title: History of fashion design

text: In American fashion the seductive, clinging style of Donna Karan and the casual sophistication of Ralph Lauren were very influential. A star of the New York social scene, Donna Karan brought a very personal and feminine approach to the severe, sober-colored, casual look that dominated American ready-to-wear. Setting up her own label in 1984, her designs won instant popularity among active urban women who greatly appreciated the understated luxury of her clothes. In 1971 Ralph Lauren opened a boutique for both men and women in Beverly Hills. His aristocratic style at prices the average American could afford created a sensation. For an elite faced with all kinds of avant-garde fashions, it represented a rallying point, endorsing a classic look that had been adopted for an active life. The number one of American ready-to-wear, Lauren was equally successful with his sportswear and jeans, which allowed him to reach the widest possible range of social classes and age groups.


title: History of fashion design

text: Central to the success of a new wave of American sportswear was the Perry Ellis label, established in 1978, which used color and natural fibers to great advantage in its elegant variations on the basics. Norma Kamali, with her short skirts made of sweatshirts, leotards, headbands, and leg warmers, made jogging look fashionable. Kamali also created the popular 'rah-rah skirt'. Also notable is the extreme popularity of the Adidas sports label, which achieved an incredible level of street cred in the 1980s, inciting the hip hop group Run DMC to release the single 'My Adidas' in 1986. The legendary shoe designer Manolo Blahnik also rose to fame during the 1980s.


title: History of fashion design

text: The multiplicity of trends that bloomed during the 80s were curtailed by the economic recession that set in at the beginning of the 1990s, largely destroying the optimistic mood that is so advantageous to the fashion industry.


title: History of fashion design

text: In the 1990s it was no longer the done thing to follow fashion slavishly, a sharp contrast to the highly a la mode 1970s and 1980s. The phobia of being underdressed was finally completely displaced by the fear of overdressing. Fashion in the 1990s united around a new standard, minimalism, and styles of stark simplicity became the vogue. Despite the best efforts of a few designers to keep the flag for pretty dresses flying, by the end of the decade the notion of ostentatious finery had virtually disappeared. As well as the styling of the product, its promotion in the media became crucial to its success and image. The financial pressures of the decade had a devastating effect on the development of new talent and lessened the autonomy enjoyed by more established designers.


title: History of fashion design

text: Fashion at the end of the 20th century tackled themes that fashion had not previously embraced. These themes included rape, disability, religious violence, death, and body modification. There was a dramatic move away from the sexy styles aimed at the glamorous femme fatale of the 1980s, and many designers, taken with a vision of romantic poverty, adopted the style of the poverty-stricken waif, dressed in a stark, perversely sober palette, with a face devoid of make-up. Clothes by ready-to-wear retailers such as The Gap, Banana Republic, and Eddie Bauer came to the forefront of fashion, managing to tap into the needs of women who simply wanted comfortable, wearable clothes. Retro clothing inspired by the 1960s and 1970s was popular for much of the 1990s.


title: History of fashion design

text: The famous Italian fashion house, Gucci was created in 1921, by Guccio Gucci and was originally a firm that sold luxury leather goods. Under Guccio Gucci's children, by the end of the 1960s the label had expanded to include a plethora of products with a distinctly Latin glamor. However, only in the 1990s, when the Gucci heirs gave up control of the company to Invest Corp., who planned to turn the business around, did it truly begin to enjoy the kind of success it enjoys in the present day. Employing an unknown designer, Tom Ford, as design director in 1994, the fashion house was endowed with great prestige, as Ford triggered a tidal wave with his chic and shocking collections, perfumes for men and women, revamped boutiques, and advertising campaigns. In 1998 Gucci is named "European Company of the year" by European Business Press Federation. Today it is the second biggest-selling fashion brand (after LVMH) worldwide with US$7 billion worldwide of revenue in 2006 according to BusinessWeek magazine.


title: History of fashion design

text: In the 1990s the designer label Prada became a true creative force in the fashion industry. The Milanese company was first established in 1923, two years after Gucci, and like Gucci, it was a firm that sold high-quality shoes and leather. It was until the 1980s that Miuccia Prada, the niece of the company's founder, began to produce ready-to-wear fashion, gaining fame for her subtle, streamlined, yet unquestionably luxurious style, that catered for the privileged young woman who prefers understatement to flamboyant extravagance.


title: History of fashion design

text: In America three of the most influential fashion designers of the time were Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, and Calvin Klein. Michael Kors set up his own business in 1980. However, it was not until the 1990s that the designer reached the peak of his popularity. His knowledge and consciousness of trends enabled him to produce simple well-cut garments, whose sophistication and elegance appealed to a whole new breed of wealthy American customers drawn to the new vogue for minimalist chic. Marc Jacobs is one of the most notable American designers of the period in that, unlike many American fashion designers in the past, he was not so much the co-ordinator of a mass-produced garment as a designer in the European sense of the word. One of the most promising talents in the fashion industry at the time, the LVMH (Louis Vuitton-Moet Henessy) group offered him the job of designing a line of ready-to-wear to complement the de-luxe products of luggage specialist Louis Vuitton in the late 1990s. One of the first fashion designers to anticipate the globalization of world markets, the already well-known designer Calvin Klein started to market his fashions, perfumes, and accessories not only right across the US but also in Europe and Asia, achieving an unequaled success. A brilliant artistic director, Klein used carefully constructed advertisements containing images tinted with eroticism to promote his sophisticatedly functional mass-produced designs, which won massive popularity among the urban youth of the 1990s.


title: History of fashion design

text: The group of designers known as the 'Antwerp Six' (so named because all of them were graduates of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp), who first emerged in the 1980s, came to prominence in the 1990s. Three of the most influential of the group were Ann Demeulemeester, Dries van Noten, and Walter Van Beirendonck. Ann Demeulemeester, from her first collection in 1991, demonstrated a great deal of confidence and inventiveness. Naturally inclined to understatement, she built her designs on contradictions, introducing contrasting elements into her fluid and streamlined fashions, which appealed to women who dressed, above all, to please themselves. The work of Dries van Noten was founded on a solid mastery of the art of tailoring, to which the young designer added discreet touches of fantasy in a highly personal style. Managing to be both classical and original, his fashions appealed to those who preferred to express their individuality rather than slavishly follow trends. Walter Van Beirendonck, who erupted onto the fashion scene in 1995, produced decidedly futuristic designs under his label W & LT (Wild and Lethal Trash). Deliberately using fabrics developed by the very latest technologies, in violently contrasting colors, he produced clothes that were full of erotic and sadomasochistic references, touched with caustic adolescent humor. His highly distinctive approach related to a resurgence of anti-fashion, but this time an anti-fashion with nothing in the least ethnic about its origins, instead based on science fiction that provided the inspiration for displays of such high-spirited provocation.


title: History of fashion design

text: In Italy, Gianni Versace, with his brilliant, sexy, and colorful designs, and Dolce & Gabbana, with their superfeminine and fantastical style, broke away from the serious and sober-minded fashions that dominated during much of the 1990s. The British designer Vivienne Westwood produced many influential and popular collections in the early 1990s, which included outfits inspired by 18th-century courtesans and the Marquis de Sade, with rounded hips, corsets, and platform heels. The London-based designer Rifat Ozbek was also popular, particularly in New York and Milan. His youthful style, which mixed references to India, Africa, and his native Turkey with clever takes on historical clothing, was reminiscent of hippest nightclubs and the more outrageous street fashions of the time. Rap music was a prominent influence on popular and street fashion during the early and mid-1990s. Followers of hip hop adopted huge baggy jeans, similar to those worn in American prisons, with big patterned shirts and heavy black shoes. The sports label Nike had great popularity, and materials such as Lycra/spandex were increasingly used for sportswear. Increasing eco-awareness and animal rights made even top couture houses such as Chanel introduce fake fur and natural fibers into their collections.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: "Crocodile" is the third episode of the fourth series of anthology series "Black Mirror". It was written by series creator Charlie Brooker and directed by John Hillcoat. The episode first aired on Netflix, along with the rest of series four, on 29 December 2017.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: The episode follows Mia (Andrea Riseborough) fifteen years after she helped her friend Rob (Andrew Gower) cover up a hit-and-run death, as she commits several murders in order to cover up her past crimes. Meanwhile, Shazia (Kiran Sonia Sawar) is an insurance investigator who uses a "Recaller" that can project people's visual memories onto a screen. The writers were inspired by Nordic noir and by a similar memory technology in series one's "The Entire History of You". The first draft featured a male protagonist and Scotland as its setting. It was filmed in Iceland.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: The episode garnered mixed reviews. Critics mostly found its bleakness and violence to be excessive, with further criticism of the plot twists. Some reviewers found the Recaller technology to be interesting, but not meaningfully explored by the episode. Riseborough and Sawar's acting, as well as the visual aesthetics, were acclaimed.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: Driving intoxicated after a party, Rob (Andrew Gower) hits a cyclist on a mountain road, killing him. Rob's companion Mia Nolan (Andrea Riseborough) helps him throw the body off a cliff into a lake.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: Fifteen years later, Mia is married with a nine-year-old son and works as an architect. After she delivers an important presentation, a newly-sober Rob meets her at her hotel. He is going to write an anonymous letter to the victim's wife, after seeing a news article indicating she never moved on, but Mia is afraid the letter will be traced. An argument ensues and Mia breaks Rob's neck, killing him. Out of the window, she notices a self-driving pizza delivery truck hit a pedestrian. Playing pornography in the room as an alibi, she disposes of Rob's body.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: The pedestrian is visited by Shazia (Kiran Sonia Sawar), an insurance investigator who uses a "Recaller" to view his memories, as best as he can picture them, on a screen. She finds a woman he passed on the street before the incident, who directs her to a dentist, who saw Mia looking at the accident from her hotel room. In each case Shazia makes them smell beer from the nearby brewery and replays a song that played in a passing car to strengthen their memories. Hoping to get bonus pay from a quick investigation, Shazia makes a lengthy drive to meet Mia.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: A tense Mia only allows Shazia in when told that refusal will be reported to the police. Mia tries to divert her memory away from the accident but fails, and Shazia sees memories of both of her killings. Shazia tries to leave but her car does not start and Mia smashes the window, knocks her out and ties her up in a shed.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: Mia disbelieves Shazia's promise to keep the information secret, and uses the Recaller to learn that she told her husband Anan (Anthony Welsh) whom she was visiting. Mia kills Shazia, drives to her house and, masked, kills Anan as he bathes. As Mia exits, having removed her mask, she sees the couple's baby son babbling in front of her and kills him so as not to leave a witness. However, the baby was born blind.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: Police use the Recaller on the baby's pet guinea pig, which had observed the final murder. Officers then quietly arrive at the ending of Mia's son's school production of "Bugsy Malone", where she is in the audience.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: Whilst series one and two of "Black Mirror" were shown on Channel 4 in the UK, in September 2015 Netflix commissioned the series for 12 episodes, and in March 2016 it outbid Channel 4 for the rights to distribute the series in the UK, with an offer of $40 million. The twelve-episode order was divided into two series of six episodes each, with "Crocodile" in the latter group. The six episodes in series four were released on Netflix simultaneously on 29 December 2017. "Crocodile" is listed as the third episode, but as "Black Mirror" is an anthology series, each instalment can be watched in any order.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: The episode was written by the series creator Charlie Brooker, with Annabel Jones as executive producer. It was inspired by the series one episode "The Entire History of You", which featured a personal implant that a person could use privately to review their memories. According to Jones, they considered what the situation would be like if these memories were not private, developing a "cat-and-mouse type drama" that would highlight the importance of memories, and to what lengths someone with a secret would go to conceal them.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: In its original form, the script involved a woman who, at the age of two, had seen her mother die, causing her to become an anxious and fearful person. Brooker compared this to a virtual reality trip down a jungle river with random events: one person may have an enjoyable experience despite some negative happenstances, but an unlucky person may be attacked by a crocodile almost immediately and, thinking that they are in a "crocodile attack simulator", be anxious for the rest of the game. While the script significantly changed over the course of production, the title was established as "Crocodile" because of this analogy.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: The episode was initially conceived with a male protagonist. Andrea Riseborough read the script to audition for the insurance investigator, who was later renamed Shazia and played by Kiran Sonia Sawar. However, Riseborough liked the journey of the protagonist and asked if the part could be rewritten as a woman. Both Brooker and Jones described the change as interesting, with Jones asking, "How often do you see a mother reduced to this level of desperation?" Though they questioned whether a woman would have the physical strength to dispose of a body, Riseborough argued that her character could find that strength in desperation. Brooker commented that "the panicking male murderer is practically a trope", so the gender change was "refreshing".


