title: Elam

text: The Middle Elamite period began with the rise of the Anshanite dynasties around 1500 BC. Their rule was characterized by an "Elamisation" of Susa, and the kings took the title "king of Anshan and Susa". While the first of these dynasties, the Kidinuids continued to use the Akkadian language frequently in their inscriptions, the succeeding Igihalkids and Shutrukids used Elamite with increasing regularity. Likewise, Elamite language and culture grew in importance in Susiana. The Kidinuids (c. 1500 – 1400 BC) are a group of five rulers of uncertain affiliation. They are identified by their use of the older title, "king of Susa and of Anshan", and by calling themselves "servant of Kirwashir", an Elamite deity, thereby introducing the pantheon of the highlands to Susiana. The city of Susa itself is one of the oldest in the world dating back to around 4200 BC. Since its founding Susa was known as a central power location for the Elamites and for later Persian dynasties. Susa's power would peak during the Middle Elamite period, when it would be the region's capital.


title: Elam

text: Of the Igehalkids (c. 1400 – 1210 BC), ten rulers are known, though their number was possibly larger. Some of them married Kassite princesses. The Kassites were also a language isolate speaking people from the Zagros Mountains who had taken Babylonia shortly after its sacking by the Hittite Empire in 1595 BC. The Kassite king of Babylon Kurigalzu II who had been installed on the throne by Ashur-uballit I of the Middle Assyrian Empire (1366–1020 BC), temporarily occupied Elam around 1320 BC, and later (c. 1230 BC) another Kassite king, Kashtiliash IV, fought Elam unsuccessfully. Kassite-Babylonian power waned, as they became dominated by the northern Mesopotamian Middle Assyrian Empire. Kiddin-Khutran of Elam repulsed the Kassites by defeating Enlil-nadin-shumi in 1224 BC and Adad-shuma-iddina around 1222–1217 BC. Under the Igehalkids, Akkadian inscriptions were rare, and Elamite highland gods became firmly established in Susa.


title: Elam

text: Under the Shutrukids (c. 1210 – 1100 BC), the Elamite empire reached the height of its power. Shutruk-Nakhkhunte and his three sons, Kutir-Nakhkhunte II, Shilhak-In-Shushinak, and Khutelutush-In-Shushinak were capable of frequent military campaigns into Kassite Babylonia (which was also being ravaged by the empire of Assyria during this period), and at the same time were exhibiting vigorous construction activity—building and restoring luxurious temples in Susa and across their Empire. Shutruk-Nakhkhunte raided Babylonia, carrying home to Susa trophies like the statues of Marduk and Manishtushu, the Manishtushu Obelisk, the Stele of Hammurabi and the stele of Naram-Sin. In 1158 BC, after much of Babylonia had been annexed by Ashur-Dan I of Assyria and Shutruk-Nakhkhunte, the Elamites defeated the Kassites permanently, killing the Kassite king of Babylon, Zababa-shuma-iddin, and replacing him with his eldest son, Kutir-Nakhkhunte, who held it no more than three years before being ejected by the native Akkadian speaking Babylonians. The Elamites then briefly came into conflict with Assyria, managing to take the Assyrian city of Arrapha (modern Kirkuk) before being ultimately defeated and having a treaty forced upon them by Ashur-Dan I.


title: Elam

text: Kutir-Nakhkhunte's son Khutelutush-In-Shushinak was probably of an incestuous relation of Kutir-Nakhkhunte's with his own daughter, Nakhkhunte-utu. He was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar I of Babylon, who sacked Susa and returned the statue of Marduk, but who was then himself defeated by the Assyrian king Ashur-resh-ishi I. He fled to Anshan, but later returned to Susa, and his brother Shilhana-Hamru-Lagamar may have succeeded him as last king of the Shutrukid dynasty. Following Khutelutush-In-Shushinak, the power of the Elamite empire began to wane seriously, for after the death of this ruler, Elam disappears into obscurity for more than three centuries.


title: Elam

text: Very little is known of this period. Anshan was still at least partially Elamite. There appear to have been unsuccessful alliances of Elamites, Babylonians, Chaldeans and other peoples against the powerful Neo Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC); the Babylonian king Mar-biti-apla-ushur (984–979 BC) was of Elamite origin, and Elamites are recorded to have fought unsuccessfully with the Babylonian king Marduk-balassu-iqbi against the Assyrian forces under Shamshi-Adad V (823–811 BC).


title: Elam

text: The later Neo-Elamite period is characterized by a significant migration of Indo-European speaking Iranians to the Iranian plateau. Assyrian sources beginning around 800 BC distinguish the "powerful Medes", i.e. the actual Medes, Persians, Parthians, Sagartians, Margians, Bactrians, Sogdians etc.. Among these pressuring tribes were the "Parsu", first recorded in 844 BC as living on the southeastern shore of Lake Urmiah, but who by the end of this period would cause the Elamites' original home, the Iranian Plateau, to be renamed Persia proper. These newly arrived Iranian peoples were also conquered by Assyria, and largely regarded as vassals of the Neo-Assyrian Empire until the late 7th century.


title: Elam

text: More details are known from the late 8th century BC, when the Elamites were allied with the Chaldean chieftain Merodach-baladan to defend the cause of Babylonian independence from Assyria. Khumbanigash (743–717 BC) supported Merodach-baladan against Sargon II, apparently without success; while his successor, Shutruk-Nakhkhunte II (716–699 BC), was routed by Sargon's troops during an expedition in 710, and another Elamite defeat by Sargon's troops is recorded for 708. The Assyrian dominion over Babylon was underlined by Sargon's son Sennacherib, who defeated the Elamites, Chaldeans and Babylonians and dethroned Merodach-baladan for a second time, installing his own son Ashur-nadin-shumi on the Babylonian throne in 700.


title: Elam

text: Shutruk-Nakhkhunte II, the last Elamite to claim the old title "king of Anshan and Susa", was murdered by his brother Khallushu, who managed to briefly capture the Assyrian governor of Babylonia Ashur-nadin-shumi and the city of Babylon in 694 BC. Sennacherib soon responded by invading and ravaging Elam. Khallushu was in turn assassinated by Kutir-Nakhkhunte, who succeeded him but soon abdicated in favor of Khumma-Menanu III (692–689 BC). Khumma-Menanu recruited a new army to help the Babylonians and Chaldeans against the Assyrians at the battle of Halule in 691. Both sides claimed the victory in their annals, but Babylon was destroyed by Sennacherib only two years later, and its Elamite allies defeated in the process.


title: Elam

text: The reigns of Khumma-Khaldash I (688–681 BC) and Khumma-Khaldash II (680–675 BC) saw a deterioration of Elamite-Babylonian relations, and both of them raided Sippar. At the beginning of Esarhaddon's reign in Assyria (681–669 BC), Nabu-zer-kitti-lišir, an ethnically Elamite governor in the south of Babylonia, revolted and besieged Ur, but was routed by the Assyrians and fled to Elam where the king of Elam, fearing Assyrian repercussions, took him prisoner and put him to the sword.


title: Elam

text: Urtaku (674–664 BC) for some time wisely maintained good relations with the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668–627 BC), who sent wheat to Susiana during a famine. But these friendly relations were only temporary, and Urtaku was killed in battle during a failed Elamite attack on Assyria.


title: Elam

text: His successor Tempti-Khumma-In-Shushinak (664–653 BC) attacked Assyria, but was defeated and killed by Ashurbanipal following the battle of the Ulaï in 653 BC; and Susa itself was sacked and occupied by the Assyrians. In this same year the Assyrian vassal Median state to the north fell to the invading Scythians and Cimmerians under Madyes, and displacing another Assyrian vassal people, the "Parsu" (Persians) to Anshan which their king Teispes captured that same year, turning it for the first time into an Indo-Iranian kingdom under Assyrian dominance that would a century later become the nucleus of the Achaemenid dynasty. The Assyrians successfully subjugated and drove the Scythians and Cimmerians from their Iranian colonies, and the Persians, Medes and Parthians remained vassals of Assyria.


title: Elam

text: A brief respite to the Elamites was provided by the civil war between Ashurbanipal and his own brother Shamash-shum-ukin, whom their father Esarhaddon had installed as the vassal king of Babylon. The Elamites gave support to Shamash-shum-ukin, but also engaged in fighting among themselves. Babylon was besieged in midsummer of 650 BC, and fell by 648 BC; Shamash-shum-ukin died in a fire. The Elamite kingdom was greatly weakened by rebellions and civil wars; kings from 651 to 640 had short reigns before being usurped, overthrown, or captured by the Assyrians. Having dealt with his brother, Ashurbanipal sensed an opportunity to devastate Elam. In 646 BC Ashurbanipal devastated Susiana with ease, and sacked Susa. He installed several vassal kings such as Tammaritu, although these quickly broke off relations with Assyria over their pillages. The last Elamite king, Khumma-Khaldash III, was captured in 640 BC by Ashurbanipal, who annexed and destroyed the country.


title: Elam

text: In a tablet unearthed in 1854 by Henry Austin Layard, Ashurbanipal boasts of the destruction he had wrought:


title: Elam

text: The devastation was a little less complete than Ashurbanipal boasted, and a weak and fragmented Elamite rule was resurrected soon after with Shuttir-Nakhkhunte, son of Humban-umena III (not to be confused with Shuttir-Nakhkhunte, son of Indada, a petty king in the first half of the 6th century). Elamite royalty in the final century preceding the Achaemenids was fragmented among different small kingdoms, the united Elamite nation having been destroyed and colonised by the Assyrians. The three kings at the close of the 7th century (Shuttir-Nakhkhunte, Khallutush-In-Shushinak and Atta-Khumma-In-Shushinak) still called themselves "king of Anzan and of Susa" or "enlarger of the kingdom of Anzan and of Susa", at a time when the Achaemenid Persians were already ruling Anshan under Assyrian dominance.


