Legal, Social and Cultural Environment of Ecuador Essay

The Republic of Ecuador is a farming(prenominal) in South the States, which is cognize global for its bananas and cocoa. It has a unique superannuated history, dishy mountainous landscapes and amazing nature, as salutary as all necessary redbrick facilities for active rest, sports and recreation. Despite keen utter close tos of political instability, Ecuador remains the only awkward in the continent which has never had a heartbreaking domestic military conflict. Finally, Ecuador, with its qualified workforce, veritable infrastructure and promising industrial outlooks, is a democracy of with child(p) opportunities for mod business community and investors.The cosmos of Ecuador is expected to exceed 14 million great deal in pass 2008 (CIA, 2008). novel affable and ethnical milieu of Ecuador has a great deal of heathenish, salutary-disposed and regional distinctive features. Ethnic report of the regions nation is the chase 65% be mixed people of Spanish melodic phrase (mestizo), 25% be Amerindian indigenous population, 3% be calamitous Afri mint Ameri rear population and 7% ar people belonging to former(a) ethnic groups (mainly of European origin) (CIA, 2008).Also, active migration is a factor which impacts neighborly organic evolution of Ecuador to a great extent. The Northern coastal regions of the arena atomic count 18 called black provinces of Ecuador, which be live by the population of Afri raft-American origin (the descendants of African slaves) and depended to be among of the most crowded African ethnical settings in South America. People living in these regions of Ecuador are mainly occupied in agri gloss, farming, trade and commerce, and the spunkyer friendly classes of these regions rest of rich immigrants and plantation owners.The Northern sierra is prevail by mestizos and cholos, mixed groups of Spanish and local anaesthetic origin. For long period of while Sierra was controlled by white Latino elit e and, due to enormous secern custodyt against indigenous population, aborigines had very confine opportunities for ontogeny own kind traditions and cultures. Now, Sierra is a famous tourist destination, where local population is employed in services or trade and is thoroughly- choose for inter topic cultural patterns. The Confederate Sierra is a mixture of rural and urban cultures, which is an artistic center of the nation.Finally, the easterly viragoian regions, known alike as El Oriento, are inhabited by unassimilated ethnic groups of indigenous Amerindian population, including Cayapas, Colorados and former(a) cultures. Also, several(prenominal)(prenominal) local tribes with primitive social culture, (including Aucas, Cofanes, the Jivaros, Secoyas and an opposite(prenominal)s) occupy the lowlands of the amazon Basin (Herrera, 2002). This region was traditionally separate from economic and cultural European trance and massive exploration of almost yon areas of the Ama zon Basin stared only in the late 1960s.The countrys cultural traditions and heritage are very rich. legion(predicate) archaeological evidences prove that the re proveatives of earlyish homophile settlements, such as Valdivian or the Vega cultures, had some sophisticated aesthetic taste, as well as created sundry(a) advanced technologies of pottery, ceramic and textile works. The traces of social traditions and customs of early pre-Hispanic cultures can be found in modern actionspanstyle, ceremonies, handcrafts or former(a) cultural comp mavinnts of Ecuadorian social life.A great contri exactlyion in cultural and social development of modern Ecuador was benefit by famous Inca culture, which was developing in the thirteenth-fifteenth centuries. The Inca conglomerate was one of the most advanced humans accomplishedizations, population of which could carry through high level of social welfare and organization, technical and scientific advancement, industrial and cultural de velopment, etc.tera on that pointfore, a subject of modern forms of arts, architectural ideas and technological innovations (for example, mummification and differents) were borrowed from this early culture.The period of Spanish occupation of South America had quite controversial impact on cultural development of the nation, because some historians consider this period of time to be dominated by oppression and tyranny, but other spareists point on cultural advance and integration of local cultures into global purchase order (Herreira, 2002, 22). Nevertheless, Spanish colonizers influenced social, economic and cultural development of the country to a great extent. They set up urban culture, opened a account of silver and g emeritus mines, started exporting various industrial products overseas, and so on.Family is one of the most important social values of Ecuadorians. conventionally, men are the heads of the family and important role models for their sons, but women run the household and play study role in the process of facts of life and educating the children. Family ties in