Assess the usefulness of functionalist theories in understanding religion today Essay Example for Free

Assess the usefulness of functionalist theories in understanding religion today Essay Assess the usefulness of functionalist theories in understanding religion today (33 marks) There are a variety of different definitions of religion including substantive definitions, which refers to focusing on the content or substance of a religious belief such as God, functional definitions, which refers to religion in terms of the social or psychological functions it carries out for the individual and there are also social constructionist definitions which focus on how members of society actually define religion. Functionalists hold a consensus view and argue that society requires both social order and solidarity in order for it to run smoothly, and religion is one way of providing this as it encourages shared norms and values. As previously mentioned, functionalists argue that social order and solidarity to run smoothly – Durkheim argued that there are four main ways in which religion maintains value consensus. One way is through the sacred and profane, he argued that sacred referred to things that are separate from society and create feelings of awe, wonder and fear whereas profane referred to things that were inferior with no real significance. Durkheim therefore argued that the only thing powerful enough to inspire people in the way religion does is society itself therefore meaning people are not worshipping their religion or god, but in fact society – this means that people unite under the same belief, spreading shared norms and values all over and therefore creating consensus within society. Another way in which religion helps to maintain value consensus is through Totemism – Durkheim argued that heart of all religions could be identified by examining its simplest form in the simplest type of society which he called a clan society. He carried out a study in Australia with a tribe with a clan system. (Arunta) This tribe consisted of a close knit community who carried out rituals together with involved the worshipping of a sacred totem, such as a plant of leaf that identifies the clan therefore creating a sense of social order and solidarity. Totemism is similar to the sacred and profane as it causes individuals to unknowingly worship society instead of a God or supernatural being, therefore again spreading shared norms and values. However, there are criticisms to this view; Worsley argues that there is no difference between the sacred and profane and his view of totemism would only apply to small scale communities with a single religion, but not larger scale communities with multiple religions as there are commonly conflicts between them, meaning there is no longer social order and solidarity. Malinowski argues that religion promotes social order and solidarity through it psychological functions, which helps individuals who are going through hardship therefore preventing them from going against society’s shared norms and values. Malinowski suggested two different types of situation in which religion helps to perform this role. One way is when the outcome is important but is uncontrollable – he compared the differences between two different ways of fishing when carrying out a study in the Western Pacific, he argued that lagoon fishing is predictable, safe and has a more successful method of catching fish meaning there is no ritual. However, when the islanders were ocean fishing, he identified it as more dangerous and uncertain which required the islanders to carry out rituals in order to ensure their safety whilst fishing. Malinowski argued that the ritual gave the islanders a sense of control and more confidence, again highlighting solidarity. The other situation was at times of life crises, this meant events that cause significant change such as birthdays, weddings, and death religion is useful as it helps bring little disruption. Similarly, Parsons argues that religion helps individuals to handle unforeseen events and uncontrollable outcomes. He identified two ways in which religion does this – one way is by creating and legitimising society’s central values but making them sacred. For example, in the USA, Protestantism helped make the American core values of meritocracy, individualism and self-disciple sacred. This therefore helps to promote social order and solidarity as the vast majority of Americans would have the same norms and values, creating little conflict and greater social cohesion. The other way is by answering people’s ultimate questions, such as who created the earth, and why do some people die young. It gives individuals a sense of security and makes people less likely to rebel against society. However, not all sociologists agree with the functionalists and their view of religion and its role. Feminists argue that the role of religion is to oppress women and help maintain patriarchy within society. One way in which religion maintains patriarchy is through religious organisations – these are significantly male dominated, for example, Orthodox Judaism and Catholicism do not allow women to become priests. Armstrong argues that this is evidence for the marginalisation of women in religion and society. Places of worship often separate the sexes, placing men on more holy ground with women sitting behind a screen. Women are also not allowed to preach or read from sacred texts. Additionally, menstruating women are not allowed to touch the Qur’an, this therefore reinforces patriarchy as women are forbidden from doing important rituals within their holy ground and are also discriminated against. Sacred texts are often focused on the actions of male gods and prophets and are commonly written by men. Women who are featured in sacred texts are commonly portrayed through stereotypes such as Eve, who caused the fall of humanity and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Lastly, religious laws and customs ensure that women are given fewer rights than men, such as access to divorce, how many spouses they can have, decision making etc. In conclusion, there are a variety of different theories as to the usefulness of lack of in regards to religion.