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: The episode ends with Mia killing Shazia's son, who turns out to be blind, and her murder is witnessed by a guinea pig. This was intended as dark humour in the tone of 1996 black comedy thriller "Fargo", though the episode had been more serious up until that point. Mia then watches her son in a stage adaptation of the 1976 musical film "Bugsy Malone", which starred Jodie Foster—the director of the preceding episode "Arkangel".


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: The episode was directed by John Hillcoat, who described the episode as a "pitch-black comedy of errors". Hillcoat said that "Crocodile" is about "how human beings actually work and how we would respond to something the tech revolution may well bring into our lives". The memory reader technology was conceived by Brooker with the arcade machine for "Space Invaders" in mind. Production designer Joel Collins compares it to a slide viewer, contrasting with the thin screens of contemporary devices. After the memory reader was designed, other technology in the episode such as the pizza truck were re-designed with similar box styles.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: The episode was shot in Iceland and includes scenes filmed in the Harpa concert hall. Brooker had originally called for filming in Scotland in his script, but he later said that Netflix suggested Iceland as a "stunning backdrop". Hillcoat commented that the "cruel inescapable logic" of Mia's actions were suited for Icelandic "strange, vast and primeval landscapes". During filming, Iceland had its largest snowfall in forty years. The scenes involving the pizza van were the worst affected, with shooting taking place over two nights. Snow needed to be continually brushed and special effects teams used heaters and hoses on important areas in frame. A line of dialogue about snow was added, the intention being that the difference in snow was a consequence of observers' differing memories.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: Riseborough's performance as Mia was less panicked than Brooker had pictured when writing the episode. Hillcoat opined that Mia has ambition as a "deep inner flaw", whereas Jones thought her actions was a "logical inevitability" of her initially protecting her friend Rob. Brooker said that Mia "really turns" when she hides Rob's body, rather than confessing to causing his death. In her first rehearsal, Riseborough injured her ribs. Sawar found the scene in which her character Shazia was killed by Mia difficult to film, and was unable to watch the scene in the finished episode.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: In May 2017, a Reddit post unofficially announced the names and directors of the six episodes in series 4 of "Black Mirror". The first trailer for the series was released by Netflix on 25 August 2017, and contained the six episode titles. Beginning on 24 November 2017, Netflix published a series of daily posters and trailers for the fourth series, referred to as the "13 Days of "Black Mirror"". The trailer for "Crocodile" was the second to be released, on 27 November 2017. On 6 December, Netflix published a trailer featuring an amalgamation of scenes from the fourth series, which announced that the series would be released on 29 December.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: The writers were inspired by the aesthetic of Nordic noir, a genre of crime fiction in the Nordic countries. David Sims of "The Atlantic" additionally identified elements of psychological thriller, and Charles Bramesco of "Vulture" found "a familiar series of law-and-order beats". Shazia has the "detective role" in the story, according to Nick Harley of "Den of Geek". Harley and "The Guardian"s Lanre Bakare both found it one of the bleakest episodes of "Black Mirror", and "Paste"s Jacob Oller wrote that there was an "unrelenting pessimism at the heart of the story".


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: Critics suggested various motivations or emotions behind Mia's actions. Louisa Mellor of "Den of Geek" found her to be "traumatised by her actions but... stuck on a murderous path from which she can't turn back". "The Telegraph"s Chris Harvey saw a message that "there in all of us, a long way down" is the propensity to murder. Prior to her killing spree, Bramesco found that Mia was "trying her best to be a dutiful mother and wife while pursuing excellence as an architecture expert". Writing for "The Verge", Laura Hudson viewed that Mia "benefits from the presumption of innocence" as a white woman, and that she is "effective" as "an unlikely killer". Hudson noted that most of Mia's victims are people of colour and drew comparisons to "Get Out" (2017), a horror film which she said "positioned white femininity as the canny, quiet heart of its violence". Oller saw Mia's predicament as like the video game "Until Dawn" (2015), describing that in the game "your every decision begins a series of butterfly effects".


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: Some critics drew connections between the title and the idiom "crocodile tears", which refers to insincere expressions of sorrow. Rosie Fletcher of "Digital Spy" commented that Mia is seen crying in the episode, and initially seems much more emotional than Rob about the car crash death, but Fletcher says that she becomes "a completely ruthless and cold killer". Zack Handlen, a reviewer for "The A.V. Club", saw an ambiguity over whether Mia's grief was insincere, suggesting that it could be "all for show" or because "no matter how awful she feels, she keeps pushing forward". Hudson compared her "pseudo-sympathetic tears" to a line from Shakespeare's "Hamlet" that a person can "smile and smile and smile and be a villain". Jason Koebler of "Vice" noted that Mia does not read the End-User License Agreement (EULA) for the Recaller, and suggests that Shazia is lying about the "legal requirement" to use the Recaller, as she previously implied Mia could opt out. Thus, Mia reading the EULA could have allowed her to decline, and the later murders would not have happened.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: Kevin P. Sullivan of "Entertainment Weekly" saw the technology in the episode as "the means to another end and a different message entirely", though Hudson wrote that it was "hard to identify a takeaway". Some questions were raised by the Recaller. Hudson said it was "an obvious proxy for the increasingly invasive ways our lives are surveilled, from cameras to face-recognition to data theft". Handlen viewed that the episode asks: "Is it ethical to force people to reveal their memories? Is it just another form of police questioning, or something more sinister?" Alissa Wilkinson of "Vox" found it "frightening" that "memories are not just unreliable, but suggestible". In the episode, one person's memory is seen to change when Shazia tells the person what colour a woman's jacket was. Wilkinson thought that this could be misused by a malicious employee in the justice system.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: In January 2018, Toyota announced its self-driving delivery vehicle, the e-Palette. One of their partnerships was with Pizza Hut, to create a self-driving pizza delivery truck. This led to comparisons to the truck with the same function in "Crocodile". The official Twitter account for "Black Mirror" replied to the announcement with "We know how this goes."


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: Comparisons were made to other "Black Mirror" episodes. In terms of the genre, Bramesco found that the instalment "pivots into a two-pronged procedural" like that of "Hated in the Nation". In relation to the technology, the "grain" in "The Entire History of You" records one's vision and hearing exactly, whereas in "Crocodile" the Recaller is dependent on imperfect recollections. In "Crocodile", the song "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)" plays—it became a recurring feature of "Black Mirror" after Abi sang it in "Fifteen Million Merits". The talent show "Hot Shots" and pornography channel "WraithBabes", two other features of "Fifteen Million Merits", are also mentioned in "Crocodile". Other "Easter egg" references to "Black Mirror" instalments include the appearance of UKN, a news channel from "The National Anthem", and the pizza company Fence's, which also features in "USS Callister". A newspaper article briefly shown also contains the text: "Of course the real question is why anyone would pause what they're watching just to read a sentence in a printed out newspaper article, says a voice in your head — before advising you to go and share this finding on Reddit".


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: The episode received mixed critical reception, with consensus that the technological themes could have been explored further and that the ending was gratuitously dark, but that the characters were well-acted and the setting was aesthetically pleasing. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the episode received positive reviews from 53% of 19 critics, with an average rating of 6.39/10. The site's summary says that the episode is "beautiful but blunt" and that its "nightmarish concept can't quite overcome its own shallow nihilism." Out of five stars, the episode received a rating of three stars in "Vulture" and "The Telegraph" and 2.5 stars in "Den of Geek". Additionally, "Paste" rated it 7.1 out of 10 and "The A.V. Club" gave it a B−.


