, it should be considered part of a larger theory or model that could describe how environment and genetics interact. Eysenck's general arousal theory, which suggests such an interaction, could be modified to encompass the social learning theory, providing a more complete model to explain how upbringing and inherited traits interact to influence criminal behavior.
Overall, I agree with Jones's support of the idea of the secondary sociopath type. Genetics and environmental factors are so intertwined, that it seems impossible to separate them in explaining how people are caused to engage in criminal acts. Also I agree that it is important for society as a whole to take responsibility in preventing the advent of criminal and antisocial behavior in children via programs to provide children with healthy, enriching environments. A eugenic approach to preventing antisocial behavior is immoral and impinges on human rights, but taking an active approach to ensure positive environmental influences would be appropriate.
Criminal Behavior: Those Affected, Other Causes, and BeyondCaitlin M. JonesRochester Institute of Technology
I would like to thank those who wrote peer commentaries because there is obviously a lot of information that was not covered in my paper but that should not be neglected. Overall, I think it is safe to say that the majority believe that there are both environmental and genetic influences for criminal or antisocial behavior. The information from the peer commentaries adds to this notion.
Burt discussed the inference that my paper was specifically addressing the male population as more aggressive and consequently leading to criminal or antisocial behavior. I cannot disagree with this point, because some of the studies referred to in the paper were conducted on males only, and most research points to the male sex as more aggressive. It is important to know that women can be just as criminal in their behavior, as Burt pointed out. An integral piece of information, however, is that although women commit a large part of crimes, it is usually in the form of non-violent crimes.
Tatar first addressed the fact that there are other genes that may be associated with criminality, such as the gene DRD4, which is associated with the personality trait of novelty seeking. As mentioned in my paper, there is no single gene that is responsible for criminal or antisocial behavior, so I applaud the mention of other genes. I also agree with Tatar that there are other environmental influences, such as how a child's behavior or disorder can evoke certain responses from the child's environments. I believe this to be true, and more research needs to be focused on how to treat or approach these children so that their behaviors do not develop further into antisocial or criminal behavior. A topic that was omitted from my paper, which Tatar also mentioned, was the heritability of personality disorders. This is an important topic, because some personality disorders have been associated to a higher degree with criminal or antisocial behavior.
Wood believed that there is an interaction between environmental and genetic influences on criminal or antisocial behavior. The point she brought up, with which I also agree, is how complex that interaction is. With regard to the adoption studies, my research did not go far enough to report on the findings of adoptive parents and their adopted children. I am positive that those adoption studies looked at that relation, and one of the findings that might have resulted is that the environment in which the adoptive parents raise their child has a significant influence, regardless of the genes inherited. Another point that Wood discussed was the impact that environmental influences has on children and adults. I realize that the environment in which one lives will always influence one, but the point I was making regarding children being more affected was focused on peer influences as well as parents. Children are more susceptible to peer pressure and being controlled by their parents, whereas adults have the ability to shape their own environments.
The Amahuaca - Amazon Tribe of Peru
The Amahuaca are located in the tropical jungles of Peru. The largest community of Amahuaca is in Puesto Varadero, a jungle community on the Peruvian-Brazilian border.
The Machiguenga, Yine-Piro, Yaminahua, Amahuaca, Ashaninca, Nahua and Kugapakori Indigenous Peoples have traditionally occupied the Urubamba Valley, situated between the central and southern regions of Peru.
In the beginning of the 18th century, missionaries met with resistance by these peoples, because the region was isolated from the national society.
After the rubber boom, the phenomenon of the hacienda and the patrons appropriated indigenous territories and exploited their work force. This also led to the arrival of Dominican missionaries to the region.
In this manner, the national policies of territorial occupation in the Amazon, since the advent of the Republic, has been characterized by the intensification of this colonization, as well as the mercantile activity and extraction. This trend is consolidated with the promulgation of the Law of Lands and Mountains (No.1220) in 1909, that incorporates the State's domain over lands traditionally occupied by Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon, but that were not acquired as agreed to in the Civil Code of 1852. Through this law, large areas of land were granted to businesses and explorers. Such arrangements continued until 1974, when Decree No.20653 (Law of the Native Communities and of Land and Cattle Promotion in Jungle Regions) was proclaimed. Before this law, Decree 3 of 1957 established the legal term "reserve," creating sixty-four of them to assure the subsistence of the Indigenous Peoples (ManrÃquez, 1996, p. 1-3).
Nonetheless, the settlers in the Urubamba Valley occupied 34,000 hectares and their relation with the native communities have remained unequal, especially in labor and business issues. Also, land disputes arose mostly because of the invasion of communal territory, with the consent, or at least the indifference, of the authorities. In the scope of environmental conservation to the exploitation of wood and the activities of fishing and hunting, should be added the exploitation of hydrocarbon in the Valley of Urubamba trough the Supreme Decree o 24-95-EM, of November 3, 1995. This is especially effective in the Camisea Zone after the discovery of huge gas reserves have affected the economic, social and cultural life of Indigenous Peoples.
Since 1893, when the first well was drilled in Peru, petroleum began to constitute an important element of national political life and of intense ideological debates and antagonistic positions. Despite the opposition it caused, Law 11780 gave foreign companies incentive to solicit concessions of petroleum exploration in the jungle. Although in the 1970s, petroleum explorations were nationalized, foreign companies could be contracted for the exploration andexploitation through the system of Operational Contracting.
During the first years, in the early 80s, because of the deficit that the government faced with respect to petroleum production due to the lack of investment, the decline in the reserves and the technological inefficiency of PETROPERU, the foreign contracting continued. In this way, through Law 23231, and because the contractual and tributary system in Peru had discouraged investors, additional benefits were granted to foreign interests.
In 1981, through the Supreme Decree 17.81-EM/DGH, the Contract for Petroleum Operations was approved with the Shell Company. The results of this exploration during 1984-1987 were the discovery of natural gas in the area called Camisea. Subsequently, the Executive Power confirmed the extraordinary importance and the commercial value of this area, then having to do with one of the largest hydrocarbon reserves discovered in the country, which transformed Camisea into the "new gold of the south." Nonetheless, the explorations of gas have brought negative consequences to Indigenous Peoples, the environment and to human health.
The inclusion of the Urubamba Valley within the national economy has been characterized, since the beginning of the Republic, by the strengthening of powerful economic groups (rubber tappers, patrons, loggers and business people, among others) that have created an irrational pattern of occupation in this region, spoiling the territories traditionally occupied by Indigenous Peoples. This worsened with the development policies that the Stated performed during the 70s and 80s, when it was seen as a large area with scarce population but with many natural resources which use might contribute to the development of the country. This situation encouraged the settlement of colonists and the granting of logging contracts, as well as the contracting of the Shell Company for the exploration and exploitation of petroleum.
The economic impact on Indigenous Peoples, due to their increased involvement in the mercantile economy can thus be described as discriminating and unequal labor relationships.. This disadvantage has brought transformations in the traditional structure and has increased relationships based on cultural discrimination, as well as negative environmental impacts resulting in a larger extraction of natural resources that puts the ecological balance at risk.
Likewise, pollution from lubricant residuals increased. Also, the dynamization of the economy affected the health of the people in the region, since infectious-contagious diseases were introduced. In some cases, like the village of Nahua, this caused strong epidemics that decimated the population. The eating habits of these villages were also altered and problems of protein deficiency, especially in women and children increased.Extinct Languages In The USA
Achumawi. 10 nonfluent speakers (1997 Nevin). Ethnic population: 1,000 (1997 Bruce Nevin). More information.
