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Homework 8

c) and d) pp.122-128

c)


1) C) the history of English

2) D) worth remembering

3) A) could have settled

4) D) Philip II’s

5) A) the best trained

6) D) undefended

7) C) X

8) B) at the time

9) D) was acutely felt

10) C) that

11) D) the mouth of the Thames

12) D) the art of which

13) C) had been taught

14) D) inspirational


As so often in the history of English the new chapter came by water. It is worth remembering that Spanish could have settled here. Philip II’s formidable Armada of 1588 should have brushed aside the English opposition on the seas. His armies, the best trained and most successful in Europe, would almost certainly have found little to match them on a march to a largely undefended London. It seemed no contest. We know that X God or bad weather, superior English seamanship or a combination of all three checked his attempt, but at the time the danger was acutely felt, so much so that Elizabeth I — a monarch by divine right — took to horse and went to the port of Tilbury near the mouth of the Thames.

There, before a great crowd and the ships and crews who would determine the future of her kingdom, she used English to raise their confidence, lift up their spirits, in superb rhetoric, the art of which she had been taught by her Cambridge tutor, Roger Ascham. Mounted on her horse, in the middle of the army, she spoke in inspirational English.

From M. Bragg’s The Adventure of English

d)


1) D) does

2) A) being

3) C) itself

4) D) observed

5) A) observable

6) C) what

7) A) seen or heard

8) A) one’s

9) B) violating

10)  D) might

11)  A) specially interesting

12)  C) X

13)  D) having committed

14)  C) than

15)  A) Had

16)  B) what

17)  C) have been

18)  B) the

19)  A) can

20)  D) any

21)  D) must

22)  D) if

23)  B) to be given

24)  B) ought to have considered

25)  A) people’s

26)  C) which

27)  A) may

28)  D) carefully evaluating


Studying Culture in the Field

How does an anthropologist study culture in the field? Culture, being a set of rules and standards, cannot itself be directly observed; only actual behaviour is observable. What the anthropologist must do is to abstract a set of rules from what is seen or heard in order to explain social behaviour. To pursue this further, consider the following discussion of exogamy – marriage outside one’s own group – among Trobriand Islanders, as described by Bronislaw Malinowski.

(…) The natives show horror at the idea of violating the rules of exogamy and they believe that sores, diseases, even death might follow clan incest. But from the point of view of the native libertine, suvasova (the breach of exogamy) is indeed a specially interesting and spicy form of erotic experience. X Most of my informants would not only admit but did actually boast about having committed these offences.

Malinowski himself determined that although such breaches did occasionally occur, they were much less frequent than gossip would have it. Had Malinowski relied solely on what Trobrianders told him, his description of their culture would have been inaccurate. The same sort of discrepancies between cultural ideas and the way people really do behave can be found in any culture.

From these examples, it is obvious that an anthropologist must be cautious, if a realistic description of a culture is to be given. To play it safe, data drawn in three different ways ought to be considered. First, the people’s own understanding of the rules they share – that is, their notion of the way their society ought to be considered. Second the extent to which people believe they are observing those rules – that it, how they think they actually do behave. Third, the behaviour that can be directly observed should be considered in the example of the Trobrianders, whether or not the rule of suvasova is actually violated. As we see here, the way people think they should behave, the way in which they think they do behave, and the way in which they actually behave may be three distinctly different things. By carefully evaluating these elements, the anthropologist can draw up a set of rules that may explain the acceptable behaviour within a culture.

From William Haviland’s Cultural Anthropology


Poslednja izmena: Nedjelja, 10. Maj 2020., 15:19