How did religious and political views shape or affect the conquest of Essay

How did religious and political views shape or affect the conquest of mexico - Essay Example The temporal realm was separate from life on Earth. The Nahua believe that natural and supernatural were entwined. Another defining aspect of religious influence was blood. Spaniards believed god had sent Jesus to spill his blood, but the Nahua believed that their gods needed human blood. Each religious influence controlled the outcome of the conquest. The Spanish were Roman Catholics. Although the Spaniards were Roman Catholics, different orders would shape the conquest and eventual conversion to Catholicism. Schwartz (2000:25) explains: The conversion of the indigenous peoples of New Spain (Mexico) was carried out in the sixteenth century primarily by missionary orders: the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and after 1574, the Jesuits. Depending upon the order, the priests would convert the Nahua and the other tribes in Mexico. The goal was to baptize and convert the people to Christianity. It must be noted that different orders handled the natives with diverse methods. Some p riests were harsh in the conversion. The Nahua had to convert, be baptized, and refute their native religion. Other orders would incorporate the local religion into their view of Christianity. It is important to note that in the end, the Christians conquered the Nahua, but the Nahua retained some of their traditions. The Nahua believed in a variety of god and goddesses. Schwartz (2000:9) states: The many gods and goddesses can perhaps be grouped into three major categories. As an agricultural people, the Mexica gave particular devotion to the gods of the earth and of fertility, to gods like Tlaloc, god of rain†¦A second group consisted of the creator deities†¦Finally, there were deities who formed part of the cult of war and sacrifice. The many gods and goddesses were entreated for rain, victory in war, and praise for creation. The impact of the religious differences between the Spanish and Nahua in the respect to gods and goddess influenced the conquest. The Spanish fough t for a trinity in one god. The Nahua asked their gods of war and sacrifice to beat the invaders. When mankind wages war for a religious purpose they will win at all costs. If a tribe is fighting for land alone it is easier to lose. The religious ties of homeland were not as important to either side. The difference was one side fought for a sole god, but the other fought for their homeland. Thus the Spaniards overcame the Nahua. Another impact religion made on the conquest of the Spanish over the Nahua was conversion. The Nahua did not want to expand their empire through conversion. The Nahua wanted to annihilate their enemies. If they conquered people, the Nahua let them keep their identity. The Spaniards wanted to conquer and convert. This provided slave labor, allies, and more resources. Different religious values of the two warring sides influenced the conquests. Christians wore crosses with arrows, swords, and other advanced weapons. Gold was not valued by the Nahua for their t raditions. However, the Christians believed in the value of gold. The Spaniards wanted the gold to give a tribute to the church. Gold could be made into crosses. The Nahua’s rituals were of complicated temples built of stone. Water, sacrifices, and other rituals made up the Nahua religion. The value of the territory made the Spaniards feel that their god wanted them to take the riches in order to further the Church’s mission of spreading Christianity throughout the world. The

Cultural Description of Brazil and Russia Assignment

Cultural Description of Brazil and Russia - Assignment Example Brazilian literature started shaping up during the 16th century when explorers from Portuguese entered the nation and started writing about concepts such as fauna and flora. Brazilian literature writers are even recognized for producing great romantic works produced by Jose de Alencar who wrote specifically regarding pain and love (Newcomb 35). The cuisine that is experienced in Brazil varies from region to region which is a reflection of the taste of those who are recognized as natives of Brazil and those who migrated to the nation. Feijoada is considered as the national dish of the nation and everyday food that is consumed in the nation mainly consists if rice along with salad and beans. Beverages that are liked throughout the nation includes coffee and cachaca and the most popular sports of the region is football and the team has a national football team which is considered as one of the best teams throughout the world. Russia is ethnically diverse with around 160 ethnic groups currently residing in Russia and due to this ethnic diversity, several religions are practiced in the region including Islam, Christianity and Buddhism (Mack 8). Russia is mainly recognized for its cuisine which mostly includes diverse kinds of fishes, mushrooms and poultry. The most popular beverages of Russia include vodka and beer and consumption of black bread is really high within the nation. The architecture of Russian buildings and historical places is mostly influenced by the architecture of Byzantine. During the period of 15 and the 16th century, Russian architecture was heavily influenced by architectural trends of Renaissance. Russian paintings that were witnessed during the evolution of the region included icons along with frescos that were vibrant in nature and these two  genres of paintings were acquired by Russia from Byzantium. Russia heavily practices Rock music in modern times and the roots of their rock music can be witnessed in the heavy metal rock music of Western societies.

