Patricia Hill Collins Views On Feminism

Patricia Hill Collins Views On Feminism As a standpoint feminist, Patricia Hill Collins continuously argues that feminist studies should be practiced from the standpoint of women or particular groups of women who are not as egocentric to think they understand certain aspects of the world. Because of the differences that women have, many standpoint feminist now recognize this division of women and how it is impossible to claim one universal experience for women. Sexism occurs so miraculously that it is important to view it in relation to other systems of domination and analyze how it interacts with other classes in Collins matrix of domination. Collins does this through the thought of black feminist point of view. Collins is embedded in this idea that despite long standing claims by aristocrats; women, African Americans, Latinos, and other downgraded groups in America remain incapable of producing the type of analytical thought that is labeled as a feminist theory. People with powerful knowledge of resistance trampled former social structures of social and cultural inequality abandon this view. Members of these downgraded groups do in fact theorize and our critical social theory has been central to political empowerment and the search for justice. This led to Collins publishing Black Feminist Thought. Collins is above all concerned with the relationship among empowerment, knowledge, and self-definition with a primary focus on black women. It is the oppression with which she is most personally familiar. But Collins is also one of the few Standpoint and Social thinkers who are able to rise above their own experience. She challenges us with a significant view of oppression and other views that no t only has the possibility of changing the world but also of opening up the likelihood of continuous change. To her, for change to be continuous, it cant be exclusively focused on one social group. In other words, to be continuous, a social movement that is only concerned with racial inequality will end its influence once equality for that group is achieved. Collins gives us a way of transcending specific politics that is based upon Black Feminist Epistemology. Her intent is to place black womens experiences in the center of analysis without privileging those experiences. Basically we can learn from black womens knowledge. There are so many major trends that influence her to do so much of her work. She has sociological significance in a few different areas of which the content of her ideas has been influenced by on-going dialogue in many sociological societies. This has showed that in some way women are gaining more of a voice. For instance in her popular book From Black Power to Hip-Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism, this examines the debated spaces of racism, feminism, nationalism, and popular culture in an attempt to expand the struggle for a truly democratic society for the whole universe. She highlights specific themes to truly hint the struggle of place in society. The book is divided into 3 parts: Race, Family, and the US; Ethnicity, Culture, and Black Nationalist politics; and Feminism, Nationalism, and African American women. She is careful with words, she reclaims the term Black women for its globalizing potential to include more than America women of African descent. She redefines the g roup, she states, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦a unifying language that women of African descent and women who are rendered socially Black [in and outside the US] can use to describe their needs as racial and ethnic women (Collins 23). With this said early on in the book, one anticipates a broader view to reframe black feminist thought in the global eye. Not necessarily to analyze everything but to at least rethink the effects of transnational migration on urban environments in America. Collins highlights these shifts in black identity, in ways of how we discuss black experience, race relations, and how contemporary feminist redefine themselves as women of color. In spite of that, Collins sticks closely to the familiar ground of African American urban communities and their related feminist theories and practices. She is concerned with the development of contemporary black feminist thought into social movement and its expansion into multiracial collective identity politics. Hip Hop is the dominant cultural expression in many black womens lives, but it is just one part in the complex of her matrix of domination. Because of our influence of Hip-Hop and other trends of society she tries to influence us to put into practice the collective identity of politics. She tries to influence into creating a group base identity while avoiding group based essentialism. She wants us to detach ourselves from this intricate and worldwide place of domination without falling into more temptation. It doesnt seem like she has many forerunners that truly influence her to do all of what she has done. She is more influenced by herself. She gives her opinion of what she thinks females (mostly black females) need to achieve and prove, and how others should understand and learn. As mention before she operates on the Matrix of Domination. This is a sociological theory that explains issues of oppression that deal with race, gender, and class. Even though these issues are classified differently they all are connected in a way. Other forms such as age, sex, gender, and religion apply to this too. Collins introduces this in her book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and Politics of Empowerment. Many feminist have contributed a great deal of research to help her in an advantage. Although, it seems Collins has had a little bit of help from Alice Walker and her view of black women and feminism, in which she changes to Womanism. Walkers