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: Handlen said that the episode was the "thinnest from a conceptual standpoint" of the series four episodes, that there was "not a lot to this story" and that its plot becomes "clear" when the Recaller's functionality is established. Wilkinson wrote that it "doesn't feel all that innovative" and Sims felt "emotionally and intellectually unfilfilled". Harvey said it was "a little too predictable". In contrast, Mellor had a more positive response, calling it "stunning to look at, very sick and very funny". Critics mostly found the bleakness to be unjustified: "Vulture"s Jen Chaney wrote that it was "filled with so much brutal, senseless violence", comparing it unfavourably to the episode "Black Museum". Harley saw it as "grossly over the top" and "the most mean-spirited" "Black Mirror" episode to date. Sims wrote that it "didn't seem to have much of a deeper point".


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: Reviewing for "Wired", James Temperton said that the episode "raises genuinely interesting questions about technological advancement", though there is a question of how the Recaller would become "universally accepted". Hudson saw the design of the Recall as having "a lot of potential" that "is largely wasted" and Harley concurred that the episode "never really takes advantage" of the idea of "distortions of recalled events". Similarly, Handlen said it was "frustrating how much time the episode spends developing its technology without that development actually leading to anything relevant". Sims wrote that "there seemed to be no broader message to justify the horror". However, Harvey saw the Recaller as "a fascinating example of how science-fiction does not need vast budgets to play with interesting ideas".


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: The ending was mostly criticised. Handlen summarised: "while both reveals are unexpected, neither of them illuminate anything that came before it". Hudson saw the "dramatic irony" in the baby's blindness, but critiqued that "it arrives abruptly and without setup". Bramesco saw the twist that the baby was blind as "needlessly cruel" and Bakare analysed that it was "a step too far for many". Hudson said that the guinea pig being used to catch Mia "makes no sense, even within the episode's techno-mythos", though Mellor found this twist funny. Oller said that the ending overall was "written well enough that the dread precedes the groans", but contained "enough overkill" and was "more than a bit silly".


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: The acting received acclaim, although Mia's character was criticised. Sullivan lauded that "Riseborough's performance is as close to undeniable as they come". Sims said she was a "wonderful actress" and "almost sold [him] on Mia's abrupt descent into darkness early on in this episode". Harley said that she was "steely and reserved" but shows emotion "at all of the right times", so that Mia does not become "a complete heartless sadist". In contrast, "The Independent"s Jacob Stolworthy saw her as "perhaps the most unlikeable creation to have featured in "Black Mirror"" to that point, and it was "unclear" whether that was intentional. Chaney said that Mia's actions "seem completely out of character" given her initial behaviour after the car crash. Sawar was praised, with Harley saying that she employed a "bright, plucky determinism" as Shazia. Oller said that her "professionalism and personal touch" was "endearing" and desirable in a detective character. Additionally, Sims found it pleasant to see Shazia assembling information "methodically but with empathy and care".


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: The aesthetics were praised: for instance, Hudson found them "austere and beautiful" and Temperton commented that the episode "looks magnificent". Handlen said: "The Icelandic setting is gorgeous, managing to convey the characters' isolation and vulnerability with visuals alone". Hillcoat was praised for his directing work by Stolworthy, who found the episode "often stylistically pleasing". Oller enjoyed the "unflinching, up-close grotesquery" in his direction. Chaney saw Hillcoat as "summoning a frostbitten grimness from forbidding territory", made possible by the "vivid, evocative setting".


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: "Crocodile" received middling rankings on critics' lists of the 23 instalments of "Black Mirror" by quality, from best to worst:


title: Crocodile (Black Mirror)

text: "IndieWire" authors ranked the 22 "Black Mirror" instalments excluding "" by quality, putting "Crocodile" in last place. Eric Anthony Glover of "Entertainment Tonight" found the episode to be second-worst of the 19 episodes from series one to four. Instead of by quality, Proma Khosla of "Mashable" ranked the episodes by tone, concluding that "Crocodile" is the 12th-most pessimistic episode of the show.


title: Christian Flag

text: The Christian Flag is an ecumenical flag designed in the early 20th century to represent much of Christianity and Christendom. Since its adoption by the United States Federal Council of Churches in 1942, it has been used by congregations of many Christian traditions, including Anglican, Baptist, Congregationalist, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, and Reformed, among others.


title: Christian Flag

text: The flag has a white field, with a red Latin cross inside a blue canton. The shade of red on the cross symbolizes the blood that Jesus shed on Calvary. The blue represents the waters of baptism as well as the faithfulness of Jesus. The white represents Jesus' purity. The dimensions of the flag and canton have no official specifications.


title: Christian Flag

text: The Christian Flag was first conceived on September 26, 1897, at Brighton Chapel on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York in the United States. The superintendent of a Sunday school, Charles C. Overton, gave an impromptu lecture to the gathered students, because the scheduled speaker had failed to arrive for the event. He gave a speech asking the students what a flag representing Christianity would look like. Overton thought about his improvised speech for many years afterward. In 1907, he and Ralph Diffendorfer, secretary of the Methodist Young People's Missionary Movement, designed and began promoting the flag. With regard to the Christian symbolism of the Christian Flag:


title: Christian Flag

text: The ecumenical organization, Federal Council of Churches (now succeeded by the National Council of Churches and Christian Churches Together) adopted the flag on 23 January 1942, 45 years after unofficial use since 1897; the Federal Council of Churches represented Baptist, Brethren, Eastern Orthodox, Episcopal, Methodist, Moravian, Lutheran, Oriental Orthodox, Polish National Catholic, Presbyterian, Quaker, and Reformed traditions, among others. The Christian Flag intentionally has had no copyright or trademark rights connected to it, as the designer freely dedicated the flag to all of Christendom. Fanny Crosby wrote the words to a hymn called "The Christian Flag" with music by R. Huntington Woodman. Like the flag, the hymn is free use. On the Sunday nearest September 26, 1997, the Christian Flag celebrated its one hundredth anniversary.


title: Christian Flag

text: Mainline Protestant denominations in the United States accepted the flag first, and by the 1980s many institutions had described policies for displaying it inside churches. The Federal Council of Churches recommended that if the Christian Flag is to be used alongside a national flag, that the Christian Flag should receive the place of honor. During World War II the flag was flown along with the U.S. flag in a number of Lutheran churches, many of them with German backgrounds, who wanted to show their solidarity with the United States during the war against Nazi Germany.


title: Christian Flag

text: The Christian Flag spread outside North America with Christian missionaries. It can be seen today in or outside many Christian churches throughout the world, particularly in Latin America and in Africa. By the 1930s the flag had been adopted by some Protestant churches in Europe, Asia, and Africa as well.


title: Christian Flag

text: The Christian Flag is not patented and therefore, "Anyone may manufacture it, and it may be used on all proper occasions."


title: Christian Flag

text: In U.S. evangelical Christian schools, it is customary for the Christian flag to be displayed opposite the U.S. flag.


title: Christian Flag

text: In Canada and the United States, accommodationists and separationists have entered impassioned debate on the legality of erecting the Christian Flag atop governmental buildings.


title: Christian Flag

text: Some churches and organizations practice a "pledge of allegiance" or "affirmation of loyalty" to the Christian Flag, which is similar to the Pledge of Allegiance to the U.S. flag. The first pledge was written by Lynn Harold Hough, a Methodist minister who had heard Ralph Diffendorfer, secretary to the Methodist Young People's Missionary Movement, promoting the Christian flag at a rally. He wrote the following pledge:


title: Christian Flag

text: Some more conservative evangelical, Lutheran, Adventist, and Baptist churches and schools may use an alternative version of the pledge:


title: James Marshall (actor)

text: James David Greenblatt (born January 2, 1967), best known as James Marshall, is an American actor, known for playing the character James Hurley in the television series "Twin Peaks" (1990–1991), its 1992 prequel film "", and its 2017 revival, and for his role as Private Louden Downey in "A Few Good Men" (1992).


title: James Marshall (actor)

text: Marshall was born in Queens, New York. His father, William R. Greenblatt, was a Radio City Music Hall publicist, and his mother, Charlotte Green, danced with The Rockettes as Charlotte Bullard. The family moved from New Jersey to California in the 1980s. Marshall has one sister, Kat Green, a music and film producer.


title: James Marshall (actor)

text: Marshall's feature debut film was the Charlie Sheen vehicle, "Cadence" (1990). He played the lead role in "Gladiator" (1992). Since then, Marshall has appeared in numerous films: "Hits!" (1994), "Vibrations" (1996), "All She Ever Wanted" (1996), "Criminal Affairs" (1997), "Soccer Dog: The Movie" (1999), "Luck of the Draw" (2000), alongside Naomi Watts in "Down" (2001) and "Alien Lockdown" (2004). He also provided the voice for Kurt in the video game "Unlimited Saga".


title: James Marshall (actor)

text: In summer 2010, Marshall sued the pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-LaRoche (a unit of Roche Holding AG) for $11 million in damages for injuries which, he claimed, resulted from his taking the drug Accutane. He claimed he had suffered Accutane-related gastrointestinal distress so severe that it necessitated a four-month hospital stay and the surgical removal of his colon. He asserted that these injuries had derailed his acting career. Stars Martin Sheen (a longtime family friend), Brian Dennehy, Esai Morales and Rob Reiner (Marshall's director on "A Few Good Men") were to testify on his behalf. Marshall's case against Hoffmann-LaRoche was ultimately unsuccessful.


