問題詳情

Discussion of the assimilation of Puerto Ricans in the United States has focused on twofactors: social standing and the loss of national culture. In general, excessive stress is placed onone factor or the other, depending on __(26)___ the commentator is North America or PuertoRican. Many North American social scientists, such as Oscar Handlin, Joseph Fitzpatrick, andOscar Lewis, consider Puerto Ricans as the most recent in a long line of ethnic entrants tooccupy the lowest ___(27)___ on the social ladder. Such a “sociodemographic” approach tendsto regard assimilation as a benign process, taking for granted increased economic advantage andinevitable cultural integration, in a supposedly egalitarian context. However, this approach failsto take into account the colonial nature of the Puerto Rican case, with this group, unlike theirEuropean predecessors, coming from a nation politically subordinated to the United States.Even the “radical” critiques of this mainstream research model, such as the critique developedin Divided Society, attach the issue of ethnic assimilation too mechanically to factors ofeconomic and social mobility and are thus unable to illuminate the cultural subordination ofPuerto Ricans as a colonial minority.In contrast, the “colonialist” approach of island-based writers such as EduardoSeda-Bonilla, Manuel Maldonado-Denis, and Luis Nieves-Falcon tends to view assimilation asthe forced loss of national culture in a(n) __(28)__ contest with imposed foreign values. Thereis, of course, a strong tradition of cultural accommodation among other Puerto Rican thinkers.The writings of Eugenio Fernandez Mendez clearly exemplify this tradition, and manysupporters of Puerto Rico’s commonwealth status share the same universalizing orientation. Butthe Puerto Rican intellectuals who have written most about the assimilation process in theUnited States all advance cultural nationalist views, advocating the preservation of minoritycultural distinctions and __(29)___ what they see as the subjugation of colonial nationalities.This cultural and political emphasis is appropriate, but the colonialist thinkers misdirect it,overlooking the class relations ___(30)___ in both Puerto Rican and North American history.They pose the clash of national cultures as an absolute polarity, with each culture understood asstatic and undifferentiated. Yet both the Puerto Rican and North American traditions have beensubject to constant challenge from cultural forces within their own societies, forces that maymove toward each other in ways that cannot be written off as mere “assimilation.” Consider, forexample, the indigenous and Afro-Caribbean traditions in Puerto Rican culture and how theyinfluence and are influenced by other Caribbean cultures and Black cultures in the United States.The elements of coercion and inequality, so central to cultural contact according to thecolonialist framework, play no role in this kind of convergence of racially and ethnicallydifferent elements of the same social class.
26.
(A) where
(B) whether
(C) what
(D) who

參考答案

答案：B
難度：簡單0.882353
統計：A(1),B(30),C(2),D(1),E(0)

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