Comparison between devised play and Hot Money Essay Example for Free

Comparison between devised play and Hot Money Essay For our second scripted play we had to perform the farcical comedy Hot Money. This comedy is about two unintelligent bank robbers who get lost and end up finding themselves in a rundown manor. The Lord and Butler of the manor arrive home to find a suitcase of money and they both scheme to take it. The play ends with the blowing up of the house and money. My contribution to the performance was as the Butler, Phelps. I contributed to the main farcical comedy of the piece mainly through my actions. I stay in role throughout the piece even when the audience found parts amusing. The main similarity between Zoolander and Hot Money is that they are both comedies and for the purpose of entertaining people. However Hot Money being a farce made the play more extravagant and unlikely situations to happen. It had broad physical humour, and deliberate absurdity and nonsense. An example of this is when the house is blown up with Phelps inside; although the house has blown up I still remain unharmed. Zoolander also contained elements of a farce as it is a parody it imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself. For example when Derek Zoolander imitates the stereotypical male model of the 21st century. Hot Money was set in the 1920s however we performed the play as a whole with the characters more stereotypical of peoples views rather than how the characters would have been in the 1920s. This made our play was appropriate for any time period between the 1920s and now. However Zoolander is a modern film set in the 21st century and a parody of male fashion models and the people who work within that industry. There are also similarities in the themes of the plays. For a start both plays contain characters that are essentially making fun of themselves unintentionally. However, one of the differences is that the society of Hot Money ranges from the lower class stereotypical bank robbers to the very upper class Lord of the Manor, with these vastly different worlds of rich and poor both depicted in the play it meant that the audience could be amused by people who are higher up in society than them and people who were also lower down. In contrast, the society of Zoolander is, at its richest level. It contains rich male models, prime ministers and the fashion designer Mugatu. However the richness and upper-class of these characters contrast with their own stupidity and self humiliation. As Hot Money is set in the outskirts of London all the characters within this play are Londoners. The lower class had the cockney accent of 1920s and the upper class characters had an aristocratic accent. In contrast, the society of Zoolander is of the typical Americans as it is set in New York, America. Zoolander being a film has had many retakes and editing, this makes the film seem more polished and perfected than our play, Hot Money. These retakes and editing make the film seem more effective and amusing to watch to an audience. However as we were not able to retake or edit any of our play as it was performed live, this may have affected how effective it was to an audience but on the other hand as it was performed live it may have made the play seem more effective as people prefer to watch things live than on a television screen. There are many differences and similarities in the characters represented in Hot Money and Zoolander. Both contain characters which are comical to an audience, unintelligent and make fun of themselves unintentionally. The stupidity of many characters including Derek Zoolander in Zoolander and Bert in Hot Money are represented by their slow speech and length of time to react to other people and to react to happenings around them. However Zoolander does surprisingly contain sharp witted characters such as Mugatu characterised by there quick come backs and intelligence. Zoolander is very affective to an audience although as it is very over the top not all audiences may find it amusing, this is also true for Hot Money. In conclusion to this essay, I would like to say that I have learnt a lot about the difference between the two different comedies and the difference between a film and a play. At first there seemed to be a big difference between a farcical comedy and a parody but now I can there are many similarities as well.

