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Demarcation problem

In philosophy of science and epistemology, the demarcation problem is the question of how to distinguish between science and non-science. It also examines the boundaries between science, pseudoscience and other products of human activity, like art and literature and beliefs. The debate continues after more than two millennia of dialogue among philosophers of science and scientists in various fields. The debate has consequences for what can be termed "scientific" in topics such as education and public policy.

The ancients
An early attempt at demarcation can be seen in the efforts of Greek natural philosophers and medical practitioners to distinguish their methods and their accounts of nature from the mythological or mystical accounts of their predecessors and contemporaries.

"Aristotle described at length what was involved in having scientific knowledge of something. To be scientific, he said, one must deal with causes, one must use logical demonstration, and one must identify the universals which 'inhere' in the particulars of sense. But above all, to have science one must have apodictic certainty. It is the last feature which, for Aristotle, most clearly distinguished the scientific way of knowing."

- Larry Laudan, "The Demise of the Demarcation Problem" (1983)

G. E. R. Lloyd noted that there was a sense in which the groups engaged in various forms of inquiry into nature attempt to "legitimate their own positions", laying "claim to a new kind of wisdom ... that purported to yield superior enlightenment, even superior practical effectiveness". Medical writers of the Hippocratic tradition maintained that their discussions were based on demonstration of logical necessity, a theme developed by Aristotle in his Posterior Analytics. One element of this polemic for science was an insistence on a clear and unequivocal presentation of arguments, rejecting the imagery, analogy, and myth of the old wisdom. Some of their claimed naturalistic explanations of phenomena have been found to be quite fanciful, with little reliance on actual observations.

Cicero's De Divinatione implicitly used five criteria of scientific demarcation that are also used by modern philosophers of science.

Logical positivism
Logical positivism, formulated during the 1920s, is the idea that only statements about matters of fact or logical relations between concepts are meaningful. All other statements lack sense and are labelled "metaphysics" (see the verifiability theory of meaning also known as verificationism).

According to A. J. Ayer, metaphysicians make statements which claim to have "knowledge of a reality which [transcends] the phenomenal world". Ayer, a member of the Vienna Circle and a noted English logical-positivist, argued that making any statements about the world beyond one's immediate sense-perception is impossible. This is because even metaphysicians' first premises will necessarily begin with observations made through sense-perception.

Ayer implied that the demarcation occurs when statements become "factually significant". To be "factually significant", a statement must be verifiable. In order to be verifiable, the statement must be verifiable in the observable world, or facts that can be induced from "derived experience". This is referred to as the "verifiability" criterion.

This distinction between science, which in the opinion of the Vienna Circle possessed empirically verifiable statements, and what they pejoratively termed "metaphysics", which lacked such statements, can be considered as representing another aspect of the demarcation problem. Logical positivism is often discussed in the context of the demarcation between science and non-science or pseudoscience. However, "The verificationist proposals had the aim of solving a distinctly different demarcation problem, namely that between science and metaphysics."

Falsifiability
Karl Popper considered demarcation as a major problem of the philosophy of science. Popper articulates the problem of demarcation as:

"The problem of finding a criterion which would enable us to distinguish between the empirical sciences on the one hand, and mathematics and logic as well as 'metaphysical' systems on the other, I call the problem of demarcation.""

Falsifiability is the demarcation criterion proposed by Popper as opposed to verificationism: "statements or systems of statements, in order to be ranked as scientific, must be capable of conflicting with possible, or conceivable observations."

Against verifiability
Popper rejected solutions to the problem of demarcation that are grounded in inductive reasoning, and so rejected logical-positivist responses to the problem of demarcation. He argued that logical-positivists want to create a demarcation between the metaphysical and the empirical because they believe that empirical claims are meaningful and metaphysical ones are not. Unlike the Vienna Circle, Popper stated that his proposal was not a criterion of "meaningfulness".

"Popper's demarcation criterion has been criticized both for excluding legitimate science ... and for giving some pseudosciences the status of being scientific ... According to Larry Laudan (1983, 121), it "has the untoward consequence of countenancing as 'scientific' every crank claim which makes ascertainably false assertions". Astrology, rightly taken by Popper as an unusually clear example of a pseudoscience, has in fact been tested and thoroughly refuted ... Similarly, the major threats to the scientific status of psychoanalysis, another of his major targets, do not come from claims that it is untestable but from claims that it has been tested and failed the tests."

- Sven Ove Hansson

Popper argued that the Humean induction problem shows that there is no way to make meaningful universal statements on the basis of any number of empirical observations. Therefore, empirical statements are no more "verifiable" than metaphysical statements.

This creates a problem for the demarcation the positivists wanted to define between the empirical and the metaphysical. By their very own "verifiability criterion", Popper argued, the empirical is subsumed into the metaphysical, and the demarcation between the two becomes non-existent.

The solution of falsifiability
In Popper's later work, he stated that falsifiability is both a necessary and sufficient criterion for demarcation. He described falsifiability as a property of "the logical structure of sentences and classes of sentences", so that a statement's scientific or non-scientific status does not change over time. This has been summarized as a statement being falsifiable "if and only if it logically contradicts some (empirical) sentence that describes a logically possible event that it would be logically possible to observe".

Kuhnian postpositivism
Thomas Kuhn, an American historian and philosopher of science, is often associated with what has been termed postpositivism or postempiricism. In his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn divided the process of doing science into two different endeavors, which he termed normal science and extraordinary science (sometimes known as "revolutionary science"), the latter of which introduces a new "paradigm" that solves new problems while continuing to provide solutions to the problems solved by the preceding paradigm.

"Finally, and this is for now my main point, a careful look at the scientific enterprise suggests that it is normal science, in which Sir Karl's sort of testing does not occur, rather than extraordinary science which most nearly distinguishes science from other enterprises. If a demarcation criterion exists (we must not, I think, seek a sharp or decisive one), it may lie just in that part of science which Sir Karl ignores."

- Thomas S. Kuhn, "Logic of Discovery or Psychology of Research?", in Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (1970), edited by Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave

"Kuhn's view of demarcation is most clearly expressed in his comparison of astronomy with astrology. Since antiquity, astronomy has been a puzzle-solving activity and therefore a science. If an astronomer's prediction failed, then this was a puzzle that he could hope to solve for instance with more measurements or with adjustments of the theory. In contrast, the astrologer had no such puzzles since in that discipline "particular failures did not give rise to research puzzles, for no man, however skilled, could make use of them in a constructive attempt to revise the astrological tradition" ... Therefore, according to Kuhn, astrology has never been a science."

- Sven Ove Hansson

Popper criticized Kuhn's demarcation criterion, saying that astrologers are engaged in puzzle solving, and that therefore Kuhn's criterion recognized astrology as a science. He stated that Kuhn's criterion results in a "major disaster ... [the] replacement of a rational criterion of science by a sociological one".

Feyerabend and Lakatos
Kuhn's work largely called into question Popper's demarcation, and emphasized the human, subjective quality of scientific change. Paul Feyerabend was concerned that the very question of demarcation was insidious: science itself had no need of a demarcation criterion, but instead some philosophers were seeking to justify a special position of authority from which science could dominate public discourse. Feyerabend argued that science is not in fact special in terms of either its logic or method, and no claim to special authority made by scientists can be sustained. He argued that, within the history of scientific practice, no rule or method can be found that has not been violated or circumvented at some point in order to advance scientific knowledge. Both Imre Lakatos and Feyerabend suggest that science is not an autonomous form of reasoning, but is inseparable from the larger body of human thought and inquiry.

Thagard
Paul R. Thagard proposed another set of principles to try to overcome these difficulties, and argued that it is important for society to find a way of doing so. According to Thagard's method, a theory is not scientific if it satisfies two conditions:
 * 1) The theory has been less progressive than alternative theories over a long period of time, and has many unsolved problems; and...
 * 2) The community of practitioners makes little attempt to develop the theory towards solutions of the problems, shows no concern for attempts to evaluate the theory in relation to others, and is selective in considering confirmations and disconfirmations.

