The akan clan system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The akan clan system - Essay Example Additionally, the Ashanti Empire owed its prominence to its location because it was located with the regions richest goldfields. Today the tradition kingdom remains and significant national traditional and political force. This is because it is inseparably tangled to the functions and structures of the matrilineal ancestry system that forms the foundation of the Akan social order. The Akan’s make the biggest ethnic group in the two countries where they make up a population of about 20 million people. This essay will analyses the Akan clan examining their lineage, cultures and ritual functions and oral traditions, as well as, the political economy of the clan. The Akan Clan has a multitier segmentary structure that comprises of matrilineal clans. There are main matrilineages and minor ancestry parts where the clans are made up of eight clans that are not localized including the members throughout the kingdom. The Akan abusua include Agona, Aduana, Asakyrir, Asinie, Asona, Ekuona, Bretuo and Oyoko. Most individuals belong to the Asona abusua who make the largest group while the smallest is the Asakyiri (Shumway, 2011. P. 17). The origin of the clans has been attributed to the mythical female ancestors, but there have been no attempts made to trace back the descent lines to the founders of the clan. Abusua means a group of people that were derived from one great-grand mum on their maternal side. Where a clan is a confederation of four or five diverse groups of abusua that traces their ancestry via the same mutual ancestress. The Akan’s believe that a human being is made up of a soul (okra), blood (mogya), spirit (sunsum) and family (abusua). The kinship from the mother determines, which family group a person belongs to because the according to the Akan’s a kid is what his or her mother is. This means that a person can be an Asante because of the fact that their mother is an Asante. In the Akan clan, matrimony between members of an in-group is

The 2012 Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine was awarded for the Essay

The 2012 Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine was awarded for the work leading to the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells. Why was this break-through so important - Essay Example The discovery that it is possible to reprogram somatic cells to return to their earlier pluripotent state has, however, offered a way around some of these ethical concerns. These reprogrammed somatic cells are referred to as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) and they show remarkable similarities embryonic stem cells. In addition, they also present a new and exciting research area, especially since it has the potential to transform fields such as regenerative medicine and developmental biology (Yildirim, 2013: p16). ES and iPS cells show remarkable similarities in that they are self renewing, which means that they are able to divide and indefinitely produce other copies of themselves (Yildirim, 2013: p42). Therefore, iPS cells can be used for the derivation of all types of specialized cells in the lab under conditions that are precisely controlled. Just like ES cells, iPS cells can aid in the understanding of how pluripotent cells develop into specialized cells and, in the future, they may provide unlimited supplies of tissues and cells to replace diseased ones in patients with diseases that are currently incurable. However, unlike ES cells, generation of iPS cells is not dependent on cells from embryos created earlier (Yildirim, 2013: p42). This means that the biggest barrier to stem cell research, i.e. the ethics of using live embryos for research, can be circumvented. In the development of disease therapy, the most important step involves understanding the exact workings of the disease, as well the exact aspects of bodily functions that go wrong. In order to do this, tissues and cells are required for study, especially those that are diseased. However, it is very difficult to obtain genuine cells from the brain of a Parkinson’s disease patient, particularly in the earlier stages during which the patient is unaware of their symptoms (Yildirim, 2013: p47).