Many Agree That The Cuban Missile Crisis Was The Closest The World Eve

Many agree that the Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war; but exactly how close did it come? The Crisis was ultimately a showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union from October 16 to October 28, 1962. During those thirteen stressful days, the world's two biggest superpowers stood on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe. The Crisis started as a result of both the Soviet Union's fear of losing the arms race, and Cuba's fear of US invasion. The Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, thought that both problems could easily be solved by placing Soviet medium range missiles in Cuba. This deployment would double the Soviet arsenal and protect Cuba from US invasion. Khrushchev proposed this idea to Cuban Premier, Fidel Castro, who, like Khrushchev, saw the strategic advantage. The two premiers worked together in secrecy throughout the late-summer and early-fall of 1962. The Soviets shipped sixty medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) along with their warheads, launch equipment, and necessary operating personnel to Cuba. When United States President, John F. Kennedy discovered the presence of these offensive weapons, he immediately organized EX-COMM, a group of his twelve most important advisors. They spent the next couple of days discussing different possible plans of action and finally decided to remove the US missiles from Turkey and promise not to invade Cuba in exchange for the removal of all offensive weapons in Cuba. On October 28, Khrushchev sent Kennedy a letter stating that he agreed to the terms Kennedy stated, and the crisis ended. The Cuban Missile Crisis can be blamed on the insecurity of Cuba and the Soviet Union. After the United States' unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Castro and end communism in Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, Castro was fearful of another US invasion. The US Armed Forces conducted a mock invasion and drafted a plan to invade Cuba to keep Castro nervous. As a result, Castro thought the US was serious, and he was desperate to find protection. This protection came in the form of sixty Soviet medium-range ballistic missiles. (Detzer 30-32, 39, 55, 68, 87) During his presidential campaign, Kennedy repeatedly stated that the US had less missiles than the Soviets, contradicting the Pentagon's claim that the opposite was true. However, during the summer of 1961, when Khrushchev constructed a wall around West Berlin, the Kennedy Administration revealed to Khrushchev that the US. did, in fact, have more missiles than the Soviet Union. What worried Khrushchev the most, though, was that the Soviet missiles were only powerful enough to be launched against Europe, but the US missiles were capable of striking the entire Soviet Union. He worried that if the Soviet Union lost the arms race that badly, it would invite a nuclear attack from the US. Khrushchev needed a way to counter the United State's lead. (May 49) In April of 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev came up with the idea of installing medium-range missiles in Cuba. Cuba was close enough to the United States that the Soviet missiles would be an effective deterrent to a potential US attack against either the Soviet Union or Cuba. Castro accepted Khrushchev's offer, since it would protect Cuba and, therefore, solve Castro's previous dilemma. In mid-July of 1962, the Soviet Union began its buildup of offensive weapons in Cuba. The Soviets spent most of the late-summer and early-fall of 1962 ferrying launch equipment and personnel necessary for the preparation of missiles to Cuba. Since they could not use military ships (for fear of being discovered) the Soviets used civilian vessels. However, even with this caution, their actions were detected. As the US monitored the suddenly increased shipping activity to Cuba, rumors started in Washington. On August 10, John McCone, director of the CIA, sent the President a letter stating his belief that the Soviets were placing MRBMs in Cuba. On August 29, a U-2 on a reconnaissance flight over Cuba revealed the presence of SA-2 SAM (Surface-to-Air-Missile) sites. On September 4, to calm the Congress and public, Kennedy announced that there were Soviet missiles in Cuba, but that since they were defensive and not offensive, the US had nothing to worry about. Pressured by Congress, Kennedy ordered another U-2 flight over Cuba for October 9. However it was delayed until Sunday, October 14. After the pictures from the reconnaissance flight were analyzed, the National Photographic Interpretation Center found what at first were thought to be more surface-to-air missile sites. A closer look, however, showed six much larger SS-4 nuclear missiles; each 60 to 65 feet long. They now knew they

Is the Family a Fabricated Thing

Is the Family a Fabricated Thing Introduction The family has traditionally occupied a central place in society with communities hailing it as the basic unit of society. Families provide the social core in all societies and the nuclear family is present in all societies in the world. The unifying function of the family has been credited with the development and advancement of societies since time immemorial.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Is the Family a Fabricated Thing? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More For this reason, the family unit is unanimously considered as the basic building block of a successful and functional society. This is the ideal institution within which children are created and brought up in a protected environment until they are able to take care of themselves. The family also serves as a tool for socialization since the shared moral and social values of the community are inculcated in the children withing the family setting. For these reasons, the family is assumed to be an innate experience with some authors suggesting that the family is a natural institution. However, this notion has been questioned by anthropologists whose studies have led them to question the â€Å"naturalness† of the family unit. The findings of these scholars have led them to conclude that the family is not a natural thing but rather a construction of the society. This paper will set out to discuss the ideas of some of the most outstanding anthropologists of the 20th century, Adam Kuper, David Schneider, and Claude Levi-Strauss, in order to show that the family is a fabricated thing. The Idea of the Family The family is regarded as the basic unit of society and at its most base level; it is made up of a man, woman, and their children. Kuper (1982) states that the family preceded the formation of the society and in these early stages, it comprised of a male figure who exercised jurisdiction over his wives and children. Each fami ly paid no regard to the other and acted in its own self-interest. The aggregation of families was the next step in social evolution and the ties of kinship became the basis of societies. The family provided the basis on which societies were ordered with expanded extended families serving as the social core.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Reproduction is universally considered to be the basis of family relations since each person must have a biological father and mother. This simple parent-child relationship makes it possible to perform genealogical tracing since it is a biological fact that a man and a woman must be involved in procreation. Therefore, the concept of kinship was formulated based on this blood relation and relationships though marriage unions between previously unrelated parties. The naturalness of the family has been presupposed for many centuries due to the prevalence of this social grouping. However, the arguments made by anthropologists suggest that the family is a cultural construct. Family: A Fabricated Concept Adam Kuper’s Ideas Adam Kuper suggests that the family was formulated as an organization through which people could live in harmony and accomplish greater exploits. Before the concept of family, each individual acted at his own discretion and there was no order or system of laws in place. Kuper (1982) records that the original state of human society was characterized by promiscuity rather than family life and this status quo was detrimental to the raising of children. This primitive existence was unsustainable since violence and anarchy reigned. The family unit emerged as a more ordered system of procreation within which the child could exist in a more secure environment. As the family concept became more sophisticated, legal paternity became recognized and the child could grow in an environment where he/she h ad a mother and a father. The extended patriarchal family group provided the basis for jural order and continuity (Kuper 1982, p.73). The earliest form of government was therefore based on the family concept. The political ideas were grounded in the assumption that kinship in blood is the sole possible ground of community in political functions (Kuper 2008, p.723). The family was formulated as the best structure to foster social stability and encourage good governance. The prohibition of some relationships in some cultures while the same relationships are allowed in others is further proof that kinship is a culturally constructed concept. Human beings formulate the laws governing who should marry whom and therefore forms a family and they vary from society to society.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Is the Family a Fabricated Thing? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Kuper (2008) documents that in the nineteenth centu ry, there was no crime in incest, and there were no rules articulating which marriages were allowed or forbidden. Before the 1880s, incest was an acceptable practice in England and there were no laws against the practice. The social perception of incest only underwent a radical change when the danger of sexual relations between fathers and daughters, or brothers and sisters began to be publicized by the National Vigilance Association. Following this, incest came to be conceived of as an offence with a victim. Because of this change in public perception, the British Parliament passed a Law in 1907 that made incest a crime and criminalized sexual relationships between members of the immediate family. As such, the family is a fabricated institute that is prone to changes based on the public needs. Kuper (2003) argues that the family was necessary to ensure survival in the primitive societies where division of labour was necessary. In these pre-modern societies, the nuclear family compr ised of male and female enabled the parties to specialize in various activities for sustenance. The males typically acted as the hunters while the females were gatherers within a nuclear family setting. This economic function increased the value of the family and kinship was integral for survival Kuper (2003). It is conceivable that without the economic need of family, this institution would never have been created. Further reinforcing this supposition is the observation by anthropologists that with the rise of the individualist modern society, the economic functions of family have shrunk and each sex can manage to exist without the need of the other. Another indication that family is a fabricated concept is the difference in preference placed on a particular side of the family by different cultures. While some cultures emphasize on matrilineal descent (kin from the mothers lineage), others emphasize on patrilineal descent (kin through the fathers lineage).Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In addition to this, the location of residence differs with some cultures promoting marriage residence at the mothers family house while most promote residence at the fathers family house (Kuper 2003). If the family was a natural construct, there would be universal preferences and all cultures would follow the same conventions. The fact that different ideals are practiced by different cultures proves that family is a human construction. The rapid changes in society that were experienced in the 1950s and 1960s demonstrated that the family was not an integral component of the society. During this period, consensual unions became widespread and the traditional family unit was dismantled in some circles. Some people began to view the family as a major source of discontentment within the society and this greatly discredited the nuclear family as an unshakeable institution. The sentiments of the time are best articulated by Leach who asserts, far from being the basis for the good society, the family with its narrow privacy and tawdry secrets, is the source of all our discontents (Kuper 2003, p.332). The nature of partner relationships has also experienced significant changes over the decades with a marked decline in the importance of the social origin of a partner being exhibited in all modern societies. In the past, great weight was placed on marriage with major kinship involvement in the process (Dykstra 2006). Today, marriage unions are primarily a matter of personal choice and preference with the families on both sides of the partners being involved only marginally. In addition to this, the frequency with which family unions are dissolved has risen tremendously. The increased rate of marriage dissolutions is blamed on the heightened emphasis on the emotional side of relationships, which leads to higher expectations and demands by both partners on each other (Dykstra 2006). In traditional marriage unions, emphasis was placed on the social and material benefits of the union. Claude Levi-Strauss’s Ideas Claude Levi-Strauss is credited with advancing the Structuralism theory in which he argued that the phenomena of the external world are apprehended as having distinct characteristics because of the way our senses communicate these perceptions (Voss 1977). Human beings are predisposed to categorize things into separate units or segments and assign these things named classes. Any material object of culture or belief system is in imitation of human apprehension of nature (Levi-Strauss 1970). Mans perception of nature as segmented is therefore responsible for his view of society as ordered. Advocates of the family as a natural unit might argue for the natural nature of the family structure since it exists universally. Both primitive and civilized societies have some concept of family, which is typically made up of females and at least one male figure either related to the female(s) by blood or by marriage. Levi-Strauss refutes this assertio n by highlighting that cultures are bound to have some similarities since they are all products of human minds (Voss 1977). For this reason, universal features such as the family unit can occur. Levi-Strauss suggests that the basis of marriage rules was to create bonds between otherwise unrelated people. He argues that the since pre-historic times, communities had the option of intermarrying among themselves or giving away their women to other communities (Johnson 2003). The communities that gave away their women cemented political alliances and thus reduced the risk of being annihilated by superior enemies. The incest taboo was formed out of the need to enforce exogamy and therefore increase the societys chances of survival. Voss (1977) best articulates this idea by stating that if survival of a society is dependent upon alliance, strong sanctions against incest must be interdicted (p.28). The family concept was formulated as an important unifying force through which the social coh esion was fostered and propagated. Levi-Strauss formulated the alliance theory in which he argued that sibling groups were linked through the exchange of sisters in marriage thus extending sibling solidarity to larger groupings (Kuper 1982). Levi-Strauss argued that all the pre-modern societies of the world were organized on the basis of cross-cousin marriage (Kuper 2008, p.726). He further stated that the family as a function of marriage was an institution that was formulated to create and maintain alliances. These alliances took place through the exchange between groups as people married for strategic reasons such as to strengthen political alliances (Levi-Strauss 1969). Kinship served the practical purpose of preventing war by setting up a diplomatic alliance between groups. The class structure that is based on family status is a cultural construction. Levi-Strauss considers the practice of totemism an expression of the differences among members of the society. Totemism, which is the naming of individuals or clans after particular plant or animal species, was a widespread practice since historical times (VonSturmer 1970). This practice emerged from the need of man to develop a system of social ordering by giving different class structures. Human beings are able to distinguish each other according to their mutual social status, which is normally articulated in the form of social classification. David Schneider’s Ideas Throughout the 19th century, Americans held the view that the family relationship was biologically given and of huge importance to the society. Many Europeans also shared this assumption and they presumed that kinship was a biological outcome. However, Schneider argues that if this were the case then the same set of ideas would have been developed by other peoples across the world. This is not the case and the family structure varied from continent to continent, and tribe to tribe. For this reason, David Schneider suggested that kinship was a function of civilization and not a feature of primitive society. According to this anthropologist, there is nothing natural about kinship and it is the production of the society. Social conventions alone may lead to a family relationship even if there is no biological relationship between or among parties. This view is corroborated by Johnson (2003) who reveals that a person is regarded as family based on some socially prescribed