Wednesday, August 1, 2012

SOCIETIES IN NEW GUINEA


 In this set or materials, the reading passage cites Margaret Mead’s research of three societies in New Guinea which leads to a conclusion, and the listening passage cites some criticisms on Mead’s studies which cast doubt on the conclusion in the reading passage.

 
The reading passage describes Margaret Mead’s studies of three different societies in New Guinea. According to her research, the first society shows that both men and women have “feminine” characteristics. In the second society, both men and women have “masculine” characteristics. In the third society, men have feminine characteristics and women have masculine characteristics. In conclusion, the author drew to the conclusion that gender characteristics come more from society than from biology. 

 
The listening passage casts doubt on the conclusion in the reading passage by showing some critics of Mead’s studies of the three societies. While it is true that the three societies in New Guinea show three different remarkable gender characteristics, as the reading passage states, it is also true that her results are too neat and it is supposed that research is not usually that tidy, as the listening passage states. It can be said that she found what she was looking for rather than looking

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