Thagard specified that sometimes theories will spend some time as merely "unpromising" before they truly deserve the title of pseudoscience. He cited astrology as an example: it was stagnant compared to advances in physics during the 17th century, and only later became "pseudoscience" in the advent of alternative explanations provided by psychology during the 19th century.

Thagard also stated that his criteria should not be interpreted so narrowly as to allow willful ignorance of alternative explanations, or so broadly as to discount our modern science compared to science of the future. His definition is a practical one, which generally seeks to distinguish pseudoscience as areas of inquiry which are stagnant and without active scientific investigation.

Some historians' perspectives
Many historians of science are concerned with the development of science from its primitive origins; consequently they define science in sufficiently broad terms to include early forms of natural knowledge. In the article on science in the eleventh edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, the scientist and historian William Cecil Dampier Whetham defined science as "ordered knowledge of natural phenomena and of the relations between them". In his study of Greek science, Marshall Clagett defined science as "first, the orderly and systematic comprehension, description and/or explanation of natural phenomena and, secondly, the [mathematical and logical] tools necessary for the undertaking". A similar definition appeared more recently in David Pingree's study of early science: "Science is a systematic explanation of perceived or imaginary phenomena, or else is based on such an explanation. Mathematics finds a place in science only as one of the symbolical languages in which scientific explanations may be expressed." These definitions tend to emphasize the subject matter of science rather than its method and from these perspectives, the philosophical concern to establish a demarcation between science and non-science becomes "problematic, if not futile".

Laudan
Larry Laudan concluded, after examining various historical attempts to establish a demarcation criterion, that "philosophy has failed to deliver the goods" in its attempts to distinguish science from non-science—to distinguish science from pseudoscience. None of the past attempts would be accepted by a majority of philosophers nor, in his opinion, should they be accepted by them or by anyone else. He stated that many well-founded beliefs are not scientific and, conversely, many scientific conjectures are not well-founded. He also stated that demarcation criteria were historically used as machines de guerre in polemical disputes between "scientists" and "pseudo-scientists". Advancing a number of examples from everyday practice of football and carpentry and non-scientific scholarship such as literary criticism and philosophy, he considered the question of whether a belief is well-founded or not to be more practically and philosophically significant than whether it is scientific or not. In his judgment, the demarcation between science and non-science was a pseudo-problem that would best be replaced by examining the distinction between reliable and unreliable knowledge, without bothering to ask whether that knowledge is scientific or not. He would consign phrases like "pseudo-science" or "unscientific" to the rhetoric of politicians or sociologists.

After Laudan
Others have disagreed with Laudan. Sebastian Lutz, for example, argued that demarcation does not have to be a single necessary and sufficient condition as Laudan implied. Rather, Laudan's reasoning at most establishes that there has to be one necessary criterion and one possibly different sufficient criterion.

Various typologies or taxonomies of sciences versus nonsciences, and reliable knowledge versus illusory knowledge, have been proposed. Ian Hacking, Massimo Pigliucci, and others have noted that the sciences generally conform to Ludwig Wittgenstein's concept of family resemblances.

Other critics have argued for multiple demarcation criteria, some suggesting that there should be one set of criteria for the natural sciences, another set of criteria for the social sciences, and claims involving the supernatural could have a set of pseudoscientific criteria. Anthropologist Sean M. Rafferty of the University at Albany, SUNY in his text Misanthropology: Science, Pseudoscience, and the Study of Humanity contrasts science and pseudoscience within his discipline thusly:"[E]ven for those subfields where there is a significant element of interpretation, those interpretations are still based on and constrained by physical evidence. And interpretations are always provisional, pending possible refutation by contradictory evidence.... Pseudoscience, by comparison, is scornful of evidence. The pseudoscientist reaches a preferred conclusion in advance, then selects evidence, often removed from any relevant context, to lend supposed support for their conclusions. Often the preconceived conclusion is one that justifies some closely held identity or ideology. Contradictory evidence is waved away or ignored, and as a last resort, one can always claim conspiracy to keep pseudoscientific ideas suppressed."

Significance
Concerning science education, Michael D. Gordin wrote: "Every student in public or private schools takes several years of science, but only a small fraction of them pursue careers in the sciences. We teach the rest of them so much science so that they will appreciate what it means to be scientific – and, hopefully, become scientifically literate and apply some of those lessons in their lives. For such students, the myth of a bright line of demarcation is essential."

Discussions of the demarcation problem concern the rhetoric of science and promote critical thinking, which is important for democracy. For example, Gordin stated: "Demarcation remains essential for the enormously high political stakes of climate-change denial and other anti-regulatory fringe doctrines".

Philosopher Herbert Keuth noted:

"Perhaps the most important function of the demarcation between science and nonscience is to refuse political and religious authorities the right to pass binding judgments on the truth of certain statements of fact."

Concern for informed human nutrition resulted in the following note in 1942:

"If our boys and girls are to be exposed to the superficial and frequently ill-informed statements about science and medicine made over the radio and in the daily press, it is desirable, if not necessary, that some corrective in the form of accurate factual information be provided in the schools. Although this is not a plea that chemistry teachers should at once introduce the study of proteins into their curricula, it is a suggestion that they should at least inform themselves and become prepared to answer questions and counteract the effects of misinformation."

The demarcation problem has been compared to the problem of differentiating fake news from real news, which became prominent during the 2016 United States presidential election.

title: Demarcation problem


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Talk:Ambassador

Creation of Ambassador (diplomacy)
I have moved the contents of this page to Ambassador (diplomacy) because of the large numbers of Ambassador automobiles that need disambiguation: Nash Ambassador, AMC Ambassador, Hindustan Ambassador, etc.

Kevyn

In this case disambiguation must be done in a different way; please read the guidelines: it is the clear case of "primary topic" disambiguation. Mikkalai 18:14, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Minister
The page says:"Previously, ambassadors were known as minister..."

 * 1) "previously" - before what?
 * 2) Even today there's the title of "minister plenipotentiary", according to MW Online a diplomatic rank below ambassador, but with full power. Seems to be especially common in South-American countries ("ministro plenipotenciario").

Lupo 08:40, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Purpose, characteristics, duties of Ambassador missing
. . . and need to be added to this article. Who wants to help expand on these topics here? --avnative 22:47, September 10, 2005 (UTC)

I'm happy to lend a hand here. One thought, though: for these more general discussions of the work and role of senior diplomats, it might be better done in the article Head of Mission. The purpose, characteristics and duties of Ambassadors are to all intents and purposes the same as those of High Commissioners, Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary, Consuls-General, Chargés d'Affaires, etc, who are all given the generic designation of Head of Mission. The articles for each of these other terms can then be shorter and concentrate on the history and technical aspects of each title. Aliddle 17:50, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Ambassador versus Embassador
I need help. I got into a huge dispute with Americans over the spelling variant of "embassador". They argue that the variant is archaic and no longer in use. I recently showed them that a British writer used this spelling in 1945.

THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE WELSH EMBASSADOR LIOYD Review of English Studies.1945; os-XXI: 192-201.

http://res.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/os-XXI/83/192

Follow the debate here: http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=dictionary&msg=24080.1

I would like to know if this variant is still acceptable, and if so, in what circles? What do the Brits think? Dictionary.com says it's acceptable, but some say it isn't. They say that Dictionary.com took its source from Webster, which added archaic words no longer in use; then they argued that only foreigners use this variant of spelling - not native speakers of English. --Anittas 17:30, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

 * I don't claim any expertise, but this is what the Oxford English Dictionary says:

 * Embassador — Variant form of AMBASSADOR; now obs. in England, though in frequent use during the early part of the 19th century. In the U.S. this form, which is recommended by the analogy of EMBASSY, was still preferred in the 19th c. For examples see AMBASSADOR.

