How did the Assyrian and neo-Babylonian governmental structures lead to cultural assimilation in the Empires? What are some examples?

An example of an Assyrian governmental structure that facilitated cultural assimilation was the king's palace. Take, for instance, King Assurnasirpal II's palace. The public areas of the palace were lavishly decorated; the walls were lined with magnificent bas-relief sculptures that emphasized the Assyrian army's might and the king's power. 

Each of the sculptured slabs portrayed images of Assyrian military might. Many showed Assyrian kings and their armies in the midst of besieging cities. These gruesome war scenes were meant to intimidate all who looked upon the walls of an Assyrian palace. The Assyrians often conscripted citizens from conquered states to fight on behalf of their king; these foreign citizens were assimilated into Assyrian culture through their participation in construction and engineering projects as well as through service in the Assyrian army.

Meanwhile, the Assyrian kings repaid the labor and loyalty of the conquered peoples with royal protection. Throughout the best days of the Assyrian Empire, these conquered citizens built countless palaces, temples, and public gardens on behalf of the Assyrian king. It was inevitable, then, that generations of these citizens would assimilate seamlessly into the world of their new masters.

Many of these citizens labored to ensure that the throne rooms and West Suites in Assyrian palaces portrayed suitable sculptures of Assyrian military power and resilience. King Sennacherib, for example, commissioned the labor of conquered peoples to rebuild the old city of Nineveh. Conscripted laborers were forced to erect grand palaces and temples in the city; these palaces were often decorated with precious stones and cedar wood. Additionally, the helpless laborers would have been forced to craft sculptures that portrayed the Assyrian armies conquering their beloved lands. This is one way that the Assyrians forcefully assimilated conquered peoples into their culture.

When the Neo-Babylonian empire took over from the Assyrians, palaces and temples were rebuilt. These public structures became even more magnificent in design, structure, and style. In fact, King Nebuchadnezzar II, possibly the greatest monarch of the Neo-Babylonian empire, used conscripted laborers to rebuild much of Babylon. He added a museum to his palace, and two of his greatest engineering accomplishments were the Ishtar Gate and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Ishtar Gate itself was decorated with images of Babylonian gods and goddesses, while the perimeters of the gate showed images of fierce lions, the animal most associated with King Nebuchadnezzar II.

So, Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian governmental structures led to cultural assimilation in two ways:

1) The two empires utilized the labor of conquered citizens in engineering and construction projects.

2) Through these projects, monarchs saturated their respective cultures with artistic and engineering representations of the dominance and hegemonic power of both empires.

How do the last two lines in the poem "My Parents" by Stephen Spender help bring out the theme?

The last two lines express the isolation the speaker felt because his parents kept him separate and protected from "children who were rough." The children who surrounded him engaged in typical childhood roughhousing; they "ran in the street and climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams." The speaker feared them both physically,when they roughed him up, and psychologically, as they mocked his speech impediment when they followed him.  

The last two lines, 

And...

The last two lines express the isolation the speaker felt because his parents kept him separate and protected from "children who were rough." The children who surrounded him engaged in typical childhood roughhousing; they "ran in the street and climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams." The speaker feared them both physically,when they roughed him up, and psychologically, as they mocked his speech impediment when they followed him.  

The last two lines, 

And I looked another way, pretending to smile,
I longed to forgive them, yet they never smiled.

suggest that instead of being kept away from these children, the speaker longed to live among them to experience the give and take of childhood relationships. He understands that he would have sometimes received the same rough treatment, but if they had been intimate, he expects that he would have also received apologies from them instead of remaining estranged and isolated.

Find evidence to prove that Macbeth feels guilty for the murder of Macduff's family.

What is really striking about the killing of Macduff's family is that Macbeth seems to feel very little guilt about it. When Macbeth kills Duncan, for instance, he is immediately overcome with guilt. He has hallucinations and wishes that Duncan would wake up from his eternal sleep. In contrast, when Macbeth sends his men to kill Macduff's wife and child, he does not experience any similar thoughts or feelings.

In fact, it is only in...

What is really striking about the killing of Macduff's family is that Macbeth seems to feel very little guilt about it. When Macbeth kills Duncan, for instance, he is immediately overcome with guilt. He has hallucinations and wishes that Duncan would wake up from his eternal sleep. In contrast, when Macbeth sends his men to kill Macduff's wife and child, he does not experience any similar thoughts or feelings.

In fact, it is only in act 5, scene 8 that Macbeth expresses any feelings of guilt. Standing face to face with Macduff, he says:

My soul is too much charged

With blood of thine already.

In other words, Macbeth is saying that his soul is tainted by the murder of Macduff's family. It is clear that Macbeth feels some shame and guilt here because he tells Macduff to go away. He has no desire to further taint his soul with the blood of Macduff. 

Generally speaking, compared to the Middle Ages, there were higher standards of living, greater economic opportunity, and higher life expectancy in...

Historians believe that the Renaissance developed in Italy partly in reaction to the Black Plague in 1348. The plague resulted in the deaths of an estimated 75 million to 200 million people, and many historians believe that the death people witnessed during the plague made them more interested in the affairs of life rather than in the afterlife. In addition, following the plague, the working class in Italy was in a better position than they...

Historians believe that the Renaissance developed in Italy partly in reaction to the Black Plague in 1348. The plague resulted in the deaths of an estimated 75 million to 200 million people, and many historians believe that the death people witnessed during the plague made them more interested in the affairs of life rather than in the afterlife. In addition, following the plague, the working class in Italy was in a better position than they had been previously, as the price of food and land dropped. As people lived better lives, they devoted themselves increasingly to matters that were not directly connected to mere survival.

