Wampum

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: probably Opposite, if anything3% picked this

   Wampum was probably used on occasion as a medium of economic exchange long before the Haudenosaune

   The only discussion of wampum being used as money has the author saying, "Wampum certainly did become a medium of exchange among Europeans and Haudenosaune, [but] this was due to the Europeans." So the passage is giving off the vibe that Europeans were the causal factor that turned wampum into money.

   3%
2. B

   Correct74% picked this

   The formation of the Haudenosaune Confederacy called for a more complex method of communication than wampum as used

   Why this is right

   This is both causal and comparative. The formation of the Confederacy called for (causal) a more complex (comparative) method of communication than how wampum had been used up until that point. We can support the causal connection with the first sentence of the final paragraph: It was the formation of the Confederacy that supplied the major impetus for making wampum a deliberate system of both arbitrary and pictorially derived symbols designed primarily for political purposes. We can support the comparative part with the details of the 2nd vs. 3rd paragraphs. Wampum was originally loose beads of two different colors. Then it got more complex with the advent of string wampum, which combined loose beads together. Naturally, belt wampum (in the 3rd) is more complex that string wampum because belt wampum involves combining string wampum together. Also the rows of beads now allowed someone to see pictures, icons that had symbolic meaning. Perhaps a more lovable rephrasing of this answer choice would sound like, "The way they used wampum to encode the Confederacy's constitution was more complex than wampum in its previous forms of loose beads or string."

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

   74%
3. C

   Out of Scope: recodified3% picked this

   Once wampum came to be used as currency in trade with Europeans, the constitution of the Haudenosaune Confederacy had to be recodified

   We never hear anything about the Haudenosaune having to change their constitution because the Europeans turned wampum into money.

   3%
4. D

   Too Specific: promulgating edicts17% picked this

   Prior to Haudenosaune contact with Europeans, wampum served primarily as a means of promulgating official edicts and policies

   The first sentence of the passage does say that the Haudenosaune were developing a wampum-based communication system primarily for political purposes. But "political purposes" is a wide net. It would include such things as the truce requests made using string wampum. It's too much of a leap to go from "primarily for political purposes" to "primarily to promulgate edicts and policies of the Confederacy".

   17%
5. E

   Out of Scope: subtler shadings3% picked this

   As belt wampum superseded string wampum as a method of communication, wampum beads acquired subtler shadings in the colors

   We never hear about the colors taking on subtler shades. The 3rd to last sentence of the passage is still talking about only two hues: The arrangements of the two colors also directed interpretation of the symbols.

   3%