Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Easy

PT143 S2 P1 Q3 Explanation

Documenting Indigenous Culture

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsAnalogySociety

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Passage

Having spent several decades trying to eliminate the unself-conscious “colonial gaze” characteristic of so many early ethnographic films, visual anthropologists from the industrialized West who study indigenous cultures are presently struggling with an even more profound transformation of their discipline. Because inexpensive video equipment is now available throughout the world, many indigenous cultures. Reaction to this phenomenon within Western anthropological circles is sharply divided.

One faction, led by anthropologist James Weiner, sees the proliferation of video and television as the final assault of Western values on indigenous cultures. Weiner argues that the spread of video represents “a devaluation of the different,” culminating in the replacement of genuine historical, linguistic, social, and cultural difference with superficial difference truth value to these films simply because they are made by indigenous peoples are theoretically naive.

But Weiner’s opponents contend that his views betray a certain nostalgia for the idea of the “noble savage.” One such opponent, anthropologist Faye Ginsburg, concedes that no Western object that has entered cultural circulation since the fifteenth century has been neutral, but she considers it little more than boilerplate technological determinism to affords societies—especially oral ones—an invaluable opportunity to strengthen native languages and traditions threatened by Western exposure.

The Brazilian fieldwork of anthropologist Terence Turner, who studies the relationship between traditional Kayapo culture and Kayapo videotapes, lends credence to Ginsburg’s position. Primarily an oral society, the Kayapo use video to document both ceremonial performances and transactions with representatives of the Brazilian government (this latter use is intended to provide legally with Kayapo culture, it seems, that it transforms any Kayapo who uses it into a Westerner.

What this question is testing

Analogy

Your task

Pin down exactly what the question asks about the passage — a detail, the author's view, the structure, or the main point — before looking at the choices.

Common trap

Answers that restate a true detail from the passage but don't answer the specific question being asked.

Winning move

Anticipate the answer in your own words from the passage, then find the choice that matches that prediction.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
3.

Which one of the following is most analogous to the Kayapo's use of video to document ceremonial performances, as that use is described

Answer choices

  1. Bad Match3% picked this

    As various groups have emigrated to North America, they have brought their culinary traditions with them and thereby altered the

    This is Culture A (groups emigrating to North America) bringing their traditions with them and altering Culture B (North American culinary practices). We want Culture A borrowing something from Culture B and using it in a unique way, without taking on too much of B's culture.

  2. Correct89% picked this

    In the 1940s, Latin American composers incorporated African American inspired jazz instrumentation and harmonies into their music but remained faithful to the

    Why this is right

    Culture A (Latin American composers) incorporates something (jazz instrumentation and harmonies) from Culture B (African American musicians). But because they remain faithful to traditions of Latin American music, they're using that thing in a unique way and not adopting the broader cultural traditions of African American jazz musicians.

    Skill tested: Analogy · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  3. Bad Match3% picked this

    Some writers are predicting that the interactive nature of the Internet will fundamentally reshape fiction, and they are already producing narratives that

    This answer doesn't give us two cultures in which one adopts something from the other.

  4. Partial Match4% picked this

    In the late 1980s, some fashion designers produced lines of various articles of clothing that imitated fashions that were current

    This answer gives us Culture A (1980's fashion designers) adopting from Culture B (1920's and 30's fashion), but it doesn't specify that 80's fashion didn't take on the whole look and feel of 20's and 30's fashion. Now, those of us who were alive in the 80's can use our real-world knowledge to fill in that missing piece of information. Late 80's was definitely not full flapper. But we're not allowed to fill in real world info like that. In order to be analogous, we'd need this answer to tell us explicitly that the 80's designers used these styles in a uniquely 80's way (shoulder pads and zoot suits, anyone?).

  5. Partial Match1% picked this

    Early in the twentieth century, some experimental European artists rejected the representational traditions of Western painting and began to produce

    Like D, this answer gives us Culture A (early 20th century experimental European artists) adopting from Culture B (surrealist literature), but it doesn't specify that Culture A did it in a unique way that didn't go full-surrealist.

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