An analysis of a sentence

I just wonder if anyone could help me understand the differences between the following original excerpt gleaned from the latest The Economist as follows :

One aspect of hammam culture proving resistant to the pressures of both modernity and covid-19 is its role in wedding rituals.

and the following sentence:

One aspect proving resistant to the pressures of both modernity and covid-19 of hammam culture is its role in wedding rituals.

In the first, original, excerpt, my dilemma in understanding is whether proving resistant to the pressures of both modernity and covid-19 is referred to one aspect or hammam culture; in the second, I can clearly understand which one has been referred to which is one aspect.


Unless one gets into the semantics of the sentence, it's difficult to analyze its syntax. A cursory Google search tells me that hammam culture centers around the the practice of steam bathing in the muslim tradition.

I don't see any difficulty with parsing the first sentence. It parses just fine:

One aspect of hammam culture proving resistant to the pressures of both modernity and Covid-19 is its role in wedding rituals.

Or

One aspect of A proving resistant to the pressures of both B and C is its role in D.

For the sake of convenience, I've substituted A, B, C, and D for hammam culture, modernity, Covid-19, and wedding rituals.

Please note that the gerund phrase proving resistant to the pressures of both modernity and Covid-19 modifies the noun phrase one aspect ( which is modified further by the PP of hammam culture.)

Consider now

One aspect proving resistant to the pressures of both modernity and Covid-19 of hammam culture is its role in wedding rituals.

This could be parsed as:

One aspect proving resistant to the pressure of modernity and to the pressure of Covid-19 of hammam culture is its role in wedding rituals.

I don't think that's the intended meaning. What could Covid-19 of hammam culture mean?

In other words, the second sentence doesn't make any meaning because of a misplaced modifier.

ASIDE>>

The Economist puts out top-hole articles and columns. They couldn't possibly bungle their sentences.