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Hospitality

Hospitality

The act or practice of being hospitable, that is, the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, with liberality and goodwill.

The Bible and Middle Eastern conceptions of hospitality

In Middle Eastern Culture, it was considered a cultural norm to take care of the strangers and aliens living among you. These norms are reflected in many Biblical commands and examples, for instance: [http://bible.gospelcom.net/passage/?search=Exodus%2022:21;23:9;%20Leviticus%2019:10,33,34;24:22;%20Deuteronomy%2010:18,1]

Old Testament

:Exodus 22:21 21 "Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt. :Exodus 23:9 "Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt. :Leviticus 19:10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God. :Leviticus 19:33 " 'When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. :Leviticus 19:34 The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God. :Leviticus 24:22 You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.' " :Deuteronomy 10:18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. [http://bible.gospelcom.net/topical/topical_resource.php?source=1&tid=2401] : Pharaoh to Abraham (Genesis 12:16) : Melchizedek to Abraham (Genesis 14:18) : Abraham to the angels (Genesis 18:1-8) :Lot to the angel (Genesis 19:1-11) : Abimelech to Abraham (Genesis 20:14,15) : Sons of Heth to Abraham (Genesis 23:6,11) : Laban to Abraham's servant (Genesis 24:31) : To Jacob (Genesis 29:13,14) :Isaac to Abimelech (Genesis 26:30) :Joseph to his brothers (Genesis 43:31-34) : Pharaoh to Jacob (Genesis 45:16-20;47:7-12) : Jethro to Moses (Exodus 2:20) : Rahab to the spies (Joshua 2:1-16) : Man of Gibeah to the Levite (Judges 19:16-21) : Pharaoh to Hadad (1 Kings 11:17,22) : David to Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9:7-13) : The widow of Zarephath to Elijah (1 Kings 17:10-24) : The Shunammite woman to Elisha (2 Kings 4:8) : Elisha to the Syrian spies (2 Kings 6:22) : Job to strangers (Job 31:32) : Rahab (Joshua 6:17,22-25) : Widow of Zarephath's (1 Kings 17:10-24)

New Testament

: Martha to Jesus (Luke 10:38; John 12:1,2) : Pharisees to Jesus (Luke 11:37,38) : Zacchaeus to Jesus (Luke 19:1-10) : Simon the tanner to Peter (Acts 10:6,23) : Lydia to Paul and Silas (Acts 16:15) : Publius to Paul (Acts 28:2) : Phoebe to Paul (Romans 16:2) : Onesiphorus to Paul (2 Timothy 1:16) : Gaius (3 John 1:5-8) : "Romans 12:13 Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality."

Contemporary Usage

Contemporary usage seems rather different from historical uses that lend it personal connotations. NO. Today's hospitality conjures images of throwing good parties, gracious hosts entertaining, etiquette, Martha Stewart or even talk shows, or, the hospitality services industry as it relates to the entertainment and tourism business. On the other hand, hospitality used to be, and may still be, a serious personal duty or responsibility. Hospitality is a prosaic word, even trivial, that everyone can relate to, perhaps even more concretely so outside of North American culture. It seems perhaps even a candidate for having something like a universal meaning or agreement, if not positive value. In the western context, with its dynamic tension between Athens and Jerusalem, two phases can be distinguished with a very progressive transition: a hospitality based on an individually felt sense of duty, and one based on "official" institutions for organized but anonymous social services: special places for particular types of "strangers" such as the poor, orphan, ill, alien, criminal, etc. Perhaps this progressive institutionalization can be aligned to the transition between Middle Ages and Renaissance (Ivan_Illich, The Rivers North of the Future). Category:Culture Category:Ethics

Etiquette

Etiquette is the code that governs the expectations of social behavior, the conventional norm. It is an unwritten code, which evolves from written rules, for the Greek equivalent of etiquette is protokollon, protocol, the written formula for ceremonial. It usually reflects a theory of conduct that society or tradition has invested heavily in. Like "culture", it is a word that has gradually grown plural, especially in a multi-ethnic society with many clashing expectations. Thus, it is now possible to refer to "an etiquette" or "a culture", realizing that these may not be universal.

Norms and effects of etiquette

Etiquette fundamentally prescribes and restricts the ways in which people interact with each other, and show their respect for other people by conforming to the norms of society. Modern Western etiquette instructs us to: greet friends and acquaintances with warmth and respect, refrain from insults and prying curiosity, offer hospitality equally and generously to our guests, wear clothing suited to the occasion, contribute to conversations without dominating them, offer a chair or a helping arm to those who need assistance, eat neatly and quietly, avoid disturbing others with loud music or unnecessary noise, follow the established rules of a club or legislature upon becoming a member, arrive promptly when expected, comfort the bereaved, and respond to invitations promptly. Roman etiquette varied by class. In the upper strata of Roman society, etiquette would have instructed a man to: greet friends and acquaintances with decorum, according to their rank, refrain from showing emotions in public, keep his womenfolk secluded from his clients, support his family's position with public munificence, and so on. Violations of etiquette, if severe, can cause public disgrace, and in private hurt individual feelings, create misunderstandings or real grief and pain, and can even escalate into murderous rage. Many family feuds have their beginnings in trivial etiquette violations that were blown up out of proportion. One can reasonably view etiquette as the minimal politics required to avoid major conflict in polite society, and as such, an important aspect of applied ethics. An etiquette is sometimes considered to reflect the underlying ethical code itself. In the West, the notion of etiquette, being of French origin and arising from practices at the court of Louis XIV, is occasionally disparaged as old-fashioned or elite, a code concerned only with "which fork to use". Some people consider etiquette to be an unnecessary restriction of freedom of personal expression. Others consider such people to be unmannerly and rude. For instance, wearing pajamas to a wedding in a cathedral may be an expression of the guest's freedom, and may also cause the bride and groom to suspect that the guest in pajamas is expressing amusement or disparagement towards them and their wedding. Etiquette may be enforced in pragmatic ways: "No shoes, no shirt, no service" is a notice commonly displayed outside stores and cafés in the warmer parts of North America. Others feel that a single, basic code shared by all makes life simpler and more pleasant by removing many chances for misunderstandings.

Manners

Main article: Manners Manners involve a wide range of social interactions within cultural norms as in Comedy of manners, or a painter's characteristic "manner". Etiquette and manners, like mythology have buried histories especially when they seem to have little obvious purpose, and their justifications as logical ("respect shown to others" etc.) may be equally revealing to the social historian. social historian

Cultural differences

Etiquette is dependent on culture; what is excellent etiquette in one society may shock in another. Etiquette evolves within culture. The Dutch painter Andries Both shows that the hunt for head lice (illustration, right), which had been a civilized grooming occupation in the early Middle Ages, a bonding experience that reinforceed the comparative rank of two people, one groomed, one groomer, had become a peasant occupation by 1630. The painter portrays the familiar operation matter-of-factly, without the sarcasm this subject would have received in a 19th-century representation. Etiquette is a topic that has occupied writers and thinkers in all sophisticated societies for millennia, beginning with a behavior code by Ptahhotep, a vizier in ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom during the reign of the Fifth Dynasty king Djedkare Isesi (ca 2414-2375 B.C.). All known literate civilizations, including ancient Greece and Rome, developed rules for proper social conduct. Confucius included rules for eating and speaking along with his more philosophical sayings. Early modern conceptions of what behavior identifies a "gentleman" were codified in the 16th century in a book by Baldassare Castiglione, Il Cortegiano ("The Courtier"), which remained in force in its essentials until World War I. Louis XIV established an elaborate and rigid court ceremony, but distinguished himself from the high bourgeoisie by continuing to eat, stylishly and fastidiously, with his fingers. Baldassare Castiglione, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington wrote codes of conduct for young gentlemen. The immense popularity of advice columns and books by Miss Manners shows the currency of this topic. Even more recently, the rise of the Internet has necessitated the adaptation of existing rules of conduct to create Netiquette, which governs the drafting of email, rules for participating in online forums, and so on. The outward adoption of the superficial mannerisms of an in-group, in the interests of social advancement rather than a concern for others, is a form of snobbism.

