1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
3.
States of Mexico
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The United Mexican States is a federal republic composed of 31 states and Mexico City. According to the Constitution of 1917, the states of the federation are free, each state has its own congress and constitution. Mexico City is currently being reformed to have the rights of a state. The states of the Mexican Federation are free, sovereign, autonomous and they are free to govern themselves according to their own laws, each state has a constitution that cannot contradict the federal constitution, which covers issues of national competence. Since states have autonomy, each has its own civil and penal codes. In addition, the federation makes up a constituency in which 32 senators are elected by the method of proportional representation, Federal Deputies, however, do not represent the states, but rather the citizens themselves. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate together comprise the Congress of the Union, the states are internally divided into municipalities. Each municipality is autonomous in its ability to elect their own council, the council is headed by a mayor elected every 3 years with no possibility of immediate reelection. Each municipality has a composed of councilors in terms of population size. The council is responsible, in most cases, to all utilities required for its population. This concept, which arises from the Mexican Revolution, is known as a free municipality. In total there are 2438 municipalities in Mexico, the state with the highest number of municipalities is Oaxaca, with 570, Mexico City has a special status within the federation, being a federal district. Until January 2016, Mexico City was officially called Federal District and it is the seat of government of the Union and the capital of the United Mexican States. Mexico City was separated from the State of Mexico, of which it was the capital, on November 18,1824, as such, it did not belong to any state in particular but to all. Therefore, it was the president of Mexico, in representation of the federation, with full autonomy, Mexico City would have its own constitution – it previously had only an organic law called Statute of Autonomy – and its boroughs became municipalities. Until the ratification of Mexico Citys constitution, it is divided for administrative purposes into 16 delegacionesor boroughs. *Mexicos post agency, Correos de México, does not offer an official list, various competing commercially devised lists exist. The list here reflects choices among them according to these sources, on September 27,1821, after three centuries of Spanish rule, Mexico gained independence
4.
Chiapas
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Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, make up the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 122 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutiérrez, other important population centers in Chiapas include Ocosingo, Tapachula, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Comitán and Arriaga. Chiapas has a coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the south, in general, Chiapas has a humid, tropical climate. In the north, in the area bordering Tabasco, near Teapa, in the past, natural vegetation at this region was lowland, tall perennial rainforest, but this vegetation has been destroyed almost completely to give way to agriculture and ranching. Rainfall decreases moving towards the Pacific Ocean, but it is abundant enough to allow the farming of bananas. Chiapas is home to the ancient Mayan ruins of Palenque, Yaxchilán, Bonampak and it is also home to one of the largest indigenous populations in the country with twelve federally recognized ethnicities. Much of the history is centered on the subjugation of these peoples with occasional rebellions. The last of these rebellions was the 1994 Zapatista uprising, which succeeded in obtaining new rights for indigenous people, the official name of the state is Chiapas. The name derives from Chiapan or Tepechiapan, the name of an indigenous population, the term, from Nahuatl, may mean sage seed hill or water below the hill. After the Spanish arrived, they established two cities called Chiapas de los Indios and Chiapas de los Españoles, with the name of Provincia de Chiapas for the area around the cities, the first coat of arms of the region dates from 1535 as that of the Ciudad Real. Chiapas painter Javier Vargas Ballinas designed the coat of arms. Hunter gatherers began to occupy the valley of the state around 7000 BCE. The oldest archaeological remains in the seat are located at the Santa Elena Ranch in Ocozocoautla whose finds include tools, in the pre Classic period from 1800 BCE to 300 CE, agricultural villages appeared all over the state although hunter gather groups would persist for long after the era. There is speculation that these were the forefathers of the Olmec, migrating across the Grijalva Valley and onto the plain of the Gulf of Mexico to the north. One of these peoples ancient cities is now the site of Chiapa de Corzo. This is three hundred years before the Mayans developed their calendar, the descendants of Mokaya are the Mixe-Zoque. During the pre Classic era, it is known that most of Chiapas was not Olmec, olmec-influenced sculpture can be found in Chiapas and products from the state including amber, magnetite, and ilmenite were exported to Olmec lands. The Olmecs came to what is now the northwest of the looking for amber with one of the main evidences for this called the Simojovel Ax
5.
Time in Mexico
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Mexico uses four main time zones since February 2015, Zona Sureste covers the state of Quintana Roo. Zona Centro covers the eastern three-fourths of Mexico, including Mexico City, Guadalajara, Zona Pacífico covers the states of Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Nayarit, Sinaloa, and Sonora. Zona Noroeste covers the state of Baja California, including Tijuana, in addition, the law dictates that all island territories should fall within the time zone corresponding to their geographic location. Standard time was first defined in Mexico in 1921, when President Álvaro Obregón decreed two time zones, one time zone designated for 90° W covered the states of Tabasco, Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo. A second time zone designated for 105° W covered the rest of the country, from Baja California to Veracruz and Oaxaca. It was decreed in 1942 that the Hora del Noroeste should cover only the states of Baja California Sur, Sonora, Sinaloa, the time zone Hora del Sureste was created for tourist reasons in 1981, originally covering the states of Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo. The three states returned one year later to the Hora del Centro, Quintana Roo, however, returned to the Hora del Sureste from October 1997 to August 1998, first observation of DST was in 1931, but only for the state of Baja California. It used the Hora del Centro from April 1 to September 30, until 1996, Baja California was the only Mexican state to officially observe DST every year, coinciding with the observance of DST across the border in San Diego, California. These states abandoned DST the following year and did not return to it until DST was adopted nationwide, daylight saving time has been observed nationwide in Mexico beginning in 1996. But in the rest of the country, daylight saving time is observed between 2 a. m. on the first Sunday in April through 2 a. m. on the last Sunday in October, Quintana Roo and Sonora states do not observe DST. The first is the three or four weeks between the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in April, the second is the single week between the last Sunday in October and the first Sunday in November. During these periods, clocks in Mexico City match those in Denver rather than those in Chicago, the Mexican Stock Exchange changes its hours during these periods in order to maintain synchronization with the U. S. markets. In 1998 the state of Chihuahua moved from Central time to Mountain time and this is likely because Ciudad Juárez is directly across the border from El Paso, Texas, which is on Mountain Time. Later, in 2001, Mexico experimented with a daylight saving period from the first Sunday in May till the last Sunday in September. When the United States extended their DST period in 2007, the congress refused to do the same for Mexico. For the second time, congress refused to adopt it nationwide, congress refused to approve the change for the third time in a 10-year period, discarding the bill on June 29,2016. Daylight saving time is observed in all parts of the country except for the states of Quintana Roo, and Sonora and this is to coincide with the non-observation in Arizona, with which Sonora shares its northern border. The island territories do not currently observe daylight time either, during non-DST period, Mexico uses 4 different time zones
6.
Central Time Zone
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The North American Central Time Zone is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central Standard Time is six hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, during summer most of the zone uses daylight saving time, and changes to Central Daylight Time which is five hours behind UTC. The province of Manitoba is the province or territory in Canada that observes Central Time in all areas. Also, most of the province of Saskatchewan is on Central Standard Time year-round, major exceptions include Lloydminster, a city situated on the boundary between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city charter stipulates that it shall observe Mountain Time and DST, putting the community on the time as all of Alberta, including the major cities of Calgary. As a result, during the summer, clocks in the province match those in Alberta. The Central Time Zone is the second most populous in the US after the Eastern Time Zone, lanett and Valley observe Eastern Time historically because they were textile mill towns and the original home office of their mills was in West Point, Georgia. Some eastern counties observe Central Time because they are close to the border of the Middle Tennessee counties surrounding the Nashville metropolitan area. Louisiana Michigan, All of Michigan observes Eastern Time except the four Upper Peninsula counties that border Wisconsin, other westernmost counties from this area such as Ontonagon observe Eastern Time. South Dakota, Eastern half as divided by the Missouri river adjacent to the state capital, note, the metropolitan area of Pierre is Central, including Fort Pierre. Wisconsin Most of Mexico—roughly the eastern three-fourths—lies in the Central Time Zone, except for six northwestern states, the federal entities of Mexico that observe Central Time, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua all use Central Standard Time year-round. The Galápagos Islands in Ecuador uses Central Standard Time all year-round, Daylight saving time is in effect in much of the Central time zone between mid-March and early November. The modified time is called Central Daylight Time and is UTC−5, in Canada, Saskatchewan does not observe a time change. One reason that Saskatchewan does not take part in a change is that, geographically. The province elected to move onto permanent daylight saving by being part of the Central Time Zone, Mexico decided not to go along with this change and observes their horario de verano from the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. In December 2009, the Mexican Congress allowed ten border cities, eight of which are in states that observe Central Time, to adopt the U. S. daylight time schedule effective in 2010
7.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
8.
UTC-5
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UTC−05,00 is a time offset that subtracts five hours from Coordinated Universal Time. In North America, it is observed in the Eastern Time Zone during standard time, the western Caribbean uses it year round. The southwestern and northwestern portions of Indiana Mexico – Central Zone Central, in most of Mexico, daylight time starts a few weeks after the United States. Communities on the U. S. border that observe Central Time follow the U. S. daylight time schedule
9.
