首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Women and the Winning of the West The popular version of the lone wagon train, forging its way west, in constant danger of lo
Women and the Winning of the West The popular version of the lone wagon train, forging its way west, in constant danger of lo
admin
2010-04-28
25
问题
Women and the Winning of the West
The popular version of the lone wagon train, forging its way west, in constant danger of losing the faintly marked trail, its occupants trembling in fear of imminent Indian massacre, is just a Hollywood concoction, says historian Sandra Myres, who has been researching the role of women in settling the American west. She has unearthed vivid accounts of the trail west and of homesteading at the journey’s end. The journals, diaries and letters she has read help dispel some long cherished myths about the American frontier.
Forget the image of the lone wagon train silhouetted against the horizon. The fact was that after the California Gold Rush in 1849, isolated travel was not even a possibility. "You couldn’t get lost if you wanted to, because you couldn’t get out of sight of another wagon train," explains Myres, professor of history at the University of Texas at Arlington.
"The country was so level that we could see the long trains of white-topped wagons for many miles," observed a pioneer woman, Margaret Frink. "It appeared to me that none of the population had been left behind," she wrote in her Journal of the Adventures of a Party of California Gold Seekers, published in 1897:
It seemed to me that I have never seen so many human beings in all my life before. And, when we drew nearer to the vast multitude, and saw them in all manner of vehicles and conveyances, on horseback and on foot... I thought, in my excitement, if one-tenth of these teams and these people get ahead of us, there would be nothing left for us in California worth picking up.
Another favorite Hollywood image--the wagon train forming a circle at dusk--bears little resemblance to reality. The wagons might have made a circle, but if so it was to enclose livestock which might otherwise wander off and become fair game for rustlers. So the protective stockade of wagons was for the benefit of cows, horses and pigs. Men, women and children naturally preferred to sleep in tents well outside the circle.
In the movies, we know the Indians are going to descend on the settlers as soon as the sun goes down. Hollywood was only preserving misconceptions of the American Indian that had long-flourished in popular literature and imagination. The 19th century pioneers themselves were steeped in simplistic views--many of which still persist today. Nineteenth-century fiction depicted either the good Indian-the noble savage of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Leatherstocking Tales--or the bad Indian. In Robert Bird’s Neck of the Wood, for in- stance, Indians are bloodthirsty and treacherous; the heroic settlers ultimately vanquish them.
Settlers on their way west, however, were more likely to meet Indians who descended on the wagons in order to exploit the possibilities for trade the transcontinental travelers offered. Pioneer women found the Indians extremely helpful in identifying and preparing indigenous food and herbs. "You can’t find an Indian attack for anything," says Myres ruefully after reading more than 500 women’s journals.
Marauding Indians did occasionally harass the rare party of isolated travelers, but whites and Indians generally regarded each other with a curiosity tinged with mutual apprehension. Pioneer women were keen observers of Indian customs and ceremonies, often recording them in minute detail, very much as a modern anthropologist would. Indian women too were watching their counterparts; some of these accounts have also been pre served in English transcriptions made by interpreters, at times via sign language.
"The 19th century tended to be an age of journals, thank God," says Myres, The virtues of keeping a journal were instilled in young women by their teachers and the flood of ladies’ magazines that kept them up-to-date on the latest eastern styles. It was one’s duty to keep up a journal which could be read by friends and relations back home who might never be seen again.
Journals were a popular literary genre. Many of the diaries and journals Myres has seen are conscious "literary" efforts, written for a family audience and with an eye to eventual publication.
Women responded to the frontier in many ways. Some shrank from the rigors of the migration west and never adjusted to the upheaval in their lives. Once settled, these women were quick to reaffirm traditional female values and roles and new opportunities for women.
The Western territories, eager to attract hard working women to their embryonic settlements, granted them economic rights far more extensive than those women trod known in the east and south. In the Oregon territory women were allowed to homestead in their own names and the practice spread rapidly across the west. A woman’s right to own property was unequivocal. Women generally had equal, and sometimes slightly preferential, access to credit. In many western communities it was not unusual for women property holders to control a significant proportion of the wealth. Within a few decades of the settling of the territories an entrepreneurial class of women appeared.
In examining the Ale of women in the economic life of the west, Myres was directed to a major lode of source material at the Baker Library of the Harvard School of Business: the records of R. G. Dunn & Co. , forerunners of Dunn & Bradstreet. The company’s agents across the country did more than collect financial data for credit reports; they sent hack fascinating snippets of gossip as well. A typical item reveals the "well-known fact in the community that the wife wears the unmentionables in the family and runs the business." The Durra records constitute "a major source of socio-economic information about 19th century America," according to Myres.