Ahtena. 80 (1995 M. Krauss). Ethnic population: 500 (1995 M. Krauss). More information.
Apache, Kiowa. 18 (1990 census). Ethnic population: 1,000 (1977 SIL). More information.
Apache, Lipan. 2 or 3 (1981 R. W. Young). Ethnic population: 100 (1977 SIL). More information.
Arikara. 20 (1997 Parks). Ethnic population: 3,000. More information.
Atsugewi. 3 (1994 L. Hinton). Ethnic population: 200 (1977 SIL). 1,350 with Achumawi (2000 A. Yamamoto). More information.
Caddo. 25 (1997 Chafe). Ethnic population: 3,371 (1997 W. Chafe). More information.
Cahuilla. 7 to 20 (1994 L. Hinton). Ethnic population: 35 (1990 census). More information.
Chetco. 5 (1962 Chafe). Ethnic population: 100 possibly (1977 SIL). More information.
Chinook. 12 speakers of Kiksht dialect (1996). Ethnic population: 300 possibly (1977 SIL). More information.
Chinook Wawa. 17 in the USA (1990 census). More information.
Clallam. 10 (1997 Timothy Montler). Ethnic population: Several thousands (1997 T. Montler). More information.
Coeur d'Alene. 5 (1999 R. McDonald). Ethnic population: 800 (1977 SIL). More information.
Coos. 1 or 2 (1962 Chafe). Ethnic population: 250 (1977 SIL). More information.
Degexit'an. 20 to 30 (1997 Sharon Hargus). Ethnic population: 250 to 300 (1997 M. Krauss). More information.
Eyak. 1 (1996 N. Barnes). Ethnic population: 50 (1995 M. Krauss). More information.
Gros Ventre. 10 (1977 SIL). Very few semispeakers in 2000 (2001 Goddard). Ethnic population: 1,200 (1977 SIL). More information.
Haida, Northern. 15 in the USA (1995 M. Krauss). Ethnic population: 600 in the USA (1995 M. Krauss). More information.
Han. 7 or 8 in Alaska (1995 M. Krauss). Population total all countries: 14. Ethnic population: 300. More information.
Hawai'i Pidgin Sign Language. A few users out of about 6,000 profoundly deaf people in Hawaii (1987 Honolulu Star-Bulletin), 72,000 deaf or hard-of-hearing people in Hawaii (1998 Honolulu Advertiser). More information.
Holikachuk. 12 (1995 M. Krauss). Ethnic population: 200 (1995 M. Krauss). More information.
Hupa. 8 (1998 Brook). Ethnic population: 2,000. More information.
Kalapuya. 1 or 2 (1962 Chafe). More information.
Kansa. 19 (1990 census). Ethnic population: 250 (1986 SIL). More information.
Karok. 10 (1997 William Bright). Ethnic population: 1,900 (2000 A. Yamamoto). More information.
Kashaya. 45 (1994 L. Hinton). More information.
Kawaiisu. 8 to 10 (2000 L. Hinton). Ethnic population: 35 (2000 A. Yamamoto). More information.
Klamath-Modoc. 1 (1998 N.Y. Times, April 9, p. A20). Ethnic population: 2,000 (1997 Scott DeLancey). More information.
Kuskokwim, Upper. 40 (1995 Krauss). 3 households (1997). Ethnic population: 160 (1995 Krauss). More information.
Kutenai. 6 in the USA (2002). More information.
Luiseño. 30 to 40 (2000 L. Hinton). Ethnic population: 2,000 (2000 A. Yamamoto). More information.
Lushootseed. 60 (1990 M. D. Kinkade). Population evenly divided between the northern and southern dialects. Ethnic population: 2,000 (1990 M. D. Kinkade). More information.
Maidu, Northeast. 1 to 2 (1994 L. Hinton). Ethnic population: 108 (1990 census). More information.
Maidu, Northwest. 3 to 6 (1994 L. Hinton). Ethnic population: 200 (1977 SIL). More information.
Mandan. 6 (1992 M. Krauss). Ethnic population: 400 (1986 SIL and 1997 M. Mixco). More information.
Menominee. 39. Ethnic population: 3,500 (1977 SIL). More information.
Miwok, Central Sierra. 12. Population includes 6 Eastern Central Sierra, 6 Western Central Sierra (1994 L. Hinton). Ethnic population: Possibly 5,000 all Miwok (2000 Yamamoto). More information.
Miwok, Lake. 1 to 2 (1994 L. Hinton). More information.
Miwok, Northern Sierra. 6 (1994 L. Hinton). More information.
Miwok, Plains. 1 (1962 H. Landar in Sebeok 1977). More information.
Miwok, Southern Sierra. 7 Southern Central Sierra Miwok (1994 L. Hinton). More information.
Mono. 37 to 41 (1994 L. Hinton). Population includes 10 to 12 North Fork, 15 Auberry, 7 to 8 Big Sandy, 5 to 6 Dunlap, no Waksachi. Ethnic population: 600 (2000 A. Yamamoto). More information.
Nisenan. 1 (1994 L. Hinton). More information.
Osage. 5 (1991 M. Krauss). Ethnic population: 15,000 (1997 Carolyn Quintero). More information.
Panamint. 20. Ethnic population: 100 (1998 John E. McLaughlin). More information.
Pawnee. 20 (1997 Parks). Ethnic population: 2,500 (1997 Parks). More information.
Pomo, Central. 2 to 5 (1997 Mithun). Ethnic population: 4,766 (1997 Mithun). More information.
Pomo, Southeastern. 5 (1994 L. Hinton). More information.
Pomo, Southern. 1 (1994 L. Hinton). More information.
Quapaw. 34 (1990 census). Ethnic population: 2,000 (1986 SIL). More information.
Quileute. 10 (1977 SIL). Ethnic population: 300 (1977 SIL). More information.
Salish, Straits. More information.
Serrano. 1 (1994 Coker). More information.
Snohomish. 10 (1998 J. Brooke). Ethnic population: 800 (1977 SIL). More information.
Tanacross. 35 (1997 G. Holton). Population includes 3 in the Healy Lake dialect, 32 in Mansfield-Ketchumstuck. Ethnic population: 120 (1997 G. Holton). More information.
Tanaina. 75 (1997 M. Krauss). Ethnic population: 900 (1997 M. Krauss). More information.
Tanana, Lower. 30 (1995 M. Krauss). Ethnic population: 380 (1995 M. Krauss). More information.
Tolowa. 4 to 5 (1994 Hinton). Ethnic population: 1,000 (2000 Yamamoto). More information.
Tübatulabal. 6. Ethnic population: 900 (2000 Yamamoto). More information.
Tuscarora. 4 to 5 in the USA (1997 Mithun). Ethnic population: 1,200 in the USA (1997 Mithun). More information.
Tututni. 10 (1962 Chafe). More information.
Wasco-Wishram. 69 (1990 census). 7 monolinguals. Ethnic population: 750 possibly (1977 SIL). More information.
Washo. 10 (1998 J. Brooke). Ethnic population: 1,500 (2000 A. Yamamoto). More information.
Wichita. 3 (2000 Brian Levy). Ethnic population: 1,400 (2000 David S. Rood). More information.
Wintu. 5 or 6 (1997 Shepherd). Ethnic population: 2,244 (1997 Shepherd). More information.
