Whistleblowing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Whistleblowing - Research Paper Example nzi scheme in 2009 – discuss their causes, analyze the importance of whistleblowing and find out the implications that this practice has had on corporate governance globally. At the end of 2001, Enron’s filing for bankruptcy made it the largest corporate bankruptcy in the history of the United States. This fall from being the most innovative company as per Fortunes Most Admired Companies survey was catastrophic. Enron’s misconduct were brought to the fore by Sherron Watkins, a former vice president who had previously warned Enron’s chairman that its current aggressive accounting tactics were nontransparent and would come back and haunt the organization. From her investigations Watkins became increasingly alarmed as it became apparent that Enron was using accounting loopholes, special purpose entities, and poor financial reporting to misrepresent earnings by hiding billions in debt from projects. Enron was a classic case of audit failure which forced the US government to come up with legislation to prevent such scandals from future occurrence. In 2002, WorldCom overtook Enron as the largest corporate bankruptcy in US history – a record that has since been broken by Lehman Brothers in 2008. WorldCom, like Enron, was also involved in use of fraudulent accounting techniques that classified operating costs as capital expenditures and inflated revenues through phony accounting entries to create a facade of financial growth and profitability. Even though the WorldCom board reacted swifter than Enron in dealing with the masterminds of this fraud, it still took the courage of Cynthia Cooper to blow the whistle on WorldCom's unscrupulous financial practices. In reaction to these scandals, the US government enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 together with several amendments to the U.S. stock exchanges’ regulations. The new rules included different provisions whose purpose was to ensure alignment of incentives of corporate insi ders with those of investors, and to reduce the likelihood of corporate misconduct and fraud. For example, the new rules mandated exchange regulations to require a majority of independent directors on corporate boards and independence of the board committees that choose new directors and compensate managers (Chhaochharia & Grinstein, 2007). This act also included provisions that protect whistleblowers by forcing companies to create dedicated mechanisms to record and track information provided by employees both anonymously and confidentially (Eaton & Akers, 2007). The third whistleblower case is somewhat different from the Enron and WorldCom cases with the whistleblower being an individual not operating within the company that committed the fraud. In this instance, Harry Markopolos took it upon himself to conduct an independent financial fraud investigation for close to a decade to uncover evidence that Bernie Madoff's wealth management business was nothing but a grand Ponzi sche me. Markopolos probed Madoff’s operation and kept filing formal complaints at the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) to have Madoff’s hedge fund investigated. The SEC never acted on Markopolos’ tips until 2008. Bernard Madoff Securities firm pitched investors a strategy he called ‘split strike conversion’

Artifact Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Artifact - Essay Example The object has an approximate height of 5 inches; the widest portion of its body has a width of 4 inches, and the three legs have equal height of 3.5 inches. The object’s width is much bigger than its height and one can inscribe it within a form of a rectangle. The primary raw material used to produce the object is wood. The top part is in a circular shape and is firm since it is of a thick wood material. The thickness of this top part is of approximately 2 inches. The surface area of the top part is big enough to allow for anybody sit comfortably on the chair. The legs are firm enough and forms a u-shape to enable them support the weight of the top part firmly and therefore if anyone sits on the stool no matter how heavy he or she is chances of the stool breaking are limited. The wood materials used to construct the object are curved smooth. The object’s top part has two-fit horizontal lines at the part where the top rests and joins the three legs and the other line is at the surface where an individual sits. When one views this object from a side the stool seems to present some V-shapes formed by each two legs. The objects legs are separate from one another at an equal interval and points downwards supporting the top surface. The legs are thick enough to ensure maximum support of the weight of the top part, which seems to be heavy. When one looks at the object from its top, the stool’s top surface seems to present a disc-shape. This means that much of the weight exerted on the stool is supported by the core and the central part of the stool and that why the legs are joined at the outermost part of the top surface for the purpose of maintain balance when an individual sits on the object. This object however consists of four distinctive parts, which include the top body and the three legs. While the legs of the object are in the form of a long rod, its upper portion is in a disc-shape. The top of the object is in

Conducting a management project Essay Example for Free

Conducting a management project Essay Introduction The project, as requested by the manager; is to come up with the ways that my team can make more savings in the company for the company and for their own growth. This was because the company has not been making savings as they had targeted in the beginning of their business year and the savings are even less as compared to the other financial years yet the company still appears to be run under the same principals. The project is aimed at coming up with the research and recommendations for actions to be taken to manage and change the situation at the company and write a suitable report on this. The report written at the end of this research is going to benefit the company in generating more profits and the employees in self-development. It is also going to cultivate the culture of team work, innovation and entrepreneurial culture among the employees. Simply put, the benefits derived from project management increase in proportion to how well project management processes are used. A well -executed project will be completed on time, within its approved budget. A well-executed project will deliver higher product quality by managing the time to design and test the new product. It will provide great satisfaction to its team, and it will meet (or exceed) the customers’ expectations. In todays business environment, it is critical that each project is run in the most efficient manner possible. For a project-oriented business, it is equally imperative that all projects are managed consistently, so that the benefits of well -executed projects extend corporate wide. The data that was used in this research was collected from the employees, customers and other stakeholders in the company. In preparation for the data collection, it is important to note that a diverse sample of the host companys employees is required in order to address the breadth of the organizational structure and the full range of roles and responsibilities of participants. Input to the list of interview participants should be secured from the company sponsor, but it   is the assessors function to challenge the sample to ensure it meets the needs of a balanced assessment. The assessor should recognize a tendency of most sponsors to provide participants who already are highly rated and can demonstrate high performance.   The participant pool needs to include these participants, but not be limited to them. All divisions of the corporate structure should be represented, including functional and supporting departments. In selecting the interview sample, the assessor should consider the population density of the host company’s divisions, revenue generated by the divisions, project count or cost, or several other attributes. The total number of interviews to be conducted must be limited to a number that is appropriate for the size of the host company; it is organizational structure and the time period in which the study is required. These factors also drive the composition and size of the assessment team. The methods used in the collection of data and information include; use of questionnaires, observation, collecting samples, taking pictures, oral interviews, reading on recorded materials. The process was not that easy since it was hard to get some confidential information especially on the accounts records of the company and some of the employees felt like they were being spied on and did not give the precisely correct information. Also collecting information from my seniors proved to be a bit hard, but all in all the information and data required for the research was successfully corrected. In all the methods used face to face conversation proved to be the best way to obtain information. Some of it advantages include; A people -to-people tool within a people oriented business Project management is ultimately a people -oriented business that requires personal interactions by and between all of the project team members. Face-to-face interviewing extends this principle to maturity assessments. Not only does the interview provide an interpersonal connection between the interviewer and the interview participant, it allows the interviewer to begin to assess the â€Å"people skills† of the personnel assigned to manage projects at the subject company. Interview participants who display grace and condor during the interview are more likely to carry those traits into their project teams, and are more likely to be open to the recommendations for change or improvement that will flow from the assessment study. Conversely, interview subjects who are less cooperative or more belligerent during the interviews are less likely to readily adopt new suggestions. Reveals actual, as well as intended behaviours conducting face-to-face interviews allows the interviewer/assessor to discover how the project team members at the subject company conduct their project business on a day-to-day basis. It is the only tool in the assessors toolbox that provides a means to evaluate the validity of several of the other tools, such as a review of policy manuals, or a project document search. Policy statements and procedures manuals provide guidance into how the subject company believes it should or wants to do work. By engaging project team members in open conversations, the interviewer can elicit comments that reveal, â€Å"What we really do† vs. â€Å"what we think we do† or â€Å"what we are supposed to do?† Additionally, by discussing different types of project reports with the people who write them, or use them, the assessor can gain insight into the value placed on each report. A simple document review, while important, can only indicate that a report exists, not that it is a valued tool, used by the project team to help control their projects, or by management to monitor progress. Provides opportunity to observe the corporate culture of the subject company. Corporate culture creates different patterns of behaviour at different companies that can have a significant impact on the outcomes of projects. The degree of openness to hearing and dealing with project issues, demonstrating appreciation for project successes, and the amount of information sharing between functional groups working on a project all contribute to the ultimate success of a project. All companies probably would respond affirmatively to possessing these traits; not all companies truly demonstrate these traits positively. During one-on-one conversations with working- level project team members, the assessor can learn how well the subject company responds to project information, or how often it â€Å"shoots the messenger. Difficulties associated with face-to-face interviews Need to establish credibility of assessors As an outsider, the assessment team will often encounter a â€Å"Who-are -you-and-why-should -I-give-you-any-of- my time?