2. 自考
  3. The Yanomami are a people living in villages between 40 and 250 people in the Venezuelan rain forest. Since the 1960s, Napoleon

The Yanomami are a people living in villages between 40 and 250 people in the Venezuelan rain forest. Since the 1960s, Napoleon

admin2013-07-02  582
问题     The Yanomami are a people living in villages between 40 and 250 people in the Venezuelan rain forest. Since the 1960s, Napoleon Chagnon has studied several Yanomami villages, written a widely-read book called The Fierce People about the Yanomami and helped to produce several films about them.
    Chagnon’s writings and films have promoted a long standing view of the Yanomami as exceptionally violent and war-loving. According to Chagnon, about one third of adult Yanomami males die violently, about two thirds of all adults had lost at least one close relative through violence, and over 50 percent had lost two or more close relatives. He has reported that one village was raided 25 times during his first 15 months there.
    Chagnon provides a sociobological explanation for the fierceness of the Yanomami. He explains that village raids and warfare are carried to obtain wives. Although the Yanomami prefer to marry within their village, there is a shortage of potential brides because the Yanomami practice the killing of female infants, which creates a scarcity of women. While the Yanomami prefer to marry within their own group, taking a wife from another group is preferable to remaining a bachelor. Men in other groups, however, are unwilling to give up their women; hence the necessity for raids. Chagnon also argues that, as successful warriors will be able to gain a wife or more than one wife, they often have more children than unsuccessful ones. Successful warriors, Chagnon suggests, carry a genetic advantage for fierceness, which they pass on to their sons, leading to a high growth rate of groups with violent males through genetic selection for fierceness. Male fierceness, in this view, is biologically determined.
    Marvin Harris, who has a cultural materialist perspective, says that food scarcity and population in the area are the underlying causes of warfare. The Yanomami lack plentiful sources of meat, which is highly valued. Harris suggests that when hunting in an area was exhausted, the Yanomami would venture into territories of neighboring groups, thus giving rise to conflicts. Such conflicts in turn resulted in high rate of adult male deaths. Combined with the effects of female infant killing, this meat warfare complex kept population growth rate down to a level that the environment could support.
    In contrast, Patrick Tierney, a journalist, points the finger of blame to a large extent at Chagnon himself. Tierney presents evidence that it was the presence of Chagnon and his team of core-searchers and many boxes of trade goods that triggered a series of deadly raids, for the Yanomami competed with other groups for his trade goods. In addition, Tierney argues that Chagnon intentionally prompted the Yanomami to act fiercely for his films and to stage raids that actually led to bad feelings where they had not existed before.
Chagnon’s explanation of the Yanomami suggests that individual personality is______ (  )
选项 A、inborn
B、learned
C、reshaped
D、acquired
答案A
解析 细节题。“Chagnon对Yanomami的解释表明一个人的个性是怎样形成的?”A选项“与生俱来的”，是正确答案。文中第三段说Malefierceness，in this view，is biologically determined。B选项“学习的”；C选项“重塑的”；D选项“后天习得的”，三个选项都不正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/8Drx777K
本试题收录于： 英语阅读（一）题库文史类分类
0

英语阅读（一）

文史类

相关试题推荐
随机试题
最新回复(0)