duties and privileges that the person fulfils in his/her relation to others. The manner in which people act towards each other is based on the concept of kinship, which is a construction of man. Schneider (1984) argues that there is no such thing as kinship and that kinship is in fact a creation of anthropologists and it has no concrete existence. Schneider (1984) suggests that family is a social construction that is useful for the allocation of rights and their transmission from one generation to the next. The family was formulated as an entity throu gh which continuity could be guaranteed. Patrilineage in many societies served as a landholding corporations with parents leaving property to their children. Dykstra (2006) notes that resources are passed down from one generation to the next, in the form of gifts or inheritances for example, or in the form of financial support (p.1). Schneider (1984) theorizes that biological kinship is culturally constructed and it was formulated to help establish paternity with a fair degree of likelihood. He elaborates that primitive man lived at a time when promiscuity prevailed and there was no way of establishing who the childs father was. The concept of marriage of pairs was formulated to help establish paternity and this was the earliest and greatest act of human intelligence. The bonds and ties that are attributed to the sexual reproduction that occurs in the family setting are not natural but a function of the society. Schneider (1984) observes that sexual relations can occur and have sign ificance even outside kinship. However, the social and cultural attributes that are created when sexual reproduction occurs in a nuclear family setting are formulated by the society. Biological relations are for this reason afforded special qualities by the society. This has led to the ties being regarded as natural and inherent in the human condition. The ties between biologically close members are not natural since they would not be special without the social and cultural connotations ascribed to them. The socialization process is responsible for inculcating the concept of kinship in children. As a child grows up in the family, he/she is taught the logic by which his/her specific culture classifies kin and these concepts become ingrained in him/her. The child is often ignorant as to what kinship terms such as â€Å"uncle†, and â€Å"aunty† mean but he/she is brought up to attach special meaning to the relationships. Schneider (1984) points out that the classification s of relatives may extend beyond the simple biological and genetic relationships with stipulated descent being included in the categories. Without the socializing process, the concept of the family would die out as individuals would not be confined to this socially prescribed structure. Schneider strongly rejects the understanding that family has to do with reproduction and he assertively declares that kinship is essentially undefined and vacuous which since it has little that can justify it (Read 2003). The inadequacy of blood relationships for a definition of family is accentuated by the inability for this consanguinity to account for practices such as adoption that still make fatherhood and motherhood possible. Read (2003) argues that it would be more convincing to state that family is a social convention rather than a function of procreation and parturition. Schneider argues that the family is a fabrication since some cultures do not have words that can reasonably translate to f ather or even child. In his ethnographic work among the Yapese, Schneider noted that the relationship between the biological father and offspring could not be translated as father and child in the English sense of the word (Schneider 1984). The Yapese people were able to exist without this genealogically based kinship relationship and even the passing down of property from generation to generation was not done on the basis of biological relationships. Further Evidence In addition to the thoughts of the renowned anthropologists referenced herein, current developments in the family structure provide more evidence that the family is a cultural construct. The traditional gender-specific division of labour has had to change with the increased participation of women in the labour market. Dykstra (2006) notes that the interaction between the partners who make up the family has become more of a matter of negotiation with the traditional gender-specific notions being all but discarded in mos t developed nations. The recent legitimization of gay and lesbian family formation in many Western countries further reinforces the assertion that family is a fabricated concept. For centuries, homosexual relationships were frowned upon by societies with severe penalties being imposed on individuals who engaged in these unions. Schneider (1997) reveals that the notion of sodomy was so abhorred in Western culture that if justified killing and enslaving so many in the 15th and 16th centuries (p.271). This has changed and homosexual unions are today tolerated on a greater scale. Schneider (1997) notes that gay and lesbian rights are today asserted with antidiscrimination laws and fringe benefits being accorded to this previously marginalized sub-group. The traditional notion of family has had to be reinvented as non-heterosexual couples form relationships and become â€Å"families†. Discussion The idea that family is a fabricated concept has led to the fall of kinship studies as modern anthropologists have abandoned the subject due to the many internal problems and theoretical weaknesses contained in it (Kuper 2003). In spite of the different approach taken in their arguments, the three thinkers analysed in this paper, Levi-Strauss, Kuper, and Schneider all contend that family is a cultural construct. The paper has demonstrated that the prevalence of families in all communities is not an indication of their naturalness. Renowned anthropologists such as Levi-Strauss have demonstrated that the seemingly universal concept