construction of Womanism was an attempt to establish the true black woman in history and culture and to change the negative and inaccurate stereotypes that are given to black women. Walker lists the black woman as a thinking subject who is always seeking knowledge. She interrogates the epistemological exclusions she endures in intellectual life and general and feminist intelligence. Walker also highlights the black womans strength, capability, and independence. Opposed to feminism, Womanism presents an alternative for black women by framing their survival through men and women. In Black Feminist Thought, Collins states, Many black women view feminism as a movement that at best is exclusively for women, and, at worst, dedicated to attacking or eliminating menà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Womanism seemingly supplies a way for black women to address gender-oppression without attacking black men (Collins 11). Collins seems agreeable in this case of Womanism and seems to be that Alice Walker is a versatile influence upon her. Collins goes into a lot of depth about Womanism in her book, a great impact on the Matrix of Domination. Patricia Hill Collins outlined America Black Feminism through the expression in music, fiction, poetry, and oral history. She continuously saw and pointed out three themes. The oppressions are interconnected greatly through the different points. Black women create alternative world views for self-definition and self determination. Black women also have often incorporated imposed and restraining definitions of who they are. They especially do this by revitalizing concepts of beauty, skin color, and physical body notions. Collins also points to areas that have been overlooked many times. Gender roles within family and work, politics, violence, and homophobia all need to be revitalized also. Collins draws on black womens experiences and voices to explain concepts that have been obscured institutionally and ideologically. Her interdisciplinary methodology engages an analytical approach to domination and subordination. She rejects defensive thought because either/or thinking categorizes people, things, and ideas in terms of their differences from each other. She stresses the both/and analysis because it could transform the way in which we think about the claims in knowledge. Her work has made Afro-centric and feminist thought more liable, broader in view, and more essential. She forces her readers to think differently and to reexamine the way in which truth and knowledge are thought to be, produced, and approved. This helps us to realize the importance of our gender society. This is some knowledge of why she seems to be an important figure in the evolution of gender studies. She gives her opinion with valuable information to back it up. Collins largely devotes a significant amount of work to present intellectual ideas mixed with everyday life ideas in an accessible way. This gives more of an encouragement for black females and other races to say what they feel, to give their opinion straightforward as can be. Her book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment seems to be one of the most contributing books that she has published for the general public, but with a focus for black women. She reanalyzes race, gender, and class as an interlocking system of oppression. She talks about the lack of womens experiences as blood-mothers and other-mothers. The community reveals that there is a norm of a heterosexual, married couple, with a husband earning the money. This is far from being natural, universal, and preferred but instead is deeply embedded in specific race and class formations. Placing African American women in the center of analysis not only reveals much needed information ab out black womens experiences but also questions what perspective we give them. Black womens actions in group survival suggest a vision of community that stands in opposition to that extent in the dominant culture. This community is seen as arbitrary and fragile, structured accordingly by competition and domination. Afro-centric models of community stress connections, caring, and personal accountability. As cultural workers African American women have rejected the generalized ideology of domination in order to safeguard the conceptualizations of the community. According to Collins, black women have been unable to spend time theorizing about alternative conceptualizations of community. Instead, through daily actions black women have strongly created alternative communities that truly empower themselves. Experiences as mothers, other-mothers, educators, labor women, and community leaders seem to suggest that power as energy can be encouraged by resistance. In Fighting Words: Black Wome n and the Search for Justice, Collins states, The spheres of influence created and sustained by African American women are not mean to solely to provide a respite from oppressive situations or a retreat from their effects. Rather, these black female spheres of influence constitute potential sanctuaries where individual black women and men are nurtured in order to confront oppressive social institutions (Collins 56). Collins explores an astonishing range of ideas and images through history, sociology, and popular culture. Rather than debate the dominance of race versus sex in the history of social injustice to black women and other races; Collins offers a theory of Intersectionality, viewing race, gender, and sexuality together. She explores the social and personal implications of historical images and more current concerns about the influence of urban culture and how its glorified. Demonstrating how the politics of race has traditionally neglected concerns about gender and sexual orientation, Collins explores a range of issues, advocating certain aspects of cultural situations.

