6.9: Current Issues - Use of Force and Vehicle Pursuits
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- Alison S. Burke, David Carter, Brian Fedorek, Tiffany Morey, Lore Rutz-Burri, & Shanell Sanchez
- Southern Oregon University via OpenOregon
Police officers have the power to use force if deemed necessary. If an officer uses more force than required for the situation, this brings up many red flags. The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 authorized the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to initiate civil actions against policing agencies if the use of force utilized is excessive or constitutes a pattern of depriving individuals of their rights. [1]
One additional issue in police use of force situations is that it is difficult to measure. There are many types of force police can use. The force utilized varies from going hands-on to pepper spray, taser, ASP baton, control holds or takedowns, to deadly force. Every situation is different because it involves human beings and can be interpreted differently from those involved to those standing on the side-lines.
Vehicle Pursuits
Vehicle pursuits have dramatically changed over the last decade. It used to be commonplace for officers to engage in several vehicle pursuits during one-shift. Officers would get in a vehicle pursuit for many reasons, stemming from locating a rolling stolen vehicle to a driver failing to stop after running a stop sign. Vehicle pursuits have at a minimum, two, four-to-five thousand-pound deadly weapons (a.k.a.= the vehicles) that are driven recklessly (most times), chasing one another. The morgue has seen large numbers of fatalities due to vehicle pursuits. Victims range from an innocent person in a crosswalk at the wrong time when the vehicle police pursued, hit the victim, or the innocent person driving across an intersection with a green traffic light struck while the pursuing vehicle runs a red traffic light. There are too many sad stories of the innocent victim killed because the police decided to pursue a vehicle with lights and siren and the pursuing vehicle refused to pull over.
Because of the many senseless fatalities, many police departments have updated their vehicle pursuit policies and procedures. Although the policies of each department do differ in minor areas, most departments have chosen to only approve a vehicle pursuit in dire situations. Such a situation fitting that description would be if the driver of the fleeing vehicle were actively engaging in behavior that was placing other citizens in immediately dire harm.
- DOJ. (March 2, 1998). Justice Department Consent Decree Pushes Police to Overhaul Operations, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , C-1. ↵


11.15: Retail Buying Organizations
Learning Objectives
- Describe the characteristics and functions performed within retail buying organizations
What are the characteristics and functions performed within the retail buying organization? As you think about the sheer size and the value of each individual industry within the global apparel market, imagine how many functions are performed due to all of the individual contributions.
Retail organization merchandise management functions can be categorized into three main areas:
- Merchandise Operations
- Merchandise Planning
- Merchandise Buying
Keep in mind that not every retailer is national in scope and would have a division of labor with separate departments and even separate individuals performing these functions. Also keep in mind that there are other supporting functions in accounting, marketing, and human resources within retail organizations. However, the functions referenced above support the merchandise management process which many believe to be the heart of the retail business.
Merchandise Buying
Merchandise Buying involves sourcing goods from vendors and wholesalers at the best possible cost to achieve maximum profitability. Merchandise Buying and Planning work hand in hand as the buyer must understand the merchandise financial plan and what products will drive sales in that category. A buyer must be fiscally responsible ensuring they are purchasing goods in line with their seasonal plans (prior to the season) and the Open to Buy (in-season). The Open to Buy calculates how much they have to spend based on the financial sales and inventory plan.
The buyer must also understand the strategy of the company as well as how their category fits in line with that strategy. To understand the customer they must also understand the trends driving the industry. Part of the merchandise buying process is attending trade shows to select meaningful product and also conducting line reviews to present the product to the team.
Lastly, one of the key roles of merchandise buying is in-season management of the business. Managing the business is essential as oftentimes sales will vary from what was initially planned. Sales might increase or decrease beyond original estimates. Inventory levels must be adjusted accordingly. For example, if you are a buyer summer shorts and sales are better than expected you would want to try to accelerate merchandise deliveries as early as possible to minimize markdowns. Managing the business in-season becomes especially important during peak timeframes as the opportunity to procure more inventory might not be possible. At the same time, if merchandise isn’t selling as anticipated the merchandise buyer must have a contingency plan to either promote the product, return to the vendor (if possible), or any other options that might be available.
Merchandise Planning
The overall goal in merchandise planning is to maximize profitability by limiting markdowns and achieving and exceeding sales targets while also limiting excessive inventory.
Typically the merchandise planner will plan pre-season utilizing history from last year to build the six month plan that is typically either Fall or Spring. Pre-season planning accounts for any shifts in the business such as major holidays and any missed sales opportunities. For example, if the weather was unseasonably warm in the winter months and sales were missed or didn’t come until much later they would want to keep accurate history to make sure they aren’t planning this in future fall seasons.
The process involves forecasting sales which might be from a bottoms-up or tops-down approach. In the bottoms-up approach the merchandise planner will work on the plans based on what they know about individual store performance to come up with sales and inventory goals. The Tops-down approach involves the executive team providing each individual department with sales plan goals. Oftentimes both approaches are combined to arrive at the most realistic planning goals.
Another function of merchandise planning is to assist in assortment planning, which is determining how many styles (breadth) and in what quantities (depth) should be carried in each merchandise category. In addition, merchandise planning is responsible for individual store inventory levels as they break down plans to regions and store units. This is known as merchandise allocation. We will discuss specific merchandise allocation options and strategies in a future module.
Here are some questions to consider in assortment planning:
- What SKUs will drive profitability?
- What items are essential to strategy of business?
- How does your assortment compare to competition?
- How original are the items within your assortment and how much is duplication?
Merchandise Operations
Merchandise Operations can be thought of as those functions that support merchandise planning and buying and, ultimately, the overall retail planning strategy. While allocation and replenishment are often referred to as the same thing, they are quite different. A replenishment strategy is the process of ordering inventory on an ongoing basis to maintain preset inventory levels. This is often basic inventory such as underwear and socks that are predictable and do not go out of style. Often times the retailer will set min and max levels to set the amount of inventory each store will receive.
Purchase Orders are generated and managed via the merchandise operations team as well. They work hand in hand with both the buying and planning team to ensure orders are shipped by the vendor and received at the warehouse. Lastly, they manage all pricing execution functions such as changing prices associated with markdowns, re-pricing, and all promotional pricing that needs to be entered into the POS system for accurate store transactions.
Take a look at the following video which gives you insight into how both buying and planning functions operate as one global unit for Lululemon. This is especially important as you consider those businesses, such as Lululemon, with operations all over the world. As you watch this video consider how buying and planning functions work together to achieve one vision and strategy.
You can view the transcript for “lululemon atheletica: Benefits of One Global Planning Process” (opens in new window).
Practice Questions
Contributors and Attributions
- Retail Buying Organizations. Authored by : Robert Danielson. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
- lululemon athletica: Benefits of One Global Planning Process. Authored by : Oracle. Located at : https://youtu.be/f2TcW3d0UEU . License : All Rights Reserved . License Terms : Standard YouTube License


7.6: Plant Cultivation- Horticulture and Agriculture
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- Jennifer Hasty, David G. Lewis, & Marjorie M. Snipes
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Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Identify and distinguish horticulture and agriculture as distinct subsistence strategies of plant cultivation.
- Describe the cultural forms associated with horticulture and agriculture.
- Trace the connection between the development of agriculture and the development of villages, towns, and cities.
Many thousands of years ago, one of humanity’s ancestors might have spied a sprout emerging from a refuse pile of pits, nuts, and seeds. Perhaps it was a lightbulb moment: “Hmm, I wonder if I could do that on purpose....” Or maybe it was somebody who dug up a plant and moved it closer to camp: “Genius! Now I don’t have to walk so far!” Somehow, people discovered that they need not rely on the whims of nature to provide them with plants; rather, they could grow the plants they wanted in places more convenient to them. This basic manipulation of nature is called cultivation , and gather-hunters were experimenting with it for thousands of years before the development of farming.
The real revolution happened when people began to design their whole way of life around the sowing, tending, and harvesting of plant crops, depending primarily on those crops as sources of food. By planting the seeds of the most desirable plants, humans began to alter the features of those plants over generations of sowing and harvesting. This process of plant domestication first took hold around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, possibly spurred by the warming climate after the last ice age. As plants became bigger, tastier, more nutritious, and easier to grow, larger groups of people could be supported by permanent gardens with no need to migrate. Eventually, some people didn’t have to farm at all and could specialize in crafts such as pottery, metalwork, basketry, and textiles. Markets emerged as farmers, herders, and craftspeople became entwined in symbiotic relations of trade. Villages grew into towns and cities and, eventually, regional empires. This might all seems like a great leap forward in human development, and indeed it was a big transformation, but farming came with its share of drawbacks as well.
Archaeologists used to believe that agriculture was separately invented in three primary regions of the world: the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East (11,000 years ago), northern China (9,000 years ago), and Mesoamerica (8,000 years ago). Each of these regions featured the domestication of grains as carbohydrate sources. These grains were combined with lentils and beans as sources of protein, along with meat obtained through trade with neighboring pastoral groups. In the Middle East, wheat, barley, peas, and lentils were cultivated. In China, millet, rice, and beans were grown. It is now known that farming was independently invented in many other regions as well (Bellwood 2019). In addition to the three already mentioned, plants were domesticated in sub-Saharan Africa, India, New Guinea, South America, and the eastern woodlands of North America.