Yokuts. 78 speakers of Northern Foothill Yokuts (1990 census). Ethnic population: 2,500 (2000 A. Yamamoto). More information.
Yuchi. 10 to 12 (1997 Mary Linn). Ethnic population: 1,500 (1977 SIL). More information.
Yurok. 12 (2002 Goddard). Ethnic population: 3,000 to 4,500 possibly (1982 SIL). More information.
The Happiness MythBy STEVE SALERNODecember 20, 2007; Page A17
One morning when I was 13, I elbowed my father as he got ready for work. "Dad," I said, "are you happy?" For a long moment he stared at me. Then he replied, "Son, a man doesn't have time to think about that. A man just does what needs doing." He gave me one of his you'll-understand-someday smiles, and left.
I've been thinking about that exchange a lot, now that another kind of exchange -- the gift-giving kind -- is upon us. If recent traditions hold, a fair percentage of those gifts will be "inspirational" materials that extol the pursuit of happiness and fulfillment. Certain to end up under the trees of at least some Americans who don't already own it is that unparalleled tribute to wishful thinking, "The Secret," by Rhonda Byrne. The year's blockbuster best-seller-cum-cultural phenomenon sold six million books and DVDs on the strength of the belief that you can imagine your way to total fulfillment.
Some of the season's hottest inspiration books, though not "how-to" in format, sell a similar message. Notable is Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love," the story of one woman's (literal) journey to happiness, in which she decided to forsake the comfort of her known life for regions uncharted. "Eat, Pray, Love" reached the top of the best-seller lists after being blessed by Oprah. Self-help guru Tony Robbins, too, has lately been spamming his online community with holiday offers. Various Robbins products, and even tickets to his entry-level seminars on personal reinvention, will likely end up as stocking-stuffers.
If the quest for joy doesn't take center stage at Christmas, it will surely pop up the following week. Typically, New Year's resolutions that don't involve weight loss have something to do with embracing change, choosing happiness, following your dreams, etc. We are consumed by the pursuit of happiness.
That's too bad. Because it's that very pursuit -- as currently framed -- that may prevent you from finding happiness, or at least a passable facsimile.
Now, I'm not contending that Dad's stoic machismo is what life ought to be about -- for either gender. But a lot of us seemed a lot happier, or at least less restless, before the Happiness Movement began bullying us. Myrna Blyth, a longtime editor in chief of Ladies' Home Journal, made this point explicitly in her 2004 book, "Spin Sisters." Ms. Blyth undertook an informal study of the themes in women's magazines as they evolved over recent decades, and concluded that what women have mostly gotten from their magazines is the message that they're never quite happy enough -- never good enough, never fulfilled enough, never far enough along on the path to "having it all."
Of course, it's not just women's magazines that do this. With highly visible gurus of personal development fanning the flames, an entire generation has come of age believing that perpetual happiness is a birthright. Over the past four decades, the concepts of Empowerment and Entitlement, first-cousins in the family of American psychobabble, have conspired to produce what New York Observer writer Alexandra Wolfe labels "the most coddled generation in American history." We once laughed at the excesses of the "Me Generation," the malignant narcissism epitomized in the TV show "Seinfeld." If we don't laugh quite as much these days, that's because it's not caricature anymore. It's life as we live it.
Contrary to what you hear from Oprah, not "everything you want in life" is attainable (unless, maybe, you are Oprah). Consider the staple line from school administrators during self-esteem-boosting student-assemblies: "In this great country, you can even be president, if you want!" While technically it's true that anybody can be president, it is not true that everybody can be president. Yet that's the implication. In my own case, growing up in Brooklyn, I wanted desperately to patrol center field for the Dodgers. Alas, I had millions of young competitors, some of whom had actual major league skills. If that is your dream -- the only dream that will make you happy -- what do you do when the Dodgers fail to call?
We know what some of us do, perhaps, when our plans don't work out. The years between 1960 and 1999, the period of the most intense "coddling," saw a tripling in suicides among people aged 15 to 24. (For every "successful" suicide, 100 to 200 young people attempt it.) Increasingly, those who don't kill themselves find alternative ways of escaping reality. Today, almost one-fifth of people under age 20 confess to binge drinking. Millions of others descend on doctors, seeking prescriptions for Prozac, Xanax and the like. Although it's reckless to draw straight-line links of causation, is it not possible that these grim facts represent, in part, what happens when people raised on pie-in-the-sky brainwashing run up against the hard truths of an unforgiving world and can't cope?
Here's something else Dad told me: "Life isn't built around 'fun.' It's built around peace of mind." Maybe Dad sensed the paradox of happiness: Those most desperate for it run a high risk of being the last to find it. That's because they make foolish decisions. They live disorderly lives, always chasing the high of the moment.
Perhaps happiness is best viewed as an ongoing marathon rather than a succession of disconnected sprints. It's a long-term commitment that sometimes calls for sacrifice and self-denial, compromise and conciliation. Above all, happiness may mean knowing when to quit -- to settle for "just OK." That is a very unpopular message in these empowered times.
My father didn't have it all, but I believe he was at peace with himself and the life he led. Shouldn't that be enough for any of us?
Mr. Salerno is author of "SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless," (Crown, 2005). He is now writing a book on vanity's role in American life.
Maria Esperanza
Mrs. Maria Esperanza was born in the village of San Rafael, Barrancas, Monagas State, Venezuela on November 22, 1928. She had her first mystical experience at the age of five with the apparition of Saint Theresa of the Little Lower, who from the waters of the Orinoco River tossed her a red rose.
At twelve she became sick with an acute bronchial-pneumonia; but after having a vision where she saw Our Lady of the Valley, Patroness of Margarita Island, she recovered miraculously. During her adolescence, Mrs. Maria Esperanza's health was frail and her heart grew weaker and weaker. Later on, the onset of another illness partially paralyzed her. She was told by twenty-two physicians she had no hope of life. Then, she was healed again after the Sacred Heart of Jesus appeared to her, and gave her the first of hundreds of messages.
Following her profound desire to be a Religious, she lived for a period of time with the Franciscan nuns in Merida. On October 3, 1954, in the Chapel of the Convent, Mrs. Maria Esperanza had a vision of Saint Theresa of the Little Flower who told her that her vocation was not to be a Religious, but a spouse and a mother; that she would sanctify herself, and would travel the world. That same day, the Sacred Heart of Jesus told her to go to Rome. She lived there with the Sisters of the Ravasco Institute until she married Geo Bianchini Giani on December 8, 1956 in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception in Saint Peter¹s Basilica.
She has seven children, a boy and six girls, all married and with children of their own. Beginning with the eldest they are: Maria Inmaculada, Maria Esperanza, Maria Gracia, Giovanni, Maria Coromoto, Maria Auxiliadora, and Maria del Carmen.
Mrs. Maria Esperanza is considered by many, one of the greatest mystics of these times. In the midst of her household chores as a wife, mother and grandmother to nineteen grandchildren, God continues to bestow upon her extraordinary gifts and charismata: The stigmata, visions of the future or the gift of prophecy, the gift of healing, appearance or "materialization" of a Holy Host in her mouth, emission of scents of flowers and fruits, apparition of rose petals, levitation, bilocation. And maybe one of the most impressive mystical phenomena: The birth of a rose, or a rose which sprouts out spontaneously from her chest, a phenomenon which now has taken place sixteen times. Some claim to see rose petals fall from the sky around her, not just the smell of roses.
Believers by the thousands travel to Venezeula to seek her blessings. She has stigmata - bleeding of the hands. She is a prophet, healer, and can bi-locate (being in 2 places at once).
