Models of art ( anthropology ) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Models of art ( anthropology ) - Essay Example This period from 25 to 220 CE differed from its earlier namesake (Pirazzoli-T'Serstevens 34). As regards the chronology of the Han ceramics, the dates furnished by two pieces are of primary importance, the one, 133 B.C., found by Bushell on a vase of the Dana collection; and the other, 52 B.C., on a jug (Pirazzoli-T'Serstevens 40). There is another vase bearing the year-period Shn chek, i.e., 61-57 B.C.; but the reading of this inscription is still obscure. On the basis of these data, archeologists presume that this pottery originated in the second and first centuries before our era, although it may well be that some pieces belong to the first century A.D., which may be considered as the terminus ad quem. From internal evidence it is possible to fix the date of the type of the hill-censer in the first part of the first century B.C (Pirazzoli-T'Serstevens 42). The widest spectrum of surviving types is found in craft goods of daily use such as ceramics and textiles. Ceramics can be classified according to many different features. Technical criteria, including firing temperatur e and body types; style features, including glaze, decor, and favored shapes; geography or kiln sites; and the issues of taste, use, and markets discussed here are all important. Ceramic wares range from middle-class types to refined luxury wares commissioned by the imperial household and limited to that environment (Spirit of Han 12). Vessels occupied a special position during the Han dynasty as the main tool of cooking and baking. A typical bowl-shaped vessel of Han pottery with oblique handle terminating in an animal's head, much resembling the cooking-vessel found on the stove (Cooper 38). To obtain a clear understanding of this type, archeologists discuss two related bronze types of the same period. By the term chiao tou, two kinds of copper or bronze vessels are understood: (1) a vessel provided with three feet and a handle, and serving to cook food in; (2) a cookingpan, used in camps by soldiers for preparing their food in by day, and for striking the watch by night. The latter vessel is also called tiao tou. To avoid confusion, critics restricted the term chiao tou to the tripod cooking-vessel, and tiao tou to the cooking-pan without feet (Cooper 36). The example selected for analysis is the chiao tou made of bronze (See Appendix, Picture 1). The total height up to the head of the animal is 24.3 cm; up to the rim of the vessel, 16 cm; the height of the feet being 11.2 cm. The diameter of the mouth is 19.8 cm; the depth of the vessel, 7.8 cm. The copper material is covered with black, reddish, and green spots. According to the verbal explanation of a Chinese archologist at Hsi an, the animal forming the handle is "the scaly dragon" and the vessel was used like a ladle, for scooping water, the long neck of the chiao serving as handle (Cooper 37). The animal's neck and feet are curved in a different manner. The neck is joined to the vessel by means of two small parallel pieces, but the whole is made in one cast. The mouth of the monster is wide open. The feet are rounded out, and the lower ends are evidently worked into hoofs. Around the body of the vessel are four parallel raised lines, the so-called "girdle- ornament." Through the

Impact of Microfinance on Developing Countries Literature review

Impact of Microfinance on Developing Countries - Literature review Example With no access to financial systems, the poor have to define new informal ways through which they have to guarantee their financial survival while at the same time obtaining seed capital for development. Such informal community based institutions are meant to meet their daily and long-term financial needs, a gap that is perfectly filled by the micro financial institutions (Jegede, Kehinde & Hamed, 2011). Consequently, micro financial institutions are organizations developed towards promoting economic activities among the poor and low-income earners, where formal financial institutions have not offered similar services. To these people, banking services are impossible or almost impossible and they have to get a new way of bridging the gap left by the banks, which makes micro financial institutions prominent in poor countries particularly in the African continent. Micro financial institutions will lend small amounts of capital to members and other poor individuals in the locality towar ds poverty eradication, in addition to providing the poor communities the same services that are available in banks, and which are enjoyed by the rich (Jegede Kehinde & Hamed, 2011). In fact, microfinance institutions do not only provide capital for the poor but will go an extra mile to alleviate poverty from the basic individual level and at the community level (Anyanwu, 2004). Consequently, as Anyanu asserts, in Africa and other developing countries, microfinance institutions are considered the main source of funding for the poor towards creating projects that alleviate poverty and educate the poor on wealth creation. Due to the important role played by these institutions in poverty eradication, the government of Nigeria adopted micro financial institutions as the main route towards poverty eradication with the central Bank of Nigeria developing the necessary policies to facilitate operations of these institutions. This is despite the fact that the number of people benefiting from these institutions is still lower than required, with more people targeted through expansion of microfinancial institutions throughout the rural areas in the country. More than 70% of Nigerians live below the poverty line with microfinance banks serving about one million clients across the country that has a population of more than 140 million people (Irobi, 2008). Considering these facts, it is important to investigate how microfinance institutions affect the poor in developing countries with a close focus on Nigeria. Microfinance institutions have a role to correct an imperfect market in answering the various shortcomings of imperfections in the credit market (Armendariz & Murdoch, 2010). Making it easy for people to obtain capital has been shown as the best way to increase output, profits and net income among the poor, which improves their individual and communal welfare. However, the borrowing capacity is mostly dependent on the amount of information in the market, the vulnerab ility of the business being funded and the amounts of uncertainties in the business setup (Duvendack et al, 2011). Moreover, credit facilities continue to be used for gender empowerment among the poor where microfinance institutions targeting women have continued to sprout. Such credit facilities and education on members are aimed at promoting the status of women in the society and empowering them to handle more roles in the society and their families in general (Duvendack et al, 2011). There is a general simplified assumption that credit is an exogenous mode of treatment on borrowers that represent the wellbeing of the affected individuals through changing their livelihoods and other relations between individuals (Duvendack et al,