title: Elam

text: The various Assyrian Empires, which had been the dominant force in the Near East, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, North Africa, Arabian peninsula and East Mediterranean for much of the period from the first half of the 14th century BC, began to unravel after the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC, descending into a series of bitter internal civil wars which also spread to Babylonia. The Iranian Medes, Parthians, Persians and Sagartians, who had been largely subject to Assyria since their arrival in the region around 1000 BC, quietly took full advantage of the anarchy in Assyria, and in 616 BC freed themselves from Assyrian rule.


title: Elam

text: The Medians took control of Elam during this period. Cyaxares the king of the Medes, Persians, Parthians and Sagartians entered into an alliance with a coalition of fellow former vassals of Assyria, including Nabopolassar of Babylon and Chaldea, and also the Scythians and Cimmerians, against Sin-shar-ishkun of Assyria, who was faced with unremitting civil war in Assyria itself. This alliance then attacked a disunited and war weakened Assyria, and between 616 BC and 599 BC at the very latest, had conquered its vast empire which stretched from the Caucasus Mountains to Egypt, Libya and the Arabian Peninsula, and from Cyprus and Ephesus to Persia and the Caspian Sea.


title: Elam

text: The major cities in Assyria itself were gradually taken; Arrapha (modern Kirkuk) and Kalhu (modern Nimrud) in 616 BC, Ashur, Dur-Sharrukin and Arbela (modern Erbil) in 613, Nineveh falling in 612, Harran in 608 BC, Carchemish in 605 BC, and finally Dur-Katlimmu by 599 BC. Elam, already largely destroyed and subjugated by Assyria, thus became easy prey for the Median dominated Iranian peoples, and was incorporated into the Median Empire (612–546 BC) and then the succeeding Achaemenid Empire (546–332 BC), with Assyria suffering the same fate. (see Achaemenid Assyria, Athura).


title: Elam

text: The prophet Ezekiel describes the status of their power in the 12th year of the Hebrew Babylonian Captivity in 587 BC:


title: Elam

text: Their successors Khumma-Menanu and Shilhak-In-Shushinak II bore the simple title "king", and the final king Tempti-Khumma-In-Shushinak used no honorific at all. In 540 BC, Achaemenid rule began in Susa.


title: Elam

text: Elymaïs was the location of the death of Antiochus III the Great who was killed while pillaging a temple of Bel in 187 BC. Following the rise and fall of the Achaemenid Empire and the Seleucid Empire, a new dynasty of Elamite rulers established Elymais from 147 BC to 224 AD, usually under the suzerainty of the Parthian Empire, until the advent of the unified Sasanian Empire in 224 AD.


title: Elam

text: Dated to approximately the 12th century BC, gold and silver figurines of Elamite worshippers are shown carrying a sacrificial goat. These divine and royal statues were meant to assure the king of the enduring protection of the deity, well-being and a long life. Works which showed a ruler and his performance of a ritual action were intended to eternalize the effectiveness of such deeds. Found near the Temple of Inshushinak in Susa, these statuettes would have been considered charged with beneficial power.


title: Elam

text: While archaeologists cannot be certain that the location where these figures were found indicates a date before or in the time of the Elamite king Shilhak-Inshushinak, stylistic features can help ground the figures in a specific time period. The hairstyle and costume of the figures which are strewn with dots and hemmed with short fringe at the bottom, and the precious metals point to a date in the latter part of the second millennium BC rather than to the first millennium.


title: Elam

text: In general, any gold or silver statuettes which represent the king making a sacrifice not only served a religious function, but was also a display of wealth.


title: Elam

text: Elamite seals reached their peak of complexity in the 4th millennium BC when their shape became cylindrical rather than stamp-like. Seals were primarily used as a form of identification and were often made out of precious stones. Because seals for different time periods had different designs and themes, seals and seal impressions can be used to track the various phases of the Elamite Empire and can teach a lot about the empire in ways which other forms of documentation cannot.


title: Elam

text: The seal pictured shows two seated figures holding cups with a man in front of them wearing a long robe next to a table. A man is sitting on a throne, presumably the king, and is in a wrapped robe. The second figure, perhaps his queen, is draped in a wide, flounced garment and is elevated on a platform beneath an overhanging vine. A crescent is shown in the field.


title: Elam

text: This life-size votive offering of Queen Napir-Asu was commissioned around 1300 BC in Susa, Iran. It is made of copper using the lost-wax casting method and rests on a solid bronze frame that weighs 1750 kg (3760 lb). This statue is different from many other Elamite statues of women because it resembles male statues due to the wide belt on the dress and the patterns which closely resemble those on male statues.


title: Elam

text: The inscription on the side of the statue curses anyone, specifically men, who attempts to destroy the statue: "I, Napir-Asu, wife of Untash-Napirisha. He who would seize my statue, who would smash it, who would destroy its inscription, who would erase my name, may he be smitten by the curse of Napirisha, of Kiririsha, and of Inshushinka, that his name shall become extinct, that his offspring be barren, that the forces of Beltiya, the great goddess, shall sweep down on him. This is Napir-Asu's offering."


title: Elam

text: The stele of the Elamite king, Untash-Napirisha was believed to have been commissioned in the 12th century BC.


title: Elam

text: It was moved from the original religious capital of Chogha Zanbil to the city of Susa by the successor king, Shutruk-Nahnante. Four registers of the stele are left. The remains depict the god Inshushinak validating the legitimacy of who is thought to be Shutruk-Nahnante. In the periphery are two priestesses, deity hybrids of fish and women holding streams of water, and two half-man half-mouflon guardians of the sacred tree. The names of the two priestesses are carved on their arms.


title: Elam

text: King Untash Napirisha dedicated the stele to the god Ishushinak. Like other forms of art in the ancient Near East, this one portrays a king ceremonially recognizing a deity. This stele is unique in that the acknowledgement between king and god is reciprocal.


title: Elam

text: The Elamites practised polytheism. Due to scarcity of sources, past scholars assumed that Elamite religion must have been characterized by the "ill-defined character of the individual gods and goddesses. ...Most of them were not only ineffable beings whose real name was either not uttered or was unknown, but also sublime ideas, not to be exactly defined by the human race." Worship also varied between localities. However, more recent scholarship shows that Elamite deities most likely were not any less defined than these of their Sumerian, Akkadian and Hurrian neighbors.


title: Elam

text: Inscriptions of many Elamite kings indicate that a concept of a supreme triad consisting of Inshushinak (originally the civic protector god of Susa, eventually the leader of the triad and guarantor of the monarchy), Kiririsha (an earth/mother goddess in southern Elam), and Napirisha existed. In the Neo-Elamite period Humban, previously a deity of limited relevance in known sources, emerged as a divine source of royal power.


title: Elam

text: Another significant deity was Pinikir, an astral goddess of love, similar to Ishtar. Some researchers, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, saw her as a mother goddess, and possibly originally chief deity, in northern Elam, later supplanted by or identified with Kiririsha, but this view is no longer supported by scholars.


title: Elam

text: There were also imported deities, such as Beltiya, Nergal or Nanaya; some native Elamite deities had Akkadian or Sumerian names as well (ex. Manzat, Inshushinak and his attendants), indicating a long history of interchange. Some Elamite deities were also venerated outside Elam: Pinikir was known to the Hurrians and Hittites, Simut appeared in Babylonian personal names, and an Assyrian text mentions Khumban, Napirisha and Yabru (Jabru) as protectors of the king.


title: Elam

text: Elamite is traditionally thought to be a language isolate, and completely unrelated to the neighbouring Semitic languages, Sumerian and Kassite, Hurrian (also isolates), and the later arriving Indo-European Iranian languages that came to dominate the region of Elam from the 6th century BC. It was written in a cuneiform adapted from the Semitic Akkadian script of Assyria and Babylonia, although the very earliest documents were written in the quite different "Linear Elamite" script. In 2006, two even older inscriptions in a similar script were discovered at Jiroft to the east of Elam, leading archaeologists to speculate that Linear Elamite had originally spread from further east to Susa. It seems to have developed from an even earlier writing known as "proto-Elamite", but scholars are not unanimous on whether or not this script was used to write Elamite or another language, as it has not yet been deciphered. Several stages of the language are attested; the earliest date back to the third millennium BC, the latest to the Achaemenid Empire.


title: Elam

text: The Elamite language may have survived as late as the early Islamic period (roughly contemporary with the early medieval period in Europe). Among other Islamic medieval historians, Ibn al-Nadim, for instance, wrote that "The Iranian languages are Fahlavi (Pahlavi), Dari (not to be confused with Dari Persian in modern Afghanistan), Khuzi, Persian and Suryani (Assyrian)", and Ibn Moqaffa noted that "Khuzi" was the unofficial language of the royalty of Persia, "Khuz" being the corrupted name for Elam.


title: Elam

text: While Elamite is viewed as a language isolate by the vast majority of linguists, a minority of scholars have proposed that the Elamite language could be related to the Dravidian languages. David McAlpine believes Elamite may be related to the living Dravidian languages. This hypothesis is considered under the rubric of Elamo-Dravidian languages.


title: Elam

text: The Assyrians had utterly destroyed the Elamite nation, but new polities emerged in the area after Assyrian power faded. Among the nations that benefited from the decline of the Assyrians were the Iranian tribes, whose presence around Lake Urmia to the north of Elam is attested from the 9th century BC in Assyrian texts. Some time after that region fell to Madius the Scythian (653 BC), Teispes, son of Achaemenes, conquered Elamite Anshan in the mid 7th century BC, forming a nucleus that would expand into the Persian Empire. They were largely regarded as vassals of the Assyrians, and the Medes, Mannaeans, and Persians paid tribute to Assyria from the 10th century BC until the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC. After his death, the Medes played a major role in the destruction of the weakened Assyrian Empire in 612 BC.