Tzotzil language
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Tzotzil /ˈsoʊtsɪl, ˈtsoʊt-/ is a Maya language spoken by the indigenous Tzotzil Maya people in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Most speakers are bilingual in Spanish as a second language, in Central Chiapas, some primary schools and a secondary school are taught in Tzotzil. Tzeltal is the most closely related language to Tzotzil and together form a Tzeltalan sub-branch of the Mayan language family. Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Chol are the most widely spoken languages in Chiapas, centro de Lengua, Arte y Literatura Indígena suggested in 2002 that the name of the language should be spelled Tsotsil, rather than Tzotzil. Native speakers and writers of the language are picking up the habit of using s instead of z, O and u fluctuate between rounded and unrounded, some have proposed spelling the unrounded vowels as ö and ü respectively. Before a glottalized consonant, a appears to lengthen and tense. /v/ may be unvoiced pronounced as the voiceless when in a consonant cluster or in fast speech, /b/ is frequently implosive, especially when intervocalic or in initial position. It is also weakly glottalized in initial position, /kʰ pʰ tʰ/ are more strongly aspirated in final position. /w d f ɡ/ occur as well, but only in loanwords, aspirated and ejective consonants form phonemic contrasts, for example, kok, kok, and kok all have different meanings. All words in Tzotzil begin with a consonant, consonant clusters are permissible, almost always found at the beginning of a word and consisting of a prefix together with a root. Roots in Tzotzil occur in the forms CVC, CV, CVCVC, CVVC, CVC-CVC, the most common root is CVC. Almost all Tzotzil words can be analyzed as a CVC root together with certain affixes, in normal speech, stress falls on the first syllable of the root in each word and the last word in a phrase is heavily stressed. For words in isolation, primary stress falls on the syllable except in affective verbs with -luh, first person plural exclusive suffixes. In these instances the stress is unpredictable and is indicated with an acute accent. The Tzotzil variant of San Bartolomé de Los Llanos, in the Venustiano Carranza region, was analyzed as having two phonemic tones by Sarles 1966, research by Heriberto Avelino in 2009 was not able to confirm more than an unstable and incipient tone contrast. When intervocalic, /b/ is pre-glottalized and when it is followed by a consonant, for example, ta ssut He is returning is pronounced. Nouns can take affixes of possession, reflexive relation, independent state, number, plural suffix for possessed nouns, linked with possessive prefixes, s-chikin-ik his/her/their ears, k-ichak-t-ik our fingernails -et-ik. Plural suffix for non-possessed nouns, vitz-et-ik hills, mut-et-ik birds -t-ak and they cannot be used without a possessive prefix, or otherwise must be used with an absolute suffix to express an indefinite possessor
10.
Municipalities of Mexico
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Municipalities are the second-level administrative division in Mexico, where the first-level administrative division is the state. There are 2,438 municipalities in Mexico, with an average population 45,616, the internal political organization and their responsibilities are outlined in the 115th article of the 1917 Constitution and further expanded in the constitutions of the states to which they belong. All Mexican states are divided into municipalities and this concept, which originated after the Mexican Revolution, is known as a municipio libre. A municipal president heads the ayuntamiento, the municipal president is elected by plurality and cannot be reelected for the next immediate term. The municipal council consists of a cabildo with a síndico and several regidores, in that sense, a municipality in Mexico is roughly equivalent to the counties of the United States, whereas the auxiliary presidency is equivalent to a township. Nonetheless, auxiliary presidencies are not considered an administrative division since they depend fiscally on the municipalities in which they are located. Although an urban area might cover an entire municipality, auxiliary councils might still be used for administrative purposes, municipalities are responsible for public services, street lighting, public safety, traffic, supervision of slaughterhouses and the cleaning and maintenance of public parks, gardens and cemeteries. They may also assist the state and federal governments in education, emergency fire and medical services, environmental protection and maintenance of monuments and historical landmarks. Since 1983, they can collect property taxes and user fees, although more funds are obtained from the state, since the Conquest and colonization of Mexico, the municipality became the basic entity of the administrative organization of New Spain and the Spanish Empire. Settlements located in strategic locations received the status of city and were entitled to form an ayuntamiento or municipality, as such, every state set its own requirements for a settlement to become a municipality. However, in 1983 the 115th article was modified to expand the authority to raise revenue. Data from the 2015 Intercensal Survey by INEGI and it is administered through the Government of the Federal District and it has its own unicameral Legislative Assembly. For administrative purposes, the Federal District is subdivided into delegaciones or boroughs, while not fully equivalent to a municipality, since 2000, they enjoy a certain degree of political autonomy since residents within a borough directly elect a local borough head of government. However, boroughs do not form local councils and they are not constituted by a group of trustees. They do not have powers, which are mostly centralized in the Federal District government. Most of the public services are organized by the Federal District even if part of the administration responsibilities are carried out by the boroughs. Still, at the level, the delegaciones of the Federal District are considered a second-level territorial division in statistical data collection. Other municipalities in Mexico have chosen to use a similar administrative internal organization, all municipalities of Baja California are subdivided into boroughs or delegaciones
11.
Cobblestone
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Cobblestone is a natural building material based on cobble-sized stones, and is used for pavement roads, streets, and buildings. In England, it was commonplace since ancient times for flat stones with a narrow edge to be set on edge to provide an even paved surface. This was known as a surface and was common all over Britain. Pitched surfaces predate the use of regularly-sized granite setts by more than a thousand years, such pitched paving is quite distinct from that formed from rounded stones, although both forms are commonly referred to as cobbled surfaces. Most surviving genuinely old cobbled areas are in reality pitched surfaces, a cobbled area is known as a causey, cassay or cassie in Scots. Cobblestones are typically set in sand or similar material, or are bound together with mortar. Paving with cobblestones allows a road to be used all year long. It prevents the build-up of ruts often found in dirt roads and it has the additional advantage of not getting muddy in wet weather or dusty in dry weather. Shod horses are able to get better traction on stone cobbles, pitches or setts than tarmac/asphalt. In England, the custom was to strew the cobbles outside the house of a sick or dying person with straw to dampen the sound, cobblestones set in sand have the environmental advantage of being permeable paving, and of moving rather than cracking with movements in the ground. Cobblestones were largely replaced by quarried granite setts in the nineteenth century, the word cobblestone is often wrongly used to describe such treatment. Setts were relatively even and roughly rectangular stones that were laid in regular patterns, cobblestoned and setted streets gradually gave way to macadam roads, and later to tarmac, and finally to asphalt concrete at the beginning of the 20th century. However, cobblestones are often retained in areas, even for streets with modern vehicular traffic. Many older villages and cities in Europe are still paved with cobblestones or pitched, in recent decades, cobblestones have become a popular material for paving newly pedestrianised streets in Europe. In this case, the nature of the surface is an advantage as pedestrians can hear approaching vehicles. The visual cues of the cobblestones also clarify that the area is more than just a normal street, the use of cobblestones/setts is also considered to be a more upmarket roadway solution, having been described as unique and artistic compared to the normal asphalt road environment. In some places such as Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, as late as the 1990s some busy intersections still showed cobblestones through worn down sections of pavement. In Toronto streets using setts were used by routes and disappeared by the 1980s
12.
Casa Na Bolom
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Na Bolom was the home of archeologist Frans Blom and his wife, Gertrude Duby Blom, the documentary photographer, journalist, environmental pioneer, and jungle adverturer. A Danish archeologist who had taught at Tulane, Frans Blom was one of the first to excavate Palenque, a Mayan city about 150 km east of San Cristóbal de las Casas. It was in the jungle that Frans Blom met his wife, Gertrude Duby, working on behalf of the Mexican government, Trudi Duby was photographing the legendary Lacandon Maya, the only Maya never conquered or converted by the Spanish. From then on, La Selva Lacandona rain forest was the common denominator in the professional and personal lives of Frans, in 1950 with a small inheritance from Frans mother, the Bloms purchased a monastery in ruin on the outskirts of San Cristóbal de las Casas. They rebuilt it around the interior patio and named their new home Na Bolom. From the beginning, Frans Bloms dream was that Na Bolom would function as a cultural, social and his personal library with its exceptional collection of books on Mayan culture was open to the public. His Mayan artifacts were on display, as were the documentary photographs of Trudi Blom, in order to raise funds for their jungle expeditions, they took in guests who dined at the great long table of the Na Bolom dining room. Na Bolom evolved into a hotel, attracting guests as notable as Henry Kissinger. However, free rooms were kept open for Lacandon Maya who came to San Cristóbal for medical reasons. In the 1970s Trudi Blom became an environmental activist, gravely concerned about the destruction of the jungle she loved, in 1975 she expanded Na Boloms beautiful walled gardens to include El Vivero, a tree nursery, which today still supplies free trees for reforestation in Chiapas. While Na Bolom was the dream of Frans Blom, the responsibility of running it fell to Trudi. Na Bolom is still open to the public as a museum, hotel, volunteers are still welcome, working on projects with the library, translation of materials, and diffusion from information. Na Bolom has struggled to transition from the once held by Trudi Blom. It is difficult to maintain the cultural programs that are fundamental to the original mission of Na Bolom. Today, guests still come and conversation still flows in many languages at the table of Casa Na Bolom. Mayan Indians sell their tapestries in the shaded patio, the garden pathways are lined with the mescal bottles Trudi blamed for Frans death. The Lacandon still come to stay, the Bloms adopted daughter, Dona Betty, is in charge of the kitchen. Their adopted Lancandon son, Kayum, often stays at Na Bolom with his family, seventy-five of these images were included in the 2001 book The Burden of Time / El Cargo del Tiempo
13.
