noyb noyb, Ph.D.

Rudyard Kipling's novel The Jungle Book presents an argument against most of Charles Darwin's theories (and the book itself was published less than forty years after Darwin's The Origin of the...

The similarities between all these Native nations are that, except for the Incas, they were all radically democratic, especially compared to European societies with absolute monarchs. Moctezuma is...

Léopold Sédar Senghor's poem "Black Woman" has two types of consciousness. The first is a celebration of Africa, African cultures, and Negritude. The second is an awareness of colonialism and...

Blackfeet, or Natives generally, would not refer to nature as "wilderness." That is a term used by Westerners or outsiders, finding nature threatening unless "tamed." Natives would call camps their...

Of all the secondary characters in Part-Time Indian, Rowdy has the biggest impact on Junior. As in another one of Alexie's famous works, the screenplay for the film Smoke Signals, the two central...

The village is above all culturally isolated as much as physically. Though there are Native tribes all around, they are never shown or even mentioned. Though the French and Dutch are within...

In both John Milton's Samson Agonistes and in the Bible, Samson is tricked by Delilah, who then cuts his hair, the source of his strength. Without his strength, Samson is then imprisoned by the...

In James Welch's novel Fool's Crow, none of the Blackfeet Indians or other Natives would have used the terms "wilderness" or "camp." These are terms that would have been used by white outsiders....

Harry, the central character in Hemingway's short story "Snows of Kilimanjaro," is largely in conflict with himself. He has spent much of his life aimlessly wandering as part of the Lost Generation...

First, it is important to note two things. Charles Mann did not invent the term Columbian Exchange. Alfred Crosby did so in the early 1970s. Mann takes Crosby's argument of an exchange—often...

In the research for The Devil's Highway, the author, Urrea, spent a significant amount of time with the Border Patrol agents, but none with the twelve victims he was nominally and theoretically...

From the perspective of most Vietnamese, this was a nationalist struggle to kick out foreign occupiers. Vietnamese are taught today to think of leaders who fought against Chinese occupation as...

Novelist and poet Linda Hogan is also Writer-in-Residence for the Chickasaw Nation. Her work reflects her ancestry and culture, where the land is considered a mother—the source of nurturing rather...

Tattoos are barred by some Christian and Jewish beliefs based on interpretations in the Books of Leviticus and Jeremiah in the Bible which represent them as self-mutilation. This was part of the...

El Pachuco in Zoot Suit is a representative of the Pachuco subculture that dressed in zoot suits. Pachucos were sharply-dressed tough guys, at times gang members, within Mexican American culture in...

Grisham and his character, lawyer Carl Brigance, argue that the rape and attempted murder of his daughter justifies Carl Lee Hailey's vigilante murder of the two rapists, even though a decent man...

In The Children of Men, all of humanity is unwillingly sterile, likely caused by natural forces or by the Earth (as a way of preserving itself from the destruction wrought by man). Humans have...

In short: no. The Yoruba traditional community ritual was blocked by one of British colonial authorities, Simon Pilkings, not by any Yoruba. It was outside interference that prevented carrying the...

In The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age, English art historian Simon argues that, based on travel accounts, popular literature of the time, and art...

May Day, or May 1, is celebrated worldwide as International Workers Day. It is in remembrance of the Haymarket bombing in Chicago in 1886. The bombing killed eleven people, including seven police,...

Even had he not been prime minister, Nehru was the central figure in India's independence movement for over 30 years, as much as Mahatma Gandhi. 1. Nehru's Congress Party won a majority of seats....

Most but not all Europeans had a very negative impact. Many Europeans invaded native settlements and some even carried out genocides. Columbus's army killed between 3 and 8 million Taino Indians...

Malcolm X as a devout Muslim is using his own life to illustrate rising above one's circumstances by faith, hard work, and especially self education and knowledge of the true nature of America. He...

In Robert Louis Stephenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hyde not only grows stronger over time: he becomes larger, stands more upright, and finally does not need the drug at all...

Resistance movements in Elie Wiesel's Night were those opposed to Nazism and the Holocaust. Wiesel does not explicitly describe them or their beliefs, but it seems very likely he's referring to...

Pierre Boulle's novel Planet of the Apes is dramatically different from the films and TV series made from it, but they do share common themes. Nature versus nurture: Humans and apes are shown in a...

Creole originally meant a European born in the Americas. The term is Criollo in Spanish. They were a step below the European-born whites: "Blancs" in French and "Blancos" or "Peninsulares" in...

The Tang Dynasty is often considered the high point of classical Chinese culture, as it was a period of relative stability until the late rebellions. It was strongly influenced by Confucian ideals,...

Jiang, more often known as Chiang Kai Shek in the west, was more often described as a fascist, though his party was named Nationalist. Chiang had his own Blue Shirt Society, modeled on Mussolini's...

Harappa shares its name with the civilization it was part of. Both cities were part of the Harappan civilization. Harappa was around much earlier and much longer. Evidence points to it being...

Holden describes himself as sixteen but trying to look older. He constantly smokes and tries to drink alcohol. He keeps trying to pick up women. He constantly wears a hunting cap—as he calls it, a...

Diamond actually does not make that broad an argument. Instead he simply argues that European cultures spread farther, but that they were the beneficiaries of advancements first made by Middle...

It would not necessarily. Many other societies had or have food surpluses without hierarchical government or strong militaries. Many tribal societies have surplus food and largely informal modes of...

Minerva is the narrator of the novel. She knows that the dictator Rafael Trujillo demands absolute loyalty and subservience from every Dominican. In his thirty years in power he had built up a...

Baldwin was horrified by the Nation of Islam's beliefs, but not surprised by them. In The Fire Next Time, he regarded them as an inverted version of white supremacy that borrowed the many racist...

Max Weber's Characteristics of Modern Bureaucracy argued that there were six main features of a bureaucracy: 1) specialization, 2) hierarchy, 3) rules and regulations, 4) technical competence, 5)...

The context of the quote is important. Adlai Stevenson was Governor of Illinois, running for president in 1952 when he said that. Stevenson had also been part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in...

Roth's alternate history novel includes a number of real-life historical figures, most of whom are accurately presented, but one who is shown as quite different from his actual beliefs and actions....

Diamond gives these two examples, among others, in his book: climate change and how it affected the Mayan civilization; and the current world, especially the United States Most evidence points...

Most British today regard the US War for Independence as a minor uprising—one caused by an incompetent king—for which they always had sympathy for. This war was part of a larger series of colonial...

Lee publicly opposed Grant's presidency and the Republican Party, which he referred to as the Radical Party. He remained a dedicated white supremacist and defender of slavery and the Confederacy to...

The intended quote is, "The brave men, living and dead who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract." Lincoln is arguing a soldier's struggle is holy and...

Harding accomplished very little and is often ranked by historians as one of our worst presidents. Harding ran on a platform of "return to normalcy," meaning what many describe as isolationism....

Franklin was a federalist (small f) in the sense of supporting the new constitution. He was central to the writing and formulation of the original Articles of Confederation. The articles were based...

Andrew Johnson, an opponent of civil rights, was the president who had the most important vetoes overridden. There have been other presidents with a higher number of vetoes, and a higher number or...