title: Elam

text: The rise of the Achaemenids in the 6th century BC brought an end to the existence of Elam as an independent political power "but not as a cultural entity" ("Encyclopædia Iranica", Columbia University). Indigenous Elamite traditions, such as the use of the title "king of Anshan" by Cyrus the Great; the "Elamite robe" worn by Cambyses I of Anshan and seen on the famous winged genii at Pasargadae; some glyptic styles; the use of Elamite as the first of three official languages of the empire used in thousands of administrative texts found at Darius’ city of Persepolis; the continued worship of Elamite deities; and the persistence of Elamite religious personnel and cults supported by the crown, formed an essential part of the newly emerging Achaemenid culture in Persian Iran. The Elamites thus became the conduit by which achievements of the Mesopotamian civilizations were introduced to the tribes of the Iranian plateau.


title: Elam

text: Conversely, remnants of Elamite had "absorbed Iranian influences in both structure and vocabulary" by 500 BC, suggesting a form of cultural continuity or fusion connecting the Elamite and the Persian periods.


title: Elam

text: The name of "Elam" survived into the Hellenistic period and beyond. In its Greek form, "Elymais", it emerges as designating a semi-independent state under Parthian suzerainty during the 2nd century BC to the early 3rd century AD. In Acts 2:8–9 in the New Testament, the language of the "Elamitēs" is one of the languages heard at the Pentecost. From 410 onwards Elam (Beth Huzaye) was the senior metropolitan province of the Church of the East, surviving into the 14th century. Indian Carmelite historian John Marshal has proposed that the root of Carmelite history in present day India could be traced to the promise of restoration of Elam (Jeremiah 49:39).


title: Elam

text: In modern Iran, Ilam Province and Khuzestan Province are named after Elam civilization. Khuzestan means land of the Khuzis and Khuzi itself is a Middle Persian name for Elamites.


title: Bruce Springsteen discography

text: This is the discography of the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. Widely referred as ""The Boss"" by the media, Springsteen has sold over 150 million records worldwide, listing him among the best-selling music artists in history. "Billboard" ranked him as the 24th Greatest Artist of all time. According to Recording Industry Association of America, he has sold 65.5 million albums in the United States, making him the 7th best-selling male soloist of all time. "Born in the U.S.A." remains the best-selling album of his career, selling more than 30 million copies around the world.


title: Bruce Springsteen discography

text: Springsteen has released records steadily since 1973, and is widely known for his brand of heartland rock infused with pop hooks, poetic lyrics, and American culture sentiments centered on his native New Jersey. The E Street Band have been Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972 and have appeared on a majority of his studio albums and live releases. Springsteen also released one studio and live album with the Sessions Band.


title: Bruce Springsteen discography

text: Springsteen's recordings have tended to alternate between commercially accessible rock albums and somber folk-oriented works. His most commercially successful period occurred between 1975's "Born to Run" and 1987's "Tunnel of Love". 1984's "Born in the U.S.A." launched Springsteen into superstardom and the album went on to become one of the biggest selling albums of all time. It produced seven top-10 hit singles, tied for the most ever with Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation 1814". Springsteen has steadily maintained a loyal audience since his 80s success and experienced a renewed commercial strength since 2002's "The Rising", the first in a string of consecutive successful albums following a 1999 reunion with the E Street Band with whom he parted ways in 1989. 2014's "High Hopes" was Springsteen's eleventh No. 1 album placing him at third all-time for most No. 1 albums ever trailing only Jay-Z (13) and the Beatles (19). He achieved his eleventh No. 1 album in the UK with his next release, 2019's "Western Stars", which saw him join Elvis Presley and Robbie Williams on eleven UK No. 1s, trailing only Madonna (12) and the Beatles (15). In October 2019, Springsteen released a theatrical film for "Western Stars" which marked his directorial debut. The film was accompanied by the "Western Stars – Songs from the Film" soundtrack. Springsteen's twenty-first and latest album, "Only the Strong Survive", was released in 2022.


title: Bruce Springsteen discography

text: Overall, Springsteen has released 20 studio albums, 77 singles, 8 extended plays, 23 live albums, 7 box sets, 8 compilation albums, 1 soundtrack, 66 music videos and 17 home videos. In 2014, Springsteen opened the "Bruce Springsteen Archives" and announced that he will release various shows from his past that have been digitally restored and remastered and, unlike the bootleg releases, officially endorsed by Springsteen himself.


title: Bruce Springsteen discography

text: Springsteen has also contributed a number of performances to various artists' collections that have not been included on his own albums.


title: Rh blood group system

text: The Rh blood group system is a human blood group system. It contains proteins on the surface of red blood cells. After the ABO blood group system, it is the most likely to be involved in transfusion reactions. The Rh blood group system consists of 49 defined blood group antigens, among which the five antigens D, C, c, E, and e are the most important. There is no d antigen. Rh(D) status of an individual is normally described with a "positive" (+) or "negative" (−) suffix after the ABO type (e.g., someone who is A+ has the A antigen and Rh(D) antigen, whereas someone who is A− has the A antigen but lacks the Rh(D) antigen). The terms "Rh factor", "Rh positive", and "Rh negative" refer to the Rh(D) antigen only. Antibodies to Rh antigens can be involved in hemolytic transfusion reactions and antibodies to the Rh(D) and Rh antigens confer significant risk of hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn.


title: Rh blood group system

text: The Rh blood group system has two sets of nomenclatures: one developed by Ronald Fisher and R. R. Race, the other by . Both systems reflected alternative theories of inheritance. The Fisher–Race system, which is more commonly in use today, uses the CDE nomenclature. This system was based on the theory that a separate gene controls the product of each corresponding antigen (e.g., a "D gene" produces D antigen, and so on). However, the d gene was hypothetical, not actual.


title: Rh blood group system

text: The Wiener system used the Rh–Hr nomenclature. This system was based on the theory that there was one gene at a single locus on each of the 2 copies of chromosome 1, each contributing to production of multiple antigens. In this theory, a gene R is supposed to give rise to the "blood factors" Rh, rh′, and rh″ (corresponding to modern nomenclature of the D, C, and E antigens) and the gene r to produce hr′ and hr″ (corresponding to modern nomenclature of the c and e antigens).


title: Rh blood group system

text: Notations of the two theories are used interchangeably in blood banking (e.g., Rho(D) meaning RhD positive). Wiener's notation is more complex and cumbersome for routine use. Because it is simpler to explain, the Fisher–Race theory has become more widely used.


title: Rh blood group system

text: DNA testing has shown that both are partially correct: There are in fact two linked genes, the "RHD" gene which produces a single immune specificity (anti-D) and the "RHCE" gene with multiple specificities (anti-C, anti-c, anti-E, anti-e). Thus, Wiener's postulate that a gene could have multiple specificities (something many did not give credence to originally) has been proved to be correct. On the other hand, Wiener's theory that there is only one gene has proved to be incorrect, as has the Fisher–Race theory that there are three genes, rather than the 2. The CDE notation used in the Fisher–Race nomenclature is sometimes rearranged to DCE to more accurately represent the co-location of the C and E encoding on the RhCE gene, and to make interpretation easier.


title: Rh blood group system

text: The proteins which carry the Rh antigens are transmembrane proteins, whose structure suggest that they are ion channels. The main antigens are D, C, E, c and e, which are encoded by two adjacent gene loci, the "RHD" gene which encodes the RhD protein with the D antigen (and variants) and the "RHCE" gene which encodes the RhCE protein with the C, E, c and e antigens (and variants). There is no d antigen. Lowercase "d" indicates the absence of the D antigen (the gene is usually deleted or otherwise nonfunctional).


title: Rh blood group system

text: Rh phenotypes are readily identified through the presence or absence of the Rh surface antigens. As can be seen in the table below, most of the Rh phenotypes can be produced by several different Rh genotypes. The exact genotype of any individual can only be identified by DNA analysis. Regarding patient treatment, only the phenotype is usually of any clinical significance to ensure a patient is not exposed to an antigen they are likely to develop antibodies against. A probable genotype may be speculated on, based upon the statistical distributions of genotypes in the patient's place of origin.


title: Rh blood group system

text: R (cDe or Dce) is today most common in Africa. The allele was thus often assumed in early blood group analyses to have been typical of populations on the continent; particularly in areas below the Sahara. Ottensooser et al. (1963) suggested that high R frequencies were likely characteristic of the ancient Judea Jews, who had emigrated from Egypt prior to their dispersal throughout the Mediterranean Basin and Europe on the basis of high R percentages among Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews compared to native European populations and the relative genetic isolation of Ashkenazim. However, more recent studies have found R frequencies as low as 24.3% among some Afroasiatic-speaking groups in the Horn of Africa, as well as higher R frequencies among certain other Afroasiatic speakers in North Africa (37.3%) and among some Palestinians in the Levant (30.4%). On the contrary, at a frequency of 47.2% of the population of Basque country having the lack of the D antigen, these people display the highest frequency of the Rh negative phenotype.


title: Rh blood group system

text: Rh antibodies are IgG antibodies which are acquired through exposure to Rh-positive blood (generally either through pregnancy or transfusion of blood products). The D antigen is the most immunogenic of all the non-ABO antigens. Approximately 80% of individuals who are D-negative and exposed to a single D-positive unit will produce an anti-D antibody. The percentage of alloimmunization is significantly reduced in patients who are actively exsanguinating.


title: Rh blood group system

text: All Rh antibodies "except" D display dosage (antibody reacts more strongly with red cells homozygous for an antigen than cells heterozygous for the antigen (EE stronger reaction vs Ee).


title: Rh blood group system

text: If anti-E is detected, the presence of anti-c should be strongly suspected (due to combined genetic inheritance). It is therefore common to select c-negative and E-negative blood for transfusion patients who have an anti-E and lack the c antigen (in general, a patient will not produce antibodies against their own antigens). Anti-c is a common cause of delayed hemolytic transfusion reactions.


title: Rh blood group system

text: The hemolytic condition occurs when there is an incompatibility between the blood types of the mother and fetus. There is also potential incompatibility if the mother is Rh negative and the father is positive. When any incompatibility is detected, the mother often receives an injection at 28 weeks gestation and at birth to avoid the development of antibodies towards the fetus. These terms do not indicate which specific antigen-antibody incompatibility is implicated. The disorder in the fetus due to Rh D incompatibility is known as "erythroblastosis fetalis".


