Line | Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from |
women’s studies and Mexican-American history to | |
examine nineteenth-century literary portrayals of | |
Mexican women. As Castañeda notes, scholars of | |
(5) | women’s history observe that in the United States, |
male novelists of the period—during which, according | |
to these scholars, women’s traditional economic role | |
in home-based agriculture was threatened by the | |
transition to a factory-based industrial economy— | |
(10) | define women solely in their domestic roles of wife and |
mother. Castañeda finds that during the same period | |
that saw non-Hispanic women being economically | |
displaced by industrialization, Hispanic law in territorial | |
California protected the economic position of | |
(15) | “Californianas” (the Mexican women of the territory) by |
ensuring them property rights and inheritance rights | |
equal to those of males. | |
For Castañeda, the laws explain a stereotypical | |
plot created primarily by male, non-Hispanic novelists: | |
(20) | the story of an ambitious non-Hispanic merchant or |
trader desirous of marrying an elite Californiana. | |
These novels’ favorable portrayal of such women | |
is noteworthy, since Mexican-American historians | |
have concluded that unflattering literary depictions | |
(25) | of Mexicans were vital in rallying the United States |
public’s support for the Mexican-American War | |
(1846–1848). The importance of economic alliances | |
forged through marriages with Californianas explains | |
this apparent contradiction. Because of their real- | |
(30) | life economic significance, the Californianas were |
portrayed more favorably than were others of the | |
same nationality. |
The “apparent contradiction” mentioned in line 29 refers to the discrepancy between the
Unable to build nests or care for their young, a female cowbird lays up to 40 eggs a year in the nests of other birds, including warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes.
Researchers hope to find clues about the A'mk peoples who lived in the Kaumpta region about one thousand years ago but who left few obvious traces. The researchers plan to hire the few remaining shamans of the modern-day indigenous people in Kaumpta, who are believed to be descended from the A'mk, to lead them to ancestral sites that may be the remains of A'mk buildings or ceremonial spaces. The shamans were taught the location of such sites as part of their traditional training as youths, and their knowledge of traditional Kaumpta customs may help determine the nature of any sites the researchers find.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the success of the plan depends?