This article examines present attempts to construct immigration as a social problem by studying the language and rhetoric of restrictionist groups on the World Wide Web in the aftermath of 9/11. The analysis of these websites reveals a variety of discourses that both describe and evaluate the consequences of recent immigration. The reasons against immigration currently being put forth include: defending the environment, enhancing national security and protecting jobs for native-born Americans. While the case can be made that these arguments are not based on hostility toward any specific group defined in terms of its racial, ethnic, cultural or religious characteristics, a case that typically is asserted by restrictionist groups themselves, my analysis reveals the existence of an alternative discourse defining those unworthy of participation in American society. My research also reveals that the most overtly nativist groups have the greatest number of web-links to other restrictionist groups, suggesting an attempt to appropriate multiple sources of restrictionist discourse to bolster and legitimize their own positions.
Progressivism was the reform movement that ran from the late 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century, during which leading intellectuals and social reformers in the United States sought to address the economic, political, and cultural questions that had arisen in the context of the rapid changes brought with the Industrial Revolution and the growth of modern capitalism in America. The Progressives believed that these changes marked the end of the old order and required the creation of a new order appropriate for the new industrial age.
The Maya Empire, centered in the tropical lowlands of what is now Guatemala, reached the peak of its power and influence around the sixth century A.D.
The Maya excelled at agriculture,
pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork.
Most of the great stone cities of the Maya were abandoned by A.D. 900, however, and since the 19th century scholars have debated what might have caused this dramatic decline.
The Classic Maya built many of their temples and palaces in a stepped pyramid shape, decorating them with elaborate reliefs and inscriptions. These structures have earned the Maya their reputation as the great artists of Mesoamerica.
Guided by their religious ritual, the Maya also made significant advances in mathematics and astronomy, including the use of the zero and the development of complex calendar systems like the Calendar Round, based on 365 days, and later, the Long Count Calendar, designed to last over 5,000 years.
Serious exploration of Classic Maya sites began in the 1830s. By the early to mid-20th century, a small portion of their system of hieroglyph writing had been deciphered, and more about their history and culture became known.
Most of what historians know about the Maya comes from what remains of their architecture and art, including stone carvings and inscriptions on their buildings and monuments.
The Maya also made paper from tree bark and wrote in books made from this paper, known as codices; four of these codices are known to have survived.
They are also credited with some
of the earliest uses of chocolate and of rubber.
The <span>development of a writing system : it is cultural, but there is no diffusion involved
a merchant traveling to sell his goods in another society- yest, this is true! the goods are connected to culture, and the merchant traveling is contributing to the diffusion!</span>