title: Rh blood group system

text: When the condition is caused by the Rh D antigen-antibody incompatibility, it is called Rh D Hemolytic disease of the newborn or Rh disease. Here, sensitization to Rh D antigens (usually by feto-maternal transfusion during pregnancy) may lead to the production of maternal IgG anti-D antibodies which can pass through the placenta. This is of particular importance to D negative females at or below childbearing age, because any subsequent pregnancy may be affected by the Rh D hemolytic disease of the newborn if the baby is D positive. The vast majority of Rh disease is preventable in modern antenatal care by injections of IgG anti-D antibodies (Rho(D) Immune Globulin). The incidence of Rh disease is mathematically related to the frequency of D negative individuals in a population, so Rh disease is rare in old-stock populations of Africa and the eastern half of Asia, and the Indigenous peoples of Oceania and the Americas, but more common in other genetic groups, most especially Western Europeans, but also other West Eurasians, and to a lesser degree, native Siberians, as well as those of mixed-race with a significant or dominant descent from those (e.g. the vast majority of Latin Americans and Central Asians).


title: Rh blood group system

text: Rh disease only occurs in human fetuses however a similar disease called Neonatal isoerythrolysis (NI) can be observed in animal species of newborn horses, mules, pigs, cats, cattle, and dogs.  What differs between Rh disease and NI is the pathogenesis of hemolysis between human fetuses and the animal species.  With human mothers, the maternal antibodies are formed from the sensitization of foreign antigens of her unborn fetus’s red blood cells passing through the placenta causing hemolysis before birth, with other animals however, these maternal antibodies are not passed through the placenta but through colostrum.  The newborn animal is without NI but soon develops hemolytic anemia after initial ingestion of its mother’s colostrum that contain antibodies that can be absorbed through the newborn’s intestines and are incompatible to its red blood cell antigen. After 48 hours of birth, the newborn may be allowed to nurse from its mother as her antibodies can no longer be absorbed through the neonate’s intestines.  Because the most active newborn animals consume the most colostrum, they may be the ones who are most affected by the blood incompatibility of antigen and antibody.


title: Rh blood group system

text: Rh molecules can be found in many different living organisms from worms, bacteria, algae, and other vertebrates.  These Rh molecules from different animals have the same biochemical function-differing slightly in their amino acid sequences.  The Rh proteins in other species, however, do not correspond with the Rh blood group or antigens found on human red blood cells. One such example would be the nematode "Caenorhabditis elegans".  Because this worm does not have red blood cells, it cannot have Rh antigens, excluding it from having a Rh blood type. These Rh proteins therefore do not bind to red blood cells; they operate independently. Instead of transporting CO2 from the proteins of human red blood cells, "C. elegan’s" Rh proteins transport NH3 out of its body.


title: Rh blood group system

text: According to a comprehensive study, the worldwide frequency of Rh-positive and Rh-negative blood types is approximately 94% and 6%, respectively. The same study concluded that the share of the population with Rh-negative blood type is set to fall further in the future primarily due to low population growth in Europe. The frequency of Rh factor blood types and the RhD neg allele gene differs in various populations.


title: Rh blood group system

text: The D antigen is inherited as one gene (RHD) (on the short arm of the first chromosome, p36.13–p34.3) with various alleles. Typically, Rhesus positive people have an intact RHD gene while negative people lack the gene (or have mutations in it). However, there are exceptions: for instance, Japanese and black Africans may have an intact gene that is not expressed or only at very low levels. The gene codes for the RhD protein on the red blood cell membrane. D− individuals who lack a functional "RHD" gene do not produce the D antigen, and may be immunized by D+ blood.


title: Rh blood group system

text: The D antigen is a dominant trait. If both of a child's parents are "Rh negative," the child will definitely be "Rh negative". Otherwise the child may be "Rh positive" or "Rh negative," depending on the parents' specific genotypes.


title: Rh blood group system

text: The epitopes for the next 4 most common Rh antigens, C, c, E and e are expressed on the highly similar RhCE protein that is genetically encoded in the "RHCE" gene, also found on chromosome 1. It has been shown that the "RHD" gene arose by duplication of the "RHCE" gene during primate evolution. Mice have just one RH gene.


title: Rh blood group system

text: The RHAG gene, which is responsible for encoding Rh-associated glycoprotein (RhAG), is found on chromosome 6a.


title: Rh blood group system

text: The polypeptides produced from the RHD and RHCE genes form a complex on the red blood cell membrane with the Rh-associated glycoprotein.


title: Rh blood group system

text: On the basis of structural homology it has been proposed that the product of RHD gene, the RhD protein, is a membrane transport protein of uncertain specificity (CO or NH) and unknown physiological role. The three-dimensional structure of the related RHCG protein and biochemical analysis of the RhD protein complex indicates that the RhD protein is one of three subunits of an ammonia transporter. Three recent studies have reported a protective effect of the RhD-positive phenotype, especially RhD heterozygosity, against the negative effect of latent toxoplasmosis on psychomotor performance in infected subjects. RhD-negative compared to RhD-positive subjects without anamnestic titres of anti-"Toxoplasma" antibodies have shorter reaction times in tests of simple reaction times. And conversely, RhD-negative subjects with anamnestic titres (i.e. with latent toxoplasmosis) exhibited much longer reaction times than their RhD-positive counterparts. The published data suggested that only the protection of RhD-positive heterozygotes was long term in nature; the protection of RhD-positive homozygotes decreased with duration of the infection while the performance of RhD-negative homozygotes decreased immediately after the infection. The overall change in reaction times was always larger in the RhD-negative group than in the RhD-positive.


title: Rh blood group system

text: For a long time, the origin of RHD polymorphism was an evolutionary enigma. Before the advent of modern medicine, the carriers of the rarer allele (e.g. RhD-negative women in a population of RhD positives or RhD-positive men in a population of RhD negatives) were at a disadvantage as some of their children (RhD-positive children born to preimmunised RhD-negative mothers) were at a higher risk of fetal or newborn death or health impairment from hemolytic disease.


title: Rh blood group system

text: Natural selection aside, the RHD-RHCE region is structurally predisposed to many mutations seen in humans, since the pair arose by gene duplication and remain similar enough for unequal crossing over to occur. In addition to the case where D is deleted, crossover can also produce a single gene mixing exons from both "RHD" and "RHCE", forming the majority of partial D types.


title: Rh blood group system

text: In serologic testing, D positive blood is easily identified. Units that are D negative are often retested to rule out a weaker reaction. This was previously referred to as D, which has been replaced. By definition, weak D phenotype is characterized by negative reaction with anti-D reagent at immediate spin (IS), negative reaction after 37 °C incubation, and positive reaction at anti-human globulin (AHG) phase. Weak D phenotype can occur in several ways. In some cases, this phenotype occurs because of an altered surface protein that is more common in people of European descent. An inheritable form also occurs, as a result of a weakened form of the R0 gene. Weak D may also occur as "C in trans", whereby a C gene is present on the opposite chromosome to a D gene (as in the combination R0r', or "Dce/dCe"). The testing is difficult, since using different anti-D reagents, especially the older polyclonal reagents, may give different results.


title: Rh blood group system

text: The practical implication of this is that people with this sub-phenotype will have a product labeled as "D positive" when donating blood. When receiving blood, they are sometimes typed as a "D negative", though this is the subject of some debate. Most "Weak D" patients can receive "D positive" blood without complications. However, it is important to correctly identify the ones that have to be considered D+ or D−. This is important, since most blood banks have a limited supply of "D negative" blood and the correct transfusion is clinically relevant. In this respect, genotyping of blood groups has much simplified this detection of the various variants in the Rh blood group system.


title: Rh blood group system

text: It is important to differentiate weak D (due to a "quantitative" difference in the D antigen) from partial D (due to a "qualitative" difference in the D antigen). Simply put, the weak D phenotype is due to a reduced number of D antigens on a red blood cell. In contrast, the partial D phenotype is due to an alteration in D-epitopes. Thus, in partial D, the number of D antigens is not reduced but the protein structure is altered. These individuals, if alloimmunized to D, can produce an anti-D antibody. Therefore, partial D patients who are donating blood should be labeled as D-positive but, if receiving blood, they should be labeled as D-negative and receive D-negative units.


title: Rh blood group system

text: In the past, partial D was called 'D mosaic' or 'D variant.' Different partial D phenotypes are defined by different D epitopes on the outer surface of the red blood cell membrane. More than 30 different partial D phenotypes have been described.


title: Rh blood group system

text: Rh individuals have no Rh antigens (no Rh or RhAG) on their red blood cells. This rare condition has been called "Golden Blood". As a consequence of Rh antigen absence, Rh red blood cells also lack LW and Fy5 and show weak expression of S, s, and U antigens.


title: Rh blood group system

text: Red blood cells lacking Rh/RhAG proteins have structural abnormalities (such as stomatocytosis) and cell membrane defects that can result in hemolytic anemia.


title: Rh blood group system

text: Only 43 individuals have been reported to have it worldwide. Only nine active donors have been reported. Its properties make it attractive in numerous medical applications, but scarcity makes it expensive to transport and acquire.


title: Rh blood group system

text: Currently, 50 antigens have been described in the Rh group system; among those described here, the D, C, c, E and e antigens are the most important. The others are much less frequently encountered or are rarely clinically significant. Each is given a number, though the highest assigned number (CEVF or RH61 according to the ISBT terminology) is not an accurate reflection of the antigens encountered since many (e.g. Rh38) have been combined, reassigned to other groups, or otherwise removed.


title: Rh blood group system

text: Some of the other Rh "antigens" are f ("ce", RH6), Ce (RH7), C (RH8), C (RH9), V (RH10), E (RH11), G (RH12), Tar (RH40), VS (RH20), D (RH23), and CE (RH22). Some of these groups, including f, Ce and CE, describe grouping of some existing groups. Others, like V, describe an epitope created by some other mutation on the "RHD" and "RHCE" genes. V in particular is caused by a mutation on "RHCE".