Deforestation
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Deforestation, clearance or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, the most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests. About 30% of Earths land surface is covered by forests, Deforestation occurs for multiple reasons, trees are cut down to be used for building or sold as fuel, while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock and plantation. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and it has adverse impacts on biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Deforestation has also used in war to deprive the enemy of cover for its forces. Modern examples of this were the use of Agent Orange by the British military in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency, as of 2005, net deforestation rates have ceased to increase in countries with a per capita GDP of at least US$4,600. Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland, disregard of ascribed value, lax forest management and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that allow deforestation to occur on a large scale. In many countries, deforestation, both naturally occurring and human-induced, is an ongoing issue, Deforestation causes extinction, changes to climatic conditions, desertification, and displacement of populations as observed by current conditions and in the past through the fossil record. More than half of all plant and land animal species in the live in tropical forests. Between 2000 and 2012,2.3 million square kilometres of forests around the world were cut down, as a result of deforestation, only 6.2 million square kilometres remain of the original 16 million square kilometres of forest that formerly covered the Earth. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat, subsistence farming is responsible for 48% of deforestation, commercial agriculture is responsible for 32%, logging is responsible for 14%, and fuel wood removals make up 5%. Experts do not agree on whether industrial logging is an important contributor to global deforestation, some argue that poor people are more likely to clear forest because they have no alternatives, others that the poor lack the ability to pay for the materials and labour needed to clear forest. One study found that population increases due to fertility rates were a primary driver of tropical deforestation in only 8% of cases. Other causes of contemporary deforestation may include corruption of government institutions, the distribution of wealth and power, population growth and overpopulation. Globalization is often viewed as another cause of deforestation, though there are cases in which the impacts of globalization have promoted localized forest recovery. The degradation of forest ecosystems has also traced to economic incentives that make forest conversion appear more profitable than forest conservation. Some commentators have noted a shift in the drivers of deforestation over the past 30 years, Deforestation is ongoing and is shaping climate and geography. Deforestation is a contributor to global warming, and is cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect
14.
Dominican Order
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Members of the order, who are referred to as Dominicans, generally carry the letters O. P. after their names, standing for Ordinis Praedicatorum, meaning of the Order of Preachers. Membership in the order includes friars, nuns, active sisters, the order is famed for its intellectual tradition, having produced many leading theologians and philosophers. The Dominican Order is headed by the Master of the Order, in the year 2000, there were 5,171 Dominican friars in solemn vows,917 student brothers, and 237 novices. By the year 2013 there were 6,058 Dominican friars, a number of other names have been used to refer to both the order and its members. In England and other countries the Dominican friars are referred to as Black Friars because of the black cappa or cloak they wear over their white habits, Dominicans were Blackfriars, as opposed to Whitefriars or Greyfriars. They are also distinct from the Augustinian Friars who wear a similar habit and their identification as Dominicans gave rise to the pun that they were the Domini canes, or Hounds of the Lord. The Dominican Order came into being in the Middle Ages at a time when religion began to be contemplated in a new way, men of God were no longer expected to stay behind the walls of a cloister. Instead, they travelled among the people, taking as their examples the apostles of the primitive Church. Out of this emerged two orders of mendicant friars, one, the Friars Minor, was led by Francis of Assisi, the other. Dominics new order was to be an order, trained to preach in the vernacular languages. Rather than earning their living on vast farms as the monasteries had done, at the same time, Dominic inspired the members of his order to develop a mixed spirituality. They were both active in preaching, and contemplative in study, prayer and meditation, the brethren of the Dominican Order were urban and learned, as well as contemplative and mystical in their spirituality. While these traits affected the women of the order, the nuns especially absorbed the latter characteristics, in England, the Dominican nuns blended these elements with the defining characteristics of English Dominican spirituality and created a spirituality and collective personality that set them apart. The orders origins in battling heterodoxy influenced its development and reputation. Many later Dominicans battled heresy as part of their apostolate, indeed, many years after St. Dominic reacted to the Cathars, the first Grand Inquistor of Spain, Tomás de Torquemada, would be drawn from the Dominican Order. As an adolescent, he had a love of theology. During his studies in Palencia, Spain, he experienced a famine, prompting Dominic to sell all of his beloved books. At the age of twenty-four or twenty-five, he was ordained to the priesthood, at that time the south of France was the stronghold of the Cathar or Albigensian heresy, named after the Duke of Albi, a Cathar sympathiser and opponent to the subsequent Albigensian Crusade
15.
Chamula
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For the wasp genus, see Chamula San Juan Chamula is a municipio and township in the Mexican state of Chiapas. It is situated some 10 km from San Cristóbal de las Casas, as of 2010, the municipality had a total population of 76,941. Virtually the entire population of the municipality is indigenous and speaks an indigenous language, in 2010, the census reported that 99. 5% of the population age 3 years or older speaks an indigenous language. The Tzotzil ethnic group and language dominate the municipality, Chamula is located in the Chiapas highlands, at an altitude of 2,200 meters, it is inhabited by the indigenous Tzotzil Maya people, whose Tzotzil language is one of the Mayan languages. The town enjoys unique autonomous status within Mexico, no outside police or military are allowed in the village. Chamulas have their own police force, one of the best ethnographic descriptions of Chamula in English is Chamulas in the World of the Sun by Gary H. Gossen. As of 2010, the town of Chamula had a population of 3,329, the church of San Juan, in the municipal cabecera, is filled with colorful candles, and smoke from burning copal resin incense, commonly used throughout southern Mexico. Along the walls of the church, as in many Catholic churches, are wooden statues of saints in large wooden cases. The local form of Catholicism is a blend of pre-conquest Maya customs, Spanish Catholic traditions, there are no pews in the church, and the floor area is completely covered in a carpet of green pine boughs. The specified remedies are brought to a healing ceremony, photography in the town is very difficult as parents will hide their children or they themselves will turn away as soon as they spot a camera. Photography within the church is strictly prohibited as is photographing the Christmas procession to the church and they can throw you out of town if you attempt to violate this rule. The main agricultural products are corn, beans, potatoes, women often make traditional clothing, blankets, and souvenirs that include Zapatista-related items, such as pens with a clay figure on top in the figure of Subcomandante Marcos or Comandante Tacho
16.
Teopisca
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Teopisca is a town and one of the 119 Municipalities of Chiapas, in southern Mexico. As of 2010, the municipality had a population of 37,607. It covers an area of 174 km², as of 2010, the town of Teopisca had a population of 16,240. Other than the town of Teopisca, the municipality had 123 localities, the largest of which were Nuevo León and Betania
17.
Totolapa
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Totolapa is a town and one of the 119 Municipalities of Chiapas, in southern Mexico. As of 2010, the municipality had a population of 6,375. It covers an area of 186.3 km², as of 2010, the town of Totolapa had a population of 4,596. Other than the town of Totolapa, the municipality had 30 localities, none of which had a population over 1,000
18.
Chiapilla
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Chiapilla is a town and one of the 119 Municipalities of Chiapas, in southern Mexico. It covers an area of 86.9 km², as of 2010, the municipality had a total population of 5,405, up from 4,957 as of 2005. As of 2010, the town of Chiapilla had a population of 3,809, other than the town of Chiapilla, the municipality had 19 localities, none of which had a population over 1,000
19.
San Lucas, Chiapas
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San Lucas is a town and one of the 119 Municipalities of Chiapas, in southern Mexico. As of 2010, the municipality had a population of 6,734. It covers an area of 154 km², as of 2010, the town of San Lucas had a population of 4,716. Other than the town of San Lucas, the municipality had 13 localities, none of which had a population over 1,000
20.
Wrought iron
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Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content in contrast to cast iron. It is a mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions which gives it a grain resembling wood. Wrought iron is tough, malleable, ductile, corrosion-resistant and easily welded, before the development of effective methods of steelmaking and the availability of large quantities of steel, wrought iron was the most common form of malleable iron. A wrought product is one that has been worked by forging, extruding, rolling, hammering, etcetera, to change its form. Wrought iron is a worked iron product that is seldom produced today as other cheaper. Historically, a modest amount of iron was refined into steel. The demand for wrought iron reached its peak in the 1860s with the adaptation of ironclad warships, however, as properties such as brittleness of mild steel improved, it became less costly and more widely available than wrought iron, whose usage then declined. Wrought iron is no longer produced on a commercial scale, many products described as wrought iron, such as guard rails, garden furniture and gates, are actually made of mild steel. They retain that description because they are made to resemble objects which in the past were wrought by hand by a blacksmith, the word wrought is an archaic past participle of the verb to work, and so wrought iron literally means worked iron. Wrought iron is a term for the commodity, but is also used more specifically for finished iron goods. It was used in that sense in British Customs records. Cast iron, unlike wrought iron, is brittle and cannot be worked either hot or cold, Cast iron can break if struck with a hammer. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, wrought iron went by a variety of terms according to its form, origin. While the bloomery process produced wrought iron directly from ore, cast iron or pig iron were the materials used in the finery forge. Pig iron and cast iron have higher content than wrought iron. Cast and especially pig iron have excess slag which must be at least partially removed to produce quality wrought iron, at foundries it was common to blend scrap wrought iron with cast iron to improve the physical properties of castings. Fusion eventually became accepted as relatively more important than composition below a given low carbon concentration. Another difference is that steel can be hardened by heat treating, historically, wrought iron was known as commercially pure iron, however, it no longer qualifies because current standards for commercially pure iron require a carbon content of less than 0.008 wt%
21.
