In a 1984 book, Claire C, Robertson argued that, before colonialism, age was a more important indicator of status and authority than gender in Ghana and in Africa generally. British colonialism imposed European- style male dominant notions upon more egalitarian local situations to the detriment of women generally, and gender became a defining characteristic that weakened women’s power and authority.
Subsequent research in Kenya convinced Robertson that she had overgeneralized about Africa. Before colonialism, gender was more salient（重要） in central Kenya than it was in Ghana, although age was still crucial in determining authority. In contrast with Ghana, where women had traded for hundreds of years and achieved legal majority (not unrelated phenomena), the evidence regarding central Kenya indicated that women were legal minors and were sometimes treated as male property, as were European women at that time. Factors like strong patrilinearity and patrilocality, as well as women’s inferior land rights and lesser involvement in trade, made women more dependent on men than was generally the case in Ghana. However, since age apparently remained the overriding（最重要的，高于一切的） principle of social organization in central Kenya, some senior women had much authority. Thus, Robertson revised her hypothesis somewhat, arguing that in determining authority in precolonial Africa age was a primary principle that superseded gender to varying degrees depending on the situation.
The author of the passage mentions the status of age as a principle of social organization in precolonial central Kenya in lines 24-26 most likely in order to
A. indicate that women’s dependence on men in precolonial Kenya was not absolute
B. contrast the situation of senior women to that of less senior women in precolonial Kenyan society
C. differentiate between the status and authority of precolonial Kenyan women and that of precolonial Ghanaian women
D. explain why age superseded gender to a greater extent in precolonial Kenya than it did elsewhere in Africa
E. identify a factor that led Robertson to revise her hypothesis about precolonial Africa
我看了以前的帖子还是不太明白，24行说的是 although age was still crucial in determining authority. 就是年龄还是很重要的，这个观点和第一段作者的观点是一样的呀，为什么说是lead to revise呢？作者: dontwannalos 时间: 2011-2-8 20:33