Core Identity :: essays research papers

Historically, societies have had a great deal of influence over the individuals making up their respective civilization. Every society, regardless of how autonomous their society allows their populous to be, directly and indirectly extends a level of control. Self-governing persons often think of themselves as immune to society’s invisible sway; and to varying degrees they are however, their core identity is ultimately shaped and molded by interacting with other members of humanity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When I hear a proverb such as â€Å"pull yourself up by the bootstraps† or â€Å"I’m the captain of my ship† it stirs feelings of sovereignty and freedom and the ability to whatever I want, whenever I want. In some cases these statements are true, if for example one wanted to go the movies, that person could simply get in their car and go to the movies. Perfect example of being â€Å"the captain of your own ship† Seems to be a sound statement, but what if the person didn’t have money to see the movie, or couldn’t walk to the movies because they didn’t have legs due to an injury during the Gulf War. Now it appears that his â€Å"ship has been commandeered†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The above case in point is an example of how society will have a â€Å"hand on the rudder of everyone’s ship† Even if that individual decided he was going to the movies, circumstances beyond his control have dictated what he can and cannot do in certain situations. Because of the war this individual had no legs, because he had no legs he didn’t have a job, because he had no job, he had no money consequently; he wasn’t going to the movies. Proverbs like â€Å"being the captain of your own ship† are merely motivational anecdotes that help alleviate the sometimes harsh certainty that is one’s potential. Everything an individual does is governed in some fashion by the constraints put upon him or her by society and their relevant place in society.