The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region ( "Ḥizb al-Ba'th al-'Arabī al-Ishtirākī – Quṭr Sūriyā"), officially the Syrian Regional Branch (Syria being a "region" of the Arab nation in Ba'ath ideology), is a neo-Ba'athist organisation founded on 7 April 1947 by Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar and followers of Zaki al-Arsuzi. The party has ruled Syria continuously since the 1963 Syrian coup d'état which brought the Ba'athists to power. It was first the regional branch of the original Ba'ath Party (1947–1966) before it changed its allegiance to the Syrian-dominated Ba'ath movement (1966–present) following the 1966 split within the original Ba'ath Party. Since their ascent to power in 1963, neo-Ba'athist officers proceeded by stamping out the traditional civilian elites to construct a military dictatorship operating in totalitarian lines; wherein all state agencies, party organisations, public institutions, civil entities, media and health infrastructure are tightly dominated by the army establishment, deep state and the "Mukhabarat" (intelligence services).


title: Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region

text: The 1966 coup d'etat by the radical left-wing faction of Salah Jadid and General Hafez al-Assad ousted the Old Guard of Ba'ath leadership consisting of Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din Bitar; and dissolved the National Command of the united Ba'ath party. The leftist faction of the Syrian Baath advanced a strictly socialist economic programme, pursued closer alliance with the Syrian communists, "progressive" Arab states and the Soviet Bloc and prioritised the spread of socialist revolution in the neighbouring "reactionary" Arab states over pan-Arab unity. The official ideology preached by the Syrian Ba'ath is known as neo-Ba'athism, a school of Ba'athist thought that denounces Aflaq and Bitar and eulogizes Zaki al-Arsuzi as the leading theoretician. In another coup in 1970, officially dubbed the "Corrective Movement", Hafez al-Assad would overthrow the Jadid faction and tone down the revolutionary measures. The new regime emphasized building socialism in Syria first and was open to alliances with the neighbouring states. Since this period, the party has adopted Assadism as its official ideology; promoting a personality cult centred around the Assad dynasty.


text: The Ba'ath Party, and indirectly the Syrian Regional Branch, was established on 7 April 1947 by Michel Aflaq (a Christian), Salah al-Din al-Bitar (a Sunni Muslim) and Zaki al-Arsuzi (an Alawite). According to the congress, the party was "nationalist, populist, socialist, and revolutionary" and believed in the "unity and freedom of the Arab nation within its homeland." The party opposed the theory of class conflict, but supported the nationalisation of major industries, the unionisation of workers, land reform, and supported private inheritance and private property rights to some degree. The party merged with the Arab Socialist Party (ASP), led by Akram al-Hawrani, to establish the "Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party" in Lebanon following Adib Shishakli's rise to power. Most ASP members did not adhere to the merger and remained, according to George Alan, "passionately loyal to Hawrani's person." The merger was weak, and a lot of the ASP's original infrastructure remained intact. In 1955, the party decided to support Gamal Nasser and what they perceived as his pan-Arabic policies.


text: Syrian politics took a dramatic turn in 1954 when the military government of Adib al-Shishakli was overthrown and the democratic system restored. The Ba'ath, now a large and popular organisation, won 22 out of 142 parliamentary seats in the Syrian election that year, becoming the second-largest party in parliament. The Ba'ath Party was supported by the intelligentsia because of their pro-Egyptian and anti-imperialist stance and their support for social reform.


text: The assassination of Ba'athist colonel Adnan al-Malki by a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) in April 1955 allowed the Ba'ath Party and its allies to launch a crackdown, thus eliminating one rival. In 1957, the Ba'ath Party partnered with the Syrian Communist Party (SCP) to weaken the power of Syria's conservative parties. By the end of that year, the SCP weakened the Ba'ath Party to such an extent that in December the Ba'ath Party drafted a bill calling for a union with Egypt, a move that was very popular. The union between Egypt and Syria went ahead and the United Arab Republic (UAR) was created, and the Ba'ath Party was banned in the UAR because of Nasser's hostility to parties other than his own. The Ba'ath leadership dissolved the party in 1958, gambling that the legalisation against certain parties would hurt the SCP more than it would the Ba'ath. A military coup in Damascus in 1961 brought the UAR to an end. Sixteen prominent politicians, including al-Hawrani and Salah al-Din al-Bitarwho later retracted his signature, signed a statement supporting the coup. The Ba'athists won several seats during the 1961 parliamentary election.


text: The military group preparing for the overthrow of the separatist regime in February 1963 was composed of independent Nasserite and other unionist, including Ba'thi officers. The re-emergence of the Ba'tha's a majority political force aided in the coup; without a political majority the coup would have remained a military take over . Ziyad al-Hariri controlled the sizable forces stationed at the Israeli Front, not far from Damascus, Muhammad as-Sufi commanded the key brigade stationes in Homs, and Ghassan Haddad, one of Hariri's independent partners, commanded the Desert Forces. Early in March it was decided the coup would be brought into action March ninth. But on March fifth several of the officers wanted to delay the coup in hope of staging a bloodless coup . It was presumed that the Nasserite were preparing a coup of their own which effectively canceled the delay. The coup began at night and by the morning of March eighth it was evident that a new political era had begun in Syria.


text: The secession from the UAR was a time of crisis for the party; several groups, including Hawrani, left the Ba'ath Party. In 1962, Aflaq convened a congress which re-established the Syrian Regional Branch. The division in the original Ba'ath Party between the National Command led by Michel Aflaq and the "regionalists" in the Syrian Regional Branch stemmed from the break-up of the UAR. Aflaq had sought to control the regionalist elementsan incoherent grouping led by Fa'iz al-Jasim, Yusuf Zuayyin, Munir al-Abdallah and Ibrahim Makhus. Aflaq retained the support of the majority of the non-Syrian National Command members (13 at the time).


text: Following the success of the February 1963 coup d'état in Iraq, led by the Ba'ath Party's Iraqi Regional Branch, the Military Committee hastily convened to plan a coup against Nazim al-Kudsi's presidency. The coupdubbed the 8th of March Revolutionwas successful and a Ba'athist government was installed in Syria. The plotters' first order was to establish the National Council of the Revolutionary Command (NCRC), which consisted entirely of Ba'athists and Nasserists, and was controlled by military personnel rather than civilians. However, in its first years in power, the Syrian Regional Branch experienced an internal power struggle between traditional Ba'athists, radical socialists and the members of the Military Committee. The Nasserist and Muslim Brotherhood opposition joined forces to raise the spectre of communist takeover of Syria during the 1960s. They attacked the Baath party as being anti-Sunni and condemned the state secularism of the regime as being anti-religious and atheist. Nasser himself proscribed the Syrian Baath for its militant secularism and the radical Marxist proposals of its leaders. The first period of Ba'ath rule was put to an end with the 1966 Syrian coup d'état, which overthrew the traditional Ba'athists led by Aflaq and Bitar and brought Salah Jadid, the head of the Military Committee, to power (though not formally).


text: After the 1967 Six-Day War, tensions between Jadid and Hafez al-Assad increased, and al-Assad and his associates were strengthened by their hold on the military. In late 1968, they began dismantling Jadid's support network, facing ineffectual resistance from the civilian branch of the party that remained under Jadid's control. This duality of power persisted until the Corrective Revolution of November 1970, when al-Assad ousted and imprisoned Atassi and Jadid. He then set upon a project of rapid institution-building, reopened parliament and adopted a permanent constitution for the country, which had been ruled by military fiat and a provisional constitutional documents since 1963. Assad significantly modified his predecessor's radical socialist economic policies, encouraged several wealthy urban families to increase their activities in the private sector, and allowed limited foreign investment from Arab countries in the Persian Gulf region States.


text: Hafez Al-Assad's reign was marked by the virtual abandonment of Pan-Arab ideology; replacing it with the doctrine of socialist transformation and giving overriding priority in constructing socialist society within Syria. Political participation was limited to the National Progressive Front, the ruling coalition of Syrian Baath and Marxist-Leninist parties; entrenching itself firmly within the Soviet Bloc. The Party also began building a personality cult around Assad and brought the elite of the armed forces under Assad's grip and the officer corps were installed with Alawite loyalists; further alienating the Sunni majority from the party.


text: By the late 1970s, the state apparatus of the Baath regime under Assad had consolidated into an anti-Sunni orientation. Official propaganda incited Alawite farmers against rich Sunni landowners and regularly disseminated stereotypes of Sunni merchants and industrialists, casting them as enemies of nationalisation and socialist revolution. Bitterness towards the Assadist regime and the Alawite elite in the Baath and armed forces became widespread amongst the Sunni majority, laying the beginnings of an Islamic resistance. Prominent leaders of Muslim Brotherhood like Issam al-Attar were imprisoned and exiled. A coalition of the traditional Syrian Sunni "ulema", Muslim Brotherhood revolutionaries and Islamist activists formed the Syrian Islamic Front in 1980 with objective of overthrowing Assad through Jihad and establishing an Islamic state. In the same year, Hafez officially supported Iran in its war with Iraq and controversially began importing Iranian fighters and terror groups into Lebanon and Syria. This led to rising social tensions within the country which eventually became a full-fledged rebellion in 1982; led by the Islamic Front. The regime responded by slaughtering the Sunni inhabitants in Hama and Aleppo and bombarding numerous mosques, killing around 20,000-40,000 civilians. The uprising was brutally crushed and Assad regarded the Muslim Brethren as demolished.


text: Syria under Hafez al-Assad was a staunch Soviet ally and firmly aligned itself with Soviet Bloc during the height of the Cold War. Soviet Union saw Syria as the lynchpin of its Middle-East strategy and signed the Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation in 1980; directly committing itself to Syria's defense and incorporating the Syrian armed forces into Soviet standards. For his part, Hafez committed himself to socialist economic and foreign policies; and was one of the few autocrats to openly support the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union dealt a deep blow to Assad, who retained the nostalgia for the old order. Assad continued to rule Syria until his death in 2000, by centralizing powers in the state presidency.


text: Hafez's son, Bashar al-Assad succeeded him in office as President of Syria and Regional Secretary of the Syrian Regional Branch on 17 July and 24 June respectively. At the beginning, Bashar al-Assad's rule was met with high expectations, with many foreign commentators believing he would introduce reforms reminiscent of the Chinese economic reforms or those of Mikhail Gorbachev in the former Soviet Union.