The Communication Revolution: Blessing or Burden

The twentieth century has seen a remarkable revolution in communication and information technologies. But whether the fruits of this revolution are a boon or a curse is a moot point. Development of Thought: The technologies of information and communication have made impressive advances. The Information Revolution did not begin in our century. It began when the hunter painted pictures of animals on the walls of his cave. The nineteenth century saw the advent of the telegraph, the telephone and the camera along with the development of the automobile. But it is in our century that the giant leap was made into the sky with the help of the aero plane, radio, television, satellite communication and planetary travel. Man can now hear, speak and see at the speed of lightning. While it has brought people together and fostered a feeling of global village, it also provokes fears of cultural invasion and invasion of privacy. The dilemma of the phenomenal advances of communication is at one level to find out how much of entertainment and consumption produce true contentment and at another to discover how much of information yields true wisdom. But like every other invention of man, the Communication Revolution has its uses as well as misuses. Conclusion: Technology and the way of life it has ushered in. is as much a burden as a blessing. It has brought as much problems as it has benefits. Ultimately it is by cutting down human wants that happiness can be achieved. It has been an eventful century, a century which has witnessed the collapse of the European empires that had held the various continents under their sway, a century in which another empire rose and fell the Soviet Union, a century in which the atom was split and its awful potential demonstrated, proving that the smallest of small can be more powerful than the biggest. But the nuclear bomb is not the only symbol of the century. There is yet another the microchip, also small, also potent, which bears out the poet's averment that the world can be seen in a grain of sand and eternity held in the palm of one's hand. The technologies of information and communication have made impressive advances. The Information Revolution did not begin in our century. It began when the hunter painted pictures of animals on the walls of his cave; it took a step forward when speech was invented and a further one when early societies carved symbols first on stone, then on pottery, papyrus, palm leaf, birch bark, cloth and paper, to record individual impressions and feelings. Then came printing by wooden blocks and later by movable types and identical copies could be prepared of communications and books. The power of books was recognized quite early. The Vedas were books, the Dharmapada was a book, the Bible was a book, the Kuran was a book. They bore out what Bacon said of books that â€Å"they cast seeds in the minds of others, provoking and causing infinite actions and opinions in succeeding ages†. The book was not the vehicle only of safe and comforting ideas but ideas that could and subvert authority and prevalent norms. That is why the Church and the State devised censorship and book burning even before books were mass produced by the simple that Gutenberg and his followers conceived. The communication giant grew up in the nineteenth century with the advent of the telegraph, the telephone and the camera along with the development of the automobile (The steam locomotive had been assembled a century earlier). But it is in our century that the giant leap was made into the sky with the help of the aero plane, radio, television, satellite communication and planetary travel. Man can now hear, speak and see at the speed of lightning. He has at his command machines which have extended the capacity of his memory and is speed of recall a million times. Entire which normally would have required multi-storey buildings libraries can now be stored in a cabinet? The must complex sums can be solved in the wink of an eye. There is a direct relationship between communication and quality of life. There is no disagreement over the fact that information and communication are vital input for any security. The role of communication in health care, family planning and many other aspects of the quality of life cannot he exaggerated The knowledge base (science and technology) is the most important thing in the present day society and so how knowledge is spread and made use of by various sections of the society becomes an extremely crucial consideration. This places immense responsibility on the groups/agencies, particularly development agencies and action groups, who collect information, analyze and then communicate it to the society. Those for whom the developmental programmes are meant should have full information about the various projects and programmes launched for their benefit by the government. Modem mass media (television, radio, VCR/cable TV, print media, etc. ) have proved to be of great potential in information transfer, motivation, agenda setting, training, mobilization and feed-back and feed-forward loop. The needed techno logy is available and what we need is imaginative software and the use of media that can address both demand and supply issues. Communication strategies have the ability to narrow down the socio-economic gap between the various segments of the society, even without major structural changes at the macro level. However, Mass communication has been used as well as misused. Radio and television have been praised for their contribution to making participatory democracy meaningful. But in their early years, they also presented a temptation to the State to use them for the implantation of qualities, of attitudes that it considered most desirable. The attitude most desired, whatever the complexion of the State in terms of its objectives, was docile acceptance. Hitler and Goebbels used radio to propagate doctrines of one race, one nation and one leader. And in the eastern end of Europe, the communists used their radio and television for thought control, evoking in George Orwell the terror and the nightmare of the Big Brother watching every citizen. Thirty-five years and many million deaths after Orwell wrote his â€Å"Nineteen Eighty Four† came the real 1984 and found the Big Brother sadly sapped of his certitude. And in another six years he was gone. The larger question is what caused this disintegration. The cause obviously is the failure of the economic system of the Eastern bloc to provide the goods to meet the needs which no amount of propaganda could cover up. In making the citizens aware of this failure of their masters, satellite communication had a major role to play. Once satellite television began to rain down pictures of everyday life in the â€Å"decadent† capitalist countries, Soviet citizens could not but compare what they had been told with the evidence of their own eyes. Satellite communication made censorship and travel restrictions in fructuous. The success of the Soviet educational system (in striking contrast to the failure of its economic system) had meanwhile produced millions of people who could think for themselves, although they lacked the courage to speak out what they