Common norms of etiquette

Though etiquette depends on culture, some expectations are widely shared. Say "please" when you need something from someone else, even if this person is your subordinate. Say "thank you" to people who help you, even if this person is your subordinate. Often, writing a note of thanks gains you significant emotional capital. Say "I'm sorry" when you have injured someone inadvertently, or when you have injured someone intentionally and need to reconcile. When someone has injured you, but says "I'm sorry," try to forgive the person. You can do this by saying, "I forgive you," or "Thanks for apologising." Use insulting humour very sparingly. While common in entertainment, many people find insulting humour to be offensive and hurtful. Often, you can use your same skills at creating insults to create teasing compliments, which makes everyone feel good rather than bad. Do not abuse other people, especially those weak or disadvantaged.

External links

- Full text of [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14314 Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and At Home], by Emily Post (Mrs. Price Post) - formal cultural norms in the US circa 1922, from Project Gutenberg
- [http://www.practicaletiquette.com Practical Etiquette]
- [http://www.windowscollective.net/social_graces.html Social Graces]
- Etiquette Defined, Etiquette at Home, Entertaining Guest, Etiquette in School, Etiquette in Society, Society - Places, Society - Gifts, Etiquette in Correspondences, Etiquette in Travel Category:Core issues in ethics Category:Human appearance Category:Etiquette

Talk shows

Talk show

Tourism

.]] , France ]] :"Tourist" redirects here; for the album by Athlete, see Tourist (album) Tourism is the act of travel for the purpose of recreation, and the provision of services for this act. A tourist is someone who travels at least eighty kilometres (fifty miles) from home for the purpose of recreation, as defined by the World Tourism Organization (a United Nations body). A more comprehensive definition would be that tourism is a service industry, comprising a number of tangible and intangible components. The tangible elements include transport systems - air, rail, road, water and now, space; hospitality services - accommodation, foods and beverages, tours, souvenirs; and related services such as banking, insurance and safety and security. The intangible elements include: rest and relaxation, culture, escape, adventure, new and different experiences. Many countries depend heavily upon travel expenditures by foreigners as a source of taxation and as a source of income for the enterprises that sell (export) services to these travellers. Consequently the development of tourism is often a strategy employed either by a Non-governmental organization (NGO) or a governmental agency to promote a particular region for the purpose of increasing commerce through exporting goods and services to non-locals. Sometimes Tourism and Travel are used interchangeably. In this context travel has a similar definition to tourism, but implies a more purposeful journey. The term tourism is sometimes used pejoratively, implying a shallow interest in the societies and places that the tourist visits.

Tourism Classification

Tourism may be classified into the following types:
- Inbound international tourism: Visits to a country by nonresident of that country
- Outbound international tourism: Visits by the residents of a country to another country
- Internal tourism: Visits by residents of a country to their own
- Domestic tourism: Inbound international tourism + internal tourism
- National tourism: Internal tourists + outbound international tourism

Required factors

The following are required, to make travel possible: # Discretionary income, i.e. money to spend on non-essentials # Time in which to do so. # Infrastructure in the form of accommodation facilities and means of transport. Individually, sufficient health is also a condition, and of course the inclination to travel. Furthermore, in some countries there are legal restrictions on travelling, especially abroad. Communist states restrict foreign travel only to "trustworthy" citizens. The United States prohibits its citizens from traveling to some countries, for example, Cuba.

History

Wealthy people have always travelled to distant parts of the world to see great buildings or other works of art; to learn new languages; or to taste new cuisine. As long ago as the time of the Roman Republic places such as Baiae were popular coastal resorts for the rich. The terms tourist and tourism were first used as official terms in 1937 by the League of Nations. Tourism was defined as people travelling abroad for periods of over 24 hours.

Health tourism & leisure travel

It was not until the 19th century that cultural tourism developed into leisure and health tourism. Some English travellers, after visiting the warm lands of the south of Europe, decided to stay there either for the cold season or for the rest of their lives. Others began to visit places with supposedly health-giving mineral waters, in hopes of relieving a whole variety of diseases from gout to liver disorders and bronchitis. Leisure travel was a British invention due to sociological factors. Britain was the first European country to industrialize, and the industrial society was the first society to offer time for leisure to a growing number of people. Initially, this did not apply to the working masses, but rather to the owners of the machinery of production, the economic oligarchy, the factory owners, and the traders. These comprised the new middle class. The British origin of this new industry is reflected in many place names. At Nice, one of the first and most well established holiday resorts on the French Riviera, the long esplanade along the seafront is known to this day as the Promenade des Anglais; in many other historic resorts in continental Europe, old well-established palace hotels have names like the Hotel Bristol, the Hotel Carlton or the Hotel Majestic - reflecting the dominance of English customers.

Winter tourism

Winter sports were largely invented by the British leisured classes initially at the Swiss village of Zermatt (Valais), and St Moritz in 1864. The first packaged winter sports holidays (vacations) followed in 1903, to Adelboden, also in Switzerland. Organized sport was well established in Britain before it reached other countries. The vocabulary of sport bears witness to this: rugby, football, and boxing all originated in Britain, and even Tennis, originally a French sport, was formalized and codified by the British, who hosted the first national championship in the nineteenth century, at Wimbledon. Winter sports were a natural answer for a leisured class looking for amusement during the coldest season.

Mass travel

Wimbledon, Italy.]] Mass travel could not really begin to develop until two things occurred.

- improvements in technology allowed the transport of large numbers of people in a short space of time to places of leisure interest, and
- greater numbers of people began to enjoy the benefits of leisure time. A major development was the invention of the railways, which brought many of Britain's seaside towns within easy distance of Britain's urban centres. The father of modern mass tourism was Thomas Cook who, on 5 July 1841, organized the first package tour in history, by chartering a train to take a group of temperance campaigners from Leicester to a rally in Loughborough, some twenty miles away. Cook immediately saw the potential for business development in the sector, and became the world's first tour operator. He was soon followed by others, with the result that the tourist industry developed rapidly in early Victorian Britain. Initially it was supported by the growing middle classes, who had time off from their work, and who could afford the luxury of travel and possibly even staying for periods of time in boarding houses. However, the Bank Holiday Act 1871 introduced a statutory right for workers to take holidays, even if they were not paid at the time. The combination of short holiday periods, travel facilities and distances meant that the first holiday resorts to develop in Britain were towns on the seaside, situated as close as possible to the growing industrial conurbations. For those in the industrial north, there were Blackpool in Lancashire, and Scarborough in Yorkshire. For those in the Midlands, there were Weston-super-Mare in Somerset and Skegness in Lincolnshire, for those in London there were Southend-on-Sea, Broadstairs, Brighton, Eastbourne and many others. In travelling to the coast, the population was following in the steps of Royalty. King George III is widely acknowledged as popularising the seaside holiday, due to his regular visits to Weymouth when in poor health. For a century, domestic tourism was the norm, with foreign travel being reserved for the rich or the culturally curious. A minority of resorts, such as Bath, Harrogate and Matlock, emerged inland. After World War II holiday villages such as Butlins and Pontins emerged, but their popularity waned with the rise of package tours and the increasing comforts to which visitors became accustomed at home. Towards the end of the 20th century the market was revived by the upmarket inland resorts of Dutch company Centre Parcs. Other phenomena that helped develop the travel industry were paid holidays:
- 1.5 million manual workers in Britain had paid holidays by 1925
- 11 million by 1939 (30% of the population in families with paid holidays)

Outside Britain

Similar processes occurred in other countries, though at a slower rate, given that nineteenth century Britain was far ahead of any other nation in the world in the process of industrialisation. In the USA, the first great seaside resort, in the European style, was Atlantic City, New Jersey. In Continental Europe, early resorts included Ostend (for the people of Brussels), and Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais) and Deauville (Calvados) (for Parisians).

