title: Theories about religions

text: Evolutionary theories view religion as either an adaptation or a byproduct. Adaptationist theories view religion as being of adaptive value to the survival of Pleistocene humans. Byproduct theories view religion as a spandrel.


title: Theories about religions

text: The anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917) defined religion as belief in spiritual beings and stated that this belief originated as explanations of natural phenomena. Belief in spirits grew out of attempts to explain life and death. Primitive people used human dreams in which spirits seemed to appear as an indication that the human mind could exist independent of a body. They used this by extension to explain life and death, and belief in the after life. Myths and deities to explain natural phenomena originated by analogy and an extension of these explanations. His theory assumed that the psyches of all peoples of all times are more or less the same and that explanations in cultures and religions tend to grow more sophisticated via monotheist religions, such as Christianity and eventually to science. Tylor saw practices and beliefs in modern societies that were similar to those of primitive societies as "survivals", but he did not explain why they survived.


title: Theories about religions

text: James George Frazer (1854–1941) followed Tylor's theories to a great extent in his book The Golden Bough, but he distinguished between magic and religion. Magic is used to influence the natural world in the primitive man's struggle for survival. He asserted that magic relied on an uncritical belief of primitive people in contact and imitation. For example, precipitation may be invoked by the primitive man by sprinkling water on the ground. He asserted that according to them magic worked through laws. In contrast religion is faith that the natural world is ruled by one or more deities with personal characteristics with whom can be pleaded, not by laws.


title: Theories about religions

text: The theologian Rudolf Otto (1869–1937) focused on religious experience, more specifically moments that he called numinous which means "Wholly Other". He described it as "mysterium tremendum" (terrifying mystery) and "mysterium fascinans" (awe inspiring, fascinating mystery). He saw religion as emerging from these experiences.


title: Theories about religions

text: He asserted that these experiences arise from a special, non-rational faculty of the human mind, largely unrelated to other faculties, so religion cannot be reduced to culture or society. Some of his views, among others that the experience of the numinous was caused by a transcendental reality, are untestable and hence unscientific.


title: Theories about religions

text: Mircea Eliade's (1907–1986) approach grew out of the phenomenology of religion. Like Otto, he saw religion as something special and autonomous, that cannot be reduced to the social, economical or psychological alone. Like Durkheim, he saw the sacred as central to religion, but differing from Durkheim, he views the sacred as often dealing with the supernatural, not with the clan or society. The daily life of an ordinary person is connected to the sacred by the appearance of the sacred, called hierophany. Theophany (an appearance of a god) is a special case of it. In "The Myth of the Eternal Return" Eliade wrote that archaic men wish to participate in the sacred, and that they long to return to lost paradise outside the historic time to escape meaninglessness. The primitive man could not endure that his struggle to survive had no meaning. According to Eliade, man had a nostalgia (longing) for an otherworldly perfection. Archaic man wishes to escape the "terror of time" and saw time as cyclic. Historical religions like Christianity and Judaism revolted against this older concept of cyclic time. They provided meaning and contact with the sacred "in" history through the god of Israel.


title: Theories about religions

text: Eliade's methodology was studying comparative religion of various cultures and societies more or less regardless of other aspects of these societies, often relying on second hand reports. He also used some personal knowledge of other societies and cultures for his theories, among others his knowledge of Hindu folk religion.


title: Theories about religions

text: He has been criticized for vagueness in defining his key concepts. Like Frazer and Tylor he has also been accused of out-of-context comparisons of religious beliefs of very different societies and cultures.


title: Theories about religions

text: He has also been accused of having a pro-religious bias (Christian and Hindu), though this bias does not seem essential for his theory.


title: Theories about religions

text: The anthropologist Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard (1902–1973) did extensive ethnographic studies among the Azande and Nuer peoples who were considered "primitive" by society and earlier scholars. Evans-Pritchard saw these people as different, but not primitive.


title: Theories about religions

text: Unlike the previous scholars, Evans-Pritchard did not propose a grand universal theory and he did extensive long-term fieldwork among "primitive" peoples, studying their culture and religion, among other among the Azande. Not just passing contact, like Eliade.


title: Theories about religions

text: He argued that the religion of the Azande (witchcraft and oracles) can not be understood without the social context and its social function. Witchcraft and oracles played a great role in solving disputes among the Azande. In this respect he agreed with Durkheim, though he acknowledged that Frazer and Tylor were right that their religion also had an intellectual explanatory aspect. The Azande's faith in witchcraft and oracles was quite logical and consistent once some fundamental tenets were accepted. Loss of faith in the fundamental tenets could not be endured because of its social importance and hence they had an elaborate system of explanations (or excuses) against disproving evidence. Besides an alternative system of terms or school of thought did not exist.


title: Theories about religions

text: He was heavily critical about earlier theorists of primitive religion with the exception of Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, asserting that they made statements about primitive people without having enough inside knowledge to make more than a guess. In spite of his praise of Bruhl's works, Evans-Pritchard disagreed with Bruhl's statement that a member of a "primitive" tribe saying "I am the moon" is prelogical, but that this statement makes perfect sense within their culture if understood metaphorically.


title: Theories about religions

text: Apart from the Azande, Evans-Pritchard, also studied the neighbouring, but very different Nuer people. The Nuer had had an abstract monotheistic faith, somewhat similar to Christianity and Judaism, though it included lesser spirits. They had also totemism, but this was a minor aspect of their religion and hence a corrective to Durkheim's generalizations should be made. Evans-Pritchard did not propose a theory of religion"s", but only a theory of the Nuer religion.


title: Theories about religions

text: The anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1926–2006) made several studies in Javanese villages. He avoided the subjective and vague concept of group attitude as used by Ruth Benedict by using the analysis of society as proposed by Talcott Parsons who in turn had adapted it from Max Weber. Parsons' adaptation distinguished all human groups on three levels i.e. "1." an individual level that is controlled by "2." a social system that is in turn controlled by "3." a cultural system. Geertz followed Weber when he wrote that "man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning". Geertz held the view that mere explanations to describe religions and cultures are not sufficient: interpretations are needed too. He advocated what he called "thick descriptions" to interpret symbols by observing them in use, and for this work, he was known as a founder of symbolic anthropology.


title: Theories about religions

text: With symbols Geertz meant a carrier that embodies a conception, because he saw religion and culture as systems of communication.


title: Theories about religions

text: Though he used more or less the same methodology as Evans-Pritchard, he did not share Evans-Pritchard's hope that a theory of religion could ever be found. Geertz proposed methodology was not the scientific method of the natural science, but the method of historians studying history.


title: Theories about religions

text: According to Marx, the dynamics of society were determined by the relations of production, that is, the relations that its members needed to enter into to produce their means of survival.


title: Theories about religions

text: Developing on the ideas of Ludwig Feuerbach, he saw religion as a product of alienation that was functional to relieving people's immediate suffering, and as an ideology that masked the real nature of social relations.


title: Theories about religions

text: He deemed it a contingent part of human culture, that would have disappeared after the abolition of class society.


title: Theories about religions

text: These claims were limited, however, to his analysis of the historical relationship between European cultures, political institutions, and their Christian religious traditions.


title: Theories about religions

text: Marxist views strongly influenced individuals' comprehension and conclusions about society, among others the anthropological school of cultural materialism.


title: Theories about religions

text: Marx' explanations for all religions, always, in all forms, and everywhere have never been taken seriously by many experts in the field, though a substantial fraction accept that Marx' views possibly explain some aspects of religions.


title: Theories about religions

text: Some recent work has suggested that, while the standard account of Marx's analysis of religion is true, it is also only one side of a dialectical account, which takes seriously the disruptive, as well as the pacifying moments of religion


title: Theories about religions

text: Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) saw religion as an illusion, a belief that people very much wanted to be true. Unlike Tylor and Frazer, Freud attempted to explain why religion persists in spite of the lack of evidence for its tenets. Freud asserted that religion is a largely unconscious neurotic response to repression. By repression Freud meant that civilized society demands that we not fulfill all our desires immediately, but that they have to be repressed. Rational arguments to a person holding a religious conviction will not change the neurotic response of a person. This is in contrast to Tylor and Frazer, who saw religion as a rational and conscious, though primitive and mistaken, attempt to explain the natural world.


title: Theories about religions

text: In his 1913 book "Totem and Taboo" he developed a speculative story about how all monotheist religions originated and developed. In the book he asserted that monotheistic religions grew out of a homicide in a clan of a father by his sons. This incident was subconsciously remembered in human societies.


title: Theories about religions

text: In "Moses and Monotheism", Freud proposed that Moses had been a priest of Akhenaten who fled Egypt after the pharaoh's death and perpetuated monotheism through a different religion.


title: Theories about religions

text: Freud's view on religion was embedded in his larger theory of psychoanalysis, which has been criticized as unscientific. Although Freud's attempt to explain the historical origins of religions have not been accepted, his generalized view that all religions originate from unfulfilled psychological needs is still seen as offering a credible explanation in some cases.