Mrs. Maria Esperanza has received countless messages from Our Lady. At times she receives more than one message per day. Since the beginning, Our Lady has predicted many historic events, wars, and different occurrences which have taken place around the world. But she always delivers Her messages with hope, and with the infinite tenderness of a Mother to Her children; driving men to forge ahead in bad times, following the words and example of Her Divine Son Jesus.
Prophecies -
Maria says the Virgin Mary has issued warnings for all mankind that this is the hour of final decision. She fears that we are going to have a global war when least expected. She warns of new disease that will kill in a matter of days not years.
Though there will be catastrophe - in the end the world will become a spiritual place.
Death Of Famous Mystic Raises Question About Prophecies Pertaining To Year 2004 - Spirit Daily - August 2004
The passing of famed mystic Maria Esperanza de Bianchini has left a gaping question: did one of her more famous prophecies -- which had to do with the year 2004 -- pertain to the world or to her personally?
The passing of famed mystic Maria Esperanza de Bianchini has left a gaping question: did one of her more famous prophecies - which had to do with the year 2004 - pertain to the world or to her personally?
The question is raised because of the mystic's repeated assertion that 2004 would be a momentous year, a "new awakening," with "rivers of light."
That description fits what some believe will be a future "illuminating" global event, while others might argue it describes the kind of light that comes with entrance into eternity.
For the Venezuelan seer -- long recognized by her local bishops as a legitimate visionary - it was indeed to be the most momentous year since her birth, and she has no doubt encountered what so many who glimpse the afterlife describe: rivers of God's brilliance, the incomparable light of Heaven discussed by those who have near-death experiences.
The most pertinent fact remains that she died the year that she cited as one that would involve a major happening.
She saw one particular event happening after the mid-point of the year and entered the hospital the first week of July, which was just past the sixth and middle month of 2004, never again to regain consciousness, at least in this world.
As we said two years ago, we were "not sure what she has told others," but knew what she had told us: that 2004 will be the beginning of a "new light" from Heaven. "What that implies," we noted, "is anyone's guess, perhaps even Maria's."
At times speaking in a way that implied events for the world and at other times in a way that could be viewed as foretelling her death, she had foreseen a renewal, a coming together of God's people, and events that she said would pave the way to what she mysteriously described as "a new dawn of Jesus."
On Saturday, in announcing her death, husband Geo described it as "a new dawn."
Soon after her prophecy about rivers of light in 2004, Pope John Paul II announced a "Eucharistic year" beginning in 2004 (after the mid-point) and incredibly enough even mentioned "rivers of light" -- fueling speculation that the prophecy had to do with the Church.
Because Maria often intermixed general, long-term prophecies with specific ones and set no specific time table -- saying only that the "light" would come from Heaven and that 2004 would be only the beginning of it -- it was always unclear not only what but how much would occur in a 12-month period. In the long term, she held the hope of a new world that would reflect the things of Heaven. Was she being metaphoric?
"It will start from the year 2004 on," she said. "It will be the beginning. Rivers of supernatural light are awaiting us -- surprises, beautiful surprises. Each one of us will encounter ourselves, and beautiful ideas."
But when? And how? Esperanza never associated the prophecy with predictions of a major "warning" or "illumination" to mankind, although others have understandably lent it that association. At times it seemed clear that her own interpretation was that what she saw pertained to everyone, not just herself. "When the light arrives it comes with supernatural light and God will allow us to feel His Presence deep in our hearts -- the Divine spark that will awaken our conscience, to help us realize that God is everything and we are nothing without Him," she said in The Bridge To Heaven. "When we get this light we will be able to feel God in our hearts again. We will feel Him all the time with us."
One can argue that the constant Presence of God implies the afterlife while others could say that the message clearly looks toward an event in the physical world.
Esperanza said the new light was to or is to have both physical and supernatural elements. But she said it would only begin in 2004 -- as rays from Heaven, which she did not further describe and did not say if they would actually be visible. "It's something that can not be avoided," she said. "It cannot be stopped. It is the beginning of something." She felt it would be the beginning of a new spiritual state. That was her own interpretation.
Did it relate solely to her own state?
While we are only too well aware that major mystics are human, and that there have been many controversies even about the revelations from canonized saints (which Esperanza may well one day be), we take the time to examine this because of how highly bishops thought of her spirituality and how seriously a number of them took the phenomena that surrounded her. Although her private visions and speculations did not have Church sanction, the apparition site with which she was associated, along with a Eucharistic miracle, did.
In many cases of mysticism prophecies are related to a seer personally or to a local situation (rather than global or national events). It remains unclear what had been indicated to Esperanza about 2004 -- and what she herself knew or didn't know about it.
God's mysteries are mysteries to everyone -- especially when expressed in visions. But in Esperanza's case there were some startling "hits." In 1991 Maria foresaw a major event as coming on December 8 at the apparition site of Betania near Caracas, and in fact on that day a Eucharistic Host bled while the priest was consecrating it -- a miracle declared as authentic by the local diocese. She also predicted the dates the Blessed Mother would first appear at the apparition site of Betania in 1976 and again in 1984 during the Church-approved appearances of Mary.
In 1995 she saw Jesus as coming that year -- sparking a flurry of apocalyptic speculation of a major global event. It turned out to be an accurate prediction -- but at a local level. On the prescribed February day, more than two dozen people testified to an apparition of a figure they took to be Jesus at Betania.
Her last trip out of New Jersey -- where she had been staying since last Christmas time -- was to New York City, where she sat in a car and prayed as it circled the Mother Cabrini Shrine, St. Ignatius Loyola Church, and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Barely able to talk, she explained her actions to no one.
Virtually no mystic in history has been 100 percent, including famous saints, who at times even prophetically disagreed with each other. But Esperanza was specially heeded because she appeared to have foreseen the attacks on the World Trade Center -- and even ended up in New York on September 11. Months before, starting in December of 1999, she said enemies were ready to attack the U.S. on its own territory. Days after the attack, when "Bin Laden" was still a largely unknown name, she said that a "roaring lion" was behind the attacks. It turned out that "osama" means "roaring lion."
Still others see prophetic significance in Maria's sufferings, which she offered up for John Paul II and which uncannily resembled the pontiff's. As her own mysterious, undiagnosed, but Parkinson's-like suffering increased, the Pope seemed to improve.
So another question: If there was a link, what will happen now?
In one of her last interviews Esperanza speculated that major events linked to the secrets of Medjugorje, which she believed was authentic, would occur by 2020.
As we so often repeat, we offer this all up for your discernment. The phenomena around Maria were often so incredible that even believers have trouble fathoming it. Like the early Church, we take prophecy seriously (Scripture says not to despise it), but realize that it is often imperfect and must be cautiously discerned. Will her death be a sign? Will it be followed by the major events -- good and bad -- that she saw coming -- including a "lash" in store for her beloved U.S.? Would a purification be followed by a glorious new time, a time of unity, of renewal? Will it begin at some level this year, or did the allusion to 2004 turn out to be a prophecy of her own death?
In the end, God's plan ends up just that: His plan, not yet plain to anyone.
That many of the witnesses at Betania have been professionals (even an army general saw phenomena at Betania, and a prominent, Harvard-educated doctor, Dr. Vinicio Arrieta, was cured there of "incurable" cancer) lend the situation moment, as does the testimony of doctors present with Maria when she has suffered the stigmata.