Two Methods of Cultivation: Extensive Horticulture and Intensive Agriculture
The first form of farming that humans developed is known as extensive horticulture . Before a plot of land can be cultivated for the first time, the trees and vegetation must be cleared away, an arduous task usually done by men. Sometimes, a strategy called slash and burn is used, which involves cutting down the trees and shrubs and burning the rest to the ground, then tilling the ash into the soil as fertilizer. Using digging sticks and hoes, horticultural farmers cultivate the top layer of soil before they sow. As seedlings sprout, they water them and feed them with natural fertilizers such as animal dung, and they weed the gardens regularly.
Horticultural societies plant not just one crop but many. They have learned that certain plants are “friends”—that is, they enhance one another’s growth—and so they plant these crops side by side. This is practice is known as intercropping . For instance, in Mesoamerica, squash, corn, and beans were planted closely together in flat-topped mounds, a combination known as the “three sisters.” Several corn plants were planted first, in the center of the mound. Once the corn seedlings were well established, squash and beans were planted at their base. As they grew, the corn plants provided stalks for the vining bean plants to climb. The bean plants contributed nitrogen to the soil, fertilizing the other two plants. The squash plants spread across the ground, blocking weeds and protecting the root systems of all three. Typically, societies practicing extensive horticulture have vast knowledge of such sustainable farming methods. These techniques are natural ways to optimize the health and yield of each plant while providing a variable and balanced diet throughout the year.
Incorporating organic methods of fertilization and pest control, horticulture is a sustainable form of farming. Over time, however, this method does deplete the nutrients in the top layer of soil. After a certain number of seasons growing crops on a particular plot, it becomes necessary to let that plot lie fallow . When horticultural farmers let a plot lie fallow, they stop cultivating it and let the grasses and brush grow in naturally, which promotes the accumulation of fresh nutrients in the soil. Plots can be left to lie fallow for as little as one season or as many as 20. While one plot regenerates, the farmer moves on to clear, till, and sow another plot for cultivation. Horticulturalists often have several plots of land in various stages of fallow and cultivation. This method of rotating crops over various plots of land is called extensive or shifting cultivation , as it involves multiple plots over large areas. Horticulture farmers usually have a variety of plots with distinctive soils and climate features, and they tailor specific farming strategies, including crop species, fertilizers, watering methods, and farming-fallow cycles, for each one.
Often in horticultural societies, land is not owned as private property but held in trust by family heads or village leaders who allocate plots of land to individuals. People have the right to use the land assigned to them but not to own or sell it, a practice known as usufruct rights . These rights to use certain plots are passed down through families, via either the father or the mother. When newcomers move into an area, they may approach the leader to ask for plots of land to farm. In many African societies, it is also common for people to loan out their plots to one another in gestures of friendship and mutual aid.
Extensive horticulture typically provides enough resources to support extended-family households, perhaps with a bit left over to sell in local markets. This amount left over after the needs of the family are met is called surplus . The modest surplus of horticulturalists is sometimes accumulated by families or village leaders in silos or other structures, held in safekeeping for community use in the lean months before the next crops can be harvested. Horticulture does not usually generate enough surplus to support groups of people who do not farm. Craftspeople, religious specialists, and group leaders must all carry on farming alongside these other important activities.
Extensive horticulture provides a good way to cultivate crops on land that is not particularly rich with nutrients. Tropical climates tend to have such soils due to the lack of winter dormancy. In temperate zones (23 to 66 degrees latitude), vegetation dies off in the autumn, depositing dead matter into the soil, which then decomposes into a rich substance called humus (hyoo-mus). Humus is essentially built-in fertilizer, feeding new plants as they grow in spring and summer. Because vegetation does not ever die off in tropical areas, tropical soils do not accumulate humus to the extent that temperate soils do. With less humus, it is more advantageous to use a plot of land a few times, then let the natural vegetation grow back. Slashing and burning regrowth is a way for tropical farmers to mimic the natural die-off of vegetation in temperate climates.
In climates with warm and cold seasons, the layer of humus-rich soil is much denser and thicker than in tropical regions. In these areas, it is advantageous to dig deeper to prepare soils for sowing, distributing the layer of humus into a thicker layer of soil to serve as a reservoir of nutrients for the new plants.
The seasonal deposit of nutrients in the soil also happens in areas surrounding large rivers that flood and recede in a yearly cycle. Along the Nile in North Africa and between the Tigris and Euphrates in the Middle East, ancient farmers were able to use the same soils over and over again as the rivers helpfully dumped organic matter onto their farmlands every year. Riverine farmers learned to control flows of water, creating systems of irrigation to continually water their crops. Sumerian farmers in the Mesopotamian crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates were the first to use the plow, using oxen to pull large blades through their garden plots. Plowing makes the soil even richer for planting.
The use of a plow, the development of irrigation systems, and the continuous cultivation of the same plots are part of a way of farming called intensive agriculture . A good way to remember the difference between extensive and intensive cultivation is to think about how extensive farming involves farming multiple plots over extensive territory, while intensive farming involves applying intensive methods to the same plots over and over again. Intensive agriculture generates much greater yields than horticulture, supporting far larger populations. Greater yields mean greater surplus, which means that societies practicing intensive agriculture generate groups of people who don’t need to farm, such as specialists in craft production, trade, religion, and government.
Farmers who practice intensive agriculture focus on a small number of crops, frequently grains or legumes. They use the surplus generated from intensive methods to trade for other foods, tools, and material goods to meet the needs of their households.
Most people use the word agriculture to mean plant cultivation of any kind. For anthropologists, however, agriculture is just one form of plant cultivation—the kind involving intensive methods such as plows, draft animals, irrigation systems, and repeated use of plots. This chapter uses the term plant cultivation to refer to both extensive horticulture and intensive agriculture. References to specific types of cultivation use the terms extensive horticulture and intensive agriculture .
The Kayapó: Flexible Horticulture
In the eastern Amazonian rainforest, beside the Xingu River, live a group of people known by their neighbors as the Kayapó. Mixing slash-and-burn horticulture with gathering and hunting and some animal domestication, the Kayapó have created an ingenious and flexible way of life that carefully cultivates the resources of the rainforest, savanna, and intermediate zones (Posey 2002).
Like most farming societies, the Kayapó rely on a small set of staple carbohydrate crops, including sweet potato, manioc, maize, and taro. Every three to five years, they clear new plots for their gardens, leaving the old plots fallow. Rather than passively letting the old plots regenerate, however, the Kayapó plant fruit trees, medicinal plants, and other desirable vegetation that keep the plots productive throughout the fallow period. They also transplant edible and medicinal plants alongside the paths that serve as transit routes throughout their territory. The Kayapó venture out on these paths in gathering-and-hunting expeditions that supplement their farming endeavors during part of the year. Women gather fruits, nuts, and berries, and men hunt armadillos, deer, anteaters, and wild pigs. Like the Hadza, the Kayapó regularly harvest honey, the sweet treat of the forest. Another delicacy is the tortoise, slaughtered in large numbers for special festivals. The Kayapó also fish with bows and arrows as well as nets and plant-based poison. Sometimes, women stay in the village while men go hunting or fishing.
Because they farm, the Kayapó live in villages for most of the year. Extended-family houses are situated in a circle surrounding a central public space with a men’s house in the center. Social activities are coordinated by groups based on gender, age, and extended family. Most villages have two men’s societies, each one associated with a women’s society. When a boy becomes a man, he chooses which society he wants to join, usually that of his intended father-in-law. After he marries, his wife joins the women’s society associated with her husband’s group. Each society has its own leader and meeting place.
Kayapó life is organized according to seasons. Planting is done in the “low water” season, and farming continues until harvest. After this, wild fruits ripen, attracting game for the hunting season, the “high water” time. This is followed by a period of leisure, family activities, and increased fishing. Then, a new year begins. Kayapó culture marks these seasons with a calendar of ceremonies. Festivals celebrate the farming and hunting seasons, and specific rituals are performed to promote the success of these subsistence methods.
The Kayapó are deeply knowledgeable about their environment and work diligently to cultivate the diversity of flora and fauna in the various ecological zones of their territory. In addition to an impressive store of general knowledge, each village has individuals with expertise in soils, plants, animals, and medicines. The Kayapó identify many different micro-zones within the continuum between forest and savanna, associating each zone with a distinct set of interrelated plants, animals, and soil types. They attract certain species of game for hunting by sowing specific plants in specific areas. For farming, they use ground cover such as plants, logs, leaves, straw, and bark to adjust the moisture, shade, and temperature of soils. They fertilize certain crops with the ash of specific plants, making use of the vegetation cleared and weeded in farming. They meticulously design their gardens in concentric circles to provide optimal light and water to each species of plant, and they practice complex forms of intercropping of plants that benefit one another. For instance, several plants are considered “banana neighbors,” good to plant next to bananas. Among these is a plant called “child-want-not,” a plant used by Kayapó women to regulate fertility.
