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)
22.
It can be inferred from ███ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ █████████ ███
a
apply the methodologies ██ █████████ ██ █████ █████ █████████
This doesn’t relate to either of the two points the author brought up as criticism of the anthropologists. So there’s no support for thinking the author would encourage them to apply taphonomy to modern hunter-gatherer societies. Although taphonomy is a method the author discusses later in the passage for learning about ancient societies, there’s no indication the author believes the anthropologists should use the method on modern societies.
b
investigate the similarities ██ ███████████ ███ ████████████ █████ ███ ███████ █████████
This doesn’t relate to either of the two points the author brought up as criticism of the anthropologists. The author wants the anthropologists to study differences between modern societies and the societies of early hominids. But the similarities among the various modern hunter-gatherer societies is not relevant; (B) doesn’t involve a comparison between modern hunter-gatherer societies and ancient hominids.
c
contrast the competition ███ ████ █████ ██ █████ █████████ ████ ███ ███████████ █████ ██ ███████████ █████████
There’s evidence the author would encourage the anthropologists to research (C), because the author believes the differences in environments of modern societies and early hominids
d
examine the life-styles ██ ███████████████ █████████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████
This doesn’t relate to either of the two points the author brought up as criticism of the anthropologists. The author cares about the comparison between modern hunter-gatherers and prehistoric hominids. Studying hunter-gatherer societies of the “previous century” (the 1800s or 1900s, depending on when the passage was written) doesn’t involve a study of prehistoric hominids.
e
analyze how the ███████ ██████████ █████████████████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ █████████
This doesn’t relate to either of the two points the author brought up as criticism of the anthropologists. The author cares about the comparison between modern hunter-gatherers and prehistoric hominids. (E) relates only to modern hunter-gatherers.