International mass tourism

Increasing speed on railways meant that the tourist industry could develop internationally. By 1901, the number of people crossing the English Channel from England to France or Belgium had passed 0.5 million per year. However it was with cheap air travel in combination with the package tour that international mass tourism developed after 1963. For the worker living in greater London, Brindisi today is almost as accessible as Brighton was 100 years ago.

Recent developments

There have been a few setbacks in tourism, the latest being related to the September 11, 2001 attacks and terrorist threats to tourist destinations such as Bali and European cities. Some of the tourist destinations, including the Costa del Sol, the Baleares and Cancun have lost popularity due to shifting tastes. In this context, the excessive building and environmental destruction often associated with traditional "sun and beach" tourism may contribute to a destination's saturation and subsequent decline. This appears to be the case with Spain's Costa Brava, a byword for this kind of tourism in the 1960s and 1970s. With only 11% of the Costa Brava now unblemished by low-quality development (Greenpeace Spain's figure), the destination now faces a crisis in its tourist industry. Attempts to move towards "quality tourism" are difficult given competition from cheaper, unspoilt holiday destinations on the one hand and the legacy of decades of over-exploitation on the other. Tenerife provides an example of the negative impact of mass tourism. Organizations like Greenpeace and [http://www.atan.org/en ATAN] are particularly critical of development on the island, arguing that Tenerife's current tourism industry is both economically and environmentally unsustainable. Receptive tourism is now growing at a very rapid rate in many developing countries, where it is often the most important economic activity in local GDP. In recent years, second holidays or vacations have become more popular as people's discretionary income increases. Typical combinations are a package to the typical mass tourist resort, with a winter skiing holiday or weekend break to a city or national park. On December 26 2004 a tsunami, caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake hit Asian countries bordering the Indian Ocean, and also the Maldives. Tens of thousands of lives were lost, and many tourists died. This, together with the vast clean-up operation in place, has stopped or severely hampered tourism to the area.

Special forms of tourism

For the past few decades other forms of tourism, also known as niche tourism, have been becoming more popular, particularly:
- Adventure tourism: tourism involving travel in rugged regions, or adventurous sports such as mountaineering and hiking (tramping).
- Agritourism: farm based tourism, helping to support the local agricultural economy.
- Armchair tourism and virtual tourism: not travelling physically, but exploring the world through internet, books, TV, etc.
- Bookstore Tourism is a grassroots effort to support independent bookstores by promoting them as a travel destination.
- Cultural tourism: includes urban tourism, visiting historical or interesting cities, such as London, Paris, Cracow, Rome, Prague, Beijing, Kyoto, Warsaw, and experiencing their cultural heritages. This type of tourism may also include specialized cultural experiences, such as art museum tourism where the tourist visits many art museums during the tour, or opera tourism where the tourist sees many operas or concerts during the tour.
- Dark tourism: is the travel to sites associated with death and suffering.
- Disaster tourism: travelling to a disaster scene not primarily for helping, but because it is interesting to see. It can be a problem if it hinders rescue, relief and repair work.
- Drug tourism: for use in that country, or, legally often extremely risky, for taking home.
- Ecotourism: sustainable tourism which has minimal impact on the environment, such as safaris (Kenya), Rainforests (Belize) and hiking (Lapland), or national parks.
- Educational tourism: may involve travelling to an education institution, a wooded retreat or some other destination in order to take personal-interest classes, such as cooking classes with a famous chef or crafts classes.
- Gambling tourism, e.g. to Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Macau or Monte Carlo for the purpose of gambling at the casinos there.
- Heritage tourism: visiting historical (Athens, Cracow) or industrial sites, such as old canals, railways, battlegrounds, etc.
- Health tourism: usually to escape from cities or relieve stress, perhaps for some 'fun in the sun', etc. Often to "health spas".
- Hobby tourism: tourism alone or with groups to participate in hobby interests, to meet others with similar interests, or to experience something pertinent to the hobby. Examples might be garden tours, ham radio DXpeditions, or square dance cruises.
- Inclusive tourism: tourism marketed to those with functional limits or disabilities. Referred to as "Tourism for All" in some regions. Destinations often employ Universal Design and Universal Destination Development principles.
- Medical tourism, e.g.:
- for what is illegal in one's own country, e.g. abortion, euthanasia; for instance, euthanasia for non-citizens is provided by Dignitas in Switzerland.
- for advanced care that is not available in one's own country
- in the case that there are long waiting lists in one's own country
- for use of free or cheap health care organisations
- Perpetual tourism: wealthy individuals always on vacation, some of them, for tax purposes, to avoid being resident in any country.
- Sport tourism: skiing, golf and scuba diving are popular ways to spend a vacation. Also in this category is vacationing at the winter home of the tourist's favorite baseball team, and seeing them play everyday.
- Space tourism
- Vacilando is a special kind of wanderer for whom the process of travelling is more important than the destination.

Trends

The World Tourism Organization forecasts that international tourism will continue growing at the average annual rate of 4 percent [http://www.world-tourism.org/market_research/facts/market_trends.htm]. By 2020 Europe will remain the most popular destination, but its share will drop from 60 percent in 1995 to 46 percent. Long-haul will grow slightly faster than intraregional travel and by 2020 its share will increase from 18 percent in 1995 to 24 percent. Since e-commerce has taken of on the internet, tourism products have become one of the most traded item on the net. Tourism products and services have been made available on the net at bargain prices through intermediaries like expedia.com or travelocity.com. In recent time, tourism providers (hotels, airlines, etc.)have started to sell their services through the internet. This has put pressure on intermediaries from both the virtual and the traditional brick and mortar stores. Space tourism is expected to "take off" in the first quarter of the 21st century, although compared with traditional destinations the number of tourists in orbit will remain low until technlogies such as space elevator make space travel cheap. Technological improvement is likely to make possible air-ship hotels, based either on solar-powered airplanes or large dirigibles. Underwater hotels, such as Hydropolis, expected to open in Dubai in 2006, will be built. On the ocean tourists will be welcomed by ever larger cruise ships and perhaps floating cities. Some futurists expect that movable hotel "pods" will be created that could be temporarily erected anywhere on the planet, where building a permanent resort would be unacceptable politically, economically or environmentally.

External links

- [http://www.holidaysforum.com/ Holidays Forum] (Tourism discussion).
- [http://www.altaionline.ru./ Tourism in Siberia] (Tourism in Siberia). Category:Service industries Category:Recreation Category:Entertainment ko:관광 ms:Pelancongan ja:旅行 simple:Tourism th:การท่องเที่ยว

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three "ages": the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. The Middle Ages of Western Europe are commonly dated from the end of the Western Roman Empire (5th century) until the rise of national monarchies, the start of European overseas exploration, the humanist revival, and the Protestant Reformation starting in 1517. These various changes all mark the beginning of the Early Modern period that preceded the Industrial Revolution. The Middle Ages are commonly referred to as the medieval period or medieval times or simply medieval.

The Early Middle Ages

medieval flourished in the early Middle Ages: Hildesheim.]] As the authority of the Roman Empire dwindled in Western Europe, its territories were entered and settled by succeeding waves of "barbarian" tribal confederations, some of whom distrusted and rejected the classical culture of Rome, while others, like the Goths admired it and considered themselves the legatees and heirs of Rome. Prominent among these peoples in the movement were the Huns and Avars and Magyars with the large number of Germanic and later Slavic peoples. The era of the migrations is referred to as the Migration Period. It has historically been termed the "Dark Ages" by Western European historians, and as Völkerwanderung ("wandering of the peoples") by German historians. The term "Dark Ages" has now fallen from favour, partly to avoid the entrenched stereotypes associated with the phrase, but also partly because more recent research into the period has in fact revealed its surprising artistic sophistication, though its political and social senses were unevolved and its technologies undeveloped, compared to the preceding culture. Although the settled population of the Roman period were not everywhere decimated, the new peoples greatly altered established society, and with it, law, culture and religion, and patterns of property ownership. The Pax Romana, with its accompanying benefits of safe conditions for trade and manufacture, and a unified cultural and educational milieu of far-ranging connections, had already been in decline for some time as the 5th century drew to a close. Now it was largely lost, to be replaced by the rule of local potentates, and the gradual break-down of economic and social linkages and infrastructure. This break-down was often fast and dramatic as it became unsafe to travel or carry goods over any distance and there was a consequent collapse in trade and manufacture for export. Major industries that depended on trade, such as large-scale pottery manufacture, vanished almost overnight in places like Britain. The Islamic invasions of the 7th and 8th centuries, which conquered the Levant, North Africa, Spain, Portugal and some of the Mediterranean islands (including Sicily), increased localization by halting much of what remained of seaborne commerce. So where sites like Tintagel in Cornwall had managed to obtain supplies of Mediterranean luxury goods well into the 6th century, this connection too was lost. Administrative, educational and military infrastructure quickly vanished, leading to the rise of illiteracy among leadership.

