2. 考研
  3. In large part as a consequence of the feminist movement, historians have focused a great deal of attention in recent years on de

In large part as a consequence of the feminist movement, historians have focused a great deal of attention in recent years on de

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问题     In large part as a consequence of the feminist movement, historians have focused a great deal of attention in recent years on determining more accurately the status of women in various periods. Although much has been accomplished for the modern period, premodern cultures have proved more difficult: sources are restricted in number, fragmentary, difficult to interpret, and often contradictory. Thus it is not particularly surprising that some earlier scholarship concerning such cultures has so far gone unchallenged. An example is Johanna Bachofen’s 1861 treatise on Amazons, women-ruled societies of questionable existence contemporary with ancient Greece.,
    Starting from the premise that mythology and legend preserve at least a nucleus of historical fact, Bachofen argued that women were dominant in many ancient societies. His work was based on a comprehensive survey of references in the ancient sources to Amazonian and other societies with matrilineal customs-societies in which descent and property rights are traced through the female line. Some support for his theory can be found in evidence such as that drawn from Herodotus, the Greek "historian" of the fifth century B.C., who speaks of an Amazonian society, the Sauromatae, where the women hunted and fought in wars. A woman in this society was not allowed to marry until she had killed a person in battle.
    Nonetheless, this assumption that the first recorders of ancient myths have preserved facts is problematic. If one begins by examining why ancients refer to Amazons, it becomes clear that ancient Greek descriptions of such societies were meant not so much to represent observed historical fact--real Amazonian societies--but rather to offer "moral lessons" on the supposed outcome of women’ rule in their own society. The Amazons were often characterized, for example, as the equivalents of giants and centaurs, enemies to be slain by Greek heroes. Their customs were presented not as those of a respectable society, but as the very antitheses of ordinary Greek practices.
    Thus, I would argue, the purpose of accounts of the Amazons for their male Greek recorders was didactic to teach both male and female Greeks that all-female groups, formed by withdrawal from traditional society, are destructive and dangerous. Myths about the Amazons were used as arguments for the male-dominated status quoin, in which groups composed exclusively of other sex were not permitted to segregate themselves permanently from society. Bachofen was thus misled in this reliance on myths for information about the status of women. The sources that will probably tell contemporary historians most about women in the ancient world are such social documents as gravestones, wills, and marriage contracts. Studies of such documents have already begun to show how mistaken we are when we try to derive our picture of the ancient world exclusively from literary sources, especially myths.
选项 A、compare competing new approaches to understanding the role of women in ancient societies
B、investigate Bachofen’s theory about the dominance of women in ancient societies
C、analyze the nature of Amazonian society and uncover similarities between it and the Greek
D、criticize the value of ancient myths in determining the status of women in ancient societies
答案D
解析 这是一道主旨题。文章第一段指出：历史学家已经开始高度重视更恰当地确定女性在各个时期的地位；据证实，现代时期之前的文化更困难；有关这类文化的某些早期学术成就一直没有引起人们的质疑。第二段指出：贝切芬认为，女性在许多古代社会居统治地位。第三段接着指出：但是，“第一位古代神话记录者保留了事实”这种假设令人生疑。最后一段指出：我认为，记录亚马逊河流域社会的目的是为了教育希腊的男女；这种依赖于寻求有关女性地位信息的做法误导了贝切芬；有关社会档案的研究已经开始显示，当我们企图从文字材料中获取古代社会的信息时，我们是如何犯错误的。这说明，本文的主要目的是分析、批评那些认为女性居统治地位的神话。D说“批评古代神话在确定女性在古代社会地位时的价值”，这可以表达文章的主题。文中并没有提到了解女性在古代社会角色的新方法，所以A不对；贝切芬有关女性在古代社会居主导地位的理论只是文章第二段提到的内容，不能够表达文章的中心意思，所以B不对；亚马逊河流域印第安人的社会只是作者为了说明贝切芬的理论不正确所举的例子，也不能表达文章的中心意思，所以C不对。
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