thought- And now satellite technology enabled even the child to proclaim that the emperor wore no clothes. Communication today is the ultimate empowered whom no emperor can withstand. It is not to be imagined that television has always and invariably been the good angel carrying the gift of freedom Not has it turned out to be the universal educator that some of its pioneers had hoped it would be. In our country, and in a large number of country, television like its elder sibling, the cinema, has been the seller of impossible dreams. If it provided only escapist fare, the indictment would be mild. What it does, unfortunately, is to extol a violent way of life and also to foster an insatiable consumerist appetite. Media organizations claim that their function is information, education and entertainment. But the mix changes depending upon the seriousness of a particular institution. Totalitarian states (including the larger number of fundamentalist societies, which burn books and issue decrees for jailing and killing authors), do as medieval Christian church did, ordain a totally political role for the print and electronic media. In democracies, the media are free to criticize established institutions and they assist the process of open self-examination which is the essence of self government. But in the world in which communication technology is becoming increasingly expensive, journals, radio and television are becoming steadily more dependent upon big money. The cost of production of a newspaper today is several times more than the price at which it is sold. The difference plus the profit have to earn from advertisements. And advertisements are not an ally to self-examination). A few newspapers of known standing may be able to withstand the pressure of the advertiser, as well as of the State, but the weaker, the needier and the more opportunistic go along. Television is more glaringly involved with big money, having largely become a part of big entertainment rather than of enlightenment. An American tycoon was candid and picturesque in proclaiming that a television franchise was just a license to print one 's own money. Because of its emphasis on diversion, television. In the opinion of some social scientists, is engineering a new kind of illiteracy of the literate, to whom a five-minute treatment of a problem gives the illusion of adequate knowledge and discourages any effort at a more painstaking study. Likewise the availability of machines that store information and disgorge it at the touch of the button subtly alters one of the basic functions of memory- internalizing facts', perceiving, and priorities and crystallizing insight. Television has been called the chewing gum for the eyes. The same charge was leveled earlier at films. Yet we know that serious cinema has produced great works of imagination. It has even been said that cinema is the creative medium of our century, as novels were of the nineteenth. But if we praise books, we are ready to concede that very few books, in fact, are the precious life blood of master spirits. Nine-tenths of the books that make their way to the best seller list are monuments to the triviality of popular un-taste. Yet the chewing gum theory sums up what happens when a medium of culture contends itself with being a medium of entertainment. It has been pointed that the three major television networks of the United States-CBS, NBC and ABC- have not sponsored a Shake spear play or even a series like Kenneth Clark's ‘Civilization' in fifty years. Yet it is another television organization, BBC, which is praised for doing so. Therefore, the failure should not be put against the medium as such but the attitude of the managements of certain media institutions. The anomaly of high-technology communications is that instead of building communities it contributes to disquiet. Yet it would be dishonest to deny the power to television (and documentary films to perform the job of reportage and enable it to be an eye-witness to the history in the making. The same American networks which have been criticized for their neglect of mind enrichment have shown (and aroused) intense concern for social problems like racial disparities and community neglect. Television ranks alongside the press in being a political watchdog. The same relationship that exists between politics and the press exists between politics and television. The importance of a free press for the functioning of democracy was underscored by Thomas Jefferson when he declared long before modern newspapers with a mass reach had evolved. That if he were asked to choose between government without newspapers and newspapers without government, he, would choose the latter. Millions today seems to have actually made that choice. The major positive point of the communication revolution is that it has brought people together and fostered a feeling of a global village. Some of the minus points must also be taken note of. The very trend towards the internationalization of the human being provokes fears that identities are being affected, that specific cultures are in peril. The same technology of satellite communication which has been the bearer of the message of personal freedom seems as a fomenter of fissions in many societies. â€Å"The dilemma of the phenomenal advances of communication is at one level to find out how much of entertainment and consumption produce true contentment and, at another, to discover how much of information yields true wisdom. Is right to regard modern communications as a blessing which has turned- into a burden? Is there anything that can be done? Of course, there is. The starting point is to transfer television, at least partially, from a boredom-killing but money-making business to the realm of education which is universally accepted as a social responsibility. Governments have proved inept in using television for this purpose. Private enterprise does not care. There must be a more serious attempt to devise organizational forms, Public Broadcasting Systems, which are under real popular and not governmental control, which are charged with the task of using television for enlargement of people's minds. Which are endowed with adequate resources to perform that function, which have links with the universities and the Arts, and which run parallel to commercial television but are not measured by the mundane actuarial yardstick. It is difficult to forecast, or even speculate in H. G. Well's manner, what new discoveries the next century might bring in the various realms of science. It is an even more daunting task to indicate how the hound that has been unleashed can be controlled again. As the awareness grows that technology and the way of life it has ushered in will pauperize the non-renewable resources of the world. Science has lost its overweening self-assurance. Realism may force us all to adopt what the sages have all along counseled that a sure way to human happiness is the simplification of wants. Preserve Articles is home of thousands of articles published and preserved by users like you. Here you can publish your research papers, essays, letters, stories, poetries, biographies, notes, reviews, advises and allied information with a single vision to liberate knowledge.

