Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Free Essays on Your Mom

As a child, my mother put me in dance lessons, soccer, piano lessons and other sports. I hated it when I was young, but it wasn’t until I was older that I realized that my mother had done it for my own good. Most children are put into some sort of lesson or sport when they are youthful and for good cause, too. Some of the many reasons parents have their children engage in these things include their children getting good exercise, they have a chance to meet other children and develop social skills, they acquire a new hobby, and grow wiser through their lessons and games. Children take in so much when they are small and fragile; participating in these events helps them grow physically, mentally, socially, and at times, spiritually. Sports are a great way to stay in shape. When children are taught sports when they are young, it teaches them many lessons including how to deal with other children their own age, listen to adults, follow instructions, and be a team player. Sports teach children how to win and to lose, gracefully, says Joyce Eisenbraun of the Family Fun Weekender Newsletter. It also shows them how to play in a competitive, healthy game. I’ve seen people whose parents put them in sports as a child that they still play today. Most of them are healthy, fun individuals with a lot of focus. They also have a lot of will power and finish what they set their minds to. There are a lot of children today in America that are physically unfit, thanks to their parents not taking the necessary actions they need to keep them healthy. Music was always something I was interested in. For as long as I can remember, I loved to sing. My mom put me in kid’s choir at church from kindergarten through fifth grade. I loved it. I also took a few years of piano. I never liked piano much, though it taught me so much. In music you learn so many things like discipline, commitment and even math! Learning music involves ratios, fractions, proportions... Free Essays on Your Mom Free Essays on Your Mom As a child, my mother put me in dance lessons, soccer, piano lessons and other sports. I hated it when I was young, but it wasn’t until I was older that I realized that my mother had done it for my own good. Most children are put into some sort of lesson or sport when they are youthful and for good cause, too. Some of the many reasons parents have their children engage in these things include their children getting good exercise, they have a chance to meet other children and develop social skills, they acquire a new hobby, and grow wiser through their lessons and games. Children take in so much when they are small and fragile; participating in these events helps them grow physically, mentally, socially, and at times, spiritually. Sports are a great way to stay in shape. When children are taught sports when they are young, it teaches them many lessons including how to deal with other children their own age, listen to adults, follow instructions, and be a team player. Sports teach children how to win and to lose, gracefully, says Joyce Eisenbraun of the Family Fun Weekender Newsletter. It also shows them how to play in a competitive, healthy game. I’ve seen people whose parents put them in sports as a child that they still play today. Most of them are healthy, fun individuals with a lot of focus. They also have a lot of will power and finish what they set their minds to. There are a lot of children today in America that are physically unfit, thanks to their parents not taking the necessary actions they need to keep them healthy. Music was always something I was interested in. For as long as I can remember, I loved to sing. My mom put me in kid’s choir at church from kindergarten through fifth grade. I loved it. I also took a few years of piano. I never liked piano much, though it taught me so much. In music you learn so many things like discipline, commitment and even math! Learning music involves ratios, fractions, proportions...

Sunday, March 1, 2020

The Ancient Practice of Bloodletting in Archaeology

The Ancient Practice of Bloodletting in Archaeology Bloodlettingpurposefully cutting the human body to release bloodis an ancient ritual, associated with both healing and sacrifice. Bloodletting was a regular form of medical treatment for ancient Greeks, with its benefits debated by scholars such as Hippocrates and Galen. Bloodletting in Central America Bloodletting or auto-sacrifice was a cultural trait of most of the societies in Mesoamerica, beginning with the Olmec perhaps as early as 1200 AD. This type of religious sacrifice involved a person using a sharp instrument such as an agave spine or sharks tooth to pierce a fleshy part of his own body. The resulting blood would drip onto a lump of copal incense or piece of cloth or bark paper, and then those materials would be burned. According to historical records of the Zapotec , Mixtec, and Maya, burning blood was one way to communicate with the sky gods. Artifacts associated with bloodletting include sharks teeth, maguey thorns, stingray spines, and obsidian blades. Specialized elite materialsobsidian eccentrics, greenstone picks, and spoonsare thought to have been used for elite bloodletting sacrifices in the  Formative period and later cultures. Bloodletting Spoons A so-called bloodletting spoon is a type of artifact discovered on many Olmec archaeological sites. Although there is some variety, the spoons generally have a flattened tail or blade, with a thickened end. The thick part has a shallow off-center bowl on one side and a second, smaller bowl on the other side. Spoons usually have a small hole pierced through them, and in Olmec art are often depicted as hanging from peoples clothing or ears. Bloodletting spoons have been recovered from Chalcatzingo, Chacsinkin, and Chichà ©n Itz; the images are found carved in murals and on stone sculptures at San Lorenzo, Cascajal, and Loma del Zapote. Olmec Spoon Functions The real function of the Olmec spoon has long been debated. Theyre called bloodletting spoons because originally scholars believed them to have been for holding blood from auto-sacrifice, the ritual of personal bloodletting. Some scholars still prefer that interpretation, but others have suggested spoons were for holding paints, or for use as snuffing platforms for taking hallucinogens, or even that they were effigies of the Big Dipper constellation. In a recent article in Ancient Mesoamerica, Billie J. A. Follensbee suggests Olmec spoons were part of a hitherto unrecognized toolkit for textile production. Her argument is in part based on the shape of the tool, which approximates bone weaving battens recognized in several Central American cultures, including some from Olmec sites. Follansbee also identifies several other tools made of elite greenstone or obsidian, such as spindle whorls, picks, and plaques, that could have been used in weaving or cord-making techniques. Sources Follensbee, Billie J. A. 2008. Fiber technology and weaving in formative-period Gulf Coast cultures. Ancient Mesoamerica 19:87-110. Marcus, Joyce. 2002. Blood and Bloodletting. Pp 81-82 in Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America: An Encyclopedia, Susan Toby Evans and David L. Webster, eds. Garland Publishing, Inc. New York. Fitzsimmons, James L., Andrew Scherer, Stephen D. Houston, and Hector L. Escobedo 2003 Guardian of the Acropolis: The Sacred Space of a Royal Burial at Piedras Negras, Guatemala. Latin American Antiquity 14(4):449-468.