title: Norwegian Air Shuttle

text: It was reported in 2014 that Norwegian Air customers had lodged a record number of complaints, with a tribunal judge stating to "Dagens Næringsliv", "We have never before seen this scope of complaints in a single case". Norwegian's policies were also criticized by passengers who were left without food, drinks and blankets on board for up to 12 hours (available for pay but only with credit card). In August 2014, 35,000 people were reportedly hit with delays when flying with Norwegian, and 1,200 passengers ultimately sued Norwegian for compensation. However, for the most part, the tribunal did not agree with the complaints and only in a few cases did Norwegian have to compensate the passenger(s).


title: Norwegian Air Shuttle

text: Between 2011 and 2013, Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS) was criticized regarding its treatment of employees.


title: Norwegian Air Shuttle

text: The media first reported NAS's announced intention to open a base in Helsinki, from where it hired pilots on short-term contracts in Estonia rather than as employees within the company. The Norwegian tax-office authorities reportedly suspected in August 2012 that many Norwegian citizens were working for NAS on these contracts and not paying Norwegian taxes, despite operating on flights originating from Norway. The Norwegian Pilot's Union (NPU) took NAS to court over the short-term contracts. Then-CEO Bjørn Kjos appeared to inflame matters when he declared that NAS would no longer hire employees on Norwegian terms.


title: Norwegian Air Shuttle

text: In 2012, NAS started to use contract-employed pilots on routes within Scandinavia, considered by the NPU to be an abrogation of labor terms regarding non-Scandinavian pilots on routes within Scandinavia. The NPU soon after sued NAS.


title: Norwegian Air Shuttle

text: In October 2013, the NPU announced its intention to strike because NAS had forced its pilots to face dismissal or transfer to Norwegian Air Norway or Norwegian Air Resources AB, both subsidiaries of NAS; the respective subsidiary would then hire the pilots back to NAS. The NPU and its Swedish counterpart SPF accused NAS of using this ploy to break the solidarity and organisation of the pilots, with the eventual goal of coercing pilots to convert their jobs to contract positions.


title: Norwegian Air Shuttle

text: In mid-December 2013, NAS demanded that its Swedish non-contract flight attendants transfer to Proffice Aviation, an external staffing company, or face dismissal. According to the Swedish cabin-crew union, Unionen, it managed to save the jobs of 53 NAS employees, but it was dissatisfied with the direction NAS had taken. The situation led to the leader for the Swedish Left Party, Jonas Sjöstedt, to state that stricter regulation was needed for the use of staffing-companies in Sweden.


title: Norwegian Air Shuttle

text: Norwegian Long Haul was criticized for the terms of its contracts with its long-haul flight attendants on contracts based in Thailand. The Air Line Pilots Association further accused Norwegian of unfair competition practices. The airline contested these accusations, and disclosed the pay scale for its Thai employees, who earn between $33,300 and US$39,200 per annum, which is under the $42.2K USD average pay for US flight attendants (though these comparisons are made between solely intercontinental Norwegian Long Haul flights versus domestic and intercontinental flights of US-paid flight attendants).


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Asante Empire (Asante Twi: ), today commonly called the Ashanti Empire, was an Akan state that lasted between 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana. It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include most of Ghana as well as parts of Ivory Coast and Togo. Due to the empire's military prowess, wealth, architecture, sophisticated hierarchy and culture, the Ashanti Empire has been extensively studied and has more historic records written by European, primarily British authors than any other indigenous culture of Sub-Saharan Africa.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Starting in the late 17th century, the Ashanti king Osei Tutu ( – 1717) and his adviser Okomfo Anokye established the Ashanti Kingdom, with the Golden Stool of Asante as a sole unifying symbol. Osei Tutu oversaw a massive Ashanti territorial expansion, building up the army by introducing new organisation and turning a disciplined royal and paramilitary army into an effective fighting machine. In 1701, the Ashanti army conquered Denkyira, giving the Ashanti access to the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean coastal trade with Europeans, notably the Dutch. The economy of the Ashanti Empire was mainly based on the trade of gold and agricultural exports as well as slave trading, craft work and trade with markets up North.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The army served as the effective tool to procure captives. The Ashanti Empire fought several wars with neighboring kingdoms and lesser organized groups such as the Fante. The Ashanti defeated the British Empire's invasions in the first two of the four Anglo-Ashanti Wars, killing British army general Sir Charles MacCarthy and keeping his skull as a gold-rimmed drinking cup in 1824. British forces later burnt and sacked the Ashanti capital of Kumasi, however, and after the final Ashanti defeat at the fifth Anglo-Ashanti War, the Ashanti empire became part of the Gold Coast colony on 1 January 1902. Today, the Ashanti Kingdom survives as a constitutionally protected, sub-national traditional state in union with the Republic of Ghana. The current king of the Ashanti Kingdom is Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Asantehene. The Ashanti Kingdom is the home to Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana's only natural lake. The state's current economic revenue is derived mainly from trading in gold bars, cocoa, kola nuts and agriculture.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The name "Asante" means "because of war". The word derives from the Twi words "ɔsa" meaning "war" and "nti" meaning "because of". This name comes from the Asante's origin as a kingdom created to fight the Denkyira kingdom.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The variant name "Ashanti" comes from British reports transcribing "Asante" as the British heard it pronounced, "as-hanti". The hyphenation was subsequently dropped and the name "Ashanti" remained, with various spellings including "Ashantee" common into the early 20th century.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Between the 10th and 12th centuries AD, the ethnic Akan people migrated into the forest belt of Southern Ghana and established several Akan states:


