In the 1962 movie Lawrence of Arabia, one scene shows an American newspaper reporter eagerly snapping photos of men looting a sa

admin2015-04-27  34

问题     In the 1962 movie Lawrence of Arabia, one scene shows an American newspaper reporter eagerly snapping photos of men looting a sabotaged train. One of the looters, Chief Auda abu Tayi of the Howeitat clan, suddenly notices the camera and snatches it. "Am I in this? " he asks, before smashing it open. To the dismayed reporter, Lawrence explains, "He thinks these things will steal his virtue. He thinks you’re a kind of thief."
    As soon as colonizers and explorers began taking cameras into distant lands, stories began circulating about how indigenous peoples saw them as tools for black magic. The "ignorant natives" may have had a point. When photography first became available, scientists welcomed it as a more objective way of recording faraway societies than early travelers’ exaggerated accounts. But in some ways, anthropological photographs reveal more about the culture that holds the camera than the one that stares back. Up into the 1950s and 1960s, many ethnographers sought "pure" pictures of "primitive" cultures, routinely deleting modern accoutrements such as clocks and Western dress. They paid men and women to re-enact rituals or to pose as members of war or hunting parties, often with little regard for veracity. Edward Curtis, the legendary photographer of North American Indians, for example, got one Makah man to pose as a whaler with a spear in 1915—even though the Makah had not hunted whales in a generation.
    These photographs reinforced widely accepted stereotypes that indigenous cultures were isolated, primitive, and unchanging. For instance, National Geographic magazine’s photographs have taught millions of Americans about other cultures. As Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins point out in their 1993 book Reading National Geographic, the magazine since its founding in 1888 has kept a tradition of presenting beautiful photos that don’ t challenge white, middle-class American conventions. While dark-skinned women can be shown without tops, for example, white women’s breasts are taboo. Photos that could unsettle or disturb, such as areas of the world torn asunder by war or famine, are discarded in favor of those that reassure, to conform with the society’ s stated pledge to present only "kindly" visions of foreign societies. The result, Lutz and Collins say, is the depiction of "an idealized and exotic world relatively free of pain or class conflict."
    Lutz actually likes National Geographic a lot. She read the magazine as a child, and its lush imagery influenced her eventual choice of anthropology as a career. She just thinks that as people look at the photographs of other cultures, they should be alert to the choice of composition and images.
With which of the following statements would Catherine Lutz most probably agree?

选项 A、Reporters from the Western societies should routinely delete modern elements in pictures taken of the indigenous societies.
B、The primitive cultures are inferior to the more advanced Western culture.
C、The western media are not presenting a realistic picture of the faraway societies.
D、People in the Western news business should try not to challenge the well-established white middle-class values.

答案C

解析 Catherine Lutz和Jane Collins在书中写道,《国家地理》杂志自从1888年创刊以来.就一直刊登那些不和美国中产阶级白人的价值观发生冲突的照片。照片中可以表现袒露胸部的黑色皮肤的妇女.但是白人妇女的胸部就是禁止刊登的对象。她们认为,这样做的后果就是,在那些西方主流杂志中展现的,似乎是相对而言没有痛苦的,也不存在阶级斗争的社会。因此C项“西方媒体并没有展现落后地区的真实画面”最能表现Catherine Lutz的观点。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/JcCv777K
0

最新回复(0)