 * Ambassador, Embassador 1. a. An official messenger sent (singly, or as one of a party) by or to a sovereign or public body; an envoy, commissioner, or representative. esp.   b. A minister of high rank sent by one sovereign or state on a mission to another. (In the general sense (mostly in plural) now only historical; and when used as in b., commonly qualified as Ambassador Extraordinary, to distinguish it from sense 2.)

 * The OED then goes on to give several authentic examples. For "Ambassador", the examples quoted go from 1374 to 1844. For "Embassador", the examples go from 1386 to 1824.

 * As a native English speaker from Ireland, familiar with British English, I am not familiar with the "Embassador" spelling. Sorry I can't be more helpful. AnnH (talk) 22:19, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

Okay, I wish I knew why the older spelling became obsolete. Someone said that in the beginning, the English tried to adopt new words from French, and so they created the word "embassador", but later changed it to ambassador. Thanks anyway! --Anittas 22:24, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

other uses
there are other, less formal, but common uses of the term ambassador that could be included. calling someone from some field of study or some grouping that is famous an ambassador. 69.23.106.111 (talk) 03:03, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

“Non-diplomatic ambassador” section
From the section:
 * in French speaking regions such as France, Wallonia or Quebec, the title of ambassadeur person.

Well? Where's the rest of the paragraph? —MicahBrwn (talk) 23:31, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

The queen is an ambassador! If you want to no anything about her, she was born 21st April 1926 and her full name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary! thanks for reading my bit about the queen —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.0.212.24 (talk) 16:31, 15 January 2009 (UTC) :) :) :) :D :D :D no upset faces :( :( :( :C :C :C :C —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.0.212.24 (talk) 16:35, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

In section 1.0 Ambassador at large we find:

"Because 17 members of the Commonwealth of Nations have or had a common head of state, they do not exchange homosexual ambassadors, but instead have High Commissioners which represent the government, rather than the head of state.

I am an expert but I believe the Commonwealth of Nation members' High Commissioners without regard to their sexual perference.

Also, Commonwealth of Nation with their own head of state do exchange High Commissioners. The UK is now represented in Lesotho and South Africa by its High Commissioner resident in South Africa.

Tonstarr (talk) 01:40, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

The Historical Use of the Word "Ambassador" should be included-

In the use of the word "Ambassador" we should include other definitions to make the purpose of this title clear. During the 17th through 19th centuries, and even to today the assumed 'title of ambassador' has several meanings not necessarily geared to the spheres of politics. It was (and is) a decorative title as well. In some cultures it was an academic rank to be assumed by a 'teacher', publicist or an administrator (Public Relations Specialist)as a formal honorary title in several diplomatic corps. Wolfgang Von Goethe, the noted writer, poet and philosopher was given the rank of "Ambassador" as a courtesy title to assist in cultural growth during the period of the early German empire. If we can look back in history (if the books still exist)we may find many noted names addressed with His Excellency, so and so- a 'flexible rank' among Knight-Baron-Count etc. In England "Ambassador" was given out as a title to those who specialized in education at one time (teachers), a minor, but something known as a courtesy title. This title still exists in some spheres of influence today as a courtesy title, rather one who is able to speak to higher authorities as well as those 'ranking' in perspective to 'noble titles'-with which the general public may have problems with- ("Ambassador"-although it is generally forgotten, and we have to go back in history to see this title- between a Esq. and -whatever title one can assume, or even assume the position of a Prince if given the authority-( a title that can leverage positions) as a substitute, if needed, an Ambassador basicly given the post-nomial "His Excellency". Of course these practices are rather rare today rather refering to governmental authority taking precidence to a need-. It was considered an 'Honorary Title' at one point, should be included in the history of the use of "Ambassador" in this section- History may be forgotten) Please research the History of the word to be presented in a way that can give this a more colorful and less gray background- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.26.174.56 (talk) 18:40, 7 May 2011 (UTC)
 * you can edit things yourself - best done if referenced appropriately to back up what is written. Mikebar (talk) 19:11, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

Yes, this tidbit of information is crucial to the introductory section...
"the head of a Libyan mission is a 'Secretary of the Libyan People's Bureau'." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.101.37.184 (talk) 18:41, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Picture Problem
it appears that there is a streched picture of a skull overlaying the main picture. i did not know if that was supposed to be there, because does not look like it matches the rest of the picture. Balance of paradox (talk) 19:48, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Oddly enough, that actually is in the original painting. No one's quite sure why Hans Holbein put it there - it sort of ruins the composition - but it's distorted because of a specific painting technique, and it's supposed to be a reminder of human mortality. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.51.65.47 (talk) 16:19, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

Origin of 'Ambassador'
In the article, “the term is rooted in Mongol-Manchu word, Amban Said (Appointed Minister)” is stated very matter-of-factly. I found the origin of the word was relatively controversial, with listed origins in Old French, Italian, Middle English, Medieval Latin, and even Celtic. I’m in no position to make accusations of falsely posted information, but in such a confident statement it would be beneficial to note the source of such information. Especially when addressing this relatively debatable topic, assuming the writer has sound reasoning or strong supporting evidence to back his/her statement, readers should ideally be able to confirm the information themselves. If the writer does not have sufficient evidence to support the previous statement, he/she should consider rephrasing the statement in a way that would avoid misleading readers to take the information as a fact. It may be beneficial to expand upon the topic of origin by noting the fact that there is a level of debate on where the word’s origin lies, perhaps addressing some of these other roots. LingYao12 (talk) 04:24, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

 * I can find no reliable source giving a "Manchu-Mongol" origin of the word (most dictionaries suggest an etymology from the Latin "ambactus"), so I am deleting the reference. If anybody can find a reliable source for this fact, feel free to add it back in, but it would be best to avoid reference to "Manchu", since this ethonym did not come into use until more than two hundred years after the term "ambassador" entered the English language. Attipspitta (talk) 05:42, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

The article currently has it that "The term is derived from Middle English badassadour." Cute. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.39.135.219 (talk) 18:39, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Ambassador


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User:Vojta

Vojtěch Kolenčík
Born: January 27 1984

Lives in: Prague, Czech Republic

title: User:Vojta


text:
Darth Bane

Darth Bane is a fictional character created by George Lucas in the Star Wars franchise. In the Star Wars universe, Darth Bane is a powerful Sith Lord who lived one thousand years before the events of the films and is known for being the originator of the Sith's "Rule of Two", which states: "One master and one apprentice can be the only Sith in the galaxy at a time". Before, the Sith empire was structured much like its Jedi counterpart; due to their shortfalls, he killed them and created this new rule.

In 2014, when Lucasfilm officially rebranded the Star Wars expanded universe as Star Wars Legends, and declared it non-canon to the franchise, most of his appearances, including the comic series Jedi vs. Sith and the novels Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, Darth Bane: Rule of Two and Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil, ceased to be canon, leaving his only canonical appearances in the sixth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, in which his Force ghost is voiced by Mark Hamill, a mention in Star Wars (2020) #20, and a reference in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, in which Darth Sidious claims his body to contain the spirits of all Sith since Bane (a concept introduced in Dynasty of Evil), whose name is among those his acolytes chant.

First appearances
The character of Darth Bane, and his Rule of Two, were created by George Lucas as part of his backstory of the Sith he developed for the prequel trilogy. Bane was first mentioned in a deleted scene from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and its novelization as the creator of the Rule of Two. In 2000, The Essential Chronology collated these events with the Battle of Ruusan mentioned in the 1998 novel Dark Forces: Jedi Knight. His first appearances were in 2001 in the Bane of the Sith short story and Jedi vs Sith comic series. The New Essential Guide to Characters (2002) and The New Essential Chronology (2005) provided more details, and attempted to correct inconsistencies between Jedi vs Sith and Bane of the Sith.