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Before the Ashanti Kingdom had contact with Europeans, it had a flourishing trade with other African states due to the Ashanti gold wealth. Trade with European states began after contact with the Portuguese in the 15th century AD. When the gold mines in the Sahel started to play out, the Ashanti Kingdom rose to prominence as the major player in the gold trade. At the height of the Ashanti Kingdom, the Ashanti people became wealthy through the trading of gold mined from their territory.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Ashanti political organization was originally centred on clans headed by a paramount chief or O"manhene". One particular clan, the Oyoko, settled in the Ashanti's sub-tropical forest region, establishing a centre at Kumasi. The Ashanti became tributaries of another Akan state, Denkyira but in the mid-17th century the Oyoko under Chief Oti Akenten started consolidating the Ashanti clans into a loose confederation against the Denkyira.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The introduction of the Golden Stool ("Sika dwa") was a means of centralization under Osei Tutu. According to legend, a meeting of all the clan heads of each of the Ashanti settlements was called just prior to declaring independence from Denkyira. Those included members from Nsuta, Mampong, Dwaben, Bekwai and Kokofu. In this meeting the Golden Stool was commanded down from the heavens by Okomfo Anokye, chief-priest or sage advisor to "Asantehene" Osei Tutu I and floated down from the heavens into the lap of Osei Tutu I. Okomfo Anokye declared the stool to be symbolic of the new Ashanti Union ("the Ashanti Kingdom"), and allegiance was sworn to the stool and to Osei Tutu as the "Asantehene". The newly declared Ashanti union subsequently waged war against and defeated Denkyira. The stool remains sacred to the Ashanti as it is believed to contain the "Sunsum" — spirit or soul of the Ashanti people.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: In the 1670s the head of the Oyoko clan, Osei Kofi Tutu I, began another rapid consolidation of Akan peoples via diplomacy and warfare. King Osei Kofu Tutu I and his chief advisor, Okomfo Kwame Frimpong Anokye led a coalition of influential Ashanti city-states against their mutual oppressor, the Denkyira who held the Ashanti Kingdom in its thrall. The Ashanti Kingdom utterly defeated them at the Battle of Feyiase, proclaiming its independence in 1701. Subsequently, through hard line force of arms and savoir-faire diplomacy, the duo induced the leaders of the other Ashanti city-states to declare allegiance and adherence to Kumasi, the Ashanti capital. From the beginning, King Osei Tutu and priest Anokye followed an expansionist and an imperialistic provincial foreign policy. According to folklore, Okomfo Anokye is believed to have visited Agona-Akrofonso.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Realizing the strengths of a loose confederation of Akan states, Osei Tutu strengthened centralization of the surrounding Akan groups and expanded the powers of the judiciary system within the centralized government. This loose confederation of small city-states grew into a kingdom and eventually an empire looking to expand its borders. Newly conquered areas had the option of joining the empire or becoming tributary states. Opoku Ware I, Osei Tutu's successor, extended the borders, embracing much of Ghana's territory.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: European contact with the Ashanti on the Gulf of Guinea coast region of Africa began in the 15th century. This led to trade in gold, ivory, slaves, and other goods with the Portuguese. On May 15, 1817, the Englishman Thomas Bowdich entered Kumasi. He remained there for several months, was impressed, and on his return to England wrote a book, "Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee". His praise of the kingdom was disbelieved as it contradicted prevailing prejudices. Joseph Dupuis, the first British consul in Kumasi, arrived on March 23, 1820. Both Bowdich and Dupuis secured a treaty with the Asantehene. But, the governor, Hope Smith, did not meet Ashanti expectations.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: From 1824 till 1899 there were five Anglo-Ashanti wars between the Ashanti Empire and Great Britain and its allies. The British lost or negotiated truces in several of these wars, with the final war resulting in British burning of Kumasi and official occupation of the Ashanti Empire in 1900. The wars were mainly due to Ashanti attempts to establish a stronghold over the coastal areas of present-day Ghana. Coastal peoples such as the Fante and the Ga came to rely on British protection against Ashanti incursions.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: In December 1895, the British left Cape Coast with an expeditionary force to start what is known as the Third Anglo-Ashanti War, see below. The Asantehene directed the Ashanti to not resist the British advance, as he feared reprisals from Britain if the expedition turned violent. Shortly thereafter, Governor William Maxwell arrived in Kumasi as well.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Britain annexed the territories of the Ashanti and the Fanti and constituted the Ashanti Crown Colony on 26 September 1901. Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh was deposed and arrested, and he and other Ashanti leaders were sent into exile in the Seychelles. The Asante Union was dissolved. A British Resident was permanently placed in the city of Kumasi, and soon after a British fort was built there.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: As a final measure of resistance, the remaining Asante court not exiled to the Seychelles mounted an offensive against the British Residents at the Kumasi Fort. The resistance was led by Asante queen Yaa Asantewaa, Queen-Mother of Ejisu. From March 28 to late September 1900, the Asante and British were engaged in what would become known as the War of the Golden Stool. In the end, the British were victorious; they exiled Asantewaa and other Asante leaders to the Seychelles to join Asante King Prempeh I.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: In January 1902, Britain finally designated the Ashanti Kingdom as a protectorate. the Ashanti Kingdom was restored to self-rule on 31 January 1935. Asante King Prempeh II was restored in 1957, and the Ashanti Kingdom entered a state union with Ghana on independence from the United Kingdom.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti state was a centralized state made up of a hierarchy of heads starting from the "Abusua Panyin" who was head of a family or lineage. The family was the basic political unit in the empire. The family or lineage followed the village organization which was headed by the "Odikro". All villages were then grouped together to form divisions headed by a divisional head called "Ohene". The various divisions were politically grouped to form a state which was headed by an "Omanhene" or "Amanhene". Finally, all Ashanti states formed the Ashanti Empire with the Asantehene as their king.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti government was built upon a sophisticated bureaucracy in Kumasi, with separate ministries to handle the state's affairs. Of particular note was Ashanti's Foreign Office based in Kumasi; despite its small size, it allowed the state to pursue complex negotiations with foreign powers. The Office was divided into departments to handle relations separately with the British, French, Dutch, and Arabs. Scholars of Ashanti history, such as Larry Yarak and Ivor Wilks, disagree over the power of this sophisticated bureaucracy in comparison to the Asantehene, but agree that it was a sign of a highly developed government with a complex system of checks and balances.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: At the top of Ashanti's power structure sat the "Asantehene", the King of Ashanti. Each Asantahene was enthroned on the sacred Golden Stool, the Sika 'dwa, an object that came to symbolise the very power of the King. Osei Kwadwo (1764–1777) began the meritocratic system of appointing central officials according to their ability, rather than their birth.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: As King, the "Asantehene" held immense power in Ashanti, but did not enjoy absolute royal rule. He was obliged to share considerable legislative and executive powers with Ashanti's sophisticated bureaucracy. But the "Asantehene" was the only person in Ashanti permitted to invoke the death sentence in cases of crime. During wartime, the King acted as Supreme Commander of the Ashanti army, although during the 19th century, the fighting was increasingly handled by the Ministry of War in Kumasi. Each member of the confederacy was also obliged to send annual tribute to Kumasi.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The "Asantehene" (King of all Ashanti) reigned over all and was King of the division of Kumasi, the nation's capital, and the Ashanti Empire. He was elected in the same manner as all other chiefs. In this hierarchical structure, every chief or King swore fealty to the one above him—from village and subdivision, to division, to the chief of Kumasi, and finally the "Asantehene" swore fealty to the State.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The elders circumscribed the power of the "Asantehene", and the chiefs of other divisions considerably checked the power of the King. This in practical effect created a system of checks and balances. As the symbol of the nation, the "Asantehene" received significant deference ritually, for the context was religious in that he was a symbol of the people in the flesh: the living, dead or yet to be born. When the king committed an act not approved of by the counsel of elders or the people, he could possibly be impeached, and demoted to a commoner.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The existence of aristocratic organizations and the council of elders is evidence of an oligarchic tendency in Ashanti political life. Though older men tended to monopolize political power, Ashanti instituted an organization of young men, the "nmerante", that tended to democratize and liberalize the political process in the empire. The council of elders undertook actions only after consulting a representative of the "nmerante". Their views were taken seriously as they participated in decision-making in the empire.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The current residence of the Asantehene is the Manhyia Palace built in 1925 by the British and presented to the Prempeh I as a present upon his return from exile.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The original palace of the Asantehene in Kumasi was burned down by the British in 1875. From European accounts, the edifice was massive and ornately built. In 1819, English traveler and author, Thomas Edward Bowdich described the palace as ...an immense building of a variety of oblong courts and regular squares [with] entablatures exuberantly adorned with bold fan and trellis work of Egyptian character. They have a suite of rooms over them, with small windows of wooden lattice, of intricate but regular carved work, and some have frames cased with thin gold. The squares have a large apartment on each side, open in front, with two supporting pillars, which break the view and give it all the appearance of the proscenium or front of the stage of the older Italian theaters. They are lofty and regular, and the cornices of a very bold cane-work in alto-relievo. A drop-curtain of curiously plaited cane is suspended in front, and in each, we observed chairs and stools embossed with gold, and beds of silk, with scattered regalia. Winwood Reade also described his visit to the Ashanti Royal Palace of Kumasi in 1874:


title: Ashanti Empire

text: “We went to the king’s palace, which consists of many courtyards, each surrounded with alcoves and verandahs, and having two gates or doors, so that each yard was a thoroughfare . . . But the part of the palace fronting the street was a stone house, Moorish in its style . . . with a flat roof and a parapet, and suites of apartments on the first floor. It was built by Fanti masons many years ago. The rooms upstairs remind me of Wardour Street. Each was a perfect Old Curiosity Shop. Books in many languages, Bohemian glass, clocks, silver plate, old furniture, Persian rugs, Kidderminster carpets, pictures and engravings, numberless chests and coffers. A sword bearing the inscription From Queen Victoria to the King of Ashantee. A copy of the Times, 17 October 1843. With these were many specimens of Moorish and Ashanti handicraft.”