title: Theories about religions

text: Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) saw the concept of the sacred as the defining characteristic of religion, not faith in the supernatural. He saw religion as a reflection of the concern for society. He based his view on recent research regarding totemism among the Australian aboriginals. With totemism he meant that each of the many clans had a different object, plant, or animal that they held sacred and that symbolizes the clan. Durkheim saw totemism as the original and simplest form of religion. According to Durkheim, the analysis of this simple form of religion could provide the building blocks for more complex religions. He asserted that moralism cannot be separated from religion. The sacred i.e. religion reinforces group interest that clash very often with individual interests. Durkheim held the view that the function of religion is group cohesion often performed by collectively attended rituals. He asserted that these group meeting provided a special kind of energy, which he called effervescence, that made group members lose their individuality and to feel united with the gods and thus with the group. Differing from Tylor and Frazer, he saw magic not as religious, but as an individual instrument to achieve something.


title: Theories about religions

text: Durkheim's proposed method for progress and refinement is first to carefully study religion in its simplest form in one contemporary society and then the same in another society and compare the religions then and only between societies that are the same.


title: Theories about religions

text: The empirical basis for Durkheim's view has been severely criticized when more detailed studies of the Australian aboriginals surfaced. More specifically, the definition of religion as dealing with the sacred only, regardless of the supernatural, is not supported by studies of these aboriginals. The view that religion has a social aspect, at the very least, introduced in a generalized very strong form by Durkheim has become influential and uncontested.


title: Theories about religions

text: Durkheim's approach gave rise to functionalist school in sociology and anthropology Functionalism is a sociological paradigm that originally attempted to explain social institutions as collective means to fill individual biological needs, focusing on the ways in which social institutions fill social needs, especially social stability. Thus because Durkheim viewed society as an "organismic analogy of the body, wherein all the parts work together to maintain the equilibrium of the whole, religion was understood to be the glue that held society together.".


title: Theories about religions

text: The anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski (1884–1942) was strongly influenced by the functionalist school and argued that religion originated from coping with death. He saw science as practical knowledge that every society needs abundantly to survive and magic as related to this practical knowledge, but generally dealing with phenomena that humans cannot control.


title: Theories about religions

text: Max Weber (1864–1920) thought that the truth claims of religious movement were irrelevant for the scientific study of the movements. He portrayed each religion as rational and consistent in their respective societies.


title: Theories about religions

text: Weber acknowledged that religion had a strong social component, but diverged from Durkheim by arguing, for example in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism that religion can be a force of change in society. In the book Weber wrote that modern capitalism spread quickly partially due to the Protestant worldly ascetic morale. Weber's main focus was not on developing a theory of religion but on the interaction between society and religion, while introducing concepts that are still widely used in the sociology of religion. These concept include


title: Theories about religions

text: Somewhat differing from Marx, Weber dealt with status groups, not with class. In status groups the primary motivation is prestige and social cohesion. Status groups have differing levels of access to power and prestige and indirectly to economic resources. In he saw Confucianism as helping a certain status group, i.e. the educated elite to maintain access to prestige and power. He asserted that Confucianism opposition against both extravagance and thrift made it unlikely that capitalism could have originated in China.


title: Theories about religions

text: He used the concept of "Verstehen" (German for "understanding") to describe his method of interpretation of the intention and context of human action.


title: Theories about religions

text: The rational choice theory has been applied to religions, among others by the sociologists Rodney Stark (1934 – ) and William Sims Bainbridge (1940 – ). They see religions as systems of "compensators", and view human beings as "rational actors, making choices that she or he thinks best, calculating costs and benefits". Compensators are a body of language and practices that compensate for some physical lack or frustrated goal. They can be divided into specific compensators (compensators for the failure to achieve specific goals), and general compensators (compensators for failure to achieve any goal). They define religion as a system of compensation that relies on the supernatural. The main reasoning behind this theory is that the compensation is what controls the choice, or in other words the choices which the "rational actors" make are "rational in the sense that they are centered on the satisfaction of wants".


title: Theories about religions

text: It has been observed that social or political movements that fail to achieve their goals will often transform into religions. As it becomes clear that the goals of the movement will not be achieved by natural means (at least within their lifetimes), members of the movement will look to the supernatural to achieve what cannot be achieved naturally. The new religious beliefs are compensators for the failure to achieve the original goals. Examples of this include the counterculture movement in America: the early counterculture movement was intent on changing society and removing its injustice and boredom; but as members of the movement proved unable to achieve these goals they turned to Eastern and new religions as compensators.


title: Theories about religions

text: Most religions start out their lives as cults or sects, i.e. groups in high tension with the surrounding society, containing different views and beliefs contrary to the societal norm. Over time, they tend to either die out, or become more established, mainstream and in less tension with society. Cults are new groups with a new novel theology, while sects are attempts to return mainstream religions to (what the sect views as) their original purity. Mainstream established groups are called denominations. The comments below about cult formation apply equally well to sect formation.


title: Theories about religions

text: There are four models of cult formation: the Psychopathological Model, the Entrepreneurial Model, the Social Model and the Normal Revelations model.


title: Theories about religions

text: Some religions are better described by one model than another, though all apply to differing degrees to all religions.


title: Theories about religions

text: Once a cult or sect has been founded, the next problem for the founder is to convert new members to it. Prime candidates for religious conversion are those with an openness to religion, but who do not belong or fit well in any existing religious group. Those with no religion or no interest in religion are difficult to convert, especially since the cult and sect beliefs are so extreme by the standards of the surrounding society. But those already happy members of a religious group are difficult to convert as well, since they have strong social links to their preexisting religion and are unlikely to want to sever them in order to join a new one. The best candidates for religious conversion are those who are members of or have been associated with religious groups (thereby showing an interest or openness to religion), yet exist on the fringe of these groups, without strong social ties to prevent them from joining a new group.


title: Theories about religions

text: Potential converts vary in their level of social connection. New religions best spread through pre-existing friendship networks. Converts who are marginal with few friends are easy to convert, but having few friends to convert they cannot add much to the further growth of the organization. Converts with a large social network are harder to convert, since they tend to have more invested in mainstream society; but once converted they yield many new followers through their friendship network.


title: Theories about religions

text: Cults initially can have quite high growth rates; but as the social networks that initially feed them are exhausted, their growth rate falls quickly. On the other hand, the rate of growth is exponential (ignoring the limited supply of potential converts): the more converts you have, the more missionaries you can have out looking for new converts. But nonetheless it can take a very long time for religions to grow to a large size by natural growth. This often leads to cult leaders giving up after several decades, and withdrawing the cult from the world.


title: Theories about religions

text: It is difficult for cults and sects to maintain their initial enthusiasm for more than about a generation. As children are born into the cult or sect, members begin to demand a more stable life. When this happens, cults tend to lose or de-emphasise many of their more radical beliefs, and become more open to the surrounding society; they then become denominations.


title: Theories about religions

text: The theory of religious economy sees different religious organizations competing for followers in a religious economy, much like the way businesses compete for consumers in a commercial economy. Theorists assert that a true religious economy is the result of religious pluralism, giving the population a wider variety of choices in religion. According to the theory, the more religions there are, the more likely the population is to be religious and hereby contradicting the secularization thesis.


title: Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance

text: The Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance is an honor presented to recording artists for quality rap performances. It was first presented at the 31st Annual Grammy Awards in 1989 and again at the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards in 1990, after which point the award was split into two categories: Best Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. These two categories were combined again in 2012 as a result of a restructure of Grammy categories, and the reinstated Award for Best Rap Performance was presented at the 54th Grammy Awards in 2012. The restructuring was the consequence of the Recording Academy's wish to decrease the number of categories and awards and to eliminate distinctions between solo and duo or group performances.


title: Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance

text: The Grammy Awards, an annual ceremony established in 1958, and originally called the Gramophone Awards, are presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".


title: Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance

text: The award goes to the artist. The producer, engineer and songwriter can apply for a Winners Certificate.


title: Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance

text: The first award for Best Rap Performance was presented to DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (the vocal duo consisting of DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith) for "Parents Just Don't Understand". The ceremony was not without controversy; nominees Jeff and Smith led a boycott in protest of the awards presentation not being televised, and some members of the rap community felt that more qualified artists were overlooked.


title: Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance

text: American rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West are two-time winners of this award. Kendrick Lamar is a five-time winner.


title: Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance

text: The Best Rap Performance category was first presented at the 31st Annual Grammy Awards in 1989. NARAS President Mike Green said in "Billboard" that the music genre has "matured into several kinds of music, with several kinds of artists doing it". Diane Theriot, a representative of the awards department for the academy, recalled being "inundated with eligible rap entries during the first few years of having the category". In 1991, the category was split into the categories Best Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. Recognizing that both categories were continuing to receive numerous entries, the Best Rap Album recognition was established for the 38th Grammy Awards in 1996—the inaugural award was presented to Naughty by Nature for "Poverty's Paradise". In 2003, the Best Rap Solo Performance category was divided into separate recognitions for Female and Male Rap Solo Performances. The categories remained separated by gender until 2005 when they were combined into the genderless category originally known as Best Rap Solo Performance. Additional rap categories include Best Rap/Sung Collaboration and Best Rap Song, established in 2002 and 2004, respectively.