Baroque architecture
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It was characterized by new explorations of form, light and shadow, and dramatic intensity. Baroque architecture and its embellishments were on the one hand more accessible to the emotions and on the other hand, the new style manifested itself in particular in the context of the new religious orders, like the Theatines and the Jesuits who aimed to improve popular piety. The architecture of the High Roman Baroque can be assigned to the reigns of Urban VIII, Innocent X and Alexander VII. Dissemination of Baroque architecture to the south of Italy resulted in variations such as Sicilian Baroque architecture or that of Naples. To the north, the Theatine architect Camillo-Guarino Guarini, Bernardo Vittone and Sicilian born Filippo Juvarra contributed Baroque buildings to the city of Turin and the Piedmont region. A synthesis of Bernini, Borromini and Cortona’s architecture can be seen in the late Baroque architecture of northern Europe which paved the way for the more decorative Rococo style. During the 17th century, Baroque architecture spread through Europe and Latin America, michelangelos late Roman buildings, particularly St. Peters Basilica, may be considered precursors to Baroque architecture. Colonialism required the development of centralized and powerful governments with Spain and France, the initial mismanagement of colonial wealth by the Spaniards bankrupted them in the 16th century, recovering only slowly in the following century. While this was good for the industries and the arts, the new wealth created an inflation. Rome was known just as much for its new sumptuous churches as for its vagabonds, one of the first Roman structures to break with the Mannerist conventions exemplified in the Gesù, was the church of Santa Susanna, designed by Carlo Maderno. The dynamic rhythm of columns and pilasters, central massing, there is an incipient playfulness with the rules of classic design, but it still maintains rigor. These concerns are more evident in his reworking of Santa Maria della Pace. Probably the most well known example of such an approach is Saint Peters Square, the piazza, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is formed principally by two colonnades of free standing columns centred on an Egyptian obelisk. Berninis own favourite design was his church of SantAndrea al Quirinale decorated with polychome marbles. His secular architecture included the Palazzo Barberini based on plans by Maderno, Berninis rival, the architect Francesco Borromini, produced designs that deviated dramatically from the regular compositions of the ancient world and Renaissance. His building plans were based on geometric figures, his architectural forms were unusual and inventive. Borrominis architectural spaces seem to expand and contract when needed, showing some affinity with the style of Michelangelo. A later work, the church of SantIvo alla Sapienza, displays the same playful inventiveness and antipathy to the flat surface, following the death of Bernini in 1680, Carlo Fontana emerged as the most influential architect working in Rome
22.
Neoclassical architecture
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Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century. In its purest form, it is a style derived from the architecture of classical antiquity, the Vitruvian principles. In form, Neoclassical architecture emphasizes the wall rather than chiaroscuro, Neoclassical architecture is still designed today, but may be labelled New Classical Architecture for contemporary buildings. In Central and Eastern Europe, the style is referred to as Classicism. Many early 19th-century neoclassical architects were influenced by the drawings and projects of Étienne-Louis Boullée, the many graphite drawings of Boullée and his students depict spare geometrical architecture that emulates the eternality of the universe. There are links between Boullées ideas and Edmund Burkes conception of the sublime, the baroque style had never truly been to the English taste. The most popular was the four-volume Vitruvius Britannicus by Colen Campbell, the book contained architectural prints of famous British buildings that had been inspired by the great architects from Vitruvius to Palladio. At first the book featured the work of Inigo Jones. Palladian architecture became well established in 18th-century Britain, at the forefront of the new school of design was the aristocratic architect earl, Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, in 1729, he and William Kent, designed Chiswick House. This House was a reinterpretation of Palladios Villa Capra, but purified of 16th century elements and this severe lack of ornamentation was to be a feature of the Palladianism. In 1734 William Kent and Lord Burlington designed one of Englands finest examples of Palladian architecture with Holkham Hall in Norfolk, the main block of this house followed Palladios dictates quite closely, but Palladios low, often detached, wings of farm buildings were elevated in significance. This classicising vein was also detectable, to a degree, in the Late Baroque architecture in Paris. This shift was even visible in Rome at the redesigned façade for S, by the mid 18th century, the movement broadened to incorporate a greater range of Classical influences, including those from Ancient Greece. The shift to neoclassical architecture is conventionally dated to the 1750s, in France, the movement was propelled by a generation of French art students trained in Rome, and was influenced by the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. The style was adopted by progressive circles in other countries such as Sweden. A second neoclassic wave, more severe, more studied and more consciously archaeological, is associated with the height of the Napoleonic Empire, in France, the first phase of neoclassicism was expressed in the Louis XVI style, and the second in the styles called Directoire or Empire. The Scottish architect Charles Cameron created palatial Italianate interiors for the German-born Catherine II the Great in St. Petersburg, indoors, neoclassicism made a discovery of the genuine classic interior, inspired by the rediscoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum. These had begun in the late 1740s, but only achieved an audience in the 1760s
23.
Moorish architecture
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Moorish architecture is the architectural tradition that appeared in the Maghreb region and the Iberian peninsula after the Arab Islamic conquest. Other notable buildings include the palace city of Medina Azahara, the church San Cristo de la Luz in Toledo. The term is used to include the products of the Islamic civilisation of Southern Italy. The Palazzo dei Normanni in Sicily was begun in the 9th century by the Emir of Palermo, there is archeological evidence of an eighth-century mosque in Narbonne, France. Arabic architecture Islamic architecture Arab-Norman culture Islamic influences on Christian art Moorish Revival* Moroccan architecture Mudéjar Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon Curl, a Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
24.
Tzotzil people
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The Tzotzil are an indigenous Maya people of the central Chiapas highlands in southern Mexico. As of 2000, they numbered about 298,000, the municipalities with largest Tzotzil population are Chamula, San Cristóbal de las Casas, and Zinacantan, in the Mexican state of Chiapas. The Tzotzil language, like Tzeltal and Chol, is descended from the proto-Chol spoken in the classic period at sites such as Palenque. The word tzotzil originally meant bat people or people of the bat in the Tzotzil language, today the Tzotzil refer to their language as Batsi kop, which means true word in the modern language. Houses are built of wattle and daub or lumber, usually with thatched roofs, traditional mens clothing consists of shirt, short pants, neckerchief, hat, and wool poncho. Traditional womens clothing is a blouse or long overdress, indigo dyed skirt, cotton sash, based on linguistic and archaeological data, scholars believe that the common ancestors of the contemporary Tzotzil and Tzeltal peoples entered Chiapas between 100 BCE and 300 CE. According to Spanish chronicles, just before the Spanish Conquest the Tzotzil exported quetzal feathers and they also produced salt from wells near Ixtapa and traded it throughout the Chiapas highlands, and continued to do so after the Conquest. The Spanish conquerors met comparatively little resistance in Chiapas, in 1522, the Zinacantán lord Cuzcácuatl sought the Spaniards with an offer of allegiance, and his subjects afterwards helped Spanish commander Luis Marín to subdue neighboring tribes. On the other hand, the natives from Chamula fought hard against the Spaniards and they and the natives of Huixtlán eventually fled leaving nothing that the invaders could make use of. Unable to obtain service or tribute from people, the Spaniards returned to the Gulf coast. Other Spanish incursions in the following decade generally spared the Tzotzil, many villages were focibly relocated, and the natives were assigned as vassals to the encomiendas given by the Spanish crown to the conquerors. After the Spanish conquest, the Tzotzil were for centuries exploited as laborers, first by the Spaniards and then by the Ladinos who own most of the land and dominate commerce. During most of period, a rigid caste system sharply divided the natives from the Ladinos, with very different rights. The oppression led them to revolt in 1528,1712, and 1868, while sizable Tzotzil communities have appeared in some towns, other Tzotzil towns have been undergoing reindianization as the formerly dominating Ladino minorities have migrated to larger cities. With the collapse of prices in the 1980s, sustainable employment has been hard for many people in the highlands to find. As both population and foreign tourism have risen, the sale of goods has replaced other economic activities. Tzotzils usually sell their products in the cities of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Comitán. Issues surrounding social integration persist, especially with the Ladinos, support for the Zapatista movement, as well as for other non-violent opposition groups such as Las Abejas, is strong among the Tzotzil
25.
Tzeltal people
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The Tzeltal people are the largest indigenous group mostly located in the highlands or Los Altos region of the Mexican state of Chiapas. They are one of many Mayan ethnic groups and they speak a language belongs to the Tzeltalan subgroup of Mayan languages. Most Tzeltals live in communities in about twenty municipalities, under a Mexican system called “usos y costumbres” which seeks to respect traditional indigenous authority, women are often seen wearing traditional huipils and black skirts, but men generally do not wear traditional attire. Tzeltal religion syncretically integrates traits from Catholic and native belief systems, shamanism and traditional medicine is still practiced. Many make a living through agriculture and/or handcrafts, mostly textiles, the Tzeltals are one of the descendents of the Maya, which was one of the early and largest Mesoamerican cultures. It is not known why Mayan civilization collapsed, from this point on, various Mayan dialect speaking peoples formed related but distinct cultures with various related languages. The Spanish conquered Mayan territory in the early to mid 16th century including what is now the state of Chiapas. They founded the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas which is on the edge of Tzeltal territory and subjected the Tzeltal people to the encomendero system with the payment of tribute. Over most of the period until the Mexican Revolution, this and other indigenous groups were forced to labor in the mines, mills. In the mid 20th century, the population of the state, since the 1930s, many Tzeltals, along with other indigenous and mestizos have migrated from the highland areas into the Lacandon Jungle. These migrants came to the area to clear forest and grow crops and raise livestock. Now there are groups of Tzetzals in the living with members of other indigenous groups. They are followed by the closely related Tzotzil Maya who also live in the Los Altos region near San Cristóbal, Tzeltal territory is bordered by that of the Tzotzils to the west, the Chols to the north and north east and the Tojolabal to the southeast. The Tzetals in the main concentration distinguish themselves more against “Ladinos” and this is mostly due to a history of socioeconomic oppression and conflict with colonial, then later state and federal authorities. Many Tzeltal communities are governed under a concept of “usos y costumbres” which attempts to allow for the maintenance of traditional indigenous societal structures and this is theoretically respected unless it conflicts with the rights given under Mexico’s Constitution. One recent case involves a Tzeltal named Cecilia Lopez from Oxchuc who registered as a pre candidate for the PAN party in 2009, the Western Maya language group is dominant in Chiapas with the most common variety being Tzeltal, along with Tzotzil. The two languages are part of the Tzeltalan subdivision and are related, estimated to have started separating around 1200 CE. The two are related to other Western Maya languages in the such as Chontal, Chol, Tojolabal, Chuj, Qanjobal, Acatec, Jakaltek
26.