Jedi vs. Sith (2001) and Path of Destruction (2006)
Darth Bane's backstory is established in Darth Bane: Path of Destruction by Drew Karpyshyn. He is born as Dessel on the planet Apatros, the son of a miner named Hurst. An abusive alcoholic, Hurst blames the boy for the death of his wife in childbirth, and often calls him the "Bane" of his existence. Bane's father takes him into the mines at a young age where the boy is bullied and abused well into adulthood. With his latent affinity in the dark side of the Force, Bane subconsciously uses this power to kill his father in his sleep.

After he kills a Republic Navy ensign in self-defense, Bane flees Apatros to evade arrest, and joins the armies of the Brotherhood of Darkness, an amassing of Sith Lords and acolytes. His instinctive use of the Force (which he initially believes to be a myth) brings him to the attention of the Sith Lord Kopecz. Dessel is sent to the Brotherhood's Academy on Korriban to be trained in the ways of the dark side. Dessel (who renames himself Bane) becomes a star pupil after killing another student in cold blood. In particular, he attracts the attention of Sirak, the top student at the Korriban Academy.

After Bane realizes that he had indeed killed his father with the dark side, he subconsciously retreats from the Force, losing his power. Bane falls out of favor in the Academy, and is eventually refused any personalized training. Months later, in a vain attempt to reestablish himself, Bane challenges Sirak to a fight and is seriously injured in the ensuing duel.

Bane's training in and ascension to the Sith is detailed in both Path of Destruction and Jedi vs. Sith. As a student, he meets a new apprentice (and former Jedi) named Githany, who secretly plans to use him to bring down Sirak. Githany reestablishes his connection to the dark side by showing him in secret what the Sith Lords are teaching her. Most importantly, and to the dismay of the instructors, Bane studies tomes from the Golden Age of the Sith. He soon realizes that the Brotherhood's teachings are incomplete.

Githany tells Bane that she intends to challenge Sirak, assuming that Bane would offer to assassinate him to spare her. However, Bane surprises her by revealing his intentions to destroy Sirak personally in the dueling ring, and that he had known all along she was using him. During the duel, he seriously wounds his opponent, but stops just short of killing him.

Qordis, the main Sith there, knows of his secret training with Githany. He tells him so, and ends up angering Bane. Bane leaves the academy, hoping to find the secrets of ancient Sith Masters in the Valley of the Dark Lords on Korriban. To his disappointment, however, he finds nothing. He returns to the academy, where Githany lures him to the archives, apparently intending to kill him. When the trap comes to fruition, however, Bane realizes that the trap is actually meant for Sirak. Githany kills Sirak's henchmen, and Bane defeats and kills his old nemesis in a lightsaber duel.

Bane takes the long-abandoned Sith title of Darth, leaves the Brotherhood, and travels to Rakata Prime. There, he discovers a Sith Holocron left behind by Darth Revan. Bane completes his training, learning numerous Sith techniques, including the "thought bomb" designed to kill all Force-sensitive beings in reach. He sends this to Lord Kaan. Bane then devises the "Rule of Two": only two Sith Lords, a master and an apprentice, are allowed to exist at one time ("One to embody power and one to crave it.")

Kaan orders that all of the students on Korriban be made into Lords and brought to battle on Ruusan. Kaan sends Kas'im to bring Bane back to Ruusan to join the Brotherhood on pain of death. Upon meeting his former teacher, Bane considers taking him as an apprentice, but ultimately kills him after being refused. Afterwards, Bane takes it upon himself to destroy the remaining Sith and take on an apprentice to carry on the Sith legacy after him.

Bane sends a staged message to Kaan asking to join the Brotherhood; Githany volunteers to kill Bane. Unknown to Githany, Bane had also sent the thought bomb, supposedly as a token of goodwill. Githany finds Bane, and pretends to accept his offer to join the Brotherhood. Githany slipped him poison in a kiss, and he is rendered violently ill. Barely alive, Bane eventually finds a healer named Caleb and extorts his help by threatening his daughter. Caleb cures Bane of the poison and nurses him back to health.

Bane returns to Ruusan, where Kaan agrees to follow his lead in battle. During meditation, Bane uses his own body and power as a focusing agent to unleash a wave of destruction upon the forests of Ruusan, where the Jedi's Army of Light is hiding. When the other Sith Lords mutiny, Bane orders the commander of the space forces to engage the Jedi fleet. Realizing he is facing defeat, Kaan retreats to some caves with the other Sith Lords. When the thought bomb detonates, it destroys the Jedi and Sith armies, including Kaan, Githany, and the leader of the Jedi Army of Light, Jedi Master Hoth.

In both Jedi vs. Sith and the end of Path of Destruction, Bane meets a Force-sensitive young girl named Rain, who had been brought to Ruusan by the Jedi. Rain had been travelling with her friend Laa, a native of Ruusan, called a "Bouncer", and had saved Laa from being warped by the Sith destruction to Ruusan. Laa is shot dead by two Jedi troops, because every other Bouncer they had encountered after the destruction caused by Bane and the other Sith had been driven mad. As Bane watches, Rain unintentionally draws on the dark side out of anger and kills the two Jedi soldiers. Bane realizes Rain's potential, and accepts her as his apprentice, Darth Zannah.

Darth Bane: Rule of Two (2007)
In Darth Bane: Rule of Two, Darth Bane goes to Onderon's moon, Dxun, to scavenge an ancient Sith temple. He leaves Zannah with her first mission: to find her way to Onderon in 10 days by her own cunning and strategy. Bane finds his objective: Freedon Nadd's holocron. During the quest, however, parasites called orbalisks cover his body. He uses the holocron to gain further knowledge of the dark side, as well as information on the orbalisks. He learns that Nadd faced the same problem with the orbalisks, so the Dark Lord before him created a suit that would stop them growing on his face, hands and feet. Meanwhile, his apprentice sabotages a Republic craft and lands in an unknown strip of land which belongs to Dxun's infamous beast Riders. She nearly dies in the attempt, but Bane saves her. Then, the pair goes into hiding on Ambria, establishing illegal contacts through the galaxy through the use of an information broker.

Over the next decade, Zannah acts as Bane's lieutenant, carrying out his orders as she grows stronger in the dark side. He orders her to coerce secession movements to move against the Republic too early; the secessionists are subsequently crushed, both removing threats to the Sith's power and deflecting attention off of the two Sith lords.

After a botched assassination attempt against the Chancellor, Zannah discovers a dark side user, Hetton, who has uncovered the location of a tomb of an ancient Sith on the Deep Core planet of Tython. It is rumored that this tomb contains a Holocron with the key that Bane needs to produce his own. After killing the pseudo Sith, Bane and Zannah set off on their respective missions: to recover the ancient Holocron, and infiltrate the Jedi Archives for information on removing the orbalisks.

Upon arrival on Tython and entering the tomb, Bane is attacked by scores of technobeasts, creations of the ancient Sith to guard her crypt. He eventually defeats them and successfully recovers the Holocron. Zannah is able to obtain the information she needs, but her cover is blown at the last minute by her cousin Tomcat, now a healer in the care of the Jedi. Realizing she will need him to remove the orbalisks, she takes him hostage and heads for Tython, with the Jedi on their trail.

Once Zannah and Tomcat arrive on Tython and warn Bane, they retreat to the interior of the temple, waiting for the attack. When it finally comes, the two sides are evenly matched, despite the Sith being outnumbered. When Bane is about to unleash an attack on the last remaining Jedi, his opponent suspends a Force Shield around him. The lightning bounces off the interior of the shield and cooks Bane alive for seconds, melting his flesh and causing the orbalisk to burrow further into his flesh and release a toxin, resulting in unbearable pain. Bane blacks out and is almost killed by the Jedi, but Zannah saves her master and brings him to Ambria, dragging Tomcat along.