title: Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance

text: For the 31st Grammy Awards (1989), Best Rap Performance nominees included DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince for "Parents Just Don't Understand", J. J. Fad for "Supersonic" (from the album of the same name), Kool Moe Dee for "Wild Wild West", LL Cool J for "Going Back to Cali", and Salt-n-Pepa (the duo consisting of Cheryl James and Sandra Denton) for "Push It". The duo known as DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince consisted of DJ Jazzy Jeff (birth name Jeffrey Townes) and actor Will Smith, whose nickname also appeared in the American television sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", in which he starred. "Parents Just Don't Understand" appeared on the duo's 1988 album "He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper". "Going Back to Cali" appeared on the soundtrack to the film "Less than Zero" as well as LL Cool J's 1989 studio album "Walking with a Panther". Kool Moe Dee's "Wild Wild West" and Salt-n-Pepa's "Push It" appeared on the albums "How Ya Like Me Now" and "Hot, Cool & Vicious", respectively.


title: Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance

text: Rap and heavy metal categories were introduced the same year (along with Best Bluegrass Album), but, according to the show's producers, time constraints prevented both categories from being televised. Nominee Kool Moe Dee performed during the ceremony, but the rap award was presented during the "usually fast-paced pre-televised ceremony". DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith led a boycott of the ceremony and were joined by fellow nominees LL Cool J and Salt-n-Pepa. Salt-n-Pepa issued the following statement: "If they don't want us, we don't want them." Adding to the controversy surrounding the category, some members of the rap community believed artists such as Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, and N.W.A (whose debut album "Straight Outta Compton" "launched gangsta rap") were overlooked. Awards were presented to Jeff and Smith at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. While Smith was absent from the ceremony, Jeff was present to accept his award. In 2004, Serena Kappes of "People" magazine ranked Smith's ceremony boycott number eight on its list of Top 10 Grammy Moments. Jeff and Smith were also recognized by the American Music Awards in 1989 with awards for Favorite Rap Artists and Favorite Rap Album, and "Parent's Just Don't Understand" also earned the duo the first MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video. Smith later earned Best Rap Solo Performance awards in 1998 for "Men in Black" and 1999 for "Gettin' Jiggy wit It", and was nominated again in 2000 for "Wild Wild West".


title: Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance

text: Nominees for the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards included De La Soul for "Me Myself and I", DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince for "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson", Public Enemy for "Fight the Power", Tone Lōc for "Funky Cold Medina", and Young MC for "Bust a Move". "Me Myself and I" appears on De La Soul's studio album "3 Feet High and Rising" and in 2008 was ranked number 46 on VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs Ever!!! "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson", written by the duo along with Pete Harris, appears on DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince's third album "And in This Corner...". "Fight the Power" appeared on the 1988 soundtrack for the film "Do the Right Thing" and later on Public Enemy's third studio album "Fear of a Black Planet" (1990). The song ranked number one on VH1's aforementioned list, number 40 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs list, and number 322 on "Rolling Stone"'s 2004 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". "Funky Cold Medina", written by Young MC, Michael L. Ross and Matt Dike, first appeared on Tone Lōc's debut album "Lōc-ed After Dark". "Bust a Move" appeared on Young MC's debut album "Stone Cold Rhymin'". Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the song as "unabashed catchy" due to its "skittish, rhythmic guitar riff, looped beats", backing vocals, and "funny" rhymes. The award was presented to Young MC. In 2010, Joshua Ostroff of Spinner included Young MC's win on his list of "The Grammy Awards' Biggest Mistakes", asserting that "Bust a Move" was merely a "fun little hip-pop song" while "Fight the Power" was a "revelatory single that still stands tall as one of music's greatest (and funkiest) political statements and perhaps hip-hop's finest moment".


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Group cohesiveness (also called group cohesion and social cohesion) arises when bonds link members of a social group to one another and to the group as a whole. Although cohesion is a multi-faceted process, it can be broken down into four main components: social relations, task relations, perceived unity, and emotions. Members of strongly cohesive groups are more inclined to participate readily and to stay with the group.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: From Neo-Latin and French , in physics, cohesion means "the force that unites the molecules of a liquid or of a solid". Thereby, there are different ways to define group cohesion, depending on how researchers conceptualize this concept. However, most researchers define cohesion to be task commitment and interpersonal attraction to the group.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Cohesion can be more specifically defined as the tendency for a group to be in unity while working towards a goal or to satisfy the emotional needs of its members. This definition includes important aspects of cohesiveness, including its multidimensionality, dynamic nature, instrumental basis, and emotional dimension. Its multidimensionality refers to how cohesion is based on many factors. Its dynamic nature refers to how it gradually changes over time in its strength and form from the time a group is formed to when a group is disbanded. Its instrumental basis refers to how people cohere for some purpose, whether it be for a task or for social reasons. Its emotional dimension refers to how cohesion is pleasing to its group members. This definition can be generalized to most groups characterized by the group definition discussed above. These groups include sports teams, work groups, military units, fraternity groups, and social groups. However, it is important to note that other researchers claim that cohesion cannot be generalized across many groups.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: The bonds between group members do not develop spontaneously. They develop from a number of components such as attraction, coordination, sense of belonging and shared emotions. The components can be known as antecedents of cohesion. Moreover, they also define the nature of cohesion. Each component is explained in-depth below.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Festinger and his colleagues in 1950 highly focused on attraction as a force in comparison to any other forces. In a study, they asked the group members to identify all their good friends and calculated the ratio of ingroup choices to outgroup choices. According to Dion in 2000, the greater the ratio, the greater the cohesiveness of the group. Hogg in 1992 and 2001 noted personal attraction is not a group cohesion even though members of cohesive groups like one another. Group cohesion is similar to a type of group-level attraction which, according to Hogg, is known as "social attraction". Social attraction is a liking for other group members based on their status as typical group members. Attraction is a basic ingredient for most groups, however, when interpersonal relations between group members intensify, it can transform a conjoined group into a cohesive one.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: In a cohesive group, individuals tend to fuse together to form a whole. Nonmembers who would encounter a group will be convinced that it is a tightly bonded group. Group members would express their sense of belonging to the group by being loyal to the group, identifying with the group and classifying themselves as members. They would also describe their unity by using terms such as family, us, community, team, etc.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: It is believed that cohesion is more about the willingness to work together to accomplish a set of goals than the interpersonal relationships between group members. According to Siebold in 2007, task-oriented groups such as flight crews and military squads share a drive to accomplish their goals.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: One of the most obvious features of a cohesive group is a shared positive emotion. Emotional cohesion is a multilevel process as emotions can be collective. For example, a group member may experience emotion when he/she learns that the other group member has been mistreated. An emotion is a collective emotion when all the members of a group experience the same emotional reaction. The intensity of such emotions is high when the members strongly identify with their group.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: The forces that push group members together can be positive (group-based rewards) or negative (things lost upon leaving the group). The main factors that influence group cohesiveness are: members' similarity, group size, entry difficulty, group success and external competition and threats. Often, these factors work through enhancing the identification of individuals with the group they belong to as well as their beliefs of how the group can fulfill their personal needs.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Similarity of group members has different influences on group cohesiveness depending on how to define this concept. Lott and Lott who referred in 1965 to interpersonal attraction as group cohesiveness conducted an extensive review on the literature and found that individuals' similarities in background (e.g., race, ethnicity, occupation, age), attitudes, values and personality traits have generally positive association with group cohesiveness.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: On the other hand, from the perspective of social attraction as the basis of group cohesiveness, similarity among group members is the cue for individuals to categorize themselves and others into either an ingroup or outgroup. In this perspective, the more prototypical similarity individuals feel between themselves and other ingroup members, the stronger the group cohesiveness will be.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: In addition, similar background makes it more likely that members share similar views on various issues, including group objectives, communication methods and the type of desired leadership. In general, higher agreement among members on group rules and norms results in greater trust and less dysfunctional conflict. This, in turn, strengthens both emotional and task cohesiveness.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Difficult entry criteria or procedures to a group tend to present it in more exclusive light. The more elite the group is perceived to be, the more prestigious it is to be a member in that group. As shown in dissonance studies conducted by Aronson and Mills in 1959 and confirmed by Gerard and Mathewson in 1966, this effect can be due to dissonance reduction (see cognitive dissonance). Dissonance reduction can occur when a person has endured arduous initiation into a group; if some aspects of the group are unpleasant, the person may distort their perception of the group because of the difficulty of entry. Thus, the value of the group increases in the group member's mind.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Small groups are more cohesive than large groups. This is often caused by social loafing, a theory that says individual members of a group will actually put in less effort, because they believe other members will make up for the slack. It has been found that social loafing is eliminated when group members believe their individual performances are identifiable – much more the case in smaller groups.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: In primatology and anthropology, the limits to group size are theorized to accord with Dunbar's number.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Group cohesion has been linked to a range of positive and negative consequences. Its consequences on motivation, performance, member satisfaction, member emotional adjustment, and the pressures felt by the member will be examined in the sections below.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Cohesion and motivation of team members are key factors that contribute to a company's performance. By adaptability development, self-worth, and personal motivation growth, each member becomes able to feel confident and progress in the team. Social loafing is less frequent when there is cohesion in a team; the motivation of each team member is considerably greater.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Studies have shown that cohesion can cause performance and that performance can cause cohesion. Most meta-analyses (studies that have summarized the results of many studies) have shown that there is a relationship between cohesion and performance. This is the case even when cohesion is defined in different ways. When cohesion is defined as attraction, it is better correlated with performance. When it is defined as task commitment, it is also correlated with performance, though to a lesser degree than cohesion as attraction. Not enough studies were performed with cohesion defined as group pride. In general, cohesion defined in all these ways was positively related with performance.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: However, some groups may have a stronger cohesion-performance relationship than others. Smaller groups have a better cohesion-performance relationship than larger groups. Carron in 2002 found cohesion-performance relationships to be strongest in sports teams and ranked the strength of the relationship in this order (from strongest to weakest): sports teams, military squads, groups that form for a purpose, groups in experimental settings. There is some evidence that cohesion may be more strongly related to performance for groups that have highly interdependent roles than for groups in which members are independent.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: In regards to group productivity, having attraction and group pride may not be enough. It is necessary to have task commitment in order to be productive. Furthermore, groups with high performance goals were extremely productive.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: However, it is important to note that the link between cohesion and performance can differ depending on the nature of the group that is studied. Some studies that have focused on this relationship have led to divergent results. For example, a study conducted on the link between cohesion and performance in a governmental social service department found a low positive association between these two variables, while a separate study on groups in a Danish military unit found a high negative association between these two variables.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Studies have shown that people in cohesive groups have reported more satisfaction than members of a noncohesive group. This is the case across many settings, including industrial, athletic, and educational settings. Members in cohesive groups also are more optimistic and suffer less from social problems than those in non-cohesive groups.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: One study involved a team of masons and carpenters working on a housing development. For the first five months, their supervisor formed the groups they were to work in. These groups changed over the course of five months. This was to help the men get to know everyone working on this development project and naturally, likes and dislikes for the people around them emerged. The experimenter then formed cohesive groups by grouping people who liked each other. It was found that the masons and carpenters were more satisfied when they worked in cohesive groups. As quoted from one of the workers "the work is more interesting when you've got a buddy working with you. You certainly like it a lot better anyway."