Amber
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Amber is fossilized tree resin, which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects and it has also been used as a healing agent in folk medicine. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents, because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions. Amber occurring in coal seams is also called resinite, and the term ambrite is applied to that found specifically within New Zealand coal seams, the English word amber derives from Arabic ʿanbar عنبر via Middle Latin ambar and Middle French ambre. The word was adopted in Middle English in the 14th century as referring to what is now known as ambergris, in the Romance languages, the sense of the word had come to be extended to Baltic amber from as early as the late 13th century. At first called white or yellow amber, this meaning was adopted in English by the early 15th century, as the use of ambergris waned, this became the main sense of the word. The two substances conceivably became associated or confused because they both were washed up on beaches. Ambergris is less dense water and floats, whereas amber is too dense to float. The classical names for amber, Latin electrum and Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον, are connected to a term ἠλέκτωρ meaning beaming Sun, according to myth, when Phaëton son of Helios was killed, his mourning sisters became poplar trees, and their tears became elektron, amber. Earlier Pliny says that an island of three days sail from the Scythian coast called Balcia by Xenophon of Lampsacus, author of a fanciful travel book in Greek, is called Basilia by Pytheas. It is generally understood to be the same as Abalus and it is assumed that there were well-established trade routes for amber connecting the Baltic with the Mediterranean. Pliny states explicitly that the Germans export amber to Pannonia, from where it was traded further abroad by the Veneti, the ancient Italic peoples of southern Italy were working amber, the most important examples are on display at the National Archaeological Museum of Siritide to Matera. Amber used in antiquity as at Mycenae and in the prehistory of the Mediterranean comes from deposits of Sicily. Besides the fanciful explanations according to which amber is produced by the Sun, Pliny cites opinions that are aware of its origin in tree resin. Amber is produced from a marrow discharged by trees belonging to the genus, like gum from the cherry. This is confirmed by the recorded Old High German glas and Old English glær for amber, in Middle Low German, amber was known as berne-, barn-, börnstēn. The Low German term became dominant also in High German by the 18th century, the Baltic Lithuanian term for amber is gintaras and Latvian dzintars. They, and the Slavic jantar or Hungarian gyanta, are thought to originate from Phoenician jainitar, Early in the nineteenth century, the first reports of amber from North America came from discoveries in New Jersey along Crosswicks Creek near Trenton, at Camden, and near Woodbury
27.
Tianguis
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A tianguis is an open-air market or bazaar that is traditionally held on certain market days in a town or city neighborhood in Mexico and Central America. This bazaar tradition has its roots well into the pre-Hispanic period, the word tianguis comes from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec Empire. In rural areas, many types of merchandise are still sold, such as agriculture supplies and products as well as modern. In the cities, mass-produced goods are sold, but the organization of tianguis events is mostly the same. There are also specialty tianguis events for such as Christmas as well as for particular types of items such as cars or art. It was the most important form of commerce in the era, and after the Spanish Conquest. The word “tianguis” derives from the Nahuatl word tiyānquiztli “open air-market”, from tiyāmiqui “to trade, the most important markets, such as the one in Tlatelolco, were set up and taken down every day of the week. This market served about one-fifth of the population of Tenochtitlan before the Conquest and had its own governing system, today, one of the most visited exhibits in the National Museum of Anthropology is the model of the pre-Hispanic market such as the one in Tenochtitlan. In the cities, especially Mexico City, the history of these markets is filled with examples of attempts to regulate them and push them away to other places, with mixed success. In all these cases, vendors eventually retook the plaza This problem was tackled in the 1990s as part of an effort to revitalize the historic center of Mexico City. Despite much initial resistance, this area has free of street peddlers since that time. Much of the business that used to be done in the Zocalo has now moved to other places such as the Tepito neighborhood. In the 20th century, local governments in Mexico have promoted municipal or public markets or “mercados” in order to regulate the selling of goods traditionally available in tianguis. In Mexico City, some of the better known of these markets are La Merced, Abelardo L. Rodriguez Market, La Merced is located in an area that had been a huge tianguis for most of the colonial period as it was located at the edge of a lake. The Abelardo L. Rodriguez Market was specifically built by the government in the 1930s in order to try and “modernize” the sale of produce and it went as far as having a day care center and a theater and commissioning Diego Rivera to supervise the painting of murals inside. These murals can still be seen today, however, these efforts have not eliminated the tianguis tradition, in fact, the number of these informal markets far surpasses the number of mercados. In Mexico City alone, there are 317 mercados versus 1,357 tianguis, one reason for this is that many of these mercados are not well-maintained and few new ones have been built since the 1970s. The tianguis is part of the so-called “informal economy, ” even though many of these vendors are well enough known
28.
Saffron
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Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the saffron crocus. Saffron crocus grows to 20–30 cm and bears up to four flowers, the styles and stigmas, called threads, are collected and dried to be used mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent in food. Saffron, long among the worlds most costly spices by weight, is native to Southwest Asia and was probably first cultivated in or near Greece. As a genetically monomorphic clone, it was slowly propagated throughout much of Eurasia and was brought to parts of North Africa, North America. Saffrons taste and iodoform or hay-like fragrance result from the chemicals picrocrocin and it also contains a carotenoid pigment, crocin, which imparts a rich golden-yellow hue to dishes and textiles. Its recorded history is attested in a 7th-century BC Assyrian botanical treatise compiled under Ashurbanipal, Iran now accounts for approximately 90% of the world production of saffron. A degree of uncertainty surrounds the origin of the English word saffron and it might stem from the 12th-century Old French term safran, which comes from the Latin word safranum or from Arabic, az-zafaran, having unknown origin. Safranum comes from the Persian intercessor zafarān, the domesticated saffron crocus, Crocus sativus, is an autumn-flowering perennial plant unknown in the wild. Its progenitors are possibly the eastern Mediterranean autumn-flowering Crocus cartwrightianus, which is known as wild saffron. The saffron crocus probably resulted when C. cartwrightianus was subjected to artificial selection by growers seeking longer stigmata. C. thomasii and C. pallasii are other possible sources, a corm survives for one season, producing via this vegetative division up to ten cormlets that can grow into new plants in the next season. Corms also bear vertical fibres, thin and net-like, that grow up to 5 cm above the plants neck, the plant grows to a height of 20–30 cm, and sprouts 5–11 white and non-photosynthetic leaves known as cataphylls. These membrane-like structures cover and protect the crocuss 5 to 11 true leaves as they bud and develop. The latter are thin, straight, and blade-like green foliage leaves, which are 1–3 mm in diameter, C. sativus cataphylls are suspected by some to manifest prior to blooming when the plant is irrigated relatively early in the growing season. Its floral axes, or flower-bearing structures, bear bracteoles, or specialised leaves, that sprout from the flower stems, after aestivating in spring, the plant sends up its true leaves, each up to 40 cm in length. The flowers possess a sweet, honey-like fragrance, upon flowering, plants average less than 30 cm in height. A three-pronged style emerges from each flower, each prong terminates with a vivid crimson stigma 25–30 mm in length. The saffron crocus, unknown in the wild, probably descends from Crocus cartwrightianus, if C. sativus is a mutant form of C. cartwrightianus, then it may have emerged via plant breeding, which would have selected for elongated stigmata, in late Bronze Age Crete
29.