A new order

Until recently it has been common to speak of "barbarian invasions" sweeping in from beyond Imperial borders and bringing about the end of the Roman Empire. Modern historians now acknowledge that this presents an incomplete portrait of a complex time of migration. In some important cases, such as that of the Franks entering Gaul, settlement of the newcomers took place over many decades, as groups seeking new economic opportunities crossed into Roman territory, retaining their own tribal leadership, and acculturating to or displacing the Gallo-Roman society, often without widespread violence. Other outsiders, like Theodoric of the Ostrogoths, were civilized, though illiterate patrons, who saw themselves successors to the Roman tradition, employing cultured Roman ministers, like Cassiodorus. Like the Goths, many of the outsiders were foederati, military allies of the Empire, who had earned rights of settlement, including among others the Franks and the Burgundians. Between the 5th and 8th centuries a completely new political and social infrastructure developed across the lands of the former empire, based upon powerful regional noble families, and the newly established kingdoms of the Ostrogoths in Italy, Visigoths in Spain and Portugal, Franks and Burgundians in Gaul and western Germany, and Saxons in England. These lands remained Christian, and their Arian conquerors were soon converted, following the example of the pagan Frank Clovis I. The interaction between the culture of the newcomers, the remnants of classical culture, and Christian influences, produced a new model for society. The centralized administrative systems of the Romans did not withstand the changes, and the institutional support for large scale chattel slavery largely disappeared. However beyond these areas of Europe were many people with little or no contact with Christianity or with classic Roman culture. Warrior people such as the Avars and the Vikings were still capable of causing major disruption to the newly emerging societies of Western Europe. The Christian Church, the only centralized institution to survive the fall of the western Roman Empire intact, was the sole unifying cultural influence, preserving its selection from Latin learning, maintaining the art of writing, and a centralized administration through its network of bishops. The Early Middle Ages are characterized by the urban control of bishops and the territorial control exercised by dukes and counts. The rise of urban communes marked the beginning of the High Middle Ages. bishop Outside the de-urbanized remains of cities, the power of central government was greatly reduced. Consequently government authority, and responsibility for military organization, taxation and law and order, was delegated to provincial and local lords, who supported themselves directly from the proceeds of the territories over which they held military, political and judicial power. In this lay the beginnings of the feudal system. The High Middle Ages would see the regrowth of centralized power, and the growth of new "national" identities, as strong rulers sought to eliminate competition (and potential threat to their rule) from powerful feudal nobles. Well known examples of such consolidation include the Albigensian Crusade and the Wars of the Roses. This hierarchy of reciprocal obligations, known as feudalism or the feudal system, binding each man to serve his superior in return for the latter's protection, made for a confusion of territorial sovereignty (since allegiances were subject to change over time, and were sometimes mutually contradictory). The benefit of feudalism however, was its resiliency, and the ability of local arrangements to provide stable government in the absence of a strong royal power in a political order distinguished by its lack of uniformity. Territoriality was reduced to a network of personal allegiances. In the east, the Eastern Roman Empire (called by historians the "Byzantine Empire"), maintained a form of Christianised Roman rule in the lands of Asia Minor, Greece and the Slavic territories bordering Greece, and in Sicily and southern Italy. The eastern emperors had maintained a nominal claim to rule over the west, reconquered by Belisarius, but this was a political fiction under Lombard rule and became strongly disputed from 800, with the creation of the so-called Holy Roman Empire, under Charlemagne, briefly uniting much of modern day France, western Germany and northern Italy. From now on, Europe was to be bi-polar, with east and west competing for power and influence in the largely un-christianized expanses of northern Europe. The spread of Christianity in the Migrations Period, both from the Mediterranean area and from Ireland, occasioned a pre-eminent cultural and ideological role for its abbots, and the collapse of a res publica meant that the bishops became identified with the remains of urban government. Christianity provided the basis for a first European "identity," Christendom, unified until the separation of Orthodox Churches from the Catholic Church in the Great Schism of 1054, one of the dates that marks the onset of the High Middle Ages.

A Carolingian renaissance

See also the careers of Charlemagne and Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor.
The High Middle Ages
:Main article: High Middle Ages From beginnings roughly about the year 1000, greater stability came to the lands of western Europe. With the brief exception of the Mongol incursions, major barbarian invasions had ceased. The advance of Christian kingdoms and military orders into previously pagan regions in the Baltic and Finnic northeast brought the forced assimilation of numerous native peoples to the European entity. The "High Middle Ages" describes the expansionist culture and intellectual revival from the late 11th century to the beginning of the 14th. In central and northern Italy and in Flanders the rise of towns that were self-governing to some degree within their territories marked a beginning for re-urbanization in Western Europe. In Spain and Portugal, a slow reconquest of the urban and literate Muslim-ruled territories began. One consequence of this was that the Latin-literate world gained access to libraries that included classical literature and philosophy. Through translations these libraries gave rise to a vogue for the philosophy of Aristotle. Meanwhile, trade grew throughout Europe as the dangers of travel were reduced, and steady economic growth resumed. This period saw the formation of the Hanseatic league and other trading and banking institutions that operated across western Europe. The first universities were established in major European cities from 1080 onwards, bringing in a new interest and inquisitiveness about the world. Literacy began to grow, and there were major advances in art, sculpture, music and architecture. Large cathedrals were built across Europe, first in the romanesque, and later in the more decorative gothic style.
The Crusades
:Main article: Crusade Following the Great Schism, prime examples of the force of the divided cultural identities of Christendom can be found in the unfolding developments of the Crusades, during which Popes, kings, and emperors drew on the concept of Christian unity to inspire the population of Western Europe to unite and defend Christendom from the aggression of Islam, often at the expense of the Byzantine Empire. From the 7th century onward, Islam had been gaining ground along Europe's southern and eastern borders. Muslim armies conquered Egypt, the rest of North Africa, Jerusalem, Spain, Sicily, and most of Anatolia (in modern Turkey), although they were finally turned back in western Europe by Christian armies at the Battle of Tours in southern France. Political unanimity in Europe was less secure than it appeared, however, and the military support for most crusades was drawn from limited regions of Europe. Substantial areas of northern Europe also remained outside Christendom until the twelfth century or later; these areas also became crusading venues during the expansionist High Middle Ages.
Technology
:Main article: Medieval technology During the 12th and 13th century in Europe there was a radical change in the rate of new inventions, innovations in the ways of managing traditional means of production, and economic growth. The period saw major technological advances, including the invention of cannons, spectacles and artesian wells; and the cross-cultural introduction of gunpowder, silk, compass and astrolabe from the east. There was also great improvements with ships and upon the clock. The latter advances made possible the dawn of the Age of Exploration.
The Late Middle Ages (circa 1300-1500)
:Main article: Late Middle Ages The 14th century witnessed a decline that began with the first economic retrenchment after the long, gently inflationary rise of a unified economy that had been under way since the 11th century. The European climate itself was worsening, after the long Medieval Warm Period, leading to the onset of the Little Ice Age. In the Black Death, large areas of Western Europe lost up to a third of their population, especially in the crowded conditions of the towns, where the heart of innovations lay. The Black Death sealed a sudden end to the previous period of massive change, which resumed centuries later in the Early Modern Period. Politically, the later Middle Ages were typified by the decline of feudal power replaced by the development of strong, royalty-based nation-states. Wars between kingdoms, such as the Hundred Years' War between England and France, weakened the Christian nations in their confrontations with Islam. Religously Christendom was increasingly divided during the Western Schism, which resulted in greater loyalty to national churches, though lay piety rarely wavered. The Great Famine of 1315-1317, the Black Death of 1348, popular uprisings all produced stresses while encouraging creative social, economic, and technological responses that signalled the end of the old medieval order and laying the groundwork for further great changes in the Early Modern Period. In the east, the Byzantine Empire followed a separate destiny, with its strongest period coinciding with the Western collapse during the Early Medieval period. After the Battle of Manzikert (1071), the former empire was reduced to a shell; it survived until 1453, but in a diminished and weakened form.
Historiography