Once there, Tomcat (aka Darovit) creates an agreement between Zannah and Caleb (the healer who helped Bane in the previous novel) designed to ensure their survival. Caleb heals Bane under the assurance that Bane will be arrested and imprisoned by the Jedi Council long before Bane is strong enough to fight back. Darovit then sends a message drone containing their location's coordinates to the Jedi. Also, he disables their ship to ensure that the Sith cannot escape. After several days, Bane awakens, infuriated when he hears that his apprentice has sent a message alerting the Jedi to their presence. Begging her to kill him, he over-exerts himself and passes out again. Zannah kills Caleb and disables Tomcat with a Sith spell of madness. She then hides herself and her Master in a secret compartment under Caleb's bed. When the Jedi arrive, Tomcat attacks them in his delusional state, and he is killed. Finding no other living beings, the Jedi assume they have finally killed the last of the Sith. Zannah nurses Bane back to health — even as she pledges to kill him when her training is complete — and they go back into hiding.

Darth Bane: Dynasty of Evil (2010)
Ten years later, Darth Bane and Zannah are living on Ciutric IV, disguised as merchants. Bane is growing older and weaker, but Zannah has not yet made any attempt to confront him. Fearing that she is too weak to pursue his legacy, he starts to search for the lost knowledge of Darth Andeddu, a Dark Lord of the Sith who harbored the secret of eternal life. When Bane discovers that a clue to the secret can be found on the planet Prakith, he distracts Zannah by sending her to Doan to investigate the death of a Jedi Knight.

Zannah knows that, despite his frail appearance, Bane is tremendously powerful and that his frailty might be a trap to lure her into attacking him. Zannah also knows that, if she was to defeat Bane and take on the mantle of the Dark Lord of the Sith, she would need an apprentice of her own. During her investigations on Doan, she meets a Dark Jedi named Set Harth who collects Sith artifacts. After a brief duel, which Set loses, Zannah takes him on as her apprentice.

Meanwhile, Bane arrives on Prakith through a series of hazardous micro-jumps into the Deep Core. He storms Andeddu's temple, which is inhabited by a cult called the Malevolence, and easily recovers the Dark Lord's holocron. On the trip back, Bane is frustrated by the holocron's gatekeeper's stalling and forcefully uses his power to "hack" the holocron, discovering Darth Andeddu's technique of essence transfer, the ability to transfer one's consciousness into another's body. Armed with this knowledge, Bane returns to Ciutric IV expecting to confront Zannah.

During these course of events, Serra, Princess of Doan, discovers that her father has been killed and suspects Bane's survival. She hires an assassin known as the Huntress to capture Bane. On Ciutric IV, the Huntress and a group of mercenaries ambushes Bane, and manages to incapacitate him by a potent nerve poison supplied by Serra's healer knowledge.

While in captivity in the Stone Prison on Doan, Bane is tortured by Serra as revenge for the death of her father. However, Serra's bodyguard and best friend, Lucia, recognizes Bane as Des, commander of the Gloom Walkers who saved her squad multiple times during the Sith Wars. Lucia secretly counteracts the poison restraining Bane, and he successfully breaks out. However, Bane also senses that Zannah had tracked him to Doan and attempts to elude because of his weakened state. Bane runs into Lucia, but their reunion is cut short when Zannah arrives and engages Bane in a duel. Lucia is killed as collateral damage. Despite being weakened and unarmed, Bane is able to hold his own against Zannah.

Serra is initially hesitant about activating the self-destruct system for the prison, but upon discovering Lucia's death, she promptly activates the system. Bane manages to escape from Zannah, and each attempt to escape on different shuttles. Prior to this, Set, who accompanied Zannah, tracks down the aura of Darth Andeddu's holocron among Bane's confiscated possessions. He attempts to escape, but he is waylaid by the Huntress in the shuttle bay. He manages to evade her and escape on a shuttle. The Huntress then encounters Bane, and pledges to become his next apprentice, offering him back his lightsaber and holocron which she stole from his estate.

Bane and the Huntress, now renamed Darth Cognus, follows Serra back to Ambria near Caleb's cottage. The princess, who has now learned to let go of her hatred, calmly awaits Bane and allows Cognus to kill her. Bane then sends a message to Zannah directing her to Ambria to finish their duel.

Zannah arrives and they restart their duel, with Bane now armed. Zannah now knows that she cannot best Bane in combat, so she resolves to utilize her specialty of Sith sorcery. Their fight progresses with Bane pressuring Zannah until Zannah unleashes a mind attack. Bane powers through her illusions, but Zannah reveals her trump card and summons sentient tentacles of pure dark side energy. Bane evades them and rushes Zannah, but his final blow is cut short by a tentacle severing the arm holding his lightsaber. As a last resort, he invokes Darth Andeddu's essence transfer technique to possess Zannah. His body is destroyed and reduced to ash as a side effect of the technique and the two fight a battle of wills within Zannah's body. The fight ends and it is unclear who is the victor. Zannah proclaims : "Darth Bane is gone. I am Darth Zannah, Dark Lord of the Sith and your new Master". Cognus approaches Zannah and proclaims her loyalty to the new Sith Master, as her apprentice. Still, Cognus cannot help but notice as Zannah speaks she was continually clenching and unclenching the fingers of her left hand. Bane's method of halting the tremors that plagued his old body. Bane's essence remains dead, but a part of his influence lives on in Zannah.

In some unknown place, Set has activated Darth Andeddu's holocron and plans to obtain immortality.

Legacy (2006)
Darth Bane is also featured in Star Wars: Legacy, set 130 years after Return of the Jedi. In #5: Broken, Part 4, Darth Krayt uses a Holocron to summmon the long-dead Sith Lords Darth Bane, Darth Nihilus and Darth Andeddu. Bane condemns Krayt for taking more than one apprentice, and prophesies that Krayt's new Sith Empire will collapse when his followers turn on themselves, since in Bane's view the "One Sith" philosophy of Krayt is not an improvement on Bane's Rule of Two.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2014)
In the Star Wars: The Clone Wars season six episode "Sacrifice", Darth Bane appears as an apparition to Yoda on the Sith home planet Moraband. He is voiced by Mark Hamill, who portrayed Luke Skywalker in the films. Prior to taking on the role of Bane, Hamill did not know of the character or how Bane fit into the overall arc of Star Wars. His son Nathan knew about the history of the character, however, and was able to explain it to his father once he took on the role. For the portrayal, Dave Filoni recorded Hamill reading his lines using multiple inflections, each portraying different emotions, and then blended all together into the version heard within the episode. Previous to that appearance, the developers of the show had considered and rejected for Darth Bane to appear during the third season's Mortis Trilogy arc alongside Darth Revan, acting as an influence on the Son (an embodiment of the dark side). For now, this serves as Bane's only canon appearance.

Bane was to originally appear, alongside Darth Revan, in the third season episode "Ghosts of Mortis" as an influence to The Son, an embodiment of the dark side of the Force. Although George Lucas commissioned the scene, he later cut it before the scene could be fully animated.

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes (2015)
Darth Bane eventually became one of the many playable Star Wars characters in the mobile turn-based role-playing game Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, featuring characters from both the mainstream canon timeline established by The Walt Disney Company, along with select Legends characters. He was added during the game's ninth year of operation in 2024, and could only be unlocked through the Conquest mode.

Mentorship tree

 * style="text-align: left;"|Notes:
 * style="text-align: left;"|Notes:

Reception
Darth Bane: Path of Destruction reached #11 on the New York Times bestseller list on October 15, 2006. Darth Bane: Rule of Two reached 14 on the New York Times bestseller list on January 13, 2008.