Tamale
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A tamale is a traditional Mesoamerican dish made of masa or dough, which is steamed in a corn husk or banana leaf. The wrapping is discarded before eating, tamales can be filled with meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, chilies or any preparation according to taste, and both the filling and the cooking liquid may be seasoned. Tamales originated in Mesoamerica as early as 8000 to 5000 BC, aztec and Maya civilizations, as well as the Olmeca and Tolteca before them, used tamales as portable food, often to support their armies, but also for hunters and travelers. The diversity of languages in Mesoamerica led to a number of local words for the tamal. The Spanish singular of tamales is tamal, the English word tamale differs from the Spanish word by having a final vowel. Aztec tamales differed from modern tamales by not having added fat, in the pre-Columbian era, the Mayas ate tamales and often served them at feasts and festivals. The Classic Maya hieroglyph for tamales has been identified on pots and other dating back to the Classic Era. Several different types of tamales are mentioned in Dresden Codex, iguana tamales, turkey tamales, deer tamales, in Mexico, tamales begin with a dough made from nixtamalized corn, called masa, or a masa mix, such as Maseca, and lard or vegetable shortening. Tamales are generally wrapped in corn husks or plantain leaves before being steamed and they usually have a sweet or savory filling and are usually steamed until firm. Tamale-making is a ritual that has part of Mexican life since pre-Hispanic times. Today, tamales are typically filled with meats, cheese or vegetables, preparation is complex, time-consuming and an excellent example of Mexican communal cooking, where this task usually falls to the women. Tamales are a comfort food in Mexico, eaten as both breakfast and dinner, and often accompanied by hot atole or champurrado and arroz con leche or maize-based beverages of indigenous origin. Street vendors can be seen serving them from huge, steaming, the most common fillings are pork and chicken, in either red or green salsa or mole. Another traditional variation is to add pink-colored sugar to the mix and fill it with raisins or other dried fruit. Commonly, a few deaf, or fillingless, tamales, might be served with refried beans, most recently the roasted pepper and Monterey Jack cheese tamales have become a favorite recipe. The cooking of tamales is traditionally done in batches of tens or sometimes hundreds, instead of corn husks, banana or plantain leaves are used in tropical parts of the country, such as Oaxaca, Chiapas, Veracruz, and the Yucatán Peninsula. Another less-common variation is to use chard or avocado leaves, which can be eaten along with the filling, tamales are usually eaten during festivities, such as Christmas, the Day of the Dead, Las Posadas, La Candelaria Day and Mexican Independence Day. In Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, the masa is usually made from maiz
30.
Atole
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Atole or ātōlli, also known as atol and atol de elote, is a traditional hot corn- and masa-based beverage of Mesoamerican origin. Chocolate atole is known as champurrado or atole and it is typically accompanied with tamales, and very popular during the Christmas holiday season. In Mexico the drink typically includes masa, water, piloncillo, cinnamon, vanilla, the mixture is blended and heated before serving. Atole is made by toasting masa on a comal, then adding water that was boiled with cinnamon sticks, the resulting blends vary in texture, ranging from a porridge to a very thin liquid consistency. Atole can also be prepared with rice, flour, or oatmeal in place of masa, in northern Mexico, there is also a variation using pinole. Although atole is one of the drinks of the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead, it is very common during breakfast. It is usually sold as street food, in Northern Mexico and South Texas, atole is a traditional comfort food. It is often eaten as a breakfast or an after dinner snack on cold days, in New Mexico, blue corn atole is finely ground cornmeal toasted for cooking, consumed as a grainy porridge-style drink served warm, usually sweetened with sugar and/or thinned with milk. It is usually served at breakfast like cream of wheat or oatmeal and it is said that elders would drink atole because it gave them energy and if a mother is nursing it gives her more milk. Salvadoran varieties include atol shuco, particularly popular in the Cabañas region, in some parts of Honduras, fresh corn is ground and the expressed liquid is used as the base. In Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador Atol de Elote is a popular beverage, pineapple atol is also imbibed in El Salvador
31.
Chalupa
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A chalupa is a specialty of south-central Mexico, including the states of Puebla, Guerrero and Oaxaca. These are filled with ingredients such as shredded chicken, pork, chopped onion, chipotle pepper, red salsa. Traditional chalupas, as found in Cholula in the state of Puebla, are small, thick, boat-shaped fried masa topped only with salsa, cheese and shredded lettuce. Other regions in Mexico add variations, which can include chorizo, pork, shredded chicken or bean paste in addition to the cheese, salsa. In other instances, the fried masa shape is round, resembling a tostada, the widespread popularity of chalupas across Mexico has also influenced Mexican-style restaurant fare in the neighboring United States. Among notable examples in that country is the Taco Bell version, more closely resembling a taco, the Taco Bell version of the chalupa may be termed a rather distant relative of the Mexican original. List of Mexican dishes Taco salad
32.
Reggae
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Reggae is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A1968 single by Toots and the Maytals Do the Reggay was the first popular song to use the word reggae, effectively naming the genre, Reggae usually relates news, social gossip, and political comment. Reggae spread into a commercialized jazz field, being known first as ‘Rudie Blues’, then ‘Ska’, later ‘Blue Beat’ and it is instantly recognizable from the counterpoint between the bass and drum downbeat, and the offbeat rhythm section. The immediate origins of reggae were in ska and rock steady, from the latter, stylistically, reggae incorporates some of the musical elements of rhythm and blues, jazz, mento, calypso, African music, as well as other genres. One of the most easily recognizable elements is offbeat rhythms, staccato chords played by a guitar or piano on the offbeats of the measure, the tempo of reggae is usually slower than ska but faster than rocksteady. The concept of call and response can be found throughout reggae music, the genre of reggae music is led by the drum and bass. The bass guitar often plays the dominant role in reggae, the bass sound in reggae is thick and heavy, and equalized so the upper frequencies are removed and the lower frequencies emphasized. The guitar in reggae usually plays on the off beat of the rhythm and it is common for reggae to be sung in Jamaican Patois, Jamaican English, and Iyaric dialects. Reggae is noted for its tradition of criticism and religion in its lyrics, although many reggae songs discuss lighter, more personal subjects, such as love. Reggae has spread to countries across the world, often incorporating local instruments. Reggae en Español spread from the mainland South America countries of Venezuela, Caribbean music in the United Kingdom, including reggae, has been popular since the late 1960s, and has evolved into several subgenres and fusions. Many reggae artists began their careers in the UK, and there have been a number of European artists and bands drawing their inspiration directly from Jamaica, Reggae in Africa was boosted by the visit of Bob Marley to Zimbabwe in 1980. In Jamaica, authentic reggae is one of the biggest sources of income, the 1967 edition of the Dictionary of Jamaican English lists reggae as a recently estab. Sp. for rege, as in rege-rege, a word that can mean either rags, ragged clothing or a quarrel, a row. Reggae as a term first appeared in print with the 1968 rocksteady hit Do the Reggay by The Maytals which named the genre of Reggae for the world. Reggae historian Steve Barrow credits Clancy Eccles with altering the Jamaican patois word streggae into reggae, however, Toots Hibbert said, Theres a word we used to use in Jamaica called streggae. If a girl is walking and the look at her and say Man, shes streggae it means she dont dress well
33.
Salsa music
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Salsa music is a popular dance music that initially arose in New York City during the 1960s. Salsa is the product of various genres including the Cuban son montuno, guaracha, cha cha chá, mambo, and to a certain extent bolero. Latin jazz, which was developed in New York City, has had a significant influence on salsa arrangers, piano guajeos. Salsa is primarily Cuban son, itself a fusion of Spanish canción and guitar and Afro-Cuban percussion, Salsa also occasionally incorporates elements of rock, R&B, and funk. All of these elements are grafted onto the basic Cuban son montuno template when performed within the context of salsa. The first salsa bands were predominantly Cubans and Puerto Ricans who moved to New York since 1930’s, the music eventually spread throughout Colombia and the rest of the Americas. Ultimately, it became a global phenomenon, some of the founding salsa artists were Johnny Pacheco, Celia Cruz, Ray Barretto, Rubén Blades, Willie Colón, Larry Harlow, Roberto Roena, Bobby Valentín, Eddie Palmieri, and Héctor Lavoe. Salsa means sauce in the Spanish language, and carries connotations of the common in Latin. In the 20th century, salsa acquired a meaning in both English and Spanish. In this sense salsa has been described as a word with vivid associations, Cuban immigrants and Puerto Rican in New York have used the term analogously to swing or soul music. In this usage salsa connotes a frenzied, hot and wild musical experience that draws upon or reflects elements of Latin culture, various music writers and historians have traced the use of salsa to different periods of the 20th century. Max Salazar traces the word back to the early 1930s, when Ignacio Piñeiro composed Échale salsita, World music author Sue Steward claims salsa was originally used in music as a cry of appreciation for a particularly piquant or flashy solo. I was using salsa, but the music wasnt defined by that, the music was still defined as Latin music. And that was a very, very broad category, because it even includes mariachi music, so salsa defined this particular type of music. Its a name that everyone could pronounce, Sanabrias Latin New York magazine was an English language publication. Consequently, his promoted events were covered in The New York Times, as well as Time and they reported on this new phenomenon taking New York by storm—salsa. But promotion certainly wasnt the factor in the musics success, as Sanabria makes clear, Musicians were busy creating the music. Johnny Pacheco, the director and producer of Fania Records, molded New York salsa into a tight, polished
34.