In open areas, the Kayapó create small areas of special diversity called apêtê , or “forest islands.” To create an apêtê , they first spread a layer of organic matter, such as termite nests, then sow seeds and transplants of useful trees and plants in the mound of nutrient-rich soil. As the plants grow, the Kayapó cut down the highest trees in the center to provide more light throughout the apêtê . The result is a store of medicinal and edible plants as well as a nice, shady place to rest in the middle of an open field. Sometimes, apêtê include vines that produce potable water, providing a sort of drinking fountain for people as they travel about the territory.
The nurturing of plant biodiversity is important to the practice of medicine among the Kayapó. They identify and cultivate hundreds of plants used to treat specific ailments such as diarrhea, scorpion stings, and snakebites. They organize their knowledge of both illnesses and plants in complex classificatory schemes. The Kayapó identify 50 separate types of diarrhea and treat each one with a specific plant medicine.
The Kayapó are also masters of zoology. They study the anatomy and behavior of the animals in their environment and use that knowledge for hunting and farming. For instance, when a garden is infested with leaf-cutting ants, Kayapó farmers deliberately plant nests of smelly ants around the plot. The pheromones of the smelly ants scare away the destructive leaf-cutting ants. Smelly ants can also be crushed and inhaled as a medicine to clear the sinuses.
The Kayapó keep many pets, including birds, snakes, spiders, and various mammals. One survey found more than 60 species of animal kept as pets in one village alone! Children are encouraged to observe the behavior of their pets to learn as much as possible.
The Kayapó have developed a vast store of knowledge about their surroundings, and they use that knowledge to promote plant and animal biodiversity and nurture their environment. Some anthropologists suggest that industrialized societies could learn much about environmental management and ecological sustainability from horticultural groups such as the Kayapó.
The Sociocultural Complex of Plant Cultivation
As with the Kayapó, horticulture is often combined with gathering and hunting and even pastoralism to form a flexible, sustainable, and highly successful subsistence strategy. Many societies practicing intensive agriculture also forage and keep animals on the side, although they spend much less time gathering and hunting. As they come to rely more and more on their crops, farming peoples settle down to form permanent villages. Frequently, as with the Kayapó, those villages consist of extended-family houses with a central area for public meetings. Most villages consist of several extended families, each with its own family leader or set of elders. As agricultural methods intensify, it becomes necessary for families to cooperate in the development of irrigation schemes, trade networks, and the allocation and protection of land. Forms of community leadership and group decision-making emerge to organize these activities. Those political forms will be discussed in the next chapter.
Plant cultivation requires a lot of work, substantially more than gathering-hunting. Clearing small trees and brush for new garden plots is backbreaking work, followed by the physical challenges of tilling, sowing, watering, weeding, controlling pests, and (hopefully) harvesting. Throughout the year, crops must be either processed for market or household meals or made into something useful. Tools such as hoes, scythes, and plows must be bought or made and constantly maintained. Where used, plows and draft animals require daily care. In order to get all of this work done, agricultural societies rely on the labor of extended families, with chores divvied up by gender and age.
Often, men are responsible for clearing land, while women do the sowing as well as the daily work of weeding and watering. Children help with garden chores, often charged with carrying water or scaring away the birds and small mammals that scavenge crops. Men make and maintain tools and also tend to draft animals, while women process materials for home consumption, such as food and craft items. Women make pottery, baskets, clothing, and shoes (until this work is taken over by craftspeople). Girls are put to work as babysitters, taking care of younger children while their parents work at other tasks. Typically, men assume positions of power in the public realm as leaders of extended families and villages, but women often represent their interests in their own groups with their own leadership, as in Kayapó society.
The gendered arrangement of work and power is highly variable. In some societies, men take charge of marketing crops, while in others, women take on this role. Frequently, as cultivation intensifies with the growing of large cash crops such as wheat and rice, men market the cash crops while women sell the vegetables from their gardens.
The work of plant cultivation is structured by the yearly cycle of the changing seasons. Frequently, the social life of plant-cultivating societies is organized into a similar annual calendar, with festivals, ceremonies, and rituals marking various stages in the process of cultivation. For instance, “garden magic,” such as the recitation of spells, is often an integral part of preparing garden plots for the growing season. Magical spells and blessings provide a means of encouraging good weather and healthy plants and help manage the anxieties of communities that are heavily dependent on the success of their crops. Harvest time is frequently marked by a large festival, with feasting, the performance of special songs and dances, and the commemoration of gods and ancestors.
Successful plant cultivation requires a great deal of knowledge about plant and animal biology, soil composition, geology, and weather patterns (see Edington 2017 for a wonderful overview). Many cultivators have a deep understanding of the relationship between soil and seed. Sukuma farmers in Tanzania identify six types of soil, five good for planting a specific crop—rice, corn, sorghum, two kinds of groundnut—and a sixth soil type only good for grazing cattle. Peruvian potato farmers have knowledge of 35 different potato varieties and are able to match each one to the soil type and environmental conditions most conducive to a healthy harvest. Cultivators rely on environmental indicators to let them know optimal times for planting and harvesting. They watch for the flowering and fruiting of wild plants, migratory movements of birds, and changing patterns of stars in the night sky. Many farmers in India look for the blossoming of yellow flowers on the laburnum trees to indicate the imminent arrival of the monsoons. Others rely on the pied crested cuckoo, which arrives just ahead of the monsoon rains.
Farming societies have various techniques for managing weeds and garden pests. Some weeds are welcome as sources of food and materials for crafts such as baskets. Animals attracted to growing crops are frequently hunted as supplementary sources of protein. Grasshoppers and locusts can be fried into crispy treats, and larger animals such as rodents can be trapped and eaten as meat. Many cultivators use specific plants to repel weeds and pests. Traditional Chinese farmers used the root bark of the thunder god vine to keep caterpillars and aphids away from their crops. Other plants, such as neem and mint, are used to protect harvested produce from being eaten by insects.
This vast knowledge of the natural world is undergirded by a value system that emphasizes environmental conservation and protection. Often, environmental knowledge is entwined with supernatural beliefs and cultural values and preserved in songs, stories, legends, and ritual practices. Ancient religious texts often function as records of environmental knowledge and values as well as supernatural beliefs and practices. In ancient India, for example, Hindu texts such as the Vedas commanded that humans should live in harmony with nature rather than exploiting it (Jain 2019). Certain trees and plants with particular value to humans were revered and associated with supernatural beings. The Vedas called for the protection of those trees and plants and assigned penalties for cutting them down. Typically, the cultures of plant cultivators promote reverence for nature and compel people to practice sustainable forms of farming that protect the soil and preserve biodiversity.
As mentioned earlier, intensive agriculture produces a much larger surplus than horticultural methods. As agricultural surpluses and human populations both grew, villages expanded into towns, which evolved into cities. Emerging about 7,000 ago, the city of Uruk, located in what is now Iraq, was the first large urban center in Mesopotamia and possibly the world (Nardo 2007; Wallenfels and Sasson 2000). At its peak population, it housed 50,000 to 80,000 people, with more living in the surrounding metropolitan area. Surrounding peoples practiced agriculture and herding and traded their surplus in the city markets. Within the city, a class of craftspeople supported themselves without doing any farming, prominent among them cloth makers and metalworkers. Uruk peoples traded widely with groups throughout Mesopotamia and what is now western Iran. The accumulation of wealth in the city supported the building of great temples and city walls by a class of construction workers (Pittman 2019). Such public buildings are called monumental architecture . Cuneiform writing was invented as a method of accounting, used to keep track of trade and inventory. Coordinating this complex economy was a centralized government headed by a king.
Like Uruk in Mesopotamia, the early cities of Abydos in Egypt, Harappa in the Indus Valley, and Anyang in China all emerged close to waterways, locations where intensive agriculture stimulated increases in population (Rizvi 2007). Cities provided sites for craft specialization, the organization of regional trade, the building of monumental architecture, the development of writing, and the centralization of power. With its large stone plaza, pyramids, and ball courts, the Zapotec city of Monte Albán emerged as an administrative capital in Mesoamerica around 4,000 years ago. With its own plaza and pyramids, the site of Caral in present-day Peru developed into a city around the same time as Monte Albán. Built on a base of agricultural surplus, all of these cities demonstrate urban planning, heterogeneous populations, regional trade, and monumental architecture.
Contemporary Challenges of Farming Societies
Communities relying primarily on extensive horticulture or intensive agriculture are generally able to meet their own subsistence needs. However, with the development of cities into regional empires, many cultivators became incorporated into larger structures of trade and government. Under pressure from these structures, farmers past and present were and are obliged to sell their surplus for cash in order to pay taxes and purchase agricultural inputs such as seed and fertilizer. As cities and states grow, they exert pressure on cultivators to produce ever higher yields to support greater populations and more elaborate state projects. As cultivators become incorporated into demanding states, they become a class of peasants . A peasant is a farmer with a small plot of land incorporated into a larger regional economy. Nearly all contemporary cultivators are part of a peasant class in their nation-states (Sillitoe 2018). Peasants are often marginalized and disadvantaged, reliant on economic and political structures they cannot control, and exploited by urban elites. Many farmers now make up a rural underclass.
