Noble Savages of 18th-20th Century and their relation to Puritan & Essay

Noble Savages of 18th-20th Century and their relation to Puritan & Quaker ideas about Native Americans - Essay Example Noble Savages of 18th-20th Century and their relation to Puritan & Quaker ideas about Native Americans According to Bryan R.Wilson, author of ‘The Noble Savages: The Primitive Origins of Charisma and Its Contemporary Survival’, the noble salvage believes in the existence of God in that it is inborn and exists within us rather than being an outside external power. It is innate. The concept of noble savage has become popular because it follows the concepts of being honest and of being a neutral but moral human being who believes in ethics yet is not as involved in religion or politics as the Puritans whose number one priority by all means was to follow religion. Puritans believed that this world is just a part of life and does not remain forever. They believed that Native Americans are people who believe in worldly pleasures which are not permanent. However the truth is that in today’s world, this is the kind of life which is very lucrative and seems practical for most people- on the path of righteousness in a worldly way with a lot of flexibility like those of noble salvages who were not considered pious in medieval times. Stelio Cro suggests that the beliefs of the noble savages were very impressive for many people who began following them, in his book ‘The Noble Savage: Allegory of Freedom’, which is a detailed analysis of the life of these noble savages and how they became so popular. They confessed that they had strong faith in liberty and freedom of speech and expression, in prudence and liberalism, in health and well-being- not only for themselves but for the greater world. They were strong believers of close ties with family and friends and were great advocates of fairness and equitable distribution of resources. They were followers of courage and had the confidence to speak the truth, stay on the right path, be nice to others, accept and respect diversity, and ultimately bring peace to this world. They were against the concept of fighting and war and had made it clear that humanity was more important to them than anyone else. In itself, these beliefs were strong enough attracts a h uge amount of people towards them from the other extreme of Puritanism and Quaker Ideas. Puritans were in essence the opposites of noble savages who were aggressive, Protestants, critical and extremists who were highly ethnocentric and would consider themselves as superior. They were of the view that worldly matters are just a matter of time before they vanish and do not matter anymore. During the period when the renaissance was coming to an end and enlightenment was underway in Britain and France as well, the ideology of noble savages had become very lucrative and attractive for people who were moving out of the dark ages and were becoming modernized, educated and enlightened. In the eyes of Robert J. Miller who very well described the noble savage ideology in his book ‘Native America, Discovered And Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, And Manifest Destiny’ said that the noble savage concepts seem to have bought with it an array of hope and light of social revi val, peace and harmony to the world for which they were gaining importance and Puritans were losing control and popularity both because their focus was more towards religion than towards humanity and they were considered to be primitive in nature no that the Enlightenment was in process and people wished to move towards more humanitarian

Describe the properties and functions of the smooth, skeletal and Assignment

Describe the properties and functions of the smooth, skeletal and cardiac muscle. (b)Explain the sliding filament hypothesis of - Assignment Example The arrangement of these cells to form a muscle tissue is also unique as they do not form a syncytium but they contract individually or as group of cells. This property of smooth muscle allows it to contract slowly in a wave like motion making it a suitable for gastrointestinal tract. Circular and longitudinal muscles are two smooth muscles found throughout the GIT tract and are responsible for peristalsis. Smooth muscles also line the walls of the blood vessels. They play an important role, especially in the arterioles, by constricting or dilating the blood vessel thereby controlling the flow of blood. Smooth muscles are also crucial in bigger blood vessels, such as aorta, and enable them to withstand high pressure generated during systole or ventricular contraction. (Clark, 2005, p. 139) Skeletal Muscle: These are the muscles under voluntary control. Skeletal muscle is also sometimes referred to as striated muscle but this term should be avoided as cardiac muscle is also a striated muscle and leads to ambiguity. A cell of skeletal muscle is very long, up to 30cm in length, and has a cylindrical shape. The cross section size of these cells is about 10-100 micrometer. It is not surprising that cell of this length has multiple nuclei for support and survival. But these nuclei are not located at the center and rather aligned at the periphery. This is because the contractile components in the cell cytoplasm push these nuclei towards the call border. Skeleton muscles form bulk of a human body and perform various functions. They are essential for locomotion and to perform any movement of the body. Although, skeletal muscles are mostly under voluntary control they also take part in a reflex arc that does not involve the higher centers and, therefore, is an involuntary process. The contractions produced by skeletal muscles are forceful and quick as compared to the smooth muscle. (Clark, 2005, p. 139) Cardiac Muscle: Cardiac muscle is a specialized tissue perfectly ada pted to perform its function. It is the only muscle that is found in the heart. A very special property of a cardiac muscle is that is can contract on its own which mean it does not require an external stimulation. Certain specialized cardiac cells found in the sinus node, atrioventricular node and conducting fibers are capable of initiating an action potential and set up a particular rhythm for contraction of surrounding muscle cells. Due to these properties they are referred to as pace makers of the heart. Cardiac cells are arranged in a syncytium that helps them in conducting the electrical signals more efficiently. Moreover, these cells are joined to each other by special intercalated disks. These intercalated disks are actually fused cell membranes with gap junctions. Gap junctions allow fast sharing of cytoplasmic contents and help in the progression of electrical signals across this syncytium. The function of cardiac muscle is to set up its own rhythm and provide force requir ed to pump blood throughout body’s circulation. Sliding filament hypothesis of muscle contraction: The cytoskeleton and its arrangement are unique in myofibers as compared to other places in our body. The entire length of myofiber is studded in the center with large structures called myofibrils. These myofibrils are composed of two types of myofilaments; thick myofilaments and thin myofilaments. Thick myofilaments are made up of a protein called myosin. This protein has a special shape that is vital for its