Techno
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Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan, in the United States during the mid-to-late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno in reference to a genre of music was in 1988. Many styles of techno now exist, but Detroit techno is seen as the foundation upon which a number of subgenres have been built. Added to this is the influence of futuristic and fictional themes relevant to life in American late capitalist society, pioneering producer Juan Atkins cites Tofflers phrase techno rebels as inspiring him to use the word techno to describe the musical style he helped to create. This unique blend of influences aligns techno with the referred to as afrofuturism. To producers such as Derrick May, the transference of spirit from the body to the machine is often a central preoccupation, in this manner, techno dance music defeats what Adorno saw as the alienating effect of mechanisation on the modern consciousness. Stylistically, techno is generally repetitive instrumental music, oftentimes produced for use in a continuous DJ set, the tempo tends to vary between approximately 120 to 150 beats per minute, depending on the style of techno. The creative use of production technology, such as drum machines, synthesizers. Many producers use retro electronic musical devices to create what they consider to be an authentic techno sound, drum machines from the 1980s such as Rolands TR-808 and TR-909 are highly prized, and software emulations of such retro technology are popular among techno producers. The Electrifying Mojo was the first radio DJ to play music by the Detroit techno producers Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Mojo refused to follow pre-established radio formats or playlists, and he promoted social and cultural awareness of the African American community. In exploring technos origins writer Kodwo Eshun maintains that Kraftwerk are to Techno what Muddy Waters is to the Rolling Stones, the authentic, the origin, the real. Juan Atkins has acknowledged that he had an enthusiasm for Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder, particularly Moroders work with Donna Summer. Atkins also mentions that around 1980 I had a tape of nothing but Kraftwerk, Telex, Devo, Giorgio Moroder and Gary Numan, and Id ride around in my car playing it. Regarding his initial impression of Kraftwerk, Atkins notes that they were clean, Derrick May identified the influence of Kraftwerk and other European synthesizer music in commenting that it was just classy and clean, and to us it was beautiful, like outer space. Living around Detroit, there was so little beauty, everything is an ugly mess in Detroit, and so we were attracted to this music. May has commented that he considered his music a direct continuation of the European synthesizer tradition and he also identified Japanese synthpop act Yellow Magic Orchestra, particularly member Ryuichi Sakamoto, and British band Ultravox, as influences, along with Kraftwerk. In 1980 or 1981 they met with Mojo and proposed that they provide mixes for his show, which they did end up doing the following year. These young promoters developed and nurtured the local music scene by both catering to the tastes of the local audience of young people and by marketing parties with new DJs
35.
Holy Week
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Holy Week in Christianity is the week just before Easter. In the West, it is also the last week of Lent, and includes Palm Sunday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. It does not include Easter Sunday, although traditions observing the Easter Triduum may overlap or displace part of Holy Week or Easter itself within that additional liturgical period, Holy Week in the Christian year is the week immediately before Easter. In this text, abstinence from flesh is commanded for all the days, dionysius Alexandrinus in his canonical epistle, refers to the 91 fasting days implying that the observance of them had already become an established usage in his time. The Codex Theodosianus, however, is explicit in ordering that all actions at law should cease, of the particular days of the great week the earliest to emerge into special prominence was naturally Good Friday. Next came the Sabbatum Magnum with its vigil, which in the church was associated with an expectation that the second advent would occur on an Easter Sunday. Other writings that refer to related traditions of the early Church include, most notably, The Pilgrimage of Etheria, today, in the Western Christian Church, among Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics, the liturgies used for Holy Week are nearly identical. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, which may also be known as Passion Sunday in some denominations, traditionally, Palm Sunday commemorates the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, one of the few events described in all four canonical gospels. As described in the accounts, Jesuss entry into Jerusalem was noted by the present who shouted praises. In the Roman Rite, before 1955 it was simply as Palm Sunday. From 1955 to 1971 it was called Second Sunday in Passiontide or Palm Sunday, among Lutherans and Anglicans, the day is known as the Sunday of the Passion, Palm Sunday. In many liturgical denominations, to commemorate the Messiahs entry into Jerusalem to accomplish his paschal mystery, immediately following this great time of celebration over the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, he begins his journey to the cross. The blessing is followed by a procession or solemn entrance into the church. The Mass or service of worship includes a reading of the Passion. The palms were then blessed with five prayers, and a procession went out of the church and on its return included a ceremony for the reopening of the doors, after this the normal Mass was celebrated. The days between Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday are known as Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, and Holy Wednesday. Among them On Monday, some observe the anointing of Jesus at Bethany, other events which the Gospels tell of which may have occurred on this day include cursing the fig tree and the Cleansing of the Temple. On Tuesday, some observe Jesus predictions of his own death, as described in, on Wednesday, some observe the story of Judas arranging his betrayal of Jesus with the high priests
36.
Burning of Judas
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The burning of Judas is an Easter-time ritual in many Orthodox and Catholic Christian communities, where an effigy of Judas Iscariot is burned. Other related mistreatment of Judas effigies include hanging, flogging, anthropologists generalize these types of activities as scapegoating rituals. A similar ritual would be the hanging in effigy of Haman, though not an official part of the Easter liturgical cycle, the custom is typically a part of the reenactment of the story of the Passion that is practiced by the faithful during Easter. Customs vary, but the effigy of Judas is typically hanged on Good Friday, in many parts of Latin America this practice occurs on the eve of the new year as a symbol of ridding ones self of evil and beginning a new year in spiritual purity. Some communities observe this ritual using various effigies, including the biblical Judas and this custom, during which the effigy is burned on a stake, is invariably called Quema del Año Viejo meaning literally the burning of the old year. Judas burnings also took place in the district of Dingle, in Liverpool, England, in the early 20th Century, the burning of Judas is not traditional to England, although a very similar custom of burning Catholic rebel Guy Fawkes in effigy exists. The practice was once cited in the United States State Departments Religious Freedom Report for Greece, the report incorrectly referred to the custom as the burning of the Jew, whereas in Greece the term always used is burning of Judas. In response, Archbishop Christodoulos, then head of the Greek Orthodox Church, denied allegations, stating that this practice refers to the image of Judas the traitor. Wikibooks, The Golden Bough/The Fire-Festivals of Europe
37.
Bullfighting
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Bullfighting is a physical contest that generally involves humans attempting to publicly subdue, immobilise, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations. Although people commonly think of Spanish-style bullfighting as representative of bullfighting, there are different forms. Some forms involve dancing around or over a cow or bull, Bullfighting is a traditional spectacle of many countries including Spain, Portugal, parts of southern France, India and Tanzania, and some Latin American countries. In some locations, a breed of cattle, the Spanish Fighting Bull, is used for bullfighting. These bulls must be bred in large ranches, and in conditions as similar as possible to the way they would behave in the wild, there are many historic fighting venues in the Iberian Peninsula, France and Latin America. Bullfighting traces its roots to prehistoric bull worship and sacrifice in Mesopotamia, the first recorded bullfight may be the Epic of Gilgamesh, which describes a scene in which Gilgamesh and Enkidu fought and killed the Bull of Heaven. Bull leaping was portrayed in Crete, and myths related to bulls throughout Greece, the killing of the sacred bull is the essential central iconic act of Mithras, which was commemorated in the mithraeum wherever Roman soldiers were stationed. The oldest representation of what seems to be a man facing a bull is on the Celtiberian tombstone from Clunia, Bullfighting is often linked to Rome, where many human-versus-animal events were held as competition and entertainment, the Venationes. These hunting games spread to Africa, Europe and Asia during Roman times, there are also theories that it was introduced into Hispania by the Emperor Claudius, as a substitute for gladiators, when he instituted a short-lived ban on gladiatorial combat. The latter theory was supported by Robert Graves Spanish colonists took the practice of breeding cattle and bullfighting to the American colonies, in the 19th century, areas of southern and southwestern France adopted bullfighting, developing their own distinctive form. Religious festivities and royal weddings were celebrated by fights in the plaza, where noblemen would ride competing for royal favor. In the Middle Ages across Europe, knights would joust in competitions on horseback, in Spain, they began to fight bulls. In medieval Spain bullfighting was considered a sport and reserved to the rich. The bull was released into an arena where a single fighter on horseback was armed with a lance. This spectacle was said to be enjoyed by Charlemagne, Alfonso X the Wise, the greatest Spanish performer of this art is said to have been El Cid knight. According chronicle of the time, in 1128, when Alfonso VII of León and Castile married Berengaria of Barcelona daughter of Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona at Saldaña among other celebrations, there were also bullfights. This type of fighting drew more attention from the crowds, thus the modern corrida, or fight, began to take form, as riding noblemen were replaced by commoners on foot. This new style prompted the construction of dedicated bullrings, initially square, like the Plaza de Armas, the modern style of Spanish bullfighting is credited to Juan Belmonte, generally considered the greatest matador of all time
38.
Atrium (architecture)
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In architecture, an atrium is a large open air or skylight covered space surrounded by a building. Atria were a feature in Ancient Roman dwellings, providing light. Modern atria, as developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries, are several stories high and having a glazed roof or large windows. Atria are a design feature because they give their buildings a feeling of space. The atrium has become a key feature of buildings in recent years. Atria are popular with building users, building designers and building developers, users like atria because they create a dynamic and stimulating interior that provides shelter from the external environment while maintaining a visual link with that environment. Designers enjoy the opportunity to new types of spaces in buildings. Fire control is an important aspect of contemporary atrium design due to criticism that poorly designed atria could allow fire to spread to a buildings upper stories more quickly. The Latin word atrium referred to the central court from which enclosed rooms led off. The impluvium was a shallow pool sunken into the floor to catch rainwater from the roof, some surviving examples are beautifully decorated. The opening in the ceiling above the pool called for some means of support for the roof, as the centrepiece of the house, the atrium was the most lavishly-furnished room. Also, it contained the chapel to the ancestral spirits. The term was used for a variety of spaces in public and religious buildings, mostly forms of arcaded courtyards. Byzantine churches were often entered through such a space, the 19th century brought the industrial revolution with great advances in iron and glass manufacturing techniques. Courtyards could then have horizontal glazing overhead, eliminating some of the elements from the space. One of the public spaces at Federation Square, in Melbourne, Australia, is called The Atrium and is a street-like space, five storeys high with glazed walls. The structure and glazing pattern follow the system of fractals used to arrange the panels on the rest of the facades at Federation Square, as of 2016, the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, has the worlds tallest atrium at 590 feet. The Luxor Hotel, in Las Vegas, Nevada, has the largest atrium in the world at 29 million cubic feet, cavaedium Courtyard Quadrangle Roth, Leland M. Understanding Architecture, Its Elements History and Meaning
39.