Marketing 4p assigment Essay

INTRODUCTION 1. 0 BACKGROUND OF THE ORGANIZATIONS: Backed by more than 20 years of experience in Japan, Sushi Zanmai possesses extensive expertise for raw materials selection. Base on the nature of Business is classified as Food & Beverage industry. The purpose of their business is serves the best food and services to each customers. Genuine ingredients coupled with original recipes and original taste, they provide more than 100 assortments of sushi and 100 varieties of cooked food that are authentically Japanese. They now have 10 outlets in Malaysia which is at Sunway Pramid, One Utama, Garden Mall, Low Yat Plaza, Paradigm Mall, Fahrenheit 88 and 1 Month Kiara. They have their own wedsite for customers more easily to find out the most nearby location and know what is new on that month. The main selling product is sushi other that they also have sell noodles, rice set, desserts, and beverages. That sushi of colour plate starts from RM1. 80. 2. 0 THE PRODUCT OF SUSHI ZANMAI Sushi Zanmai is originated from Japan. They are offering the combination of tangible goods and services in their business. They provide traditional Japanese foods and services on their business. They business are on direct sell foods to customers. They have serves appetiser which the Japanese meal begins with a visual feast of chilled and warm appetisers, like: Salmon roe Japanese omelette Potato Mayonnaise Sushi Zanmai created own specialties featuring the freshest, handpicked ingredients provide a fresh, contemporary spin on much-loved favourites, exquisitely tailored to suit local taste preferences such as, Sanshoku Hana Salmon Caterpillar Roll Wasabillar Roll The traditional entree consists of expertly-sliced raw fish, shellfish or mollusks, complemented perfectly by the combination of wasabi and soy sauce, and often accompanied by pickled ginger, example Salmon sashimi Toro sashimi Maguro sashimi According to survey, most of the female prefer sushi salad that the reason Sushi Zanmai products include various types of Salad to let customers choose too. As you can see the three popular salad dishes are Sashimi Salad Salmon Salad Kaiso to Tofu Salad Rolled sushi in Japanese language is pronounces maki. It usually comprises of seafood which may or may not be raw, vinegared rice and paper-thin seaweed. For example, Salmon Maki Soft Shell Crab Maki Natto Maki Follow that, they do have Temaki. The â€Å"te† in Temaki means hand is Japanese language. The Temaki sushi is two- fold. It not only refers to a hand roll that is made entirely with the hand, without the traditional bamboo mat. The cone-shaped Temaki sushi is ofeten prepared as an appetizer. Soft Shell crab Temaki Ikura Temaki Unagi Temaki Other than that, noodles are also usually customers will order it. They have provide three types of noodles one is soba which is made from wheat flour, Udon made from wheat flour, Ramen made from Chinese wheat flour and served with a wide range of soup stocks such as soy-sauce base and salt base. Sansai Udon Niku Ramen Kakaiage soba Donburi a dishes consist of a deep bowl of rice topped off with chicken, beef or seafood cooked in a variety of styles and sauces. They have, Curry Rice Unadon Ebidon In beverages, they served many types of drinks like Green Tea, Calpis Smoothies, fine Japanese Sake, Soft Drinks, Japanese Plum Wine and others. Green Tea (unlimited refill) Ichigo Smoothies Choya Extreme A dessert to end the meals. It have multiple choice as well as, Macha & Macha Parfait Itachoco Monaka Stawberry Parfait For the level of the product and services, Sushi Zanmai is selling the product which is categories in actual product. They have their own brand name, design, packaging that deliver the core benefit to customers. They are selling high quality level product that most of the ingredients are import from Japan such as Salmon, tuna, sea bream, Eel and etc. Besides, Sushi Zanmai are selling the shopping product goods which is one of the important consumer goods in market. There have few reason because of Sushi Zanmai’s product is belong to shopping product. Sushi Zanmai of products is consumers purchase and consume on a less frequent schedule compared to convenience products. Normally, they opened their business inside the shopping mall and which is high class and crowded shopping mall. They will do more selective when choosing distribution outlets to sell their products. However, customers are willing to spend more time locating their products since they are relatively more expensive than convenience products and because these may process additional psychological benefits for the purchaser, such as raising customers status level within their social group. 3. 0 THE PRICING STRATEGY THAT USED BY SUSHI ZANMAI Sushi Zanmai has successfully follows the price skimming strategy when setting the price of its products. The price skimming strategy allows Sushi Zanmai to charge a price that is above the competition, but also promote frequent sales to lower the price below them. Different groups of customers are willing to pay different prices for the same product. Sushi Zanmai can sell â€Å"The Extreme† to the customers who will pay the higher price to be the first to buy and also to the bargain hunters. Finally, this strategy will emphasize the product and service quality. Sushi Zanmai sets a high initial price for its products to send a signal to customers that its products are quality and the service is excellent. Next, Sushi Zanmai also using price line and price bundle as the pricing strategies. Product Line Pricing They have selling same product of food but different categories. Every guest has different taste and love different type of cruise that the reason Sushi Zanmai has to classify as well. Certainly, different materiel of food sure is different price charging. For example: Sushi Name Ingredients Price Inari Sakura Shiitake & fish floss RM3. 80 Kaki Fry Roll Friend oyster sushi roll topped with mayonnaise RM9. 80 Dragon Roll Fried prawn sushi roll topped with avocado RM12. 80 Rice Name Ingredients Price Ebidon Deep fried prawn with egg on rice RM8. 80 Chiken Katsu Curry Chicken cutlet and rice with curry sauce RM10. 80 Unadon Roasted eel on rice RM15. 80 Noodles Name Ingredients Price Tsukimi Udon or ramen noddles with egg RM6. 80 Sansai Udon or soba noodle with vegetables RM8. 80 Curry Udon or ramen noodle with chicken curry RM10. 80 Product Bundle Pricing Sushi Zanmai has offering set promotion to attract more guests to purchase their products. Set promotion is type of bundle strategy. It can let guests feel the price is lower or cheaper but just have in certain and limited lime for it, like: Chicken Keraage Don and ice lemon tea for only RM7. 90 As manager will be considered in a few points when setting the bundle pricing strategy: Customer demands, sort out which is the product of the guests prefer or like it. Customers always pursue cheaper price, Target profit; make sure will reach the target. 4. 0 PLACE OF SUSHI ZANMAI Location is very important to those in Food and Beverage industry, as the product they sell is shopping product, the customers should not be able to take far complications to reach their shop. Normally, Sushi Zanmai chooses to open their new outlet inside the shopping mall that those people visit regularly. Below as those outlets of Sushi Zanmai in Malaysia : †¢SUSHI ZANMAI, SUNWAY PIRAMID †¢SUSHI ZANMAI, LOW YAT PLAZA †¢SUSHI ZANMAI, 1 UTAMA †¢SUSHI ZANMAI, THE GARDENS MALL †¢SUSHI ZANMAI, FAHRENHEIT 88 †¢SUSHI ZANMAI, 1 M ONT’KIARA †¢SUSHI ZANMAI, PARADIGM MALL One of the outlets of Sushi Zanmai in K. L Distribution Sushi Zanmai’s distribution channel is a direct channel as they are selling their product directly to the customers. Their distribution channel is considered as a direct channel, and it is the best suitable method to do for selling sushi, udon and beverage to the customers. As Sushi Zanmai are being in food and beverage industry, the best way to serve their customers is by serving them nicely and directly. The shopkeepers who are preparing meal in front of the customers 5. 0 PROMOTION OF SUSHI ZANMAI Sushi Zanmai are using promotion methods which are Advertising and Sales Promotion. For advertising promotion purpose, they have created a web page over the internet that those people could get the information which about them with visiting their web page. Other than that, for the reasons of nowadays most of the people are having an account on facebook, so that they have created a facebook web page to be distributed among the facebook page. The facebook users or customers might do a feedback or recommendations that about them through their facebook page. Web page of Sushi Zanmai Sales promotional sets will be made to promote their products to let the customers try and enjoy their product and to create strong customer relationships by promoting personally and friendly service. Their popular promotional methods are: Have 50 % discounts for only these 4 types of items. The duration of this promotion is just for one week. Sushi Zanmai have did the promotion that shown as above. The customers will get a Chicken Karaage Don for only RM 6. 80 after finish the steps that set by them. Free RM 20 Sushi Zanmai voucher for those customers whom spend RM100 or above in any of their outlets. The duration for this voucher is just for one month. 6. 0 Improvements in 4p’strategies of Sushi Zanmai Product Sushi Zanmai should activate the strategy of product development and come up with new products from time to time as it is important to maintain the preference of the customers with the new developed products. For example, the organization can come up with new type of rice and new sushi flavour or developing new menu items in single orders such as Udon and etc. Place Shopping mall actually is a not bad idea for open a restaurant but also need to careful about the visibility. A restaurant that is located on a crowded place has high visibility. Conversely, a restaurant nestled on a not crowded place will always battle a disadvantage simply based on its location. Pricing Sushi Zanmai should be try not setting too higher price to attract more other guests purchase your product and also can earn more profit. Promotion Sushi Zanmai can also be improved by creating more value sets that prompts the customers to try out the new products made for specific period as a special promotion during particular season such as Valentine’ Day and Merry Christmas or holiday season value sets for example Advertising on TV Sushi Zanmai shoud has advertising on TV. Television is the most powerful advertising medium available. The largest corporations around the world use it to build their brands, bring customers, add credibility, and grow their businesses. Delivery Services Add delivery services. It can help a company gaining popularity and becoming more available. 7. 0 Conclusion In conclusion, i would like conclude by listing the 4p’strategies that regarding of is price, place, promotion and product. They are offering the combination of tangible goods and services in their business. In setting pricing the Sushi Zanmai is using price skimming for their products. For the place and distribution, The Sushi Zanmai is use direct as their channel. Moreover, the Therefore, Sushi Zanmai should improve its product quality and take considered action in order to improve the sales as expected.