title: Ashanti Empire

text: This institution assisted the Asantehene and served as an advisory body to the king. The council was made up of Amanhene or paramount chiefs who were leaders of the various Ashanti states. The council also included other provincial chiefs. By law the Asantehene never ignored the decisions of the Asanteman council. Doing so could get him de-stooled from the throne.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti Empire was made up of metropolitan and provincial states. The metropolitan states were made up of Ashanti citizens known as "amanfo". The provincial states were other kingdoms absorbed into the empire. Every metropolitan Ashanti state was headed by the "Amanhene" or paramount chief. Each of these paramount chiefs served as principal rulers of their own states, where they exerted executive, legislative and judicial powers.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The "Ohene" were divisional chiefs under the Amanhene. Their major function was to advise the Amanhene. The divisional chiefs were the highest order in various Ashanti state divisions. The divisions were made up of various villages put together. Examples of divisional chiefs included Krontihene, Nifahene, Benkumhene, Adontenhene and Kyidomhene.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Each village in Asante had a chief called Odikro who was the owner of the village. The Odikro was responsible for the maintenance of law and order. He also served as a medium between the people of his jurisdiction, the ancestor and the gods. As the head of the village, the Odikro presided over the village council.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The queen or "Ohenemaa" was an important figure in Ashanti political systems. She was the most powerful female in the Empire. She had the prerogative of being consulted in the process of installing a chief or the king, as she played a major role in the nomination and selection. She settled disputes involving women and was involved in decision-making alongside the Council of elders and chiefs. Not only did she participate in the judicial and legislative processes, but also in the making and unmaking of war, and the distribution of land.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Successful entrepreneurs who accumulated large wealth and men as well as distinguished themselves through heroic deeds were awarded social and political recognition by being called "Abirempon" or "Obirempon" which means big men. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries AD, the appellation "Abirempon" had formalized and politicized to embrace those who conducted trade from which the whole state benefited. The state rewarded entrepreneurs who attained such accomplishments with Mena (elephant tail) which was the "heraldic badge" "Obirempon"s had a fair amount of legislative power in their regions, more than the local nobles of Dahomey but less than the regional governors of the Oyo Empire. In addition to handling the region's administrative and economic matters, the "obirempon" also acted as the Supreme Judge of their jurisdiction, presiding over court cases.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Politically, the kotoko council served as the counterweight to the king's council of elders and basically embodied the aristocratic party in the government. The council formed the Legislature of Ashanti governmental system. It was made up of the Asantehene, the Queen mother as well as the state chiefs and their ministers.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The election of Kings and the Asantehene ("King of Kings or emperor" ) himself followed a pattern. The senior female of the kingly lineage nominated the eligible males. This senior female then consulted the elders, male and female, of that line. The final candidate is then selected. That nomination was sent to a council of elders, who represented other lineages in the town or district.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Elders then presented the nomination to the assembled people. If the assembled citizens disapproved of the nominee, the process was restarted. Chosen, the new Kings were enstooled by the Elders, who admonished him with expectations. The chosen Kings swore a solemn oath to the Earth Goddess and to his ancestors to fulfill his duties honorably in which he "sacrificed" himself and his life for the betterment of the state.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: This elected and enstooled King enjoyed a great majestic ceremony with much spectacle and celebration. He reigned with much despotic power, including the ability to make judgments of life and death on his subjects. However, he did not enjoy absolute rule. Upon the stool, the King was sacred. He served as the holy intermediary between the people and the ancestors. His powers theoretically were more apparent than real and hinged on his attention to the advice and decisions of the Council of Elders.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Kings of the Ashanti Empire who violated any of the oaths taken during his or her enstoolment, were destooled by Kingmakers. For instance, if a king punished citizens arbitrarily or was exposed as corrupt, he would be destooled. Destoolment entailed kingmakers removing the sandals of the king and bumping his buttocks on the ground three times. Once destooled from office, his sanctity and thus reverence were lost, as he could not exercise any of the powers he had as king; this includes Chief administrator, Judge, and Military Commander. The now previous king was dispossessed of the Stool, swords and other regalia which symbolized his office and authority.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: He also lost his position as custodian of the land. However, even if destooled from office, the king remained a member of the royal family from which he was elected. An impeachment occurred during the reign of Kusi Obodom, caused by a failed invasion of Dahomey.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Okomfo Anokye was responsible for creating the Seventy-Seven Laws of Komfo Anokye which served as the codified constitution of the Ashanti Empire.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti state, in effect, was a theocracy. It invokes religious, rather than secular-legal postulates. What the modern state views as crimes, Ashanti view practically as sins. Antisocial acts disrespect the ancestors, and are only secondarily harmful to the community. If the chief or King fails to punish such acts, he invokes the anger of the ancestors and the gods, and is therefore in danger of impeachment. The penalty for some crimes (sins) is death, but this is seldom imposed; a more common penalty is banishment or imprisonment. The King typically exacts or commutes all capital cases. These commuted sentences by King and chiefs sometimes occur by ransom or bribe; they are regulated in such a way that they should not be mistaken for fines, but are considered as revenue to the state, which for the most part welcomes quarrels and litigation. Commutations tend to be far more frequent than executions.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Ashanti are repulsed by murder, and suicide is considered murder. They decapitate those who commit suicide, the conventional punishment for murder. The suicide thus had contempt for the court, for only the King may kill an Ashanti.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: In a murder trial, intent must be established. If the homicide is accidental, the murderer pays compensation to the lineage of the deceased. The insane cannot be executed because of the absence of responsible intent – except for murder or cursing the King; in the case of cursing the king, drunkenness is a valid defense. Capital crimes include murder, incest within the female or male line, and intercourse with a menstruating woman, rape of a married woman, and adultery with any of the wives of a chief or the King. Assaults or insults of a chief or the court or the King also carried capital punishment.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Cursing the King, calling down powers to harm the King, is considered an unspeakable act and carries the weight of death. One who invokes another to commit such an act must pay a heavy indemnity. Practitioners of harmful (evil) forms of sorcery and witchcraft receive death but not by decapitation, for their blood must not be shed. They receive execution by strangling, burning, or drowning.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Ordinarily, families or lineages settle disputes between individuals. Nevertheless, such disputes can be brought to trial before a chief by uttering the taboo oath of a chief or the King. In the end, the King's Court is the sentencing court, for only the King can order the death penalty. Before the Council of Elders and the King's Court, the litigants orate comprehensively. Anyone present can cross-examine the defendant or the accuser, and if the proceedings do not lead to a verdict, a special witness is called to provide additional testimony. If there is only one witness, their sworn oath assures the truth is told. Moreover, that he favours or is hostile to either litigant is unthinkable. Cases with no witness, like sorcery or adultery are settled by ordeals, like drinking poison.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Ancestor Veneration establishes the Ashanti moral system, and it provides the principal foundation for governmental sanctions. The link between mother and child centres the entire network, which includes ancestors and fellow men as well. Its judicial system emphasizes the Ashanti conception of rectitude and good behaviour, which favours harmony among the people. The rules were made by Nyame (Supreme God) and the ancestors, and one must behave accordingly.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti Empire was one of a series of states along the coast including Dahomey, Benin, and Oyo. The Ashanti had mountains and large agricultural surpluses. The southern part of the Ashanti Empire was covered with moist semi-deciduous forest whilst the Guinea savanna covered the northern part of the state. The Guinea Savanna consists of short deciduous and fire resistant trees. Riparian forests also occur along the Afram River and streams of the savanna zone. Soils in Ashanti were mainly of two types; forest ochrosols in the southern part of Ashanti whilst the savanna ochrosols were confined to northern part of the empire.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The predominant fauna or food rich wildlife and animal species encountered in the Ashanti Empire were the hen, sheep, goat, duck, turkey, rabbit, guinea fowl, fish, and the porcupine which became the national emblem of the state, as well as about thirty multipurpose flora species of trees and shrubs and over thirty-five ornamental plants which beautified the environs of Ashanti. These tree/shrub-crop-animal (hen/fish) components were intensively integrated spatially and/or sequentially on the same land unit of individual Ashanti houses.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Between 1700 and 1715, Osei Tutu I conquered the neighboring states of Twifo, Wassa and Aowin. Opoku Ware I who succeeded Osei Tutu, led the integration of Akan states such as Tekyiman, Akyem and Kwahu into Ashanti after embarking on wars of conquest between 1720 to 1750. After the conquest of the Akyem in 1742, the Ashanti exerted power unto the coast. From 1730 to 1770, the Ashanti Empire expanded north into the Savannah states of Gonja, Dagbon and Krakye.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The lands within the Ashanti Kingdom were also rich in river-gold, cocoa and kola nuts, and the Ashanti were soon trading with the Portuguese at coastal fort Sao Jorge da Mina, later Elmina,and with the Hausa states.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti prepared the fields by burning before the onset of the rainy season and cultivated with an iron hoe. Fields are left fallow for a couple years, usually after two to four years of cultivation. Plants cultivated include plantains, yams, manioc, corn, sweet potatoes, millet, beans, onions, peanuts, tomatoes, and many fruits. Manioc and corn are New World transplants introduced during the Atlantic European trade. Many of these vegetable crops could be harvested twice a year and the cassava (manioc), after a two-year growth, provides a starchy root.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti transformed palm wine, maize and millet into beer, a favourite drink; and made use of the oil from palm for many culinary and domestic uses.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti invented the Fontomfrom, an Asante talking drum, and they also invented the Akan Drum. They drummed messages to distances of over , as rapidly as a telegraph. Asante dialect (Twi) and Akan, the language of the Ashanti people is tonal and more meaning is generated by tone. The drums reproduced these tones, punctuations, and the accents of a phrase so that the cultivated ear heard the entirety of the phrase itself.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti readily heard and understood the phrases produced by these "talking drums". Standard phrases called for meetings of the chiefs or to arms, warned of danger, and broadcast announcements of the death of important figures. Some drums were used for proverbs and ceremonial presentations.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Although pre-literate, the Ashanti recruited literate individuals into its government to increase the efficiency of the state's diplomacy. Some written records were also kept. Historian Adjaye, gives estimates based on surviving letters by the Ashanti that documents from the Ashanti government "could have exceeded several thousands." Writing was also used in record keeping during court proceedings. Bowdich documented in the early nineteenth century about the "trial of Apea Nyano" on 8 July 1817 where he states that "the Moorish secretaries were there to take notes of the transactions of the day." Wilks adds that such transcripts have not survived today.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The population history of the Ashanti Kingdom was one of slow centralization. In the early 19th century the Asantehene used the annual tribute to set up a permanent standing army armed with rifles, which allowed much closer control of the Ashanti Kingdom. The Ashanti Kingdom was one of the most centralised states in sub-Saharan Africa. Osei Tutu and his successors oversaw a policy of political and cultural unification and the union had reached its full extent by 1750. It remained an alliance of several large city-states which acknowledged the sovereignty of the ruler of Kumasi and the Ashanti Kingdom, known as the Asantehene. The Ashanti Kingdom had dense populations, allowing the creation of substantial urban centres. The Ashanti controlled over 250,000 square kilometers while ruling approximately 3 million people.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti traditional buildings are the only remnants of Ashanti architecture. Construction and design consisted of a timber framework filled up with clay and thatched with sheaves of leaves. The surviving designated sites are shrines, but there have been many other buildings in the past with the same architectural style. These buildings served as palaces and shrines as well as houses for the affluent. The Ashanti Empire also built mausoleums which housed the tombs of several Ashanti leaders.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Generally, houses whether designed for human habitation or for the deities, consisted of four separate rectangular single-room buildings set around an open courtyard; the inner corners of adjacent buildings were linked by means of splayed screen walls, whose sides and angles could be adapted to allow for any inaccuracy in the initial layout. Typically, three of the buildings were completely open to the courtyard, while the fourth was partially enclosed, either by the door and windows, or by open-work screens flanking an opening.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Infrastructure such as road transport and communication throughout the empire was maintained via a network of well-kept roads from the Ashanti mainland to the Niger river and other trade cities. English visitors to Kumasi in the 19th century, noted the division of the capital into 77 wards with 77 main streets; one of which was 100 yards wide. Many houses especially those near the king's stone palace were two story buildings embodied with indoor plumbing in the form of toilets that were flushed with gallons of boiling water. Bowdich revealed in his 1817 account that all streets of Kumasi were named. Stationed at various points of Ashanti roads were the "Nkwansrafo" or road wardens who served as the highway police; checking the movement of traders and strangers on all roads. They were also responsible for scouting and were charged with the collection of tolls from traders. The Ashanti Empire also built bridges across water bodies for transport. Asantehene Kwaku Dua ordered his engineers to build proper bridges above streams in the Metropolitan cities of Ashanti. Thomas Freeman, who visited the empire in the 19th century, described the construction as:


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The "Asantehene" inherited his position from his queen mother, and he was assisted at the capital, Kumasi, by a civil service of men talented in trade, diplomacy, and the military, with a head called the "Gyaasehene". Men from the Arabian Peninsula, Sudan, and Europe were employed in the Ashanti empire civil service; all of whom were appointed by the "Asantehene". In the metropolitan areas of Ashanti, several police forces were responsible for maintaining law and order. In Kumasi, a uniformed police, who were distinguished by their long hair, maintained order by ensuring no one else entered and left the city without permission from the government. The "ankobia" or special police were used as the empire's special forces and bodyguards to the Asantehene, as sources of intelligence, and to suppress rebellion. For most of the 19th century and into the 20th century, the Ashanti sovereign state remained powerful.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti armies served the empire well, supporting its long period of expansion and subsequent resistance to European colonization. Armament was primarily with firearms, but some historians hold that indigenous organization and leadership probably played a more crucial role in Ashanti successes. These are, perhaps, more significant when considering that the Ashanti had numerous troops from conquered or incorporated peoples, and faced a number of revolts and rebellions from these peoples over its long history. The political genius of the symbolic "golden stool" and the fusing effect of a national army however, provided the unity needed to keep the empire viable. Total potential strength was some 80,000 to 200,000, making the Ashanti army bigger than the well known Zulu, and comparable to possibly Africa's largest – the legions of Ethiopia. The Ashanti army was described as a fiercely organized one whose king could "bring 200,000 men into the field and whose warriors were evidently not cowed by Snider rifles and 7-pounder guns"


title: Ashanti Empire

text: While actual forces deployed in the field were less than "potential" strength, tens of thousands of soldiers were usually available to serve the needs of the empire. Mobilization depended on small cadres of regulars, who guided and directed levees and contingents called up from provincial governors.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Organization was structured around an advance guard, main body, rear guard and two right and left wing flanking elements. This provided flexibility in the forest country the Ashanti armies typically operated in. Horses were known to survive in Kumasi but because they could not survive in the tsetse fly-infested forest zone in the south, there was no cavalry. Ashanti high ranking officers rode horses with the hauteur of European officers but they did not ride to battle. The approach to the battlefield was typically via converging columns, and tactics included ambushes and extensive maneuvers on the wings. Unique among African armies, the Ashanti deployed medical units to support their fighters. This force was to expand the empire substantially and continually for over a century, and defeated the British in several encounters.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Brass barrel blunderbuss were produced in some states in the Gold Coast including the Ashanti Empire around the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Various accounts indicate that Asante blacksmiths were not only able to repair firearms, but that barrels, locks and stocks were on occasion remade.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: From 1806 until 1896, the Ashanti state was in a perpetual state of war involving expansion or defense of its domain. Ashanti exploits against other African forces made it the paramount power in the region. Its impressive performance against the British also earned it the respect of European powers.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: In 1806, the Ashanti pursued two rebel leaders through Fante territory to the coast. The British refusal to surrender the rebels led to an Ashanti attack. This was devastating enough that the British handed over a rebel; the other escaped. In 1807 disputes with the Fante led to the Ashanti–Fante War, in which the Ashanti were victorious under Asantehene Osei Bonsu ("Bonsu, the whale").


title: Ashanti Empire

text: In the 1811 Ga–Fante War, a coalition of Asante and Ga fought against an alliance of Fante, Akwapim and Akim states. The Asante war machine was successful in defeating the alliance in open combat pushing their enemies towards the Akwapim hills. Ashanti however abandoned their campaign of pursuit after capturing a British fort and establishing their presence and authority on the coast.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: In 1814 the Ashanti launched an invasion of the Gold Coast, largely to gain access to European traders. In the Ashanti–Akim–Akwapim War, the empire faced the Akim–Akwapim alliance. After several battles, the out numbered Akim–Akwapim alliance were defeated and became tributories to the Ashantis. The Ashanti was established from the midlands down to the coast.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The first of the Anglo-Ashanti wars occurred in 1823. In these conflicts, the Ashanti empire faced off, with varying degrees of success, against the British Empire residing on the coast. The root of the conflict traces back to 1823 when Sir Charles MacCarthy, resisting all overtures by the Ashanti to negotiate, led an invading force. The Ashanti defeated this, killed MacCarthy, took his head for a trophy and swept on to the coast. However, disease forced them back. The Ashanti were so successful in subsequent fighting that in 1826 they again moved on the coast. The Ashanti were stopped about 15 kilometres (10 mi) north of Accra by a British led force. They fought against superior numbers of British allied forces, including Denkyirans until the novelty of British rockets caused the Ashanti army to flee. In 1831, a treaty led to 30 years of peace, with the Pra River accepted as the border.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: With the exception of a few Ashanti light skirmishes across the Pra in 1853 and 1854, the peace between the Ashanti and British Empire had remained unbroken for over 30 years. Then, in 1863, a large Ashanti delegation crossed the river pursuing a fugitive, Kwesi Gyana. There was fighting, casualties on both sides, but the governor's request for troops from England was declined and sickness forced the withdrawal of his West Indian troops. The war ended in 1864 as a stalemate with both sides losing more men to sickness than any other factor.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: In 1869 a European missionary family was taken to Kumasi. They were hospitably welcomed and were used as an excuse for war in 1873. Also, Britain took control of Ashanti land claimed by the Dutch. The Ashanti invaded the new British protectorate. General Wolseley and his famous Wolseley ring were sent against the Ashanti. This was a modern war, replete with press coverage (including by the renowned reporter Henry Morton Stanley) and printed precise military and medical instructions to the troops. The British government refused appeals to interfere with British armaments manufacturers who were unrestrained in selling to both sides.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: All Ashanti attempts at negotiations were disregarded. Wolseley took 2,500 British troops and several thousand West Indian and African troops to Kumasi. It arrived in Kumasi in January 1896 along a route cleared by an advance contingent under the command of Robert Baden-Powell. The capital was briefly occupied. The British were impressed by the size of the palace and the scope of its contents, including "rows of books in many languages." The Ashanti had abandoned the capital after a bloody war. The British burned it.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The British and their allies suffered considerable casualties in the war losing numerous soldiers and high ranking army officers. but in the end the firepower was too much to overcome for the Ashanti. The Asantehene (the king of the Ashanti) signed a British treaty in July 1874 to end the war.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti wanting to keep French and European colonial forces out of the territory (and its gold), the British were anxious to conquer the Ashanti once and for all. Despite being in talks with the state about making it a British protectorate, Britain began the Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War in 1895 on the pretext of failure to pay the fines levied on the Ashanti monarch after the 1874 war. The British were victorious and the Ashanti was forced to sign a treaty.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Standing among families was largely political. The royal family typically topped the hierarchy, followed by the families of the chiefs of territorial divisions. In each chiefdom, a particular female line provides the chief. A committee of several men eligible for the post elects the chief. The typical Ashanti family was extended and matrilineal. A mother's brother was the legal guardian of her children. The father on the other hand had fewer legal responsibilities for his children with the exception of ensuring their well-being. Women also had the right to initiate divorce whiles the husband had some legal rights over his wife such as the right to cut off her nose for adultery.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Prominent people wore silk. The ordinary Ashanti wore cotton whiles slaves dressed in black cloth. Garments signalled the rank of the wearer in society and its colour expressed different meanings. White was worn by ordinary people after winning a court case. Dark colours were worn for funerals or mourning. Laws existed to restrict certain Kente designs to the nobility. Some cotton or silk patterns on the Kente were designed solely for the king and could only be worn with his permission.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Education in the Ashanti Kingdom was conducted by Asante and imported scholars and Ashanti people would often attend schools in Europe for their higher education.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Tolerant parents are typical among the Ashanti. Childhood is considered a happy time and children cannot be responsible for their actions. The child is not responsible for their actions until after puberty. A child is harmless and there is no worry for the control of their soul, the original purpose of all funeral rites, so the ritual funerals typically given to the deceased Ashanti are not as lavish for the children.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti adored twins when they were born within the royal family because they were seen as a sign of impending fortune. Ordinarily, boy twins joined the army and twin girls potential wives of the King. If the twins are a boy and girl, no particular career awaits them. Women who bear triplets are greatly honored because three is regarded as a lucky number. Special rituals ensue for the third, sixth, and ninth child. The fifth child (unlucky five) can expect misfortune. Families with many children are well respected and barren women scoffed at.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti used Adinkra symbols in their daily society. The symbols were used as a form of decoration, logos, arts, sculpture and pottery.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti held puberty rites only for females. Fathers instruct their sons without public observance. The privacy of boys was respected in the Ashanti kingdom. As menstruation approaches, a girl goes to her mother's house. When the girl's menstruation is disclosed, the mother announces the good news in the village beating an iron hoe with a stone. Old women come out and sing "Bara" (menstrual) songs.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Menstruating women suffered numerous restrictions. The Ashanti viewed them as ritually unclean. They did not cook for men, nor did they eat any food cooked for a man. If a menstruating woman entered the ancestral stool (shrine) house, she was arrested, and the punishment could result in death. If this punishment is not exacted, the Ashanti believe, the ghost of the ancestors would strangle the chief. Menstruating women lived in special houses during their periods as they were forbidden to cross the threshold of men's houses. They swore no oaths and no oaths were sworn for or against them. They did not participate in any of the ceremonial observances and did not visit any sacred places.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Sickness and death were major events in the kingdom. The ordinary herbalist divined the supernatural cause of the illness and treated it with herbal medicines.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: People loathed being alone for long without someone available to perform this rite before the sick collapsed. The family dressed the deceased in their best clothes, and adorned them with packets of gold dust (money for the after-life), ornaments, and food for the journey "up the hill". The body was normally buried within 24 hours. Until that time the funeral party engage in dancing, drumming, shooting of guns, all accompanied by the wailing of relatives. This was done because the Ashanti typically believed that death was not something to be sad about, but rather a part of life. As the Ashanti believed in an after-life, families felt they would be reunited with their ancestors upon death. Funeral rites for the death of a king involved the whole kingdom and were a much more elaborate affair.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The greatest and most frequent ceremonies of the Ashanti recalled the spirits of departed rulers with an offering of food and drink, asking their favour for the common good, called the "Adae". The day before the "Adae", Akan drums broadcast the approaching ceremonies. The stool treasurer gathers sheep and liquor that will be offered. The chief priest officiates the "Adae" in the stool house where the ancestors came. The priest offers each food and a beverage. The public ceremony occurs outdoors, where all the people joined the dancing. Minstrels chant ritual phrases; the talking drums extol the chief and the ancestors in traditional phrases. The "Odwera", the other large ceremony, occurs in September and typically lasted for a week or two. It is a time of cleansing of sin from society the defilement, and for the purification of shrines of ancestors and the gods. After the sacrifice and feast of a black hen—of which both the living and the dead share—a new year begins in which all are clean, strong, and healthy.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: Slavery was historically a tradition in the Ashanti Empire, with slaves typically taken as captives from enemies in warfare. The Ashanti Empire was the largest slaveowning and slave trading state in the territory of today's Ghana during the Atlantic slave trade. The welfare of their slaves varied from being able to acquire wealth and intermarry with the master's family to being sacrificed in funeral ceremonies. The Ashanti believed that slaves would follow their masters into the afterlife. Slaves could sometimes own other slaves, and could also request a new master if the slave believed he or she was being severely mistreated.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The modern-day Ashanti claim that slaves were seldom abused, and that a person who abused a slave was held in high contempt by society. They defend the "humanity" of Ashanti slavery by noting that those slaves were allowed to marry. If a master found a female slave desirable, he might marry her. He preferred such an arrangement to that of a free woman in a conventional marriage, because marriage to an enslaved woman allowed the children to inherit some of the father's property and status


title: Ashanti Empire

text: This favoured arrangement occurred primarily because of what some men considered their conflict with the matrilineal system. Under this kinship system, children were considered born into the mother's clan and took their status from her family. Generally her eldest brother served as mentor to her children, particularly for the boys. She was protected by her family. Some Ashanti men felt more comfortable taking a slave girl or pawn wife in marriage, as she would have no "abusua" (older male grandfather, father, uncle or brother) to intercede on her behalf when the couple argued. With an enslaved wife, the master and husband had total control of their children, as she had no kin in the community.