Middle Ages in history
:Main article: Middle Ages in history After the Middle Ages ended subsequent generations imagined, portrayed and interpreted the Middle Ages in different ways. Every century has created its own vision of the Middle Ages, the 18th century view of the Middle Ages was entirely different from the 19th century which was different from the 16th century view. The reality of these images remains with us today in the form of film, architecture, literature, art and popular conception.
Medieval and Middle Ages

"Middle Age"
The term "Middle Age" ("medium ævum") was first coined by Flavio Biondo, an Italian humanist, in the early 15th Century. Until the Renaissance (and some time after) the standard scheme of history was to divide history into six ages, inspired by the biblical six days of creation, or four monarchies based on Daniel 2:40. The early Renaissance historians instead talked about two periods in history, that of Ancient times and that of the period referred to as the "Dark Age". In the early 15th Century it was believed history had evolved from the Dark Age to a Modern period and scholars began to write about a middle period between the Ancient and Modern, which became known as the Middle Age. This is known as the three period view of history. The plural form of the term, Middle "Ages", is used in English, Dutch, Russian and Icelandic while all other European languages uses the singular form. This difference originates in different Neo-Latin terms used for the Middle Ages before media aetas became the standard term. Some were singular (media aetas, media antiquitas, medium saeculum and media tempestas), others plural (media saecula and media tempora). There seem to be no simple reason why a particular language ended up with the singular or the plural form. Further information can be found in Fred C. Robinson: "Medieval, the Middle Ages" in Speculum, Vol. 59:4 (Oct. 1984), p. 745-56. The common subdivision Early, High and Late Middle Ages came into use after World War I. It was caused by the works of Henri Pirenne (in particular the article "Les periodes de l'historie du capitalism" in Academie Royale de Belgique. Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres, 1914) and Johan Huizinga (The Autumn of the Middle Ages, 1919). A medieval era can also be applied to other parts of the world that historians have seen as embodying the same feudal characteristics as Europe in this period. The pre-westernization period in the history of Japan is sometimes referred to as medieval. The pre-colonial period in the developed parts of sub-Saharan Africa is also sometimes termed medieval. Today historians are far more reluctant to try to fit the history of other regions to the European model and these terms are less often used.
"Medieval"
The term "medieval" was first contracted from the Latin medium ævum, or more precisely "middle epoch", by Enlightenment thinkers as a pejorative descriptor of the Middle Ages. The spelling of "medieval" may depend on context. Medieval is the modern English spelling, used in normal discourse in England and elsewhere. Mediaeval is a legacy of the Latin spelling Mediæval, which uses the diphthong ae rendered as a ligature; it is an antiquated spelling found in older works, or those that emphesis the words Latin origins. Medieval was originally a pejorative description, and as such it has taken on broader meanings that usually impart some kind of value judgement, such as things that are old, "byzantine", "gothic", crude, heavy, harsh, or dark in nature.
Periodization issues
:See also: Periodization It is extremely difficult to decide when the Middle Ages ended, and in fact scholars assign different dates in different parts of Europe. Most scholars who work in 15th century Italian history, for instance, consider themselves Renaissance or Early Modern historians, while anyone working on England in the early 15th century is considered a medievalist. Others choose specific events, such as the Turkish capture of Constantinople or the end of the Anglo-French Hundred Years' War (both 1453), the invention of printing by Johann Gutenberg (around 1455) or the fall of Muslim Spain or Columbus's voyage to America (both 1492), or the Protestant Reformation starting 1517 to mark the period's end. In England the change of monarchs which occurred on 22 August 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth is often considered to mark the end of the period, Richard III representing the old medieval world and the Tudors, a new royal house and a new historical period. Similar differences are now emerging in connection with the start of the period. Traditionally, the Middle Ages is said to begin when the West Roman Empire formally ceased to exist in 476. However, that date is not important in itself, since the West Roman Empire had been very weak for some time, while Roman culture was to survive at least in Italy for yet a few decades or more. Today, some date the beginning of the Middle Ages to the division and Christianization of the Roman Empire (4th century) while others, like Henri Pirenne see the period to the rise of Islam (7th century) as "late Classical". The Middle Ages are often subdivided into an early period (sometimes called the "Dark Ages", at least from the fifth to eighth centuries) of shifting polities, a relatively low level of economic activity and successful incursions by non-Christian peoples (Slavs, Arabs, Scandinavians, Magyars); a middle period (the High Middle Ages) of developed institutions of lordship and vassalage, castle-building and mounted warfare, and reviving urban and commercial life; and a later period of growing royal power, the rise of commercial interests and weakening customary ties of dependence, especially after the 14th-century plague.
Religion in the Middle Ages

- Holy Roman Empire
- The Crusades
- Pilgrimage
- Papacy
- Medieval Inquisition
- Heresy (for example, Arian; Cathar; John Wyclif)
- Alchemy
- Monastic orders
- Benedictines
- Carthusians
- Cistercians
- Mendicant friars
- Franciscans
- Dominicans
- Carmelites
- Augustinians
- Judaism
- Islam (Western Europe): Moors
- Islam (Eastern Europe): Sultanate of Rum & Ottoman Empire
See also

- Medieval art
- Medieval architecture
- Medieval climate optimum
- Medieval communes
- Medieval Chronological Timeline
- Medieval demography
- Middle Ages in film
- Medieval guilds
- Medieval hunting
- Medieval medicine
- Medieval music
- Medieval tournament
- Slave trade in the Middle Ages
- History of the Jews in the Middle Ages
Selected bibliography

- Monumenta Germaniae Historica
- Migne's Patrologiae
- Liber Pontificalis
- C. Warren Hollister and Judith M. Bennett, Medieval Europe, A Short History. McGraw-Hill, 2002.
- David Abulafia et al., The New Cambridge Medieval History. Cambridge, 1995.
External links

- [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ Internet Medieval Sourcebook Project] Primary source archive of the Middle Ages. See also Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
- [http://www.the-orb.net/ The Online Reference Book of Medieval Studies] Academic peer reviewed articles. See also Online Reference Book of Medieval Studies.
- [http://the-orb.net/ The Labyrinth] Resources for Medieval Studies.
- [http://www.netserf.org/ NetSERF] The Internet Connection for Medieval Resources.
- [http://www.medievalmap.net Interactive Medieval Map] (Flash Plug-in Required.)
- [http://www.sca.org.au/cunnan/ Cunnan: A Wiki collecting information for re-enactors of the Middle Ages and Renaissance] with a heavy slant towards members of the SCA
- [http://www.shadowedrealm.com/ Shadowed Realm - Medieval Content and Discussion] Contains hundreds of glossary terms, a timeline, quotations, quizzes, a wiki, forums, and more.
- [http://www.medieval-castles.org Contains Medieval Castles and their history.] ja:中世 simple:Middle Ages

Renaissance

The Renaissance, also known as "Il Rinascimento" (in Italian), was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. It marks the transitional period between the end of the Middle Ages and the start of the Modern Age. The Renaissance is usually considered to have originated in the 14th century in northern Italy and begun in the late 15th century in northern Europe.