Meanwhile, her death in August came precisely fifty years to the month from a momentous event that occurred in August of 1954. At that time Maria was praying with a group of friends when there was a loud noise and a light allegedly streamed in from the ceiling, striking Maria in the chest and causing her to lose consciousness. After a couple of days in bed the Venezuelan seer recovered. According to The Bridge To Heaven, "what struck her heart appeared days later, materialized in the form of an object like the point of an arrow or sword, a very strange metal. It came out of her chest. On the sharp object was something written. It said, 'Heaven, Earth, new life.'"
Whistled Language
Whistled languages are a form of communication used by many indigenous people around the world. The languages differs according to whether the spoken language is tonal or not, with the whistling being either tone or articulation based. Tonal languages are stripped of articulation, leaving only suprasegmental features such as duration and tone, and when whistled retain the spoken melodic line. In non-tonal languages, some of the articulatory features of speech are retained, though the normally timbral variations imparted by the movements of the tongue and soft palate are transformed into pitch variations.
Thus whistled languages convey phonemic information solely through tone, length, and, to a lesser extent, stress, and many phonemic distinctions of the spoken language are lost. "All whistled languages share one basic characteristic: they function by varying the frequency of a simple wave-form as a function of time, generally with minimal dynamic variation, which is readily understandable since in most cases their only purpose is long-distance communication." (ibid: 32)
Languages communicated by whistling are relatively rare, but are known from around the world. One example is the Silbo on the island of La Gomera in the Canary Islands, which maintains Spanish's five vowels, but reduces its consonants down to four. Others exist or existed in all parts of the world including Turkey (Kusköy "Village of the Birds"), France (the village of Aas in the Pyrenees), Mexico (the Zapotecs of Oaxaca), South America (Piraha), Asia (the Chepang of Nepal), and New Guinea. They are especially common and robust today in parts of West Africa, used widely in such populous languages as Yoruba and Ewe. Even French is whistled in some areas of western Africa.
In continental Africa, speech may be conveyed by a whistle or other musical instrument, most famously the "talking drums". However, while drums may be used by griots singing praise songs or for inter-village communication, and other instruments may be used on the radio for station identification jingles, for regular conversation at a distance whistled speech is used. As two people approach each other, one may even switch from whistled to spoken speech in mid-sentence.
In the Greek village of Antia, the entire population knows how to whistle their speech, and whistled conversations are also carried on at close range.
As the expressivity of whistled speech is limited compared to spoken speech, whistled messages typically consist of stereotyped or otherwise standardized or set expressions, are elaborately descriptive, and often have to be repeated.
However, in languages which are heavily tonal, and therefore convey much of their information through pitch even when spoken, such as Mazatec and Yoruba, extensive conversations may be whistled.
In Africa and indigenous Mexican communities, whistled language is used only by men.
Whistled languages are normally found and used in locations with abrupt relief created by difficult mountainous terrain, slow or difficult communication (no telephones), low population density and/or scattered settlements, and other isolating features such as sheepherding and cultivation of hillsides.
The main advantage of whistling speech is that it allows the speaker to cover much larger distances (typically 12 km but up to 5 km) than ordinary speech, and this is assisted by the relief found in areas where whistled languages are used. In practice, many areas with such languages work hard to preserve their ancient traditions, in the face of rapidly advancing telecommunications systems in many areas.
A whistled tone is essentially a simple oscillation (or sine wave), and thus timbral variations are impossible. Normal articulation during an ordinary lip-whistle is relatively easy though the lips move little causing a constant of labialization and making labial and labiodental consonants (p, b, m, f, etc.) impossible.
Apart from the five vowel-phonemes - and even these do not invariably have a fixed or steady pitch - all whistled speech-sound realizations are glides which are interpreted in terms of range, contour, and steepness.
In a non-tonal language, segments may be differentiated as follows:
Vowels are replaced by a set of relative pitch ranges
Stress is expressed by higher pitch or increased length
Consonants are produced by pitch transitions of different lengths and height, plus the presence or absence of occlusion. ("Labial stops are replaced by diaphragm or glottal occlusions.")
In the case of Silbo Gomero, such strategies produce five vowels and four consonants.
Though whistled languages are not secret codes or secret languages, with the exception of a whistled language used by nanigos terrorists in Cuba during Spanish occupation, they may be used for secretive communication among outsiders or other who do not know or understand the whistled language though they may understand its spoken origin. Supposedly, in Aas during World War II farmers were nearly caught watering down their milk but police were unable to find any evidence as the farmers were warned by whistled messages of the police approaching and were able to prepare. There are similar stories of La Gomera
List is of languages that exist or existed in a whistled form, or of ethnic groups that speak such languages:
Americas
Mexico: Amuzgo, Chinantec, Chol, Kickapoo, Mazateco, Nahuatl, Otomi, Tepehua, Totonac, Zapotec.
Bolivia: Siriono
Brazil: Piraha
Alaska: Yupik
Asia
Myanmar: Chin
Nepal: Chepang
Europe
France (village of Aas, Pyrenees): Spanish language
Turkey: Kuskoy
Greece (village of Antia on the island of Euboea)
Spain (La Gomera, Canary Islands): "Silbo Gomero"
West Africa:
Bafia, Bape, Birifor, Bobo, Burunsi, Daguri, Diola, Ewe, Fongbe, Marka, Ngwe, Tshi, Ule (among others)
Oceania
New Guinea: Gasup, Binumarien
Reference:
Whistled Language Wikipedia
Theory of Intelligent Design (ID)Intelligent Design (or ID) is the controversial assertion that certain features of the universe and of living things exhibit the characteristics of a product resulting from an intelligent cause or agent, not an undirected process such as natural selection. Though publicly most ID advocates state that their focus is on detecting evidence of design in nature, without regard to who or what the designer might be, in statements to their constituents and supporters nearly all state explicitly that they believe the designer to be the Christian God.
Adherents of ID claim it stands on equal footing with the current scientific theories regarding the origin of life and the origin of the universe. This claim has not been accepted by the scientific community and intelligent design does not constitute a research program within the science of biology. Despite ID sometimes being refered to popularly and in the media as "Intelligent Design Theory", it is not recognized as a scientific theory and has been categorized by the mainstream scientific community as creationist pseudoscience.
The National Academy of Sciences has said that Intelligent Design "and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life" are not science because their claims cannot be tested by experiment and propose no new hypotheses of their own.
Critics argue that ID proponents find gaps within current evolutionary theory and fill them in with speculative beliefs, and that ID in this context may ultimately amount to the "God of the gaps".
Both the Intelligent Design concept and the associated movement have come under considerable criticism.
This criticism is regarded by advocates of ID as a natural consequence of philosophical naturalism which precludes by definition the possibility of supernatural causes as rational scientific explanations. As has been argued before in the context of the creation-evolution controversy, proponents of ID make the claim that there is a systemic bias within the scientific community against proponents' ideas and research based on the naturalistic assumption that science can only make reference to natural causes.Media organizations often focus on other qualities that the designer(s) in Intelligent Design theory might have in addition to intelligence, e.g., "higher power", "unseen force", etc.
Intelligent Design is presented as an alternative to purely naturalistic forms of the theory of evolution. Its putative main purpose is to investigate whether or not the empirical evidence necessarily implies that life on Earth must have been designed by an intelligent agent or agents.
For example, William Dembski, one of ID's leading proponents, has stated that the fundamental claim of ID is that "there are natural systems that cannot be adequately explained in terms of undirected natural forces and that exhibit features which in any other circumstance we would attribute to intelligence."