Extensive horticulturalists such as the Kayapó require large areas of land in order to allow their fallow plots to regenerate before reusing them. Over the past 30 years, cattle ranchers, loggers, and miners have moved into Kayapó territory. Unlike the Kayapó, ranchers and loggers practice ecologically damaging methods, leaving large areas of barren wasteland in their wake. Early on, some Kayapó communities accommodated iron and gold mining operations, signing contracts that granted mining companies permission to operate in exchange for a small percentage of profits. However, mining practices polluted the rivers that the Kayapó rely on for drinking, bathing, and fishing. With the emergence of gold rush towns and the flood of foreigners into the area, the Kayapó began to see unwelcome changes in their communities, such as increases in disease and problematic alcohol use. Many Kayapó turned against outsiders, attacking loggers and miners to force them off of Kayapó land. As a further problem, the Brazilian government has proposed a series of large hydroelectric dams on Kayapó rivers to generate power in the Amazonian hinterlands. These dams would flood Kayapó territory, displacing more than 20,000 people. Recognizing these projects as threats to their culture and way of life, the Kayapó have joined with other Amazonian Indigenous groups in dramatic protests attracting global attention and support (Turner and Fajans-Turner 2006). The rock star Sting attended one such protest and later founded the Rainforest Foundation Fund to support the efforts of the Kayapó to protect their land.
You may have heard this story before—the story of Indigenous peoples who come to be surrounded and dominated by extractive capitalists and state officials. In their relations with Indigenous peoples practicing gathering-hunting, pastoralism, and horticulture, states often argue that such people are resisting inevitable progress. Indeed, American world history textbooks often represent the emergence of cities, the expansion of trade, and the creation of bureaucratic states as steps in the triumphal march of progress, key achievements in the development of civilization.
But progress for whom? The more that is learned about life in nonindustrial, noncapitalist societies, the more questions are raised about these notions of progress.


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33: The Animal Body- Basic Form and Function
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33.1: Animal Form and Function - Characteristics of the Animal Body
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Every animal has a distinct body plan, adapted in response to environmental pressures, that limits its size and shape.
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33.2: Animal Form and Function - Body Plans
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Animal body plans can have varying degrees of symmetry and can be described as asymmetrical, bilateral, or radial.
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33.3: Animal Form and Function - Limits on Animal Size and Shape
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Animal shape and body size are influenced by environmental factors as well as the presence of an exoskeleton or an endoskeleton.
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33.4: Animal Form and Function - Limiting Effects of Diffusion on Size and Development
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Less efficient diffusion in larger cells led to multicellular organisms with specialized tissues that supply nutrients and remove waste.
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33.5: Animal Form and Function - Animal Bioenergetics
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An animal’s body size, activity level, and environment impacts the ways it uses and obtains energy.
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33.6: Animal Form and Function - Animal Body Planes and Cavities
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Vertebrates can be divided along different planes in order to reference the locations of defined cavities.
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33.7: Animal Primary Tissues - Epithelial Tissues
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Epithelial tissues cover the outer surfaces of the body and the lumen of internal organs; they are classified by shape and number of layers.
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33.8: Animal Primary Tissues - Loose, Fibrous, and Cartilage Connective Tissues
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Connective tissue is found throughout the body, providing support and shock absorption for tissues and bones.
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33.9: Animal Primary Tissues - Bone, Adipose, and Blood Connective Tissues
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Bone, adipose (fat) tissue, and blood are different types of connective tissue that are composed of cells surrounded by a matrix.
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33.10: Animal Primary Tissues - Muscle Tissues and Nervous Tissues
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The function of muscle tissue (smooth, skeletal, and cardiac) is to contract, while nervous tissue is responsible for communication.
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33.11: Homeostasis - Homeostatic Process
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Homeostatic processes ensure a constant internal environment by various mechanisms working in combination to maintain set points.
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33.12: Homeostasis - Control of Homeostasis
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Homeostasis is typically achieved via negative feedback loops, but can be affected by positive feedback loops, set point alterations, and acclimatization.
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33.13: Homeostasis - Thermoregulation
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Animals use different modes of thermoregulation processes to maintain homeostatic internal body temperatures.
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33.14: Homeostasis - Heat Conservation and Dissipation
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Animals have processes that allow for heat conservation and dissipation in order to maintain a homeostatic internal body temperature.


17.2: Assessment of Individual and Community Needs for Health Education
By the end of this section, you should be able to:
- Define health literacy.
- Assess the health literacy of a population to guide health promotion and disease prevention activities.
- Examine one or more health literacy assessment tools.
- Examine how people learn and the factors that influence learning and knowledge acquisition.
Nurses working in the community regularly use health education to help clients promote, maintain, and restore health. Effective educators assess the individual or community for learning needs and health literacy, understand how people learn, utilize one or more learning theory models, promote factors that influence learning, and attempt to decrease factors that hinder learning and knowledge acquisition. Assessment of individual and community needs for health education may occur during the CHA process, but a more in-depth assessment is often needed. Identifying community health education needs, including personal and organizational health literacy, is a necessary part of assessment. Limited health literacy is associated with greater emergency care use, increased hospitalizations, reduced preventative screening, lower vaccination rates, poorer ability to interpret health-related messages and labels, and poorer ability to take medications appropriately (Berkman et al., 2011).
Health Literacy
Only 12 percent of U.S. adults have the health literacy skills to manage the complex U.S. health care system (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2020). This leads to mismanagement of client conditions, increased risk for disease and disability, reduced health promotion and disease prevention behaviors, and negative client outcomes. One overarching goal of Healthy People 2030 is to “eliminate health disparities, achieve health equity, and attain health literacy to improve the health and well-being of all” (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2021, para 1). Healthy People 2023 defines two types of health literacy, personal and organizational. Personal health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others. Organizational health literacy is the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.
These definitions emphasize an individual’s ability to understand and use health information to make well-informed decisions. Health literacy also involves acting on the understanding of health information in all situations, such as making decisions regarding voting on health-related policy, choosing a health care provider, or even choosing where to live (Santana et al., 2021). The organizational definition acknowledges that organizations are responsible for addressing health literacy and ensuring equity of health literacy.
Health care is a culture with its own language and systems that are unfamiliar to many clients. This includes clients who speak English, those with limited English proficiency, and those who have difficulty reading and using numbers. Health information and health care services may be challenging to find, understand, and use, yet health literacy is key in understanding and applying health information. This video describes populations at greatest risk for health literacy challenges and strategies nurses, other health care professionals, and organizations can use to improve health literacy.
Watch the video, and then respond to the following questions.
- What populations are at greatest risk for literacy challenges?
- What can organizations and health professionals do to improve health literacy?
- What are strategies nurses may use to check that clients understand information?
Population Health Literacy Assessment to Guide Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Activities
Including health literacy assessment as a component of the CHA helps the nurse understand the health education needs of individuals and communities. The health literacy level of individuals, aggregates , and community guides health promotion and disease prevention activities. An aggregate is a specific subgroup of a community or population. Individual, aggregate, and community health literacy skill levels impact health-related decisions and behaviors. Three levels of health literacy include functional, interactive, and critical (Table 17.7) (Nutbeam & Muscat, 2020). Understanding health literacy levels guides the nurse in choosing appropriate health promotion and disease prevention activities that align with the client’s current health literacy level and enhance health literacy by utilizing activities associated with the next level. Health literacy assessment should be ongoing to evaluate the effectiveness of health promotion and disease promotion activities.
| Health Literacy Level | Skills Present | Activities to Enhance Health Literacy | Examples of Activities |
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| Functional health literacy |
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| Interactive health literacy |
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| Critical health literacy |
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Health Literacy Assessment Tools
Including health literacy assessment as a component of the CHA helps the nurse understand the health education needs of individuals and communities. CHA teams can include health literacy assessment questions in CHA surveys, interviews with key community partners, and focus groups. Individual assessment of health literacy of targeted, high-risk populations can occur using a personal health literacy assessment tool. Organization health literacy assessment tools are available to assess community health systems. Including the results of this information in the final CHA report will highlight a community’s educational health literacy needs and changes needed within community health systems to enhance the health literacy of consumers. Health literacy assessment tools are available to assess health literacy skills at the personal and organizational levels.
Personal Health Literacy Assessment Tools
Personal health literacy assessment tools measure an individual’s ability to find, understand, and use health-related information and services and help the nurse determine a client’s health literacy level. The client’s health literacy level will guide interventions, including educational tools the nurse uses to provide health information and to improve health literacy.
Multiple tools are available that measure different aspects of health literacy. For example, The Health Literacy Tool Shed (Boston University, 2023) is an online database that contains information about health literacy assessment tools. Over 200 free and paid tools are available to measure terminology comprehension, application, information seeking and eHealth, and media comprehension of medicine, dentistry, genetic, and general health literacy. Tools are available for adults and youth in a variety of languages and for specific diagnoses such as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, HIV, infectious disease, intellectual disability, kidney transplant, mental health, oral health, and vascular surgery.
Organizational Health Literacy Assessment Tools
Organizational health literacy assessment guides health promotion and disease prevention activities at the organizational and systems level. Organizational health literacy assessment tools identify areas of strength and areas for improvement. These findings guide the organization in health literacy improvement efforts at the systems level. Assessment findings should be reported to the organization’s committee that deals with health literacy and key organization administrators. For example, the Health Literacy Environment of Hospitals and Health Centers (HLE2) tool measures organizational policies, institutional practices (resources, staff orientation and development, and expectations), navigation within the organization (signage and staff assistance), culture and language (respect for diversity, language serves, and staff training), and communication (print materials, forms, websites, and patient portals). The HLE2 suggests focusing on percentage scores for each section of the assessment tool as a way to identify strengths and weaknesses, select priority areas, and generate ideas for action (Rudd et al., 2019).