local societies are traditionally very strong nevertheless, every assign of the family tends to have some personal independence. For example, it is quite putting green for husband and wife to kick the bucket leisure time separately. In addition, such institution as compadrazgo (having or comme il faut godparents) is very important in social order of the nation.Urban population of modern Ecuador is mostly represented by conservative and working elites businessmen, officers, teachers, managers, etc. oerwhelming mass of bosom and upper social classes are white people, who demonstrate a certain level of social discrimination against other ethnic groups, especially indigenous societies. Ecuadorian elites can enjoy numerous social benefits and high living standards. Lower middle social classes are ethnically more diverse at the expense of immigrants. Modern life of rural people is quite difficult.Amerindians live in miniature cabins with small windows or without any windows. Women cook in special separated places outside of their houses, and the aliment is prepared mostly from plants and fruit. Many families can non afford eating aggregate every day. Usual dress-code of male Amerindians includes compact trousers and poncho, and women wear white long shirts and long skirts. Both men and women like corrosion hats of distinct styles. Women frequently wear thread of beads, necklaces, bracelets or earrings, made of different sixpenny metals.Prevailing religion in Ecuador is roman print Catholicism and more than 90% of population is adherents of this branch of Christianity, which is traditional for Spanish culture. Over 2% of population is Baptists and Protestants, around 5% are the followers of local beliefs (including Inti and others). thither are also people who blend several religious traditions and ideologies. It is estimated that there are more than 1,300 various religious societies and groups represent in Ecuador (Nations Encyclopedia).Catholicism and Catholic religious practices are less commonplace in the countryside, that is why different missionary activities are important part of social life of local population. The Gospel Missionary sum is an organization which promotes the ideas of Christianity and there are societies promoting Evangelism and Protestant ideology. In the end of the twentieth century, a great deal of indigenous people became Christians, and this conversion spartanly impacted their social life, helping to establish closer relationships with other ethnic groups and especially with the groups of immigrants.The efforts of the members of local societies are directed on preserving their cultural traditions, including their languages. Traditional Spanish is widely spoken in Ecuador, but a great number of people speak Amerindian languages, including Awa, Quechua, Shuar, Chapalachi, Paicoca or Ts afki dialects. These dialects are very similar in their linguistic structure because they all originate from the speeches of ancient Incan groups. However, each dialect has different accent, specific terms and idiomatic expressions. optic arts are very important elements of modern culture of Ecuador, because art helps to achieve harmony of social urban life with environmental or spiritual needs. Painting, sculpture, literature, discipline and music are in great demand not only among the countrys intellectual elite, but also among the less advanced population. There are a lot of museums and galleries throughout the country, where a variety of artworks is exhibited. Photography and filmography are immature modern trends in guinea pig art. learning plays an important role in national culture, as well.Ecuador has very high literacy rate, which exceeds 85% and is one of the highest in South America. Recently, several important reformations were made in breedingal sector, including, in particular, launching of bilingual education (Spanish and English) starting from secondary academic level. There are more than 50 universities in the country, which are provided with up-to-date learning facilities and put out a lot of academic programs on such popular fields as business administration, management, finance, economics, tourism, ecology, and so on.Besides, national cuisine is an important element of Ecuadorian culture. It varies from one region to another, but generally can be characterized by spicy meals and a great deal of agricultural products employ for cooking. Typical dishes include a special potato soup Locro, special meals made of meat called Cuy, Mammey and Seco de Chivo, a sort of pancakes alter with potato Llapingachos, banana desert Chifles, as well as an assortment of drinks (Chicha, Naranjila, Canelazo, and many an(prenominal) others).Finally, like all the nations of South America, Ecuadorians are found of sports and leading active and estimable l ife-style. Soccer attracts huge public forethought and Ecuador National Soccer team has several achievements on the worlds stage. another(prenominal) popular sports are tennis, boxing, shooting and swimming. much(prenominal) activities