is not an indication of the naturalness of the family unit. Rather, it is a statement of the scientific operations of classification of objects and phenomena which occurs in both Western and primitive societies. The universal family structure as we know it is a product of identical mental manipulations, which explains the seemingly self-consistent systems exhibited all over the world. The fact that the family unity is not what it used to be is proof enough that the family is a fabricated unit that keeps evolving with the culture of the society. In the recent past, alternative household organizations such as single-parent families and singles have become prevalent hence necessitating a review of the importance of the nuclear and extended family. These realities suggest that the assumption of genealogy or biology as the basis of the family is faulty since if this were the case, the family structure would remain static through time. In spite of the understanding that the family is a fabrication, this unit will continue to play an important role in society. The nuclear family is still the engine-room of socialization and it continues to bestow economic benefits for its members. Even Schneider (1984) acknowledges that kinship is a privileged institution since it is the major building block out of which all social systems are constructed. Conclusion This paper set out to examine the ideas of prominent anthropologists in orde r to demonstrate that the family is a fabricated thing. A review of these ideas has revealed that family is an ideological illusion constructed by man over the centuries. The paper has demonstrated that the concept of family started from the individual actor playing for economic and political advantage and using the family as a tool for social cohesion. The paper has convincingly shown that most aspects of kinship are not natural but rather the social construction of various societies over the centuries. The family relationship is not primarily one of genealogical and reproductively, instead, it is culturally specified and the manner in which it is expressed and perceived is a fabrication. It can therefore be authoritatively stated that family is not inherently human or universal; rather, it is a cultural construction that is arbitrary and variable in nature. References Dykstra, A 2006, Family relationships: the ties that bind, Amsterdam Study Centre for the Metropolitan Environment , Amsterdam. Johnson, C 2003, Claud Levi-Strauss: The formative years, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Kuper, A 1982, ‘Lineage Theory: A Critical Retrospective’, Ann. Rev. Anthropol, vol. 11, no. 1, pp.71-95. Kuper, A 2003, ‘What Really Happened to Kinship and Kinship Studies’, Journal of Cognition and Culture, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 329-335. Kuper, A 2008, ‘Changing the subject – about cousin marriage, among other things’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 14, no.1, pp. 717-735. Levi-Strauss, C 1969, The Elementary Structures of Kinship, Beacon Press, Boston. Levi-Strauss, C 1970, The raw and the cooked, John and Harper, New York. Read, D 2001, What is Kinship? In The Cultural Analysis of Kinship: The Legacy of David Schneider and Its Implications for Anthropological Relativism, University of Illinois Press, Urbana. Schneider, D 1984, A critique of the study of kinship, University of Michigan Press, Michigan. Schne ider, D 1997, ‘The power of culture: notes on some aspects of gay and lesbian kinship in America today’, Cultural Anthropology, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 270-274. VonSturmer, J 1970, Claude Levi-Strauss: the anthropologist as everyman, Cornell University Press, Ithaca. Voss, S 1977, ‘Claude Levi-Strauss: The Man and His Works’, Nebraska Anthropologist, vol. 145, no.1, pp. 21-38.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is an important part of the Essay

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is an important part of the English criminal trial process. Critically evaluate the role of the CPS ensuring you include any areas of criticism and calls for reform - Essay Example The 1999, Access to Justice Act also provided for public defenders appointment (Griffiths & Pritchard, 2010, p. 224). This has the implication that, each individual person arrested for a crime, in spite of his or her status, is legally unrestricted to have an independent and a free legal representative present, prior to the commencement of police interviews. The Crown Prosecution Service will focus on criticism while at the same time identifying and evaluating CPS’s functions, as well as, its applicability in defence during criminal trials. In addition, the paper will also focus on identifying and discussing sentencing powers as well as limitations that are accessible by a Judge during a particular criminal case. Prior to establishment of the CPS in 1986, the police conducted prosecutions that were presented by the state. Most of the people took into consideration that crime investigation should be treated separately from hearing cases as well as that that conflicts the role played by the police during prosecution. The passing of the PACE Act that was led by the Phillips Commission stated that, in England and Wales, there was no uniform system of prosecution. According to Griffiths & Pritchard (2010) the English Criminal Justice system could be described as an adversarial system; however, the system has shifted slightly to towards an inquisitorial system so as to increase efficiency and increasing the role of the judge through for instance judicial case management (Griffiths & Pritchard, 2010, p. 216). Establishment of CPS was mainly focused on conforming specific roles and functions. The mentioned roles and functions included making of decisions especially on which kind of offences should b e charged and case reviews to ensure sufficiency of the evidence to commence a criminal case, and the responsibility for the case and other functions. Nevertheless the Crown Prosecution