text: Bashar al-Assad's rule was believed to be stable until the Arab Spring took place; the revolutions occurring in other parts of the Arab world acted as an inspiration for the Syrian opposition, leading to the Syrian Civil War from 2011 onwards. It is generally believed that the Syrian Regional Branch plays a minor role in the conflict, having been reduced to a mass organization, and real decision-making taking place either in the military, the al-Assad family or Bashar al-Assad's inner circle. Despite this, the party remained loyal to the government almost in its entirety throughout the civil war, probably out of concerns that the overthrow of the al-Assad family's rule would result in its own demise as well. Several militias were formed by Ba'ath Party volunteers to fight against insurgents, with the most notable being the Ba'ath Brigades. The civil war also resulted in a referendum on a new constitution on 26 February 2012. The constitution was approved by the populace, and the article stating that Ba'ath Party was "the leading party of society and state" was removed and the constitution was ratified on 27 February.


text: Another aspect of Assad's tenure was the restoration of close alliance with Russia, the successor state of former Soviet Union. As protests erupted in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring and later proiliferated into a Civil War; Russia became the sole member to safeguard Assad in the UN Security Council. In September 2015; Vladimir Putin ordered a direct Russian military operation in Syria on behalf of Assad; providing the regime with training, volunteers, supplies and weaponry; and has since engaged in extensive aerial bombardment campaigns throughout the country targeting anti-Assad rebels.


text: The General Congress is supposed to be held every fourth year to elect members of the Central Command. Since 1980, its functions have been eclipsed by the Central Committee, which was empowered to elect the Central Command. By 1985's 8th Regional Congress, the Command Secretary was empowered to elect the Central Committee. The 8th Regional Congress would be the last congress held under Hafez al-Assad's rule. The next Regional Congress was held in June 2000 and elected Bashar al-Assad as Command Secretary and elected him as a candidate for the next presidential election.


text: Delegates to the General Congress are elected beforehand by the Central Command leadership. While all delegates come from the party's local organisation, they are forced to elect members presented by the leadership. However, some criticism is allowed. At the 8th Regional Congress, several delegates openly criticised the growing political corruption and the economic stagnation in Syria. They could also discuss important problems to the Central Command, which in turn could deal with them.


text: The Central Command is according to the Syrian Constitution has the power to nominate a candidate for president. While the constitution does not state that the Secretary of the Central Command is the President of Syria, the charter of the National Progressive Front (NPF), of which the Ba'ath Party is a member, states that the President and the Central Command Secretary is the NPF President, but this is not stated in any legal document. The 1st Extraordinary Regional Congress held in 1964 decided that the Secretary of the Central Command would also be head of state. The Central Command is officially responsible to the General Congress.


text: The Central Committee (), established in January 1980, is subordinate to the Central Command. It was established as a conduit for communication between the Ba'ath Party leadership and local party organs. At the 8th Regional Congress held in 1985, membership size increased from 75 to 95. Other changes was that its powers were enhanced; in theory, the Central Command became responsible to the Central Committee, the hitch was that the Central Command Secretary elected the members of the Central Committee. Another change was that the Central Committee was given the responsibilities of the Regional Congress when the congress was not in session. As with the Central Command, the Central Committee is in theory supposed to be elected every fourth year by the Regional Congress, but from 1985 until Hafez al-Assad's death in 2000, no Regional Congress was held.


text: The Military Bureau, which succeeded the Military Committee, oversees the Syrian armed forces. Shortly after the 8 March Revolution, the Military Committee became the supreme authority in military affairs. The party has a parallel structure within the Syrian armed forces. The military and civilian sectors only meet at the regional level, as the military sector is represented in the Central Command and sends delegates to general congresses. The military sector is divided into branches, which operate at the battalion level. The head of a military party branch is called a "tawjihi", or guide.


text: In 1963, the Military Committee established the Military Organisation, which consisted of 12 branches resembling their civilian counterparts. The Military Organisation was led by a Central Committee, which represented the Military Committee. These new institutions were established to stop the civilian faction meddling in the affairs of the Military Committee. The Military Organisation met with the other branches through the Military Committee, which was represented at the Regional and National Congresses and Commands. The Military Organisation was a very secretive body. Members were sworn not to divulge any information about the organisation to officers who were not members in order to strengthen the Military Committee's hold on the military. In June 1964, it was decided that no new members would be admitted to the organisation. The Military Committee was built on a democratic framework, and a Military Organization Congress was held to elect the members of the Military Committee. Only one congress was ever held.


text: The lack of a democratic framework led to internal divisions within the Military Organisation among the rank-and-file. Tension within the organisation increased, and became apparent when Muhammad Umran was dismissed from the Military Committee. Some rank-and-file members presented a petition to the Regional Congress which called for the democratisation of the Military Organisation. The National Command, represented by Munif al-Razzaz, did not realise the importance of this petition before Salah Jadid suppressed it. The Military Committee decided to reform, and the Regional Congress passed a resolution which made the Military Organisation responsible to the Military Bureau of the Central Command, which was only responsible for military affairs.


text: The party has 19 branches in Syria: one in each of the thirteen provinces, one in Damascus, one in Aleppo and one at each of the country's four universities. In most cases the governor of a province, police chief, mayor and other local dignitaries comprise the Branch Command. The Branch Command Secretary and other executive positions are filled by full-time party employees.


text: Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar, the two principal fathers of Ba'athist thought, saw the Ba'ath Party as a vanguard party, comparable to the Soviet Union's Communist Party, while Al-Assad saw it as a mass organisation. In 1970 he stated, "After this day the Ba'ath will not be the party of the elect, as some has envisaged ... Syria does not belong to the Ba'athists alone."


text: Since 1970, membership of the Ba'ath Party in Syria expanded dramatically. In 1971, the party had 65,938 members; ten years later it stood at 374,332 and by mid-1992 it was 1,008,243. By mid-1992, over 14 percent of Syrians aged over 14 were members of the party. In 2003, the party membership stood at 1.8 million people, which is 18 percent of the population. The increase in membership was not smooth. In 1985 a party organisational report stated that thousand of members had been expelled before the 7th Regional Congress held in 1980 because of indiscipline. The report also mentioned the increased tendency of opportunism among party members. Between 1980 and 1984, 133,850 supporter-members and 3,242 full members were expelled from the party.


text: The increase in members has led official propaganda, and leading members of the party and state, to say that the people and the party are inseparable. Michel Kilo, a Syrian dissident, said, "The Ba'ath does not recognize society. It consider itself [to be] society." This idea led to Ba'athist slogans and tenets being included in the Syrian constitution. In 1979, the Ba'ath Party's position was further strengthened when dual party membership became a criminal offence.


text: The original Ba'ath headed by Michael Aflaq had viewed Islam as a unique religion that shaped Arab history and society and called for the incoporation of pan-Arabism with Islamic religious values. On other hand; the younger Neo-Ba'athists who came from minority communities like Alawites were highly influenced by communist ideals and incorporated Marxist anti-religious, economic ideas and downplayed efforts for pan-Arab unity. Neo-Ba'athist faction that took control of Syria following the 1966 coup were advocates of militant revolution, calling for immediate socialist transformation of society. Soviet Union began supporting the group for its leftist programme and denounced its rival Iraqi Ba'ath as "reactionary" and "right-wing". The early years of neo-Ba'ath power was marked by militarism along with increasing sectarianism in the army and party elites. State propaganda regularly attacked religion and belief in God and young students were given compulsory military training. Big businesses, banks and large agricultural lands were all nationalised. These policies brought the Syrian Ba'athists into conflict with Arab nationalist ideologies like Nasserism, which was accused of betraying socialist ideals. Nasser, in turn, charged the Ba'ath with anti-religion and sectarianism.


text: Neo-Ba'athism advocates the creation of a "vanguard" of leftist revolutionaries committed to build an egalitarian, socialist state in Syria and other Arab countries before making steps to achieve pan-Arab unity. The vanguard organisation is the Ba'th party; which advocates class-struggle against the traditional Syrian economic elite classes; the big agriculturalists, industrialists, bourgeousie and fuedal landlords. By the 1970s, 85% of agricultural lands were distributed to landless peasant populations and tenant farmers. Banks, oil companies, power production and 90% of large-scale industries were nationalised. The neo-Ba'athists led by Salah Jadid who came to power in 1966 concentrated on improving the Syrian economy and exporting the doctrines of class-conflict and militant socialist revolution to the neighbouring countries. This view was challenged by General Hafez al-Assad and his neo-Ba'ath faction; who were proponents of a military-centric approach and focused on a strategy of strengthening the Syrian military to defend the socialist government against imperialist forces and their alleged internal collaborators. Assad favoured reconciliation of various leftist factions and pursued better relations with other Arab states. Although majority of the party members favoured Salah, Hafez was able to gain the upperhand following the events of the 1970 coup dubbed the "Corrective Movement" in official Syrian Ba'ath history. Assad's victory also marked the supersedure of the military over the Ba'ath party structures; making the armed forces a central centre of political power.


text: Since the end of the Cold War and fall of the Soviet Bloc in the 1990s, the proclaimed ideological paradigm of the Ba'ath party in Syria have been described as irrelevant. Despite decades of one-party rule that has lasted longer than rest of the period of independent Syria (1946-1963); Ba'athist ideology itself has not gained popular legitimacy. Instead; the role of the party has become supplanted with the cult of personality sorrounding the Assad dynasty and a consolidation of communal-based allegiances. Assad's government was a personal government and authorities have tried to portray the wisdom of Assad as "beyond the comprehension of the average citizen". Assad deepened the Alawitization of the party and the military; reduced the role of the party and based his state governance structure on loyalty to the leader's family. State biography of Hafiz al-Assad describes this philosophy as ""Asadiyah" (Assadism)" defining it as: "the New Ba'th led by Hafiz al‑Asad, representing a new distinctive current in Syria which has been developed by him; it is a school of thought which has benefited from Nasserism, but has surpassed it, just as it has surpassed the traditional Ba'thist school, albeit that it does not contradict either of these schools of thought but has further developed them in line with contemporary needs."


