LISTENING 5 “ANTHROPOLOGY CLASS”
Audio Lecture
Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in an anthropology dass.
Professor
The concepts of power and authority are related, but they’re not the same. Power is the ability to exercise influence … and control over others. And this can be observed on every level of society, from, well… the relationships within a family to the relationships among nations. Power is usually structured by customs and … and social institutions or laws and tends to be exerted by persuasive arguments or coerdon or… or even brute force. In general, groups with the greatest, uh, resources tend to have the advantage in power struggles. So, is power always legitimate? Is it viewed by members of society as justified? Well, no. Power can be realized by individuals or groups … even when it involves the resistance of others if as long as … as long as they’re in a position to impose their will. But what about power that is accepted by members of sodety as right and just, that is, legitimate power? Now we’re talking about authority. And that’s what I want to focus on today.
Okay. When individuals or institutions possess authority, they have, um, a recognized and established right… to determine polides, with the acceptance of those over… over whom they exercise control. Max Weber, the German classical sociologist, proposed three types of authority in society: traditional, charismatic, and rational or legal authority. In all three types, he, uh, he acknowledged the right of those in positions of power to lead … with the consent of the governed. So, how did Weber differentiate among the three types of authority? Well, he divided them according to how the right to lead and the duty to follow are, uh, interpreted. In traditional authority, power resides in customs and conventions that provide certain people or groups with legitimate power in their societies. Often their origin is found in sacred traditions. The example that most often comes to mind is a monarchy in which kings or queens rule… by… by birthright, not because of any particular… quality of leadership or political election. just because they have a claim to authority, based on traditional acceptance of their position, and in some cases, their, uh, their, uh. unique relationship with and, uh, responsibility in religious practices. The royal families in Europe or the emperors in Asia are… come to mind as examples of traditional authority.
Okay. This contrasts sharply with charismatic authority, which is — um … derived … because of personal attributes that inspire admiration, loyalty . . . and even devotion. Leaders who exercise this type of authority may be the founders of religious movements or political parties, but it’s not their traditional right to lead. What’s important here is that their followers are mobilized more by … uh, by the force of the leader’s personality than by the tradition or the law. So when we think of “charismatic’ leaders in the United States, perhaps John Kennedy would be an example because he was able to project a youthful and energetic image that people were proud to identify with, or, if you prefer Republicans, you may argue that Ronald Reagan was able to exercise authority by virtue of his charismatic appeal. In any case, going back to Weber, to qualify for charismatic authority, a leader must be able to enlist others in the service of a … a cause that transforms the social structure in some way.
Which leaves us with legal rational authority, or power that is legitimized by rules, uh, laws, and pro-cedures. In such a system, leaders gain authority not by traditional birthrights or by charismatic appeal but. .. but rather because they’re elected or appointed in accordance with the law, and power is delegated to layers of officials who owe their allegiance to the, uh, principles that are agreed upon rationally, and because they accept the ideal that the law is supreme. In a legal rational society, people accept the legitimacy of authority as a government of laws, not of leaders. So, an example of this type of authority might be a president, like Richard Nixon, who was threatened with, uh. impeachment because he was perceived as not governing within the law.
Some sociologists have postulated that the three types of authority represent stages of evolution in society. That preindustrial societies tend to respect traditional authority, but. uh. as societies move into an industrial age, the importance of tradition .. wanes… in favor of charismatic authority, with a natural rise of charismatic leaders. Then, as … as the modem era evolves, the rational legal authority, embodied by rules and regulations, replaces the loyalty to leaders in favor of… a respect for law. Of course, other sociologists argue that in practice, authority may be represented by a combination of several of these ideal types at any one time.
LISTENING 6 “GEOLOGY CLASS”
Audio Lecture
Narrator Listen to part of a lecture in a geology class.