I Am Fearfully and Wonderfully Made :: Biology Essays Research Papers

"I am fearfully and wonderfully made" "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well"(Psalm 139:14). From what I've been learning about the brain, that is, what we understand and the whole lot that is yet to be understood about its intricate networks, I can marvel along with the psalmist, David. Indeed, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and our brain is a great testimony of that fact. What would the psalmist have written if he was alive today, to know what we now know and understand? To think of what we've come to understand about ourselves, especially about our brains. How would the psalmist respond? Well, let's take a look at the brain. From being in class, my awareness about what I'm doing, what I'm seeing, what I'm hearing, what I'm thinking has come to reflect upon not just what, but how is it all being done by my brain. This morning I woke up, my eyes opened, I looked out my window, I saw the sun rising, it was this beautifully deep yellow/orange color. I thought, "How beautiful" and I smiled with a sense and feeling of wonderment. It could be said that I experienced nothing out of the ordinary this morning. Yet, if I could narrate these few activities in terms of the networking of neurons resulting in my eyes opening, my sight of the sun, my ability to perceive its color, my inner acknowledgment of its beauty and the emotions that sight evoked in me, you would be reading for a very long time and what I did this morning would indeed present itself in quite an extraordinary light. It is in recognition of this, with respect to the brain's aptitudes, that Howard Hughes in his p aper, "Seeing, Hearing and Smelling the World" quoted May Pines in expressing, "We can recognize a friend instantly-full face, in profile, or even by the back of his head. We can distinguish hundreds of colors and possibly as many as 10,000 smells. We can feel a feather as it brushes our skin, hear the faint rustle of a leaf. It all seems so effortless: we open our eyes or ears and let the world stream in. Yet anything we see, hear, feel, smell, or taste requires billions of nerve cells to flash urgent messages along linked pathways and feedback loops in our brains, performing intricate calculations that scientists have only begun to decipher"(1). I Am Fearfully and Wonderfully Made :: Biology Essays Research Papers "I am fearfully and wonderfully made" "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well"(Psalm 139:14). From what I've been learning about the brain, that is, what we understand and the whole lot that is yet to be understood about its intricate networks, I can marvel along with the psalmist, David. Indeed, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and our brain is a great testimony of that fact. What would the psalmist have written if he was alive today, to know what we now know and understand? To think of what we've come to understand about ourselves, especially about our brains. How would the psalmist respond? Well, let's take a look at the brain. From being in class, my awareness about what I'm doing, what I'm seeing, what I'm hearing, what I'm thinking has come to reflect upon not just what, but how is it all being done by my brain. This morning I woke up, my eyes opened, I looked out my window, I saw the sun rising, it was this beautifully deep yellow/orange color. I thought, "How beautiful" and I smiled with a sense and feeling of wonderment. It could be said that I experienced nothing out of the ordinary this morning. Yet, if I could narrate these few activities in terms of the networking of neurons resulting in my eyes opening, my sight of the sun, my ability to perceive its color, my inner acknowledgment of its beauty and the emotions that sight evoked in me, you would be reading for a very long time and what I did this morning would indeed present itself in quite an extraordinary light. It is in recognition of this, with respect to the brain's aptitudes, that Howard Hughes in his p aper, "Seeing, Hearing and Smelling the World" quoted May Pines in expressing, "We can recognize a friend instantly-full face, in profile, or even by the back of his head. We can distinguish hundreds of colors and possibly as many as 10,000 smells. We can feel a feather as it brushes our skin, hear the faint rustle of a leaf. It all seems so effortless: we open our eyes or ears and let the world stream in. Yet anything we see, hear, feel, smell, or taste requires billions of nerve cells to flash urgent messages along linked pathways and feedback loops in our brains, performing intricate calculations that scientists have only begun to decipher"(1).