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti Empire has been depicted in a number of different works of nonfiction, detailing the structure of the empire


title: Ashanti Empire

text: The Ashanti Empire has been depicted in some historical war strategy video games, along with being characters in video games with origins from the area


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: In ancient Roman religion, Ceres ( , ) was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, then was paired with her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres". Her seven-day April festival of Cerealia included the popular "Ludi Ceriales" (Ceres' games). She was also honoured in the May "lustratio" of the fields at the Ambarvalia festival, at harvest-time, and during Roman marriages and funeral rites. She is usually depicted as a mature woman.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Ceres is the only one of Rome's many agricultural deities to be listed among the Dii Consentes, Rome's equivalent to the Twelve Olympians of Greek mythology. The Romans saw her as the counterpart of the Greek goddess Demeter, whose mythology was reinterpreted for Ceres in Roman art and literature.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: The name "Cerēs" stems from Proto-Italic "*kerēs" ('with grain, Ceres'; cf. Faliscan "ceres", Oscan "kerrí" 'Cererī' < *"ker-s-ēi-" < *"ker-es-ēi-"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European "*ḱerh₃-os" ('nourishment, grain'), a derivative of the root "*ḱerh₃-", meaning 'to feed'.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: The Proto-Italic adjective *"keresjo"- ('belonging to Ceres') can also be reconstructed from Oscan "kerríiúí" (fem. "kerríiai"), and Umbrian "śerfi" (fem. "śerfie"). A masculine form *"keres-o"- ('with grain, Cerrus') is attested in Umbrian "śerfe". The spelling of Latin "Cerus", a masculine form of "Ceres" denoting the creator (cf. "Cerus manus" 'creator bonus', "duonus Cerus" 'good Cerus'), might also reflect "Cerrus", which would match the other Italic forms.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Archaic cults to Ceres are well-evidenced among Rome's neighbours in the Regal period, including the ancient Latins, Oscans and Sabellians, less certainly among the Etruscans and Umbrians. An archaic Faliscan inscription of c. 600 BC asks her to provide "far" (spelt wheat), which was a dietary staple of the Mediterranean world. Ancient Roman etymologists thought that "ceres" derived from the Latin verb "gerere", "to bear, bring forth, produce", because the goddess was linked to pastoral, agricultural and human fertility. Throughout the Roman era, Ceres' name was synonymous with grain and, by extension, with bread


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Ceres was credited with the discovery of spelt wheat (Latin "far"), the yoking of oxen and ploughing, the sowing, protection and nourishing of the young seed, and the gift of agriculture to humankind; before this, it was said, man had subsisted on acorns, and wandered without settlement or laws. She had the power to fertilize, multiply and fructify plant and animal seed, and her laws and rites protected all activities of the agricultural cycle. In January, Ceres (alongside the earth-goddess Tellus) was offered spelt wheat and a pregnant sow, at the movable "Feriae Sementivae". This was almost certainly held before the annual sowing of grain. The divine portion of sacrifice was the entrails "(exta)" presented in an earthenware pot "(olla)." In a rural, agricultural context, Cato the Elder describes the offer to Ceres of a "porca praecidanea" (a pig, offered before harvesting). Before the harvest, she was offered a propitiary grain sample ("praemetium"). Ovid tells that Ceres "is content with little, provided that her offerings are casta" (pure).


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Ceres' main festival, Cerealia, was held from mid to late April. It was organised by her plebeian aediles and included circus games ("ludi circenses"). It opened with a horse-race in the Circus Maximus, whose starting point lay below and opposite to her Aventine Temple; the turning post at the far end of the Circus was sacred to Consus, a god of grain-storage. After the race, foxes were released into the Circus, their tails ablaze with lighted torches, perhaps to cleanse the growing crops and protect them from disease and vermin, or to add warmth and vitality to their growth. From c.175 BC, Cerealia included "ludi scaenici" (theatrical religious events) through April 12 to 18.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: In the ancient "sacrum cereale" a priest, probably the Flamen Cerialis, invoked Ceres (and probably Tellus) along with twelve specialised, minor assistant-gods to secure divine help and protection at each stage of the grain cycle, beginning shortly before the Feriae Sementivae. W.H. Roscher lists these deities among the "indigitamenta", names used to invoke specific divine functions.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: In Roman bridal processions, a young boy carried Ceres' torch to light the way; "the most auspicious wood for wedding torches came from the "spina alba", the May-tree, which bore many fruits and hence symbolised fertility". The adult males of the wedding party waited at the groom's house. A wedding sacrifice was offered to Tellus on the bride's behalf; a sow is the most likely victim. Varro describes the sacrifice of a pig as "a worthy mark of weddings" because "our women, and especially nurses" call the female genitalia "porcus" (pig). Spaeth (1996) believes Ceres may have been included in the sacrificial dedication, because she is closely identified with Tellus and, as "Ceres legifera" (law-bearer), she "bears the laws" of marriage. In the most solemn form of marriage, "confarreatio", the bride and groom shared a cake made of far, the ancient wheat-type particularly associated with Ceres.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: From at least the mid-republican era, an official, joint cult to Ceres and Proserpina reinforced Ceres' connection with Roman ideals of female virtue. The promotion of this cult coincides with the rise of a plebeian nobility, an increased birthrate among plebeian commoners, and a fall in the birthrate among patrician families. The late Republican "Ceres Mater" (Mother Ceres) is described as "genetrix" (progenitress) and "alma" (nourishing); in the early Imperial era she becomes an Imperial deity, and receives joint cult with Ops Augusta, Ceres' own mother in Imperial guise and a bountiful genetrix in her own right. Several of Ceres' ancient Italic precursors are connected to human fertility and motherhood; the Pelignan goddess "Angitia Cerealis" has been identified with the Roman goddess Angerona (associated with childbirth).


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Ceres was patron and protector of plebeian laws, rights and Tribunes. Her Aventine Temple served the plebeians as cult centre, legal archive, treasury and possibly law-court; its foundation was contemporaneous with the passage of the Lex Sacrata, which established the office and person of plebeian aediles and tribunes as inviolate representatives of the Roman people. Tribunes were legally immune to arrest or threat, and the lives and property of those who violated this law were forfeit to Ceres.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: The Lex Hortensia of 287 BC extended plebeian laws to the city and all its citizens. The official decrees of the Senate ("senatus consulta") were placed in Ceres' Temple, under the guardianship of the goddess and her aediles. Livy puts the reason bluntly: the consuls could no longer seek advantage for themselves by arbitrarily tampering with the laws of Rome. The Temple might also have offered asylum for those threatened with arbitrary arrest by patrician magistrates. Ceres' temple, games and cult were at least part-funded by fines imposed on those who offended the laws placed under her protection; the poet Vergil later calls her "legifera Ceres" (Law-bearing Ceres), a translation of Demeter's Greek epithet, "thesmophoros".


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: As Ceres' first plough-furrow opened the earth (Tellus' realm) to the world of men and created the first field and its boundary, her laws determined the course of settled, lawful, civilised life. Crimes against fields and harvest were crimes against the people and their protective deity. Landowners who allowed their flocks to graze on public land were fined by the plebeian aediles, on behalf of Ceres and the people of Rome. Ancient laws of the Twelve Tables forbade the magical charming of field crops from a neighbour's field into one's own, and invoked the death penalty for the illicit removal of field boundaries. An adult who damaged or stole field-crops should be hanged "for Ceres". Any youth guilty of the same offense was to be whipped or fined double the value of damage.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Ceres' signs and iconography, like Demeter's from early Mycenae onwards, include poppies - symbolic of fertility, sleep, death and rebirth. Poppies readily grow on soil disturbed by ploughing, as in wheatfields, and bear innumerable tiny seeds. They were raised as a crop by Greek and Roman farmers, partly for their fibrous stems and for the food value of their seeds Where the poppy capsule alone is shown, this probably belongs to the opium poppy ("papaver somniferum", the "sleep-bearing poppy". The Roman poet Vergil, in "Georgics", 1.212, describes this as "Cereale papaver", or "Ceres' poppy", which eases pain and brings sleep - the deepest sleep of all being death. Poppies are often woven into Ceres' wheat-stalk crown, the "corona spicea", worn by her priestesses and devotees.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Ceres maintained the boundaries between the realms of the living and the dead, and was an essential presence at funerals. Given acceptable rites and sacrifice, she helped the deceased into the afterlife as an underworld shade, or deity (Di Manes). Those whose death was premature, unexpected or untimely were thought to remain in the upper world, and haunt the living as a wandering, vengeful ghost (Lemur). They could be exorcised, but only when their death was reasonably due. For her service at burials or cremations, well-off families offered Ceres sacrifice of a pig. The poor could offer wheat, flowers, and a libation. The expected afterlife for the exclusively female initiates in the "sacra Cereris" may have been somewhat different; they were offered "a method of living" and of "dying with better hope".


