TPO 22 Conversation 1
(Faculty Advisor)
Narrator:
Listen to a conversation between a student and a faculty advisor for the university newspaper.
Student：
Hi, I am sorry to bother you, but…
Faculty advisor：
Yes?
Student：
This is about the newspaper.
Faculty Advisor：
Oh, Ok. Well. I am only the advisor; the newspaper office is off campus on Pine Street. Eh…what was it? Did you want to work for the paper? We are always looking for writers.
Student：
Well, my problem was with the writing actually, with an article that was published in yesterday’s newspaper.
Faculty Advisor：
Oh? Which one?
Student：
The one about the student government and its president Sally Smith.
Faculty Advisor：
Is this something to do with what the editor wrote about the statue? Eh, the statue at the main entrance of the university?
Student：
Well, that’s part of it. But you know, the editor used the situation to say some really unfair things, about the student government, and the president Sally Smith in particular. I think the paper should publish a retraction, or at the very least an apology to Sally.
Faculty Advisor：
Ok. Um… if I remember correctly, what you are referring to wasn’t a news story, but an editorial, right? Eh, it was on the opinion page, it was signed by one of the editors, and was clearly labeled as commentary.
Student：
Well, yes. But the thing about the statue, Sally made this simple comment that was in really bad condition and should be replaced. And, well, the tone in the editorial was demeaning. It accused her of not respecting the past and it had some personal stuff that seemed unnecessary.
Faculty Advisor：
Wait a minute. Remind me.
Student：
Well, you know, it implied that Sally doesn’t know much about the university’s history and it called her a big city politician because she’s from Boston. It’s just mean-spirited, isn’t it?
Faculty Advisor：
Haven’t you heard the saying “all publicity is good publicity”?
Student：
Well…
Faculty Advisor：
I’d say the article is bringing attention to the student government organization, which is pretty invisible. Eh, you rarely hear about what the student government is doing.
Student：
But this article…
Faculty Advisor：
And the piece, well, yeah, it had a bit of an exaggerated tone. It was satirical, or at least it was meant to be. It wasn’t just poking fun at Sally, but the whole idea that our school is sort of rural, and you know, not cosmopolitan.
Student：
Well, none of us thought it was very funny.
Faculty Advisor：
Well, sometimes it’s best just to roll with it. It is just a cliché; everybody knows it is not true.
Student：
But I thought we could expect better than that here.
Faculty Advisor：
Well, I am certainly in favor of getting a variety of viewpoints. [so why don’t you go talk to the editor, Jennifer Hamilton, and tell her you want equal time? You or Sally could write a response.]
Student：
[Really? She would let us do that? ] Didn’t she write it?
Faculty Advisor：
I’ll let Jennifer know you are coming, she feels the same way I do. She is journalism major. She would be happy to publish another point of view.
TPO22 Lecture 1 (Anthropology)
Narrator：
Listen to part of a lecture in an anthropology class.
Professor：
One of the big questions when we look at prehistory is why did the earliest states form?
Well, to begin we’d better define exactly what we mean when we talk about states. The human groups that are the smallest and have the least social and political complexity, we call bands. The groups that are the largest and most socially and politically complex, we call states. So, the level of complexity here refers to the organization of people into large, diverse groups, and densely populated communities. And there are four levels in total：bands, tribes, chiefdoms and states.
But, but back to my original question. Why did early states form? Why not just continue to live in small groups? Why become more complex?
One theory called the environmental approach hypothesizes that the main force behind state formation was population growth. It assumes that centralized management was critical to dealing with issues caused by sudden population surges, like a strain on limited food supplies.
At the least complex end of the spectrum, the few families living in bands are able to meet their own basic needs. They usually hunt together and forage whatever foods are available to them, instead of domesticating animals and planting crops. In order to efficiently take advantage of the wild foods available, bands are often nomadic and move around following herds of animals. This strategy is feasible when you have a small population.
But when you have a large population, well, the whole population can’t just get up and move to follow a wild herd of animals. So you need sophisticated technologies to produce enough food for everyone. And there is an increase need to resolve social problems that arise as people begin to compete for resources. To manage intensified food production, to collect, store and distribute food, you need centralized decision-making, centralized decision-makers.
It’s the same thing when it comes to maintaining social order. You need to create and efficiently enforce a formal legal code. It makes sense to have a centralized authority in charge of that, right? So a hierarchy forms. By definition, states had at least three social levels. Usually, an upper class of rulers, a middleclass comprised of managers and merchants, and a lower class of crop producers and agricultural laborers.
The environmental approach hypothesizes that states appear in certain environmental settings, settings which have a severe population problem or a shortage of agricultural land. But not everyone agrees with the theory. It definitely has some weaknesses. For example, states have developed in places like the mild lowlands of Mesoamerica and in Egypt’s Nile River Valley. Both places had vast areas of fertile farmland, no shortage of agricultural land. And what about population increase? Well, there were some early states that formed where there wasn’t any sudden population increase. So it seems that these are valid criticisms of the environmental approach.