Concord Bookshop Organizational Change Essay

Today’s organizations are facing many challenges such as threats of inflation, deflation, and recession resulting worsening the economy of the United States. According to Borkowski (2005) and Spector (2010), they state that the economy worldwide is very difficult nowadays because many internal and external forces. One of the best seller bookshop, the Concord Bookshop, lost control over the market because of huge losses. To stay open to business the company needed a change. The company hired a new president to help the company to maintain finances and funcionality, but employees had tremendous resistance to the change. The company made a drastic plan to change employees behaviors to improve bussines, but owners of the bookshop did not use effective implementation for the change process. On the other hand, workers at Concord increased resistance to the change process because owners did have neither communication nor inclusion of changes; instead, they increase their fear and unc ertainty of the employees. Adding more, the owners failed to use effective redesign, mutual engagement, and shared diagnosis (Spector, 2010). This paper will define the phases in the organizational change process, including phases not completed or implemented at the Concord Bookshop leading the organization to fail. Assessment of Forces The Concord Bookshop had been on the market for 64 years, it was one of the best independent stores in New England, but they went off business because their profits were tightened. Other bookstores such Amazon Barnes and Nobel increased their finances because they made changes according to the needs of new technologies and customers expectations. The progressions of these bookstores were implemented by redesigning their business; so their earnings went higher. The Concord Bookshop had a particular characteristic to attract customers, according to Joanne Arnaud, director of the Boston Literacy Fund and a Concord resident, she signed the letter: â€Å"What make the Concord Bookshop different are the people and their institutional memory and their memory for a customer, they are so warm and welcoming† (Spector, 2010, p. 2). The organization needed a good strategic plan to maintain business open. The company needed a change, but they made a drastic plan that employees had strong resistance to the change. Owners failed to communicate the employees the shared diagnosis, the severity of the problem, and they did not use effective implementation for the change process. This happening made workers feel devaluated; they stated that something on their lives were lost. Adding more, the owners failed to use effective redesign and change process, mutual engagement, and shared diagnosis (Spector, 2010). Strategic Responsiveness According to Spector (2010), the president of Concord Morgan Smith’s attempted to bring financial discipline to the Concord Bookshop facing sensitive realities. Owners, employees, customers, and suppliers approved the desire of maintaining the store’s viability. In addition, Smith’s approach and the actions taken by leaders created resistance of the employees because they did not do the correct strategy to solve the company losses, also they did not implemented the plan; therefore, these errors led to resistance, conflict, and resentment. Identifying the need for change is vital; first, it is required to do an assessment on the organization, employees, finances, and structure. Implementation is crucial; however, it is necessary to do a deep recognition for effectiveness of strategic response. The main forces that make organizations to change are external, industry environments, and new operating requirements generated from these environments; for example, new technology available, new trends of selling on the Internet, and more. Today’s organizations are facing many challenges; for example, trade, and industry insecurity, wars, and terrorism weaken the economy globally. External forces affect in general weakening the economy of the United States. One of the major external forces affecting businesses is the increased use of technology and the availability of the Internet (Borkowski, 2005) (Spector, 2010). According to Spector (2010), strategic renewal requires organizational change, Concord Bookshop needed to move from a traditional and conservative store for British shoppers to Internet buyers. The strategy for renewal of business, leaders need to align internal processes, structures, and systems in accordance with demands of the market system. For example, â€Å"New organizational capabilities, talents and skills possessed by employees need to be built† (Spector, 2010, p. 5). Managers need to discontinue old behaviors on employees by selecting new approach, in which employees feel comfortable and secure to accept the change. Consequently, workers needed new orientation on-the-job, new tasks, and responsibilities to assure the viability of the company as well as employment. The goal of any organization is to create lasting modification in patterns of employee’s behaviors to support strategic renewal. Concord Bookshop Strategic Renewal was not implemented * Strategic renewal requires organizational change; in the case of Concord business was not implemented. Strategic renewal demands, â€Å"Wide-scale invention, reinvention, and redesign of business processes and organizational structures require organizational change. The leaders in charge of the organization did not do renewal demands. According to Spector (2010), Concord closed after 64 years on business making many people unemployed, they felt depressed and devaluated for the store situation. Mistakes found in the organization were the following: employers did not complete mutual engagement and shared diagnosis, they did not restructure leadership adequately, and they failed to diagnose the pattern of behavior within a top leadership team (Spector, 2010).The conflict put pressure on the store when independent booksellers are staggering from competition and the