† reluctance to participate amongst the project management community at the subject company. This attitude can stem from two general sources: a general distrust of consultants and management’s motives for hiring them; or insufficient information about the assessors’ credentials. Neither of these difficulties is insurmountable, but neither can be ignored. And both can be addressed initially by a carefully worded introduction from the assessment’s sponsor within the host company. The sponsor for the assessment necessarily must possess sufficient status within his/her own organization to approve, or be able to solicit approval for the funding needed to conduct the assessment study. This status can be leveraged to convey the credentials of the assessment team to the host organization. The assessors must be introduced to the project management community in terms that readily establish the expertise and experience of the assessment team with this type of work. This also implies that the assessment team must be comprised of, or, at the least, be led by experienced, senior project managers, whose personal credentials will inspire confidence in the interview participants. Need to secure cooperation of interview participants. The assessor also needs to recognize that many people within the host company’s project management organization(s) will not view the assessment in an entirely positive light. Although the study is intended to be a continuous-improvement effort, it may still be perceived to stem from something being wrong, or judged to be not good enough. The outside assessor could be viewed as Management’s vigilante enforcer, coming in to identify and punish the under-achievers in project management. The assessor must defuse this impression, a task that can best be done if the assessor knows where the host company’s â€Å"sore spots† exist and why the host company has elected to conduct the assessment. Here again, the status of the assessment sponsor can be of great help in overcoming the reluctance of the interview participants. The sponsor’s introduction of the assessment team can be used to share the rationale for the study and remove much of the apprehension that could surround it. Need to prepare thoroughly. During each interview, it will be beneficial to allow conversation to flow in a freewheeling manner, rather than following a rigid, checklist question and answer. For this to work, the assessor/interviewer must be adequately prepared to conduct the interview. The assessor must know the assessment model in great detail, and be able to detect different levels of maturity for each knowledge area, regard less of whether or not the interview respondent uses catch phrases and key words from the model in his/her comments. It is the assessor’s responsibility to be able to take appropriate notes during the interview without disrupting the flow of the interview by having to shuffle papers or stumble from one topic to the next. The assessment team can help prepare for the interviews by constructing an easy -to-use interview form that guides them through the different areas, and offers reminders of key phrases to listen for. By creating the form, the team members will increase their familiarity with it, and find it more beneficial as a guide. Additionally, by constructing their own form, the assessment team members will afford themselves the opportunity to reacquaint themselves with the details of the assessment model. Compiling, synthesizing, and evaluating the information from all interviews. Specific data from individual interviews can be compiled if a set of common questions, with a short range of possible answers, is used for all interviews. In this circumstance, it is recommended that a set of standard analytical measures are identified prior to the interview phase, but it should not be assumed that these standard measures will adequately address the entire information content collected. The synthesis of the information is a process that requires the individual assessors to subjectively analyse the comments they heard and recorded during the interviews and identify common themes and touch-points along the maturity continuum. The assessors must then collaborate to yield consistent interpretation of the interview and confirm that the data gathered is appropriate for further evaluation. The assessors must collectively review the compiled data, interrogate it for trends and errors, and determine whether trends identified warrant further analysis. From the information gathered in data collection, many things can be realised; there is no transparent audit of the books of accounts in the company, the employees are taking bribes from the customers in return for unauthorised favours, the employees are very relaxed in their work and lack motivation, the board members are conduction the staffing process in a questionable manner, the employees were taking unnecessary and expensive trips at the expense of the company, the directors have very high unwarranted allowances, the taxes due to the government are not fully settled and the overall running of the firm is questionable. The things that need to be done urgently to make sure that the company is saved from being bankrupt and that it gives some profits are; there should be an immediate external audit of all the books of accounts in the firm, the recruitment and staffing in the firm should be done on the basis of qualification and therefore there should be a vetting process to eliminate all those who are there illegally, all the directors should be vetted and those found to be corrupt should be retrenched, the company should have a new board of directors, all the employees should sign a performance contract which should be followed strictly. Conclusions; the use of face-to-face interviews in Project Management Maturity Assessments has proven to contribute most and convey the project management actualities within any host organization. If executed correctly, the face-to- face interview will yield most insight into the host organizations current maturity and point to pockets of excellence as well as areas requiring correction. Although it is not recommended that an assessment be conducted using only face-to-face interviews, it is strongly recommended that a face-to-face interview always be included in an assessment. References Dove, K. E. (2002).  Conducting a successful development services program: A comprehensive guide and resource. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Fernald Environmental Management Project (U.S.), United States., United States., United States., Lippitt, J. M., Kolthoff, K. (1995).  Successful completion of a RCRA closure for the Fernald Environmental Management Project. Washington, D.C: United States. Dept. of Energy. Thomsett, M. C. (2002).  The little black book of project management. New York: AMACOM. Tjahjana, L., Dwyer, P., Habib, M. (2009).  The program management office advantage: A powerful and centralized way for organizations to manage projects. New York: American Management Association. Weir, J. R. (2009).  Conducting prescribed fires: A comprehensive manual. College Station: Texas A M University Press. Wysocki, R. K., Beck, R., Crane, D. B. (2000).  Effective project management. New York: Wiley.

Leprosy Essay -- Hansens Disease Health Medical Essays

Leprosy Leprosy (Hansen's Disease), sometimes called "Hanseniasis" or "H.D.," is a chronic my cobacterial disease of man, caused by Mycobacterium leprae (infectious in some cases), primarily affecting the peripheral nerves and secondarily involving skin and certain other tissues/organs, in particular the eye, mucosa of the nasal and upper respiratory tract and also the testes. In most cultures, HD still carries a strong stigma that sometimes makes more trouble for the patient that the actual leprosy itself. One of the main characteristics of Leprosy is its ability to affect the various nervous systems of the body, particularly the peripheral nerves. The key targets of M.leprae (Mycobacterium leprae) are the nerves' Schwann Cells. Leprosy does not affect the Central Nervous System. Where the sensory nerves are damaged, in varying degrees, they cannot register pain. Where those nerves supply the extremities of hands and feet, the latter are vulnerable to burns and other injuries that can often result in the loss of fingers and toes and sometimes hands and feet. Where the eye is affected, corneal anesthesia. Cranial Nerve involvement, can often lead to blindness, where the lack of health education makes the sufferer unaware of the means to prevent injury due to dust or other irritants. Where the motor nerves are involved, various forms of paralysis such as "Dropped Foot", "Dropped Wrist", "Clawed Hand", "Lagophthalmos" (eye cannot close due to nerve paralysis) can result. Where the autonom ic nerves are damaged, the hair follicle, particularly in the cooler areas such as the eye-brows, can often result in the loss of hair in the affected parts. Damage to the autonomic nerves also can result in poor or no function of the sweat and sebaceous glands. This causes a drying of the skin and consequent cracking, exposing the sufferer to secondary infection. Leprosy is not a curse from the gods or divine punishment for some sins committed in the past. Leprosy is a disease like any other disease and it is TOTALLY CURABLE. Another myth that still prevails, even in "educated" societies, is that the disease causes flesh to rot and fingers and toes to "drop off". Nothing could be further from the truth. Tragically, limbs that are damaged, because the victim cannot feel pain, sometimes have to be amputated but, we can now detect the disease before the patient is conscio... ... dissolves the germ by certain chemicals or enzymes. The second type of protective mechanism is specific and the body's defense system can only "recognize" a foreign invader if it has experience in this identification of certain antigens. In Lepromatous patients, their macrophages can ingest the M.leprae but cannot digest (kill) because there are no "T-Type" ("T" for Thymus, the gland that programs these cells) lymphocytes to assist the macrophages to produce the needful digestive juices or enzymes. So, in the case of Lepromatous leprosy, the very cells that are meant to kill off the bacilli, are actually transporting them around the body and providing an environment in which they may even be able to multiply. At the present time though, leprosy cannot be prevented. Research on a preventive vaccine, however, is slowly progressing. This vaccine will be used the same way we use vaccines of Smallpox, Typhoid, Cholera, Plaque, and etc. A vaccine of killed or weakened leprosy bacilli will be used to immunize everyone from the disease. Already, a vaccine of killed leprosy bacilli has been used to immunize mice and armadillos against leprosy. Millions people will need to receive MDT.