Historiography

The term Rebirth (Rinascenza), to indicate the flourishing of artistic and scientific activities starting in Italy in the mid-1300's, was first used by the Italian historian Giorgio Vasari in the Vite, published in 1550. The term Renaissance is the French translation, used by French historian Jules Michelet, and expanded upon by Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt (both in the 1860s). Rebirth is used in two ways. First, it means rediscovery of ancient classical texts and learning and their applications in the arts and sciences. Second, it means that the results of these intellectual activities created a revitalization of European culture in general. Thus it is possible to speak of the Renaissance in two different but meaningful ways: A rebirth of classical learning and knowledge through the rediscovery of ancient texts, and also a rebirth of European culture in general. classical learning and knowledge, an example of the blend of art and science during the Renaissance.]]

Multiple Renaissances

During the last quarter of the 20th century many scholars took the view that the Renaissance was perhaps only one of many such movements. This is in large part due to the work of historians like Charles H. Haskins (1870–1937), who made a convincing case for a "Renaissance of the 12th century", as well as by historians arguing for a "Carolingian Renaissance." Both of these concepts are now widely accepted by the scholarly community at large; as a result, the present trend among historians is to discuss each so-called renaissance in more particular terms, e.g., the Italian Renaissance, the English Renaissance, etc. This terminology is particularly useful because it eliminates the need for fitting "The Renaissance" into a chronology that previously held that it was preceded by the Middle Ages and followed by the Reformation, which many believe to be inaccurate. The entire period is now often replaced by the term "Early Modern". (See periodisation, Lumpers and splitters) Other periods of cultural rebirth have also been termed a "renaissance"; such as the Harlem Renaissance or the San Francisco Renaissance. The other renaissances are not considered further in this article, which will concentrate on the Renaissance as the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age...

Critical views

Since the term was first created in the 19th century, historians have various interpretations on the Renaissance. The traditional view is that the Renaissance of the 15th century in Italy, spreading through the rest of Europe, represented a reconnection of the west with classical antiquity, the absorption of knowledge—particularly mathematics—from Arabic, the return of experimentalism, the focus on the importance of living well in the present (e.g. humanism), an explosion of the dissemination of knowledge brought on by printing and the creation of new techniques in art, poetry and architecture which led to a radical change in the style and substance of the arts and letters. This period, in this view, represents Europe emerging from a long period as a backwater, and the rise of commerce and exploration. The Italian Renaissance is often labelled as the beginning of the "modern" epoch. Marxist historians view the Renaissance as a pseudo-revolution with the changes in art, literature, and philosophy affecting only a tiny minority of the very wealthy and powerful while life for the great mass of the European population was unchanged from the Middle Ages. They thus deny that it is an event of much importance. Today most historians view the Renaissance as largely an intellectual and ideological change, rather than a substantive one. Moreover, many historians now point out that most of the negative social factors popularly associated with the "medieval" period - poverty, ignorance, warfare, religious and political persecution, and so forth - seem to have actually worsened during this age of Machiavelli, the Wars of Religion, the corrupt Borgia Popes, and the intensified witch-hunts of the 16th century. Many of the common people who lived during the "Renaissance" are known to have been concerned by the developments of the era rather than viewing it as the "golden age" imagined by certain 19th century authors. Perhaps the most important factor of the Renaissance is that those involved in the cultural movements in question - the artists, writers, and their patrons - believed they were living in a new era that was a clean break from the Middle Ages, even if much of the rest of the population seems to have viewed the period as an intensification of social maladies. Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) acknowledged the existence of the Renaissance but questioned whether it was a positive change. He argued that the Renaissance was a period of decline from the high Middle Ages, which destroyed much that was important. The Latin language, for instance, had evolved greatly from the classical period and was still used in the church and by others as a living language. However, the Renaissance obsession with classical purity saw Latin revert to its classical form and its natural evolution halted. Robert S. Lopez has contended that it was a period of deep economic recession. Meanwhile George Sarton and Lynn Thorndike have both criticised how the Renaissance affected science, arguing that progress was slowed.

Start of the Renaissance

science, Italy. Florence was the capital of the Renaissance]] The Renaissance has no set starting point or place. It happened gradually at different places at different times and there are no defined dates or places for when the Middle Ages ended. The starting place of the Renaissance is almost universally ascribed to Central Italy, especially the city of Florence. One early Renaissance figure is the poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), the first writer to embody the spirit of the Renaissance. Petrarch (1304–1374) is another early Renaissance figure. As part of the humanist movement he concluded that the height of human accomplishment had been reached in the Roman Empire and the ages since have been a period of social rot which he labeled the Dark Ages. Petrarch saw history as social, art and literary advancement, and not as a series of set religious events. Re-birth meant the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek Latin heritage through ancient manuscripts and the humanist method of learning. These new ideas from the past (called the "new learning" at the time) triggered the coming advancements in art, science and other areas. Another possible starting point is the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453. It was a turning point in warfare as cannon and gunpowder became a central element. In addition, Byzantine-Greek scholars fled west to Rome bringing renewed energy and interest in the Greek and Roman heritage, and it perhaps represented the end of the old religious order in Europe.

Italian Renaissance

gunpowder past with the features of his Renaissance contemporaries. School of Athens (above) is perhaps the most extended study in this.]] The Italian Renaissance was intertwined with the intellectual movement known as Renaissance humanism and with the fiercely independent and combative urban societies of the city-states of central and northern Italy in the 13th to 16th centuries. Italy was the birthplace of the Renaissance for several reasons. The first two or three decades of the 15th century saw the emergence of a rare cultural efflorescence, particularly in Florence. This 'Florentine enlightenment' (Holmes) was a major achievement. It was a classical, classicising culture which sought to live up to the republican ideals of Athens and Rome. Sculptors used Roman models and classical themes. This society had a new relationship with its classical past. It felt it owned it and revived it. Florentines felt akin to 1st century BC republican Rome. Rucellai wrote that he belonged to a great age; Leonardo Bruni's Panegyric to the City of Florence expresses similar sentiments. There was a genuine appreciation of the plastic arts—pagan idols and statuary—with nudity, expressions of human dignity, etc. Leonardo Bruni circa 1494.]] A similar parallel movement was also occurring in the arts in the early 15th century in Florence—an avant-garde, classicising movement. Many of the same people were involved; there was a close community of people involved in both movements. Valla said that, as they revived Latin, so was Latin architecture revived, for example Rucellai's Palazzo built by Leone Battista Alberti. Of Brunelleschi, he felt that he was the greatest architect since Roman times. Sculpture was also revived, in many cases before the other arts. There was a very obvious naturalism about contemporary sculpture, and highly true to life figures were being sculpted. Often biblically-themed sculpture and paintings included recognizable Florentines. This intense classicism was applied to literature and the arts. In most city-republics there was a small clique with a camaraderie and rivalry produced by a very small elite. Alberti felt that he had played a major part, as had Brunelleschi, Masaccio, etc. Even he admitted he had no explanation of why it happened. There are several possible explanations for its occurrence in Florence: 1. The Medici did it—the portrait and solo sculpture emerged, especially under Lorenzo. This is the conventional response: Renaissance Florence = The Medici = The genius of artisans = The Renaissance Unfortunately, this fails to fit chronologically. 1410 and 1420 can be said to be the start of the Renaissance, but the Medici came to power later. They were certainly great patrons but much later. If anything, the Medici jumped on an already existing bandwagon. 2. The great man argument. Donatello, Brunelleschi and Michelangelo were just geniuses. This is a circular argument with little explanatory power. Surely it would be better, more human and accessible to understand the circumstances which helped these geniuses to come to fruition. 3. A similar argument is the rise of individualism theory attributable to Burckhardt. This argues for a change from collective neutrality towards the lonely genius. Goldthwaite says it was part of the emergence of the family and the submersion of the clan system. However, the Kents (F.W. and Dale) have argued that this was and remained a society of neighborhood, kin and family. Florentines were very constrained and tied into the system; it was still a very traditional society. Dale, Kraków]] 4. Frederick Antal has argued that the triumph of Masaccio et al. was the triumph of the middle class over the older, more old-fashioned feudal classes, so that the middle class wanted painters to do more bourgeois paintings. This does not make sense. Palla Strozzi commissioned old fashioned paintings whereas Cosimo de' Medici went for new styles in art. 5. Hans Baron's argument is based on the new Florentine view of human nature, a greater value placed on human life and on the power of man, thus leading to civic humanism, which he says was born very quickly in the early 15th century. In 1401 and 1402, he says Visconti was narrowly defeated by republican Florence, which reasserted the importance of republican values. Florence experienced a dramatic crisis of independence which led to civic values and humanism. Against this we can say that Baron is comparing unlike things. In a technical sense, Baron has to prove that all civic humanist work came after 1402, whereas many such works date from the 1380s. This was an ideological battle between a princely state and a republican city-state, even though they varied little in their general philosophy. Any such monocausal argument is very likely to be wrong. Kent says there is plenty of evidence of preconditions for the Renaissance in Florence. In 1300, Florence had a civic culture, with people like Latini who had a sense of classical values, though different from the values of the 15th century. Villani also had a sense of the city as daughter and creature of Rome. Petrarch in the mid-14th century hated civic life but bridged the gap between the 14th and 15th centuries as he began to collect antiquities. The 1380s saw several classicising groups, including monks and citizens. There was a gradual build-up rather than a big bang. Apart from the elites there was already an audience for the Renaissance. Florence was a very literate audience, already self-conscious and aware of its city and place in the political landscape. The crucial people in the 14th and 15th century were
- Manuel Chrysoloras: increased interest in the grammar of ancient architecture (1395)
- Niccoli: a major influence on the perception of the classics. Their teachings reached the upper classes between 1410 and 1420 and this is when the new consciousness emerged. Brucker noticed this new consciousness in council debates around 1410; there are increased classical references. Florence experienced not just one but many crises; Milan, Lucca, the Ciompi. The sense of crisis was over by 1415 and there was a new confidence, a triumphant experience of being a republic. Between 1413-1423 there was an economic boom. The upper class had the financial means to support scholarship. Gombrich says there was a sense of ratifying yourself to the ancient world, leading to a snobbishness and an elite view of education, and a tendency for the rich wanting to proclaim their ascendancy over the poor and over other cities. The early Renaissance was an act of collaboration. Artisans and artists were enmeshed in the networks of their city. Committees were usually responsible for buildings. There were collaborations between patricians and artisans without which the Renaissance could not have occurred. Thus it makes sense to adopt a civic theory of the Renaissance rather than a great man theory.

