Theysquatted side by side on the dirt, a crowd of village women holding sari clotharound them as a makeshift curtain, and poured soapy water from a metal panover their heads. 这句话摘自《国家地理》上面一篇讲述印度童媳的文章。they指三个小姑娘，分别是5、13和15岁。
我想问的是，a crowd of village women holding sari clotharound them as a makeshift curtain是看作独立主格还是看作句子为好，看作句子的话，就是省略了squatted，但村妇们未必是蹲着的，那样看作独立主格？
请老师们解疑。多谢多谢！
They squatted side by side on the dirt, a crowdof village women holding sari cloth around them as a makeshift curtain, andpoured soapy water from a metal pan over their heads.
这个句子的主干为 They squattedside by side and poured soapy water 。即poured这个动作仍然是主语they做的。and并列二个谓语。第一个谓语之后有a crowd of village women holding sari cloth around them as amakeshift curtain这个独立主格结构作随着状语，补充说明第一个谓语。独立主格结构为独立于句子主谓结构以外的，所以前后用逗号分隔。独立主格结构多坐落于句首和句末，但偶尔也可以插入句中。