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: The "mundus cerialis" (literally "the world" of Ceres or "Caereris mundus") was a hemispherical pit or underground vault in Rome. Its location is uncertain. It was usually sealed by a stone lid known as the "lapis manalis". On August 24, October 5 and November 8, it was opened with the official announcement ""mundus patet"" ("the "mundus" is open"), and offerings were made there to agricultural or underworld deities, including Ceres as goddess of the fruitful earth and guardian of its underworld portals. Its opening offered the spirits of the dead temporary leave from the underworld, to roam lawfully among the living, in what Warde Fowler describes as 'holidays, so to speak, for the ghosts'. The days when the mundus was open were among the very few occasions that Romans made official contact with the collective spirits of the dead, the "Di Manes" (the others being Parentalia and Lemuralia). This secondary or late function of the "mundus" is attested no earlier than the Late Republican Era, by Varro. The jurist Cato understood the mundus' shape as a reflection or inversion of the dome of the upper heavens.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Roman tradition held that the "mundus" had been dug and sealed by Romulus as part of Rome's foundation; Plutarch compares it to pits dug by Etruscan colonists, containing soil brought from their parent city, used to dedicate the first fruits of the harvest. Warde Fowler speculates the "mundus" as Rome's first storehouse ("penus") for seed-grain, later becoming the symbolic "penus" of the Roman state. In the oldest known Roman calendar, the days of the "mundus" are marked as C(omitiales) (days when the Comitia met). Later authors mark them as "dies religiosus" (when no official meetings could be held). Some modern scholars seek to explain this as the later introduction and accommodation of Greek elements, grafted onto the original "mundus" rites. The rites of August 24 were held between the agricultural festivals of Consualia and Opiconsivia; those of October 5 followed the "Ieiunium Cereris", and those of November 8 took place during the Plebeian Games. As a whole, the various days of the "mundus" suggest rites to Ceres as the guardian deity of seed-corn in the establishment of cities, and as a door-warden of the afterlife, which was co-ruled during the winter months by her daughter Proserpina, queen-companion to Dis.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: In Roman theology, prodigies were abnormal phenomena that manifested divine anger at human impiety. In Roman histories, prodigies cluster around perceived or actual threats to the Roman state, in particular, famine, war and social disorder, and are expiated as matters of urgency. The establishment of Ceres' Aventine cult has itself been interpreted as an extraordinary expiation after the failure of crops and consequent famine. In Livy's history, Ceres is among the deities placated after a remarkable series of prodigies that accompanied the disasters of the Second Punic War: during the same conflict, a lightning strike at her temple was expiated. A fast in her honour is recorded for 191 BC, to be repeated at 5-year intervals. After 206, she was offered at least 11 further official expiations. Many of these were connected to famine and manifestations of plebeian unrest, rather than war. From the Middle Republic onwards, expiation was increasingly addressed to her as mother to Proserpina. The last known followed Rome's Great Fire of 64 AD. The cause or causes of the fire remained uncertain, but its disastrous extent was taken as a sign of offense against Juno, Vulcan, and Ceres-with-Proserpina, who were all given expiatory cult. Champlin (2003) perceives the expiations to Vulcan and Ceres in particular as attempted populist appeals by the ruling emperor, Nero.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: The complex and multi-layered origins of the Aventine Triad and Ceres herself allowed multiple interpretations of their relationships, beyond the humanised pattern of relations within the Triad; while Cicero asserts Ceres as mother to both Liber and Libera, consistent with her role as a mothering deity, Varro's more complex theology groups her functionally with Tellus, Terra, Venus (and thus Victoria) and with Libera as a female aspect of Liber. No native Roman myths of Ceres are known. According to "interpretatio romana", by which Roman deities were identified with their Greek counterparts, she was an equivalent to Demeter, one of the Twelve Olympians of Greek religion and mythology; this made Ceres one of Rome's twelve Di Consentes, daughter of Saturn and Ops, sister of Jupiter, mother of Proserpina by Jupiter and sister of Juno, Vesta, Neptune and Dis. Ceres' known mythology is indistinguishable from Demeter's:


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Ovid likens Ceres' devotion to her own offspring to that of a cow to its calf; but she is also the originator of bloody animal sacrifice, a necessity in the renewal of life. She has a particular enmity towards her own sacrificial animal, the pig. Pigs offend her by their destructive rooting-up of field crops under her protection; and in the myth of Proserpina's abduction on the plains of Henna (Enna), her tracks were obscured by their trampling. If not for them, Ceres might have been spared the toils and grief of her lengthy search and separation, and humankind would have been spared the consequent famine. The myth is also a reminder that the gift of agriculture is a contract, and comes at a price. It brings well-being but also mortality. Enna, in Sicily, had strong mythological connections with Ceres and Proserpina, and was the site of Ceres most ancient sanctuary. Flowers were said to bloom throughout the year on its "miraculous plain".


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Vitruvius (c.80 – 15 BC) describes the "Temple of Ceres near the Circus Maximus" (her Aventine Temple) as typically Araeostyle, having widely spaced supporting columns, with architraves of wood, rather than stone. This species of temple is "clumsy, heavy roofed, low and wide, [its] pediments ornamented with statues of clay or brass, gilt in the Tuscan fashion". He recommends that temples to Ceres be sited in rural areas: "in a solitary spot out of the city, to which the public are not necessarily led but for the purpose of sacrificing to her. This spot is to be reverenced with religious awe and solemnity of demeanour, by those whose affairs lead them to visit it." During the early Imperial era, soothsayers advised Pliny the Younger to restore an ancient, "old and narrow" temple to Ceres, at his rural property near Como. It contained an ancient wooden cult statue of the goddess, which he replaced. Though this was unofficial, privately funded cult ("sacra privata") its annual feast on the Ides of September, the same day as the Epulum Jovis, was attended by pilgrims from all over the region. Pliny considered this rebuilding a fulfillment of his civic and religious duty.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: No images of Ceres survive from her pre-Aventine cults; the earliest date to the middle Republic, and show the Hellenising influence of Demeter's iconography. Some late Republican images recall Ceres' search for Proserpina. Ceres bears a torch, sometimes two, and rides in a chariot drawn by snakes; or she sits on the sacred "kiste" (chest) that conceals the objects of her mystery rites. Sometimes she holds a caduceus, a symbol of Pax (Roman goddess of Peace). Augustan reliefs show her emergence, plant-like from the earth, her arms entwined by snakes, her outstretched hands bearing poppies and wheat, or her head crowned with fruits and vines. In free-standing statuary, she commonly wears a wheat-crown, or holds a wheat spray. Moneyers of the Republican era use Ceres' image, wheat ears and garlands to advertise their connections with prosperity, the annona and the popular interest. Some Imperial coin images depict important female members of the Imperial family as Ceres, or with some of her attributes.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Ceres was served by several public priesthoods. Some were male; her senior priest, the "flamen cerialis", also served Tellus and was usually plebeian by ancestry or adoption. Her public cult at the Ambarvalia, or "perambulation of fields" identified her with Dea Dia, and was led by the Arval Brethren ("The Brothers of the Fields"); rural versions of these rites were led as private cult by the heads of households. An inscription at Capua names a male "sacerdos Cerialis mundalis", a priest dedicated to Ceres' rites of the "mundus". The plebeian aediles had minor or occasional priestly functions at Ceres' Aventine Temple and were responsible for its management and financial affairs including collection of fines, the organisation of "ludi Cerealia" and probably the Cerealia itself. Their "cure" (care and jurisdiction) included, or came to include, the grain supply ("annona") and later the plebeian grain doles ("frumentationes"), the organisation and management of public games in general, and the maintenance of Rome's streets and public buildings.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Otherwise, in Rome and throughout Italy, as at her ancient sanctuaries of Henna and Catena, Ceres' "ritus graecus" and her joint cult with Proserpina were invariably led by female "sacerdotes", drawn from local and Roman elites: Cicero notes that once the new cult had been founded, its earliest priestesses "generally were either from Naples or Velia", cities allied or federated to Rome. Elsewhere, he describes Ceres' Sicilian priestesses as "older women respected for their noble birth and character". Celibacy may have been a condition of their office; sexual abstinence was, according to Ovid, required of those attending Ceres' major, nine-day festival. Her public priesthood was reserved to respectable matrons, be they married, divorced or widowed. The process of their selection and their relationship to Ceres' older, entirely male priesthood is unknown; but they far outnumbered her few male priests, and would have been highly respected and influential figures in their own communities.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Roman tradition credited Ceres' eponymous festival, Cerealia, to Rome's second king, the semi-legendary Numa. Ceres' senior, male priesthood was a minor flaminate whose establishment and rites were supposedly also innovations of Numa. Her affinity and joint cult with Tellus, also known as Terra Mater (Mother Earth) may have developed at this time. Much later, during the early Imperial era, Ovid describes these goddesses as "partners in labour"; Ceres provides the "cause" for the growth of crops, while Tellus provides them a place to grow.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: In 496 BC, against a background of economic recession and famine in Rome, imminent war against the Latins and a threatened secession by Rome's plebs (citizen commoners), the dictator A. Postumius vowed a temple to Ceres, Liber and Libera on or near the Aventine Hill. The famine ended and Rome's plebeian citizen-soldiery co-operated in the conquest of the Latins. Postumius' vow was fulfilled in 493 BC: Ceres became the central deity of the new Triad, housed in a new-built Aventine temple. She was also – or became – the patron goddess of the "plebs", whose enterprise as tenant farmers, estate managers, agricultural factors and importers was a mainstay of Roman agriculture.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Much of Rome's grain was imported from territories of Magna Graecia, particularly from Sicily, which later Roman mythographers describe as Ceres' "earthly home". Writers of the late Roman Republic and early Empire describe Ceres' Aventine temple and rites as conspicuously Greek. In modern scholarship, this is taken as further evidence of long-standing connections between the plebeians, Ceres and Magna Graecia. It also raises unanswered questions on the nature, history and character of these associations: the Triad itself may have been a self-consciously Roman cult formulation based on Greco-Italic precedents. When a new form of Cerean cult was officially imported from Magna Graecia, it was known as the "ritus graecus" (Greek rite) of Ceres, and was distinct from her older Roman rites.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: The older forms of Aventine rites to Ceres remain uncertain. Most Roman cults were led by men, and the officiant's head was covered by a fold of his toga. In the Roman "ritus graecus", a male celebrant wore Greek-style vestments, and remained bareheaded before the deity, or else wore a wreath. While Ceres' original Aventine cult was led by male priests, her "Greek rites" ("ritus graecus Cereris") were exclusively female.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Towards the end of the Second Punic War, around 205 BC, an officially recognised joint cult to Ceres and her daughter Proserpina was brought to Rome from Southern Italy (part of Magna Graecia) along with Greek priestesses to serve it. In Rome, this was known as the "ritus graecus Cereris"; its priestesses were granted Roman citizenship so that they could pray to the gods "with a foreign and external knowledge, but with a domestic and civil intention"; the recruitment of respectable matrons seems to acknowledge the civic value of the cult. It was based on ancient, ethnically Greek cults to Demeter, most notably the Thesmophoria to Demeter and Persephone, whose cults and myths also provided a basis for the Eleusinian mysteries.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: From the end of the 3rd century BC, Demeter's temple at Enna, in Sicily, was acknowledged as Ceres' oldest, most authoritative cult centre, and Libera was recognised as Proserpina, Roman equivalent to Demeter's daughter Persephone. Their joint cult recalls Demeter's search for Persephone, after the latter's abduction into the underworld by Hades. The new, women-only cult to "mother and maiden" took its place alongside the old; it made no reference to Liber. Thereafter, Ceres was offered two separate and distinctive forms of official cult at the Aventine. Both might have been supervised by the male flamen Cerialis but otherwise, their relationship is unclear. The older form of cult included both men and women, and probably remained a focus for plebeian political identity and discontent. The new form identified its exclusively females initiates and priestesses as upholders of Rome's traditional, patrician-dominated social hierarchy and morality.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: A year after the import of the "ritus cereris", patrician senators imported cult to the Greek goddess Cybele and established her as Magna Mater (The Great Mother) within Rome's sacred boundary, facing the Aventine Hill. Like Ceres, Cybele was a form of Graeco-Roman earth goddess. Unlike her, she had mythological ties to Troy, and thus to the Trojan prince Aeneas, mythological ancestor of Rome's founding father and first patrician Romulus. The establishment of official Roman cult to Magna Mater coincided with the start of a new "saeculum" (cycle of years). It was followed by Hannibal's defeat, the end of the Second Punic War and an exceptionally good harvest. Roman victory and recovery could therefore be credited to Magna Mater and patrician piety: so the patricians dined her and each other at her festival banquets. In similar fashion, the plebeian nobility underlined their claims to Ceres. Up to a point, the two cults reflected a social and political divide, but when certain prodigies were interpreted as evidence of Ceres' displeasure, the senate appeased her with a new festival, the "ieiunium Cereris" ("fast of Ceres").