Frei Otto Munich Stadium

MUNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM//FREI OTTO//1972 gizem akgun/ nuria juanbaro sarret/kanaka raghavan _ADDA 2012-2013 GERMAN PAVILION// MONTREAL//1967//cable nets TUWAIQ PALACE//SAUDI ARABIA//1970// cable nets OLYMPIC STADIUM//MUNICH//1972// cable nets ORKS MULTIHALLE MANNHIEM //GERMANY//1975// grid shells JAPAN PAVILION EXPO 2000//HANOVER GERMANY//2000//grid shell German architect and research engineer 1957 // Development Center for Lightweight Construc on in Berlin. 1964// Ins tute for Lightweight Structures in Stu gart.Exhibited a special gi for crea ng lightweight tent structures Computer-based procedure for determining their shape and behaviour Alterna ve system of grid shell structures HE ARCHITECT /FREI OTTO HE LIGHTWEIGHT PRINCIPLE/tensile Tensile roofs/ every part of the structure is loaded in tension with no requirement to resist compression Cable nets/ grid of structural cables in tension forming the framework supports a weather shield. An clas c Surfaces/ tension forces are in equil ibrium, the centres of curvature are in opposite side of the membrane Synclas c Surfaces/ the centres of curvature are on the same side of the membrane n clas c curve hyper paraboloid hyper paraboloid/ minimum 4 pts with alteast 1 pt out of plane Less material and e? ort Remarkably large spans Combined tensile structure and biological research Only a few members,are under compression while all others, for instance, cables and membranes, are under tension For tension and rigidity, an clas c or saddle-like curvatures HE LIGHTWEIGHT PRINCIPLE UNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM /details SITE// Originally the se ng of a 1930’s air? eld,former training ground for the Bavarian Royal Army and the site of Munich’s ? rst civil airport. Ground had been used as a dump yard for ruined buildings’ rubble. 00m tall broadcast tower, s ll present today, a major landmark of the site. PROGRAM// 80,000 seats Smaller enclosed sports hall Swimming hall Warm-up arena Enclosed workout facility Housi ng for 3000 people UNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM /1972 Gunter Behnisch proposed light and open structures con nuous ? uid tent roo? ng resembling natural hills Frei O o’s Montreal Pavilion was the guiding piece The original system came from model studies where ladies stockings were used to simulate the tent’s surfaces al proposal CRITICAL STUDIES// Mast heights gave ghter curvature near the masts and leave the unsa sfactory ? t perimeter areas unimproved Increasing the pre-stress to ? at areas would provide the necessary stability, but only at impossibly high levels of tensioning UNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM/ini Winner of the compe on for 1972 olympic park by GUNTER BEHNISCH ERMAN PAVILLION,MONTREAL/1967 Real masterpiece of lightweight architecture,Frei O l/Behnisch Ini al mode o UNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM /comparisons UNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM /inspira Dragon? y wings are one three-thousandth of a millimeter thick Up to 1,000 sec ons Compartmental structure, wings do not tear, withstand the pressure that forms during ? ght. Driving principle for design of roof on 7 saddle-shape cable nets Square meshes that form rhomboids to assume an clas c curvature UNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM /revised roof Subdivide roof into a patchwork of separate but coupled smaller canopies Support at many points and mostly curved to suitably ght radii. Nets do not extend to the tops of medium height masts, instead hung from very tall masts Masts placed outside the roof or suspended above ground on cables keeping the areas below column-free Roo? ng for the main sports facili esUNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM /experiments 1:125 scale models exactly proportional both in geometry and in elasticity to the envisaged full sized structures UNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM /structure Interior cables Peripheral cables Cable joints Steel masts Concrete underground founda on Acrylic panel cover UNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM /cables Interior cables//11. 7 mm mesh, 19 heavily galvanised 2. 3- and 3. 3mm steel wires A lay length of 10 x the la y diameter Main cables//? ve strands of 37 and 109 wires each Edge cables//vary in speci? a on, typical example ,lockedsurface wire rope of 81 millimetres diameter Twin cables with concentric joints assume square meshes forming rhomboids forming an clas c curves UNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM /joints Cables arranged in pairs 75Ãâ€"75 cm mesh,reduced number of joints Clamps+screw,one bolt per joint,easy construc on 75 cm mesh Saddle connec ons Swaged clamp connec on Erec on/The cable nets completely assembled on ground, li ed to ? nal posi ons. Prestressing/suspension cables were put in posi on, geometry and stresses cables and masts checked Connec on to anchor UNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM /mastsTension founda ons / anchor the main cables down to earth Inclined slot founda ons (tent pegs ),gravity anchor founda ons (anchoring from self weight),earth anchor founda ons (support the masts) Temporary steel balls provided under the rubber pads to allow rota on during assembly Cylindrical masts welded st eel tubes up to 80 metres long and with a 50mN (5000 ton) load capacity. Transparent roof covering/ 2. 9 x 2. 9-metre acrylic panels , 4mm thk Bolted to the intersec on nodes and angles of intersec on change every 6 degrees Temperature moulding, panels on neoprene pedestals, allowing them to ‘? at’, and sealing the joints with con nuous neoprene pro? le clamped to the panel edges Discon nuous joints allowing movement UNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM /cover UNICH OLYMPIC STADIUM /conclusions Form ? nding experiments/solu ons for large spans simultaneously gave birth to the science of compu ng . Final form depends on – shape of grid,spacing,pa ern -the geometry of the suppor ng structure – the pretension applied to the cable net and its suppor ng structure Advantages/E? cient way of using material Lightweight Large spans Quick construc on

Sports Development In Pre-Civil War Time - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1677 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2019/05/08 Category History Essay Level High school Tags: Civil War Essay War Essay Did you like this example? Throughout history, masculinity has played a crucial part of young boys growing up in society. Though the concept of masculinity has evolved over time from men working in the fields to men working at job a behind a desk, there is still a sense of the predominant man providing resources to support their family. Masculinity in men also comes with a sense of competitiveness, where its publicly unacceptable to be less manly then the guy standing next to you. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Sports Development In Pre-Civil War Time" essay for you Create order The introduction of sports in early Anglo-America in the early 1800s, helped fulfill this need of competitiveness in men who found lack of enjoyment in their daily schedule. Sports also provided many benefits to men such as good physical condition, self-esteem, friendships, and a sense of belonging. Though sports helped men in many different ways, American men living in cities before the Civil War engaged in sport primarily to define themselves, publicly, as manly. Although men flourished on being their best in public, this idea of manliness would soon change between the time America was established as a nation to the time the civil war ended. Sports in early Anglo-America started off as recreational pastime when people got off work. Then soon Puritans from Europe looked down upon what they called idle or sinful recreation which took place in the New England colonies. As Benjamin notes in his book, American Sports: From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Televised Sports, puritans sought to build a society free from the worldly absorptions of the country they had left behind, recreation became on focus of conflict (10). This was noticed by the Puritans in the early failed colonies of Roanoke and Jamestown where colonist played games on the streets instead of farming and doing necessary work in order to survive. The puritans believed that a sport had to be dissociated from traditional revelries and be able to refresh the participants so that th ey could work their spiritually duties (Rader 11). A man by the name of John Downame challenged these ideas of embodied sports the Puritans made for the New England colonies and said that sport was a dichotomous concept which is implying both conformance and non-conformance of the Puritan value system. Sports later on like bare-knuckle boxing allowed for men to express their toughness and overall masculinity. Boxing allowed for men with no gloves to strike each other until the other man developed a black eye and split lips, yet the fight continued (Gorn 72). The sense of violence that came from participating in bare-knuckle fighting was developed from the society surrounding the sport. Back in the mid 1800s if two men wanted to settle a dispute between one another, they would settle it in the ring. This did mean that if two men were to fight in the ring it would put their egos and manhoods to the test. In the writings of Elliot J. Gorn, The Manly Art, The ring, it was said, taught Englishmen bulldog courage, fostering a sense of nati onal pride while countering effeminacy (Gorn 27). An example of a man that displayed his manliness in the ring went by the name of Simon Byrne, who boxed James deaf Burke for ninety-eight rounds and eventually took his last breath in the ring to show his manliness (Gorn 42). James deaf Burke later brought over the sport to America in 1833, where by the start of the 1850s, middle and upper classes started to question the purpose of Prize fighting. People believed the sport didnt mirror American culture at the time and that there could be an alternative. Reformers like Thomas Wentworth believed that men could improve their mind, body and spirt by getting fresh air and exercise to advocate from cramped urban life (Gorn 130). Unlike boxing, which people of the working class mostly took part in, horse racing and trotting was another sport were men of higher class could show off their masculinity by racing a horse. However, the concept of horse racing that took place in the northern states was looked down upon because it resembled Britain . This however didnt stop horse racing overall but it just encouraged men to make a new form of racing called trotting. This form of horse racing became increasingly popular over the years because it allowed for anyone with a horse to race against other people in the street. Mel Adelman points out in The First Modern Sport in America: Harness Racing in New York City, 1825-1870, Unlike thoroughbred racing, where the owner and the rider of the horse had long been separated, trotting permitted the sportsman to demonstrate the prowess of his horse, as well as his own skill as a reinsman (Adelman 8). This is what made the sport exciting to watch and also for men to participate in because they made a sport similar but different from Britain which gave men sense of manliness for racing their own non-bread horses. Towards the beginning of the 1800s, the idea of manliness began to expand into privatized organizations that men would create to separate themselves from the masses of sport and leisure activates. Also, immigrants were beginning to show up more in America around this time, so they too organized their own clubs with their own customs and traditions. One of the bigger organizations men got into was firefighting factions throughout big cities. This to men seemed manly because they were putting their lives on the line to save others. As far as clubs, there was the New Yacht York Club which was established in 1844 and is still known as one of New Yorks finest establishments. This was a group of men who showed their manliness through their wealth. This in a way also formed ident ities for themselves because it strengthened the bonds of between upper-class American sportsmen (Rader 60). The New York Trotting Club was also seen as a strong group of men who also had wealth to show. This sport was much easier to commercialize than thoroughbred because it was low cost and it developed a society of gambling between spectators. The growing mainstream of sports like boxing and horse racing created a strong social aspect to it in the form of gambling. Some men primarily wanted to be seen playing, watching or gambling in sports because it defined them as men. Gambling was available to any man at the time that wanted to participate in it, proof that any poor boy could make it in America (Gorn 139). However, wealthy men who believed they were the highest quality of what it means to be a man, would bet on athletes. Tom Hyer and his bankers are examples of the type of people that would accept the importance of wealth as a means of success. In the writings of Elliot J. Gorn, The Manly Art, they valued money as a means to conviviality more than as a reward for sober self-control, or a sign of Gods grace, or a vehicle of progress (Gorn 139). These men presented their manliness through the amount of money they would bet on certain sporting events but also it showed how their lives expressed the values of the working class. Switching gears from sports like boxing and horse racing, the sport of baseball was viewed by many as the new horse racing. At first, baseball was viewed as a childs game because it was viewed as a very simple game that school-boys would play for relaxation. However, according to the writings of Warren Goldstein, baseball requires the possession of muscular strength, great agility, quickness of eye, readiness of hand, and many other faculties of mind and body that mark a man of nerve (Goldstein 44). Also, American men who engaged in the sport would have to show a sense of self-control in their behaviors because it was viewed as a gentlemans sport. The rules included, swearing, arguing with the umpires, players offering their opinion before the umpires decision, and disobeying the captain (Goldstein 35). The idea of manliness was linked to how well they could control their emotions on and off the field. Now, is was assumed at the time that any man that participated in sports was doing so to prove their manliness, but that was not the case for most men. Some men just participated in sports for the leisure effect and also used sports as a way to get away from the hardships of work. According to the writings of Nancy Struna, popular taste for recreation could and did draw people from work (Struna 25). This was seen as a positive but also a negative at the time. A positive side to spots was the puritans encouraged and viewed recreation as a way to strengthen the body that would be contributed towards work (Rader 22). A negative side to sports is that of the failed colonies of Roanoke and Jamestown, where colonist engaged in too many recreational activities and didnt work as much in the fields to acquire food to eat. However, before the civil war we do see sports develop into commercialized events which started to charge people money at the front entrances to watch. From early Anglo-America to pre-civil war, we see how American men living in cities engaged in sport primarily to define themselves, publicly, as manly. Sports simple started out as a way to pass the time and a way to relax after a long day of work. Then when the sports of boxing and horse racing came around, sports started to become a way of ranking yourself in society. Many men started to become celebrities, which showed everyone their masculinity. Other men, such as gamblers, displayed their masculinity through their wealth. This is where men would tell they guy sitting next to them that they can bet more money on an athlete. We then see sports like baseball where men would express their manliness through their emotions on and off the field. I believe all these factors that express mainlines contributed to men participating in sports pre-civil war and it is also why sports have developed into the successful product it is today.