Assumption of Mary
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The Catholic Church teaches as dogma that the Virgin Mary having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. This doctrine was defined by Pope Pius XII on 1 November 1950. In the churches that observe it, the Assumption is a major feast day, in many countries, the feast is also marked as a Holy Day of Obligation in the Roman Catholic Church and as a festival in the Anglican Communion. The Catholic Church itself interprets chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation as referring to it, the earliest known narrative is the so-called Liber Requiei Mariae, which survives intact only in an Ethiopic translation. Probably composed by the 4th century, this Christian apocryphal narrative may be as early as the 3rd century, also quite early are the very different traditions of the Six Books Dormition narratives. The earliest versions of this apocryphon are preserved by several Syriac manuscripts of the 5th and 6th centuries, although the text itself probably belongs to the 4th century. The story also appears in De Transitu Virginis, a late 5th century work ascribed to St. Melito of Sardis that presents a theologically redacted summary of the traditions in the Liber Requiei Mariae. The Transitus Mariae tells the story of the apostles being transported by white clouds to the deathbed of Mary, the Decretum Gelasianum in the 490s declared some transitus Mariae literature apocryphal. An Armenian letter attributed to Dionysus the Areopagite also mentioned the supposed event, john of Damascus, from this period, is the first church authority to advocate the doctrine under his own name. His contemporaries, Gregory of Tours and Modestus of Jerusalem, helped promote the concept to the wider church. In some versions of the story, the event is said to have taken place in Ephesus, in the House of the Virgin Mary, although this is a more recent. The earliest traditions locate the end of Marys life in Jerusalem, in a later tradition, Mary drops her girdle down to the apostle from heaven as testament to the event. This incident is depicted in later paintings of the Assumption. It was celebrated in the West under Pope Sergius I in the 8th century, theological debate about the Assumption continued, following the Reformation, climaxing in 1950 when Pope Pius XII defined it as dogma for the Catholic Church. Catholic theologian Ludwig Ott stated, The idea of the assumption of Mary is first expressed in certain transitus-narratives of the fifth and sixth centuries. The first Church author to speak of the assumption of Mary. The Catholic writer Eamon Duffy states that there is, clearly, however, the Catholic Church has never asserted nor denied that its teaching is based on the apocryphal accounts. The Church documents are silent on this matter and instead rely upon other sources, Pope Pius XII deliberately left open the question of whether Mary died before her Assumption
40.
Saint Christopher
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Saint Christopher is venerated by several Christian denominations as a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman Emperor Decius or alternatively under the Roman Emperor Maximinus II Dacian. There appears to be due to the similarity in names Decius. He may be the figure as Saint Menas. Therefore, he is the saint of travelers, and small images of him are often worn around the neck, on a bracelet, carried in a pocket. There are several associated with the life and death of Saint Christopher which first appeared in Greece and had spread to France by the 9th century. The 11th-century bishop and poet, Walter of Speyer, gave one version, according to the legendary account of his life Christopher was initially called Reprobus. He was a Canaanite,5 cubits tall and with a fearsome face, while serving the king of Canaan, he took it into his head to go and serve the greatest king there was. He went to the king who was reputed to be the greatest, on thus learning that the king feared the devil, he departed to look for the devil. He came across a band of marauders, one of whom declared himself to be the devil, but when he saw his new master avoid a wayside cross and found out that the devil feared Christ, he left him and enquired from people where to find Christ. He met a hermit who instructed him in the Christian faith, Christopher asked him how he could serve Christ. When the hermit suggested fasting and prayer, Christopher replied that he was unable to perform that service, the hermit then suggested that because of his size and strength Christopher could serve Christ by assisting people to cross a dangerous river, where they were perishing in the attempt. The hermit promised that service would be pleasing to Christ. After Christopher had performed this service for time, a little child asked him to take him across the river. During the crossing, the river became swollen and the child seemed as heavy as lead, so much that Christopher could scarcely carry him, when he finally reached the other side, he said to the child, You have put me in the greatest danger. I do not think the world could have been as heavy on my shoulders as you were. The child replied, You had on your shoulders not only the whole world, I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work. Christopher later visited Lycia and there comforted the Christians who were being martyred, brought before the local king, he refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods. The king tried to win him by riches and by sending two beautiful women to tempt him, Christopher converted the women to Christianity, as he had already converted thousands in the city
41.
Solomonic column
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The Solomonic column, also called Barley-sugar column, is a helical column, characterized by a spiraling twisting shaft like a corkscrew. It is not signified by a specific style and may be crowned with any design, for example. Twist-fluted columns were a feature of eastern architecture of Late Antiquity. These columns, now considered to have made in the 2nd century CE. In actuality, the columns came from neither temple. Constantine is recorded as having brought them de Grecias i. e. from Greece, a small number of Roman examples of similar columns are known. All that can firmly be said is that they are early and, because they have no Christian iconography in the carving, the columns have distinct sections that alternate from ridged to smooth with sculpted grape leaves. Some of these columns remained on the altar until the old structure of St. Peters was torn down in the 16th century, while removed from the altar, eight of these columns remain part of the structure of St. Peters. Two columns were placed below the pendentives on each of the four piers beneath the dome, another column can now be observed up close in the St. Peters Treasury Museum. Other columns from this set of twelve have been lost over the course of time. If these columns really were from one of the Temples in Jerusalem and these columns have sections of twist-fluting alternating with wide bands of foliated reliefs. From Byzantine examples, the Solomonic column passed to Western Romanesque architecture, in Romanesque architecture some columns also featured spiraling elements twisted round each other like hawser. Such variety adding life to an arcade is combined with Cosmatesque spiralling inlays in the cloister of St. John Lateran and these arcades were prominent in Rome and may have influenced the baroque Solomonic column. The Solomonic column was revived as a feature of Baroque architecture, the twisted S-curve shaft gives energy and dynamism to the traditional column form which fits these qualities that are characteristically Baroque. Easily the best-known Solomonic columns are the colossal bronze Composite columns by Bernini in his Baldacchino at St. Peters Basilica, the construction of the baldachin, actually a ciborium, which was finished in 1633, required that the original ones of Constantine be moved. During the succeeding century, Solomonic columns were used in altars, furniture. Sculpted vines were sometimes carved into the spiralling cavetto of the columns, or made of metal. In an ecclesiastical context such ornament may be read as symbolic of the used in the Eucharist
42.
Altarpiece
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An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing behind the altar of a Christian church. Altarpieces were one of the most important products of Christian art especially from the late Middle Ages to the era of the Counter-Reformation. Large number of altarpieces are now removed from their settings, and often their elaborate sculpted frameworks. Altarpieces seem to have begun to be used during the 11th century, the reasons and forces that led to the development of altarpieces are not generally agreed upon. The habit of placing decorated reliquaries of saints on or behind the altar, as well as the tradition of decorating the front of the altar with sculptures or textiles, an elaborate example of such an early altarpiece is the Pala dOro in Venice. The appearance and development of these first altarpieces marked an important turning point both in the history of Christian art and Christian religious practice, the autonomous image now assumed a legitimate position at the centre of Christian worship. Painted panel altars emerged in Italy during the 13th century, in the 13th century, it is not uncommon to find frescoed or mural altarpieces in Italy, mural paintings behind the altar function as visual complements for the liturgy. These altarpieces were influenced by Byzantine art, notably icons, which reached Western Europe in greater numbers following the conquest of Constantinople in 1204. During this time, altarpieces began to be decorated with an outer. Vigoroso da Sienas altarpiece from 1291 display such an altarpiece and this treatment of the altarpiece would eventually pave the way for the emergence, in the 14th century, of the polyptych. The sculpted elements in the emerging polyptychs often took inspiration from contemporary Gothic architecture, in Italy, they were still typically executed in wood and painted, while in northern Europe altarpieces were often made of stone. The early 14th century saw the emergence, in Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, the Baltic region, by hinging the outer panels to the central panel and painting them on both sides, the motif could be regulated by opening or closing the wings. The pictures could thus be changed depending on liturgical demands, the earliest often displayed sculptures on the inner panels, i. e. displayed when open, and paintings on the back of the wings, displayed when closed. With the advent of winged altarpieces, a shift in imagery also occurred, instead of being centred on a single holy figure, altarpieces began to portray more complex narratives linked to the Christian concept of salvation. As the Middle Ages progressed, altarpieces began to be commissioned more frequently, in Northern Europe, initially Lübeck and later Antwerp would develop into veritable export centres for the production of altarpieces, exporting to Scandinavia, Spain and northern France. By the 15th century, altarpieces were often commissioned not only by churches but also by individuals, families, guilds, the 15th century saw the birth of Early Netherlandish painting in the Low Countries, henceforth panel painting would dominate altarpiece production in the area. In Germany, sculpted wooden altarpieces were instead generally preferred, while in England alabaster was used to a large extent, in England, as well as in France, stone retables enjoyed general popularity. In Italy both stone retables and wooden polyptychs were common, with painted panels and often with complex framing in the form of architectural compositions
Mexico
[saŋkɾisˈtoβal de las ˈkasas] (help·info)), also known by its native Tzotzil name, Jovel (pronounced [xɤ̞ˈve̞l]), is a town and municipality located in the Central Highlands region of the Mexican state of Chiapas. It was the capital of the state until 1892, and is still considered the cultural capital of Chiapas.