Northern Renaissance

:Main article: Northern Renaissance Northern Renaissance, painted 1434]] Northern Renaissance] The Renaissance spread north out of Italy being adapted and modified as it moved. It first arrived in France, imported by King Charles VIII after his invasion of Italy. Francis I imported Italian art and artists, including Leonardo Da Vinci and at great expense he built ornate palaces. Writers such as Rabelais also borrowed from the spirit of the Italian Renaissance. Italians brought the new style to Poland and Hungary in the late 15th century. The first Italian humanist, who came to Poland in the middle 15th century was Filip Callimachus. Many Italian artists came with Bona Sforza of Milano to Poland, when she maried Zygmunt I of Poland in 1518. The Polish Renaissance is the most Itatian like branch of the Renaissance outside of Italy. From France the spirit of the age spread to the Low Countries and Germany, and finally to England, Scandinavia, and Central Europe by the late 16th century. In these areas the Renaissance became closely linked to the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation and the art and writing of the German Renaissance frequently reflected this dispute. While Renaissance ideas were moving north from Italy, there was a simultaneous spread southward of innovation, particularly in music. The music of the 15th century Burgundian School defined the beginning of the Renaissance in that art; and the polyphony of the Netherlanders, as it moved with the musicians themselves into Italy, formed the core of what was the first true international style in music since the standardization of Gregorian Chant in the 9th century. The culmination of the Netherlandish school was in the music of the Italian composer, Palestrina. At the end of the 16th century Italy again became a center of musical innovation, with the development of the polychoral style of the Venetian School, which spread northward into Germany around 1600. In England, the Elizabethan era marked the beginning of the English Renaissance. It saw writers such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, John Milton, and Edmund Spenser, as well as great artists, architects (such as Inigo Jones) and composers such as Thomas Tallis, John Taverner, and William Byrd. In these northern nations the Renaissance would be built upon and supplanted by the thinkers of The Enlightenment in the seventeenth century. The paintings of the Italian Renaissance differed from those of the northern Renaissance in some ways. The Italian Renaissance did not only focus on religious figures but they also produced portraits of well-known figures of the day, and they also put religious figures in Greek or Roman backgrounds. During the Italian Renaissance, artists learned the rules of perspective which shows how far the object is by its size which and made the paintings look three dimensional. The artists also used shading to make objects look round and real. The Italian Renaissance artists studied human anatomy and drew from the models so it would be possible for them to sketch the human body more accurately than before. At first, northern Renaissance artist still focused on religious drawings, like Albrecht Durer who portray the religious upheaval of his age. Later on, Pieter Bruegel’s works influenced later artists to paint scenes of daily life rather than religious or classical themes. During the northern Renaissance van Eycks also invented oil paint. With oil paint, artists could produce strong colors and a hard surface that could survive for centuries; these painters were called Flemish painters.

References

- Burckhardt, Jacob (1878), The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, trans S.G.C Middlemore (republished in 1990 under ISBN 014044534X)
- Ergang, Robert (1967), The Renaissance(ISBN 0442023197)
- Ferguson, Wallace K. (1962), Europe in Transition, 1300-1500 (ISBN 0049400088)
- Haskins, Charles Homer (1972), The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (ISBN 0674760751)
- Huizinga, Johan (1924), The Waning of the Middle Ages (republished in 1990 under ISBN 0140137025)
- Jensen, De Lamar (1992), Renaissance Europe (ISBN 0395889472)
- Lopez, Robert S. (1952), Hard Times and Investment in Culture
- Thorndike, Lynn (1943) Renaissance or Prenaissance?

External links

- [http://www.compart-multimedia.com/virtuale/us/florence/florence.htm Florence: Virtual travel in the city of Renaissance] (English/Italian)
- [http://http://www.yoyita.com/renaissance.htm Renaissance style contemporary Art] (English/ Italian/ Spanish/ French/ Chinese/ German) Category:Renaissance ko:르네상스 ja:ルネサンス th:ยุคฟื้นฟูศิลปวัฒนธรรม

Ivan Illich

Ivan Illich (Vienna, September 4,1926 - Bremen, December 2,2002), polymath, polemicist. Author of an informal series of polemical critiques of the institutions of 'modern' culture, he addressed issues from education to medicine to work to energy use and economic development to gender.

Personal life

Born in Vienna to a family with Jewish, Dalmatian and Catholic roots, whence they were forced to flee in 1941, he studied histology and crystallography at Florence University. From 1932 to 1946 he studied theology and philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in the Vatican, and worked as a priest in New York City. In 1956 he was appointed vice-rector of the Catholic University of Puerto Rico, and in 1961 founded the Centro Intercultural de Documentación (CIDOC) at Cuernavaca in Mexico, a research centre offering courses to missionaries from North America. After 10 years, the radicalism of CIDOC began to bring the institution into conflict with the Vatican, and in 1976 the center was shut down with the consent of its members. Several of them subsequently formed language schools in Cuernavaca, some of which still exist. Illich himself resigned as a priest in the late 1960s. From the 1980s, Ivan Illich traveled extensively, mainly splitting his time between the United States, Mexico, and Germany. He held an appointment as Visiting Professor of Philosophy and of Science, Technology, and Society at Penn State, and also taught at the University of Bremen. During his later years, he suffered from a cancerous growth on his face that, in accordance with his critique of professionalized medicine, he attempted, unsuccessfully, to treat with traditional methods. He regularly smoked opium to deal with the pain caused by this tumor. At an early stage, he consulted a doctor about having the tumor removed, but there was too great a chance of losing his ability to speak, he was told, so he lived with the tumor as best he could. "My mortality," he called it.