title: Rh blood group system

text: The term "Rh" was originally an abbreviation of "Rhesus factor". It was discovered in 1937 by Karl Landsteiner and Alexander S. Wiener, who, at the time, believed it to be a similar antigen found in rhesus macaque red blood cells. It was subsequently discovered that the human factor is not identical to the rhesus monkey factor, but by then, "Rhesus Group" and like terms were already in widespread, worldwide use. Thus, notwithstanding it is a misnomer, the term survives (e.g., "rhesus blood group system" and the obsolete terms "rhesus factor", " rhesus positive", and "rhesus negative" – all three of which actually refer specifically and "only" to the Rh D factor and are thus misleading when unmodified). Contemporary practice is to use "Rh" as a term of art instead of "Rhesus" (e.g., "Rh Group", "Rh factors", "Rh D", etc.).


title: Rh blood group system

text: The significance of their discovery was not immediately apparent and was only realized in 1940, after subsequent findings by Philip Levine and Rufus Stetson. The serum that led to the discovery was produced by immunizing rabbits with red blood cells from a rhesus macaque. The antigen that induced this immunization was designated by them as "Rh factor" to indicate that "rhesus" blood had been used for the production of the serum.


title: Rh blood group system

text: In 1939, Phillip Levine and Rufus Stetson published in a first case report the clinical consequences of non-recognized "Rh factor", hemolytic transfusion reaction, and hemolytic disease of the newborn in its most severe form. It was recognized that the serum of the reported woman agglutinated with red blood cells of about 80% of the people although the then known blood groups, in particular ABO were matched. No name was given to this agglutinin when described. In 1940, Karl Landsteiner and Alexander S. Wiener made the connection to their earlier discovery, reporting a serum that also reacted with about 85% of different human red blood cells.


title: Rh blood group system

text: In 1941, Group O: a patient of Dr. Paul in Irvington, NJ, delivered a normal infant in 1931; this pregnancy was followed by a long period of sterility. The second pregnancy (April, 1941) resulted in an infant with icterus gravis. In May 1941, the third anti-Rh serum (M.S.) of Group O became available.


title: Rh blood group system

text: Based on the serologic similarities, " Rh factor" was later also used for antigens, and "anti-Rh" for antibodies, found in humans such as those previously described by Levine and Stetson. Although differences between these two sera were shown already in 1942 and clearly demonstrated in 1963, the already widely used term "Rh" was kept for the clinically described human antibodies which are different from the ones related to the rhesus monkey. This real factor found in rhesus macaque was classified in the Landsteiner-Weiner antigen system (antigen LW, antibody anti-LW) in honor of the discoverers.


title: Rh blood group system

text: It was recognized that the "Rh factor" was just one in a system of various antigens. Based on different models of genetic inheritance, two different terminologies were developed; both of them are still in use.


title: Rh blood group system

text: The clinical significance of this highly immunizing D antigen (i.e., Rh factor) was soon realized. Some keystones were to recognize its importance for blood transfusion (including reliable diagnostic tests), hemolytic disease of the newborn (including exchange transfusion), and very importantly the prevention of it by screening and prophylaxis.


title: Rh blood group system

text: The discovery of fetal cell-free DNA in maternal circulation by Holzgrieve et al. led to the noninvasive genotyping of fetal Rh genes in many countries.


title: American exceptionalism

text: American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is inherently different from other nations. Proponents of it argue that the values, political system, and historical development of the U.S. are unique in human history, often with the implication that it is both destined and entitled to play a distinct and positive role on the world stage.


title: American exceptionalism

text: Political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset traces the origins of American exceptionalism to the American Revolution, from which the U.S. emerged as "the first new nation" with a distinct ideology. This ideology, which Lipset called Americanism, but is often also referred to as American exceptionalism, is based on liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, republicanism, democracy and laissez-faire economics; these principles are sometimes collectively referred to as "American exceptionalism", and entail the U.S. being perceived both domestically and internationally as superior to other nations or having a unique mission to transform the world.


title: American exceptionalism

text: The theory of exceptionalism in the U.S. developed over time and can be traced to many sources. French political scientist and historian Alexis de Tocqueville was the first writer to describe the country as "exceptional" following his travels there in 1831. The earliest documented use of the specific term "American exceptionalism" is by American communists in intra-communist disputes in the late 1920s.


title: American exceptionalism

text: The concept of the United States as an exceptional society has a long history, sometimes traced back to French writer Alexis de Tocqueville or to the ideas espoused by the Founding Fathers of the United States during the American Revolution. For example, in August 1861 "The Times" of London alluded to "the 'exceptionalism,' if one may use the word, on which the Americans rather pride themselves" in a discussion of the American Civil War. However, the specific term "American exceptionalism" seems to have originated with American communists in the late 1920s. The earliest documented usage cited by the Oxford English Dictionary is from the "Daily Worker", 29 January 1929: "This American 'exceptionalism' applies to the whole tactical line of the C.I. as applied to America." In turn, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (who was likely aware of this earlier use) condemned the "heresy of American exceptionalism" in a tense discussion with Jay Lovestone of the Communist Party USA, after Lovestone echoed the arguments of other American communists that the U.S. is independent of the Marxist laws of history "thanks to its natural resources, industrial capacity, and absence of rigid class distinctions." The term later moved into general use by intellectuals. "American exceptionalism" was rarely used after the 1930s until U.S. newspapers popularized it in the 1980s to describe America's cultural and political uniqueness.


title: American exceptionalism

text: In 1989, the Scottish political scientist Richard Rose noted that most American historians endorse exceptionalism, and he suggested their reasoning to be as follows:


title: American exceptionalism

text: America marches to a different drummer. Its uniqueness is explained by any or all of a variety of reasons: history, size, geography, political institutions, and culture. Explanations of the growth of government in Europe are not expected to fit American experience, and vice versa.


title: American exceptionalism

text: However, postnationalist scholars reject American exceptionalism and argue the U.S. did not break from European history and accordingly has retained class-based and race-based differences as well as imperialism and willingness to wage war.


title: American exceptionalism

text: In recent years, scholars from numerous disciplines, as well as politicians and commentators in the traditional media, have debated the meaning and usefulness of the concept. Roberts and DiCuirci ask:


title: American exceptionalism

text: Some historians support the concept of American exceptionalism but avoid the terminology to avoid getting entangled in rhetorical debates. Bernard Bailyn, a leading colonial specialist at Harvard, was a believer in the distinctiveness of American civilization. Although he rarely, if ever, used the phrase "American exceptionalism," he insisted upon the "distinctive characteristics of British North American life." He argued that the process of social and cultural transmission result in peculiarly-American patterns of education in the broadest sense of the word, and he believed in the unique character of the American Revolution.


title: American exceptionalism

text: The term became an issue of contention between the presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain in the 2008 presidential campaign, with McCain attacking Obama for allegedly disbelieving the concept.


title: American exceptionalism

text: The first reference to the concept by name, and possibly its origin, was by the French writer Alexis de Tocqueville in his 1835/1840 work "Democracy in America":


title: American exceptionalism

text: Kammen says that many foreign visitors commented on American exceptionalism including Karl Marx, Francis Lieber, Hermann Eduard von Holst, James Bryce, H. G. Wells, G. K. Chesterton, and Hilaire Belloc and that they did so in complimentary terms. The theme became common, especially in textbooks. From the 1840s to the late 19th century, the McGuffey Readers sold 120 million copies and were studied by most American students. Skrabec (2009) argues the "Readers" "hailed American exceptionalism, manifest destiny, and America as God's country... Furthermore, McGuffey saw America as having a future mission to bring liberty and democracy to the world."


title: American exceptionalism

text: In June 1927 Jay Lovestone, a leader of the Communist Party USA and who would soon be named as general secretary, described America's economic and social uniqueness. He noted the increasing strength of American capitalism and the country's "tremendous reserve power" and said that they both prevented a communist revolution. In mid-1929, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, disbelieving that America was so resistant to revolution, denounced Lovestone's ideas as "the heresy of American exceptionalism," which was likely a reference to an article published in the "Daily Worker" earlier that year. The Great Depression in the United States appeared to underscore Stalin's argument that American capitalism falls under the general laws of Marxism. In June 1930, during the national convention of the Communist Party USA in New York, it was declared: "The storm of the economic crisis in the United States blew down the house of cards of American exceptionalism and the whole system of opportunistic theories and illusions that had been built upon American capitalist 'prosperity.'"


title: American exceptionalism

text: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) believes that the Americas, including the United States, are a unique place, populated by a chosen people and the native americans are, at least in part, composed of Lamanites and Mormons for a singular destiny, linking the United States to the Biblical promised land in the Book of Mormon, with the Constitution of the United States being divinely inspired. Joseph Smith argued that the millennial New Jerusalem was to be built in America (10th Article of Faith) and reported God as saying "it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another. And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood" (D&C 101:79–80).


title: American exceptionalism

text: Although officially shunned by the LDS Church, fundamentalist Mormons believe in the White Horse Prophecy, which argues that Mormons will be the ones called upon to preserve the Constitution as it hangs "by a thread".


title: American exceptionalism

text: In general, Americans have had the consideration of national "uniqueness." The historian Dorothy Ross points to three different currents regarding unique characteristics.


title: American exceptionalism

text: In April 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama responded to a journalist's question in Strasbourg with this statement: "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." Obama further noted, "I see no contradiction between believing that America has a continued extraordinary role in leading the world towards peace and prosperity and recognizing that leadership is incumbent, depends on, our ability to create partnerships because we can't solve these problems alone."


title: American exceptionalism

text: Mitt Romney attacked Obama's statement and argued it showed Obama did not believe in American exceptionalism. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said that Obama's "worldview is dramatically different from any president, Republican or Democrat, we've had... He grew up more as a globalist than an American. To deny American exceptionalism is in essence to deny the heart and soul of this nation."


