Environmental Determinism
Environmental determinism (also known as climatic determinism or geographical determinism) is the study of how the physical environment predisposes societies and states towards particular economic or social developmental (or even more generally, cultural) trajectories. Jared Diamond, Jeffrey Herbst, Ian Morris, and other social scientists sparked a revival of the theory during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This "neo-environmental determinism" school of thought examines how geographic and ecological forces influence state-building, economic development, and institutions. While archaic versions of the geographic interpretation were used to encourage colonialism and eurocentrism, modern figures like Diamond use this approach to reject the racism in these explanations. Diamond argues that European powers were able to colonize, due to unique advantages bestowed by their environment, as opposed to any kind of inherent superiority. A history of thought C ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Europe Topography Map En
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe shares the landmass of Eurasia with Asia, and of Afro-Eurasia with both Africa and Asia. Europe is commonly considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea, and the waterway of the Bosporus Strait. "Europe" (pp. 68–69); "Asia" (pp. 90–91): "A commonly accepted division between Asia and Europe ... is formed by the Ural Mountains, Ural River, Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea with its outlets, the Bosporus and Dardanelles." Europe covers approx. , or 2% of Earth's surface (6.8% of Earth's land area), making it the second-smallest continent (using the seven-continent model). Politically, Europe is divided into abou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Guan Zhong
Guan Zhong (; c. 720–645 BC) was a Chinese philosopher and politician. He served as chancellor and was a reformer of the State of Qi during the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. His given name was Yiwu (). ''Zhong'' was his courtesy name. He is mainly remembered for his reforms as chancellor under Duke Huan of Qi, as well as his friendship with his colleague Bao Shuya, though his reputation remained controversial among the Confucians, as detailed in the appraisal section. Through Guan Zhong's reforms and skilful diplomacy Qi became the most powerful of the feudal states and Duke Huan became the first of the Five Hegemons. Though knowledge of his reforms is limited, in particular he instituted a famous fiscal policy known as "balancing the light and the heavy", associated with salt and iron monopolies. Otherwise a diverse work, the Guanzi compilation making use of his name makes similar such recommendations. Life Youth and friendship with Bao Shuya Guan Zhong, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Muqaddimah
The ''Muqaddimah'' ( "Introduction"), also known as the ''Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun'' () or ''Ibn Khaldun's Introduction (writing), Prolegomena'' (), is a book written by the historian Ibn Khaldun in 1377 which presents a view of Universal history (genre), universal history. Some modern thinkers view it as the first work dealing with the social sciences of sociology, demography, and cultural history.Mohamad Abdalla (Summer 2007. "Ibn Khaldun on the Fate of Islamic Science after the 11th Century", ''Islam & Science'' 5 (1), p. 61-70. The ''Muqaddimah'' also deals with Islamic theology, historiography, the philosophy of history, economics,I. M. Oweiss (1988), "Ibn Khaldun, the Father of Economics", ''Arab Civilization: Challenges and Responses'', New York University Press, .Jean David C. Boulakia (1971), "Ibn Khaldun: A Fourteenth-Century Economist", ''The Journal of Political Economy'' 79 (5): 1105–1118. Political philosophy, political theory, and ecology. It has also been descri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Polymath
A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, but some are gifted at explaining abstractly and creatively. Embodying a basic tenet of Renaissance humanism that humans are limitless in their capacity for development, the concept led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible. This is expressed in the term Renaissance man, often applied to the Intellectual giftedness, gifted people of that age who sought to develop their abilities in all areas of accomplishment: intellectual, artistic, social, physical, and spiritual. Etymology The word polymath derives from the Ancient Greek, Greek roots ''poly-'', which means "much" or "many," and ''manthanein'', which means "to learn." Plutarch wrote that the Ancient Greek Muses, muse P ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sociology In Medieval Islam
Sociology as a scholarly discipline emerged, primarily out of Enlightenment thought, as a positivist ''science of society'' shortly after the French Revolution. Its genesis owed to various key movements in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of knowledge, arising in reaction to such issues as modernity, capitalism, urbanization, rationalization, secularization, colonization and imperialism.Harriss, John. 2000. "The Second Great Transformation? Capitalism at the End of the Twentieth Century." In ''Poverty and Development in the 21st Century'', edited by T. Allen and A. Thomas. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 325. During its nascent stages, within the late 19th century, sociological deliberations took particular interest in the emergence of the modern nation state, including its constituent institutions, units of socialization, and its means of surveillance. As such, an emphasis on the concept of modernity, rather than the Enlightenment, often distinguishes sociolog ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 Hijri year, AH) was an Arabs, Arab Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and considered by a number of scholars to be a major forerunner of historiography, sociology, economics, and demography studies. His best-known book, the ''Muqaddimah'' or ''Prolegomena'' ("Introduction"), which he wrote in six months as he states in his autobiography, influenced 17th-century and 19th-century Ottoman historians such as Kâtip Çelebi, Mustafa Naima and Ahmed Cevdet Pasha, who used its theories to analyze the growth and decline of the Ottoman Empire. Ibn Khaldun interacted with Tamerlane, the founder of the Timurid Empire. He has been called one of the most prominent Muslim and Arab scholars and historians. Recently, Ibn Khaldun's works have been compared with those of influential European philosophers such as Niccolò Machiavelli ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Najd