Greek Sub Culture

Sample details Pages: 32 Words: 9609 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? An Ethno musicological Analysis of the Music of a Greek Sub-Culture Rembetika is the Greek urban song that emerged during the 20th century. The aim of this dissertation will be to approach, explore, evaluate, and compare rembetika as cultural art expression and as heritage art expression. It will explore the roots of rembetika, the historical and political forces that influenced its development, and the changes that have transformed it into what it has become today. It will seek to address the question of how this Greek musical tradition managed to develop and survive on Turkish grounds. In addition, it will study the role that rembetika has played in Greek society, and explore what made this form such an important vehicle of expression for the people who lived during the years in which it flourished the most (the period after the Asia Minor Catastrophe).Finally, it will discuss the ethnomusicological aspects of rembetika by comparing it with the music of similar subcultures, such as fado,tango, and flamenco. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Greek Sub Culture | Music Dissertations" essay for you Create order Literature Review Researching rembetika has presented special challenges, as its acceptance into society is relatively recent. In addition, its existence as a legitimate subject of academic investigation is relatively new. The work of Gail Holst (later Holst-War haft) was tremendously helpful in researching rembetika, as her work spans a number of years. Her earlier writings are enthusiastic and passionate, although unfortunately much of the information she presented was not quite accurate, as the sources she relied on did not have the correct information to begin with. She discusses this in the preface to third edition Road to rembetika Her later writings, particularly the essayRebetika The Double-descended Deep Songs of Greece, are written in a much more scholarly fashion, and are carefully researched and documented. In general, her work was an invaluable resource. Elias Petropoulos book, Songs of the Greek Underworld: The Rebetika Tradition, was another helpful source. Petropoulos first-hand knowledge of the world of rembetika gives him an insiders perspective that is difficult to find in the literature that is available on this subject. As a source, however, it tends to be uneven, as the mythology of the rebates is intermingled with his notes on musical modes and lyrical style. In addition, some of the information is contradictory. For example, although Petropoulos asserts that the practitioners of rembetika were basically law-abiding people, he spends a great deal of time talking about their prison hierarchies. He does this without explaining why these law-abiding people would spend so much time behind bars. Of course, over the course of doing this research, one is able to devise theories to explain this contradiction. As a marginalized people and members of a subculture, practitioners of rembetika were often vulnerable to authorities. This would certainly explain the fact that they spent a great deal of time in prison, since they would be persecuted for this and for their rebellious attitudes as well. In addition, the excessive use of hashish, although not at the time illegal, may have been a factor that would contribute to this. At any rate, the lingo of prison figures prominently in many of the rembetika lyrics, and the lyrics are so closely associated with the actual lives of the rebates that the merging of myth and man seems inevitable. Petropoulos also points out that lack of availability of rembetika records makes a thorough ethnomusicological analysis of rembetika as a musical form very difficult. He asserts that in order for there to be an initial compilation and transcription of songs, more resources would have to be made available. Petropoulos also states that as of 2000,there were no moves in this direction, although he points out that he has deposited all of his rembetika archives in the Gennadys Library in Athens. Recent journal publications on the social and cultural aspects of rembetika, though not as plentiful as those available on more mainstream musical cultures, are generally well-researched and carefully documented. The work of Sand, Ste ingress, and Tunis were all very insightful. There is every indication that this is a growing field of study that merits further research. 1. Introduction The music of a society is said to be a reflection of that society, and this is true of sub-cultures of a society as well as it is of the mainstream of which they are a part. As this paper intends to demonstrate, rembetika reflects the subculture of the people who shaped and developed it. Although it has become part of the modern culture not just of Greece, but also of the diaspora and, as Tunis has suggested, the wider multicultural world traditional rembetika is not truly reflection of todays society. It reflects back on an early time. Thus, in a sociological cultural framework, though rembetika still exists, the rembetika we know today is a reflection of a marginalized group or subculture that no longer truly exists. Rembetika, as defined earlier, is the Greek urban song that emerged during the 20th century. It is closely identified with a Greek subculture that developed after the incident known as the Asia Minor Catastrophe an event that changed the course of Greek history and affected the lives of the millions of refugees and immigrants who were forced to leave their homeland. Section 2 of this paper, The History of Rembetika, discusses rembetika music by placing it in a historical framework This is accomplished by discussing the political and social atmosphere in which the musical form developed, as well as the events which shaped and directed its future. Also addressed are current theories of the derivation of the word rembetika. The section concludes with discussion of the language used to analyse rembetika. Section 3 analyses the components of rembetika music form itself: the lyrics, the music, and the dances. Although the three together comprise what is known as rembetika, by taking them apart for individual analysis, one is better able to understand the essence of the music form. The lyrics of all the songs, from the love songs to those that praise the freedom of escape through hashish, express a pervasive sense of loss. These are the authentic songs of rembetika these are not the lyrics that were written after rembetikas status had been elevated to respectable and eventually popular, levels. In terms of music, the melodies of rembetika conform to the modal types of Greek folk music as well as Turkish folk music, with strong ties to Byzantine church music. In addition, as Petropoulos points out, they have been influenced by a number of other sources which were brought to Greece by the gypsies. Therefore, the music also shows traces of influence from Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, southern Russia, the Caucasus, Syria, Egypt, and India (Petropoulos, 2000: 75). In Section 4, rembetika is analysed within a sociocultural framework. First is a discussion of the social acceptance of rembetika as it has waxed and waned over the years. Following this is a look at rembetika within an ethnomusicological framework in which it is compared to the music of similar subcultures, such as flamenco and fade. The ways in which rembetika music reflects Greek society are not simpleton determine, given the complex nature of its history. How, then, does one attempt to analyse rembetika music in order to understand it in a cultural sociological framework? Ste ingress offers a framework for doing this. He bases his theories on years of research on ethnic music styles associated with subcultures, including rembetika, as well as tango and flamenco styles. Using the data amassed from these studies, he offers a set of criteria by which each of these musical styles can be assessed. He also points out that traditional modes of study do not work for these non-traditional cultural forms, asserting that ethnocentric, nationalist or essentialist approaches to ethnic music-styles afford little insight into the social and cultural significance of postmodern popular art'(Ste ingress, 1998: 151). 2.. History of Rembetika This section discusses the history of rembetika music, placing it in ahistorical framework by discussing the political and social atmosphere in which the art form developed, as well as the events which shaped and directed its future. It also addresses current theories of the derivation of the word rembetika, and presents a discussion of the language used to analyse rembetika. 2.1.1 The Asia Minor Catastrophe Discussing the tragedy of the Greek-Turkey conflict, Holst-Warhaftwrites: so symbolic of tragedy is the defeat of the Greek forces in Asia Minor and the fire that destroyed Christian Smyrna in 1922, that it is simply referred to as The Catastrophe (Holst-War haft, 1972:114). Indeed, The Catastrophe was an event that forever altered the character of the newly independent country. In order to truly understand rembetika, one must understand the events that affected its development. The Catastrophe is one of them. According to the treaty of Sevres, Greece was accorded the right to occupy Smyrna. Despite the obvious difficulties this presented, the Greek army forged ahead and tried to do this in 1919 with the support of its allies. The apparent goal was to gain a foothold in Asia Minor; however, there was more involved than obtaining land to the Greeks. It was also a symbol, for most Greeks, of the cherished dream of recovering some part of their former Byzantine glory (Holst-Warshaft,1972: 114). Though initially things went well, the Greeks decided to march inland in an attempt to take Ankara. During this period, the French backed out, and eventually the Greeks were left to fend for themselves. The Greek army was forced to flee, joined by the Greek population of Smyrna Greeks who were unaccustomed to living in Greece. Thousands were killed in The Catastrophe, and the city of Smyrna was burned to the ground by the Turks (Barrett. Holst-War shaft, 1972). The outcome of the Turku-Greek war resulted in an international conference in which it was decided that a compulsory exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey should be put into place. This exchange was based solely on religion. Actual nationality was not considered at all. Hence, people who were Orthodox were considered Greek, and people who were Muslim were considered Turkish (Holst, 1983: 25). The effects of the Asia Minor Catastrophe were devastating and far-reaching. The refugees who had fled from Asia Minor were now penniless; in addition, they had left without a chance to take any belongings, so they were in a desperate state. Although they came from far more cultured, affluent land, when they relocated in Greece they were forced to live in poverty as inferior individuals. The huge and sudden increase in population led to the growth of huge shantytowns on the outskirts of Piraeus and Athens. It also created for the first time, as Holst-War shaft writes a sizable proletarian audience for songs that dealt with themes of poverty, nostalgia, hashish smoking, and low life. The expulsion of Asia Minor Christians also became enshrined in Greek popular culture as a metaphor for loss and grief'(Holst-War haft, 1998: 115). The refugees were literally living on the edge of Greek society. According to Holst, it was not surprising that many of them joined there btes or manges in their loosely organised sub-culture, or were attracted to the hashish-smoking takes, to which they were accustomed in Turkey (Holst, 1983: 27). This passage from Barrett explains the plight of the refugees with poignancy: Imagine yourself as a refugee. In Asia Minor you may have had business, a nice home, money, friends, family. But in