Proponents of ID look for evidence of what they call signs of intelligence - physical properties of an object that imply "design". The most common cited signs being considered include irreducible complexity, information mechanisms, and specified complexity.
Many design theorists believe that living systems show one or more of these, from which they infer that life is designed. This stands in opposition to mainstream explanations of systems, which explain the natural world exclusively through impersonal physical processes such as random mutations and natural selection.
ID proponents claim that while evidence pointing to the nature of an "Intelligent Designer" may not be observable, its effects on nature can be detected. Dembski, in Signs of Intelligence claims "Proponents of intelligent design regard it as a scientific research program that investigates the effects of intelligent causes. Note that intelligent design studies the effects of intelligent causes and not intelligent causes per se."
In his view questions concerning the identity of a designer fall outside the realm of the idea.Critics call ID religious dogma repackaged in an effort to return creationism into public school science classrooms and note that ID features notably as part of the campaign known as Teach the Controversy.
The National Academy of Sciences and the National Center for Science Education assert that ID is not science, but creationism.
While the scientific theory of evolution by natural selection has observable and repeatable facts to support it such as the process of mutations, gene flow, genetic drift, adaptation and speciation through natural selection, the "Intelligent Designer" in ID is neither observable nor repeatable.
Critics argue this violates the scientific requirement of falsifiability. Indeed, ID proponent Behe concedes "You can't prove intelligent design by experiment". [8]Critics say ID is attempting to redefine natural science.
They cite books and statements of principal ID proponents calling for the elimination of "methodological naturalism" from science and its replacement with what critics call "methodological supernaturalism", which means belief in a transcendent, non-natural dimension of reality inhabited by a transcendent, non-natural deity.
Natural science uses the scientific method to create a posteriori knowledge based on observation alone (sometimes called empirical science). Critics of ID consider the idea that some outside intelligence created life on Earth to be a priori (without observation) knowledge.
ID proponents cite some complexity in nature that cannot yet be fully explained by the scientific method. (For instance, abiogenesis, the generation of life from non-living matter, is not yet understood scientifically, although the first stages have been reproduced in the Miller-Urey experiment.) ID proponents infer that an intelligent designer is behind the part of the process that is not understood scientifically. Since the designer cannot be observed, critics continue, it is a priori knowledge.
This allegedly a priori inference that an intelligent designer (a god or an alien life force[12]) created life on Earth has been compared to the a priori claim that aliens helped the ancient Egyptians build the pyramids.
In both cases, the effect of this outside intelligence is not repeatable, observable, or falsifiable, and it violates Occam's Razor as well. From a strictly empirical standpoint, one may list what is known about Egyptian construction techniques, but must admit ignorance about exactly how the Egyptians built the pyramids.
The phrase intelligent design, used in this sense, first appeared in Christian creationist literature, including the textbook Of Pandas and People (Haughton Publishing Company, Dallas, 1989). The term was promoted more broadly by the retired legal scholar Phillip E. Johnson following his 1991 book Darwin on Trial. Johnson is the program advisor of the Center for Science and Culture and is considered the father of the intelligent design movement.However, for millenia, philosophers have argued that the complexity of nature indicates supernatural design; this has come to be known as the teleological argument.
The most notable forms of this argument were expressed by Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica (thirteenth century), design being the fifth of Aquinas' five proofs for God's existence, and William Paley in his book Natural Theology (nineteenth century) where he makes his watchmaker analogy. The modern concept of intelligent design is distinguished from the teleological argument in that ID does not identify the agent of creation.
Intelligent design arguments are carefully formulated in secular terms and intentionally avoid positing the identity of the designer.
Phillip E. Johnson has stated that cultivating ambiguity by employing secular language in arguments which are carefully crafted to avoid overtones of theistic creationism is a necessary first step for ultimately reintroducing the Christian concept of God as the designer. Johnson emphasizes "the first thing that has to be done is to get the Bible out of the discussion" and that "after we have separated materialist prejudice from scientific fact... only then can "biblical issues" be discussed."
Johnson explicitly calls for ID proponents to obfuscate their religious motivations so as to avoid having ID identified "as just another way of packaging the Christian evangelical message."
Though not all ID proponents are motivated by religious fervor, the majority of the principal ID advocates (including Michael Behe, William Dembski, Jonathan Wells, and Stephen C. Meyer) are Christians and have stated that in their view the designer of life is clearly God. The preponderance of leading ID proponents are evangelical Protestants.
The conflicting claims made by leading ID advocates as to whether or not ID is rooted in religious conviction are the result of their strategy. For example, William Dembski in his book The Design Inference lists a god or an "alien life force" as two possible options for the identity of the designer. However, in his book Intelligent Design; the Bridge Between Science and Theology Dembski states that "Christ is indispensable to any scientific theory, even if its practitioners don't have a clue about him.
The pragmatics of a scientific theory can, to be sure, be pursued without recourse to Christ. But the conceptual soundness of the theory can in the end only be located in Christ."
Dembski also stated "ID is part of God's general revelation..." "Not only does intelligent design rid us of this ideology (materialism), which suffocates the human spirit, but, in my personal experience, I've found that it opens the path for people to come to Christ."
The Intelligent design movement is an organized campaign to promote ID arguments in the public sphere, primarily in the United States. The movement claims ID exposes the limitations of scientific orthodoxy, and of the secular philosophy of Naturalism. ID movement proponents allege that science, by relying upon naturalism, demands an adoption of a naturalistic philosophy that dismisses out of hand any explanation that contains a supernatural cause. Phillip E. Johnson, considered the father of the intelligent design movement and its unofficial spokesman stated that the goal of intelligent design is to cast creationism as a scientific concept.
The intelligent design movement is largely the result of efforts by the conservative Christian think tank the Discovery Institute, and its Center for Science and Culture. The Discovery Institute's wedge strategy and its adjunct, the Teach the Controversy campaign, are campaigns intended to sway the opinion of the public and policymakers. They target public school administrators and state and federal elected representatives to introduce intelligent design into the public school science curricula and marginalize mainstream science. The Discovery Institute acknowledges that private parties have donated millions for a research and publicity program to "unseat not just Darwinism, but also Darwinism's cultural legacy."
Critics note that instead of producing original scientific data to support ID¹s claims, the Discovery Institute has promoted ID politically to the public, education officials and public policymakers. Also oft mentioned is that there is a conflict between what leading ID proponents tell the public through the media and what they say before their conservative Christian audiences, and that the Discovery Institute as a matter of policy obfuscates its agenda. This they claim is proof that the movement's "activities betray an aggressive, systematic agenda for promoting not only intelligent design creationism, but the religious worldview that undergirds it."
Richard Dawkins, biologist and professor at Oxford University, compares "Teach the controversy" with teaching flat earthism, perfectly fine in a history class but not in science. "If you give the idea that there are two schools of thought within science, one that says the Earth is round and one that says the Earth is flat, you are misleading children."
Underscoring claims that the ID movement is more social and political enterprise than a scientific one, intelligent design has been in the center of a number of controversial political campaigns and legal challenges. These have largely been attempts to introduce intelligent design into public school science classrooms while concurrently portraying evolutionary theory as a theory largely scientifically disputed; a "theory in crisis." This has been despite a consensus in the scientific community that ID lacks merit and ID proponents have yet to propose an actual scientific hypothesis. These campaigns and cases are discussed in depth in the Intelligent design movement article
This next session I call poetically The Power Of. Its going to cover some speeches from different people. Who had strong influence over others by the speeches. Some of these speeches you will know by certain words. Others you will know whole heartedly.