Relation between Men and Nature in Emerson and Thoreau

Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in 1803 May 25 in Boston and died in 1882 April 27 Concord and Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817 July12 in Concord and died in 1862 May 6th in Concord. (C-SPAN)Emerson was graduated from Harvard and so was the Thoreau. Henry David Thoreau was young poet of only 20 years old and Emerson was older than him. Thoreau wrote Walden in 1854 and Emerson wrote American scholar in 1837 not only that they have written many articles which was anti government such as ‘American scholar, ‘Walden’ and many more. Emerson and Thoreau have more of comparison than contrast because both the characters have similar perspective but at the certain point different from each other. Emerson as well as Thoreau belief that man by studying nature and examining self can transcend his humanity and become one with god. (Cliff note).For example â€Å"There is never a beginning; there is never an end, the inexplicable continuity of this web of God†.(American Sc holar) They also believe in god which is creator of men as well as of nature. Both think that everything people have is all gifted by nature and they consider people as host of the earth, nature provide everything to people but people don’t realize it and they destroy nature which is providing them facilities to survive in this universal. â€Å"He shall see that nature is the opposite of the soul, answering to its part for part† (American scholar). Both of them write so deep that they force people to think about their opponentShow MoreRelatedCompare and Contrast the Relationship between Man and Nature in Emerson and Thoreau811 Words   |  3 Pages Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts on 1817, the third child of John Thoreau and Cynthia Dunbar Thoreau. 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For forty years I have known something about him, of course—that he was a mystical philosopher; the apostle of transcendentalism in America†¦.† (Abbot, lines 9-10). From within the text of the author of this quote, it can be seen the shear praise and gratitude held for a man by the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson as mentioned in the quote, is considered to be theRead MoreHenry David Thoreau4404 Words   |  18 PagesHenry David Thoreau INTRODUCTION Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian , philosopher andtranscendentalist. Henry David Thoreau was a complex man of many talents who worked hard to shape his craft and his life. 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One can achieve a life of contentment by applyingRead MoreStudy Guide For Emerson s Nature2811 Words   |  12 PagesStudy Guide for Emerson’s â€Å"Nature† Jill O’Leary â€Å"Standing on the bare ground, ---my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, ---all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all.† My view: when everything is gone you will see the world for what it truly is Ralph Waldo Emerson, (1803-1882), one of America s most influential authors and thinkers. 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Effects Of Pope Urban II On The Middle East - 1527 Words

If Pope Urban II never called for a crusade, got people to listen, and travel the world, would the crusaders find the knowledge that led to the Renaissance and brought the church down? The ignorance of Pope Urban II led to the experience of the crusaders that caused European economies to expand, increase travel, and ultimately decreases the power of the church. The cost to travel to the Holy Land was very expensive. Nobles allowed peasants to pay rents in money instead of grain or labor. The church raised taxes to help with the cost of traveling. Some people sold their property, all personal goods, and took loans to finance the journey. Peasants benefited from a higher demand on their products and from the availability of land. They began to sell their goods to earn money, which help end serfdom and create a middle class that profited on buying and selling property, collecting interest on loans, and providing transportation. When the crusades began there was a rise in trade, decreased feudalism, and new access to trade with the Middle East. Europeans also had a desire for luxuries from the Byzantine Empire. The increase in trading with the Byzantine Empire led to new ideas, food products, and household goods. The food products from the Byzantine Empire were: rice, coffee, sherbet, dates, apricots, lemons, sugar, and spices such as ginger, melons, rhubarb and dates. The household goods traded were: mirrors, carpets, cotton cloth for clothing, ships compasses, writingShow MoreRelatedThe First Crusade Was More Of A Political War Essay1466 Words   |  6 Pagesminimum claimed to do so because God had commanded them to. Pope Urban II emphasized this in his speech, saying, â€Å"I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ s heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vi le race from the lands of our friends.