the slums of Athens all you had was whatever you could carry with you out of Turkey, and your shattered dreams. You went from being in the middle class toeing underground in a foreign country that did not particularly want you. Rembetika was the music of these outcasts. The lyrics reflected their surroundings, poverty, pain, drug addiction, police oppression, prison, unrequited love, betrayal and hashish. It was the Greek urban blues. (Barrett, 2005: nap.) As stated above, the refugees hailed from a far more cosmopolitan environment. This, naturally, included the musicians, who brought with them a sophisticated level of skill. According to Holst-War haft, the influx of refugees had an impact on the music, and there was a revival of the oriental, or what would come to be called Smyrna-style music. According to Emery, the effect of these forced migrations was to shatter the previously existing social and economic structures of Greece. Classes and hierarchies that had existed in the diaspora communities were turned topsy-turvy in the bedlam of flight and the ensuing struggle for survival (2000: 19). Furthermore, the refuges were plagued by unemployment, since the sudden population explosion made employment opportunities scarce. Finally, the issue of racism created yet another set of pressures for the newly transfixed refugees(Emery, 2000: 19). So the violent break-up of traditional social structures was accompanied by another violence, in the ways in which social spaces and living conditions were organized for the newly arrived migrants, writes Emery (2000: 19). Formerly productive members of a more sophisticated society, the refugees were now living in squalid conditions, suddenly impoverished and traumatised. Considering these conditions, the only options open to them for survival were prostitution and crime. If they sought their escape through hashish, it seems harsh to condemn. The fact they also sought escape through their music is something later generations can be thankful for. 2.1.2 The Language of Rembetika Holst addresses the issue of spelling in her Preface to the third edition of Road to Rembetika, noting that she is frequently asked why her transliteration of the Greek word is rembetika, instead of the frequently-used rebetika that tends to be favoured by foreign scholars and researchers. Explaining that phonetically, the English bis at best a close approximation of the Greek , she asserts that there is a strong case for transliterating both rembetika andzembekiko with an m. That is the spelling that is used in this paper, except when quoting the material of others who use different variations. In those cases, the spelling of the original document prevails. In his introduction to Petropoulos book, Emery offers a number of possible derivations for the word term rembetika, which is alternately spelled rembetiko, rebetiko and rebetika. Like all subculture musics, rebetika poses difficulties of classification writes Emery, noting that individual rebetologists each have their own explanations (2000: 16). It is his estimation that the most likely derivation is from the old Turkish word rebut, which means of the gutter. Other possibilities offered by Emery include the term rebetasker, which is what the Turks used to refer to irregular troops, or people who defied authority. The Serbian word reebok, or rebel, is another possible source, as is the Hebrew rab, which is the root word for rabbi (2000: 16). Holst concurs that there is no certainty about the beginnings of the word. She explains that it is not known where it comes from, or when it was first used. What is no longer in doubt, she asserts, is that the type of song usually termed rembetik o derives from or has its origins in an oral tradition where improvisation played an important part in both the music and the lyrics of the songs'(Holst, 1983: 2). Other words that are part of the language of rembetika include rebates(plural rebates; also rebates with the plural rebates). This word refers to the original practitioners of rembetika the men who actually lived the life and formed part of the sub-culture in which rembetika developed. The word mangas (plural manges) is close in definition; it also refers to members of the sub-culture, but they may or may not have been directly involved with rembetika. In addition, manges were generally part of the underworld (Holst, 1983: 1314). 2.1.3. The Figure of the Rebates Petropoulos asserts that you cannot talk about the rebetiko song without first talking about the rebates (2000: 42). Though often associated with the underworld, this classification is not fair, and it is often untrue. Petropoulos makes clear the distinction that members of the underworld are usually considered as acting outside the law, while rebates, for the most part, existed with it. Here is his colourful description of the rebates: the rebates was careful to safeguard his personal freedom. The rebates detested bourgeois ways, consequently he did not marry. The rebates was a fighter. The rebates smoked hashish. The rebates knew how to use a knife. The rebates spoke in slang (2000:43). Petropoulos goes into great detail about the rebates. As for physical appearance, the rebates was usually slender with no sign of a belly. His hair was often greased with brilliantine, and he would probably sport a single curl that would fall over his eyes. He would usually have a moustache, which would also be waxed. Use of body paint was common, as were tattoos. There was usually a specific tattoo on the back of one of his hands. He would walk with a lop-sided, rolling gait, his left shoulder raised, and moving only his right hand. The look would be heavy and vaguely threatening, the voice hoarse from much smoking of hashish (Petropoulos, 2000: 49). As for clothing, the rebates seem to have been very particular. Perhaps this was a way in which these displaced individuals, torn from their homes without possessions, were able to re-invent their identities in this strange new land. It may also have been a secret form of communication within the closed group. For example, they would wear black republican hat with a wide black band on days of mourning and also on days when enemies were to be killed. The rest of their outfit included a black jacket with ivory buttons that were never buttoned up, as well as a peculiar type of trousers. According to Petropoulos, the trouser-bottoms were so narrow that the rebates used to say that they needed a shoe horn to get them on, and had to soap their heels to get them off, although he does not offer an explanation for this (2000:51). The trouser legs were also turned up at the cuff. This was done to reveal a patch of red velvet that was sewn on the inside, precisely in the style of the kapadaides of Istanbul (Petropoulos, 2000: 51). This, again, suggests a sense of sartorial solidarity. Petropoulos also states that the rebates had a fondness for a certain type of yellow shirt and would also wear a red tie known as achasapikes, which resembled a bow tie. However, at the start of the twentieth century, they stopped wearing ties, considering them too bourgeois. They continued to wear a sort of cummerbund, however. This was called a sonar Although it seems that this item of clothing would also have been rejected as bourgeois, Petropoulos explains that, on the contrary, it was usually arranged with great care, since it was both a way of transmitting messages as well as a convenient hiding place for weapons. For example, one end of the sonar would hang down, and to tread on the trailing end of a toughs sonar was equivalent to laying down a challenge (Petropoulos, 2000: 51). The sonar was also, according to Petropoulos, the last remaining vestige of oriental influence on the rebates clothing. According to Petropoulos, the rebates would carry a range of weapons, although they preferred the silence of double-edged knives and stilettos (2000: 53). They also had standard ways of both humiliating their enemies and killing them. To humiliate an enemy, they would chase him down and slash his buttocks. If the intention was to kill, they would use a double-bladed knife to stab the victim in the stomach. According to legend, the rebates would then pull the knife out and lick the dripping blood. Alternate legends indicate that the rebates would either bend over the dead mans body and do one of two things: either bite of an ear, or suck out an eye (Petropoulos, 2000: 53). Their other weapon of choice was the cudgel: the rebates would dangle their cudgels ostentatiously from the left arm. Transferring the cudgel to the right hand indicated the threat of a beating to come'(Petropoulos, 2000: 54). As might be expected, most of the fighting and killing took place in the evening hours. The format of the fight itself is described by Petropoulos as Homeric. The fight would inevitably begin with an outpouring of oaths, and it was considered unacceptable to kill someone without warning. In addition, the adversaries would wrap their jackets round their left arms, providing them with a kind of shield, somewhat like a medieval sword fight. . . No third party had the right to separate two feuding manges who ha drawn their knives'(Petropoulos, 2000: 54). Rebetes who were in prison had a very clear hierarchy. The leader was known as a tsirbashi: the tsirbashi who wanted to assert his authority would hold his knife high and force his fellow prisoners to pass beneath it. As a show of bravado, the mangas would use their knives to eat, shunning all forms of cutlery. In addition not unlike today anyone in prison who did not obey the tacit code might end up getting knifed himself. Although Petropoulos asserts that the rebates were basically law-abiding people, he spends a great deal of time talking about their prison hierarchies. He does this without explaining why these law-abiding people would spend so much time behind bars. Perhaps their existence as a marginalized people made them often vulnerable to authorities, and consequently, they spent a great deal of time imprison because of this persecution. Although this may be true, the excessive use of hashish, although not at the time illegal, may have been a factor that would contribute to this. At any rate, the lingo of prison figures prominently in many of the rembetika lyrics, and the lyrics are so closely associated with the actual lives of the rebates that the merging of myth and man seems inevitable. 