ARTIFACT ESSAY

Alejandro Giron
Professor Underwood
History 201 USA, Africa and the World
October 6th, 2008
Personal Artifact Essay
It is February 7th, 2208, and my name is Bryce Giron. I am 17 years old and I live in the city of Brooklyn, New York. My parents and I are digging in our backyard searching for a time capsule that my great ancestor Alejandro Giron has left behind. He passed down a letter to all of my predecessors telling them to wait 200 years and to find what he has left behind. He wants us to analyze the personal objects that he left and try to make assumptions about how people lived back in the year 2008.
Once we found the time capsule, my parents left me to go through the objects that were inside. It’s a small trunk sealed in a plastic bag. When I took the trunk out, I noticed that it was covered in a pattern all over which seemed to be like small Y’s. Also if you look closely you can see the word Goyard in between the small Y’s. This trunk seemed real primitive compared to the things that are around today. Since my ancestor placed all his personal items inside the trunk I can infer that this was used as some sort of storage. I looked up Goyard on the internet, and from what I have found, it was a brand of bags. They made luggage, trunks and other types of bags. I also found that these were a high fashion brand of bags; they were created in limited numbers making it harder and more expensive for one to own. Judging from this fact, I assume that my great grandfather was heavily into fashion and presentation.
There was also a pair of jeans inside the trunk. The jeans had a leather patch in the upper right side of the back of the jeans. The patch was light brown with an orange N on it. Under the N, the words Nudie Jeans Co. were engraved in the leather patch. There was also a small booklet in the back pocket of the jeans. There was some sort of instructions in the booklet pertaining to how one should care for the jeans. It said that it was made from selvedge denim and it was unwashed. It also said that the jeans should not be washed until they have been worn for six months. There were also pictures of some of the other products that this brand produced. All of the jeans had the same sign on the back pockets. The design was about six lines in a curved design. I looked Nudie Jeans Co. on the internet as well and I found that this brand was pretty popular during the time period he grew up in. This brand was also considered to be high fashion. I made the assumption that high fashion just meant the product was priced over the normal cost of any other normal brand that sold the same type of product.
There was one more thing inside the trunk. It was a small electronic device that was called the Iphone. This was created by Apple, and it was an extremely primitive version of today’s Apple phones. There was also a charger for the phone along with it. I went through the phone and the thing that I paid very close attention to is the photos. There were many photos of what seemed to be the same people. I assume that they were pictures of my ancestor and his group of friends. Being that there were so many pictures of them at different places and different times, I can assume that he and his group of friends were extremely close for a long period of time. I also realized that my ancestor was wearing what seemed to be the same pair of jeans that were inside the trunk.
After analyzing all of the things that were inside the trunk, I made these assumptions. First, I can tell that my ancestor was really into presentation, meaning he always wanted to have the best products and he wanted to look a certain way. I can tell that he was very precise about the clothes that he wore and the devices that he carried. I can also tell that he had a very close group of friends. From that I can assume that he had a strong sense of family, he cared very much about these people. I say this because if there was tension between them, I doubt that they would be together so much. It also looked like they were a fun loving group of people, in every picture everyone was smiling and they just seemed happy. Life in 2008 looks like it may have been a really fun experience.

CULTURAL ANALYSIS ESSAY

Alejandro Giron
Professor Underwood
U.S., Africa & the World 201
November 14, 2008
Roman and U.S. Government
Ancient Rome is probably the earliest example of democracy. The way their government was set up is very similar to that of the United States. This is the reason why the history of the Romans is so important. The Roman Republic (ancient Rome) had many different governmental positions that could check each other. The checks were in place to really make sure that no position had too much power over the other because the Romans were afraid of a one person ruler just like Americans are.
They had a senate that had a great amount of authority and their job was to consult on all major issues of the empire. The senate, also known as the magistrates, also became the most dominant force in areas such as religion, foreign policy, and political finances. Although the senate could not pass laws, their opinion was considered with much respect. The citizens of the nation participated in assemblies in which a bunch of people come together and discuss what laws should be passed and what laws should not. However, there was no free discussion between the people in the assembly, they only could discuss the laws that were presented by the magistrates. The people in these assemblies were chosen through a voting system. This voting system normally favored people who were rich and respected. The voting process is split into 193 voting blocks. Each voting block (also called centuries) were limited to one vote, and they the people of Rome were assigned to their voting block. The way the organized the people is by class, the richer the century, the less people to that century which made it easier for them to come together and decide who their vote would be for. However, the centuries for the poorer landless people had a greater population, because of that many people did not get their opinions heard.
One thing different between the Romans and the U.S. government is that the Romans did have a dictator. The dictator during the Republic did not have the negative connotations that the word dictator gives off today. They were simply in power to oversee the magistrates and to make sure everything is being handled correctly and they were only appointed by the magistrates during times of emergency. There were rules and regulations to becoming a dictator or. U had to be a former magistrate, which meant that you were qualified for the position and you could only hold the office for six months. Because the dictator was only in power for a short period of time, they do not have enough time to really stir anything up while in their position. They really only appointed a dictator when they were being invaded by foreign civilizations, during idle times, they only had the magistrates governing them.
Also similar to the U.S., their society favored the rich and practically disregarded the poor. The rich people were classified as patricians, these people were land owners and former military men. The poorer people were known as plebeians, these people either did not own as much land as the patricians or they just did not own their own land and they were working on the land of a patrician. There is a huge disagreement between the two classes of people. The plebeians are disgruntled because their opinion does not really count as much as the patricians. This is true because the patricians were really the only people that were able to be elected into the assemblies that decided the laws. Because they were in the assembly, of course they were going to do nothing but to look out for themselves. Another problem that the Roman society had was that the patricians stayed patricians and the plebeians stayed plebeians.
The U.S. government basically stole its basic organizations from the Romans. The magistrate is simply the congress and the temporary dictator is simple the president. The president, like the dictator is only elected for a small period of time. The difference between the two is that the Roman dictator was above all checks, but the fact that they were only in office for six months was a check itself. However, the president of the U.S. can be checked while in office, each branch of government (legislative, executive, and judicial) have different powers that are granted by them to make sure no one branch has more power than the other. I assume that this was something that the Americans put into place to try and make sure that our government doesn’t fail like the Roman government did.
Another thing that is similar between the U.S. government and the Roman government is the way that they elect their officials (mainly the dictator/president). In the United States, an election is held to elect the president where everyone n the country that is qualified and registered to vote can vote for the president candidate of their choice. Although an election is held, above the popular vote, the Electoral College is what really elects the president above all. This is similar to the Romans and the way that their dictator was put in position. The dictator is someone who was previous magistrate. This assures that the person has some kind of experience in the Roman government. The magistrates are the people who choose the dictators like the Electoral College chooses the president.
The governments of the Roman Republic and the U.S. are very similar to each other. Since Rome was the longest lasting ancient civilization, it is only logic to try and mimic the best and most efficient government and try and tweak it to make it even better. Different changes such ass the branches of government are just examples of the United States trying to make the best government so that they can be the strongest and longest lasting nation. By learning from the failure of great examples of an efficient government, we can successfully create the most elite and successful government through trial and error.

