In ancient times, human beings lived in tribes andvillages; and then with the advancement of human civilization, people builtcities to isolate themselves from the nature. In the past, most importantpeople of a country lived in the cities such as the king, the royal family, andhigh officials, and the situation is similar today. Therefore, through theobservation of the major cities, we will get a general idea about the society’scharacters including the standard of beauty, yet, which does not mean that thecharacteristics are maintained in the major cities exclusively. In the ruralareas as well as small cities, legacies of a society are usually preservedbetter than in the major cities.
As for major cities, not only the elites of a society livein them, but also many youngsters who come to big cities for opportunities stayin the major cities too. Not only business tycoons prefer to live in bigmetropolitans, but also numerous artists and superstars also choose big cities.Since people from all walks of a society gather in major cities, then the studyof the major cities will lead the researchers to get a sketchy conception ofthis society easily. Moreover, a big amount of resources are gathered up in the major cities forthe capital of a country and the financial center are always big cities likeNew York City and Washington DC. Many historical incidents happened in the bigcities as well. For instance, February Revolution took place in Paris that isthe biggest city of France, and UnitedStates Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in Philadelphia, which is oneof the major cities of the US, and it follows that studying the majors is anefficient way to get familiar with a society.
However, with therapid globalization, major cities around the world are assimilated to the samestyle: numerous skyscrapers, a financial district, broad streets, and lots ofautos. When taking a close look at Tokyo and Shanghai, one can hardly tell thedifference between them from appearance. In the same time, citizens in the metropolitans in the globe arebecoming similar as well. Young residentsin big cities wear Hip-Hop style clothes, ladies like to carry LVs and men goto work wearing business suits. In such circumstance, major cities cannotprovide more unique characteristics of a society because people are becomingalike.
With theassimilation of big cities around the world, rural areas and villages maintaina number of traditions as well as customs. For example, people in the cities inChina nowadays rarely celebrate Chongyang Day when people in the old times gohiking, whereas countryside people still follow the tradition to celebrate thisholiday. Hence, if a researcher studies the rural areas meticulously, he/shewill find how the traditions affect the modern people and their values. Moreover,if someone wants to understand the culture of American Indians, the bestapproach to it is go to the Indians’ Conservation. He/she can find little aboutIndian culture in the big cities, say, Los Angeles or Chicago.
Admittedly, a research on major cities is a convenient wayto understand a society, yet only studying big cities is not enough because bigcities are similar in many aspects. A research on rural areas is an necessarysupplement in that rural areas keep many traditional customs that are disappearin the cities and cultures in rural areas contribute to the diversity of asociety.作者: jie54 时间: 2012-9-19 12:26
很赞啊，我正写完这个的提纲。。。作者: 竹林中人 时间: 2012-9-19 21:53
思路还是很好的，不知道你写了５０分钟，是什么原因？中间有较多停顿还是？作者: chasedreamer08 时间: 2012-9-20 11:01