title: American exceptionalism

text: In a speech on the Syria crisis on September 10, 2013, Obama said that "however, when, with modest effort and risk, we can stop children from being gassed to death, and thereby make our kids safer over the long run, I believe we should act... That is what makes America different. That is what makes us exceptional."


title: American exceptionalism

text: In a direct response the next day, Russian President Vladimir Putin published an op-ed in "The New York Times", articulating, "It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation... We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord's blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal."


title: American exceptionalism

text: Putin's views were soon endorsed by future President Donald Trump, who declared the op-ed "a masterpiece." "You think of the term as being beautiful, but all of sudden you say, what if you're in Germany or Japan or any one of 100 countries? You are not going to like that term," Trump said. "It is very insulting, and Putin put it to him about that."


title: American exceptionalism

text: Some left-wing American commentators agree with Trump's stance; one example is Sherle Schwenninger, a co-founder of the New America Foundation, who in a 2016 "Nation" magazine symposium remarked, "Trump would redefine American exceptionalism by bringing an end to the neoliberal/neoconservative globalist project that Hillary Clinton and many Republicans support." However, Trump has also advocated an "America First" policy, emphasizing American nationalism and unilateralism, though with a greater emphasis on non-interventionism.


title: American exceptionalism

text: American exceptionalism has been a plank of the Republican party platform since 2012. The platform adopted in 2016 defines it as "the notion that our ideas and principles as a nation give us a unique place of moral leadership" and affirms that the U.S. therefore must "retake its natural position as leader of the free world."


title: American exceptionalism

text: Professor Mugambi Jouet commented that Republican support for American exceptionalism arose in opposition to Obama, and was coded as anti-Obama in the same way that arguments for states' rights were coded as anti-Black.


title: American exceptionalism

text: Many scholars use a model of American exceptionalism developed by Harvard political scientist Louis Hartz. In "The Liberal Tradition in America" (1955), Hartz argued that the American political tradition lacks the left-wing/socialist and right-wing/aristocratic elements that dominated in Europe because colonial America lacked feudal traditions, such as established churches, landed estates, and a hereditary nobility. As a result, American politics developed around a tradition of 'Lockean' liberalism. Although some European practices of feudal origin, such as primogeniture, were transmitted to America, Hartz argued that their abolition during the American Revolution only confirmed the U.S.' liberalism.


title: American exceptionalism

text: The "liberal consensus" school, typified by David Potter, Daniel Boorstin, and Richard Hofstadter followed Hartz in emphasizing that political conflicts in American history remained within the tight boundaries of this liberal tradition, especially regarding private property, individual rights, and representative government. The national government that emerged was far less centralized or nationalized than its European counterparts.


title: American exceptionalism

text: Some scholars, however, have disputed whether feudalism was absent from America. Sheldon Wolin has argued that the American Revolution was a reaction against increased centralization by the British government, while Karen Orren has claimed that aspects of feudal employment law lasted in America as late as the 1930s. James T. Kloppenberg has criticized Hartz for viewing American politics as a liberal consensus, arguing that this oversimplifies U.S. history. On the other hand, Catherine A. Holland, while accepting other criticisms of Hartz, has argued that this is a misinterpretation, and that Hartz acknowledged divisions within American politics (albeit divisions within liberalism).


title: American exceptionalism

text: Parts of American exceptionalism can be traced to American Puritan roots. Many Puritans with Arminian leanings embraced a middle ground between strict Calvinist predestination and a less restricting theology of Divine Providence. They believed that God had made a covenant with their people and had chosen them to provide a model for the other nations of the Earth. One Puritan leader, John Winthrop, metaphorically expressed this idea as a "City upon a Hill: the Puritan community of New England should serve as a model for the rest of the world. That metaphor is often used by proponents of exceptionalism. The Puritans' moralistic values have remained a component of the national identity for centuries.


title: American exceptionalism

text: In that vein, Max Weber was a pioneer in delineating a connection between capitalism and exceptionalism. Eric Luis Uhlmann of Northwestern University argues that Puritan values were eventually taken up by all other Americans. Kevin M. Schultz underlines how they helped America to keep to its "Protestant Promise", especially Catholics and Jews.


title: American exceptionalism

text: The ideas that created the American Revolution were derived from a tradition of republicanism that had been repudiated by the British mainstream. The historian Gordon S. Wood has argued, "Our beliefs in liberty, equality, constitutionalism, and the well-being of ordinary people came out of the Revolutionary era. So too did our idea that we Americans are a special people with a special destiny to lead the world toward liberty and democracy." Wood notes that the term is "presently much-maligned" although it is vigorously supported by others such as Jon Butler.


title: American exceptionalism

text: Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" for the first time expressed the belief that America was not just an extension of Europe but a new land and a country of nearly unlimited potential and opportunity that had outgrown the British mother country. Those sentiments laid the intellectual foundations for the revolutionary concept of American exceptionalism and were closely tied to republicanism, the belief that sovereignty belonged to the people, not a hereditary ruling class.


title: American exceptionalism

text: Religious freedom characterized the American Revolution in unique ways when most major nations had state religions. Republicanism, led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, created modern constitutional republicanism, which limits ecclesiastical powers. The historian Thomas Kidd (2010) argues, "With the onset of the revolutionary crisis, a significant conceptual shift convinced Americans across the theological spectrum that God was raising America for some particular purpose." Kidd further argues that "a new blend of Christian and republican ideology led religious traditionalists to embrace wholesale the concept of republican virtue."


title: American exceptionalism

text: According to Tucker and Hendrickson (1992), Jefferson believed America "was the bearer of a new diplomacy, founded on the confidence of a free and virtuous people, that would secure ends based on the natural and universal rights of man, by means that escaped war and its corruptions." Jefferson sought a radical break from the traditional European emphasis on "reason of state," which could justify any action, and the usual priority of foreign policy and the needs of the ruling family over those of the people.


title: American exceptionalism

text: Jefferson envisaged America becoming the world's great "Empire of Liberty," the model for democracy and republicanism. He identified his nation as a beacon to the world, as he said when he departed the presidency in 1809: "Trusted with the destinies of this solitary republic of the world, the only monument of human rights, and the sole depository of the sacred fire of freedom and self-government, from hence it is to be lighted up in other regions of the earth, if other areas of the earth shall ever become susceptible of its benign influence."


title: American exceptionalism

text: Marilyn B. Young argues that after the end of the Cold War in 1991, neoconservative intellectuals and policymakers embraced the idea of an "American empire," a national mission to establish freedom and democracy in other nations, particularly poor ones. She argues that after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the George W. Bush administration reoriented foreign policy to an insistence on maintaining the supreme military and economic power of America, an attitude that harmonized with the new vision of American empire. Young says the Iraq War (2003–2011) exemplified American exceptionalism.


title: American exceptionalism

text: In 2012, the conservative historians Larry Schweikart and Dave Dougherty argued that American exceptionalism be based on four pillars: (1) common law; (2) virtue and morality located in Protestant Christianity; (3) free-market capitalism; and (4) the sanctity of private property.


title: American exceptionalism

text: In a 2015 book, "Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America", former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney sets out and argues the case for American exceptionalism and concludes: "we are, as Lincoln said, 'the last, best hope of earth.' We are not just one more nation, one more same entity on the world stage. We have been essential to the preservation and progress of freedom, and those who lead us in the years ahead must remind us, as Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Reagan did, of the unique role we play. Neither they nor we should ever forget that we are, in fact, exceptional."


title: American exceptionalism

text: Proponents of American exceptionalism argue that the United States is exceptional in that it was founded on a set of republican ideals rather than on a common heritage, ethnicity, or ruling elite. In the formulation of President Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address, America is a nation "conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." In Lincoln's interpretation, America is inextricably connected with freedom and equality, and the American mission is to ensure "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." The historian T. Harry Williams argues that Lincoln believed:


title: American exceptionalism

text: American policies have been characterized since their inception by a system of federalism (between the states and the federal government) and checks and balances (among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches), which were designed to prevent any faction, region, or government organ from becoming too powerful. Some proponents of the theory of American exceptionalism argue that the system and the accompanying distrust of concentrated power prevent the United States from suffering a "tyranny of the majority," preserve a free republican democracy, and allow citizens to live in a locality whose laws reflect those voters' values. A consequence of the political system is that laws can vary widely across the country. Critics of American exceptionalism maintain that the system merely replaces the power of the federal majority over states with power by the states over local entities. On the balance, the American political system arguably allows for more local dominance but prevents more domestic dominance than a more unitary system would.


title: American exceptionalism

text: The historian Eric Foner has explored the question of birthright citizenship, the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) that makes anyone born in the United States a full citizen.


title: American exceptionalism

text: Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh has identified what he says is "the most important respect in which the United States has been genuinely exceptional, about international affairs, international law, and promotion of human rights: namely, in its outstanding global leadership and activism." He argues:


title: American exceptionalism

text: To this day, the United States remains the only superpower capable, and at times willing, to commit real resources and make real sacrifices to build, sustain, and drive an international system committed to international law, democracy, and the promotion of human rights. Experience teaches that when the United States leads on human rights, from Nuremberg to Kosovo, other countries follow.


title: American exceptionalism

text: Peggy Noonan, an American political pundit, wrote in "The Wall Street Journal" that "America is not exceptional because it has long attempted to be a force for good in the world, it tries to be a force for good because it is exceptional."


title: American exceptionalism

text: Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney explores the concept of United States global leadership in a 2015 book on American foreign policy, "", co-authored with his daughter, Liz Cheney, a former official of the U.S. Department of State.