text: Assad personality cult is portrayed as integral to the prosperity and security of the nation; with Hafez al-Assad being depicted as the father figure of the Syrian nation. Ceremonies and slogans of loyalty, praise and adulation of Assads are a daily party of schools, party centres, government offices, public spaces and the military. Official state propaganda attributes Assad with supernatural abilities combined by repetitive usage of symbolism that discouraged wider society from arenas for political activism. Upon his death in 2000, Hafez al-Assad's crude Stalinist persona was inherited by Assad who was depicted as a reformist and youthful hope. Hafez's inner circle elite was replaced by a far more restricted faction of elites closer to Bashar, often referred to as the "New Guard". Major posts in the armed forces were awarded to Alawite loyalists, family relatives and many non-Alawite elites that served under Hafez were expelled. Another important shift was the end of Ba'th party's practical significance; with it being reduced to a formal structure for affirming fealty to Bashar and support his revamped crackdowns on the newly established independent civil society groups, political activists and reformist voices that arose during the Damascus Spring in the 2000s.


text: Describing the nature of Assadist ideological propaganda in her work "Ambiguities of Domination", Professor of political science Lisa Wedeen writes: "Asad's cult is a strategy of domination based on compliance rather than legitimacy. The regime produces compliance through enforced participation in rituals of obeisance that are transparently phony both to those who orchestrate them and to those who consume them. Asad's cult operates as a disciplinary device, generating a politics of public dissimulation in which citizens act "as if" they revere their leader.. It produces guidelines for acceptable; it defines and generalizes a specific type of national membership; it occasions the enforcement of obedience; it induces complicity by creating practices in which citizens are themselves "accomplices," upholding the norms constitutive of Asad's domination; it isolates Syrians from one another; and it clutters public space with monotonous slogans and empty gestures, which tire the minds and bodies of producers and consumers alike... Asad is powerful because his regime can compel people to say the ridiculous and to avow the absurd."


text: According to Subhi Hadidi, a Syrian dissident, "The Ba'ath is in complete disarray. ... It's like a dead body. It's no longer a party in any normal sense of the word." Hanna Batatu wrote, "Under Assad the character of the Ba'ath changed ... Whatever independence of opinion its members enjoyed in the past was now curtailed, a premium being placed on conformity and internal discipline. The party became in effect another instrument by which the regime sought to control the community at large or to rally it behind its policies. The party's cadres turned more and more into bureaucrats and careerists, and were no longer vibrantly alive ideologically as in the 1950s and 1960s, unconditional fidelity to Assad having ultimately overridden fidelity to old beliefs."


text: It is rumored that Al-Assad discussed the possibilities of abolishing the Ba'ath Party when he took power in 1970. According to Volker Perthes, the Ba'ath Party was transformed under Assad; Perthes wrote, "It was further inflated such as to neutralise those who had supported the overthrown leftist leadership, it was de-ideologised; and it was restructured so as to fit into the authoritarian format of Assad's system, lose its avant-garde character and became an instrument for generating mass support and political control. It was also to become the regime's main patronage network."


text: The Ba'ath Party was turned into a patronage network closely intertwined with the bureaucracy, and soon became virtually indistinguishable from the state, while membership rules were liberalized. In 1987, the party had 50,000 members in Syria, with another 200,000 candidate members on probation. The party lost its independence from the state and was turned into a tool of the Assad government, which remained based essentially in the security forces. Other parties that accepted the basic orientation of the government were permitted to operate again. The National Progressive Front was established in 1972 as a coalition of these legal parties, which were only permitted to act as junior partners to the Ba'ath, with very little room for independent organisation.


title: Pili multigemini

text: Pili multigemini, also known as "compound hairs," is a malformation characterized by the presence of bifurcated or multiple divided hair matrices and papillae, giving rise to the formation of multiple hair shafts within the individual follicles.


title: Pili multigemini

text: The name describes a condition where several separate hair fibers bunch together and emerge from the skin through a single hair canal. Pathology shows that deep in the skin several dermal papilla are closely situated with each producing a fiber, but these separate hair follicle bulbs combine into one hair canal towards the skin surface. Folliculitis can sometimes be associated with this condition.


The Insular Government of the Philippine Islands () was an unincorporated territory of the United States that was established in 1902 and was reorganized in 1935 in preparation for later independence. The Insular Government was preceded by the United States Military Government of the Philippine Islands and was followed by the Commonwealth of the Philippines.


title: Insular Government of the Philippine Islands

text: The Philippines were acquired from Spain by the United States in 1898 following the Spanish–American War. Resistance led to the Philippine–American War, in which the United States suppressed the nascent First Philippine Republic. In 1902, the United States Congress passed the Philippine Organic Act, which organized the government and served as its basic law. This act provided for a governor-general appointed by the president of the United States, as well as a bicameral Philippine Legislature with the appointed Philippine Commission as the upper house and a fully elected, fully Filipino elected lower house, the Philippine Assembly. The Internal Revenue Law of 1904 provided for general internal revenue taxes, documentary taxes and transfer of livestock. A wide variety of Revenue stamps were issued in denominations ranging from one centavo to 20,000 pesos.


text: The term "insular" refers to the fact that the government operated under the authority of the U.S. Bureau of Insular Affairs. Puerto Rico and Guam also had insular governments at this time. From 1901 to 1922, the U.S. Supreme Court wrestled with the constitutional status of these governments in the Insular Cases. In "Dorr v. United States" (1904), the court ruled that Filipinos did not have a constitutional right to trial by jury. In the Philippines itself, the term "insular" had limited usage. On banknotes, postage stamps, and the coat of arms, the government referred to itself simply as the "Philippine Islands".


text: The 1902 Philippine Organic Act was replaced in 1916 by the Jones Law, which ended the Philippine Commission and provided for both houses of the Philippine Legislature to be elected. In 1935, the Insular Government was replaced by the Commonwealth. Commonwealth status was intended to last ten years, during which the country would be prepared for independence.


text: The Insular Government evolved from the Taft Commission, or Second Philippine Commission, appointed on March 16, 1900. This group was headed by William Howard Taft, and was granted legislative powers by President William McKinley in September 1900. The commission created a judicial system, an educational system, a civil service, and a legal code. The legality of these actions was contested until the passage of the Spooner Amendment in 1901, which granted the U.S. president authority to govern the Philippines.


text: The Insular Government saw its mission as one of tutelage, preparing the Philippines for eventual independence. On July 4, 1901, Taft was appointed "civil governor", who also named his cabinet at his inaugural address. Military Governor Adna Chaffee retained authority in disturbed areas. On July 4, 1902, the office of military governor was abolished, and Taft became the first U.S. governor-general of the Philippine Islands.


text: The Philippine Organic Act disestablished the Catholic Church as the state religion. In 1904, Taft negotiated the purchase of of church property for $7.5 million. Despite this, the Insular Government failed to investigate the land titles of the friars' and restore them to the patrimony of the Filipinos. The Insular Government then established a land titling system for these lands, but due to a small surveyor staff, a lot of parcels of land remained untitled.


text: Two years after the completion and publication of a census, a general election was conducted for the choice of delegates to a popular assembly. An elected Philippine Assembly was convened in 1907 as the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the Philippine Commission as the upper house. The 1909 U.S. Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act provided for free trade with the Philippines. Every year from 1907, the Philippine Assembly (and later the Philippine Legislature) passed resolutions expressing the Filipino desire for independence.


text: Philippine nationalists led by Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña enthusiastically endorsed the draft Jones Bill of 1912, which provided for Philippine independence after eight years, but later changed their views, opting for a bill which focused less on time than on the conditions of independence. The nationalists demanded complete and absolute independence to be guaranteed by the United States, since they feared that too-rapid independence from American rule without such guarantees might cause the Philippines to fall into Japanese hands. The Jones Bill was rewritten and passed a Congress controlled by Democrats in 1916 with a later date of independence. The Democratic party in the United States had strongly opposed acquisitions of the Philippines in the first place, and increasingly became committed to independence. The election of Democrat Woodrow Wilson, who advocated a constitutional government in the Philippines as a step towards independence, in 1912 opened up the opportunity. He appointed Francis Burton Harrison as governor, and Harrison replaced mainlanders with Filipinos in the bureaucracy. At his departure in 1921, of the 13,757 government bureaucrats, 13,143 were Filipinos; they occupied 56 of the top 69 positions.


text: The Jones Law, or Philippine Autonomy Act, replaced the Organic Act. Its preamble stated that the eventual independence of the Philippines would be American policy, subject to the establishment of a stable government. The law maintained an appointed governor-general, but established a bicameral Philippine Legislature to replace the elected Philippine Assembly (lower house); it replaced the appointive Philippine Commission (upper house) with an elected senate.


text: Filipino activists suspended the independence campaign during the First World War and supported the United States and the Allies of World War I against the German Empire. After the war they resumed their independence drive with great vigour. On March 17, 1919, the Philippine Legislature passed a "Declaration of Purposes", which stated the inflexible desire of the Filipino people to be free and sovereign. A Commission of Independence was created to study ways and means of attaining liberation ideal. This commission recommended the sending of an independence mission to the United States. The "Declaration of Purposes" referred to the Jones Law as a veritable pact, or covenant, between the American and Filipino peoples whereby the United States promised to recognize the independence of the Philippines as soon as a stable government should be established. American Governor-General Harrison had concurred in the report of the Philippine Legislature as to a stable government.


text: The Philippine Legislature funded an independence mission to the United States in 1919. The mission departed Manila on February 28 and met in America with and presented their case to Secretary of War Newton D. Baker. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, in his 1921 farewell message to Congress, certified that the Filipino people had performed the condition imposed on them as a prerequisite to independence, declaring that, this having been done, the duty of the U.S. is to grant Philippine independence. Neither Congress nor Warren G. Harding, Wilson's successor as president, acted on Wilson's recommendation. In 1921, President Harding sent William Cameron Forbes and Leonard Wood as heads of the Wood-Forbes Commission to investigate conditions in the Philippines. The Commission concluded that Filipinos were not yet ready for independence from the United States, a finding that was widely criticized in the Philippines.