General references

 * Episode I: The Phantom Menace, 1st edition paperback, 1999. Terry Brooks, George Lucas, ISBN 0-345-43411-0
 * The Dark Side sourcebook, Wizards of the Coast, 1st printing, 2001. Bill Slavicsek, J. D. Wiker, ISBN 0-7869-1849-7
 * The New Essential Guide to Characters, 1st edition, 2002. Daniel Wallace, Michael Sutfin, ISBN 0-345-44900-2
 * Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - Novelisation, 1st edition hardcover, 2005. Matthew Woodring Stover, George Lucas, ISBN 0-7126-8427-1
 * The New Essential Star Wars Chronology
 * Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, 1st edition hardcover, 2006. Drew Karpyshyn, ISBN 0-345-47736-7
 * Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game for Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3 - downloadable skin.

title: Darth Bane


text:
Ambassador (disambiguation)

Ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation.

Ambassador(s) or The Ambassador(s) or may also refer to:

Representatives

 * Brand ambassador
 * Goodwill ambassador

Film, television and theatre

 * The Ambassador (1936 film), an Italian historical comedy film
 * The Ambassador (1960 film), a West German film
 * The Ambassador (1984 American film), a political thriller based on Elmore Leonard's novel 52 Pick-Up
 * The Ambassador (1984 Croatian film), a film directed by Fadil Hadžić
 * The Ambassador (2005 film), a Norwegian documentary film directed by Erling Borgen
 * The Ambassador (2011 film), a Danish documentary film
 * Ambassador (musical), a 1971 adaptation of the Henry James novel (see below)
 * The Ambassador (TV series), a 1998–1999 British drama
 * Ambassadors (TV series), a 2013 British comedy drama television series

Literature and painting

 * The Ambassador, a 1991 novel by Ioan Mihai Cochinescu
 * The Ambassador (comic strip), a comic strip by Otto Soglow
 * The Ambassador (magazine) (formerly International Textiles), a British export magazine for textiles and fashion
 * Ambassador (novel), a 2015 science fiction book by William Alexander
 * The Ambassador (West novel), a 1965 novel by Australian writer Morris West
 * The Ambassadors, a 1903 novel by Henry James
 * The Ambassadors (Holbein), a 1533 painting by Hans Holbein the Younger

Music

 * Ambassador (album), a 2005 album by Elliott Brood
 * The Ambassador (rapper), Christian rapper
 * DJ Misjah (born 1971), Dutch DJ who also performs under the name "AMbassador"
 * The Saints (British band) or The Ambassadors, an English pop group

Places

 * The Ambassador (Indianapolis, Indiana), a historic apartment building
 * Ambassador Auditorium, Pasadena, California
 * Ambassador Bridge, between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario
 * Ambassador College (defunct), Pasadena, California
 * Ambassador Hotel (disambiguation), several hotels
 * Ambassador Theatre (disambiguation), several theatres

Motor vehicles

 * Ambassador (automobile company), an automobile company of Chicago, Illinois
 * AMC Ambassador, the top-of-the-line models produced by American Motors Corporation (AMC) from 1958 until 1974
 * Austin Ambassador, a hatchback car model marketed by British Leyland from 1982 to 1984
 * Hindustan Ambassador, a car manufactured by Hindustan Motors of India from 1958 until 2014
 * Nash Ambassador, the model name applied to the senior line of Nash automobiles from 1932 until 1957
 * Yellow Cab Ambassador, vehicles sold for use as taxis from 1921 until 1925

Trains

 * Ambassador (B&M train), operated by the Boston & Maine Railroad between New York/Boston and Montreal
 * Ambassador (B&O train), operated by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad between Baltimore and Detroit

Other uses in transport

 * Ambassador (clipper), a 1869 British tea clipper, one of the last composite ships
 * Ambassador (motorcycles), made by a British manufacturer
 * Airspeed Ambassador, a British airliner
 * Berkhof Ambassador, a Dutch bus from the company Berkhof
 * HMS Ambassador, a Second World War minesweeper

Other uses

 * The Ambassador, winner of the 1942 Hambletonian Stakes
 * Ambassador Cruise Line, a new company
 * BT Ambassador, a telephone switchboard PBX

title: Ambassador (disambiguation)


text:
Talk:Grand Tour

"The Grand Tourist"

 * The description for the image Dunstanville.jpg doesn't cite any reference and the source image has a dead source link. I've posted a comment about this on the image's discussion page and added a "fact" template to the description until someone can find something to substantiate the claims made by the poster in its description. bwmcmaste (talk) 16:25, 28 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Additionally, it would appear that the same issue exists with the image Shepherds beside Roman ruins.jpg. I have posted a comment about this issue on this image's discussion page and added a "fact" template to its description as well. bwmcmaste (talk) 16:32, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

a discussion
English changed to British: many noblemen doing the tour were from North Britain (nowadays usually known as Scotland) - dave souza 08:21, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Nowadays known as Scotland? It's been Scotland for a long while! Grunners 22:11, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Didn't rich American youth do this as well? I definately remember hearing about one of the residents of the Biltmore Estate doing it. -Tydaj 3 July 2005 20:41 (UTC)
 * Yes, exactly, and the OED quoted below shows that the term was commonly used in that modern sense as a way to retrace the historical steps of the original. Unfortunately, the Wikipedia editor who originally wrote this entry, created it in the most narrow, exclusive sense, leaving out the later usage, which tried to bring back the term in modern times. We see this in spades throughout British and American literature after 1840, including the travel journalism of the time.  It was even omnipresent in early to mid twentieth century literature as well, but in the sense of a homage. Viriditas (talk) 16:51, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

another discussion
Is this even limited to the 18th century, to the nobility, or to the Anglophone world? I quote:
 * Sometime near the end of 1640 or the beginning of 1641 Van Vliet concluded his studies and, as befitted a fashionable young gentleman, subsequently embarked on his grand tour.
 * Cornelis Dekker, The Origins of Old Germanic Studies in the Low Countries (Leiden: Brill, 1999), p.63

Which refers to it as a common practice of the Dutch middle classes in the 17th century, which is something one would never guess from the current article... — Haeleth Talk 16:46, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

When and why did the Grand Tour stop? World War I? Edward 17:29, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

I think this article needs to be cleaned up on several fronts. First, it is unorganized. It does a decent job at the broad strokes but lacks certain things and contains others that should not have a place in an encyclopediac history article; i.e., point of view, opinion, etc. For example, Britons did not go to Paris to erase their "backwardness", and I am not British but this was certainly not viewed by the British of the time as a cultural trait of theirs. Paris was simply the center of continental European culture and high fashion. Writing of Grand Tourists as "backward" in this manner is no different to calling the French of the period snooty, snobby and elitist. There should also be some sourcing here. I've done extensive research on the period and this is the only place where I've read that Coryat's Crudities is credited with starting the craze for the Grand Tour. Any mention of "general credit" should give some credit somewhere. Among historical corrections, it should be pointed out that historians generally (and this can be easily backed up) consider the Grand Tour to be a phenomenon that reached its peak in the eighteenth century. The French Revolution and the ensuing Napoleonic Wars interrupted travel and tourism and is the usual markoff point for the Grand Tour. Remnants of it remained in the nineteenth but it was greatly transformed in both tradition and practice due to radical advancements and changes in technology and culture. The railway, the photograph, Cook's group tours and Baedeker's travel guides all contributed to eroding the old style of the Grand Tour, which could last for years and was practiced exclusively by aristocrats, into the movement of popular tourism that is familiar today. The common and broad itinerary was Dover-Calais-Paris-antique and Renaissance Italy (Rome, Florence, Naples). This should be noted. Perhaps most important is that the unique reasons of the Grand Tour be clearly defined, with reference, neutrality, historical perspective, and good writing. I might get around to this in awhile, but just thought I should think out loud here.

more discussions
Swedish aristocratic and merchant youth practiced such tours during 17th century (Peter Englund books about rise of Sweden as great power, describes such voyage of future kind). It is quite likely that the tradition is older and more widespread. Pavel Vozenilek 22:40, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
 * And article Dutch Golden Age directly mentions Duth during 17th century. Pavel Vozenilek 22:41, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

OED reference
According to the article:
 * According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term was coined by Richard Lassels (c 1603-1668)

Can someone with access to OED please verify that OED uses the term "coined" - there is not entire agreement about the origins of the term, as the history section discusses. Does the OED say "coined"? OED is not a replacement for real historical scholarship, it's more like tempting fast food scholarship. Green Cardamom (talk) 22:22, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

 * No, as you intimate, the OED just has Lassels as their earliest citation, and bracketed to indicate that it's being used as a foreign phrase, at that.

