I believe it's D

My ans is A. See, in the stem it said " A flaw in this strategy is that forager societies are extremely varied". So A "a number of important features in common" most weaken the argument.
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"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'r gonna get"

E after spending 1 min 54s.

Now coming to the analysis:

Some anthropologists study modern-day societies of foragers in an effort to learn about our ancient ancestors who were also foragers. A flaw in this strategy is that forager societies are extremely varied. Indeed, any forager society with which anthropologists are familiar has had considerable contact with modern nonforager societies.

Argument: Anthropologists study modern-day forager societies to learn more abt. our ancestors.
Criticism: (i) Forager societies are extremely varied.
(ii) All the forager societies which anthropologists know about have contact with modern non-forager societies. Therefore, any conclusions made abt. our ancestors are bound to be wrong, as the behaviour of modern day foragers is affected by being in contact with non-foragers.

To weaken the criticism:

A--> states that Foragers throughout history have had features in common
This will for sure weaken (i)

B-->Strengthens (ii), therefore eliminate this option

C--> I don't see the relevance - IMO, this neither strengthens/weakens the criticisms

D--> Do not draw inferences - but the criticism is that the study in itself is useless - I eliminate this option too

E--> Strengthens (i)

Therefore the answer should be A

Paul, if this were the question that we encounter in GMAT, spending 3 min would build a lot of pressure. Do you suggest a strategy to questions of this type?

I spent nearly 2 min and still got it wrong! (

A it is. The other choices strengthen the criticism.

A is the OA. Thank You folks.

I pick A.
Not D because the argument is "the strategy picked by researchers is flawed." The fact that they don't draw inferences based on their studies does not impact the argument at all.
Hope it helps.

D is also wrong because the question stem is concerned with anthropologists who draw inferences about ancestral foragers' societies from studies of current societies. The question stem isn't concerned with those don't.