title: American exceptionalism

text: Proponents of American exceptionalism often claim that many features of the "American spirit" were shaped by the frontier process. Following Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis, they argue that the American frontier allowed individualism to flourish as pioneers adopted democracy and equality and shed centuries-old European institutions such as royalty, standing armies, established churches, and a landed aristocracy that owned most of the land. However, the frontier experience was not entirely unique to the United States. Other nations had frontiers without them shaping them nearly as much as the American frontier did, usually because they were under the control of a strong national government. South Africa, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and Australia had long frontiers, but they did not have "free land" and local control. The political and cultural environments were much different since the other frontiers neither involved widespread ownership of free land nor allowed the settlers to control the local and provincial governments, as was the case in America. Their edge did not shape their national psyches. Each nation had entirely different frontier experiences. For example, the Dutch Boers in South Africa were defeated in war by Britain. In Australia, "mateship" and working together were valued more than individualism was in the United States.


title: American exceptionalism

text: For most of its history, especially from the mid-19th to the early-20th centuries, the United States has been known as the "land of opportunity" and in that sense prided and promoted itself on providing individuals with the opportunity to escape from the contexts of their class and family background. Examples of that social mobility include:


title: American exceptionalism

text: However, social mobility in the U.S. is lower than in some European Union countries if it is defined by income movements. American men born into the lowest income quintile are much more likely to stay there than similar people in the Nordic countries or the United Kingdom. Many economists, such as Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw, however, state that the discrepancy has little to do with class rigidity; rather, it is a reflection of income disparity: "Moving up and down a short ladder is a lot easier than moving up and down a tall one."


title: American exceptionalism

text: Regarding public welfare, Richard Rose asked in 1989 whether the evidence shows whether the U.S. "is becoming more like other mixed-economy welfare states, or increasingly exceptional." He concluded, "By comparison with other advanced industrial nations America is today exceptional in total public expenditure, in major program priorities, and in the value of public benefits."


title: American exceptionalism

text: The historian Michael Kammen argues that criticisms against the topic were raised in the 1970s in the wake of the Vietnam War. According to Kammen, many intellectuals then decided, "The American Adam had lost his innocence and given way to a helpless, tarnished Gulliver." At about the same time, the new social history used statistical techniques on population samples that seemed to show resemblances with Europe on issues such as social mobility. By the 1980s, labor historians were emphasizing that the failure of a workers' party to emerge in the United States meant that America was not exceptionally favorable for workers. By the late 1980s, other academic critics started mocking the extreme chauvinism displayed by the modern usage of exceptionalism. Finally, in the mid-1980s, colonial historians debated the uniqueness of the American experience in the context of British history. On the other hand, Wilentz argued for "distinctively American forms of class conflict," and Foner said there was a "distinctive character of American trade unionism."


title: American exceptionalism

text: The third idea of American exceptionalism, superiority, has been criticized with charges of moral defectiveness and the existence of double standards. In "American Exceptionalism and Human Rights" (2005), the Canadian commentator Michael Ignatieff treats the idea negatively and identifies three main sub-types: "exemptionalism" (supporting treaties as long as U.S. citizens are exempt from them); "double standards" (criticizing "others for not heeding the findings of international human rights bodies but ignoring what the organizations say of the United States"), and "legal isolationism" (the tendency of U.S. judges to ignore other jurisdictions).


title: American exceptionalism

text: During the George W. Bush administration (2001–2009), the term was somewhat abstracted from its historical context. Proponents and opponents alike began using it to describe a phenomenon wherein certain political interests view the United States as being "above" or an "exception" to the law, specifically the law of nations. (That phenomenon is less concerned with justifying American uniqueness than with asserting its immunity to international law.) The new use of the term has served to confuse the topic and muddy the waters since its unilateralist emphasis, and the actual orientation diverges somewhat from prior uses of the phrase. A certain number of those who subscribe to "old-style" or "traditional American exceptionalism," the idea that America is a more nearly exceptional nation than are others and that it differs qualitatively from the rest of the world and has a unique role to play in world history, also agree that the United States is and ought to be entirely subject to and bound by public international law. Indeed, recent research shows that "there is some indication for American exceptionalism among the [U.S.] public, but very little evidence of unilateral attitudes."


title: American exceptionalism

text: Critics on the left such as Marilyn Young and Howard Zinn have argued that American history is so morally flawed because of slavery, civil rights, and social welfare issues that it cannot be an exemplar of virtue. Zinn argues that American exceptionalism cannot be of divine origin because it was not benign, especially in dealing with Native Americans.


title: American exceptionalism

text: Donald E. Pease mocks American exceptionalism as a "state fantasy" and a "myth" in his 2009 book "The New American Exceptionalism": "Pease notes that state fantasies cannot altogether conceal the inconsistencies they mask, showing how such events as the revelations of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison and the exposure of government incompetence after Hurricane Katrina opened fissures in the myth of exceptionalism."


title: American exceptionalism

text: The American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr argued that the automatic assumption that America acts for the right will bring about moral corruption, although Niebuhr supported America's Cold War policies. His position, "Christian realism," advocated a liberal notion of responsibility that justified interference in other nations.


title: American exceptionalism

text: U.S. historians like Thomas Bender "try and put an end to the recent revival of American exceptionalism, a defect he esteems to be inherited from the Cold War." Gary W. Reichard and Ted Dickson argue "how the development of the United States has always depended on its transactions with other nations for commodities, cultural values and populations." Roger Cohen asks, "How exceptional can you be when every major problem you face, from terrorism to nuclear proliferation to gas prices, requires joint action?" Harold Koh distinguishes "distinctive rights, different labels, the 'flying buttress' mentality, and double standards. (...) [T]he fourth face—double standards—presents the most dangerous and destructive form of American exceptionalism." Godfrey Hodgson also concludes that "the U.S. national myth is dangerous". Samantha Power asserts that "we're neither the shining example, nor even competent meddlers. It's going to take a generation or so to reclaim American exceptionalism."


title: American exceptionalism

text: Though the United States has been remarkably democratic, politically stable, and free of war on its soil compared to most European countries, there have been major exceptions, most notably the American Civil War. Even after the abolition of slavery, the federal government ignored the requirements of the Equal Protection Clause with respect to African-Americans during the Jim Crow era, and with respect to women's suffrage until the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920. Though the Guarantee Clause gives Congress the responsibility to ensure a republican form of government in the states, successful white supremacist coups in local governments were tolerated in the Election riot of 1874 and Wilmington Insurrection of 1898. (Many other coup attempts were successfully suppressed.)


title: American exceptionalism

text: The United States military, diplomats, intelligence agencies, and foreign aid have been used to protect democratic regimes in many countries, including many Allies of World War II, First World democracies during the Cold War, and Israel. In its regime change activities, it has also brought democracy to many countries, sometimes by force. These include the governments and protectorates created in areas defeated in World War I, World War II, and the 2003 Iraq War. The U.S. victory in the Cold War allowed democracy to spread to many countries in Eastern Europe.


title: American exceptionalism

text: The United States has also sometimes supported the overthrow of democratically elected governments in pursuit of other objectives, typical economic and anti-communist. These include the 1913 Mexican coup (against the orders of the President; see United States involvement in the Mexican Revolution), the 1941 coup deposing Arnulfo Arias to secure the Panama Canal, the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, the 1960 overthrow of Patrice Lumumba in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état. The United States reversed its previous support for a military junta and restored democracy to Haiti with Operation Uphold Democracy in 1994-95. One study found the United States had interfered with foreign elections 81 times, the most of any country.


title: American exceptionalism

text: In 1898, Pope Leo XIII denounced what he deemed to be the heresy of Americanism in his encyclical "Testem benevolentiae nostrae". He targeted American exceptionalism in the ecclesiastical domain and argued that it stood in opposition to papal denunciations of modernism. In the late 19th century, there was a tendency for U.S. Catholic clergy to view American society as inherently different from other Christian nations and to argue that the understanding of Church doctrine had to be enlarged in order to encompass the "American Experience," which included greater individualism, tolerance of other religions, and separation of church and state.


title: American exceptionalism

text: Herbert London defined "pre-emptive declinism" as a postmodern belief "that the United States is not an exceptional nation and is not entitled by virtue of history to play a role on the world stage different from other nations". London ascribed that view to Paul Krugman and others. Krugman had written in "The New York Times", "We have always known that America's reign as the world's greatest nation would eventually end. However, most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic."


title: American exceptionalism

text: According to RealClearPolitics, declarations of America's declining power have been common in the English-language media. In 1988, Flora Lewis said, "Talk of U.S. decline is real in the sense that the U.S. can no longer pull all the levers of command or pay all the bills." According to Anthony Lewis in 1990, Europeans and Asians are already finding confirmation of their suspicion that the United States is in decline. Citing America's dependence on foreign sources of energy and "crucial weaknesses" in the military, Tom Wicker concluded "that maintaining superpower status is becoming more difficult—nearly impossible—for the United States." In 2004, Patrick Buchanan lamented "the decline and fall of the greatest industrial republic the world had ever seen." In 2007, Matthew Parris of "The Sunday Times" wrote that the United States is "overstretched," and he romantically recalled the Kennedy presidency, when "America had the best arguments" and could use moral persuasion, rather than force, to have its way in the world. From his vantage point in Shanghai, the "International Herald Tribune"s Howard French worries about "the declining moral influence of the United States" over an emergent China.


title: American exceptionalism

text: In his book, "The Post-American World", "Newsweek" editor Fareed Zakaria refers to a "Post-American world" that he says "is not about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else."


title: American exceptionalism

text: In December 2009, historian Peter Baldwin published a book arguing that despite widespread attempts to contrast the "American way of life" and the "European social model," America and Europe are actually very similar in a number of social and economic indices. Baldwin claimed that the black underclass accounts for many of the few areas in which a stark difference exists between the U.S. and Europe, such as homicide and child poverty.


title: American exceptionalism

text: The historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto argues that it be commonly thought that all people consider themselves exceptional. In most cases in which the subject has been broached, the similarities between the conflicting parties outweigh the differences. Things such as the "dynamic wealth creation, the democracy, the accessibility of opportunity, the cult of civil liberty, the tradition of tolerance," and what Fernández-Armesto considers evils such as the materialistic economy, the excessive privileges of wealth, and the selective illiberality are standard features in many modern societies. However, he adds, America is made exceptional by the intensity with which those characteristics are concentrated there.