3. The Essence of Rembetika This section analyses the components of rembetika: the lyrics, the music, and the dances. Although the three together comprise what is known as rembetika, by taking them apart for individual analysis, one is better able to understand the essence of the music form. 3.1.1 The Lyrics According to Petropoulos, some researchers labour to discover ideas in rembetiko song, and he is highly dismissive of this: the rebetes organized their life in their own particular way, and that is all there is to be said on the matter (Petropoulos, 2000: 68). He does present his own theories on the lyrics of rembetika music, however, and because he is so intimately familiar with the modes and style of rembetika, his insights may be considered rare and valuable. For starters, he breaks rembetika music lyrics down into a series of twenty categories, which are listed below: 1. Love songs 2. Songs of parting and separation 3. Melancholic and plaintive songs; songs of remonstrance 4. Songs of the underworld 5. Hashish-smokers songs 6. Prison songs 7. Songs about poverty 8. Songs about work and working-class life 9. Songs about TB and ill health 10. Songs about Charon and Hades 11. Songs about mothers 12. Songs about exile and foreign parts 13. Songs about dreams; orientalist songs; exotic songs 14. Tavern songs 15. Songs which sing of small sorrows 16. Satirical songs; songs which give advice about life; songs which threaten violence and retribution 17. Songs which are depictions drawn from life 18. Songs which sing the praises of various cities and their inhabitants 19. Songs of army life and war 20. Songs composed for specific individuals (Petropoulos, 2000: 69). Petropoulos also points out that many songs can easily fit under more than one of these categories, and sometimes several at a time. Of the categories above, Petropoulos states that approximately half of the recorded rembetika songs he knows of fall under two major categories. The first of these is love, including parting or separation. The other theme has to do with elements of the rebetic subculture, including the underworld, hashish, prison, tavern, and fights. The rebates never ventured to attack the established institutions of society, he asserts; the police remained the only real target for their aggression (Petropoulos, 2000: 70). As for the style, he explains that the songs were written in a simple style, with a fair smattering of argot (Petropoulos, 2000: 68). It is Petropoulos contention that since in Greece official folklore studies are considered the domain of academic professionals who lookdown on both rebetika and slang, it is highly unlikely that a thorough understanding of rebetika lyrics will not be available in an academic format. He also asserts that since many of the important rembetika practitioners have long since died, their memories and experiences are no longer available to be recorded (Petropoulos, 2000: 70). Because the rebates of this time lived in poverty and squalor, there are a large number of songs that deal with issues of poor health. Most of these, according to Petropoulos, focus on tuberculosis, which was responsible for taking many lives during this time. The high death rate among this subculture also led to quite a few songs about the afterlife, with images of Charon carrying off the dead and taking them down into the underworld, into Hades (Petropoulos, 2000: 71). There are also a considerable number of songs in praise of maternal figures, as well as an absence of songs about fathers. According to Petropoulos, the figure of the mother was very important to their betas, and if there was a hierarchy of women figures, the maternal figure would always be on top: where the mother appears simultaneously with the singers beloved, precedence always goes to the mother'(Petropoulos, 2000: 71). Here again, Petropoulos is dismissive of professional analysis of the lyrics: I shall avoid psychoanalytic clichs and say simply that we dont know the explanation for the rebates one-sided fixation on his mother (2000: 71). Underlying all the songs, from the love songs to those that praise the freedom of escape through hashish, is a pervasive sense of loss of this disenfranchised group. These are the authentic songs of rembetika these are not the lyrics that were written after rembetikas status had been elevated to respectable, and eventually popular, levels. According to Holst, As the lyrics of the rembetika songs and the descriptions of the rembetika musicians depict them, the manges were far from being the idealistic, daring young braves a number of modern Greek writers would have us believe. They were, however, an extremely interesting sub-culture, whose beliefs and habits remain in a rare state of preservation thanks to the words of the rembetika songs (1983: 45). 18. Lemonadhika Down in Lemonadhika, there was a fuss going on. Thomas was caught, together with Elias. Hey, Thomas, dont go making a fuss, because youll come off worst, with a load of bother. Down in Lemonadhika, there was a fuss going on. They caught two pickpockets, and they acted innocent. They stuck them in handcuffs and took them off to prison, and if they dont find the loot theyll get beaten up. Mr. Policeman, dont beat us, because you know that this is our work, so dont come looking for a kick-back. We steal purses, we knock off wallets, so the prison gates get to see us pretty regularly. Death doesnt scare us, only hunger does, thats why we steal wallets and lead the good life. [By V. Papazoglou] (in Petropoulos, 2000: 141) This song was selected because its lyrics strongly suggest the attitude of the rebates of this time. According to Holst, much of the anger and defiance exhibited by the manges was directed towards the police. She explains that they do not actually protest the way they are treated, although it seems they often had the right to. Petropoulos concurs here, asserting that when the lyrics of the rebates seem to be in the form of protest, the focus is vague and non-directed (Petropoulos,2000: 70). It was not so much that they protest their ill-treatment, asserts Holst, stating that in fact they obviously feel some pride in having eaten wood (been beaten up) and served their time in jail; it is rather a refusal to change their way of life or to be submissive before the police, or to lose their sense of humour (1983: 45). The sense of futility and helplessness in the second verse, in the advice to Thomas: dont go making a fuss/because youll come off worst/with a load of bother. This is clearly the attitude of a segment of society that knows better than to challenge authority. They are aware of their low status in the social hierarchy and know better than to assert themselves in any way, for the consequences will be a load of bother. The lyrics of the fourth and fifth verses clearly indicate familiarity with what appears to be a corrupt police force. They know the routine: first their compatriots will be restrained with handcuffs, and then they will be further restrained locked away in prison. Furthermore, they know that if the police do not get their percentage of the stolen goods, that the perpetrators will receive, in addition to everything else, a beating. The progression of thought from verses five through seven is also interesting to note. In verse five, the alleged pickpockets demonstrate perceptive knowledge of criminal life: they know a beating is to follow, and they try to prevent it. In verse six, they admit that they are used to this routine: the prison gates get to see us/pretty regularly. By the final verse, they seem resigned and tough: Death doesnt scare us/only hunger does/thats why we steal wallets/and lead the good life. The last line is feisty and full of bravado, the kind of bravado that seems to have been the rebates defining trait. The Little Hanoumakia At Panayas on the beach, there was a little tek, And I went there every morning to drive away my blues. Two pretty little hanoumakia, stoned the poor things, I found them there one morning, sitting on the sand. Come close my dervish and sit near me And Ill pour out the blues from my heart. Take your baklama and entertain us for a while, And light up a joint and smoke with us. First light up my narghil, so I can smoke and turn on, And later, hanoumakia, Ill take my baklama. If you want to get high on the narghil with fine Turkish hashish, Its Uncle Yannis tek, down in Pasalimani. These lyrics contain words that, as Petropoulos stated above, need tube explained if one is to grasp the gist of the song. Holst explains that the word hanuman, as well as its diminutive form hanoumaki (pluralhanoumakia) is a word with different meanings in Turkish and in Greek.Considering the mixed backgrounds of the rebates, this means that itwas probably used and interpreted in different ways by differentsingers and listeners. In Turkish, the word basically means female orlady. However, in Greek, the lady in question takes on verydefinite characteristics. The Greek usage usually refers to a girl whowas found of hashish, often sharing a pipe with one or more of themanges, or members of the subculture who were also frequently members of the underworld. She would have been familiar with, and perhaps aregular patron, of the hashish dens. In addition, she may have been aprostitute, though that was not always the case (Holst, 1983: 87). As for the term dervish, it referred to a member of the hashishsub-culture. The word tek (plural tekthes), as noted earlier meantden where hashish was commonly smoked, while a narghil was the hashishpipe. Baklama would most probably be an alternate spelling for baglama,an instrument that was frequently used in rembetika music. Revival Lyrics According to Holst, as rembetika became more popular as well ascommercially successful, good musicians were inspired to write lyricsin the rembetika style. Unfortunately, this also led to monotony, asthe lyrics became duller through lack of immediate contact with alively sub-culture (Holst, 1983: 3). Soon composers began looking fornew lyric writers. By the 1950s and 1960s, even the more sophisticatedcomposers such as Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hadjidakis had begun towrite in the rembetika style. As Holst points out, the songs theywrote may have been vastly different from the rembetika of the Piraeusunderworld, but they were unthinkable without it (1983: 3). 31.2. The Music Holst explains that the roots of rembetika are closely tied into thefolk music of Turkey. During the early development of rembetika, theTurks still occupied large sections of the land, and many Greeks livedin land that is now a part of Turkey. Therefore, the music itself reflects a strong Turkish influence.Because of the animosity that continues to exist between the Greeks andthe Turks, however, Greeks are often resistant about acknowledging theTurkish influence, and play it down as much as possible. When Greeksare asked about the connection, Holst asserts that most will respondthat the Turks got their music from the Byzantines in the first place.Perhaps there is some truth in this, writes Holst, but theinterdependence of Eastern-Greek, Western-Turkish music is obviouslyhigh (1983: 64). Nonetheless, Holst asserts, the musical terminology used in rembetikamusic shows clear Turkish influence, but this may be because Turkishfolk music is allied to the ancient Arabic classical tradition and hasan established terminology for such things as modal types and tunings'(1983: 64). Since the folk music of Greece lacks any formalterminology, and since Greek and Turkish musicians often borrowed fromeach other, it is likely that Turkish terminology simply wasassimilated by the Greeks. There is also the impact of the migrationand the population exchange that occurred after the Asia Minor Catastrophe. Since immediately after this, rembetika flourished as a musical form, the Turkish influence cannot be denied (Holst, 1983: 64). Holst also points out that the melodies of rembetika conform to themodal types of Greek folk music as well as Turkish folk music, withstrong ties to Byzantine church music. Petropoulos states that he wouldlike to believe that it was the great Ottoman music of the peoples ofAsia Minor that gave rebetika its highly individual rhythmic andmelodic colouring (2000: 75). He admits, however, that this colouringis influenced by a number of other sources which were brought to Greeceby the gypsies. Therefore, the music also shows traces of influencefrom Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, southern Russia, the Caucasus,Syria, Egypt, and India (2000: 75). Petropoulos also points out that availability of rembetika recordsmakes a thorough ethnomusicological analysis of rembetika as a musical form very difficult. For these two stages of work (the initialcompilation and transcription of songs, and a comparativeethnomuiscological study) to be undertaken, a specialist institute ofrebetiko song would need to be established in Greece (2000: 74).Although rembetikas improved status in society may one day make thispossible, at the time of Petropoulos writing, there were no moves in this direction, although he points out that he has deposited all of hisrembetika archives in the Gennadys Library in Athens. 