Shamanism and the Indigenous Peoples of Siberia Essays -- Cultural Ant

Shamanism and the Indigenous Peoples of Siberia Shamanism plays a role within most tribal communities of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. Within the community the shaman has many roles; one of his[1][1] main roles is that of a healer. The function of the shaman is closely related to the spirit world (Eliade 71). A shaman uses ecstatic trance to communicate with spirits. Spirits are integral to a shaman’s ability to heal within his community. â€Å"Shamanic activity is generally a public function† (Grim 11-12). Shamans are highly respected members of the community. â€Å"Shamans are of the ‘elect’;† recognition of a shaman can only be bestowed by the entire community (Eliade 7, 17). Without the community, a shaman is not a shaman and cannot function as such. An example of this situation would be vocational or self-made shamans, who are not chosen by the community, ancestry, or the underlying ‘numinous encounter’ to shamanize. The entire community does usually not recognize vocational shamans; they are not as effective as shamans and even viewed as frauds (Grim 45).[2][2] Therefore not anyone can be a shaman. â€Å"It is to the . . . shaman that tribal peoples turn for aid in dealing with the urgencies of life† (Grim 8). Due to the harsh Arctic environment, the shamanism of the indigenous peoples of Siberia is closely related to the struggle for existence in their world. The shaman is sought to aid the community in surviving by curing the sick and attacking or destroying evil spirits, among other roles (Hinnells 293-294). Within the community, the shaman has multiple roles including priest, magician, medicine man, mystic, poet and psychopomp (Eliade 4). One of his main roles is that of medicine man or healer. Accordin... ...d A Serpent’s Skin and A Bears Fur.† The Sun Maiden and the Crescent Moon: Siberian Folk Tales. Interlink Books. New York: 1991. 88-91. Waida, Manabu. â€Å"Problems of Central Asian and Siberian Shamanism.† Numen 30.2 (1983): 213-239. Notes: [1] ( The masculine pronoun is used throughout to describe the shaman. It is noted that not all shamans were males; in some tribes the majority of shamans (shamanesses) were female. However the masculine case is used from simplicity, since the gender role of the shaman is not being discussed in this case.) [2] For further discussion of numinous, see page 3 of this paper. [3] a main aspect of a shaman’s entrance into ecstatic trance [4] Most of this source covers the Ojibway Indians of the Great Lakes Region. However, Siberian Shamanism is used as a classical model from which Ojibway shamanism is derivied (56).

Adult Development – Summary

Adult Development Brian Carter West Georgia Technical College Adult Development ABSTRACT This paper explores and details the biological, cognitive, and social development of the author during the stages of infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. It will compare the author’s experiences and developmental milestones with the theories presented in the textbook.The combination of all of these factors, combined with the reactions and actions taken by the author in response to his environment and experiences, are what make him the person he is today. Adult Observation During an individual’s lifespan development, he passes through several developmental stages, each with its own physical, cognitive, and social milestones. Whether the individual is an infant, child, adolescent, or adult, he is continually developing in almost every aspect in response to life, environmental, and physical demands.It is how the individual reacts to these change s that determine the direction and quality of the individual’s life in the future. The way an individual participates in social activities, engages himself in educational opportunities, and takes time to self-reflect on his experiences all interact to form the direction the individual’s life take. The social, cognitive, and physical aspects of the author’s lifespan development thus far will be described and discussed in detail.The author is a thirty-five year old Caucasian male who lives in a suburb of Atlanta. He was born into and raised in a mostly suburban middle-class household in Louisiana, where he lived until age 23, when he moved to metropolitan Atlanta. He is currently married for the second time, and is expecting his first son to be born in the next week. He has one younger sister who is also grown and married with one stepson. The author’s parents were born and raised in rural West Virginia.His father is college educated. His mother attended co llege, but did not graduate. He is a college graduate, and his wife has a graduate degree in Education. Both are employed full-time. INFANCY The author was born an eight-pound, four-ounce baby in August of 1975. During the first months of his life, he followed the general outline described in the textbook for breastfeeding and his introduction to solid foods (Dacey 2009). He also developed normally, in physical, cognitive, and social aspects.Aside from a short stint of high fever as a baby, the author experienced no major physical ailments as an infant. EARLY CHILDHOOD As the author progressed into early childhood, he began to exhibit traits of increased intelligence. Thanks to highly involved parents and support group, he was always encouraged to participate in educational activities, rather than playing idly. REFERENCES Dacey, John S. , John F. Travers, and Lisa B. Fiore. Human Development across the Lifespan. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.

Overview of Volatility Clustering

Overview of Volatility Clustering Volatility clustering is the tendency of  large changes in prices of financial assets to cluster together, which results in the persistence of these magnitudes of price changes. Another way to describe the phenomenon of volatility clustering is to quote famous scientist-mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, and define it as the observation that large changes tend to be followed by large changes...and small changes tend to be followed by small changes when it comes to markets. This phenomenon is observed when there are extended periods of high market volatility or the relative rate at which the price of a financial asset change,  followed by a period of calm or low volatility. The Behavior of Market Volatility Time series of financial asset returns often demonstrates volatility clustering.  In a time series of stock prices, for instance, it is observed that the variance of returns or log-prices is high for extended periods and then low for extended periods. As such, the variance of daily returns can be high one month (high volatility) and show low variance (low volatility) the next. This occurs to such a degree that it makes an iid model (independent and identically  distributed model) of log-prices or asset returns unconvincing. It is this very property of time series of prices that is called volatility clustering. What this means in practice and in the world of investing is that as markets respond to new information with large price movements (volatility), these high-volatility environments tend to endure for a while after that first shock. In other words, when a market suffers a volatile shock,  more volatility should be expected. This phenomenon has been referred to as the persistence of volatility shocks, which gives rise to the concept of volatility clustering.   Modeling Volatility Clustering The phenomenon of volatility clustering has been of great interest to researchers of many backgrounds and has influenced the development of stochastic models in finance. But volatility clustering is  usually approached by modeling the price process with an ARCH-type model.  Today, there are  several methods for quantifying and modeling this phenomenon, but the two most widely-used models are the autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (ARCH) and the  generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) models. While ARCH-type models and stochastic volatility models are used by researchers to offer some statistical systems that imitate volatility clustering, they still do not give any economic explanation for it.