Internet. * Phases of the Organizational Change Process not Completed or Implemented at the Concord Bookshop that Led the Change Failure Turnaround Turnaround is a technique that focuses on processes for improvement. Turnaround addresses finances of the balance sheet enhancement and technology. Concord did not complete turnaround well; instead, there was not salaries deducted, and employees did not lose their job immediately. Adding to this, there was misunderstandings and fears to employees; these reasons put the company on fire. Smith on the other hand, did not focus on new behaviors, turnaround looks at the company’s assets seeking manage finances to stabilize the cash flow; Smith did not manage well finances of the company. According to Mark (2007), employees did not receive efforts to change with pleasure. In the process of implementation, some resistance from employees comes from different internal sources; also resistance comes from external sources. Workers at Concord had increased resistance to the change process. Techniques and Tools Techniques and tools is a non-behavioral phase of change process. Concord failed to change this technique by not using organizational processes, mechanics, and other interactions intended to produce a product or service. For example, in 2007, Netflix started a new technique for improving customer service by substituting hundreds of telephone call centers for e-mail based response system. They save money, and created new employment; call center representatives were added to payroll. For instance, Concord could have done this technique and turn to different customer service system. This system could fit well for Concord Bookshop to attract new customers to stay alive on business (Spector, 2010). Outsourcing Outsourcing is a change technique, this tools implements the turnaround and transformational behavior change (e.g., cost-saving) implications (Spector, 2010). Organizations find outsourcing a very important strategy because: 1. Outsourcing saves money by transferring jobs to lower-paid workers. 2. Outsourcing enables companies to concentrate on core competencies. 3. Outsourcing offers a hedge against shifting technologies and customer preferences by lowering fixed costs and building flexibility (Spector, 2010, p. 16) Smith’s approach crated a conflict, resistance, and resentment. The organization needed to change to respond to the external demands. Concord leaders did not communicate the change well as they should so employees would understand and change behaviors. The organization needed to change the demands of the customers adapting the business to sell according to the new technology; for example, the new mode of communication was the Internet. Therefore, by the time they wanted to fix it was already late. Smith did not do outsourcing well because he did not realign the behaviors of the employees with company strategy and customer expectation. Trigger Events and Change According to Spector (2010), Organizational change is typically initiated in response to a trigger event. Spector (2010), states that Trigger event is a shift in the environment that precipitates a need for altered strategies and new patterns of employee behavior. For the Concord Bookshop, the increasing penetration of online booksellers into the store’s market space triggered the requirement for strategic renewal (Spector, 2010, p. 18). Trigger events are external or internal to an organization. Trigger events help to precipitate the need to alter behavioral patterns of employees. Concord Bookshop faced external trigger events. Trigger events may come from inside the organization; for example, when the organization hires a new leader. According to Spector (2010), she says â€Å"Jack Welch was promoted to CEO of General Electric (GE) in 1981, the company was enjoying decades of prosperity and success† (Spector, 2010, p. 18). This is an example of internal source of trigger event; Spector (2010), said â€Å"Virtually from the outset, in a quest for transformational change† (Spector, 2010, p. 18). Trigger events are so crucial for their magnitude and potential personal impact. They set into motion a series of mental alterations as individuals struggle to understand a situation. According to Spector (2010), â€Å"trigger events have a nature to umbalance established routines and evoke conscious thought on the part of organizational members. It makes people’s emotions to react to a change. In short, according to Spector (2010), states â€Å"Trigger events bring people’s mindsets into the arena of change† (Spector, 2010, p. 18) Conclusion The Concord Bookshop downsizing was terrible, the owners of the bookshop made changes to their organization without using an effective change process and implementation. The result of their approach was the resistance of the change from people in the organization. The organization made a numerous mistakes on not communicating to employees the severity of the problem. The owners of the bookshop recognized that the trigger event for the need for change was to recover financial profit. However, they did not involve the rest of the staff when this problem aroused. If they did a complete shared diagnosis stage, the issue would be solved properly. Last, the owners failed to move and redesign stage of the effective change process. The owners needed to redesign the roles and responsibilities, and involve the employees on planning solutions, so changes will be accepted more easily (Borkowski, 2005) (Spector, 2010). References Borkowski, N. (2005). Organizational Behavior in Health Care, 1e. Miami, Florida: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Mark H. (2007). The tools and techniques of change management, Journal of change management Vol 7 p37-49 http://www.scribd.com/doc/78216618/Spector-2e-Instructors-Manual Spector, B. (2010). Implementing Organizational Change. Theory into Practice, Second Edition. USA: Pearson Education. Rosen, J. (2011). Bookstores and Bloggers. Publishers Weekly, 228(20), 20. Taken from EBSCO September 252012.