31.3. Rembetika: The Dances Holst describes her first experience of solo dancing to rembetika as unlike any dancing she had ever seen before: The music would begin, the rhythm insistent, the voice harsh andmetallic, and the dancer would rise as if compelled to make hisstatement. Eyes half-closed, in trance-like absorption, cigarettehanging from his lips, arms outstretched as if to keep his balance, hewould begin to slowly circle. As the dance progressed, the movementswould become more complex; there would be sudden feats of agility,swoops to the ground, leaps and twists, but the dancer seemed always tube feeling his way, searching for something, unsteady on his feet. Thedance took place in public, people were watching it, and yet itappeared to be a private, introspective experience for the dancer(Holst, 1983: 12). Holsts description is of the zeimbekiko, which is the primary dance of rembetika. There are various theories about the origin of the word, butthe consensus seems to be that it is Greek in origin, rather thanTurkish. Herodotus (c. 484c.424 BC) refers to the word bekos as doesthe Byzantine dictionary, to mean artos (bread), and the word Zei is aderivative of Zeus, the Olympian deity (Savrami, 1992: 57). The zeimbekiko dance is believed to have originated in Thrace. Thracianwarriors brought it to Asia Minor, and after the Asia Minor Catastrophe, it found its way back home to Greece. It has been mostcommonly associated with rembetika music, and in fact became the mainform of expression of the rebetiko movement in the period between thetwo world wars (Savrami, 1992: 57). However, zeimbekiko is clearly known to be a mans dance This is why,according to Sand, there are displays of unrestrained physicality andsexuality, including gyrations of the pelvis, which play a role in bothfolk and rebetika dances (1998: 132). For this reason, the dance may beacceptable for Greek men to perform, but it is taboo for women. One of the most striking features of the zeimbekiko is that it is asolitary dance. Furthermore, it is a dance without structure: there are no set movements. It is a mans dance, ritualistic in nature, allowingthe dancer to express his inner self, alone and for himself, as if in atrance. His manliness and virility are projected through the dance'(Savrami, 1992: 59). As Holsts initial impression suggests, it is alsoa dance of inward flight: The zeimbekiko is a solo dance which takes the dancer away. Itinvolves a transposition of the kinetic material. The movements arebased on whirling, rotating, with arms out-stretched like wings. Thedancer moves as if about to fly. He behaves as if having wings on hisback and is floating in the air, suspended between time and space(Savrami, 1992: 59). Petropoulos describes zeimbekiko as the king of dances. He alsodiscusses the energy and passion of the dance, and remarks thatanybody daring to interrupt a rebates dancing the zeibekiko might findhimself dicing with death (2000: 78). The counterpart of the zeimbekiko is the tsifte-teli. Tsifte-teli is aTurkish word, and its definition is literally two strings or doublestrings. This refers to the manner of playing the instrument withwhich rembetika is most commonly associated, the bouzouki, although itmay also refer to the ud (Sand, 1998: 127). However, despite itsoverwhelming popularity, tsifte-teli is problematic for many Greeks,along lines of identity, gender and the body (Sand, 1998: 127). It isalso interesting to note that tsifte-teli is the only rembetika dancein which a woman smiles: it is a frivolous dance in contrast to theseriousness of male dance (Sand, 1998: 131). Modern Greece has struggled to develop a cultural identity as anindependent entity. According to Sand, Kazantzakis aptly captured theidentity crisis of modern Greeks with the phrase double-descended'(Sand, 1998: 129). While no doubt overly simplistic, this schemapoints to the highly dualistic nature of Greek identity, and the searchfor authentic Greek culture which marks Greeces modern history'(Sand, 1998: 129). 4. Rembetika and Greek Culture This section analyzes rembetika within a sociocultural framework,discussing first the social acceptance of rembetika as it has waxed andwaned over the years, then exploring it in an ethnomusicologicalframework in which it is compared to the music of similar subcultures,such as flamenco and fade. 4.1.1. The Social Acceptance of Rembetika The social acceptance of rembetika has varied throughout the tumultuousyears of Greek history. According to Giannaris, rembetika had beenconsidered immoral since the late nineteenth century: to respectablepeople bouzouki music was hashish-bearing, and to the Greek chauvinistsit was considered Turkish, Oriental, and hence, non-Greek (Giannaris,1972: 125). Rembetika was, in fact, banned in 1936 during the Metaxas dictatorship. Musicians associated with rembetika in any way weretargeted and sometimes arrested by Greek authorities, and tekkedes(hash dens) were regularly raided. According to Emery, citizens caughtsinging rebetika (or indeed playing the bouzouki) were likely to betaken for dissolute hash-smokers and shipped off to internal exile'(Emery, 2000: 26-7). Censorship was re-imposed, according to Emery, in 1947, although thelaw was never really reinforced (Emery, 2000: 28). This may have hadsomething to do with a speech given at the Art Theatre in Athens in1949, in which composers Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hadzidakis cameout in support of it. According to Theodorakis biographer Giannaris,Mikis was particularly incensed by the scorn for the rebetic, orcity-song, an outgrowth of the hashish joints. Why this scorn for thenative music of Greece? Why had the Athens Conservatory never takennote of this music? (Giannaris, 1972: 80). Because of his strongfeelings about what he felt was a central part of Greek culture,Theodorakis became more and more outspoken on the subject, becomingmore and more controversial as time went on. At the Art Theatre event, both Theodorakis and Hadzidakis defendedrembetika, claiming it as an integral part of the Greek musicalheritage (Emery, 2000: 28). After the composers gave their speeches,there was a performance in which rebetika singers Sotiria Bellou and Markos Vamvakaris both sang. The presentation of rebetika to asophisticated Athenian audience by a man respected as a seriouscomposer marked the beginning of the cultivation of rebetika by asignificant group of Greek artists and intellectuals (Holst-Warhaft,1998: 123). Petropoulos points out that in Greece, the very word rebetiko wasforbidden: I found it impossible to get a publisher for Rebetika Songsprecisely because of its title. In the 1970s, it was inadmissible tospeak of rebates and rebetika. For me, the price of my decision to goahead and publish the book myself was a five-month prison sentence'(Petropoulos, 2000: 42). According to Emery, rembetika was rediscovered shortly after theCivil War ended: it came out of its low-life backwaters and into nightclubs where rich people went. And at this point the character of the music changed. The bouzouki went electric, everything went electric,and the players began to perform for the upper bourgeoisie. Rembetikabecame a fashion (Emery, 2000: 28). Thus, it appears that rembetikawas being transformed: once associated with social groups on the veryfringe of society, it was now filtering into the mainstream. Intellectuals began to defend the songs of rembetika, seeing them as aform of self-expression from the downtrodden proletariat. They embracedcauses such themes as the oppression of the working class, theprevalence of drug use and addiction, and the tragically high number oftuberculosis deaths. As Holst-War haft points out, if rebetika could besaid to have crystallized as a pan-Hellenic form of popular music in the 1930s, it is only in the post-war period that it was discovered byintellectuals and began to slowly make its way into popular culture'(Holst-War haft, 1998: 121). Rembetikas ascent into respectability was the cause of considerablecontroversy, however. There were members of society who would neveraccept this music that was tinged with so many of the negative elementsthat were associated with the subculture. The status of rembetikabecame an even more divisive issue after Theodorakis came out withEpitaphios. This was a group of poems that had been written by thepoet Yiannis Ritsos. Ritsos, though considered left-wing, was not of the working class and was therefore accorded a higher standing insociety. The cycle of poems known as Epitaphios were written about anunfortunate incident that had taken place in Thessaloniki in May of1936: the massacre of unarmed tobacco factory workers who had beenprotesting unfair wages. Theodorakis set the poems to music music thatwas performed by rembetika musicians, and in so doing he createdoutrage in the Greek community (Holst-War haft, 1998: 1245). No other composition in the history of Modern Greek music has arousedsuch controversy, asserts Holst-War haft. However, in her view, theoutrage was not over the content of the poems, or over Theodorakisspolitical associations. Rather, what caused the furor overEpitaphios was Theodorakiss decision to use a rebetika singer and abouzouki to perform songs that were settings of a high-brow poet, inother words, to combine the low-brow and disreputable rebetika with anintellectual if Marxist poet (Holst-War haft, 1998: 1245). According to Giannaris, however, the furor was due to a number offactors. First, there was the fact that the poet Ritsos was a leftist,and that the subject matter was an unpleasant memory. In addition, thechoice of singer was controversial, since Bithikotsis was a plumber byday and a bouzouki player by night. Finally, there was the choice ofinstrument: no serious composer should waste his talent with thebouzouki, or debase good poetry by wedding it to such music'(Giannaris, 1972: 118). Giannaris also points out that Theodorakissactions offended several segments of society: Mikis daring step tobreak down the demotic, fifteen-syllable meter of Ritsos poetry, andset it to the 7/8 or 4/8 of the rebetic rhythms, angered the literaryscholars and the musical aesthetes (118). The popularity of Kazantzakis Zorba the Greek has done much topopularize rembetika, and in so doing has encouraged the public to bemore accepting. Describing the passionate dance scene in Zorba the Greek, Holst-War haft writes: It may be a romantic and distorted visionof what the working-class rebates . . . offered the Greekintellectuals, but it may have something to do with why the rebetikasongs have been so enthusiastically revived since the 1960s. It mayalso be what attracted foreign scholars to the genre (Holst-Warhaft,1998: 111). 