Introduction: With Europe being the epicentre of the two Great Wars of the last century, a robust arrangement of cooperation and mutual benefit was made imperative. With the collapse of the Berlin Wall, an opportunity was created for the erstwhile divided Europe to once again unite under a democratic framework. On the broader geo-political scale,…
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A collection of high-quality academic essays.
Review of Stephan Shennan’s introduction to Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution
Evolutionary biology as a field of inquiry is fairly well entrenched, with detailed and documented studies carried out over the last 150 years. The same cannot be said about cultural evolution, which is a synthesis of anthropology, archaeology and the study of human history. While evolutionary biology has come to depend on well-established methods of…
Peggy McIntosh’s criticism of Immigration Laws
Having been involved in the field of Women’s Studies, Peggy McIntosh is quite familiar with privileges held by men that seldom get acknowledged. The issue here is not blatant male chauvinism, but a subtler, unconscious and systemic flaws that undermine the notion of equality between sexes. Extending the same analysis to the domain of race,…
Article Review: ‘Burials, Houses, Women and Men in the European Neolithic’ by Ian Hodder
What does the author say is his/her goal in this article or chapter? What is the point he/she is going to make? At the outset, the Ian Hodder tries to make clear the two varying interpretations of neolithic megalith structures. The first view assumes that the megalith monuments of ancient Europe were products of emerging…
Book Report on “Freedom in Exile: An Autobiography of the Dalai Lama by His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV”
The book titled Freedom in Exile is the autobiographical account of the life of the fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet’s erstwhile theocracy. Born as Tenzin Gyatso, the life of this popular religious leader is intertwined with the political developments in his country of birth. Buddhists believe in the concept of reincarnation, whereby the soul of…
Ideological Racism vs Prejudice
How does “ideological racism” differ from prejudice? Which concept is more sociological? Why? How does institutional discrimination differ from discrimination? Ideological racism is a concept that is more entrenched into the fabric of society. In whichever society ideological racism thrives, one can expect its manifestation in the policy frameworks of leading institutions. Ideological racism is…
Effects of Globalization
The word ‘globalisation’ is almost interchangeable with the term ‘economic liberalization’. Standing almost at the end of the 21st century, a question may arise in our mind –whether this open economy, a direct product of globalisation, has actually been a boon to the world’s economy including the social and economic scenario. Careful thought brings out…
Documentary Film Analysis: Dark Days (2000)
The documentary film Dark Days, conceived and filmed by Marc Singer, is one of the modern classics of the genre. The film presents little known darker realities of the most prosperous city in the world New York. The usage of rudimentary cinematic devices and techniques is consistent with the central theme of the film. The…
The Corporation Documentary – Summary – Analysis
The documentary film titled The Corporation (2003) attempts to present to the viewer different facets of this institution. The points of view presented in the mainstream media are quite different from the actual realities associated with business corporations. The documentary is based on a book written by Joel Bakan titled The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit…
Just War Theory: An application to the Iraq War (2003)
Alan Dowd’s article titled ‘Civilization’s Reluctant Warrior: America and the War on Terror’ is an essay supporting America’s war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Given the readiness and enthusiasm with which the United States initiated war against Iraq in 2003, it is difficult to make sense of phrase ‘reluctant warrior’. Nevertheless, the central thesis of…