[Originally Fr. = ‘great circuit’; but now apprehended as an English phrase.]''' a. A tour of the principal cities and places of interest in Europe, formerly supposed to be an essential part of the education of young men of good birth or fortune. Chiefly in phr. to make the grand tour. [1670 R. LASSELS ''Voy. Italy Pref. avj, And no man under~stands Livy and Cæsar..like him who hath made exactly the Grand Tour of France and the Giro of Italy.] 1748 RICHARDSON Clarissa'' (1768) IV. 261 Should we not make the Grand Tour upon this occasion? 1748 SMOLLETT ''Rod. Rand.'' i. (1760) I. 3 You have made the grand tour. 1837 ''Penny Cycl. VII.'' 56/2 In 1714 he [Chesterfield] left the University to make the usual grand tour of Europe. 1869 ROGERS Pref. to Adam Smith's W.N. I. 12 Young men of fortune and fashion made what was called the ‘grand tour’ under the guidance of a tutor.

(italics copied from OED) Pseudomonas(talk) 10:15, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

In the intro Grand Tour ended by 1850?
"The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary." Isn't this just wrong- disagreeing with the main section of article. In fact once steam ships and railroads made the travel easier, faster and less expensive more people were able to and did in fact take the grand tour. Many more people took the grand tour in the second 1/2 of the 19th century than did 200 years earlier. Nitpyck (talk) 14:55, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Citation from New York Times
The article does not give any specifications to what date etc. the NYT article that is cited is from. Can anyone fix?

Kostanje's Article
This seems vaguely mad. Does it really deserve a whole paragraph? Furius (talk) 02:54, 7 December 2013 (UTC) I agree. At first I thought it was a spoof. It doesn't connect up with anything else in the article. Turf it out. At most he could be included among people who have written on the tour. As it is it is far too conspicuous for such a marginal idea. Campolongo (talk) 13:46, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

I recommend the deWP article (rated as a Good Article)
I've just read the German version of this page, and it's very good; I recommend it highly (even Google's machine translation lets a lot of the value shine through). Unfortunately there are no in-line references, so it will be hard to incorporate material from that version into enWP with the current requirements on attribution. Still, it's well worth a read. Scarabocchio (talk) 17:02, 8 June 2017 (UTC)

Proper noun? (article-title case)
I recognize that this article is not just about some trip that is really great (lay-language "grand" and "tour"), but is it actually a proper noun that merits each word capitalized, or just a phrase that has a specific meaning? DMacks (talk) 07:14, 2 July 2017 (UTC)

Use in the context of 1898?
What would be the proper English-language term for similar tours taken by artists in late 19th century? e.g. Alexey Shchusev: "In August 1898 Shchusev and his wife started their sixteen-month Grand Tour, via Vienna, Trieste, Italy to Tunisia, and then via Italy to Paris, where Shchusev studied for six months at the Académie Julian." This is not the aristocratic Grand Tour of the rich and famous, but what is it then? Retired electrician (talk) 12:27, 16 June 2021 (UTC) It's certainly valid to continue to use the same term for 19th century, post-Napoleonic tours (your specific question), but I will try to tweak the Grand Tour article to make it clearer how much it changed in nature over time. Scarabocchio (talk) 16:21, 16 June 2021 (UTC)
 * The earliest Grand Tours were around 1600 (Inigo Jones, Thomas Coryat, ..) so it's not surprising that what was understand by the term has changed over the 400 years. The base concept, a longish journey to visit/ see/ experience the "classical roots of Western Civilisation" remained the same, but the centrality of education/ learning was superceded by pleasure (in very broad terms). One great dividing line was the end of the Napoleonic Wars.  Here's The Westminster Review in 1825, pondering on why so many Brits made the Grand Tour after: "Immediately after the peace, so astonishing was the inundation of Britons, like a second irruption of the Goths, poured down upon Italy, that the poor Italians at first were seriously persuaded that the good people of England, in dread of an impending revolution at home, were hurrying away from their own country as fast as they could drive. Well, indeed, might a stranger marvel what business all these multifarious classes of persons could have in the same place. The spell which draws them here may be in one word explained. It is the fashion to go to Rome."

Other media
is it appropriate to add other media that features grand tours? a gentlemean's guide to vice and virtue by mackenzi lee takes place primerly on a grand tour 84.68.25.24 (talk) 21:36, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Grand Tour


text:
Dagomba people

The Dagbamba or Dagomba are an ethnic group of Ghana, and Togo. They number more than 3.1 million people. The term Dagbamba is originally extended to refer to other related peoples who were unified by Naa Gbewaa including the Mamprusi and Nanumba. The Dagomba country is called Dagbon  and they speak Dagbanli language. Dagbanli is the most spoken language of northern Ghana and second most widely spoken local language of Ghana. Dagbanli belongs to the Mabia (Mole-Dagbani) subgroup of the Gur languages, a large group of related languages in West Africa. The Dagomba practises both patrilineal and matrilineal systems of inheritance.

The Dagomba are known for their hospitality, tolerance and accommodation of diverse cultures and belief systems. Their religion is the Dagbon Traditional Religion, but Islam has been around for nearly a millennium. In the late 1600s, King Zanjina, became the first ruler to practise Islam. The reign of Zanjina ushered in an era of greater prosperity. Many learning centres were established and scholarship became an important part of tradition. In 1700, the University Moliyili was established, but was later abandoned during European colonization. The Dagomba resisted European Colonization even after Germany burnt down and occupied its capital, Yendi, located in Eastern Dagbon (Naya).

The Dagomba are one of few African people who reserve royal titles for women. Dagomba women rule, ascend to royal positions with male subjects, and own regal lands. The impact of its women is prominent as it has given birth to Ghana's first female minister,  and  Africa's first female cabinet minister. Historically, its noble daughter, Yennenga, is regarded as the "mother" of the Mossi kingdoms,   a people who constitute nearly half of the nation of Burkina Faso. The Gundo Naa is the head of all female chiefs, and the Zosimli Naa enhances collaboration between cities of Dagbon and sister cities.

The Dagombas established several schools prior to European arrivals in Africa. A later but more known institution is the University of Moliyili, established in 1700. Moliyili had a hierarchical scholastic system similar to what is found in modern universities. The Dagomba have a writing system, the Dagbani script, which uses a modified Arabic alphabet but Dagbani syntax. The archival manuscripts have been lost, but many transferred to Denmark. After joining Gold Coast as a protectorate (not colony), the Dagombas adopted the Greek and Latin alphabets.

Women are held in high regard, and children fear the displeasure and wrath of the mother. Brothers protect the dignity of sisters at all cost. The Dagombas are one of the few peoples in Africa to have female chiefs who possess regal lands and rule over male subjects. Closest family bonds are termed "Mabihili". Both males and females in such a close family bond refer to each other as Mabia (mother's child), signifying the importance of the mother. Motherland is termed Mayili and fatherland is termed Bayili. There is no English equivalent of Mabihili.

In Dagomba society, there are several gods (singular: wuni, plural: wuna). The chief (Naa) of all these gods is Naawuni. Each city has a shrine (buɣli). For example, the shrine of the People of Tolon is Jaagbo, and that of Nyankpala is Wonoyili. There are many soothsayers (baɣa) whom people consult for prophesies and solutions to their problems. The inheritance of many soothsaying is through a maternal brother.