title: Group cohesiveness

text: People in cohesive groups experience better emotional adjustment. In particular, people experience less anxiety and tension. It was also found that people cope better with stress when they belong to a cohesive group.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: One study showed that cohesion as task commitment can improve group decision making when the group is under stress, more than when it is not under stress. The study studied forty-six three-person teams, all of whom were faced with the task of selecting the best oil drilling sites based on information given to them. The study manipulated whether or not the teams had high cohesion or low cohesion and how urgent the task was to be done. The study found that teams with low cohesion and high urgency performed worse than teams with high cohesion and high urgency. This indicates that cohesion can improve group decision-making in times of stress.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Attachment theory has also asserted that adolescents with behavioral problems do not have close interpersonal relationships or have superficial ones. Many studies have found that an individual without close peer relationships are at a higher risk for emotional adjustment problems currently and later in life.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: While people may experience better emotional in cohesive groups, they may also face many demands on their emotions, such as those that result from scapegoating and hostility.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: People in cohesive groups have greater pressure to conform than people in non-cohesive groups. The theory of groupthink suggests that the pressures hinder the group from critically thinking about the decisions it is making. Giordano in 2003 suggested that this is because people within a group frequently interact with one another and create many opportunities for influence. It is also because a person within a group perceives other members as similar to themselves and is thus more willing to give into conformity pressures. Another reason is that people value the group and are thus, more willing to give into conformity pressures to maintain or enhance their relationships.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Illegal activities have been stemmed from conformity pressures within a group. Haynie in 2001 found that the degree to which a group of friends engaged in illegal activities was a predictor of an individual's participation in the illegal activity. This was even after the individual's prior behavior was controlled for and other controls were set in place. Furthermore, those with friends who all engaged in illegal activities were most likely to engage in illegal activities themselves. Another study found that adolescents with no friends did not engage in as many illegal activities as those with at least one friend. Other studies have found similar results.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Albert Lott and Bernice Lott investigated how group cohesiveness influenced individual learning. They wanted to test whether learning would be better if children studied with peers they liked than peers they did not like. The degree of member liking was presumed to indicate group cohesiveness. They found that children with a high IQ performed better on learning tests when they learnt in high cohesive groups than low cohesive groups. For children with a low IQ, however, the cohesiveness factor made little difference. Still, there was a slight tendency for low IQ children to perform better in high cohesive groups. The researchers believed that if children worked with other students whom they liked, they would more likely have a greater drive to learn than if they had neutral or negative attitudes towards the group.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Social cohesion has become an important theme in British social policy in the period since the disturbances in Britain's Northern mill towns (Oldham, Bradford and Burnley) in the summer of 2001 (see Oldham riots, Bradford riots, Burnley riots). In investigating these, academic Ted Cantle drew heavily on the concept of social cohesion, and the New Labour government (particularly then Home Secretary David Blunkett) in turn widely promoted the notion. As the Runnymede Trust noted in their "The Year of Cohesion" in 2003:


title: Group cohesiveness

text: "If there has been a key word added to the Runnymede lexicon in 2002, it is cohesion. A year from publication of the report of the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, the Cantle, Denham, Clarke, Ouseley and Ritchie reports moved cohesion to the forefront of the UK race debate."


title: Group cohesiveness

text: According to the government-commissioned, "State of the English Cities" thematic reports, there are five different dimensions of social cohesion: material conditions, passive relationships, active relationships, solidarity, inclusion and equality.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: On a societal level Albrekt Larsen defines social cohesion 'as the belief—held by citizens in a given nation state—that they share a moral community, which enables them to trust each other'. In a comparative study of the US, UK, Sweden and Denmark he shows that the perceived trustworthiness of fellow citizens is strongly influenced by the level of social inequality and how 'poor' and 'middle classes' are represented in the mass media.


title: Group cohesiveness

text: Analysts at the credit rating agency Moody's have also introduced the possibility of adding social cohesion as a formal rating into their sovereign debt indices.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: The Governor of the State of Maryland is the head of government of Maryland, and is the commander-in-chief of the state's National Guard units. The Governor is the highest-ranking official in the state and has a broad range of appointive powers in both the state and local governments, as specified by the Maryland Constitution (1867, and revisions/amendments). Because of the extent of these constitutional powers, the Governor of Maryland has been ranked as being among the most powerful governors in the United States.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: The current Governor is Larry Hogan, a Republican who has been in office since 2015. He will be succeeded by Wes Moore, a Democrat who will take office on January 18, 2023.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: Like most state chief executives in the United States, the Governor is elected by the citizens of Maryland to serve a four-year term. Under the Constitution of Maryland, the Governor can run any number of times, but not more than twice in a row. This makes it possible for a two-term Governor to run for the office again after remaining out of office for at least one term. An eligible candidate for Governor must be at least 30 years old, and also a resident of and a registered voter in Maryland for the five years preceding the election. Candidates meeting this minimum requirement must file his or her candidacy with the Maryland State Board of Elections, pay a filing fee, file a financial disclosure, and create a legal campaign financial body. The Governor, like all statewide officials in Maryland, is elected in the even-numbered years in which the election for president of the United States does not occur.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: As the chief executive of the State of Maryland, the Governor heads the executive branch of government, which includes all state executive departments and agencies, as well as advisory boards, commissions, committees, and task forces. The main constitutional responsibility of the Governor of Maryland, and any other state's chief executive, is to carry out the business of the state and to enforce the laws passed by the legislature. The Governor also has some say in these laws, since the Governor has the ability to veto any bill sent to his or her desk by the Maryland General Assembly, though the assembly may override that veto. The Governor is also given a number of more specific powers as relates to appropriations of state funds, the appointment of state officials, and also a variety of less prominent and less commonly utilized powers.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: Every year, the Governor must present a proposed budget to the Maryland General Assembly. After receiving the proposed budget, the assembly is then allowed to decrease any portion of the budget for the executive branch, but it may never increase it or transfer funds between executive departments. The assembly may, however, increase funds for the legislative and judicial branches of government. The Governor has the power to veto any law that is passed by the General Assembly, including a "line item veto", which can be used to strike certain portions of appropriations bills. The legislature then has the power to override a Governor's veto by vote of three-fifths (60%) of the number of members in each house.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: The Governor also sits on the board of public works, whose other two members are the comptroller and the treasurer. This board has broad powers in overseeing and approving the spending of state funds. They must approve state expenditures of all general funds and capital improvement funds, excluding expenditures for the construction of state roads, bridges, and highways. It has the power to solicit loans on its own accord either to meet a deficit or in anticipation of other revenues, in addition to approving expenditures of funds from loans authorized by the General Assembly.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: The Governor appoints almost all military and civil officers of the state government, subject to advice and consent of the Maryland State Senate. The Governor also appoints certain boards and commissions in each of the 24 counties and in Baltimore City, such as local Boards of Elections, commissions notaries public, and appoints officers to fill vacancies in the elected offices of attorney general and comptroller. Should a vacancy arise in either of the two houses of the General Assembly, the Governor also fills that vacancy, though the Governor must choose from among the recommendations of the local party organization to which the person leaving the vacancy belonged. Any officer appointed by the Governor, except a member of the General Assembly, is removable by him or her, if there is a legitimate cause for removal. Among the most prominent of the Governor's appointees are the 24 secretaries and heads of departments that currently make up the Governor's Cabinet, also known as the executive council.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: The Governor of Maryland is the chairman of the Governor's executive council (or Cabinet) which coordinates all state government functions. This is composed of the following members, all of whom, except the Lieutenant Governor, are appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Maryland State Senate as heads of executive departments:


title: Governor of Maryland

text: The Governor also oversees several sub-cabinets that coordinate the activities of a certain function of state government that involves several state departments or agencies. Currently, these are the Base Realignment and Closure Subcabinet, BayStat Subcabinet, Chesapeake Bay cabinet, Children's Cabinet, Governor's Subcabinet for International Affairs, Smart Growth Subcabinet, and Workforce Creation Subcabinet.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: The Governor is the commander-in-chief of the military forces of the state: the Maryland Army National Guard and Air National Guard and the Maryland Defense Force, except when these forces have been called into federal service, which the federal government under the president of the United States now has the authority to do. In times of public emergency, the Governor may exercise emergency powers, including the mobilization of these military forces. In the area of criminal justice, the Governor may grant pardons to criminals, commute the sentences of prisoners, or remit fines and forfeitures imposed on people who have been convicted, jailed, or fined for violations of state laws.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: In both these areas, and a variety of others, the Governor sits on state and interstate boards and commissions with varying powers. The Governor is also obligated to report on the conditions of the state at any time during the year, though this traditionally happens in a "State of the State" address each January at the beginning of the annual General Assembly session.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: In addition to the various departments and agencies under gubernatorial control, the Governor has an executive administrative staff that assist in coordinating the executive duties. This staff is led by a chief of staff, and includes five offices: Intergovernmental Relations, Legal Counsel, Legislative and Policy, Press, and the Governor's Office in Washington, D.C. The chief of staff has a number of deputies to assist in running these departments. The Governor's staff is appointed and therefore largely exempt from state civil service laws.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: During the colonial period, Maryland's proprietors, the Barons and Lords of Baltimore, who generally remained in the Kingdom of England, chose who would serve as the proprietary governor of Maryland on their behalf. Leonard Calvert (1606–1647), youngest brother of the second Lord Baltimore, Cecilius Calvert (1605–1675), and the first lord proprietor, came with the first settlers in March 1634 to serve as the first Governor of the colonial Province of Maryland until his death in 1647. Between 1692, when the Baltimores lost control, and 1715, Maryland was a direct royal colony, and the Governor was appointed by the British monarch. The Lords of Baltimore regained their royal charter in 1715, under the British monarchs of the House of Hanover, and then under the fifth and sixth Lord Baltimores, they resumed choosing the Governors until the beginning of the American Revolution (1775–1783). The first Governor of an independent state chosen to break this chain of colonial Governors was Thomas Johnson (1732–1819) of Frederick County, who took office on March 21, 1777.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: Under the first Maryland Constitution of 1776 for the independent state, the Governor was chosen for one-year terms by both houses of the General Assembly. An 1838 constitutional amendment allowed voters to elect the Governor to a three-year term from one of three rotating gubernatorial districts: eastern, southern, and western parts of the state. At each election, only voters from a single gubernatorial election district selected the Governor. A four-year term was established by the second Maryland Constitution of 1851, and geographic requirements were removed by the third Constitution of 1864 during the American Civil War. The fourth and current constitution was ratified by the people after the war in 1867. An amendment in 1922, added article XVII, title "Quadrennial Elections", to the 1867 state constitution and set the next election year to be 1926 and every four years thereafter, thereby shifting from the historical off-year cycle (...1915, 1919, 1923) to the present mid-term election cycle.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: From 1777 to 1870, the Governor resided in the Jennings House in Annapolis. Located on the site of the future expanded campus of the adjacent United States Naval Academy (founded 1845), the house was later sold to the academy in 1869 after it returned from its northern hiatus in Rhode Island during the American Civil War (1861–1865). It was razed in 1901 for additional USNA buildings. Since 1870, the Governor of the Old Line State has resided in the Government House, originally a Victorian style architecture red brick mansion (later rebuilt/renovated in the 1930s into a Georgian-styled mansion to match other colonial/Georgian-Federal era styled architecture state buildings and residences in the historic city). It is located on State Circle adjacent to the colonial era Maryland State House built 1772–1797. In addition to being the residence of the Governor and his family, Government House has a number of public rooms that are used by the Governor on official occasions.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: Spiro T. Agnew, who was the 55th Governor of Maryland from 1967 to 1969, later served as the 39th vice president of the United States under President Richard M. Nixon. Agnew is, thus far, the highest-ranking Marylander (along with 19th-century chief justice Roger B. Taney) in public service in the history of the United States. He resigned after pleading "no contest" to federal legal charges of corruption during his terms as Baltimore County executive, Maryland Governor and vice president. In 1979, his gubernatorial portrait was removed from the Maryland State House Governor's Reception Room. In 1995, then-Governor Parris Glendening re-included the portrait, stating that it was not up to anyone to alter history, whether for good or bad, citing the famous novel by George Orwell, "Nineteen Eighty-Four".


title: Governor of Maryland

text: As of 2022, Maryland has not yet had a female Governor. However, women were the runners-up in four gubernatorial elections (in 1974, 1994, 1998, and 2002), three Republicans and one Democrat. In addition, one woman has been the Lieutenant Governor, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, under Democratic Governor Parris Glendening from 1995 to 2003. Another woman, Kristen Cox, who was the Secretary of Disabilities, unsuccessfully ran for Lieutenant Governor as the running mate of then incumbent Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich, when the Lieutenant Governor at that time, Michael Steele, left office to run for the U.S. Senate. Cox was a unique person to run for that office, not only because she is a woman, but also because she is legally blind.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: In 1971, the office of Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, which had existed for only a few years in the 1860s, was re-instituted by an amendment to the Maryland Constitution. The Lieutenant Governor is a weak office compared to other counterparts (in other states including Texas, the Lieutenant Governor is the president of the state's Senate, while in California the Lieutenant Governor assumes all of the Governor's powers when the sitting Governor is out of the state), as it only possesses the powers and duties that the Governor assigns to him or her. The Lieutenant Governor is elected on the same ballot with the Governor, and to the same term of office as the Governor. The Lieutenant Governor succeeds to the Governorship only if there is a vacancy in that office.


title: Governor of Maryland

text: Despite the Governor and Lieutenant Governor being elected on the same party ticket, very often there have been public rifts between the two; for instance Gov. Marvin Mandel and Lt. Gov. Blair Lee III; Gov. Harry R. Hughes and Lt. Gov. Samuel W. Bogley III; Gov. Schaefer and Lt. Gov. Melvin A. Steinberg., and Gov. Parris Glendening and Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.


title: Anticosti Island

text: Anticosti Island (; ; ) is an island in the Minganie Regional County Municipality, in administrative region of Côte-Nord, the province of Quebec, Canada.


title: Anticosti Island

text: This island is located at the outlet of the St. Lawrence River into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, between 49° and 50° N., and between 61° 40' and 64° 30' W. At in size, it is the 90th largest island in the world and 20th largest island in Canada. Anticosti Island is separated on the north from the Côte-Nord region of Quebec (the Labrador Peninsula) by the Jacques Cartier Strait, and on the south from the Gaspé Peninsula by the Honguedo Strait.


title: Anticosti Island

text: Anticosti Island is larger than Prince Edward Island but sparsely populated (218 people in 2016), with most of the permanent population in the village of Port-Menier on the western tip of the island, consisting chiefly of the keepers of the lighthouses erected by the Canadian government. The entire island constitutes one municipality known as L'Île-d'Anticosti.


title: Anticosti Island

text: Due to more than 400 shipwrecks off its coasts, Anticosti Island is sometimes called the "Cemetery of the Gulf".


title: Anticosti Island

text: Anticosti Island is part of the eastern Saint Lawrence lowlands. It is long and has a maximum breadth of – times as large as the province of Prince Edward Island. Its coastline is long, and is rocky and dangerous, offering little shelter for ships except in Gamache, Ellis, and Fox Bays. There are large shoals to the south.


title: Anticosti Island

text: The largest lake on the island is Lake Wickenden, which feeds the Jupiter River. There are numerous rivers on Anticosti, many of which flow through deep gorges and canyons to the north and south shores.


title: Anticosti Island

text: Topographically, Anticosti Island can be divided into three distinct regions: two lowland areas, rarely exceeding in elevation, in the eastern and western thirds of the island linked along the coast; and a central highland forming a plateau that rises to just over . This plateau is an unidirectional structure slightly tilted to the south, and is characterized by rolling cuestas. The rocks exposed on the island form a continuous sedimentary stratum more than thick. These are the most complete strata in eastern North America of the Ordovician and Silurian periods.


title: Anticosti Island

text: Anticosti Island has a subarctic climate (Dfc), tempered by the maritime influence of the Gulf of St. Lawrence which reduces the temperature differences. The average annual temperature is . The month of July is the warmest with an average temperature of . Conversely, February is the coldest month, on average . Snow precipitation is abundant, usually accumulating over in the western and central parts.


title: Anticosti Island

text: For thousands of years, Anticosti Island was the territory of the indigenous peoples who lived on the mainland and used it as a hunting ground. The Innu called it "Notiskuan", translated as "where bears are hunted" and the Mi'kmaq called it "Natigôsteg", meaning "forward land".


title: Anticosti Island

text: The French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed along its shore in the summer of 1534. He provided its first written description and named it "Isle de l'Assomption", because he reached it on the Day of the Assumption of Mary. This name had fallen into disuse by 1656. About 1586, the historian André Thevet wrote that "the savages named [it] Naticousti", while Samuel de Champlain spelled it Antiscoti (1612), Antiscoty (1613), Enticosty (1625) and Antycosty (1632). From that time on, France had officially incorporated the island into its colonial empire.