Essay on Effect of Alcohol on the Human Brain - 1953 Words

Effect of Alcohol on the Human Brain http://www.alcoholism.tqn.com/library/weekly/aa022697.htm?pid=2750cob=home. Whether a crime was committed intentionally or unintentionally has great bearing on the decision of a jury in finding a person guilty of a crime and/or on the judges choice of punishment. You might have heard of husbands apologizing to their wives the day after theyve beaten them. Their apology might sound something like, Im so sorry. I did not mean to hurt you, I swear! Does alcohol have the capability to make a person forget? Can a person be unaware of his surroundings and yet still be able to interact with it? More importantly, can alcohol change a persons personality enough that it would cause him to do things†¦show more content†¦On the other hand, how can we be sure that alcohol was not consumed to have an excuse for a premeditated crime? Ethyl alcohol, which is the type of alcohol found in alcoholic drinks, enters the bloodstream through the walls of the gastrointestinal tract, mostly from the walls of the stomach and of the small intestines. Once ethyl alcohol enters the bloodstream, it passes through the brain and bathes the brain cells. This is how alcohol kill brain cells and damages the brain. (5) Different levels of alcohol in the blood have different effects on the behavior of a person; however, these effects are not predictable. At low levels, the inhibitory centers are usually suppressed and there is a false sense of increased confidence and a feeling of well being. The depressing effects of alcohol on the brain may relax a person but equally likely, may make a person irritable, mistrusting, and very sensitive. (3) (4) (5) (6) While feeling relaxed is generally good for a person, it carries negative effects when a person gets in trouble from being overly relaxed. 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