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2020) created the AHRQ Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit to help organizations take steps to simplify communication and confirm client comprehension, improve navigation of the environment and health care system, and support efforts to improve health. The CDC (2019b) provides additional resources to assess organizational health literacy and tools to train staff, develop client materials, meet the needs of consumers with a range of health literacy skills, improve access to health information and services, and communicate clearly during crises.
Learning Process for Knowledge Acquisition
Disease prevention and health promotion begin with education of the individual and communities. Education is the establishment and arrangement of events to facilitate learning and skill development. Learning is the process of gaining knowledge and skills that lead to behavioral changes. Effective evidence-based community education programs are needed to increase health literacy, decrease health disparities, promote disease prevention, and promote health. Learning theories, health promotion models, and educational principles explain behavior and assist nurses in guiding community health strategies and choosing which intervention will be more likely to increase learning. Nurses should consider the identified health problem, population, and context of the planned program when choosing a learning theory or model. Often disease prevention and health promotion programs utilize one or more theories or models.
Selected Learning Theories
To provide effective health education to individuals and communities, nurses must understand the three domains of learning—cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. The cognitive domain is related to knowledge and includes thinking, memory, recognition, understanding, and application, moving from simple to complex. An example is the learner stating three signs of diabetes. The affective domain is related to perceptions and feelings, including changes in attitudes and development values. An example is a client with diabetes stating they feel as if they can manage their symptoms. The psychomotor domain is the performance of skills that require neuromuscular coordination. Learning in this domain depends on ability, a sensory image of how to carry out the skill, and practice. An example is self-administration of insulin.
Learning theories frequently used in community health education programs include behaviorism , social cognitive learning theory , constructivism , and adult learning theory . Planning Community Health Education discusses learning theories in more detail.
Factors That Influence Learning and Knowledge Acquisition
Nurses must consider factors that influence learning and knowledge acquisition when planning disease prevention and health promotion community educational programs. Age, culture, language, reading and comprehension skills, technology, and learner characteristics and experiences influence learning and knowledge acquisition, as do educator characteristics, experiences, and preparation. Learner characteristics include health literacy, self-efficacy, and motivation. Educator characteristics and preparation are public speaking, teaching or classroom/group management, choice of learning theory and teaching strategy, and planning.
Educator preparation and planning significantly impact the factors that influence learning and knowledge acquisition. Following the steps in the development of community education programs and choosing effective, evidence-based theories and strategies decrease both learner-related and educator-related barriers to learning. The educational method chosen should meet the learning needs of the population and have the greatest impact.
- Identify population learning need.
- Establish goals and objectives.
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Select appropriate educational methods.
- Select learning theories to use.
- Consider educational principles that are most appropriate.
- Examine educational issues/barriers.
- Design and implement the educational program.
- Evaluate the educational process and effects of the program.
Identifying a population’s learning needs occurs with community health assessment; these needs are then prioritized in the analysis phase. Assessment also identifies a population’s age, culture and language, educational level, and potential barriers to learning. Individual learner assessment can be used to clarify those learning needs and identify learner characteristics, including learning style, health literacy, and readiness to learn.
Educational methods should align with the age and developmental level of the target population. Pedagogy , where the teacher holds full responsibility for the teaching-learning process, is appropriate for children. Additionally, younger children require concrete examples, interactive activities, and repetition for knowledge acquisition. In contrast, adults learn best using andragogy, where learners share the responsibility of developing learning goals. This corresponds with the principles of adult learning theory .
When choosing educational methods, nurses should consider the target population's cultural beliefs, language barriers, educational level, health literacy, and motivation. Content and materials should align with cultural beliefs. Multilingual materials (presentation and written) may be needed. Additionally, because more than half the U.S. population ages 16 to 74 reads below a sixth-grade reading level (Schmidt, 2022), written educational materials should use plain language and be no higher than a fourth- to sixth-grade reading level (CDC, 2022). Content and materials should also align with health literacy levels. Refer to Table 17.7 for examples of teaching strategies for functional, interactive, or critical health literacy levels. Finally, aligning a learner’s motivation with the chosen teaching strategy facilitates learning.
Because individuals process information differently, nurses should consider the target population’s learning styles when choosing educational methods. Visual learners think in pictures or images and learn best through seeing and visualization. Appropriate educational methods for visual learners include taking notes and viewing videos, presentations, and pictures or images. Auditory learners process information and learn best through listening; appropriate educational methods are verbal lecture, discussion, music, podcasts, and reading aloud. Tactile-kinesthetic learners process information and learn best through doing and exploration. Appropriate educational methods are learning by trial and error, hands-on or interactive activities, and return demonstration.
Theory should be a foundation for community program planning and development and is consistent with the current emphasis on using evidence-based interventions in public health (Lhachimi et al., 2016) The chosen theory’s assumptions about a behavior, health problem, target population, or environment should be a good fit, logical, consistent with observations, similar to those used in previous successful programs, and supported by research (National Cancer Institute, 2005).
Finally, the educator considers the learning environment. To stimulate learning and reduce barriers, nurses should create a comfortable, distraction-free environment that encourages interaction. The educator needs experience managing a learning environment and the skills to minimize distractions, present content to enhance learner comprehension, evaluate teaching methods throughout the learning process, modify plans as needed to meet learner needs, and manage technology.


9.8.S: Linkage and Mapping (Summary)
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- Ying Liu
- City College of San Francisco
- Recombination is defined as any process that results in gametes with combinations of alleles that were not present in the gametes of a previous generation.
- The recombination frequency between any two loci depends on their relative chromosomal locations.
- Unlinked loci show a maximum 50% recombination frequency.
- Loci that are close together on a chromosome are linked and tend to segregate with the same combinations of alleles that were present in their parents.
- Crossovers are a normal part of most meioses, and allow for recombination between linked loci.
- Measuring recombination frequency is easiest when starting with pure-breeding lines with two alleles for each locus, and with suitable lines for test crossing.
- Because recombination frequency is usually proportional to the distance between loci, recombination frequencies can be used to create genetic maps.
- Recombination frequencies tend to underestimate map distances, especially over long distances, since double crossovers may be genetically indistinguishable from non-recombinants.
- Three-point crosses can be used to determine the order and map distance between of three loci, and can correct for some of the double crossovers between the two outer loci.
Key Terms
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linkage recombination independent assortment crossover recombinant genotype parental genotype unlinked recombination frequency (RF) |
complete (absolute) linkage incomplete (partial) linkage syntenic synapsis coupling (cis) configuration repulsion(trans) configuration |
repulsion map units (mu) centiMorgans (cM) genetic map conserved synteny double-crossover three-point cross |


14.3: Discussion- Climate Change
Discussion 5
Climate Change
Introduction
This week’s discussion guidelines are different from the previous discussions.
We will be having a conversation about climate change and the ways in it which it might personally affect you or your family. You should have some basic knowledge about the subject and can make educated post(s).
For this discussion, you will write an intial post and reply to at least TWO of your classmates’ posts. Follow the guidelines for each posting below:
Basic Guidelines for Initial Post
(20 points, required)
1. Watch the following two NASA visualizations on how CO2 concentrations change throughout the year in Earth’s atmosphere:
2-D model of CO2 concentrations
3-D model of CO2 concentrations
2. Click on “Start a New Thread”. You need to include all of the following in your own thread:
- Answer the following questions thoroughly. Each question should be addressed in the form of a paragraph (3-5 sentences each):
- Why do you think CO2 concentrations are generally higher in the Northern Hemisphere?
- Why should we be concerned about climate change on a global scale?
- How might climate change affect you or your family personally, either presently or in the future?
- What are some actions you can reasonably take to curtail (reduce) CO2 emissions in your life?
Initial post must be made before 3 days (72 hours) before the discussion closes.
Basic Guidelines for Replies to Students
(10 points, required)
- Each reply must contain 6 or 7 meaningful sentences directly related to article content. Phrases like “that is a great article!” and “I really liked your summary” do not count as meaningful content. However, these are still encouraging phrases in support of your peers so please feel free to include them in your post.
- You must reply to at least 2 other students. (3, or more, for extra credit.)
- If your replies are too short, you will need to make more than 2 replies to reach your full sentence count for the discussion (2 replies x 6 or 7 sentences each = 12-14 sentences required in each discussion).
- Do not wait until the last day of the discussion to make your replies. You only receive credit for one reply (up to 10 points max) on the last day.
- Reply early and often, and earning your full discussion points will be easy!
Extra Credit
(5 points, optional)
Make a third reply (or more!) to a student following the guidelines above.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of your participation in the discussion, you will become more aware of others’ concerns with a changing climate. You will begin to think more broadly about how climate change affects Earth’s systems, features, and population on a global scale. You will practice critical thinking skills with regard to a current and relevant issue in geology and the scientific community in general.