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: In 133 BC, the plebeian noble and tribune Tiberius Gracchus bypassed the Senate and appealed directly to the popular assembly to pass his proposed land-reforms. Civil unrest spilled into violence; Gracchus and many of his supporters were murdered by their conservative opponents. At the behest of the Sibylline oracle, the senate sent the quindecimviri to Ceres' ancient cult centre at Henna in Sicily, the goddess' supposed place of origin and earthly home. Some kind of religious consultation or propitiation was given, either to expiate Gracchus' murder – as later Roman sources would claim – or to justify it as the lawful killing of a would-be king or demagogue, a "homo sacer" who had offended Ceres' laws against tyranny.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: The Eleusinian mysteries became increasingly popular during the late Republic. Early Roman initiates at Eleusis in Greece included Sulla and Cicero; thereafter many Emperors were initiated, including Hadrian, who founded an Eleusinian cult centre in Rome itself. In Late Republican politics, aristocratic traditionalists and popularists used coinage to propagate their competing claims to Ceres' favour. A coin of Sulla shows Ceres on one side, and on the other a ploughman with yoked oxen: the images, accompanied by the legend ""conditor"" ("he who stores the grain") claim his rule (a military dictatorship) as regenerative and divinely justified. Popularists used her name and attributes to appeal their guardianship of plebeian interests, particularly the "annona" and "frumentarium"; and plebeian nobles and aediles used them to point out their ancestral connections with plebeians as commoners. In the decades of Civil War that ushered in the Empire, such images and dedications proliferate on Rome's coinage: Julius Caesar, his opponents, his assassins and his heirs alike claimed the favour and support of Ceres and her plebeian proteges, with coin issues that celebrate Ceres, "Libertas" (liberty) and Victoria (victory).


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Imperial theology conscripted Rome's traditional cults as the divine upholders of Imperial Pax (peace) and prosperity, for the benefit of all. The emperor Augustus began the restoration of Ceres' Aventine Temple; his successor Tiberius completed it. Of the several figures on the Augustan Ara Pacis, one doubles as a portrait of the Empress Livia, who wears Ceres' "corona spicea". Another has been variously identified in modern scholarship as Tellus, Venus, Pax or Ceres, or in Spaeth's analysis, a deliberately broad composite of them all.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: The emperor Claudius' reformed the grain supply and created its embodiment as an Imperial goddess, Annona, a junior partner to Ceres and the Imperial family. The traditional, Cerean virtues of provision and nourishment were symbolically extended to Imperial family members; some coinage shows Claudius' mother Antonia as an Augusta, wearing the "corona spicea".


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: The relationship between the reigning emperor, empress and Ceres was formalised in titles such as Augusta mater agrorum ("The august mother of the fields) and "Ceres Augusta". On coinage, various emperors and empresses wear her "corona spicea", showing that the goddess, the emperor and his spouse are conjointly responsible for agricultural prosperity and the all-important provision of grain. A coin of Nerva (reigned AD 96–98) acknowledges Rome's dependence on the princeps' gift of "frumentio" (corn dole) to the masses. Under Nerva's later dynastic successor Antoninus Pius, Imperial theology represents the death and apotheosis of the Empress Faustina the Elder as Ceres' return to Olympus by Jupiter's command. Even then, "her care for mankind continues and the world can rejoice in the warmth of her daughter Proserpina: in Imperial flesh, Proserpina is Faustina the Younger", empress-wife of Pius' successor Marcus Aurelius.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: In Britain, a soldier's inscription of the 2nd century AD attests to Ceres' role in the popular syncretism of the times. She is "the bearer of ears of corn", the "Syrian Goddess", identical with the universal heavenly Mother, the Magna Mater and Virgo, virgin mother of the gods. She is peace and virtue, and inventor of justice: she weighs "Life and Right" in her scale.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: During the Late Imperial era, Ceres gradually "slips into obscurity"; the last known official association of the Imperial family with her symbols is a coin issue of Septimius Severus (AD 193–211), showing his empress, Julia Domna, in the "corona spicea". After the reign of Claudius Gothicus, no coinage shows Ceres' image. Even so, an initiate of her mysteries is attested in the 5th century AD, after the official abolition of all non-Christian cults.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: The word cereal derives from Ceres' association with edible grains. Whereas Ceres represents food, her son Liber (later indistinguishable from Bacchus) represents wine and "good living"). The Roman comedian Terence (c. 195/185 – c. 159 BC) uses the line "sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus" which at its simplest translates as "without food and drink, love freezes" or "love needs food and wine to thrive" - probably proverbial and widespread in his own day. It was adopted variously as a brewer's motto, celebration, warning, and a subject of art in Renaissance Europe, especially the north and the Dutch Republic. Ceres represented the grains that produced beer through the brewing process. Imagery that represented the profitable business of commercial brewing showed the grain-goddess as a respectable matron and Liber-Bacchus as a gentleman; a wholesome picture of moral sobriety and restraint.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Ceres is featured both as a goddess and Queen of Sicilly in "De Mulieribus Claris", a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 136162 and notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: Ceres appears briefly to bless the wedding of Ferdinand and Miranda, in a masque at the ending of William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" (1611).