text: After the first independence mission, public funding of such missions was ruled illegal. Subsequent independence missions in 1922, 1923, 1930, 1931 1932, and two missions in 1933 were funded by voluntary contributions. Numerous independence bills were submitted to the U.S. Congress, which passed the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Bill on December 30, 1932. U.S. President Herbert Hoover vetoed the bill on January 13, 1933. Congress overrode the veto on January 17, and the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act became U.S. law. The law promised Philippine independence after 10 years, but reserved several military and naval bases for the United States, as well as imposing tariffs and quotas on Philippine exports. The law also required the Philippine Senate to ratify the law. Quezon urged the Philippine Senate to reject the bill, which it did. Quezon himself led the twelfth independence mission to Washington to secure a better independence act. The result was the Tydings–McDuffie Act of 1934 which was very similar to the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act except in minor details. The Tydings–McDuffie Act was ratified by the Philippine Senate. The law provided for the granting of Philippine independence by 1946.


text: The Tydings–McDuffie Act provided for the drafting and guidelines of a constitution for a ten-year ""transitional period"" as the Commonwealth of the Philippines before the granting of Philippine independence. On May 5, 1934, the Philippines Legislature passed an act setting the election of convention delegates. Governor-General Frank Murphy designated July 10 as the election date, and the Convention held its inaugural session on July 30. The completed draft Constitution was approved by the Convention on February 8, 1935, approved by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt on March 23, and ratified by popular vote on May 14. The first election under the new 1935 constitution was held on September 17, and on November 15, 1935 the Commonwealth was established.


text: On July 4, 1901, executive authority over the islands was transferred to the president of the Philippine Commission, who had the title of "civil governor"–a position appointed by the President of the United States and approved by the United States Senate. For the first year a military governor, Adna Chaffee, ruled parts of the country still resisting American rule, concurrent with civil governor William Howard Taft. Disagreements between the two were not uncommon. The following year, on July 4, 1902, the civil governor became the sole executive authority of the islands. Chaffee remained as Commander of the Philippine Division until September 30, 1902.


text: The title was changed to "Governor-General" in 1905 by Act of Congress (Public 43 – February 6, 1905).


text: Francis Burton Harrison was Governor-General from 1913 to 1921 under President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat. He advocated for and oversaw the process of Filipinization, or the transfer of authority to Filipinos in the United States territory's Insular Government to better prepare for independence. He was governor-general during the passages of the Philippine Autonomy Act, otherwise known as the Jones Act, which converted the partially elected Philippine Legislature with the appointed Philippine Commission as the upper house and the elected Philippine Assembly as the lower house, to a fully elected Philippine Legislature with the Philippine Senate replacing the now-dissolved Philippine Commission and the Philippine Assembly renamed the House of Representatives of the Philippines.


text: Despite the length of his tenure as governor-general he vetoed only five bills, the least number by any American governor-general in the Philippines. His pro-Filipino stance made him a popular figure in the Philippines but also the object of criticism of conservative Americans who viewed his liberal governance as not supportive enough of U.S. interests.


text: Under his administration, the Governor-General's Spanish-era mansion called Malacañan Palace was expanded with the construction of an executive building. When he left the Philippines, Harrison lived in Scotland until being recalled to the Philippines in 1934 during a period of transition from an unincorporated territory of the United States to the Commonwealth of the Philippines.


text: In 1921, Republican President Warren G. Harding sent William Cameron Forbes and Leonard Wood as heads of the Wood-Forbes Commission to investigate conditions in the Philippines. The Commission concluded that Filipinos were not yet ready for independence from the United States, a finding that was widely criticized in the Philippines.


text: On November 15, 1935, the Commonwealth government was inaugurated. The office of President of the Philippines was created to replace the Governor-General as Chief Executive, taking over many of the former's duties. The American Governor-General then became known as the High Commissioner to the Philippines.


text: From the passage of the Organic Act until independence, the Philippine Islands were represented in the United States House of Representatives by two, and then one, resident commissioners of the Philippines. Similar to delegates and the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, they were nonvoting members of Congress.


title: Jōmon people

text: Multiple studies on the Jōmon population analyzed the genetic contribution towards modern Japanese. Jōmon samples represented by a specimen obtained from the Funadomari archaeological site on Rebun Island and two specimens obtained from Honshu, show that mainstream Japanese people have inherited an average of 10% Jōmon period ancestry in their genome. The results of a study from 2021 inferred gene flow from the Jōmon period population to the modern Japanese across all migration models tested, with genetic contributions ranging from 8.9 to 11.5%. In the same study, the mean Jōmon component of the modern Japanese individual estimated using the admixture analysis was 9.31%.


title: Jōmon people

text: Population genomic data from various Jōmon period samples show that their main ancestry component split from other East Asian people at about 15,000 BCE, after the estimated split of Ancestral Native Americans from East Asians at about 25,000 BCE. They subsequently received some geneflow from an Upper-Paleolithic North Eurasian population (Yana RHS), but following their migration into the Japanese archipelago, they became largely isolated from outside geneflow.


title: Jōmon people

text: Several studies of numerous Jōmon skeletal remains that were excavated from various locations in the Japanese archipelago allowed researchers to learn more about the Jōmon period population of Japan. The Jōmon people were relatively close to other East Asians, however shared more similarities with Native American samples. Within Japan, regional variance among different Jōmon remains was detected. Historically, the Jōmon people were classified as Mongoloid.


title: Jōmon people

text: Dental morphology suggests that the Jōmon had Sundadont dental structure which is more common among modern Southeast Asians and Indigenous Taiwanese, and is ancestral to the Sinodont dental structure commonly found among modern Northeast Asians, suggesting that the Jōmon split from the common "Ancestral East Asians" prior to the formation of modern Northeast Asians.


title: Jōmon people

text: According to the article "Jōmon culture and the peopling of the Japanese archipelago" by Schmidt and Seguchi (2014), the prehistoric Jōmon people descended from various paleolithic populations, which migrated into the Japanese archipelago, using different routes at different times. They concluded:


title: Jōmon people

text: "In this respect, the biological identity of the Jomon is heterogeneous, and it may be indicative of diverse peoples who possibly belonged to a common culture, known as the Jomon. ... These results suggest a level of inter-regional heterogeneity not expected among Jomon groups. This observation is further substantiated by the studies of Kanzawa-Kiriyama et al. (2013) and Adachi et al. (2013). Kanzawa-Kiriyama et al. (2013) analysed craniometrics and extracted aDNA from museum samples that came from the Sanganji shell mound site in Fukushima Prefecture dated to the Final Jomon Period. They tested for regional differences and found the Tokoku Jomon (northern Honshu) were more similar to Hokkaido Jomon than to geographically adjacent Kanto Jomon (central Honshu). Adachi et al. (2013) described the craniometrics and aDNA sequence from a Jomon individual from Nagano (Yugora cave site) dated to the middle of the initial Jomon Period (7920–7795 cal BP). This individual carried ancestry, which is widely distributed among modern East Asians (Nohira et al. 2010; Umetsu et al. 2005) and resembled modern East Asian comparison samples rather than the geographical close Urawa Jomon sample."


title: Jōmon people

text: A study published in the scientific journal "Nature" by Jinam et al. in 2015, using genome-wide SNP data comparison, found that the Hokkaido Jōmon samples, ancestral to the Ainu people, carried gene alleles associated with facial features, which are commonly found among Europeans and Middle-Easterners at a medium frequency. These alleles possibly arrived into the Jōmon period population from paleolithic Siberian geneflow, associated with the spread of the microblade culture, which arrived in Hokkaido about ~25,000 to ~15,000 years ago. Gakuhari et al. 2020 similarly noted the possibility of geneflow from Ancient North Eurasians (samplified by the MA-1 sample), or a similar group, into northern Japan, which can be demonstrably linked to the introduction of the microblade culture of Siberia.


title: Jōmon people

text: Kondo et al. 2017, found that the Jōmon period population of Japan was morphologically heterogeneous but overall similar to East Asians. A North-to-South cline was detected, with the Hokkaido Jōmon remains being more different from contemporary East Asians than the Jōmon remains found in Honshu, Kyushu, or the Ryukyuan islands.


title: Jōmon people

text: In 2021, it was confirmed that the ancient population of Hokkaido formed from proper Jōmon people and from "Terminal Upper-Paleolithic people" (TUP people) indigenous to Paleolithic Northern Eurasia. The proper Jōmon groups arrived at about 15,000 BCE from East Asia, and merged with the earlier arrived "Terminal Upper-Paleolithic North Eurasians", to form the local Hokkaido Jōmon.


title: Jōmon people

text: Watanabe et al. 2021 analyzed SNPs haplotypes and alleles related to physical appearance, and found that the Jōmon people predominantly carried gene alleles associated with East Asian facial features and characteristics. This includes the East Asian specific mutations and derived alleles of the ABCC11 and EDAR genes. Hokkaido Jōmon samples were found to have 47.6% frequency of the East Asian specific ABCC11 gene and 68.9% frequency of the East Asian specific EDAR gene. The authors concluded that these results correspond with craniometric data, which shows that the majority of Jōmon people had an East Asian phenotype, but heterogeneity existed within the prehistoric Jōmon population of Japan.


title: Jōmon people

text: It is not known what language or languages were spoken in Japan during the Jōmon period. Suggested languages are: the Ainu language, Japonic languages, Tungusic languages, Austronesian languages, Paleosiberian languages or unknown and today extinct languages. While the most supported view is to equate the Ainu language with the Jōmon language, this view is not uncontroversial or easily acceptable as there were probably multiple distinct language families spoken by the Jōmon period population of the Japanese archipelago.


title: Jōmon people

text: Alexander Vovin (1993) argues that the Ainu languages originated in Central Honshu, and were later pushed northwards into Hokkaido, where the early Ainu-speakers merged with local groups, forming the historical Ainu ethnicity. Bilingualism between Ainu and Japanese was common in Tohoku until the 10th century. A study by Lee and Hasegawa (2013) of the Waseda University, however, found evidence that the Ainu language originated from the Okhotsk population, which expanded roughly 2,000 years ago from northern Hokkaido southwards into Tohoku.