Grading Rubric
Initial Post
20 points : Initial post met length and content requirements
15 points : Initial post needs minor improvements in length and content
10 points : Initial post needs major improvements in length or content
5 points : Initial post was made but with very little effort
0 points : Initial post was not made
Reply posts (each)
5 points : Reply was thoughtful, relevant, and met length requirements.
4 points : Reply needs minor improvements in relevancy and/or length.
2.5 points : Reply needs major improvements in relevancy and/or length.
1 points : Reply was made but with very little effort.
0 points : Reply was not made.


10.10: Conclusion
Humans migrated to the Americas by 15,000 BCE and perhaps as many as 3,000 years before. The earliest recognizable civilizations in the Americas were in Mesoamerica and began during the Archaic period, ten thousand years ago. Farmers in Mesoamerica began to cultivate crops such as corn, squash, beans, chilies, manioc, and sweet potatoes. During Mesoamerica’s more recent Formative Period, the rise of the Olmec Civilization occurred. They would be followed by several others, most notably the Maya, and further to the north the Aztec Empire that was at its height when the Spanish arrived in 1519.
Around 3,000 BCE, small campsites and fishing villages began to appear in Peru. These were eventually replaced by more permanent structures and agriculture communities which would be the antecedents to the incredibly complex cultures of the Classical Andes in Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Colombia. Among these Pacific Coast cultures were the Moche, the Huari, the Chimu, and the Nazca. Many of these cultures had their political and cultural centers in large urban areas like Tiwanaku , which had a population of about 40,000 people around 100 CE. More than 1,000 years later, it was the Inca Empire that would build on these cultural traditions, extending its rule over more than 5,000 kilometers from Ecuador to Chile.
Sedentary culture first began in North America when people in the desert southwest of the continent began to cultivate maize about three thousand years ago. Groups like the Chaco Anasazi in New Mexico would eventually construct massive complexes of aqueducts, homes, and ceremonial spaces by about 1000 CE. There were other major cultural areas all over North America, from Florida to the frigid Arctic.
Despite (or perhaps because of) their late arrival in the Americas, humans developed at an incredible pace all across the region. The residents of the Americas developed remarkable political sophistication, infrastructure, religion, art, economic integration, and technology that Europeans marveled at when they arrived in the late fifteenth century.


3.4: Accidental Criminals
Most people attempt to obey the law in their daily lives, but what happens when someone unintentionally commits a crime? A mistake or moment of not paying attention could lead to someone breaking the law without even realizing what they have done. Breaking the law, whether accidentally or intentionally, can lead to serious consequences if the person is found guilty, so it is important to understand the law.
Accident vs Intent
Mens Rea is a legal term that refers to the mental condition in which a person needs to be in to establish whether or not they committed a crime intentionally. A person that accidentally walks off with another person’s jacket in a public area will most likely have a very similar jacket themselves in the same location. The person lacking Mens Rea (criminal mind) would attempt to find the real owner of the jacket once they realize their mistake. By contrast, a person that takes a jacket that he has never seen before, puts it on and then leaves is most likely aware that it does not belong to him and had the criminal intent.
A parent pushing their crying baby through a department store may place items on the stroller with the intent to purchase the items. While tending to the child and attempting to pay for other items, they might forget about the items on the stroller and leave the store without paying for them. Once the parent realizes their mistake, if they are innocent they will most likely return the property to the store, thus throwing in doubt intent and lending credibility to it being an accident.
Sometimes minor crimes will be excused if the officer, prosecutor or judge determines them to be accidental, however there are some laws that end in prosecution regardless of the circumstances or intent. Driving under the influence of alcohol or a controlled substance is an example of Strict Liability. Strict Liability laws do not require criminal liability. Anyone committing the action can be arrested or prosecuted even if they did so unwittingly.
A man might decide to have two glasses of whiskey with dinner and then drive his car to take his date home, believing that he has only consumed a small amount of alcohol and will not be over the legal limit. However, the glasses of whiskey may have been larger than standard servings. A person found operating a vehicle while over the legal alcohol limit will always be prosecuted. Bartenders that unknowingly serve alcohol to minors are also liable to be prosecuted for their actions even if they did not intend to break the law.
An example of a strict-liability prosecution occurred in New Mexico in 1996, Bobby Unser, a three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, went snowmobiling with a friend. A snowstorm blew in causing whiteout conditions, resulting in Unser and his friend becoming trapped. After two full days and nights, the men found a building with a phone, and called for help. Unser informed the U.S. Forest Service of the incident and was prosecuted for entering a wilderness area even though there was no intent he planned to violate the law. Unser was convicted and fined by a United States Federal Court District Judge. The conviction was appealed and upheld by the Appellate Court.


8.2: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity
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- Krischa Esquivel, Emily Elam, Jennifer Paris, & Maricela Tafoya
- College of the Canyons
Introduction
Chapter 8: Race, Ethnicity, and Language
Introduction
Culture, Race, and Ethnicity
Culture, language, ethnicity, race, and national origin are related concepts by which individuals are assigned to social groups, but they are not one and the same. For example, persons of African descent living in the Caribbean, Latin America, Nigeria, South Africa, or the United States may be classified as falling within the same racial category, but they belong to different cultural groups. Jamaican or Haitian families living in California may be lumped into the same racial or ethnic category as Black or African American families that have lived in the United States for generations. Although language, ethnicity, and national origin may be associated with culture, none of them alone define a specific cultural group. For example, Spanish speakers in Europe, Mexico, Africa, Central or South America, and the United States share a language with common features, but may have divergent cultures and self-identify with different racial groups.
National origin—such as being from China, Sudan, or Peru—does not sufficiently specify a cultural group because within each of these nations exist groups with several distinct cultures. Racial group is sometimes confused with cultural group. Race is a social construct that has no basis in culture, biology, or genetics. Race is a social category that is based either on self-identification or how individuals are seen by others. This means that the traditional ethnic and racial categories such as those used in the U.S. Census are social categories that fail to specify culture even though they continue to be interpreted by many as cultural categories. [93]
In the U.S. Census, there are five categories of race:
- American Indian or Alaska Native. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.
- Asian. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
- Black or African American. A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. Terms such as "Haitian" can be used in addition to "Black or African American."
- Hispanic or Latino. A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. The term, "Spanish origin," can be used in addition to "Hispanic or Latino."
- Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
- White. A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
Ethnicity comes closer to defining cultural groups than race or national origin, but it is not a perfect match. Ethnicity refers to a group’s identity and denotes a people bound by a common broad past. Members of an ethnic group often share a common ancestry, history, and sometimes language. To the extent that an ethnic group uses a common language, shares practices and beliefs, and has a common history, members of ethnic groups may be said to share a culture. However, ethnicity and culture are not always the same. Individuals may not necessarily identify strongly with the group to which they are assigned (in the minds of others). Nevertheless, ethnicity is a useful concept because it signals a group identity and a sense of connection and belonging. [94]
In the U.S. Census there are only two ethnicity categories : "Hispanic or Latino" and "Not Hispanic or Latino." [95] But the idea that all Latinos are white or nonwhite is inaccurate. The idea that a large subgroup all has one big group identity is superficial and does not represent the reality today in California. [96]
Demographic Information for Young Children in California
In 2010, of the more than 2.5 million children under the age of five living in California, about half of these children were Latino (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). It is important to note that Latinos may be of any race, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. White non-Latino children make up 30 percent of children under five in California, Asian-Pacific Islanders make up 10 percent, Black or African Americans make up 6 percent, and the remaining 4 percent represent a wide range of ethnic groups (Whitebook, Kipnis, and Bellm 2008). [97]
Collectivist Versus Individualist Cultures
A feature that has often been used to distinguish societies and cultural groups is where they fall along a continuum from individualist to collectivist orientations.
In collectivist societies, the self is defined principally in terms of identity with the group (Roland 1988). When what may be good for the whole competes with what may be good for the individual, the good of the whole takes precedence. In societies at the collectivist end of the continuum, children are imbued with the sense that their behavior will reflect for the good or the bad on the rest of the group. They may be instilled with a sense of shame if they behave in a way that reflects badly on the group.
In a family with an individualist cultural orientation, each child has his or her own possessions. In some families with a more collectivistic perspective, private ownership is downplayed and everything is shared. When the family has that perspective, they may require sharing from infancy on; whereas someone with a child development background or a more individualistic orientation might hold the view that the child must understand the concept of ownership before he or she can become a truly sharing person and that understanding usually starts in the second year of life. Sharing of the program’s toys and materials is expected; however, if the child brings something from home, possessiveness is expected and there may be different rules about that in the program.
Individualist versus collectivist orientation should be understood as a tendency in a society rather than an absolute characteristic. Few would claim that pure forms of individualist and collectivist societies exist. Both orientations exist in most cultural groups, to varying degrees. This tendency is especially relevant in the context of teaching and learning, where children whose families emphasize a collectivist orientation may be more familiar with learning settings that focus more on group experiences and learning, while individualist orientations focus on individual work and learning, not in relation to the group. Individualist and collectivist orientations coexist within the same society. [99]
What Programs Can Do
Because of the diversity and dynamism of cultures represented in California’s early childhood programs, efforts to profile cultural groups would be quickly outdated. In addition to the practices in Chapters 3 and 4, programs can also use Culturally Responsive Strength-Based (CRSB) Framework, which is used by Head Start, to address diversity. This framework presents the big picture and identifies the program pieces that support the growth and development of all children.
Figure 8.2: The elements of the CRSB Framework. [100]
Coupled with a culturally responsive approach, the CRSB Framework is a strength-based approach. The focus is on what children know and can do as opposed to what they cannot do or what they do not know. Cultural, family, and individual strengths are emphasized, not just the negative and proposed interventions to “fix the problem” that resides with the children, their families, and/or their communities.
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The strengths approach has a contagious quality and it intuitively makes sense to those who reflect a “cup half full” attitude in life. — Hamilton & Zimmerman, 2012 If we ask people to look for deficits, they will usually find them, and their view of the situation will be colored by this. If we ask people to look for successes, they will usually find it, and their view of the situation will be colored by this. — Kral, 1989 (as cited in Hamilton & Zimmerman, 2012) [101] |
The CRSB Framework should be used with the understanding that children are influenced by many environments, as represented in a bioecological systems model. A bioecological systems model captures the variety of environments that impact individual development over the course of a lifetime. Young children do not live in a vacuum, but co-exist in many environments that affect their development, starting with the family, extending into the community, and reaching out into the economic and political spheres.


11.4: What does it mean to be an ethical teacher?
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By: T. Burrell
Introduction
“In teaching, as in life more generally, core principles relating to virtues such as honesty, justice, fairness, care, empathy, integrity, courage, respect and responsibility should guide conduct and interpersonal relations” (Campbell, 2006, p. 32). These virtues are a good description of what an ethical teacher should be, but the use of these virtues can be a difficult task when a teacher is faced with so many unpredictable situations in the classroom and in the school system. The teacher’s knowledge of what ethics is and the practice of it, will aid the teacher in making the best decision when ethical predicaments arise in their daily teaching lives.
Knowledge
Ethical knowledge is an intrinsic feature of awareness between moral and ethical principles. A teacher’s possession of these principles will allow teachers to display moral and ethical values, which includes a sense of right and wrong, treating others with respect, being objective, patient and compassionate. Embodying ethical knowledge gives the teacher the ability to practice their teaching skills with morals and ethics and not just viewing their job as being teaching only. It goes beyond the curriculum, assessment and technical conditions of the profession. The practicing of ethical knowledge by the teacher can be modeled by returning graded papers to the student in a timely manner, by being sensitive to the use of classroom materials that may offend some students, using precaution when displaying a student’s work or by selecting student achievement without bias. The use of ethical knowledge by a teacher can be expressed by the way a teacher projects the tone of his/her voice towards the student, by avoiding student embarrassment and by reminding students of how their behavior can affect other classmates. There are many ways to show how a teacher can demonstrate their ethical knowledge, but a teacher can only do but so much to implement moral and ethical behavior on a daily basis. As we may know, teaching can be a very demanding profession, with moments of chaos, frustration and unexpected events of the day. This tells us that a teacher’s reaction to these situations cannot be choreographed and why the practice of ethical knowledge can help teachers become aware of their “ethical” behavior when such events occur (Campbell).
Personal
The personal ethics for each individual teacher varies according to the teacher’s belief of what is ethical. Each teacher may believe that their interpretation of ethics is being practiced in their behavior and in their personal lives and if this is true, then he/she is demonstrating “ethical principles” and “virtues” of a “moral person” and a “moral professional (Covaleskie,2005,p. 134).” By demonstrating the characteristics of ethics and virtue in the classroom with the use of actions, attitudes and words will make a positive impact on the many students that the teacher will come into contact with throughout their teaching career. This demonstration of ethics will also let the student know, “that if I respect you, then you can respect me” (Campbell).
Classroom
Classroom ethics involve issues the teacher comes into contact with on daily basis concerning their students within the classroom. A teacher is placed in the position of deciding what is the ethical thing to do when issues such as student consideration, content coverage and assessment arises. The assessment issue or better “known as grading” should have “fair standards” that shows the student’s knowledge of the curricula. The teacher has to decide what impact the grade given, will have on the student’s future career choices, the school’s reputation and the parents of the student. The teacher also has to decide the best way to explain to a student why they received an unsatisfactory grade on a specific assignment. The explanation may not be an easy one, but it is only to help improve the student’s academic performance. The content the teacher brings into the classroom questions the teacher’s ethics of what “subject matter” they want to include in their instructions. The teacher has to decide whether there will be enough time to cover each skill of the content area and if there is, “Should some critical thinking skills be included even though my school does not require its coverage? Or, should I just leave out the difficult parts of the course content, even though the students will need it (Kienzler)?” The teacher also has to decide which actions to take, especially when considering the emotional needs of the student. Content of a subject matter that is being discussed in the classroom may reflect upon the home-life of a student whose mother and father maybe going through a divorce or the loss of a parent. How does a teacher deal with these issues in the classroom? And how certain subject matter is taught? Each of these questions requires “that one is not only doing the right thing, but doing it in the right way, at the right time and for the right reasons” (Covaleskie, 2005, p. 134).
School
The ethics of the school may not agree with the ethics of a teacher. A teacher may be faced with numerous moral problems when it concerns the school’s leadership practice of disciplining students. The teacher may question the reason behind the discipline and whether or not it will deter or increase future student behavior (Colnerud,2006,p. 378). Ethical tensions do exist within schools among individual teachers (Allison,2003,p. 124). A teacher may see a colleague mistreating a student and try to make a decision of whether or not to intervene in the situation. “The teacher cannot bring himself/herself to intervene; the teacher says that fear is the reason for their silence and that intervening is considered to be a breach of loyalty (Colnerud, 2006, p.378).” This is a clear example of what teachers deal with on a daily basis in relation to the ethics of their colleagues.
"The Educator, believing in the worth and dignity of each human being, recognizes the supreme importance of the pursuit of truth, devotion to excellence and nurture of the democratic principles. Essential to these goals is the protection of freedom to learn and to teach and the guarantee of equal educational opportunity for all. The educatior accepts the responsibility to adhere to the highest ethical standards." - The National Education Association's preamble for its code of ethics.
Dilemmas
Teachers encounter ethical dilemmas throughout their teaching careers. This brings up the question, “How do teachers deal with deciding what is the right or wrong thing to do when such dilemmas arise?” When a teacher is faced with ethical and moral dilemmas concerning their students and profession, they use specific codes of ethics written by many educational organizations to help them make ethical decisions. Teachers do need a guide when they are faced with the decisions of what to do if a child has a learning disability, what content matter should be taught, what should be done in defense of a student and a number of other events that will require ethical decisions. The National Education Association (NEA) has created a code of ethics for the different occupational needs of the teaching profession. The NEA created their code of ethics in 1975, which is divided into two sections. The first section lists eight ethical commitments the teacher has to the student and the second section also lists eight ethical commitments the teacher has to his/her profession(Brady, Buchotz and Keller).
National Education Association Ethics Indicators for Educators
Commitment to the Student
- Restraint of individual action and pursuit of learning
- Access to varying points of view
- Do not distort subject matter
- Protect students from harm
- Do not embarrass or disparage
- Do not discriminate
- Do not use professional relationship for private advantage
- Do not disclose confidential information
Commitment to the Profession
- Do not make false statements in application of a position
- Do not misrepresent qualifications
- Do not assist someone unqualified gain entry into the profession
- Do not make false statements concerning a candidate’s qualifications
- Do not assist a noneducator in the unauthorized practice of teaching
- Do not disclose personal information about a colleague unless required by law
- Do not knowingly make false statements about a colleague
- Do not accept any gift or favor that might influence professional decisions
Conclusion
Possessing what it takes to be an ethical teacher can be a difficult task for many teachers, especially when he/she encounters unsuspecting events on a daily basis that will require an ethical decision, which may not be the exact right answer. Hopefully, it will be the ethical answer. This decision making is a great responsibility placed on the teacher, no matter how long one has been in the profession. One can only hope that the years or months of teaching has taught you enough to know what to do when ethical dilemmas occur in the classroom or within the school system.
References
Allison, Derek J. (2004). Reviews the book “The Ethical Teacher,” by Elizabeth Campbell. American Journal of Education. 111(1), 122-126.
Brady, Michael P., Bucholz, Jessica L., & Keller, Cassandra L. (2007). Teachers Ethical Dilemmas: What Would You Do? Teaching Exceptional Children, 40(2), 60-64.
Campbell, Elizabeth. (2006). Ethical Knowledge in Teaching: A Moral Imperative of Professionalism . Education Canada. 46(4), 32-35.
Colnerud, Gunnel. (2006). Teacher ethics as a research problem: syntheses achieved and new issues. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice . 12(3), 365-385.
Covaleskie, John F. (2005). Ethical Teachers: Ethical People . Philosophy of Education Yearbook, 34-136.
Kienzler, Donna. (2004). Teaching Ethics Isn’t Enough . Journal of Business Communication. 41(3), 292-301.


4.5: Small Business
- How do small businesses contribute to the U.S. economy?