Within the Context of Germany 1789 †1890 How Important a...

On 23 September 1862, Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was appointed Minister-President and Foreign Minister of Prussia . Within nine years a new German nation state was created by the unification of the numerous independent German-speaking states in central Europe. The creation of Germany as a cohesive political and integrated country occurred on 18 January 1871 at the palace of Versailles in France. Following the military defeat of France by Prussia in the Franco/Prussian war, (July 1870 to January 1871), the leaders of the existing Germanic states attended a ceremony there to proclaim Wilhelm I of Prussia as Emperor Wilhelm of the German Empire . Otto von Bismarck is widely recognized as the statesman who engineered the unification†¦show more content†¦Hienrich Heien stated that the defiance to Napoleon displayed by ordinary Germans was based upon a duty of obedience to the ruling aristocracy . Walley comments that this fails to recognise the strength of anti French feelings at the time . Both these points are valid, however an undercurrent of German nationalistic feeling did start to flow following the Congress of Vienna in the same year that Bismarck was born. It is reasonable to assume that this developing Germanic nationalism would have had an effect on Bismarck as he grew from boy to man. If so it may be argued that his role in the unifying of Germany was that of a director, moulding the concept of a new country already forming in the minds of the people, into a formidable independent nation state. In 1818 an economic customs union (Zollverein) was founded within Prussian territories which facilitated a sin gle system of tariffs for the movement of goods around Prussia. By 1834 it included nearly all German speaking states except Austria . This economic exclusion of Austria fueled the Austro-Prussian rivalry for dominance in German affairs. By 1868 the Zollverein was Prussian dominated and had produced economic agreements with non-German states like Sweden and Luxembourg as well. The real political and economic beneficiary of the Zollverein was Prussia. EconomicShow MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagescenturies are almost invariably years of little significance. But there is little agreement over when the twentieth century c.e. arrived, and there were several points both before the year 2000 (the collapse of the Soviet Union, the reunification of Germany, the surge of globalization from the mid-1990s) and afterward (9/11, or the global recession of 2008) when one could quite plausibly argue that a new era had begun. A compelling case can be made for viewing the decades of the global scramble for