Najd is a Historical region, historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes most of the central region of Saudi Arabia. It is roughly bounded by the Hejaz region to the west, the Nafud desert in Al-Jawf Province, al-Jawf to the north, ad-Dahna Desert in Al-Ahsa Governorate, al-Ahsa to the east, and Rub' al Khali, Rub' al-Khali to the south, although its exact boundaries cannot be determined due to varying geographical and political limits throughout history. Administratively, Najd is divided into three main Provinces of Saudi Arabia, regions: the Riyadh Province, Riyadh region which features Wadi Hanifa and the Tuwaiq escarpment, which houses easterly Al-Yamama, Yamama with the Saudi capital, Riyadh since Emirate of Nejd, 1824, and the Sudairi region, which has its capital in Al Majma'ah, Majmaah. The second region, Al-Qassim Province, Al-Qassim, houses the fertile oases and date palm orchards spread out in the region's highlands along Wadi al-Rummah, Wadi Rummah in c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial planet, rocky planet or natural satellite, moon. More than 90% of all volcanic rock on Earth is basalt. Rapid-cooling, fine-grained basalt is chemically equivalent to slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro. The eruption of basalt lava is observed by geologists at about 20 volcanoes per year. Basalt is also an important rock type on other planetary bodies in the Solar System. For example, the bulk of the plains of volcanism on Venus, Venus, which cover ~80% of the surface, are basaltic; the lunar mare, lunar maria are plains of flood-basaltic lava flows; and basalt is a common rock on the surface of Mars. Molten basalt lava has a low viscosity due to its relatively low silica content (between 45% and 52%), resulting in rapidly moving lava flo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Skin Color
Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is largely the result of genetics (inherited from one's biological parents), and in adults in particular, due to exposure to the sun, disorders, or some combination thereof. Differences across populations evolved through natural selection and sexual selection, because of social norms and differences in environment, as well as regulation of the biochemical effects of ultraviolet radiation penetrating the skin. Human skin color is influenced greatly by the amount of the pigment melanin present. Melanin is produced within the skin in cells called melanocytes; it is the main determinant of the skin color of darker-skin humans. The skin color of people with light skin is determined mainly by the bluish-white connective tissue under the dermis and by the hemoglobin circulating in the veins of the dermis. The red color underlyi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Al-Jahiz
Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Basri (; ), commonly known as al-Jahiz (), was an Arab polymath and author of works of literature (including theory and criticism), theology, zoology, philosophy, grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, philology, linguistics, and politico-religious polemics. His extensive zoological work has been credited with describing principles related to natural selection, ethology, and the functions of an ecosystem. Ibn al-Nadim lists nearly 140 titles attributed to al-Jahiz, of which 75 are extant. The best known are ''Kitāb al-Ḥayawān'' (The Book of Animals), a seven-part compendium on an array of subjects with animals as their point of departure; ''Kitāb al-Bayān wa-l-tabyīn'' (The Book of Eloquence and Exposition), a wide-ranging work on human communication; and ''Kitāb al-Bukhalāʾ'' (The Book of Misers), a collection of anecdotes on stinginess. Tradition claims that he was smothered to death when a vast amount of books fell over him. Life The a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Afro-Arab
Afro-Arabs, African Arabs, or Black Arabs are Arabs who have predominantly or total Sub-Saharan African ancestry. These include primarily minority groups in the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, Western Sahara, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. The term may also refer to various Arab groups in certain African regions. Overview From the 7th century onward Muslim communities were established along the coast of Eritrea and Somalia, subsequently spreading inland. The Arab slave trades, which began in pre-Islamic times but reached their height between 650 AD and 1900 AD, transported millions of African people from the Nile Valley, the Horn of Africa, and the eastern African coast across the Red Sea to Arabia as part of the Red Sea slave trade. Millions more were taken from West Africa and Central Africa across the Sahara as part of the trans-Saharan slave trade. By around the first millennium AD ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western European nations in the early 20th century as a replacement of the term Near East (both were in contrast to the Far East). The term "Middle East" has led to some confusion over its changing definitions. Since the late 20th century, it has been criticized as being too Eurocentrism, Eurocentric. The region includes the vast majority of the territories included in the closely associated definition of West Asia, but without the South Caucasus. It also includes all of Egypt (not just the Sinai Peninsula, Sinai) and all of Turkey (including East Thrace). Most Middle Eastern countries (13 out of 18) are part of the Arab world. The list of Middle Eastern countries by population, most populous countries in the region are Egypt, Turkey, and Iran, whil ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |