Self-study
P1
Darwin's conception of early prehistoric humans as confident, clever hunter-gatherers has long dominated anthropology. ███
Traditional perspective ·
Early prehistoric humans were hunter-gatherers
Why this perspective persists ·
Most recent ancestors were discovered first
People confuse modern hunter-gatherer lifestyles with the lifestyle of our ancestors.
Author's criticism ·
Traditional perspective overlooks important differences
Modern hunter-gatherers are very advanced, and their environments are very different from our ancestors'.
P2
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New methodology and new perspective ·
Taphonomy questions perspective that ancesetors were hunters
Taphonomy involves studying bones. Example: pattern of bone pile deposits and the nature of markigns on bones.
P3
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Evidence against traditional view ·
Grooves on animal bone fossils
Markings made by stone tools on animal bone fossils are different from those made by carnivores' teeth or sedimentary abrasion. Animal bone fossils had carnivore markings underneath markings made by tools, and the tool markings were not systematically at joints. (The implication is that if our ancestors were hunters, we'd expect to see tool markings at joints and we wouldn't see carnivore marking underneath the tool markings.)
P4
███
New hypothesis ·
Ancestors were scavengers, not hunters
Additional evidence ·
Ancestors' teeth show diet primarily of fruit, only occasionally meat
Develop new hypothesis ·
Ancestors may have used trees to spot animal carcasses
Fossil record suggests our ancestors climbed trees and foraged or scavenged for food, rather than hunted live prey.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
21.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████
a
With the aid ██ ███ ████████ ████████ █ █████ ██ ███████████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ██████ █████████ ████████ █████ ███ ██████ ████████████ ██ ██████ ███████████████ ██████████
“Refute” is too strong; the author doesn’t claim that researchers have been able to prove Darwin’s theories about early hominids wrong. Rather, the author merely tells us that researchers hypothesize a different view about early hominids.
b
The recent development ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ███████████████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████████ █████████████ ████ ██ ████████████████
(B) is too focused on methodologies. But the author’s point relates to early hominids and a hypothesis about how they obtained meat. (B) doesn’t even mention early hominids or hypotheses about them.
c
Although most anthropologists ████ ████ ████████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ███████ ███ ██ ███████████ ████ ██ █████ █████████
This best captures the main point. New research techniques (taphonomy) are providing support for an alternative view of early hominids (they were scavengers, not hunters).
d
Anthropologists' mistaken conception ██ ███████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████████
(D) relates only to the point of P1. But it doesn’t capture the overall point of the passage, which is about the new hypothesis concerning early hominids and how they obtained meat.
e
Because of recent ███████████ █████ ███ ███████████ ██ █████ ███████████ ██████ ██████ ███████████████ ███ ████████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████████ ████ ███████ ███████ █████ ██████ ███ █████ ██████ ██████████
Unsupported, because the passage doesn’t discuss recent discoveries about the environment in which prehistoric humans lived. The passage focuses on taphonomy as a new method that provides support for a hypothesis about early hominids.