A Speech From Nelson Mandela- 1994 his innaugurationToday we are entering a new era for our country and its people. Today we celebrate not the victory of a party, but a victory for all the people of South Africa.
Our country has arrived at a decision. Among all the parties that contested the elections, the overwhelming majority of South Africans have mandated the African National Congress to lead our country into the future. The South Africa we have struggled for, in which all our people, be they African, Coloured, Indian or White, regard themselves as citizens of one nation is at hand.
Perhaps it was history that ordained that it be here, at the Cape of Good Hope that we should lay the foundation stone of our new nation. For it was here at this Cape, over three centuries ago, that there began the fateful convergence of the peoples of Africa, Europe and Asia on these shores.
It was to this peninsula that the patriots, among them many princes and scholars, of Indonesia were dragged in chains. It was on the sandy plains of this peninsula that first battles of the epic wars of resistance were fought.
When we look out across Table Bay, the horizon is dominated by Robben Island, whose infamy as a dungeon built to stifle the spirit of freedom is as old as colonialism in South Africa. For three centuries that island was seen as a place to which outcasts can be banished. The names of those who were incarcerated on Robben Island is a roll call of resistance fighters and democrats spanning over three centuries. If indeed this is a Cape of Good Hope, that hope owes much to the spirit of that legion of fighters and others of their calibre.
We have fought for a democratic constitution since the 1880s. Ours has been a quest for a constitution freely adopted by the people of South Africa, reflecting their wishes and their aspirations. The struggle for democracy has never been a matter pursued by one race, class, religious community or gender among South Africans. In honouring those who fought to see this day arrive, we honour the best sons and daughters of all our people. We can count amongst them Africans, Coloureds, Whites, Indians, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jews - all of them united by a common vision of a better life for the people of this country.
It was that vision that inspired us in 1923 when we adopted the first ever Bill of Rights in this country. That same vision spurred us to put forward the African Claims in 1946. It is also the founding principle of the Freedom Charter we adopted as policy in 1955, which in its very first lines, places before South Africa an inclusive basis for citizenship.
In 1980s the African National Congress was still setting the pace, being the first major political formation in South Africa to commit itself firmly to a Bill of Rights, which we published in November 1990. These milestones give concrete expression to what South Africa can become. They speak of a constitutional, democratic, political order in which, regardless of colour, gender, religion, political opinion or sexual orientation, the law will provide for the equal protection of all citizens.
They project a democracy in which the government, whomever that government may be, will be bound by a higher set of rules, embodied in a constitution, and will not be able govern the country as it pleases.
Democracy is based on the majority principle. This is especially true in a country such as ours where the vast majority have been systematically denied their rights. At the same time, democracy also requires that the rights of political and other minorities be safeguarded.
In the political order we have established there will regular, open and free elections, at all levels of government - central, provincial and municipal. There shall also be a social order which respects completely the culture, language and religious rights of all sections of our society and the fundamental rights of the individual.
The task at hand on will not be easy. But you have mandated us to change South Africa from a country in which the majority lived with little hope, to one in which they can live and work with dignity, with a sense of self-esteem and confidence in the future. The cornerstone of building a better life of opportunity, freedom and prosperity is the Reconstruction and Development Programme.
This needs unity of purpose. It needs in action. It requires us all to work together to bring an end to division, an end to suspicion and build a nation united in our diversity.
The people of South Africa have spoken in these elections. They want change! And change is what they will get. Our plan is to create jobs, promote peace and reconciliation, and to guarantee freedom for all South Africans. We will tackle the widespread poverty so pervasive among the majority of our people. By encouraging investors and the democratic state to support job creating projects in which manufacturing will play a central role we will try to change our country from a net exporter of raw materials to one that exports finished products through beneficiation.
The government will devise policies that encourage and reward productive enterprise among the disadvantaged communities - African, Coloured and Indian. By easing credit conditions we can assist them to make inroads into the productive and manufacturing spheres and breakout of the small-scale distribution to which they are presently confined.
To raise our country and its people from the morass of racism and apartheid will require determination and effort. As a government, the ANC will create a legal framework that will assist, rather than impede, the awesome task of reconstruction and development of our battered society.
While we are and shall remain fully committed to the spirit of a government of national unity, we are determined to initiate and bring about the change that our mandate from the people demands.
We place our vision of a new constitutional order for South Africa on the table not as conquerors, prescribing to the conquered. We speak as fellow citizens to heal the wounds of the past with the intent of constructing a new order based on justice for all.
This is the challenge that faces all South Africans today, and it is one to which I am certain we will all rise.
OUR DEEPEST FEAR - by Marianne WilliansonOur deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.I HAD A DREAM - A speech by Martin Luther King Jr.Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.
But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
This session is on one of my favorite subjects Music Theory.
Music has many different elements. The main elements are: rhythm, melody, harmony, structure, timbre, dynamics and texture. Each element -- and its sub-elements, if any -- is discussed below.
PitchPitch is determined by the sound's frequency of vibration, such as the note modern concert A is defined to be
440 Hz. Put differently, pitch is the relative aural highness or lowness of a given tone: the greater the frequency, the higher sounding the pitch.
The process of assigning
note names to pitches is called
Tuning. So 440 Hz is assigned to modern concert A.
The difference in frequency between two pitches is called an
interval. The most basic interval is the
octave; a note and another note with twice its frequency form an octave. For example, if the pitch with frequency 440 Hz is A, then the pitches with frequency 880 Hz, 1760 Hz as well as 220 Hz, 110 Hz, and 55 Hz are also A's.
Notes can be arranged into different
scales and
modes. Western music theory traditionally has 12 notes that might be included in a piece of music. In a scale, each note is called a half-step or semitone. Patterns of half and whole steps (2 half steps, or a tone) make up a scale in that
octave. The scales most commonly encountered are the
major, the
harmonic minor, the
melodic minor, and the
natural minor.
In music written using the system of major-minor
tonality, the key of a piece determines the scale used. Transposing a piece from C major to D major will make all the notes two semitones higher. Even in modern
equal temperament, changing the key can change the feel of a piece of music, because it changes the relationship of the composition's pitches to the pitch range of the instruments on which the piece is being performed. This often affects the music's timbre, as well as having technical implications for the performers. However, changing the key in which a piece is performed may go unrecognized by the listener, since changing the key does not change the relationship of the individual pitches to each other.Therefore, different keys are often considered equivalent and a matter of choice on the part of performers. This is especially true for popular and folk songs.
RhythmRhythm is the arrangement of sounds in
time.
Meter animates time in regular pulse groupings, called
measures or bars. The
time signature or meter signature specifies how many
beats are in a measure, and which value of written note is counted and felt as a single beat. Through increased stress and attack (and subtle variations in duration), particular tones may be accented. There are conventions in most musical traditions for a regular and hierarchical accentuation of beats to reinforce the meter.
Syncopated rhythms are rhythms that accent unexpected parts of the beat. Playing simultaneous rhythms in more than one time signature is called
polymeter. See also
polyrhythm.
In recent years, rhythm and meter have become an important area of research among music scholars. Recent work in these areas includes books by Bengt-Olov Palmqvist,
Fred Lerdahl and
Ray Jackendoff,
Jonathan Kramer, Christopher Hasty, William Rothstein, and Joel Lester.
