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Cultural rules determine every aspect of food consumption. Who eats together

游客2023-08-31  19
问题     Cultural rules determine every aspect of food consumption. Who eats together defines social units. For example, in some societies, the nuclear family is the unit that regularly eats together. The anthropologist (人类学家) Mary Douglas has pointed out that, for the English, the kind of meal and the kind of food that is served relate to the kinds of social links between people who are eating together. She distinguishes between regular meals, Sunday meals when relatives may come, and cocktail parties for acquaintances. The food served symbolizes the occasion and reflects who is present. For example, only snacks are served at a cocktail party. It would be inappropriate to serve a steak or hamburgers. The distinctions among cocktails, regular meals, and special dinners mark the social boundaries between those guests who are invited for drinks, those who are invited to dinner, and those who come to a family meal. In this example, the type of food symbolizes the category of guest and with whom it is eaten.
    In some New Guinea societies, the nuclear family is not the unit that eats together. The men take their meals in a men’s house, separately from their wives and children. Women prepare and eat their food in their own houses and take the husband’s portion to the men’s house. The women eat with their children in their own houses. This pattern is also widespread among Near Eastern societies.
    Eating is a metaphor that is sometimes used to signify marriage. In many New Guinea societies, like that of the Lesu on the island of New Ireland in the Pacific and that of the Trobriand Islanders, marriage is symbolized by the couple’s eating together for the first time. Eating symbolizes their new status as a married couple. In U.S. society, it is just the reverse. A couple may go out to dinner on a first date.
    Other cultural rules have to do with taboos (禁忌) against eating certain things. In some societies, members of a clan, a type of kin (family) group, are not allowed to eat the animal or bird that is their totemic (图腾的) ancestor. Since they believe themselves to be descended from that ancestor, it would be like eating that ancestor or eating themselves.
    There is also an association between food prohibitions and rank, which is found in its most extreme form in the caste system of India. A caste system consists of ranked groups, each with a different economic specialization. In India, there is an association between caste and the idea of pollution. Members of highly ranked groups can be polluted by coming into contact with the bodily secretions (分泌物), particularly spit, of individuals of lower-ranked castes. Because of the fear of pollution, Brahmans and other high-ranked individuals will not share food with, not eat from the same plate as, not even accept food from an individual from a low-ranking caste. [br] According to the passage, who will not eat together?
选项 A、The nuclear family in England.
B、Americans on their first date.
C、Men and women in Near Eastern societies.
D、Newly-weds on the island of New Ireland.
答案 C
解析 根据题干中的not eat together将本题出处定位到第二段。该段首句提到，在一些新几内亚社会群体中，核心家庭并不是聚在一起共餐的单位，接着具体说明男人与女人、孩子不在一起用餐，最后提到这种形式在近东社会也非常流行。由此可知，近东社会的男人和女人也是分开用餐的，故答案为[C]。文中提到新几内亚的核心家庭不在一起用餐，而非英国，故排除[A]。第三段末句提到美国男女在第一次约会时就可能出去共餐，故排除[B]。由on the island ofNew Ireland…the couple’s eating together for the first time可排除[D]。
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