#16 - Concept Reference, Must Be True, Subject Perspective

[Administrator]

Please post below with any questions!

[ChicaRosa]

I had a hard time with this question and would like to know why D is correct?

I originally chose C as a desperate guess because I was struggling to relate the answer choices to the passage. Is D correct because of the token system being replaced by marks on clay tablets?

Thanks!

[David Boyle]

I had a hard time with this question and would like to know why D is correct?

I originally chose C as a desperate guess because I was struggling to relate the answer choices to the passage. Is D correct because of the token system being replaced by marks on clay tablets?

Thanks!

Hello ChicaRosa,

Pretty much.

Hope this helps,
David

[andreakun]

Hi! I'm still confused about why the correct answer choice is D, as opposed to C. I chose D because of the italicized sentence below -- I assumed that these villagers' contributions meant that the society mentioned in the passage functioned on this sharing-basis and hence, "whatever was produced by any individual as the common property of all".

Schmandt-Besserat theorizes that the envelopes contained official records of villagers’ contributions to temple-based grain and livestock pools

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi andreakun

The issue is that just because the villagers made contributions to a communal pool doesn't mean they saw all that they produced as communal property. After all, we make contributions to a communal pool of resources via taxation, and I doubt that many would consider Americans to generally view all their property as community property. Having some property contributions tracked is just as consistent with a system of taxation as it is with a system of all community property. We simply don't know based on the passage what sort of system was being described. Because of that, answer choice (C) cannot be the correct answer.

Answer choice (D) on the other hand, describes something that we know is true based on the final paragraph. It describes an evolution of a system, which started with the clay tokens, but ended with signs on a tablet. Those signs replaced the tokens to describe the same information. That completely supports answer choice (D).

Hope that helps!
Rachael

[VamosRafa19]

Hi,

I picked D because felt it was most supported by the passage. But I could not really eliminate E. They used clay so much for the tokens, that they must have had a readily available supply. Is E incorrect because if it wasn't for clay they might have used some other material and E is too strong?

[KelseyWoods]

Hi VamosRafa19!

You're exactly right--answer choice (E) is too strong. Answer choice (E) is a conditional statement ("without") that says that having a readily available supply of raw clay was necessary to the development of a system of representation that used tokens. We know that they made their tokens from clay but, as you noted, that doesn't mean that clay was the only thing they could have made tokens from. Answer choice (E) sets up a specific relationship between the clay and the tokens that is not supported by the passage.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[lounalola]

I understand that answer choice D is backed up by the final paragraph, however I am not sure where it indicates that the clay tokens became redundant?

[Amber Thomas]

Hi Lounalola!

We have evidence that the clay tokens became redundant in Lines 38-40 (the first sentence of the last paragraph): " The token system, essentially a system of three-dimensional nouns, was replaced in about 3100 B.C. by a system of marks on clay tablets." The paragraph then describes how the token-marking system eventually evolved into a tablet-marking system. The tablet system at first integrated the token-marking, but then later phased that out as it became unnecessary/redundant. We can see this process occurring in Lines 46-53:

"At first it took two ovoid tokens to record two jars of oil. A little later, it took two markings on a clay tablet
to achieve this—one mark, using the outline of the old token, to record the customary unit measure for oil, the jarful, and a second mark to convey the numeral: two oil jars. Eventually, it took three signs on the tablet, one for the numeral 2, one for the standard jarful, and a new symbol that denoted oil itself."

The use of the tokens as a marking system evolved into the abstract/flexible writing system, rendering it eventually unnecessary.

I hope this helps!

[Jeff Wren]

Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: viewtopic.php?f=1159&t=11221

The correct answer choice is (D).

This question asks for a statement about the society that used the clay tokens with which Schmandt-Besserat would most likely agree. Because this question is somewhat general and open-ended in nature, it may be difficult to come up with a specific prephrase. However, having a clear understanding of Schmandt-Besserat's views as expressed in the passage is the key to solving this question, and clearly tracking/marking/diagramming Schmandt-Besserat's viewpoint whenever it appears in the passage will help solve this question.

Of course, it's always helpful to remember the main point of a passage when answering other questions as well, as knowing the main point can often indirectly help answer other questions. As discussed in question 15, the main point is that Schmandt-Besserat argues that the token system eventually evolved into mature/abstract writing.

Answer choice (A): There is no discussion in the passage of whether the society's economic activities were managed by a strong centralized governmental authority, so this answer is unsupported.

Answer choice (B): There is no discussion in the passage of the importance of religious rituals in comparison to agriculture and trade, so this answer is unsupported.

Answer choice (C): Due to the word "whatever" in this answer, this answer is exaggerated, as it goes beyond what is stated in the passage. The passage states that "Schmandt-Besserat theorizes that the envelopes contained official records of villagers' contributions to temple-based grain and livestock pools" (lines 30-33), but this does not suggest that everything was considered common property of all.

In fact, the evidence seems to suggest the opposite if anything since there wouldn't necessarily be a need to track villagers' individual contributions if everything was common property. The idea of tracking contributions arguably only really makes sense if the villagers were contributing some of their own property to the temple, similar to how we pay taxes on some of our income/property. If everything was owned by the state, there wouldn't really be a need to pay taxes.

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice. As the passage indicates, according to Schmandt-Besserat, the token system eventually evolved into mature writing (lines 43-45). This is also the main point of the passage, as illustrated by the answer of question 15, the main point question. Because the token system evolved into mature writing, the mature writing system replaced the older token system. In other words, once this society figured out mature (i.e. abstract) writing, they no longer needed to use the tokens and they eventually stopped using the tokens altogether. Using the tokens after learning abstract writing would be unnecessary or redundant, which is presumably why the society stopped using the tokens. This is illustrated in the example at the end of the passage.

Answer choice (E): We know from the passage that the tokens were made of "fired clay" (line 14), but we have absolutely no idea what this society would have done in an alternate universe if raw clay had not been readily available, and there is no reason to believe that the raw clay was necessary to make tokens. Perhaps the society would have made the tokens out of some other material, such as wood or metal? Just because clay was what they chose to use (perhaps simply out of convenience), doesn't mean that it was the only material that they could have used.