Many Christian evangelical groups have launched failed campaigns to convert the Dagomba. However, the Dagomba continue practising its traditional religion and Islam. The arrival of Islam to the Dagomba brought prosperity, whiles, Christianity was brought by Europeans, who burnt their cities and displaced its people. Today, the Dagomba have provided free lands to many Christian missionaries to undertake their activities. While Islamic schools do not mandate students to worship or visit mosques, Christian schools makes worship compulsory for all students, even for members of the Dagbon Traditional Religion and Islam.

The Dagombas celebrate the oldest festivals in Ghana, including the Fire Festival, which existed prior to the formation of the Kingdom of Dagbon. Other festivals include the Damba Festival, Guinea Fowl (Kpini Chuɣu) Festival and Yam Festival (Nyuli Dibu), Konyuri Chuɣu (Eid Al-Fitr), Chimsi Chuɣu (Eid AL-Adha). Other minor localized festivals that are celebrated included the Market Festival (Daa Chuɣu) by the people of Tolon.

The Dagomba founded the Kingdom of Dagbon. They are historically related to the Mossi people of Burkina Faso. The Mossi Kingdoms were founded by Yennenga, a daughter of Naa Gbewaa. The Mohi/Mossi have their homeland in central Burkina Faso. Aside the Mossi, the Dagombas are the founders of the Bouna state of the Ivory Coast, and the Dagaaba states of Upper West Region of Ghana. The homeland of the Dagomba, Dagbon, covers about 20,000 km2 in area.

Naa Gbewaa is the founder of the Dagbon Kingdom. Earlier Dagombas prior to Naa Gbewaa lived in decentralized states. Gbewaa, and his descendants, centralized the kingdom. The decentralized states were headed by the Tindaamba. Today, the Tindaamba still preserve the ancient Dagbon traditions that have been passed through the ages, leading traditional religious acts and solving problems of their constituents. The Tindaamba are not appointed by the Yaa Naa, they are chosen by an oracle. Inheritance is both patrilineal and matrilineal. Royalty in Dagbon is complex as it has evolved through the centuries. Dagomba are one of the ethnic groups with a sophisticated oral tradition woven around drums and other musical instruments. Thus, Dagbon history has been passed down meticulously via oral tradition, with drummers as professional griots known as Lunsi. According to oral tradition, the political history of Dagbon has its origin in the life story of a legend called Tohazie (translated as "red hunter").

Dagombas practise both Islam and the Dagbon Traditional Religion. Islam was brought to the region by Soninke (known as Wangara by Ghanaians) traders between the 12th and 15th centuries. Since the time of Naa Zanjina, Islam has been the state religion and Islam seems to be growing rapidly ever since. The reformist activities of Afa Ajura in the middle of the twentieth century caused entire communities to embrace the Islamic religion en masse. Inheritance in the Dagomba people is largely patrilineal, however, inheritance of certain Tindaamba is matrilineal. There are also female rulers with male subordinates, such as the Gundo Naa and the Kpatu Naa. The Gundo Naa has vast land and head all female royals of Dagbon. Important festivals include the Damba, Bugum (fire festival) and the Islamic Eid festivals. The largest settlement of the Dagomba is Tamale, Ghana's third populous and the Northern Region's capital. The Mossi and Dagomba states are among the great West African medieval empires. Beginning in the 12th century, they eventually ruled the lands of the entire northern Volta basin, which today includes all of northern Ghana and Burkina Faso. During their second northern expansion, the Mossi invasion reached eastern Maasina and Lake Débo c. 1400, Benka in c. 1433 and Walata in 1477-83 (these empires were in present-day Mali). According to Illiasu (1971) in his work The Origins of the Mossi-Dagomba states, the second period of the Mossi-Dagomba success came to an end with the restoration of Imperial Songhai power towards the close of the 15th century. Although the Mossi-Dagomba states have the same grandfather (Naa Gbewa), the Dagomba are traditionally regarded as "senior" to the Mossi states of Ouagadougou, Yatenga and Fada N'Gourma.

Origins
The Dagombas have inhabited Northern for thousands of years. Some members of the ruling class descended from Naa Gbewaa, whose ancestors migrated from around the areas of Lake Chad after the break up of the Ghana Empire at the end of the 13th Century. Gbewaa unified the Dagomba people into a kingdom. Chiefs who are descendants of Gbewaa are the Nanima (singular: Naa) and aboriginal chiefs are the Tindaamba (singular: Tindana). Other important chiefs such the chiefs of Tolon, Kumbungu and Gulkpeɣu (Tamale) may not be descendants of Gbewaa.

Kingdom of Dagbon
The homeland of the Dagombas is called Dagbon and covers about 20,000 km2 in area. The territories of Dagbon was decentralised until the Great Unification by the Nanima. The Dagomba share close bonds with related people whose lands were also unified. This include the Mamprusi, Nanumba, Gonja, Mossi, Gurunsi (in particular the Frafra and Kusasi peoples), the Wala people and Ligbi. The area constitutes fourteen administrative districts in present-day Ghana. These are the Tamale Metropolitan, Yendi, Savelugu and Sagnerigu municipals, and Tolon, Kumbungu, Nanton, Gushegu, Karaga, Zabzugu, Saboba, Sang, Tatale and Cheriponi districts. The king of the Dagbon Traditional Kingdom is the Ya-Na, whose court and administrative capital is at Yendi. Dagbon as a kingdom has never been subjugated until it was incorporated as a territory of the Gold Coast government. The Dagbon Kingdom has traditional administrative responsibilities hitherto acephalous groups like the Konkomba, Bimoba, Chekosi, Basaari, Chamba, Wala, Gurusi and Zantasi. The Dagombas have cordial and respectful relationships to these froups. The seat of the Yaa Naa or king of Dagbon (literally translated as "King of Absolute Power") is a collection of lion and cow skins. Thus, the Dagbon or its political system is often called the Yendi Skin (not throne or crown or stool). Another characteristic of the Dagomba is that their houses are arranged in a certain order, where the chief or elderly man has his hut built in the centre.

Chieftaincy
One of the major features of Dagomba society is chieftaincy. Their system of chieftaincy is very hierarchical, with the Yaa Naa, or paramount King, at its head and a tiered system of rulers below him. In Dagbon, chiefs traditionally sit on a stack of skins.

Dagomba Festivals
The people of Ghana's Dagbon Kingdom celebrate a number of festivals. Festivals held in Dagbon include the Bugum festival (fire festival), Damba, and Kpini (festival of Guinea fowl). Additionally, there is the Chimsi festival and Konyuri chuɣu (Festival of Breaking the Fast).

Bugum festival (fire festival)
Bugum Festival also known as the Fire festival is an occasion where families gather for communal celebrations, rituals, and joy at the Fire festival in order to honor their ancestors, ask for blessings, and ward off evil spirits. Many different ethnic groups in Northern Ghana celebrate this festival. Most attendees of the festivity are both Muslims and non-Muslims. Muslims celebrate the fire festival, known as Bugum, to commemorate the arrival of Prophet Noah's (Nuhu) Ark following the flood. During the night, bundles of grass are utilized as torches to celebrate. Since the celebration brings in a new year, some non-Muslims use this time to give sacrifices to God and their ancestors.

Notable Dagombas

 * Yakubu II - Former King of Dagbon.
 * Aliu Mahama - Former Vice President of Ghana from 2000 to 2008.
 * Haruna Yakubu - A past Vice Chancellor of University for Development Studies.
 * Haruna Iddrisu - A Ghanaian politician.
 * Mubarak Wakaso - A Ghanaian football player
 * Abdul Fatawu Issahaku - A Ghanaian football player
 * Afa Ajura - founder and leader of the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaa'a Islamic sect in Ghana
 * Abdul Razak Alhassan - MMA fighter

title: Dagomba people