Myres believes that the scope of economic opportunity open to women on the western frontier led in turn to demands for social and political power to match. She points out that eastern and southern women who wielded economic power "tended to use that power silently and through intermediaries throughout the 19th century. Was it the frontier that made the difference?" Myres isn’t sure yet, but hopes to have some answers at the conclusion of her research. (1017)
We can infer from this passage that women at that time were often granted access to ______.
选项
A、the polls
B、credit
C、hank accounts
D、saloons
答案
B
解析
事实细节题。在倒数第三段谈到妇女的经济地位时,作者说到,Women generally had equal,and some- times slightly preferential,access to credit.因此B项是正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/sW4YFFFM
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
A、Takingabus.B、Hiringataxi.C、Askingforalift.D、Goingtogetherwithothers.C
A、Weshouldstandwhilewatchingtelevision.B、Weallneedtoexercisetostayhealthy.C、Wewalkeverydayonthesportsground
Americanstodayhavedifferenteatinghabitsthantheyhadinthepast.Thereisawide【C1】______offoodavailable.Theyhave
A、Therewon’tbemanypeopleresponding,thoughthepercentageisnotsmall.B、Youwillhavemanypeopleanswering,nomatterho
A、JennyandIdonotgetalongbecauseofourdifferencesofopinion.B、JennyandIusuallygetupearlymostofthemornings.C
A、There’rethreebasicguidelinestosmartinvestingforone’sfuture.B、It’snecessarytounderstandthefinancialproductsbef
A、TheEnglish.B、TheDutch.C、AmericanIndians.D、BlacksfromAfrica.C
Historycastsalongshadow.Manyofthefirstbacteriatobediscoveredwereagentsofdisease,andthatishowmostpeopleper
A、therapidgrowthinworldoilconsumptionB、theriseofChinaandIndiaC、theconstructionofnewpipelinesisbecomingmored
随机试题
生态适宜性评价以()为评价单元。
三平衡是指以信用证为对象,根据信用证所规定的货物装船期和信用证有效期的远近,并结合货源情况和运输能力,分别轻重缓急,力求做到()的衔接和综合平衡,保证出口合同的顺利履行。
位于甲省某市区的一家建筑企业为增值税一般纳税人,在乙省某市区提供写字楼和桥梁建造业务,2019年8月具体经营业务如下:(1)该建筑企业对写字楼建造业务选择一般计税方法。按照工程进度及合同约定,本月取得含税金额3000万元并给业主开具了增值税专用发票。由于
案例:在信息技术课上,王老师在学生制作多媒体作品前,提出了作品的评价标准,包括主题内容、技术应用、版面设计等,并给出每项标准的分数和要求学生达到的分数。这时有学生提出:“老师,我的技术差,做得慢,肯定得不了多少分。但是,我认真学了,认真
丁晓兵,武警驻无锡某团政委。他曾在丛林中冒着炮火艰难前行,创造了感天动地的英雄事迹;他更在平凡工作中朝着新的目标执著前进,诠释着“时代先锋”的深刻内涵。面对身体残疾和工作压力,丁晓兵乐观豁达,积极向上,昂扬奋斗,迎难克难。不论职务怎样变化,丁晓兵始终把为人
给定资料1.2015年年底至2016年4月期间,刚刚搬到新校址的某外国语学校部分学生不断出现各种不良反应和疾病。学生家长调查发现,学校北面有一片工地,原本有三家化工厂,化工厂生产的大量氯苯、环芳烃、汞、镉等污染物严重超标,导致所在地块成为“毒地”。近年
计算机有望代替老师的想法是:学生们对所教科目的理解在于他们知道事实和规则,老师的工作就是使事实和规则明确化,并通过做练习或者教授方法把它们传授给学生。如果大脑确实是那样运行的话,教师可以把事实和规则输进计算机,计算机就可以作为教练和教官代替教师。但是既然理
按照西周的法律规定,已婚女子不被夫家休弃的情形有()
从总体X~N(0,σ2)中抽得简单样本X1,…,Xn+m,求
A、Themanwantstobuyatable.B、Themancametothecafealone.C、Thetablebythewindowisfreeforanyone.D、Thetablebyt
最新回复
(
0
)