title: Jōmon people

text: Vovin (2021) presented arguments for the presence of Austronesian peoples within the Japanese archipelago during the Jōmon period, based on previous linguistic, historical, and cultural evidence, specifically referring to the historical Hayato and Kumaso people. Vovin found specific Austronesian vocabulary loaned into the core vocabulary of (Insular) Japanese. He suggests that Austronesian-speakers arrived in Japan during the Jōmon period and prior to the arrival of Yayoi period migrants, associated with the spread of Japonic languages. These Austronesian-speakers were subsequently assimilated into the Japanese ethnicity. Evidence for non-Ainuic, non-Austronesian, and non-Korean loanwords are found among Insular Japonic languages, and probably derived from unknown and extinct Jōmon languages.


title: Jōmon people

text: Some linguists suggest that the Japonic languages may have been already present within the Japanese archipelago and coastal Korea, before the Yayoi period, and can be linked to one of the Jōmon populations of southwestern Japan, rather than the later Yayoi or Kofun period rice-agriculturalists. Japonic-speakers than expanded during the Yayoi period, assimilating the newcomers, adopting rice-agriculture, and fusing mainland Asian technologies with local traditions.


title: Jōmon people

text: The culture of the Jōmon people was largely based on food collection and hunting, but it is also suggested that the Jōmon people practiced early agriculture. They gathered tree nuts and shellfish, were involved in hunting and fishing, and also practiced some degree of agriculture. The Jōmon people also used stoneware and pottery, and generally lived in pit dwellings.


title: Jōmon people

text: Some elements of modern Japanese culture may have come from the Jōmon culture. Among these elements are the precursory beliefs to modern Shinto, some marriage customs, some architectural styles, and possibly some technological developments such as lacquerware, laminated , metalworking, and glass making.


title: Jōmon people

text: The style of pottery created by the Jōmon people is identifiable for its "cord-marked" patterns, hence the name . The pottery styles characteristic of the first phases of Jōmon culture used decoration created by impressing cords into the surface of wet clay, and are generally accepted to be among the oldest forms of pottery in East Asia and the world. Next to clay pots and vessels, the Jōmon also made many highly stylized statues (), clay masks, stone batons or rods and swords.


title: Jōmon people

text: There is evidence that the Jōmon people built ships out of large trees and used them for fishing and traveling; however, there is no agreement as to whether they used sails or paddles. The Jōmon people also used obsidian, jade and different kinds of wood. The Jōmon people created many jewelry and ornamental items; for instance, were likely invented by one of the Jōmon tribes, and are commonly found throughout Japan and less in Northeast Asia.


title: Jōmon people

text: It is suggested that the religion of the Jōmon people was similar to early Shinto (specifically Ko-Shintō). It was largely based on animism, and possibly shamanism. Other similar religions are the Ryukyuan and Ainu religions.


title: Jōmon people

text: The Jōmon people predominantly descended from an Ancestral East Asian population expanding out of Mainland Southeast Asia or the southeastern Himalayan region. Geneflow from Upper-Paleolithic groups of Northern Eurasia and Siberia was detected in local Jōmon period samples from Hokkaido and Tohoku. Evidence suggests that the ethnic roots of the Jōmon period population was rather heterogeneous and that migration routes can be traced back to ancient Northeast Asia, the Tibetan plateau, ancient Taiwan and paleolithic Siberia. According to a 2009 study, the Jōmon people are an admixture of several distinct ethnic groups.


title: Jōmon people

text: According to the review article “"Jōmon culture and the peopling of the Japanese archipelago"” by Schmidt and Seguchi (2014), the prehistoric Jōmon people descended from diverse paleolithic populations with multiple migrations into Jōmon-period Japan. They concluded: ""In this respect, the biological identity of the Jomon is heterogeneous, and it may be indicative of diverse peoples who possibly belonged to a common culture, known as the Jomon"".


title: Jōmon people

text: Full genome analyses in 2020 and 2021 revealed further information regarding the origin of the Jōmon peoples. The genetic results suggest early admixture between different groups in Japan already during the Paleolithic, followed by constant geneflow from coastal East Asian groups, resulting in a heterogeneous population which then homogenized until the arrival of the Yayoi people. Geneflow from Northeast Asia during the Jōmon period is associated geneflow from the Tibetan Plateau and Southern China is associated with the D1a2a (previously D1b) and D1a1 (previously D1a) lineages. Geneflow from ancient Siberia was also detected into the northern Jōmon people of Hokkaido, with later geneflow from Hokkaido into parts of northern Honshu (Tohoku). The lineages K and F are suggested to have been presented during the early Jōmon period but got replaced by C and D. The genetic evidence suggests that an East Asian source population, near the Himalayan mountain range, contributed ancestry to the Jōmon period population of Japan, and less to ancient Southeast Asians. The authors concluded that this points to an inland migration through southern or central China towards Japan during the Paleolithic. Another ancestry component seem to have arrived from Siberia into Hokkaido. Archeological and biological evidence link the southern Jōmon culture of Kyushu, Shikoku and parts of Honshu to cultures of southern China and Northeast India. A common culture, known as "Broadleaved Evergreen Forest Culture", ranged from southwestern Japan through southern China towards Northeast India and southern Tibet, and was characterized by the cultivation of Azuki beans.


title: Jōmon people

text: Another study, published in the Cambridge University Press in 2020, concluded that there was also a migration of ancient Northeast Asians at approximately 6000BC (or already at ~10,000BC), which introduced the Incipient Jōmon culture, typified by early ceramic cultures such as the ones found at Ōdai Yamamoto I Jōmon Site or Aoyagamiji site in the Tottori prefecture. The authors argue that this migration may be the source of the Japonic languages rather than the later Yayoi migration.


title: Jōmon people

text: A 2021 study concluded that the Jōmon people descended from a common Basal-East Asian source population in Mainland Southeast Asia, which also gave rise to the other East Asian-related populations. The Jōmon people however became isolated from other East Asians on the Japanese archipelago at about 15,000 BCE, which resulted in their relative more Basal position compared to other East Asians. Some Jōmon subgroups, specifically the Hokkaido Jōmon, received minor geneflow from a Yana RHS-related group, a deeply European-related Upper-Paleolithic North Eurasian population.


title: Jōmon people

text: A review article in 2022 by Professor and historian Melinda A. Yang, concluded that the main Jōmon lineage is closely related to other populations on the "East- and Southeast Asian lineage" (ESEA), which descended from a source population in Mainland Southeast Asia, and gave rise to all modern East and Southeast Asian people, Indigenous peoples of Siberia, and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, as well as the ancient Hoabinhian lineage and the Tianyuan lineage, and which is distinct from the Australasian (AA) or West-Eurasian lineages.


title: Jōmon people

text: It is thought that the haplogroups D-M55 (D1a2a) and C1a1 were frequent in Jōmon period people. O-M119 is also suggested to have been presented in at least some Jōmon period people. One 3,800 year old Jōmon man excavated from Rebun Island was found to belong to Haplogroup D1a2b1(D-CTS 220). Haplogroup D-M55 is found in about 35% and haplogroup C1a1 in about 6% of modern Japanese people.


title: Jōmon people

text: D-M55 is only found in Japanese (Ainu, Ryukyuans, and Yamato). Haplogroup C1a1 has been found in modern Japanese at a frequency of 6%. Elsewhere it was found at low frequency in Koreans, and northeast Chinese. Recently it was confirmed that the Japanese branch of haplogroup D-M55 is distinct and isolated from other D-branches since more than 53,000 years. The split between D1a2-M55 and D1a-F6251 (the latter of which is common in Tibetans, other Tibeto-Burmese groups, and Altaians, and has a moderate distribution in the rest of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia) may have occurred near the Tibetan Plateau.


title: Jōmon people

text: A DNA study in 2019 suggests that haplogroup D-M55 increased to about 70% during the late Jōmon period, suggesting a population boom and bust shortly before the Yayoi migration. Another study similar concluded that D-M55 became the dominant haplogroup in Japan during the late Jōmon period.


title: Jōmon people

text: MtDNA Haplogroup Jōmon people is characterized by the presence of haplogroups and . Studies published in 2004 and 2007 show the combined frequency of M7a and N9b observed in modern Japanese to be from 12~15% to 17% in mainstream Japanese. N9b is frequently found in the Hokkaido Jomons while M7a is found frequently in the Tohoku Jomons. However N9b is found at very low percent in the Kanto Jomons.


title: Jōmon people

text: M7a is estimated to share a most recent common ancestor with M7b'c, a clade whose members are found mainly in Japan (including Jōmon people), other parts of East Asia, and Southeast Asia, 33,500 (95% CI 26,300 <-> 42,000) years before present. All extant members of haplogroup M7a are estimated to share a most recent common ancestor 20,500 (95% CI 14,700 <-> 27,800) years before present. Haplogroup M7a now has its highest frequency in Okinawa.


title: Jōmon people

text: Haplogroup N9b is estimated to share a most recent common ancestor with N9a and Y, two clades that are widespread in eastern Asia, 37,700 (95% CI 29,600 <-> 47,300) years before present. All extant members of haplogroup N9b are estimated to share a most recent common ancestor 21,100 (95% CI 16,700 <-> 26,200) years before present. Haplogroup N9b now has its highest frequency among Tungusic peoples in southeastern Siberia (especially Udeges), but it has been found to be very common in skeletal remains of Jōmon people of northern Japan (Tōhoku and Hokkaidō).


title: Jōmon people

text: In addition, haplogroups D4, D5, M7b, M8, M9a, M10, G, A, B, and F have been found in Jōmon people as well. These latter haplogroups are all distributed widely among populations of East Asia (including modern Japanese, Ryukyuans, and Ainus) and Southeast Asia, but some of their subclades are distributed almost exclusively in Japan. From a mtDNA study of ancient Jomon and Yayoi found that mtDNA D5, G, M7a, M7b, M10, N9b are found exclusively in Jomon, Ainu, Ryukyuan, Japanese in various percentages but not in the ancient Yayoi people of Japan.


title: Jōmon people

text: A gene common in Jōmon people is a retrovirus of ATL (human T lymphotropic virus, HTVL-I). This virus was discovered as a cause of adult T cell leukemia (ATL), and research was advanced by Takuo Hinuma of Kyoto University Virus Research Institute.