41.2 Rembetika: A Cultural Sociological Framework The music of a society is said to be a reflection of that society; thisis true of sub-cultures of a society as well as it is of the mainstreamof which they are a part. The ways in which rembetika music reflectsGreek society are not simple to determine, given the complex nature ofits history. How, then, does one attempt to analyse rembetika music inorder to understand it in a cultural sociological framework? Ste ingress offers a framework for doing this. He bases his theories on years of research on ethnic music styles associated with subcultures, including rembetika, as well as tango and flamenco styles. Using the data amassed from these studies, he offers a set of criteria by which each of these musical styles can be assessed. He also points out that traditional modes of study do not work for these non-traditional cultural forms, asserting that ethnocentric, nationalist or essentialist approaches to ethnic music-styles afford little insight into the social and cultural significance of postmodern popular art'(Ste ingress, 1998: 151). According to Ste ingress, trends in comparative cultural sociology havebegun to shift towards a new investigative approach when it comes tomusical styles like rembetika. Rather than isolating the subculture onwhich rembetika is based, this approach focuses on viewing thesubculture within a larger sociological framework. This perspective is based on the belief that cultural differences haveto be considered less a consequence of isolation than of mutualrelations of different social and ethnic groups, or culturesthemselves (Ste ingress, 1998: 151). However, he points out that a needremains for a comparative and/or cross-cultural study that mightexplain regional musical styles in a broader and more systematic way'(1998: 154). Ste ingress also asserts that ethnic musical styles are oftenromanticized and manipulated in the attempt to analyse or define themwithin an intercultural framework. (1998: 160). Holst-War haft alsonotes this in her discussion of the increasing popularity that comes asa result of the commercialization of rembetika music. She comparesrembetika, as Ste ingress does, to similar styles of popular,commercially successful music, including tango, fade, blues, andflamenco. Her conclusion closely echoes that of Ste ingress: Howevermuch they are, or once were, the expression of a marginalized group,they are listened to, exploited and analyzed by people who are not partof that group (Holst-War haft, 1998: 112). Furthermore, Holst-War haft asserts that although the initialidentification may have been of the disenfranchised, that this is nolonger true, as it is later it is packaged and sold to a broaderaudience (1998: 112). Both Holst-War haft and Ste ingress discuss thesemusical cultures as needing to cling to a sense of nostalgia. As Steingress asserts, this ambiguous affinity not only to modern urbanculture but also to nostalgic traditionalism that turned these musics into vehicles of identity construction in a supposed chaotic social environment (Ste ingress, 1998: 160). The criteria that Ste ingress puts forth include a set of common socialconditions and socio-cultural determinants within each of three musicalstyles, including flamenco, tango, and rembetika. These criteria willbe summarized with respect to rembetika below. First, Ste ingress asserts that in all three of the musical styles he has studied, there is clearly the existence of a marginalized socialgroup. These groups consist of outcasts and outsiders, or generally ofpeople who refuse to conform to the rules and regulations of theestablished social and political order. In the world of rembetika,these marginalized group members are referred to as tsiftes and rebates(Ste ingress, 1998: 161). All three groups are urban or suburban in origin. They all consist ofindividuals who are considered outsiders and/or immigrants. The members of the groups first appeared in city environments, either within thecity or on the outskirts, and generally had certain gather places wherethey would meet. In the case of rembetika, these places would includeprisons, brothels, taverns, cafes, and hashish-shops such as theCafAmn and tekkdes (Ste ingress, 1998: 161). Next, each of these groups had a mode of self-expression that wasunique to that group. This self-expression was generally a type ofmusic or dance that was marked by extreme passion. The themes expressedincluded a wide range of emotions. At one extreme, the emotionsincluded grieving, pain, sorrow, loneliness, and death. At the otherextreme, sensual and sexual pleasures would be included. There was adefinite level of eroticism in the dances of these groups. Inrembetika, this would be reflected in the tsifte-teli and zeibekikoRembetika also shares with flamenco a strong attraction to the image of the female Gypsy, who was viewed as both deeply erotic as well astauntingly sinful (Ste ingress, 1998: 161). Other characteristics shared by the three groups include pronouncedmale chauvinism, which Ste ingress describes a reflex of the generalcultural attitude of the social environment (1998: 161). There is alsoa strong use of slang in songs and in the vocabulary in general, orwhat is referred to as mangika in rembetika. In addition, each of thesemusical styles reflects a complex melding of social and ethnic factors.In rembetika, according to Ste ingress, it points to the conflictiverelation of Asia Minor Greeks and continental Greeks, as well as ofTurkish and Greek culture (1998: 162). By systematizing these social, cultural, and ethnic factors, Steingresshas developed what he refers to as an explanatory model that attemptsto assess the role of subcultural popular music with modern society. Heviews popular music styles as mass media supported artistic eventsthat transmit symbols and significance, values, habits and rules ofbehavior all of which figure into the production of social identities'(Ste ingress, 1998: 165). Tunis points out that for people outside the physical country,rembetika music takes on additional significance. Rebetika is onecultural form among many which continues to be re-created by migrantcommunities in their new homeland, he notes (Tunis, 1995: 99). Healso suggests that rembetika is no longer solely the domain of Greekculture, pointing out that due to the mobility of the community memberswho embrace it, rebetika is becoming a musical icon of passion forboth the Greek diaspora and wider multicultural community (Tsounis,1995: 99). Ultimately, Tunis concludes, the symbolic constructionsof passion and expression in rebetika are neither homogeneous normonolithic, but rather, are multi-layered and constantly undergoingnegotiation for articulation and dominance (1995: 99). Thus, in a sociological cultural framework, though rembetika stillexists, the rembetika we know today is a reflection of a marginalizedgroup or subculture that no longer truly exists. Alternatively, asHolst-Warhaft has suggested, the people who now listen to and exploitrembetika are not part of the group that the musical style is actuallya reflection of. The desire for a sense of nostalgia has been noted byHolst-Warhaft and Ste ingress, who discuss it as a need for order in achaotic society, as well as a longing for a connection to an idealizedpast. The music of a society is said to be a reflection of that society, and this is true of sub-cultures of a society as well as it is of the mainstream of which they are a part. As demonstrated here, rembetikareflects the subculture of the people who shaped and developed it.Although it has become part of the modern culture not just of Greece,but also of the diaspora and, as Tunis has suggested, the widermulticultural world traditional rembetika is not truly a reflection oftodays society. 5. Concluding Remarks In Road to Rembetika, Gail Holst offers her favorite definition of rembetika, which she takes from the composer Rovertakis: Rembetikasongs were written by rebates for rebatesThe rebates was a manwho had a sorrow and threw it out (Holst, 1983: 14). This is anappealing definition, both for its pithiness and its cleverphraseology. It also implies that rembetika insofar as it is the workof the rebates is the work of the past. The rebates are gone;rembetika remains, but in an altered form. In her discussion of the revival of rembetika that began towards theend of the dictatorship, Holst suggest there was something in theswaggering individuality and the pain of rembetika, the contemptuousreferences to the police and the secret language of hash smokers, whichappealed to a population living in a military-police state (1983: 16). Thus, the revival, or re-emergence, of rembetika at this time seems alogical reaction, given the political atmosphere of the time. At thebeginning of the revival, however, the new practitioners of rembetikawere merely imitators of the traditional style: at first they weredeterminedly puristic and musicians rather solemnly imitated thenuances of vocal and instrumental style they had heard on records'(Holst, 1983: 3). This gradually changed, as time passed and these new young musicians found their voice. As Holst explains, the programmes now reflect abroad mixture of rembetika, both the original, early Smyrna stylesongs, the orientales of Tsitsanis, and fresher, newer songs thatreflect a variety of international musical styles (Holst, 1983: 3). Holst asserts that that the most important thing we have learnt about the rembetika is that they are still alive in whatever form they arepresented and however much the purists may claim they are dead (1983:3). She is quick to point out, however, that the songs of today have strayed a long way from their musical and social origins. They havesuffered a comparable period to the blues of rejection on moral andsocial grounds. They have been similarly modified to suit the tastes ofa broader audience and later revived in an artificially puristic style.Now that they are being performed in a variety of free and strict formswe begin to appreciate the best songs of early, middle, late orrevival-style rembetika for what they are good songs by any standards'(Holst, 1983: 4). Holst is not the only researcher who has commented on the similarity of the evolution of rembetika to that of the blues. Barrett, too, assertsthat rembetika were urban blues of a quasi-criminal subculture,despised by the middle classes and suppressed by the authorities (2005n.p.). Discussing the passionate dance scene in Zorba the Greek, Holst-Warhaftnotes that it is impossible to study the evolution of rembetika withoutconsidering the impact of this popular film. Barrett concurs; he alsomentions the movie Rembetiko, by Kosta Ferris, which is based on thelives of Marika Ninou and Vassilis Tsitsanis. Barrett notes that thefilm documents the rise and fall (and rise again) of rembetika music(2005, nap.) Although Holst-War haft suggests that films such as these may be overlyromantic and may distort the concept of what the rebates actually werelike. However, she does admit that their popularity may have somethingto do with why the rebetika songs have been so enthusiastically revivedsince the 1960s. It may also be what attracted foreign scholars to thegenre (Holst-War haft, 1998: 111). As we have seen here, rembetika is frequently compared to the music ofother subcultures, including tango, fade, flamenco, and blues. Likethese other types of music, rembetika songs are commercially successfuland quite popular today. However, as we have seen, these songs are notthe traditional songs of rembetika. As Holst-War haft points out,however much they are, or once were, the expression of a marginalizedgroup, they are listened to, exploited and analyzed by people who arenot part of that group (1998: 112). Thus, in a sociological cultural framework, though rembetika stillexists, the rembetika we know today is a reflection of a marginalizedgroup or subculture that no longer truly exists. Alternatively, asHolst-Warhaft has suggested, the people who now listen to and exploitrembetika are not part of the group that the musical style is actuallya reflection of. The desire for a sense of nostalgia has been noted byHolst-Warhaft and Ste ingress, who discuss it as a need for order in achaotic society, as well as a longing for a connection to an idealizedpast. The music of a society is said to be a reflection of that society, and this is true of sub-cultures of a society as well as it is of the mainstream of which they are a part. As demonstrated here, rembetikareflects the subculture of the people who shaped and developed it.Although it has become part of the modern culture not just of Greece,but also of the diaspora and, as Tunis has suggested, the widermulticultural world traditional rembetika is not truly a reflection oftodays society. Bibliography Barrett, M. Rembetika and Greek Popular Music. https://greecetravel.com/music/rembetika/ Accessed September 6, 2005. Brief History of Rembetika https://theory.rockefeller.edu/~giannak/reb.html Accessed September 6, 2005. Emery, Ed. 2000. Introduction to Songs of the Greek Underworld: The Rebetika Tradition. London: Saqi Books. Giannaris, G. 1972. Mikis Theodorakis: Music and Social Change. New York, NY: Praeger Publishers. Holst, G. 1983. Road to Rembetika: music of a Greek sub-culture songsof love, sorrow and hashish. 3rd ed. [1st ed. 1975] Athens: DeniseHarvey Company. Holst-War haft, G. 1998. Rebetika: The Double-descended Deep Songs of Greece. 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