Although large corporations dominated the business scene for many decades, in recent years small businesses have once again come to the forefront. Downsizing accompanying economic downturns have caused many people to look toward smaller companies for employment, and they have plenty to choose from. Small businesses play an important role in the U.S. economy, representing about half of U.S. economic output, employing about half the private sector workforce, and giving individuals from all walks of life a chance to succeed.
What Is a Small Business?
How many small businesses are there in the United States? Estimates range from 5 million to over 22 million, depending on the size limits government agencies and other groups use to define a small business or the number of businesses with or without employees. The Small Business Administration (SBA) established size standards to define whether a business entity is small and, therefore, eligible for government programs and preferences reserved for “small businesses.” Size standards are based on the types of economic activity or industry, generally matched to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) (U.S. Small Business Administration, 2018).
Small businesses are defined in many ways. Statistics for small businesses vary based on criteria such as new/ start-up businesses, the number of employees, total revenue, length of time in business, non-employees, businesses with employees, geographic location, and so on. Due to the complexity and need for consistent statistics and reporting for small businesses, several organizations are now working together to combine comprehensive data sources to get a clear and accurate picture of small businesses in the United States. Table 4.4 provides a more detailed look at small-business owners.
| Snapshot of Small-Business Owners |
|---|
Sources: Kauffman. (2016a). The Kauffman index: Main Street entrepreneurship: National trends. http://www.kauffman.org . Kauffman. (2016b). Kauffman Index of Startup Activity, 2016 (calculations based from CPS, BDS, and BED). http://www.kauffman.org . United States Census Bureau. (2016). America’s entrepreneurs: September 2016. https://www.census.gov . United States Census Bureau. (2024). Nearly 1 in 10 businesses with employees are new, according to inaugural annual survey of entrepreneurs.” https://www.census.gov . |
Table 4.4
One of the best sources for tracking U.S. entrepreneurial growth activity is the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation . The Kauffman Foundation is among the largest private foundations in the country, with an asset base of approximately $2 billion, and focuses on projects that encourage entrepreneurship and support education through grants and research activities. They distributed over $17 million in grants in 2013 (The Kauffman Foundation, 2018).
The Kauffman Foundation supports new business creation in the United States through two research programs. The annual Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurship series measures and interprets indicators of U.S. entrepreneurial activity at the national, state, and metropolitan level. The foundation also contributes to the cost of the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs (ASE), which is a public–private partnership between the foundation, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Minority Business Development Agency. The ASE provides annual data on select economic and demographic characteristics of employer businesses and their owners by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status (United States Census Bureau, 2023). The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurship series is an umbrella of annual reports that measures how people and businesses contribute to America’s overall economy. What is unique about the Kauffman reports is that the indexes don’t focus on only inputs (as most small-business reporting has been done in the past); it reports primarily on entrepreneurial outputs—the actual results of entrepreneurial activity, such as new companies, business density, and growth rates. The reports also include comprehensive, interactive data visualizations that enable users to slice and dice a myriad of data nationally, at the state level, and for the 40 largest metropolitan areas (The Kauffman Foundation, 2024).
The Kauffman Index series consists of three in-depth studies—Start-up Activity, Main Street Entrepreneurship, and Growth Entrepreneurship.
- The Kauffman Index of Startup Activity is an early indicator of new entrepreneurship in the United States. It focuses on new business creation activity and people engaging in business start-up activity. it uses three components: the rate of new entrepreneurs, the opportunity share of new entrepreneurs, and start-up density.
- The Kauffman Index of Main Street Entrepreneurship measures established small-business activity—focusing on U.S. businesses more than five years old with less than 50 employees from 1997 to 2016. Established in 2015, it considers three components of local, small-business activity: the rate of business owners in the economy, the five-year survival rate of businesses, and the established small business density.
- The Kauffman Growth Entrepreneurship Index is a composite measure of entrepreneurial business growth in the United States that captures growth entrepreneurship in all industries and measures business growth from both revenue and job perspectives. Established in 2016, it includes three component measures of business growth: rate of start-up growth, share of scale-ups, and high-growth company density.
Data sources for the Kauffman Index calculations are based on Current Population Survey (CPS), with sample sizes of more than 900,000 observations, and the Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS), which covers approximately 5 million businesses. The Growth Entrepreneurship Index also includes Inc. 500/5000 data).
Small businesses in the United States can be found in almost every industry, including services, retail, construction, wholesale, manufacturing, finance and insurance, agriculture and mining, transportation, and warehousing. Established small businesses are defined as companies that have been in business at least five years and employ at least one, but less than 50, employees. Table 4.5 provides the number of employees by the size of established business. More than half of small businesses have between one and four employees.
| Number of Employees, by Percentage of Established Small Businesses |
|---|
| Number of Employees | Percentage of Businesses |
|---|---|
| 1-4 employees | 53.07% |
| 5-9 employees | 23.23% |
| 10-19 employees | 14.36% |
| 20-49 employees | 9.33% |
Table 4.5 Source: Kauffman Foundation calculations from Business Dynamics Statistics, yearly measures. November 2016.
- What are three ways small businesses can be defined?
- What social and economic factors have prompted the rise in small business?


1: Introduction to Communication
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Successful students will be able to:
About 70% of our days are spent communicating (Alberts, Martin, & Nakayama, 2016), either face-to-face or through mediated platforms, such as email or text message. Yet, we often overestimate how well others understand us and how well we understand others. The purpose of this text is to provide knowledge and skills to help minimize miscommunication in interactions and increase communication competence. Even though we have been communicating our entire life, there are always ways to improve and techniques we can learn to be more effective and accomplish our goals, in both personal and professional contexts. In this chapter, we will begin our journey into communication by becoming familiar with the communication process, addressing contextual considerations, exploring the principles of communication, and discussing communication competence.


9.1: Chemical Equilibria
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Describe the nature of equilibrium systems
- Explain the dynamic nature of a chemical equilibrium
Introduction
Imagine a beach populated with sunbathers and swimmers. As those basking in the sun get too hot, they enter the surf to swim and cool off. As the swimmers tire, they return to the beach to rest. If the rate at which sunbathers enter the surf were to equal the rate at which swimmers return to the sand, then the numbers (though not the identities) of sunbathers and swimmers would remain constant. This scenario illustrates a dynamic phenomenon known as equilibrium , in which opposing processes occur at equal rates. Chemical and physical processes are subject to this phenomenon; these processes are at equilibrium when the forward and reverse reaction rates are equal. Equilibrium systems are pervasive in nature; the various reactions involving carbon dioxide dissolved in blood are examples (see Figure 13.1). This chapter provides a thorough introduction to the essential aspects of chemical equilibria. Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) shows the equilibrium system responsible for the removal of carbon dioxide in respiration.
Equilibrium Concepts
The convention for writing chemical equations involves placing reactant formulas on the left side of a reaction arrow and product formulas on the right side. By this convention, and the definitions of “reactant” and “product,” a chemical equation represents the reaction in question as proceeding from left to right. Reversible reactions , however, may proceed in both forward (left to right) and reverse (right to left) directions. When the rates of the forward and reverse reactions are equal, the concentrations of the reactant and product species remain constant over time and the system is at equilibrium . The relative concentrations of reactants and products in equilibrium systems vary greatly; some systems contain mostly products at equilibrium, some contain mostly reactants, and some contain appreciable amounts of both.
Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) illustrates fundamental equilibrium concepts using the reversible decomposition of colorless dinitrogen tetroxide to yield brown nitrogen dioxide, an elementary reaction described by the equation:
Note that a special double arrow is used to emphasize the reversible nature of the reaction.
For this reaction the rate for the forward and the reverse reactions are defined by the following equations:
\begin{aligned} & \text { rate }_f=k_f\left[\mathrm{~N}_2 \mathrm{O}_4\right] \\ & \text { rate }_r=k_r\left[\mathrm{NO}_2\right]^2\end{aligned}
As the reaction begins ( t = 0), the concentration of the N 2 O 4 reactant is finite and that of the NO 2 product is zero, so the forward reaction proceeds at a finite rate while the reverse reaction rate is zero. As time passes, N 2 O 4 is consumed and its concentration falls, while NO 2 is produced and its concentration increases (Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) b ). The decreasing concentration of the reactant slows the forward reaction rate, and the increasing product concentration speeds the reverse reaction rate (Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) c ). This process continues until the forward and reverse reaction rates become equal , at which time the reaction has reached equilibrium, as characterized by constant concentrations of its reactants and products (shaded areas of Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) b and Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\) c ). It’s important to emphasize that chemical equilibria are dynamic; a reaction at equilibrium has not “stopped,” but is proceeding in the forward and reverse directions at the same rate. This dynamic nature is essential to understanding equilibrium behavior as discussed in this and subsequent chapters of the text.
Physical changes, such as phase transitions, are also reversible and may establish equilibria. This concept was introduced in another chapter of this text through discussion of the vapor pressure of a condensed phase (liquid or solid). As one example, consider the vaporization of bromine:
When liquid bromine is added to an otherwise empty container and the container is sealed, the forward process depicted above (vaporization) will commence and continue at a roughly constant rate as long as the exposed surface area of the liquid and its temperature remain constant. As increasing amounts of gaseous bromine are produced, the rate of the reverse process (condensation) will increase until it equals the rate of vaporization and equilibrium is established. A photograph showing this phase transition equilibrium is provided in Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\).