title: Anticosti Island

text: The island's first European settlers arrived in 1680 when Louis XIV gave Louis Jolliet the Seigneury of the Mingan Archipelago and Anticosti Island as compensation for reconnoitring the Mississippi and Hudson Bay. Louis Jolliet erected a fort on Anticosti and in the spring of 1681 settled there with his wife, four children and six servants. His fort was captured and occupied during the winter of 1690 by some of the Massachusetts troops of William Phips during their retreat after an unsuccessful attempt to capture Quebec City. After Jolliet's death in 1700, the island was divided among his three sons and the Jolliet family retained ownership until 1763 when the island became part of British North America under the terms of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years' War. That same year, the island was annexed to Newfoundland until 1774 when it was returned to Lower Canada and annexed again to Newfoundland from 1809 to 1825. It became a part of Quebec (as Lower Canada came to be called) at the Canadian Confederation in 1867. During these years the island property changed hands several times, its owners generally using it for the harvesting of timber; otherwise no real development took place. For example, the French Canadian Gabriel-Elzéar Taschereau owned it among other seigneuries and made money from them.


title: Anticosti Island

text: In 1874, it was bought by the Anticosti Island Company and they founded the villages at English Bay and Fox Bay. Most of the inhabitants, however, continued to be the few keepers of the island's many lighthouses. Because of the number of shipwrecks around the island, stores of provisions were also maintained around the island for sailors who might be washed ashore. In 1882, the Parish of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption was founded, a term referring to Cartier's name for the island. In 1884, the island became property of the Stockwell brothers who formed a forestry company two years later. But they were unsuccessful and the company lasted only five years. By the 1890s, the fish and wildlife of the island had been almost eradicated through the new locals' indiscriminate slaughter.


title: Anticosti Island

text: In 1895, Anticosti was sold for $125,000 to French chocolate maker Henri Menier who also leased the shore fishing rights. Menier named the island's high Vauréal Falls after the town of Vauréal in France where he owned a home. He constructed the entire village of Port-Menier, built a cannery for packing fish and lobsters, and attempted to develop its resources of lumber, peat and minerals. Many of the original houses still stand today. Furthermore, he converted the island into a personal game preserve and introduced nonindigenous animals for this purpose, including a herd of 220 white-tailed deer. The deer thrived and today the population exceeds 160,000 while the island's moose population is about 1,000. It has been reported that black bears, which rely on berries to bulk on for the winter, had lived on the island until the introduction, but have disappeared perhaps because of the deer eating the berry bushes bare.


title: Anticosti Island

text: Henri Menier died in 1913 and his brother Gaston became the owner of Anticosti Island. He used and maintained it for a time but eventually decided it was not an economically viable operation and sold it to the Wayagamack Pulp and Paper Company in 1926 for $6,000,000. For the next five decades, the island was used almost exclusively by forestry companies which harvested timber and built some infrastructure, mainly roads, but abandoned the villages at English Bay and Fox Bay.


title: Anticosti Island

text: Wayagamack's timber production was successful until the Great Depression when the paper market collapsed. The island property was taken over by Consolidated Paper Corporation Limited in 1931, but they showed little interest in it and put it up for sale. Offers came from Canadian, American, British, French and Belgian parties. In July 1937, an offer was received from a consortium of Dutch and German capitalists who intended to build a sulphite mill and wanted a steady supply of pulpwood and access to Canadian capital. In the autumn of that year, a team of German surveyors travelled to the island to examine its timber and export potential. When this story broke in the "Montreal Gazette" of 2 December 1937, it caused an immediate controversy since the story claimed that the survey team was really made up of Adolf Hitler's agents and that most were naval, military and fortifications experts. Despite the substantial offer, the promise of thousands of new jobs, and the fact that there were no legal methods to block the sale, the suspicions remained. A committee was set up to investigate the affair but concluded that "there was no evidence to indicate that the project has other than a commercial purpose". However, when the deadline to purchase the island passed on 15 September 1938, the offer expired and controversy died out.


title: Anticosti Island

text: In 1974, the government of Quebec purchased the island from the forestry company Consolidated Bathurst Ltd. for $23,780,000. Anticosti was placed under management by the Ministry of Recreation, Hunting and Fishing ("ministère du Loisir de la Chasse et de la Pêche") and in 1983 the process began to set up a working municipal structure. Today, about 60% is under management by Sépaq and since April 2001, has been designated as a national conservation park. With its 24 rivers and streams bountiful with salmon and trout, the island is now a tourist destination for anglers and hunters, particularly from the United States and Canada, as well as for paleontologists, bird watchers and hikers.


title: Anticosti Island

text: Access to the island is either by boat or plane. From April to mid-January, the commercial shipping company Relais Nordik services Port-Menier twice weekly with a passenger and cargo vessel.


title: Anticosti Island

text: The Port-Menier Airport is serviced by Air Liaison which provides regular scheduled flights to Sept-Îles and Havre-St-Pierre. There are two other aerodromes on the island, both towards the eastern end. Rivière-aux-Saumons (CTH7) is located on the northern side of the island and was paved in July 2010; Rivière Bell (CRB5) is gravel and is located on the southern side. These are used by outfitters and charter companies that provide private air services during the tourist season.


title: Anticosti Island

text: The Henri-Menier Road or Transanticostienne Road, the island's unpaved main road, stretches from Port-Menier to the eastern tip, with numerous forest roads branching off to provide access to various tourist locations and logging concessions. Car rental is available in Port-Menier.


title: Anticosti Island

text: The forests of Anticosti Island are typical boreal forest, with common species such as white spruce, balsam fir, and black spruce. It is distinguished by some minor stands of American white birch and trembling aspen. Balsam fir is slowly being replaced with white spruce because of intensive grazing done by deer and by periodic outbreaks of hemlock looper and spruce budworm. About a quarter of the island is covered by peat lands.


title: Anticosti Island

text: Anticosti Island is home to the rare lady's slipper orchid. While populations are declining elsewhere in eastern North America, the orchid flourishes here abundantly, making Anticosti a refuge for this plant.


title: Anticosti Island

text: The wildlife is characteristic of an isolated marine environment. Of the 24 mammal species, 14 of these are marine mammals that include grey seals and harbour seals. Even large whales ply the nearby cold waters of the gulf.


title: Anticosti Island

text: Originally, there were probably only seven indigenous species of land mammals, namely the red fox, river otter, deer mouse, American marten, black bear and two bat species (the little brown and northern bat); the marten and bear have now been extirpated. Melanistic foxes have been seen on the island.


title: Anticosti Island

text: In order to make Anticosti Island a hunter's "paradise", several animal species have been introduced; starting in 1896, the island became an unprecedented biological experiment. In all, sixteen introduced species have been attempted, with six proving to be unsuccessful, namely bison, caribou, elk, mink and fisher. However, for ten species, it has been a beneficial introduction; six species of terrestrial mammals (white-tailed deer, moose, beaver, snowshoe hare and muskrat), two species of frogs, and two species of non-migratory birds (ruffed grouse and the spruce grouse). Of all these species introduced, the success of white-tailed deer is particularly noteworthy. From an initial group of about 200 (introduced in 1896 and 1897), the number of white-tailed deer has grown to an estimated 160,000 animals today, representing a density of 20 deer/km. Without predators, this man-made deer population has had noticeable impacts on the island ecosystem. Balsam fir trees covered about 40% of the island, prior to the introduction of the deer. The deer eat tender sprouts from the ground, and prevent fir regeneration; in turn, the firs are being replaced by white spruce.


title: Anticosti Island

text: The brook trout, Atlantic salmon and American eel visit the island's shores and swim up several rivers of the island.


title: Anticosti Island

text: Some 221 bird species, distributed among 21 avian families, have been observed on Anticosti Island. It is home to nearly 60% of the known breeding sites of the bald eagle in the province of Quebec.


title: Anticosti Island

text: Because of its untamed wilderness and abundant wildlife, Anticosti Island is known for its hunting, fishing and outdoor opportunities and it attracts some 3,000 to 4,000 hunters per year.


title: Anticosti Island

text: Most of Anticosti Island () is under management by Sépaq Anticosti, a division of the provincial parks and wildlife reserves agency Sépaq. It actively promotes tourism on the island, in particular hunting and fishing tours. Another is protected in the Anticosti National Park ("Parc national d'Anticosti"). In addition to hunting and fishing, many other outdoor recreational activities are supported in this park, such as hiking, horseback riding, nature viewing and sea kayaking.


title: Anticosti Island

text: There are also five commercial outfitters that hold exclusive hunting and fishing rights to of the island.


title: Anticosti Island

text: The Utica Shale, a stratigraphical unit of Middle Ordovician age that is potentially rich in shale gas reserves, underlies the Anticosti Islands and extends to surrounding areas in Quebec, Ontario and much of northeastern United States. On February 8, 2011, the citizen group "Non au Pétrole et au Gaz au Québec" released one of the biggest petitions in Quebec history against fracking in the province of Quebec with 128,000 signatures thinking it would prevent the oil and gas exploration on Anticosti. In June 2011, the Quebec firm Pétrolia claimed to have discovered about 30 billion barrels of oil on the island of Anticosti, which is the first time that significant reserves have been found in the province.