Works Cited
"Ancient Rome," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
"democracy." Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. MICRA, Inc. 19 Nov. 2008. .

REFLECTIVE ESSAY

(Side note... I chose to put a picture of these sneakers because they are made of reflective 3M material. I figured that i should put something that related to me and my personality and that relates to the word "reflective" simultaneously)

Alejandro Giron
Professor Underwood
USA, Africa & the World
December 2, 2008
Reflective Essay

Coming into the class, I was very skeptic because of past experiences with previous history classes. I was never the type of person that enjoyed history class and doing the work was always a task for me. It was never that the work was hard but it simple bored me and I could not find it in me to actually do it. However, this class was not what I originally expected. There were some key reasons that made this class more interesting than others.
The class assignments were interesting because of the flexibility that we as students had as far as topics went. The assignment that really caught my attention was the personal artifact essay. Just about any writing assignment that allows me to write about things that I love and enjoy is worth completing. Another reason why that assignment was my favorite is because it also let me explore my creativity by writing from the first person point of view but with another character. This was something that I have not done before and at first was a little challenging, however I overcame the obstacle and had fun completing the assignment. I did not receive the grade I wanted but I just took it as me taking my creativeness a little too far and forgetting about fully completing the task.
The cultural analysis essay is an assignment that I wish had a little more flexibility. I feel as if I had a wider variety of cultures that I could have written about then I would have been a little more enthusiastic about the assignment thus providing a better finished product. I think the fact that we could only choose from civilizations that we studied during class really limited our capabilities and our creativity. It basically held us back from showing our true potential. I think that the in class lectures were of much help although sometimes boring. I think that the lectures were a lot of help because I personally learn material best from seeing and writing it. The power point presentations along with the lectures really helped with the remembering process. The other assignments were not anything too special to me. They were standard history papers that basically asked u to analyze different aspects of ancient history.
Another thing that I liked about the class is that it taught me many things that I did not know about ancient world. Things like the people of Kush and how the ancient Ethiopians were "the first men." After growing up learning from a school system that only teaches the History of just about every other culture but black cultures, learning about these different ancient people was a real heads up. Another topic that I enjoyed learning was the different religions of the ancient peoples. My favorite religions to learn about are the eastern religions such as Confucianism and Buddhism. I love to hear about the starters of these religions and hearing about their journeys and paths that they took to discover what made them want to start believing what they believed in. Buddha’s experience with people of a lesser caliber is what triggered his change. He realized that he was basically born with a silver spoon in his mouth and not every one else had the same privileges that he had and that the only way to reach peace with himself was to rid himself of all material possessions. His story and path to "nirvana" is one that inspires me greatly. I like material things, maybe a little too much to rid myself of them but if you stay on your road and disregard distractions, you are almost destined to succeed.
This history class was different from other classes that I have taken in the past. The previous classes were set classes with a main objective which was to mainly get the students ready for the big city wide test. Now that the test is out of the picture, one can just learn with no objectives and no boundaries. The previous classes did not teach anything that was not going to be on the exam. But since there really isn’t an exam to look forward too, we can learn just about anything and everything. Although this course may be boring at times, I think any class could bore somebody if it is not taught correctly. Coming out of the class I definitely feel more informed. Now when I hear my elders speaking about the economy and relating it to the past and how most of the ideas for the government were based on that of others, I can add my input and simply hold intelligent conversation.
This class has taught me more about the civilizations in ancient Africa. Those are the civilizations that I always wanted to learn about. Things like the battles between Kush and the Egyptians and the form of Christianity in ancient Ethiopia are all topics that I never knew of but always wanted to know more. Although I missed a few classes, when I was in class I did nothing but listen and take notes. I learned new things and enhanced my knowledge on topics that I already knew. This class was an experience that I will not forget because the material is almost drilled in my head.