A Society Without aFormal Authority

In the seventeenthcentury,European soldiers who came across some Indian groups in the westemGreat Lakes found that several native tribes（部落）were living in the area

without a formalleadership system.They appeared to be"quite friendly with each otherwithout a formal authority"!

Not only did theIndians appear to lack a formal system of authority,but they also deeply hatedany efforts to control their actions.All members of the tribes knew what was

required of them bylifelong（一生的）familiaritywith the tasks of the area. These tasks tended to be simple, since the Indians'rate of social change was slow.

Thus,althoughsubgroups such as soldiers had recognized leaders,no real authority wasrequired.Rather than giving direct orders(which were considered rough),membersof

the tribes wouldarouse others to action by examples.

It would bedifficult,if not impossible,to carry out such a system in our own society.Mostoi us have grown up under one authority or another for as long as we canremember.

Our parents,ourteachers,our bosses,our government all have the recognized right under certainconditions to tell u, what to do.The authority is so much a part of our culture

that it is hard forus to imagine a workabl( society without it.We have been used to relying onauthority to get things done and would probably be uncomfortable with the

Indian methods ofexamples on a large scale.

Of course,the majorreason why the Indian system would not be suitable for us is that our societyis too large.The number of tasks that various members of our society have to

perform oftenundertight time and resource limitations could not be treated by the Indiansystem,in modern societies, the formal authority system is necessary to achieveany

social objectives.After reading thepassage,you may conclude that________.

A.the Indian systemis also suitable for some small towns

B.the Indians tendedto follow orders

C.our system is muchbetter than the Indians'

D.the Indian systemwould be very difficult to implement in our society