Professor
The original source of energy is what? The Sun. Then plants use the Sun’s energy during photosynthesis to convert water and carbon dioxide into sugar and oxygen, and they store the energy in the chemicals that the plant produces. When animals eat plants, the energy is transferred to their bodies. So then, the plants and animals die and decay, and they sink to the bottom of the sea or… or disintegrate into the soil and then they’re covered by more and more sediment as rivers deposit mud and sand into the sea or the seas advance and retreat. Of course, it’s a very gradual process … one that takes place over, well, millions of years. But finally, the organic material begins to transform into the hydrocarbons, and the hydrocarbons eventually become oil and gas deposits. So how does this happen? Well, at first, the oil and gas are mixed with sand and sediment but… as the layers on top increase, then so does the pressure. And under pressure, mixtures of oil and sand and water … they seep down through the layers of porous rock .. . that’s usually sandstone or limestone … so they sink down until they reach a layer of nonporous rock, and that’s where they pool because they can’t pass through the nonporous rock.
Okay. Sometimes there are breaks in the layers of rocks and the breaks allow oil and gas to bubble up and … and eventually they reach the surface of the Earth again. So, when this happens, the gas and some oil evaporate into the air… but they leave a sticky black tar that appears in pools or pits on the surface. But most crude oil is found in underground formations, which we call traps. So today, I want to talk about the major types of oil traps. In all the different types of traps, the oil collects in porous rocks, along with gas and water. And, over time, the oil moves up toward the surface of the Earth through cracks and holes in the porous rock … until it reaches a nonporous rock deposit… and the nonporous rock, remember, it won’t allow the oil to continue moving. So the oil becomes trapped under the nonporous rock deposit.
Now think for a moment. While oil was forming and moving, the Earth was also undergoing changes. In fact, there were enormous movements of the crust as the center began to cool. When folding happened, well, it was like the Earth fell back onto itself. And when faulting happened, it was … well, one layer was forced by rocks above down through the layers below. So, you can see that the … the … repositioning of porous and nonporous rock … this repositioning would have affected the move ment of oil. When the Earth shifted, cracks would have been opened, and nonporous layers would have been … dropped … dropped over channels that had previously been used as … as pathways for the transfer of oil and gas to the surface.
Okay, as geologists, we’re interested in locating the traps. Now why would that be so? Because that’s where we’ll find the oil and gas reserves. And that’s what I really want to talk about today. So, there are several different types of traps, but today we’re going to talk about the three most common ones—the anticline trap, the salt dome trap, and the fault trap.
Look at this diagram. Here’s an example of an anticline. As you can see, the oil is trapped under a formation of rock that resembles an arch. That’s because the arch was bent from a previously flat forma-tion by uplifting. In this anticline, the petroleum is trapped under a formation of nonporous rock with a gas deposit directty over it. This is fairly typical of an antidine. Because gas isn’t as dense as oil, it rises above it. The dome over the top can be rock as in this example, or it could be a layer of clay. The important thing is that the cap of nonporous material wont let the oil or gas pass upwards or sideways around it
Now let’s look at a diagram of a salt dome. This salt dome shows how a cylinder–shaped salt deposit has pushed up through a layer of sedimentary rocks, causing them to arch and fracture. The oil deposits have collected along the sides of the salt dome. Salt is a unique substance. With enough heat and pres-sure on it, the salt will slowly flow, kind of like a glacier, but unlike glaciers, salt that’s buhed below the surface of the Earth can move upward until it reaches the Earth’s surface, where it’s then dissolved by groundwater or… rain. Well, to get all the way to the Earth’s surface, salt has to lift and break through many layers of rock. And that’s what ultimately creates the salt dome.
Finally, I want to show you a fault trap. Fault traps are formed by the movement of rock along a fault line. This diagram represents a fracture in the Earth thafs shifted a nonporous rock formation on top of a porous formation. In this case, the reservoir rock, which is porous, has moved opposite a layer of non-porous rock. The nonporous rock prevents the oil from escaping. Remember, as in all traps, the oil is collected in the porous rock and trapped underground by the nonporous rock.
Geologists study the terrain for indications of possible oil traps. For example, a bulge in a flat sur-face may signal the presence of a salt dome. Your textbook has a good explanation of how technology assists us in this effort. So I want you to read Chapter 3 before dass next time.