title: Anticosti Island

text: In February 2014, Premier of Quebec Pauline Marois announced that the provincial government would help finance two exploratory shale gas operations as a prelude to hydraulic fracturing on the island, with the province pledging $115-million to finance drilling for two separate joint ventures in exchange for rights to 50% of the licences and 60% of any commercial profit. It was the first oil and gas deal of any size for the province. With the change in government that occurred in April 2014, the Liberals of Philippe Couillard could change that decision. Petrolia Inc., Corridor Resources and Maurel & Prom formed one joint-venture, while Junex Inc. was still seeking a private partner.


title: Anticosti Island

text: On June 4, 2013, the citizen group "Non au Pétrole et au Gaz au Québec", realizing that fracking continued to be a viable method of oil extraction on Anticosti, released another petition that garnered 26,000 signatures against fracking, exploration and exploitation of oil and gas on Anticosti Island and asked for a moratorium and an environmental evaluation. Geological engineer Marc Durand gave a presentation at a conference explaining that a minimum of 12,000 wells would be necessary for this exploitation and would put Quebec in debt, considering the 12 million dollar cost of one of these wells. A year later, when Pauline Marois announced an investment of 115 million dollars for Petrolia to continue the exploration, the same petition increased up to 36,000 signatures. The government started a BAPE (environmental evaluation) specific for Anticosti and the report, published on October 3, is in favour of creating a protected area on the island.


title: Golden Corral

text: Golden Corral is an American restaurant chain which offers an all-you-can-eat buffet and grill. It is a privately held company headquartered in the U.S. city of Raleigh, North Carolina, with locations in 43 U.S. states and Puerto Rico.


title: Golden Corral

text: In 1971, James Maynard and William F. Carl conceived the idea that became Golden Corral after several unsuccessful attempts to acquire a franchise with other companies. Golden Corral was incorporated in 1972 and the first Golden Corral Family Steak House opened on January 3, 1973, in Fayetteville, North Carolina.


title: Golden Corral

text: The company has since expanded to nearly 500 locations across the United States; about 100 of them are company-owned. The others are franchised stores. As of 2007, gross sales were over $1.53 billion.


title: Golden Corral

text: The company had more than 500 restaurants by 1987. That year, they decided to begin franchising by licensing 55 distressed restaurants to their most successful general managers. Because of poor training, nationwide concerns about the consumption of red meat, and a shift in market shares to upscale restaurants, sales were falling. The company added salad bars to all of its locations, sacrificed seating in most and in others sacrificed part of the parking lot to make additions to the buildings.


title: Golden Corral

text: In 1991, the first seven "Metro Market" concept restaurants opened. They were and seated between 400 and 450 customers. These new Golden Corral restaurants more than doubled the size of the old, which were typically with a capacity of 175 people. There was the addition of the Brass Bell Bakery, named for the brass bell which rang every fifteen minutes to signal that fresh bread, rolls, and pastries were coming out of the oven. An expanded buffet, dubbed the Golden Choice Buffet, was also added, which had a new layout to showcase its items. The location of these new restaurants, the majority of which were in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and North Carolina, was also a change for the company, moving away from small towns and into metropolitan areas. In 2001, system-wide annual sales exceeded $1 billion for the first time. As of 2021, there were nearly 500 restaurants in 43 states covering most regions of the country aside from: Oregon (no locations), Hawaii (no locations), New England (only three restaurants—Springfield, Massachusetts, New Haven, Connecticut, and Manchester, New Hampshire), the New York City Metropolitan Areas (none aside from one in the Bronx) and the low population states of Nebraska, Delaware and Wyoming. In some other larger metropolitan areas, such as the San Francisco Bay Area (only one location, in Concord to the northeast), Philadelphia, Washington, and New Orleans, there are only locations in the far-flung suburbs. The first Puerto Rico location opened on October 25, 2020 in Canovanas with plans to open more locations throughout the island.


title: Golden Corral

text: In late 1993, VICORP acquired the right to a small Florida chain called Angel's Diner. They acquired this from Eric A. Holm. Unfortunately, he had also sold the rights to Golden Corral and VICORP was forced to pay Golden Corral $1M to secure the exclusive rights. The intent was to convert underperforming Village Inn and Bakers Square units to this new concept. After building seven units, VICORP realized that the concept was not economically viable and wrote off $11M on the venture. During this time frame, Eric A. Holm filed for personal bankruptcy.


title: Golden Corral

text: The company updated their restaurants to a concept, called "Strata", during the mid-2000s in an effort to bring more of the food preparation into view of the guests. In all locations, guests serve themselves, including requesting made-to-order items such as Belgian waffles, omelets and char-broiled steaks.


title: Golden Corral

text: The most recent designed restaurants are known as the "Gateway" style rolled out late 2018. These locations were created in the hopes of offering a more contemporary appearance for the interior and exterior of the building, with different layouts for the dining room, adding new food service bars and kitchen areas.


title: Golden Corral

text: Many locations offer "GC on the go" services, as well as delivery partnerships with companies like Grubhub, Uber Eats and DoorDash. GC on the go allows customers to pack anything they want into a takeout container and then pay for it by the pound. Many restaurants also offer reserved parking.


title: Golden Corral

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the chain had to temporarily close down most of its locations just like other restaurants in response to the directives for the prevention of COVID-19 that spread across the globe. In order for the chain to sustain its business and to ensure the safety of its guests, some of the chain's locations were reopened offering cafeteria-style dining and family-style service. Others were permanently closed.


title: Golden Corral

text: In October 2020, one of its largest franchise operators filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and had plans to cancel at least six out of 33 leases.


title: Golden Corral

text: Golden Corral sponsors Camp Corral, a one-week summer camp program at various camps around the country for children of wounded, disabled or fallen military service members. Camp Corral has served over 17,000 military kids between the ages of 8 and 15, with 24 camp locations in 19 states. Golden Corral raised over $1.8 million for Camp Corral in 2018 alone.


title: Golden Corral

text: In January 2002, the National Arbitration Forum ordered that the domain "www.goldencorralrest.com" be transferred to Golden Corral from an unapproved domain service based in Russia.


title: Golden Corral

text: From 2004 to 2006, the restaurant sponsored the Golden Corral 500, a NASCAR Cup Series spring race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and was the main sponsor for the 2009 season of "WindTunnel with Dave Despain" on Speed. Golden Corral also sponsored the No. 28 Yates Racing Ford of Travis Kvapil during select NASCAR Cup Series events in the 2009 season. Dave Blaney used Golden Corral as one of his sponsors for the 2011 NASCAR Cup Series season. In 2011, Golden Corral sponsored two drivers for the Daytona 500; Blaney earned primary sponsorship for his Tommy Baldwin Racing entry, while Brian Keselowski received associate sponsorship after his surprise finish in the qualifying races.


title: Golden Corral

text: If a Golden Corral-sponsored driver finishes in the top ten, the chain honors a "Kids Eat Free" promotion. Dave Blaney finished 3rd at the 2011 fall Talladega race. J. J. Yeley finished 10th at the 2013 Daytona 500. Regan Smith finished 8th at the 2016 Daytona 500. This is a promotion Golden Corral has honored during restrictor plate races after the 2011 Daytona 500 when the chain was the primary sponsor of the No. 36 Tommy Baldwin Racing entry.


title: Golden Corral

text: In 2003, an outbreak of salmonella was linked to a Golden Corral restaurant in Kennesaw, Georgia and a total of 23 people were affected by the outbreak. The salmonella bacteria was found in a floor drain, leading health inspectors to believe that it had been washed from equipment earlier. No original source was found.


title: Golden Corral

text: In 2012, an outbreak of norovirus was linked to a now closed Golden Corral restaurant in Casper, Wyoming. Over 344 illnesses, with 282 primary cases, were reported by the Wyoming state epidemiologist. The virus got a push from 31 sickened food handlers at the restaurant who mostly kept working their normal shifts.


