LSAT 128 – Section 2 – Question 21

LSAT 128 - Section 2 - Question 21

December 2008

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT128 S2 Q21
+LR
Most strongly supported +MSS
A
1%
155
B
12%
161
C
5%
160
D
2%
155
E
79%
168
147
155
163
 +Harder 146.836 +SubsectionMedium

Live Commentary

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Cultural anthropological theory tends to fall into two camps. One focuses on everyday social behavior as a system that has developed in response to human needs in a given environment. The other rejects this approach, focusing on the systems of meanings by which thoughts, rituals, and mythology in a society are structured. Cultural anthropologists, however, should employ both approaches, and also attend to a third, often neglected dimension: the view of a community as a set of individuals whose actions constitute the actual stuff of everyday life.

Summary

Cultural anthropologists generally have two camps of theories. One approach focuses on everyday behavior as a system that develops in response to human needs. The other approach focuses on the systems of meanings by which thoughts, rituals, and mythology in a society are structured. However, anthropologists should employ both approaches in addition to a third. The third approach views a community as a set of individuals whose actions compromise every day life.

Strongly Supported Conclusions

Even if some anthropologists disagree, their approaches to anthropological theory are not necessarily incompatible.

A
Patterns of social behavior have meaning only when considered from the point of view of the community.

Unsupported. The author isn’t suggesting that patterns of behavior can only be understood from a community’s point of view. Rather, the author is arguing for anthropologists to consider this view in addition to the dominant camps.

B
Cultural anthropologists too often rely on a conception of human needs that excludes the notion of community.

Unsupported. We know that the first camp focuses on human needs, but we don’t know whether their conception of needs excludes all notion of community. All we can say is that anthropologists neglect one particular view of community: the view recommended by the author.

C
Cultural anthropological theorists who focus on issues of meaning overlook the humanity of their individual subjects.

Unsupported. The second camp focuses on systems of meanings, but nothing suggests that this focus comes at the cost of overlooking anyone’s humanity. The topic of subjects’ humanity isn’t raised by the author, but that doesn’t mean the anthropologists overlook it.

D
Systems of behavior can be understood only by experiencing the environments to which they respond.

Unsupported. We know that some anthropologists understand systems of behavior in light of human response, but we don’t know if that is the only way for this analysis. Stating that it is the “only” way is too strong.

E
Disagreement among cultural anthropological theorists does not necessarily imply that their approaches are incompatible.

Strongly supported. The author states that although these anthropologists disagree over their approaches, they should actually employ both approaches, as well as a third. This implies that at least these three approaches are all compatible with each other.

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LSAT PrepTest 128 Explanations

Section 1 - Reading Comprehension

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Logical Reasoning

Section 4 - Reading Comprehension

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