Overview of Harappan Culture in India

The earliest imprints of human activities in India go back to the Paleolithic Age, roughly between 400,000 and 200,000 B.C. Stone implements and cave paintings from this period have been discovered in many parts of South Asia. Evidence of domestication of animals, the adoption of agriculture, permanent village settlements, and wheel-turned pottery dating from the middle of the sixth millennium B.C. has been found in the foothills of Sindh and Baluchistan (or Balochistan in current Pakistani usage), both in present-day Pakistan. One of the first great civilizations — with a writing system, urban centers, and a diversified social and economic system — appeared around 3,000 B.C. along the Indus River valley in Punjab and Sindh. It covered more than 800,000 square kilometers, from the borders of Baluchistan to the deserts of Rajasthan, from the Himalayan foothills to the southern tip of Gujarat. The remnants of two major cities — Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa — rev eal remarkable engineering feats of uniform urban planning and carefully executed layout, water supply, and drainage. Excavations at these sites and later archaeological digs at about seventy other locations in India and Pakistan provide a composite picture of what is now generally known as Harappan culture (2500-1600 B.C.). The Ancient Cities The major cities contained a few large buildings including a citadel, a large bath — perhaps for personal and communal ablution — differentiated living quarters, flat-roofed brick houses, and fortified administrative or religious centers enclosing meeting halls and granaries. Essentially a city culture, Harappan life was supported by extensive agricultural production and by commerce, which included trade with Sumer in southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). The people made tools and weapons from copper and bronze but not iron. Cotton was woven and dyed for clothing; wheat, rice, and a variety of vegetables and fruits were cultivated; and a number of animals, including the humped bull, were domesticated. Harappan culture was conservative and remained relatively unchanged for centuries; whenever cities were rebuilt after periodic flooding, the new level of construction closely followed the previous pattern. Although stability, regularity, and conservatism seem to have been th e hallmarks of this people, it is unclear who wielded authority, whether an aristocratic, priestly, or commercial minority. Ancient Artifacts By far, the most exquisite and most obscure Harappan artifacts unearthed to date are steatite seals found in abundance at Mohenjo-Daro. These small, flat, and mostly square objects with human or animal motifs provide the most accurate picture there is of Harappan life. They also have inscriptions generally thought to be in the Harappan script, which has eluded scholarly attempts at deciphering it. Debate abounds as to whether the script represents numbers or an alphabet, and, if an alphabet, whether it is proto-Dravidian or proto-Sanskrit. The Fall of Harappan Civilization The possible reasons for the decline of Harappan civilization have long troubled scholars. Invaders from central and western Asia are considered by some historians to have been the destroyers of Harappan cities, but this view is open to reinterpretation. More plausible explanations are recurrent floods caused by tectonic earth movement, soil salinity, and desertification. A series of migrations by Indo-European-speaking seminomads took place during the second millennium B.C. Known as Aryans, these preliterate pastoralists spoke an early form of Sanskrit, which has close philological similarities to other Indo-European languages, such as Avestan in Iran and ancient Greek and Latin. The term Aryan meant pure and implied the invaders conscious attempts at retaining their tribal identity and roots while maintaining a social distance from earlier inhabitants. The Aryans Arrive Although archaeology has not yielded proof of the identity of the Aryans, the evolution and spread of their culture across the Indo-Gangetic Plain is generally undisputed. Modern knowledge of the early stages of this process rests on a body of sacred texts: the four Vedas (collections of hymns, prayers, and liturgy), the Brahmanas and the Upanishads (commentaries on Vedic rituals and philosophical treatises), and the Puranas (traditional mythic-historical works). The sanctity accorded to these texts and the manner of their preservation over several millennia — by an unbroken oral tradition — make them part of the living Hindu tradition. These sacred texts offer guidance in piecing together Aryan beliefs and activities. The Aryans were a pantheistic people, following their tribal chieftain or raja, engaging in wars with each other or with other alien ethnic groups, and slowly becoming settled agriculturalists with consolidated territories and differentiated occupations. Their skills in using horse-drawn chariots and their knowledge of astronomy and mathematics gave them a military and technological advantage that led others to accept their social customs and religious beliefs. By around 1,000 B.C., Aryan culture had spread over most of India north of the Vindhya Range and in the process assimilated much from other cultures that preceded it. The Changing of Culture The Aryans brought with them a new language, a new pantheon of anthropomorphic gods, a patrilineal and patriarchal family system, and a new social order, built on the religious and philosophical rationales of varnashramadharma. Although precise translation into English is difficult, the concept varnashramadharma, the bedrock of Indian traditional social organization, is built on three fundamental notions: varna (originally, color, but later taken to mean social class), ashrama (stages of life such as youth, family life, detachment from the material world, and renunciation), and dharma (duty, righteousness, or sacred cosmic law). The underlying belief is that present happiness and future salvation are contingent upon ones ethical or moral conduct; therefore, both society and individuals are expected to pursue a diverse but righteous path deemed appropriate for everyone based on ones birth, age, and station in life. The original three-tiered society — Brahman (priest; see Glossa ry), Kshatriya (warrior), and Vaishya (commoner) — eventually expanded into four in order to absorb the subjugated people — Shudra (servant) — or even five, when the outcaste peoples are considered. The basic unit of Aryan society was the extended and patriarchal family. A cluster of related families constituted a village, while several villages formed a tribal unit. Child marriage, as practiced in later eras, was uncommon, but the partners involvement in the selection of a mate and dowry and bride-price was customary. The birth of a son was welcome because he could later tend the herds, bring honor in battle, offer sacrifices to the gods, and inherit property and pass on the family name. Monogamy was widely accepted although polygamy was not unknown, and even polyandry is mentioned in later writings. Ritual suicide of widows was expected at a husbands death, and this might have been the beginning of the practice known as sati in later centuries when the widow actually burnt herself on her husbands funeral pyre. The Evolving Landscape Permanent settlements and agriculture led to trade and other occupational differentiation. As lands along the Ganga (or Ganges) were cleared, the river became a trade route, the numerous settlements on its banks acting as markets. Trade was restricted initially to localareas, and barter was an essential component of trade, cattle being the unit of value in large-scale transactions, which further limited the geographical reach of the trader. Custom was law, and kings and chief priests were the arbiters, perhaps advised by certain elders of the community. An Aryan raja, or king, was primarily a military leader, who took a share from the booty after successful cattle raids or battles. Although the rajas had managed to assert their authority, they scrupulously avoided conflicts with priests as a group, whose knowledge and austere religious life surpassed others in the community, and the rajas compromised their own interests with those of the priests.