单选题
{{B}}TEXT B{{/B}}
Whenever two or more
unusual traits or situations are found in the same place, it is tempting to look
for more than a coincidental relationship between them. The high Himalayas and
the Tibetan plateau certainly have extraordinary physical characteristics and
the cultures that are found there are also unusual, though not unique. However
there is no intention of adopting Montesquieu's view of climate and soil as
cultural determents. The ecology of a region merely poses some of the problems
faced by the inhabitants of the region, and while the problems facing a culture
are important to its development, they do not determine it.
The
appearance of the Himalayas during the late Tertiary Period and the accompanying
further raising of the previously established rages had a marked effect on the
climate of the region. Primarily, of course, it blocked the Indian monsoon from
reaching Central Asia at all. Secondly, air and moisture from other directions
were also reduced.
Prior to the raising of the Himalayas, the
land now forming the Tibetan uplands had a dry, continental climate with
vegetation and animal's life similar to that of much of the rest of the region
on the same parallel, but somewhat different from that of the areas farther
north, which were already drier
①. With the coming of the Himalayas
and the relatively sudden drying out of the region, there was a severe thinning
out of the animal and plant population. The ensuing incomplete Pleistocene
glaciations had a further thinning effect, but significantly did not wipe out
life in the area. Thus after the end of the glaciations there were only a few
varieties of life extant from the original continental species. Isolated by the
Kunlun range from the Tarim basin and Turfan depression, species that had
already adapted to the dry steppe climate, and would otherwise have been
expected to flourish in Tibetan, the remaining native fauna and flora
multiplied
②. Armand de scribed the Tibetan fauna as not having great
variety, but being "striking" in the abundance of the particular species that
are present. The plant life is similarly limited in variety, with some observers
finding no more than seventy varieties of plants in even the relatively fertile
Eastern Tibetan valleys, with fewer than ten food crops. Tibetan "tea" is a
major staple, perhaps replacing the unavailable vegetables.
The
difficulties of living in an environment at once dry and cold, and populated
with species more usually found in more hospitable climates, are great. These
difficulties may well have influenced the unusual polyandrous societies typical
of the region. Lattimore sees the maintenance of multi-husband households as
being preserved from earlier forms by the harsh conditions of the Tibetan
uplands, which permitted no experimentation and "froze" the cultures that came
there. Kawakiwa, on the other hand, sees the polyandry as a way of easily
permitting the best householder to become the head husband regardless of age.
His de tailed studies of the Bhotea village of Tsumje do seem to support this
idea of polyandry as a method of talent mobility in a situation where even the
best talent is barely enough for survival.
In sum, though
arguments can be made that a pre-existing polyandrous system was strengthened
and preserved (insofar as it has been) by the rigors of the land, it would
certainly be an overstatement to lay causative factors of any stronger nature to
the ecological influences in this case
③.