The heroic ideal and the cult of beauty arose as part of the development of humanism, or the focus on human beings over spiritual matters, in Italy and other areas. Interest in Greek and Roman antiquity was part of this movement. The heroic ideal was the perfect person, and, as West writes in "Spenser and the Renaissance Ideal of Christian Heroism," the idea of a Christian hero arose in Renaissance literature after the "reemergence of the classics in the Italian Renaissance." The cult of beauty was also part of the Renaissance as a reflection of the growing belief in celebrating the physical rather than the purely spiritual. This belief also was inherited from the Greek belief that beauty was an ideal that could be expressed in physical things. 

Source:

"Spenser and the Renaissance Ideal of Christian Heroism." Michael West PMLA Vol. 88, No. 5 (Oct., 1973), pp. 1013-1032.

Why do you think Louise Erdrich titled her novel Tracks? What is the significance of tracks in the story? How should we understand "tracks"...

Louse Erdrich’s novel Tracks, published in 1988, is the third in a tetralogy of novels that explores the interrelated lives of families who live in and around an Indian reservation in North Dakota. The narrative of Tracks is the earliest chronologically, delving into the back story of several characters from the other books.

Erdrich has commented on the importance of titles in her work. In the book Conversations with Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris,...

Louse Erdrich’s novel Tracks, published in 1988, is the third in a tetralogy of novels that explores the interrelated lives of families who live in and around an Indian reservation in North Dakota. The narrative of Tracks is the earliest chronologically, delving into the back story of several characters from the other books.

Erdrich has commented on the importance of titles in her work. In the book Conversations with Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris, Erdrich says a book title is like a “magnet” drawing experiences, memories, and conversations to it until those pieces coalesce as a book.

The book’s title may be drawn partly from themes surrounding the past. Like tracks or footprints left behind, the narratives of Nanapush and Pauline often look back at those “tracks” of the past. Tracks may also refer to the historical context of the novel. For example, Lulu’s mother wants to prevent her from marrying a Morrissey, a reference to the Morrissey/ Pillager land rights following the 1887 Dawes Act. A consequence of this central event of Native American history was to destroy the Indian land base and, as a result, hurt Indian culture, too. These historical “tracks” are inseparable from the characters’ current struggles.

The title may also refer to the narrative structure of the story. The novel alternates between the first person point of view of Nanapush and Pauline, who often tell different versions of the same stories. Thus, the reader follows parallel, sometimes intersecting, narrative “tracks.”

Nanapush follows in the tracks of Nanabush the trickster, a central figure in Chippewa storytelling. As an elder and a trickster himself, he challenges the gods and cheats death by playing a trick on them. Pauline, however, follows a different track. She is a tragic figure torn between her Indian heritage and her desire to reject it. As Pauline descends into madness, she eventually chooses a track leading away from her tribal community.

How might managers overcome the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities of using Organizational Behavior (OB) concepts in the workplace?...

Managers might overcome the challenges of using Organizational Behavior (OB) by adapting their management style to one that conforms more with the relevant challenge they face, like switching from the Autocratic model to the Supportive model, which is oriented toward employee need and addresses diversity. Managers might take advantage of the opportunities of using OB by emphasizing the Collegial model, which orients toward employee self-actualization and is relevant to aspects such as building an ethical...

Managers might overcome the challenges of using Organizational Behavior (OB) by adapting their management style to one that conforms more with the relevant challenge they face, like switching from the Autocratic model to the Supportive model, which is oriented toward employee need and addresses diversity. Managers might take advantage of the opportunities of using OB by emphasizing the Collegial model, which orients toward employee self-actualization and is relevant to aspects such as building an ethical culture.

Organizational Behavior is the study of individual, group, and organizational structure in the workplace. The aims of OB relate to areas such as employee job satisfaction, customer service, and job performance. Some challenges of using OB concepts relate to globalization, diversity, and information technology. Some opportunities from using OB concepts are improving interpersonal skills, developing technical skills, and improving job satisfaction.

What are the effects of rougher surfaces on friction?

Friction occurs when two objects come into contact with one another. Friction is a force that works in the opposing direction than an object is moving. The smoother the surfaces of the two objects in contact, the less friction. The rougher the surfaces of the two objects, the more friction. Think of a car on the road: when the driver of a moving car hits the brakes, the car’s slower-rolling tires against the ground create more friction and that friction helps the car stop. If the car is driving on water or ice, there is less friction, and thus it takes the car longer to stop, if the car does not start to slide. If sand or gravel is placed on icy roads, that makes the surface of the road rougher and therefore helps to create friction, allowing cars to stop more easily on an icy road.

An interesting fact about friction is that the amount of frictional force created by two objects in contact with each other is independent of the surface area of the objects. The amount of friction created is based on the how rough or smooth the objects are, not on the size of the objects. So two objects that are the same size could create the same amount of friction as two objects of different sizes, as long as the surfaces are the same in texture.

This is not the case related to an object’s weight. If a one-pound brick is placed on the floor next to a three-pound brick, the frictional force of the three-pound brick is greater. That is because the weight or load of the brick on the floor is also a type of force.

There are different types of friction. Kinetic friction is force created by moving objects—like sliding a brick across the floor. Static friction is the amount of force it takes to keep items in place—like a parked car. Rolling friction occurs when a ball or cylindrical object rolls across a surface—like rolling a marble on a table.

The question “What are the effects of rougher surfaces on friction?” has a simple answer if the weight and shape (round or flat) of the objects is constant—the rougher the surfaces, the more friction. If the weights and/or shapes of the objects differ, then mathematical equations come into play and the answer is not quite so simple, because the type of friction and additional types of force come into consideration.