17. The author is primarily concerned with
(A) explaining how the brain receives images
(B) synthesizing hypotheses of visual recognition
(C) examining the evidence supporting the serial- recognition hypothesis
(D) discussing visual recognition and some hypotheses proposed to explain it
(E) reporting on recent experiments dealing with memory systems and their relationship to neural activity
18. According to the passage, Gestalt psychologists make which of the following suppositions about visual recognition?
I. A retinal image is in exactly the same forms as its internal representation.
II. An object is recognized as a whole without any need for analysis into component parts.
III. The matching of an object with its internal representation occurs in only one step.
(A) II only (B) III only
(C) I and III only (D) II and III only
(E) I, II, and III
19. It can be inferred from the passage that the match- ing process in visual recognition is
(A) not a neural activity
(B) not possible when an object is viewed for the very first time
(C) not possible if a feature of a familiar object is changed in some way
(D) only possible when a retinal image is received in the brain as a unitary whole
(E) now fully understood as a combination of the serial and parallel processes
20. It terms of its tone and form, the passage can best be characterized as
(A) a biased exposition
(B) a speculative study
(C) a dispassionate presentation
(D) an indignant denial
(E) a dogmatic explanation
In large part as a consequence of the feminist move- ment, 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 Johann 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 soci- eties. 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's 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 respect- able 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 Ama- zons were used as arguments for the male-dominated status quo, in which groups composed exclusively of either sex were not permitted to segregate themselves permanently from society. Bachofen was thus misled in his reliance on myths for inform
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