† The important thing to note here is that Pope Urban II doesn’t just urge them to fight on behalf of himself or theRead MoreThe Crusades Were Important Part Of World History During The Post Classical Era1161 Words   |  5 Pages This prompted Alexius Comnenus, the Byztantine emperor, to write to Pope Urban II in need of trying to reacquire this sacred land (The Crusades). This prompted the start of the Crusades. There were four major Crusades and several others that occurred (Crusades). The first was probably the most significant out of all of them. The First Crusade allowed for the capture of The Holy Land and also prompted an influence of Middle Eastern culture and ideas to Western Europe. During the first centuryRead MoreEssay on The Crusades908 Words   |  4 Pagesto Pope Urban II, in Rome. He requested for Christian knights to help him fight the Turks. Pope Urban II did agree to his appeal although Byzantine Emperors and Roman Popes were longtime rivals. He also did agree with Alexus I, in fearing that the Turks were expanding. Pope Urban encouraged French and German Bishops and Nobles to also take part in this. â€Å" An accused race has violently invaded the lands of those Christians and had depopulated them by pillage and fire.† This is when Pope Urban II calledRead MoreThe First Crusade1256 Words   |  6 Pagesvictorious against masses of Islamic armies. In July of 1099AD, Jerusalem would fall out of the hands of the Turks for the first time in centuries, and the First Crusade would also serve to frame the make-up of nobility across Europe and help shape the middle ages altogether. The view of the Crusades, like many major events of history, are often known without being truly understood. In the modern era, the Crusades are seen almost as an afterthought, and used as a tool to rationalize and justify relativismRead MoreThe Rise Of The Crusades1987 Words   |  8 Pagesnot okay with this. Pope Gregory VII made plans early in 1074 to ride up against the Turks. He saw the Byzantium invasions as the â€Å"perfect opportunity to employ Europe’s warriors in the service of God.† (page 6) The spread of Christianity can partly be credited to Pope Urban II. Pope Urban II lifelong goals was to reform the Catholic Church. In 1095 Alexius I Comenus was in battle with the Turks and requested aid to help him defeat them. This request was just what Pope urban II needed so that he couldRead MoreReligion And Its Impact On Society1310 Words   |  6 Pagesreligious wars. As religion grew, the power of religious officials increased immensely. These leaders have led clashes between religions which resulted in mass killings throughout history. With that said, can the negative outweigh the positive effects of religion throughout the course of human history? Holy warfare has been integral to religion because of the differences in the belief systems and feelings of superiority of the followers of each religion. Holy wars date back to the BronzeRead MoreThe Crusades : Campaigns That Changed The World1738 Words   |  7 PagesJared Spoonhour Mrs. Fegan Human Rights Literature 18 November 2015 The Crusades: Campaigns that Changed the World The Middle East has been afflicted by major religious wars and strife for thousands of years. For nearly a millennium, pilgrims from Europe had been persecuted by the Muslim rulers while on their way to the holy Christian city of Jerusalem in order to make atonement for their sins. The tense struggle for ownership of the city of Jerusalem between Muslims and Christians nearly a thousandRead MoreTaking a Look at the Crusades1259 Words   |  5 PagesThe Crusades of the middle ages were an extremely important part of history, although it was very gruesome and unnecessary at the same time, an oxymoron. I say it was important only because it had an impact on the world we live in today. It could be a very different world if the crusades would have never occurred and I believe traditional Roman Catholicism would be much more popular nowadays. The concept of the crusades seems wrong in the modern morals, but at the same time it seemed completely rightRead More History Essay1735 Words   |   7 Pagescreated manors. The serfs had originally paid allegiance to the lords as they protected them and gathered land and wealth. One short-term effect of manorialism was that it gave the peasants who worked the field better working conditions than the slaves had received in earlier Roman estates. The serfs had more control over their lives. Some of the long-term effects of manorialism were an increase in the quality of all living conditions, chivalry, and better treatment of women. As farming conditionsRead MoreWar Over the Holy Land525 Words   |  2 Pagesduring the Middle Ages. The Middle East or the Holy Land was always a place that Christians traveled to to make pilgrimages. The Seljuk Turks eventually took control of Jerusalem and all Christians were not allowed in the Holy City. As the Turks power grew, they threatened to take over the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople. The Byzantine Emperor, Alexius I, asked Pope Urban II for help and Pope agreed, hoping to strengthe n his own power. He He united the Christians in Europe and In 1095, Pope Urban