Rhythm is one of the most central features of many styles of music, especially
jazz and
hip-hop. Both of these styles of music involve an underlying repeated rhythm or beat into which more complex patterns are interwoven.
HarmonyHarmony is the study of vertical sonorities in music. Vertical sonority refers to considering the relationships between pitches that occur together; usually this means at the same time, although harmony can also be implied by a melody that outlines a harmonic structure.
The vertical relationship between two pitches is referred to as an
interval. A larger structure involving multiple pitches is called a
chord. In
Common practice and Popular music, harmonies are generally
tertian, although there are some notable exceptions. In
20th century classical music, many alternative types of harmonic structure were explored. One way to analyze harmony in
Common practice music is through a
roman numeral system; in Popular Music and
Jazz a system of
chord symbols is used; and in post-tonal music, a variety of approaches are used, most frequently
set theory.
Consonance and DissonanceConsonance can be roughly defined as harmonies whose tones complement and increase each others' resonance, and dissonance as those which create more complex acoustical interactions (called 'beats'). A simplistic example is that of "pleasant" sounds versus "unpleasant" ones. Another manner of thinking about the relationship regards stability; dissonant harmonies are sometimes considered to be unstable and to "want to move" or "resolve" toward consonance. However, this is not to say that dissonance is undesirable. A composition made entirely of consonant harmonies may be pleasing to the ear and yet boring because there are no instabilities to be resolved.
Melody is often organized so as to interact with changing harmonies (sometimes called a
chord progression) that accompany it, setting up consonance and dissonance. The art of melody writing depends heavily upon the choices of tones for their nonharmonic or harmonic character.
"Harmony" as used by music theorists can refer to any kind of simultaneity without a value judgement, in contrast with a more common usage of "in harmony" or "harmonious", which in technical language might be described as
consonance.
Dynamics
In music, dynamics normally refers to the softness or loudness of a sound or note, e.g. pianissimo or fortissimo. Until recently, most of these dynamics and signs were written in Italian, but recently are becoming written or translated into English. However, to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic (staccato, legato etc.) or functional (velocity) are also known as dynamics. The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics.
Texture
Musical texture is the overall sound of a piece of music commonly described according to the number of and relationship between parts or lines of music:
monophony,
heterophony,
polyphony,
homophony, or
monody. The perceived texture of a piece may also be affected by the timbre of the instruments, the number of instruments used, and the interval between each musical line, among other things.
Monophony is the texture of a melody heard only by itself. If a melody is accompanied by chords, the texture is homophony. In homophony, the melody is usually but not always voiced in the highest notes. A third texture, called polyphony, consists of several simultaneous melodies of equal importance.
Form or StructureForm is a facet of music theory that explores the concept of musical syntax, on a local and global level. The syntax is often explained in terms of phrases and periods (for the local level) or sections or genre (for the global scale). Examples of common forms Western music include the
fugue, the
invention,
sonata-allegro,
canon,
strophic,
theme and variations, and
rondo. Popular Music often makes use of
strophic form often in conjunction with
Twelve bar blues.
Four part chorale writing is used to teach and analyze the basic conventions of Common-Practice Period music.
Johann Sebastian Bach's four voice chorales written for liturgial purposes serve as a model for students. These chorales exhibit a fusion of linear and vertical thinking, providing an excellent starting point for beginners in music theory. In analysis, the harmonic function and rhythm are analyzed as well as the shape and implications of each of the four lines. Students are then instructed to compose chorales, often using given melodies (as Bach would have done), over a given bass line, or to compose within a chord progression, following rules of
good voice leading. Though traditionally conceived as a vocal exercise for
Soprano,
Alto,
Tenor, and
Bass, other common four-part writings could consist of a brass quartet (two
Trumpets,
French Horn, and
Trombone) or a
string quartet (including violin I, violin II, viola and cello).
There are seven key chords used in four-part writting that are based off of each scale degree: Tonic (chord based on scale one), supertonic (scale two), mediant (scale three), subdominant (scale four), dominant (scale five), submediant (scale six), and subtonic or leading tone (scale seven). The eighth note in a major (Ionian scale) is the same as the first only an octave higher so the tonic chord is also built off of scale eight.
Serial Composition and Set Theory
Further information:
serialism,
set theory (music),
Arnold Schoenberg,
Milton Babbitt,
David Lewin, and
Allen ForteTwelve Tone
Serialism is a technique developed by
Arnold Schoenberg to order and repeat all the 12 pitches of the Chromatic Scale with specific order. An ordered row of the 12 pitches is created, then all possible transformations are explored. The analytic techniques involve writing a 12x12 matrix of the tone row, and all of its forms (Transposition, Inversion, Retrograde, Retrograde Inversion) This technique is strongly related to the composers of the
Second Viennese School, but also has been incorporated into the languages of many other composers. Serialism does not always appear in the strict 12-note form; many composers have explored with serialism using fewer than 12 notes, repeating tones inside of the row, serialism of microtonal scales. Also, composers such as
Pierre Boulez and his teacher
Oliver Messiaen explored integral serialism, or the serialization of all possible musical paramaters (pitch, rhythm, dynamics, etc.). Composers such as
Igor Stravinsky and
Milton Babbitt developed personal approaches to Serialism; Stravinsky using a method of Rotational Arrays, and Babbitt using Combinitorality of the rows.
Set Theory is another approach to understanding atonal music that may or may not be serial. Although more akin to the mathematical field of
Group Theory than mathematical
Set Theory, the nomenclature has become standard inside the musical community. Set theory represents the pitch classes as numbers to allow a methodology of examining music without tonic or triadic funcitional harmony. This technique allows for exploration of the construction of a serial tone row as well as less strict atonal works. This technique has been extended with a great deal of mathematical rigor to both tonal and atonal systems by
David Lewin in his
transformational approach utilizing networks of related sets.
NotationMusic notation is the graphical representation of music. In standard Western notation, pitches are represented on the vertical axis and time is represented by notation symbols on the horizontal axis. Thus,
notes are properly placed on the musical staff with appropriate time values to show musicians what note to play and when to play it.
Such notation makes up the contents of the
musical staff, along with directions indicating the
key,
tempo,
dynamics, accents, and rests, etc.
MathematicsMusic has been susceptible to analysis by mathematics, ever since
Pythagoras noticed the relationships between the frequencies of different pitches. Mathematics has also been used as the basis for compositions, as in some 20th century styles.
Analysis
Analysis attempts to answer the question "How does this music work?" Music theorists may look at the chords used in a piece, and thus the chord progressions. "Why did the composer use this chord here? Why modulate there?" These are the types of questions one must ask himself when analyzing music. In serial music and the like, one may ask himself, "How is this variation drawing the composition as a whole toward a conclusion?" Some chords may be difficult to analyze, meaning it may be difficult to find out exactly what chord is being used. This is part of what makes theoretical analysis such a challenging and rewarding task.
Analysis may also take place in the way of looking at musical form. A music theorist may want to pick out the exposition, development, and recapitulation in a sonata-allegro piece, for study. Composers who analyze music regularly often find an increase in the quality of their musical compositions.
Ear trainingMain article:
ear trainingAural skills — the ability to identify musical patterns by ear, as opposed to by the reading of notation — form a key part of a musician's craft and are usually taught alongside music theory. Most aural skills courses train the perception of
relative pitch (the ability to determine pitch in an established context) and rhythm. Sight-singing — the ability to sing unfamiliar music without assistance — is generally an important component of aural skills courses.
THE SPARROWS AND THE SNOW - Roland Cummins 1/2008