title: Golden Corral

text: On July 1, 2013, a YouTube video was uploaded alleging that during a health inspection, the Port Orange, Florida, Golden Corral location, owned by Eric A. Holm, was improperly storing prepared and raw food next to their dumpster. Employee Brandon Huber was given a six-month paid leave after filming and uploading the video to YouTube. Items included, among other things: pot roast, gravy, hamburger patties and raw baby back ribs. These items were still on their prep trays and bins, as well as on a speed rack. The employee in the video alleges that this is a common practice for the restaurant and insinuated that the food was to be served later that day. On July 8, 2013, Golden Corral posted a response on YouTube, saying that the food was never served to the customers, the employee in the video was trying to make money from the video and the manager of the location had been fired. The CEO of Golden Corral stated that he would fully investigate the incident and that the employee would not be terminated.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: Diana, Princess of Wales, the first wife of Prince Charles (now Charles III), and mother of Prince William and Prince Harry, owned a collection of jewels, both as a member of the British royal family and as a private individual. These were separate from the coronation and state regalia of the Crown Jewels. Most of her jewels were either presents from foreign royalty, on loan from Elizabeth II, wedding presents, purchased by Diana herself, or heirlooms belonging to the Spencer family.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: Her jewellery was a mix of precious stones and costume pieces, which she sourced from London's Butler & Wilson, often reported by the media as being "priceless" jewels, which the Princess found amusing. Most of the jewellery dates from the 19th and 20th centuries. She also had a vast collection of gold accessories which often went unnoticed and became understated by the media.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: At formal occasions, such as banquets, the Princess normally wore jewellery lent to her by the Queen, who owned more than 300 items of jewellery. Upon the marriage of Diana's sons, their wives, Catherine and Meghan, have worn various pieces from her collection.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: Born into an affluent aristocratic family, Diana Spencer owned some high quality jewellery. Prior to her marriage to Prince Charles, she often wore a gold Cartier Russian wedding ring of three yellow gold bands on the little finger of her right hand and a diamond and white gold eternity ring from the family collection on her third finger.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: The rings remained in the Princess's collection but were rarely seen in public during her marriage. Occasionally she was photographed wearing both rings on her left hand. She also wore her family's signet ring which she would wear in combination with her other rings.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: As a teenager, Diana wore a gold choker with a 'D' pendant. In 2017, a sterling silver 'D' necklace owned by the princess as a teenager sold at auction for around US$8,000. Diana was photographed wearing her initial necklace as a nursery assistant while still dating Charles. For her 16th birthday her friends gifted her a gold initial necklace. She was also photographed wearing sterling silver earrings with five diamonds. After marrying Charles, she continued to wear the necklace on occasion.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: The future Princess had a collection of enameled bangles and bracelets which she wore frequently as a teenager.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: At the age of 16, Diana was a bridesmaid at her sister Jane's wedding to Robert Fellowes on 20 April 1978. She wore a pair of pearl studs and a pearl necklace. The pearl studs were worn by Diana as early as 1975 and were last seen on the Princess in 1990 while opening a police station at 462 Fore Street, Edmonton, London.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: On her 18th birthday, Diana was given a triple-strand pearl choker by the Spencer family. Both of Diana's older sisters had also received matching chokers on their 18th birthdays. It consisted of three rows of pearls with a turquoise and pearl cluster clasp; the clasp was only visible when it matched the colour of her outfit, otherwise hidden at the back. The Princess later altered the clasp to be all pearls.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: One of the first gifts Diana received from Prince Charles was an eternity ring which she wore regularly.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: At the age of 18, while living in her flat 60 Coleherne Court, London, her apartment was burgled and she had most of her jewellery stolen.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: The wedding of Charles and Diana took place on 29 July 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral, London. The Princess wore very little jewellery at her wedding. She wore diamond earrings that belonged to her mother, Frances Shand Kydd. She also wore her Spencer family tiara, her engagement ring, and a wedding band placed on her finger by Charles at the ceremony. Her wedding dress designers, the Emanuels, also attached an 18-carat gold horseshoe trinket studded with white diamonds to the label of the dress.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: On her wedding day, Diana borrowed her mother's diamond earrings, which consist of a central pear-shaped diamond surrounded by around 50 smaller diamonds. The Princess never wore them in public again, but Frances wore them at a number of important occasions, including Prince Harry's christening in 1984, her son's wedding in 1989, and the funeral of her daughter in 1997. After Frances' death in 2004, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, her eldest daughter, inherited them.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: For many years, the earrings were a part of the travelling Diana exhibition. In 2011, Lady Sarah withdrew them from the display to wear them at the wedding ball for her nephew, Prince William.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: Though the piece was once said to date from the 18th century, the Spencer tiara is actually made up of other pieces of jewellery of varying ages and from different jewellers that has gone through several changes over time. The oldest parts of the tiara are the ends. They are said to have come from a tiara that once belonged to Frances Manby, the last Viscountess Montagu, and left to Lady Sarah Spencer in 1875. The centre element was a wedding present from Lady Sarah Isabella Spencer to Cynthia, Viscountess Althorp (Diana's grandmother), when she married Albert, Viscount Althorp, the future 7th Earl Spencer, in 1919. This piece was remounted by the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company at some point, and Garrard was asked to create four matching pieces in 1937 to add on. The full current appearance apparently dates from around 1935. The tiara includes diamonds in silver settings mounted in gold in various floral shapes: stylized tulips, star-shaped flowers, and scrolling foliage. Both of Lady Diana's older sisters, Jane and Sarah, wore the piece at their weddings. However, Diana's mother, Frances, did not wear it when she married into the Spencer family in 1954. While Diana's mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II, loaned her the Queen Mary's Lover's Knot Tiara for the wedding, the princess-to-be decided to stick to her family roots and wore the Spencer tiara. Diana frequently wore the piece as it was supposedly lighter and easier to wear than other tiaras at her disposal. Even so, it gave Diana a "cracking headache" according to her brother, Charles Spencer, as she was not used to wearing a tiara for such a long time.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: In 1913, Garrard & Co (the first official Crown Jewellers) were asked by Queen Mary to make a replica of a tiara owned by her grandmother, Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel, using the Queen Mary's own diamonds and pearls. The tiara, in its French neo-classical design, has 19 oriental pearls suspended from lover's knot bows each centred with a large brilliant diamond. Mary left the tiara to Elizabeth II, who later gave it to Diana in 1981 as a wedding present. Diana was to wear the tiara during her wedding but she instead opted for her Spencer family tiara. The Princess wore this piece very often as it was given to her on loan. Diana complained about the 'swinging pearls', but she wore it at most of her tiara events. She most notably wore it with her 'Elvis dress' on a visit to Hong Kong in 1989, but on her divorce from Prince Charles it was returned to the Queen.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: The tiara has since has been loaned to Catherine, the wife of Prince William. She first wore it to a diplomatic reception at Buckingham Palace in 2015, and has continued to wear it during state occasions.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: Made from a present of emeralds and diamonds from the Ladies of India in 1911, this Art Deco choker was created by Garrards in 1921 for Queen Mary and was originally a part of the Delhi Durbar Parure. Given as a wedding gift to Diana from the Queen, who inherited the piece from her grandmother in 1953, it was worn as a bandeau during a dance in Melbourne. It was worn as a choker to other events. The Prince of Wales also presented his wife with a diamond and emerald Art Deco bracelet as a wedding present and matching emerald earrings as a gift for her 22nd birthday. The choker was later worn by Catherine, Princess of Wales.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: On 24 April 1991, Diana visited a hostel for abandoned children at a FEBEM Foundation for Child Welfare in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She was extensively photographed wearing a gold cross and chain which the children at the hostel played with. This cross and chain was donated by the Princess for a charity auction which was to take place early in September 1997, but it was put into storage for 20 years and then sold to a young Australian collector.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: This necklace can be worn in many different ways. The diamond drops are removable which allows the owner to wear them as earrings. Any number of the pearl drops can be removed as well which can allow the necklace to be worn as a diamond riviere. The Princess wore this necklace with a single pearl drop while at the Red Dragon Ball at the Grosvenor House Hotel. This necklace is composed of diamonds and pearls from various periods; it was common among aristocratic families to create new jewels with pieces already in their collection.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: The three pearl drop pendants were given as a wedding present from the City of London to Elizabeth Stuart in 1613, which were later inherited by her son, the famous Cavalier Prince Rupert and later sold by his daughter, Ruperta Howe. Ruperta sold the royal pearls to the formidable Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. In 1726, Sarah purchased two diamond pendants from the Duchess of Shrewsbury’s collection. Together with the Pearls, she merged them with a diamond necklace given to her by Queen Anne. After her death in 1744, the necklace was inherited by her grandson, John, 1st Earl Spencer. At some point, the Diamond Pendants were converted into earrings and were worn by Diana's stepmother, Raine Spencer along with the original diamond riviere.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: The necklace has been passed down through the Earls Spencer over the centuries and was first photographed on Charlotte, Countess Spencer in the late 1800s.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: It is still very much in use today and the current Countess Spencer, Karen frequently wears several elements from the original necklace.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: As a wedding present, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother gave a large oval sapphire and diamond brooch to her new granddaughter-in-law. In the early years of her marriage, Diana wore the piece as a brooch, including the famous appearance during the Dutch state visit to the Netherlands in 1982, when the Princess had to find a new gown and jewels after Queen Beatrix gave her the Order of the Crown which is worn on an orange sash.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: However, soon after the wedding, the Princess had the sapphire brooch converted into the clasp for a magnificent seven-strand pearl choker. One of the earliest famous appearances was in 1985, when she wore the choker to dance with John Travolta at the White House. A favourite piece of jewellery, the Princess wore this seven-strand pearl and sapphire choker for occasions at home and abroad. Another famous appearance of the sapphire choker was in 1994, when the Princess wore the piece (with the daring 'revenge' dress) on the night the Prince of Wales confessed to adultery with Camilla Parker Bowles.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: The seven-strand pearl and sapphire choker was one of the rare 'big' jewels from her marriage that Diana continued to wear after her divorce. The last time the choker was publicly seen was when the Princess attended the Met Gala in New York in December 1996. It hasn't been seen or exhibited since, and now belongs to Prince William and Prince Harry.


title: Jewels of Diana, Princess of Wales

text: Though unconfirmed, many speculate Meghan Markle's engagement ring, which she first wore in November 2017 at her engagement announcement with Prince Harry, includes two diamonds from Diana's famous sapphire and pearl choker. The engagement ring consists of three large diamonds, with one stone in the center flanked by two smaller stones. According to Harry, the side stones are from his mother's jewellery collection (though it's unclear which piece of jewellery they are from).