as rafting and beach-volley are extremely popular among the tourists and local youth. In addition, Ecuadorians enjoy an old Spanish traditional entertainment called corrida and the worlds most known toreadors regularly participate in annual bullfighting festivals in Quito and other cities.Ecuador is a Unitarian state and its higher(prenominal) legislative branch is unicameral fantan (Congresso National). The members of the Parliament are elected by direct public vote for a 4-year term. Usual laws can be adopted by simple legal age of the present members of the Parliament organic (constitutional) laws can be adopted only by the majority of total number of the Parliamentarians. The President of the country has the right to veto the laws adopted by the Parliament, which can be overruled by 67% of the Parliament members.Legal environment of the country can be characterized by a great deal of imperfections and conflicting regulations. actual legal structure of Ecuador is shaped by more than 50,000 various prevails and laws, which frequently contravene each other or can not serve impressively for security measure of civil and other rights of the population. Judicial administration is up-to-the-minutely under the influence of serious corruption and such factors as outside pressure on judges, bribing, unavailability of the courts or delays in processing, are very common practices in Ecuador (BDO International, 2002).Generally, the legal arranging of Ecuador belongs to American group of Latin traditional system of laws. It is ground on the principles of civil culture of former dominating nation Spain. ingrained law is similar to the one of the U. S. and civil and criminal laws were influenced by cut analogs of the codes . Since the propagation when the country gained its independence, legal development of Ecuador has been representative for this region. In 1860 a copy of chilli pepper Civil law was adopted, and in 1957 current ordinance of Commerce was adopted.Current constitution of Ecuador came into effect in June, 1998. According to expression 272 of the Constitution, it has the highest juridical power and dominates any other legal norm. All the laws, decrees, regulations, statutes, resolutions, orders, declarations and other legislative acts have to be correspondent to the effective constitutional norms. However, constitutional law in Ecuador, as well as the ones in the majority of the countries in this region, can be characterized by serious lack of stability.It is also important that the latest Constitution minded(p) special rights to indigenous Amerindian ethnic groups. crowd code of the country was greatly reform in 1991 in order to make it more flexible in modulate labor relations . A series of innovations, unfortunately, moderate the rights of the employees of small enterprises to join unions, because minimal number of founders of such unions was increased from 15 to 30. However, a new labor code disposed(p) them the rights for collective negotiations or for strike.In 1964 the prototypic law of agrarian reform was adopted, which limited latifundist airscrew and granted the right for backstage property to peasants. In 1977 a decree stimulating exploration of the lands in the Amazon Basin (colonization) was adopted as an alternative one for land redistribution law. different agrarian laws limit the prices for renting the lands for share cropping, stipulate minimal wages for seasonal agricultural laborers, etc. Criminal Code of 1938 is the main set of criminal laws.It is based on neoclassic Belgian and French codes. Crimes and penalties are differentiated depending on the token of penalisation envisaged in the Code. The capital punishment was abolished in Ecuador in 1906 and this is stated in Article 1 Clause 23 of the Constitution. According to the constitution, every citizen of Ecuador must be provided with typical democratic guarantees of criminal justice, including legal review of lawfulness of the detainment, etc. However, not all the guarantees and regulations are strictly observed.Finally, in terms of modern tendency to globalization, the majority of legal aspects of international activities, such as export-import relations, barriers for foreign trade, establishing international enterprises, as well as all the issues connected with standardization, certification, labeling, etc. are regulated by the norms of laws and national standards. Special laws also regulate property relationships, including the issues of copyrights, patents, trademarks and know-how (Trade Representative Office, 2005).Works CitedDoing Business in Ecuador. BDO International. Brussels, Belgium Romero Arteta Ponce, 2002. Ecuador. region Studies. The Fe deral Research stratum of the Library of Congress. 18 Apr. 2008 . Ecuador. Office of get together States Trade Representative. Washington, U. S. , 2005. Herreira, Pedro Saad. Ecuador Un Pais en Imagenes, a Country in Images. Quito, Ecuador El Conejo Editorial, 2002. Republic of Ecuador. Nations Encyclopedia. Advameg Inc. 18 Apr. 2008 .