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: In 1801, a newly discovered dwarf planet or asteroid was named after her. Two years later, the newly discovered element Cerium was named after the dwarf planet.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: An aria in praise of Ceres is sung in Act 4 of the opera "The Trojans" (first performance 1863) by Hector Berlioz.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: A misanthropic poem recited by Dmitri in Dostoevsky's 1880 novel "The Brothers Karamazov, (part 1, Book 3, chapter 3)" reflects on Ceres' heartbroken search for her lost daughter, and her encounter with the worst and most degraded of humanity.


title: Ceres (mythology)

text: In the US, Ceres is one of the three "goddess offices" held in The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry. She is depicted on the Seal of New Jersey. Statues of her top the Missouri State Capitol, Vermont State House, and the Chicago Board of Trade Building, all of which have historical links with agriculture and agricultural trade.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) is a type of fluid replacement used to prevent and treat dehydration, especially due to diarrhea. It involves drinking water with modest amounts of sugar and salts, specifically sodium and potassium. Oral rehydration therapy can also be given by a nasogastric tube. Therapy should routinely include the use of zinc supplements. Use of oral rehydration therapy has been estimated to decrease the risk of death from diarrhea by up to 93%.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: Side effects may include vomiting, high blood sodium, or high blood potassium. If vomiting occurs, it is recommended that use be paused for 10 minutes and then gradually restarted. The recommended formulation includes sodium chloride, sodium citrate, potassium chloride, and glucose. Glucose may be replaced by sucrose and sodium citrate may be replaced by sodium bicarbonate, if not available. It works as glucose increases the uptake of sodium and thus water by the intestines. A number of other formulations are also available including versions that can be made at home. However, the use of homemade solutions has not been well studied.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: Oral therapy was developed in the 1940s using electrolyte solutions with or without glucose on an empirical basis chiefly for mild or convalescent patients, but did not come into common use for rehydration and maintenance therapy until after the discovery that glucose promoted sodium and water absorption during cholera in the 1960s. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. Globally, , oral rehydration therapy is used by 41% of children with diarrhea. This use has played an important role in reducing the number of deaths in children under the age of five.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: ORT is less invasive than the other strategies for fluid replacement, specifically intravenous (IV) fluid replacement. Mild to moderate dehydration in children seen in an emergency department is best treated with ORT. Persons taking ORT should eat within six hours and return to their full diet within 24–48 hours.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: Oral rehydration therapy may also be used as a treatment for the symptoms of dehydration and rehydration in burns in resource-limited settings.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: ORT may lower the mortality rate of diarrhea by as much as 93%. Case studies in four developing countries also have demonstrated an association between increased use of ORS and reduction in mortality.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: The degree of dehydration should be assessed before initiating ORT. ORT is suitable for people who are not dehydrated and those who show signs and symptoms of mild to moderate dehydration. People who have severe dehydration should seek professional medical help immediately and receive intravenous rehydration as soon as possible to rapidly replenish fluid volume in the body.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: ORT should be discontinued and fluids replaced intravenously when vomiting is protracted despite proper administration of ORT; or signs of dehydration worsen despite giving ORT; or the person is unable to drink due to a decreased level of consciousness; or there is evidence of intestinal blockage or ileus. ORT might also be contraindicated in people who are in hemodynamic shock due to impaired airway protective reflexes. Short-term vomiting is not a contraindication to receiving oral rehydration therapy. In persons who are vomiting, drinking oral rehydration solution at a slow and continuous pace will help resolve vomiting.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: WHO and UNICEF have jointly developed official guidelines for the manufacture of oral rehydration solution and the oral rehydration salts used to make it (both often abbreviated as ORS). They also describe acceptable alternative preparations, depending on material availability. Commercial preparations are available as either prepared fluids or packets of oral rehydration salts ready for mixing with water.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: A basic oral rehydration therapy solution can also be prepared when packets of oral rehydration salts are not available. The molar ratio of sugar to salt should be 1:1 and the solution should not be hyperosmolar. The Rehydration Project states, "Making the mixture a little diluted (with more than 1 litre of clean water) is not harmful."


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: The optimal fluid for preparing oral rehydration solution is clean water. However, if this is not available, the usually available water should be used. Oral rehydration solution should "not" be withheld simply because the available water is potentially unsafe; rehydration takes precedence.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: When oral rehydration salts packets and suitable teaspoons for measuring sugar and salt are not available, the WHO has recommended that homemade gruels, soups, etc., may be considered to help maintain hydration. A Lancet review in 2013 emphasized the need for more research on appropriate home made fluids to prevent dehydration. Sports drinks are not optimal oral rehydration solutions, but they can be used if optimal choices are not available. They should not be withheld for lack of better options; again, rehydration takes precedence. But they are not replacements for oral rehydration solutions in nonemergency situations.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: In 2003, WHO and UNICEF recommended that the osmolarity of oral rehydration solution be reduced from 311 to 245 mOsm/L. These guidelines were also updated in 2006. This recommendation was based on multiple clinical trials showing that the reduced osmolarity solution reduces stool volume in children with diarrhea by about twenty-five percent and the need for IV therapy by about thirty percent when compared to standard oral rehydration solution. The incidence of vomiting is also reduced. The reduced osmolarity oral rehydration solution has lower concentrations of glucose and sodium chloride than the original solution, but the concentrations of potassium and citrate are unchanged.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: The reduced osmolarity solution has been criticized by some for not providing enough sodium for adults with cholera. Clinical trials have, however, shown reduced osmolarity solution to be effective for adults and children with cholera. They seem to be safe but some caution is warranted according to the Cochrane review.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: ORT is based on evidence that water continues to be absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract even while fluid is lost through diarrhea or vomiting. The World Health Organization specify indications, preparations and procedures for ORT.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: WHO/UNICEF guidelines suggest ORT should begin at the first sign of diarrhea in order to prevent dehydration. Babies may be given ORS with a dropper or a syringe. Infants under two may be given a teaspoon of ORS fluid every one to two minutes. Older children and adults should take frequent sips from a cup, with a recommended intake of 200–400 mL of solution after every loose movement. The WHO recommends giving children under two a quarter- to a half-cup of fluid following each loose bowel movement and older children a half- to a full cup. If the person vomits, the caregiver should wait 5–10 minutes and then resume giving ORS. ORS may be given by aid workers or health care workers in refugee camps, health clinics and hospital settings. Mothers should remain with their children and be taught how to give ORS. This will help to prepare them to give ORT at home in the future. Breastfeeding should be continued throughout ORT.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: As part of oral rehydration therapy, the WHO recommends supplemental zinc (10 to 20 mg daily) for ten to fourteen days, to reduce the severity and duration of the illness and make recurrent illness in the following two to three months less likely. Preparations are available as a zinc sulfate solution for adults, a modified solution for children and in tablet form.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: After severe dehydration is corrected and appetite returns, feeding the person speeds the recovery of normal intestinal function, minimizes weight loss and supports continued growth in children. Small frequent meals are best tolerated (offering the child food every three to four hours). Mothers should continue to breastfeed. A child with watery diarrhea typically regains their appetite as soon as dehydration is corrected, whereas a child with bloody diarrhea often eats poorly until the illness resolves. Such children should be encouraged to resume normal feeding as soon as possible. Once diarrhea is corrected, the WHO recommends giving the child an extra meal each day for two weeks, and longer if the child is malnourished.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: Dehydration may be overestimated in wasted children and underestimated in edematous children. Care of these children must also include careful management of their malnutrition and treatment of other infections. Useful signs of dehydration include an eagerness to drink, lethargy, cool and moist extremities, weak or absent radial pulse (wrist), and reduced or absent urine flow. In children with severe malnutrition, it is often impossible to reliably distinguish between moderate and severe dehydration. A severely malnourished child who has signs of severe dehydration but who does not have a history of watery diarrhea should be treated for septic shock.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: The original ORS (90 mmol sodium/L) and the current standard reduced-osmolarity ORS (75 mmol sodium/L) both contain too much sodium and too little potassium for severely malnourished children with dehydration due to diarrhea. ReSoMal (Rehydration Solution for Malnutrition) is recommended for such children. It contains less sodium (45 mmol/L) and more potassium (40 mmol/L) than reduced osmolarity ORS. It can be obtained in packets produced by UNICEF or other manufacturers.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: An exception is if the severely malnourished child also has severe diarrhea (in which case ReSoMal may not provide enough sodium), in which case standard reduced-osmolarity ORS (75 mmol sodium/L) is recommended. Malnourished children should be rehydrated slowly. The WHO recommends 10 milliliters of ReSoMal per kilogram body weight for each of the first two hours (for example, a 9-kilogram child should be given 90 mL of ReSoMal over the course of the first hour, and another 90 mL for the second hour) and then continuing at this same rate or slower based on the child's thirst and ongoing stool losses, keeping in mind that a severely dehydrated child may be lethargic. If the child drinks poorly, a nasogastric tube should be used. The IV route should not be used for rehydration except in cases of shock and then only with care, infusing slowly to avoid flooding the circulation and overloading the heart.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: Feeding should usually resume within 2–3 hours after starting rehydration and should continue every 2–3 hours, day and night. For an initial cereal diet before a child regains his or her full appetite, the WHO recommends combining 25 grams skimmed milk powder, 20 grams vegetable oil, 60 grams sugar, and 60 grams rice powder or other cereal into 1,000 milliliters water and boiling gently for five minutes. Give 130 mL per kilogram of body weight during per 24 hours. A child who cannot or will not eat this minimum amount should be given the diet by nasogastric tube divided into six equal feedings. Later on, the child should be given cereal made with a greater amount of skimmed milk product and vegetable oil and slightly less sugar. As appetite fully returns, the child should be eating 200 mL per kilogram of body weight per day. Zinc, potassium, vitamin A, and other vitamins and minerals should be added to both recommended cereal products, or to the oral rehydration solution itself. Children who are breastfed should continue breastfeeding.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: The WHO recommends that all severely malnourished children admitted to hospital should receive broad-spectrum antibiotics (for example, gentamicin and ampicillin). In addition, hospitalized children should be checked daily for other specific infections.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: If cholera is suspected give an antibiotic to which "V. cholera"e are susceptible. This reduces the volume loss due to diarrhea by 50% and shortens the duration of diarrhea to about 48 hours.


title: Oral rehydration therapy

text: Fluid from the body enters the intestinal lumen during digestion. This fluid is isosmotic with the blood and contains a high quantity, about 142 mEq/L, of sodium. A healthy individual secretes 2000–3000 milligrams of sodium per day into the intestinal lumen. Nearly all of this is reabsorbed so that sodium levels in the body remain constant. In a diarrheal illness, sodium-rich intestinal secretions are lost before they can be reabsorbed. This can lead to life-threatening dehydration or electrolyte imbalances within hours when fluid loss is severe. The objective of therapy is the replenishment of sodium and water losses by ORT or intravenous infusion.