Deschooling Society

His most celebrated work remains Deschooling Society (1971), a critical discourse on education as practised in 'modern' economies. Full of detail on then current programmes and concerns, the book can seem dated, but its core assertions and propositions remain as radical today as they were at the time. Giving real world examples of the ineffectual nature of institutionalised education, Illich posited self directed education, supported by intentional social relations, in fluid, informal arrangements: :Universal education through schooling is not feasible. It would be no more feasible if it were attempted by means of alternative institutions built on the style of present schools. Neither new attitudes of teachers toward their pupils nor the proliferation of educational hardware or software (in classroom or bedroom), nor finally the attempt to expand the pedagogue's responsibility until it engulfs his pupils' lifetimes will deliver universal education. The current search for new educational funnels must be reversed into the search for their institutional inverse: educational webs which heighten the opportunity for each one to transform each moment of his living into one of learning, sharing, and caring. We hope to contribute concepts needed by those who conduct such counterfoil research on education--and also to those who seek alternatives to other established service industries.[http://www.ecotopia.com/webpress/deschooling.htm] The last sentence makes clear what the title suggests - that the institutionalisation of education is considered to tend towards the institutionalisation of society, and conversely that ideas for de-institutionalising education may be a starting point for a de-institutionalised society. And this is where the true radicalism of the ideas becomes clear. As a holistic thinker, with a formidable intellect and a truly catholic breadth of erudition, Illich always considers his insights in the widest possible terms. The book is more than a critique - it contains positive suggestions for a reinvention of learning throughout society and throughout every individual lifetime. Of particular relevance here is his call (from a 1971 perspective) for the use of advanced technology to support "learning webs". Many characteristics of these as described relate strongly to the nature and use of the WWW in general, and strongly to the workings and ideals of this Wikipedia.

Quotes

“Learned and leisurely hospitality is the only antidote to the stance of deadly cleverness that is acquired in the professional pursuit of objectively secured knowledge. I remain certain that the quest for truth cannot thrive outside the nourishment of mutual trust flowering into a commitment to friendship.” Ivan Illich "People need new tools to work with rather than new tools that "work" for them." Ivan Illich “Homo economicus was surreptitiously taken as the emblem and analogue for all living beings.” Ivan Illich “I do think that if I had to choose one word to which hope can be tied it is hospitality. A practice of hospitality recovering threshold, table, patience, listening, and from there generating seedbeds for virtue and friendship on the one hand. On the other hand radiating out for possible community, for rebirth of community..” Ivan Illich

Bibliography

- Deschooling Society (1971) ISBN 0060121394 ISBN 0060121394 ISBN 0060803818
- Tools for Conviviality (1973) ISBN 0060803088 ISBN 0060121386
- Energy and Equity (1974) ISBN 0061361535 ISBN 0060803274
- Medical Nemesis (1976) ISBN 0394712455 ISBN 0714510955 ISBN 0714510963
- Toward a History of Needs (1978) ISBN 0394410408 ISBN 0394735013
- Shadow Work (1981) ISBN 0714527114 ISBN 0714527106
- Gender (1982) ISBN 0394527321
- H₂O and the Waters of Forgetfulness (1985) ISBN 0911005064
- ABC: The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind (1988) ISBN 0865472912
- In the Mirror of the Past (1992) ISBN 0714529370
- In the Vineyard of the Text: A Commentary to Hugh's Didascalicon (1993) ISBN 0226372359
- Ivan Illich in Conversation interviews with Cayley, David. (1992)(Toronto: Anansi Press).
- The Rivers North of the Future - The Testament of Ivan Illich as told to David Cayley (2005) ISBN 0887847145 (Toronto: Anansi Press)
- Corruption of Christianity Illich, Ivan (Author) Cayley, David (Editor) (2000) ISBN 0660180995
External links

- [http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~ira/illich/bibliography.html A partial bibliography]
- [http://reactor-core.org/deschooling.html Full text of Deschooling Society]
- [http://reactor-core.org/energy-and-equity.html Full text of Energy and Equity]
- [http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?IvanIllich A page on Illich on the WikiWikiWeb, with more links]
- [http://www.preservenet.com/theory/Illich.html List of pointers to Illich's writings]
- [http://www.pudel.uni-bremen.de/ Website of Illich's collaborators in Germany]
- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4563612-103684,00.html Obituary from the Guardian newspaper (UK)]
- [http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/21/jan03/illich.htm Ivan Illich, 1926-2002]
- [http://www.wtp.org/archive/transcripts/ivan_illich_jerry.html Ivan Illich with Jerry Brown]
- [http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/s/x/sxs26/ Ivan Illich at Penn State: Continuing the Conversation November 12-14,2004]
- [http://www.ivanillich.org/ Ivan Illich's writings in Spanish]
- [http://www.davidtinapple.com/illich/ An extensive set of Illich's writings and recordings] Illich, Ivan Illich, Ivan Illich, Ivan Category:Humanists ko:이반 일리히 ja:イヴァン・イリイチ

Category:Culture

Link title Category:Top 8 Category:Society Category:Anthropology Category:Portals ko:분류:문화 ja:Category:文化

Category:Ethics

This category puts articles relevant to well-known ethical (right and wrong, good and bad) debates and decisions in one place - including practical problems long known in philosophy, and the more abstract subjects in law, politics, and some professions and sciences. It lists also those core concepts essential to understanding ethics as applied in various religions, some movements derived from religions, and religions discussed as if they were a theory of ethics making no special claim to divine status. The category also includes articles on non-ethics topics or fictional works or part of works that include a substantial ethical debate. Category:Culture Category:Branches of philosophy category:Social institutions Category:Environmental science ko:분류:윤리

Para, Suriname

] Para es un distrito de Suriname cuya superficie es de 5.393 km2 (el 4% del área total del país) y una población aproximada de 15.120 habitantes. Su capital es Onverwacht, siendo otras localidades importantes Paranam, Sabana y Zanderij. El distrito delimita al norte con Saramacca, Wanica y Commewijne, al sur con Brokopondo y Sipaliwini, al oeste con Sipaliwini y al este con Marowijne y Sipaliwini.

Economía

Para es el centro de la industria de la bauxita en el país, produciendo actualmente el 80% de los ingresos nacionales. Aún así, la agricultura es el medio de subsistencia de la mayor parte de los residentes del distrito, siendo los cultivos más importantes la piña y la yuca. Igualmente, se encuentra situada en el distrito la empresa Surinaamse Waterleiding Maatschappij (S.W.M.), encargada de potabilizar el suministro de agua en todo el país. El aeropuerto internacional del país, J.A. Pengel también está emplazado dentro de Para, conectado al país con varios destinos transnacionales (entre ellos,

Hospitality

The Bible and Middle Eastern conceptions of hospitality

Old Testament

New Testament

Contemporary Usage

Etiquette

Norms and effects of etiquette

Manners

Cultural differences

Common norms of etiquette

See also

Ritual occasions

Etiquette and language

Further reading

External links

Talk shows

Tourism

Tourism Classification

Required factors

History

Health tourism & leisure travel

Winter tourism

Mass travel

Outside Britain

International mass tourism

Recent developments

Special forms of tourism

Trends

See also

External links

Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages

A new order

A Carolingian renaissance

The High Middle Ages

The Crusades

Technology

The Late Middle Ages (circa 1300-1500)

Historiography

Middle Ages in history

Medieval and Middle Ages

"Middle Age"

"Medieval"

Periodization issues

Religion in the Middle Ages

See also

Selected bibliography

External links

Renaissance

Historiography

Multiple Renaissances

Critical views

Start of the Renaissance

Italian Renaissance

Northern Renaissance

See also

References

Further reading

External links

Ivan Illich

Personal life

Deschooling Society

Quotes

Bibliography

External links

Category:Culture

Category:Ethics

Para, Suriname

Economía