title: American exceptionalism

text: Critics may identify the political slogan "America First" as an apparent manifestation of American exceptionalism. Such critics may, examining American exceptionalism as the most important factor shaping the greater American political identity, further claim that the attitude is a soft power in the United States that disproportionally emphasizes the priority of American interests."


title: American exceptionalism

text: Critics of American exceptionalism argue that it has led to some of the expansion that is seen during the 18th and 19th centuries in the Americas. Deborah Madsen argued that the effects of American exceptionalism have changed over time, from the annexation of Native American lands then to the ideas of Manifest destiny (which encompassed the Mexican–American War and the purchases of land in the 19th century).


title: American exceptionalism

text: Madsen also cited Frederick Douglass, a prominent black abolitionist before and during the American Civil War (1861–1865), who argued that the idea of American exceptionalism was absurd because the inherent nature of slavery still existed at the time.


title: American exceptionalism

text: Supporters of American exceptionalism may argue that it is the purpose of the United States to spread democracies to nations that are under tyrannical governments. This can be seen in the contemporary 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.


title: Cockatoo

text: A cockatoo is any of the 21 parrot species belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea (true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up the order Psittaciformes. The family has a mainly Australasian distribution, ranging from the Philippines and the eastern Indonesian islands of Wallacea to New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Australia.


title: Cockatoo

text: Cockatoos are recognisable by the prominent crests and curved bills. Their plumage is generally less colourful than that of other parrots, being mainly white, grey or black and often with coloured features in the crest, cheeks or tail. On average they are larger than other parrots; however, the cockatiel, the smallest cockatoo species, is a small bird. The phylogenetic position of the cockatiel remains unresolved, other than that it is one of the earliest offshoots of the cockatoo lineage. The remaining species are in two main clades. The five large black-coloured cockatoos of the genus "Calyptorhynchus" form one branch. The second and larger branch is formed by the genus "Cacatua", comprising 11 species of white-plumaged cockatoos and four monotypic genera that branched off earlier; namely the pink and white Major Mitchell's cockatoo, the pink and grey galah, the mainly grey gang-gang cockatoo and the large black-plumaged palm cockatoo.


title: Cockatoo

text: Cockatoos prefer to eat seeds, tubers, corms, fruit, flowers and insects. They often feed in large flocks, particularly when ground-feeding. Cockatoos are monogamous and nest in tree hollows. Some cockatoo species have been adversely affected by habitat loss, particularly from a shortage of suitable nesting hollows after large mature trees are cleared; conversely, some species have adapted well to human changes and are considered agricultural pests.


title: Cockatoo

text: Cockatoos are popular birds in aviculture, but their needs are difficult to meet. The cockatiel is the easiest cockatoo species to maintain and is by far the most frequently kept in captivity. White cockatoos are more commonly found in captivity than black cockatoos. Illegal trade in wild-caught birds contributes to the decline of some cockatoo species in the wild.


title: Cockatoo

text: The word cockatoo dates from the 17th century and is derived from Dutch "kaketoe", which is from Malay "kakatua". Seventeenth-century variants include cacato, cockatoon and crockadore, and cokato, cocatore and were used in the eighteenth century. The derivation has also been used for the family and generic names Cacatuidae and "Cacatua", respectively.


title: Cockatoo

text: In Australian slang or vernacular speech, a person who is assigned to keep watch while others undertake clandestine or illegal activities, particularly gambling, may be referred to as a "cockatoo". Proprietors of small agricultural undertakings are often jocularly or slightly disparagingly referred to as "cocky farmers".


title: Cockatoo

text: The cockatoos were first defined as a subfamily Cacatuinae within the parrot family Psittacidae by the English naturalist George Robert Gray in 1840, with "Cacatua" the first listed and type genus. This group has alternately been considered as either a full or subfamily by different authorities. The American ornithologist James Lee Peters in his 1937 "Check-list of Birds of the World", Sibley and Monroe in 1990 maintained it as a subfamily, while parrot expert Joseph Forshaw classified it as a family in 1973. Subsequent molecular studies indicate that the earliest offshoot from the original parrot ancestors were the New Zealand parrots of the superfamily Strigopoidea, and following this the cockatoos, now a well-defined group or clade, split off from the remaining parrots, which then radiated across the Southern Hemisphere and diversified into the many species of parrots, parakeets, macaws, lories, lorikeets, lovebirds and other true parrots of the superfamily Psittacoidea.


title: Cockatoo

text: The relationships among various cockatoo genera are largely resolved, although the placement of the cockatiel ("Nymphicus hollandicus") at the base of the cockatoos remains uncertain. The cockatiel is alternatively placed basal to all other cockatoo species, as the sister taxon to the black cockatoo species of the genus "Calyptorhynchus" or as the sister taxon to a clade consisting of the white and pink cockatoo genera as well as the palm cockatoo. The remaining species are within two main clades, one consisting of the black species of the genus "Calyptorhynchus" while the other contains the remaining species. According to most authorities, the second clade includes the black palm cockatoo ("Probosciger"), the grey and reddish galah ("Eolophus"), the gang-gang cockatoo ("Callocephalon") and the pinkish Major Mitchell's cockatoo ("Lophochroa"), although "Probosciger" is sometimes placed basal to all other species. The remaining species are mainly white or slightly pinkish and all belong to the genus "Cacatua". The genera "Eolophus", "Lophochroa" and "Cacatua" are hypomelanistic. The genus "Cacatua" is further subdivided into the subgenera "Licmetis", commonly known as corellas, and "Cacatua", referred to as white cockatoos. Confusingly, the term "white cockatoo" has also been applied to the whole genus. The five cockatoo species of the genus "Calyptorhynchus" are commonly known as black cockatoos, and are divided into two subgenera—"Calyptorhynchus" and "Zanda". The former group are sexually dichromatic, with the females having prominently barred plumage. The two are also distinguished by differences in the food-begging calls of juveniles.


title: Cockatoo

text: The fossil record of cockatoos is even more limited than that of parrots in general, with only one truly ancient cockatoo fossil known: a species of "Cacatua", most probably subgenus "Licmetis", found in Early Miocene (16–23 million years ago) deposits of Riversleigh, Australia. Although fragmentary, the remains are similar to the western corella and the galah. In Melanesia, subfossil bones of "Cacatua" species which apparently did not survive early human settlement have been found on New Caledonia and New Ireland. The bearing of these fossils on cockatoo evolution and phylogeny is fairly limited, although the Riversleigh fossil does allow tentative dating of the divergence of subfamilies.


title: Cockatoo

text: There are about 44 different birds in the cockatoo family Cacatuidae including recognized subspecies. The current subdivision of this family is as follows:


title: Cockatoo

text: The cockatoos are generally medium to large parrots of stocky build, which range from in length and in weight; however, one species, the cockatiel, is considerably smaller and slimmer than the other species, being long (including its long pointed tail feathers) and in weight. The movable headcrest, which is present in all cockatoos, is spectacular in many species; it is raised when the bird lands from flying or when it is aroused. Cockatoos share many features with other parrots, including the characteristic curved beak shape and a zygodactyl foot, with the two middle toes forward and the two outer toes backward. They differ in the presence of an erectile crest and their lack of the Dyck texture feather composition which causes the bright blues and greens seen in true parrots.


title: Cockatoo

text: Like other parrots, cockatoos have short legs, strong claws, a waddling gait and often use their strong bill as a third limb when climbing through branches. They generally have long broad wings used in rapid flight, with speeds up to being recorded for galahs. The members of the genus "Calyptorhynchus" and larger white cockatoos, such as the sulphur-crested cockatoo and Major Mitchell's cockatoo, have shorter, rounder wings and a more leisurely flight.


title: Cockatoo

text: Cockatoos have a large bill, which is kept sharp by rasping the two jaws together when resting. The bill is complemented by a large muscular tongue which helps manipulate seeds inside the bill so that they can be de-husked before eating. During the de-husking, the lower jaw applies the pressure, the tongue holds the seed in place and the upper jaw acts as an anvil. The eye region of the skull is reinforced to support muscles which move the jaws sideways. The bills of male cockatoos are generally slightly larger than those of their female counterparts, but this size difference is quite marked in the palm cockatoo.


title: Cockatoo

text: The plumage of the cockatoos is less brightly coloured than that of the other parrots, with species generally being either black, grey or white. Many species have smaller areas of colour on their plumage, often yellow, pink and red, usually on the crest or tail. The galah and Major Mitchell's cockatoo are more broadly coloured in pink tones. Several species have a brightly coloured bare area around the eye and face known as a periophthalmic ring; the large red patch of bare skin of the palm cockatoo is the most extensive and covers some of the face, while it is more restricted in some other species of white cockatoo, notably the corellas and blue-eyed cockatoo. The plumage of males and females is similar in most species. The plumage of the female cockatiel is duller than the male, but the most marked sexual dimorphism occurs in the gang-gang cockatoo and the two species of black cockatoos in the subgenus "Calyptorhynchus", namely the red-tailed and glossy black cockatoos. The iris colour differs in a few species, being pink or red in the female galah and Major Mitchell's cockatoo and red-brown in some other female white cockatoo species. The males all have dark brown irises.


title: Cockatoo

text: Cockatoos maintain their plumage with frequent preening throughout the day. They remove dirt and oil and realign feather barbs by nibbling their feathers. They also preen other birds' feathers that are otherwise hard to get at. Cockatoos produce preen-oil from a gland on their lower back and apply it by wiping their plumage with their heads or already oiled feathers. Powder-down is produced by specialised feathers in the lumbar region and distributed by the preening cockatoo all over the plumage.


title: Cockatoo

text: Moulting is very slow and complex. Black cockatoos appear to replace their flight feathers one at a time, their moult taking two years to complete. This process is much shorter in other species, such as the galah and long-billed corella, which each take around six months to replace all their flight feathers.