IO need scholarly help

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*BOOMCHAA!*

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read this and help me come up with an idea please:


I have provided a list of four general statements below. You must pick one of them as the theme for a short (6 p.) research paper. The chosen statement must actually appear somewhere in your paper. Please do not place it in quotes, but instead use it where appropriate to indicate the general theme of your paper. Accordingly, whatever specific evidence your paper presents it must build up (at the most general level) to the argument (statement) you have picked.

The Four General Statements (choose one)

1. The physical environment does not determine human activities, but it does reward certain cultural adaptations and discourage others.
2. Diffusion does not mean things spread randomly. Instead, things spread in particular ways that reflect underlying social and cultural relationships between places.
3. Places cannot be understood in isolation but must be interpreted in terms of various kinds of flows: people, money, ideas, and objects.
4. The presence of a culture trait in a place cannot be understood without looking at how the trait is related to other traits within a culture complex that is part of that place.



got any ideas as to which I should do and what my topic should be?


here's an example:
If you pick number 1, for example, you could start the paper with this quote, then explain what happens when people build in a flood plain




I will promise my life-long admiration if you help me:angry:
 
Your idea for #1 is good. It could be extended to building in hurricane prone costal areas, building tall brick structures in earthquake prone areas or using mobile homes in tornado prone areas.

Also, don't assume that the four statements are true. You may really impress the teacher if you can write a paper that contradicts one of the statements.
 
For example I very much dislike the philsophy behind #3 and #4, but that is a whole different topic.
 
midterms mean i can write essays in less than 8 minutes.

*BOOMCHAA!* said:
4. The presence of a culture trait in a place cannot be understood without looking at how the trait is related to other traits within a culture complex that is part of that place.


"these essay topics are broad, generalized, and otherwise unclear."

number 4 is classic. good does not exist without evil, evil does not exist without good. there is no truth without lies, no God without a devil, etc etc etc. one can look at this from a modernist point of view, citing capital punishment in iran versus american captial punishment. in the us, the argument is constantly being made that death by electric chair is still painful, thus falling under "cruel and unusual punishment." but if you look at the local petty theif, no matter how many times he's been caught, he's still got both of his hands. compared to iran where if a thief is caught he pays a penalty of a digit, hand, toe, or other extremity that fits the severity of the crime.

to an american, the thought of your government severing one of your limbs in punishment is ludacris. to iranians, our punishment system is too light on crimes - and really one could argue that either side is correct. but for the purposes of this essay, one can see the sharp contrast between iranian and american forms of capital punishment. without comparing iranian punishment to american punishment, one has no concept of which is more or less violent, more or less fair, etc. capital punishment is a culture trait that is seen in relativity to other culture traits to determine its fairness, cruelty, and effectiveness. The presence of a culture trait in a place cannot be understood without looking at how the trait is related to other traits within a culture complex that is part of that place.


/essay
 
extending that into 6 pages is not a difficult task.

1. make a flowy intro that there is no bad without good.

2. look at it from an ancient point of view, maybe talk about the romans conquering the visigoths and letting the visigoths keep most of their own culture (a tactic which allowed the roman empire to become what it was).

3. recap good and evil and contrast it with the ancient point of view.

4. bring it into modern times. get some evidence. prove it. etc.

5. contrast how even modern and ancient times are comparable culturally because the cultures are mainly foreign to moderners and that you can't have "ancient" without also having "modern"

6. takl about the human need for categorization. this is what makes the paper and concept of relativity possible.

7. conclude.

/essay


please send checks to:

lilly
south dakota
USA
 
my history prof always says that a historian's job is only to know where to find information, not necessarily to memorize it.

however, he constantly asks us stuff about things we're about to research and gets mad when we can't accurately answer the question.

so i added on to his addage and it's kind of a joke in our class.
 
*BOOMCHAA!* said:
I will promise my life-long admiration if you help me:angry:
those topics are so excesively boring that not even this is a big enough incentive for me

sorry
 
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