In pre-Incan Andean communities, ultimate control over all productive

Before reading the following solutions, I would like to point out that there is a similar and better version of the above passage: https://gmatclub.com/forum/recent-scholarship-has-argued-that-the-formation-and-expansion-of-stat-407808.html

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P1: How Pre-Incan Andean communities operated and women's status in this community

P2: Scholars' view on the changes w.r.t women's rights and roles as the communities were conquered by Incas: Women's status diminished

P3: Evidence of how women could have held a considerable status in the community: Textile = increase in women's status.
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1. The primary purpose of the passage is to



Incorrect: The views of scholars are only mentioned in P2. P1 and P3 Mainly state facts. So there is no comparison made between scholarly views.



Incorrect: P3 presents evidence BUT is it recently discovered? Moreover, the author is merely stating views and facts he is not analyzing any implications.



Hold: P1 gives us background information. P2 gives us the views held by Scholars. P3 gives us evidence that reduces our confidence in the view presented in P2. So yes, "questioning the accuracy of a view" is reasonable.



Incorrect: "descriptions of the Inca society by Spanish clerics and conquistadores" - where is such description even mentioned?



Incorrect: This option merely covers the gist of P3. But is this the primary purpose? I doubt. What about P1 and P2?

Correct Answer: (C)
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2. It can be inferred from the passage that land distribution in the Incan empire differed from that in pre-Incan Andean communities in that the Incas

"It is true that, as the Incan empire expanded, the state needed to ensure the loyalty of a growing bureaucracy, professional class, and military, and thus it began to award these groups various grants of land."

(A) based the distribution of land on the productivity of individual families
(B) used grants of and to ensure loyalty to the state - Correct
(C) afforded women more access to community-owned land
(D) forbade the Caracas from owning more than their share of land
(E) suspended the requirement that women relinquish their inherited lands when they married

Correct Answer: (B)
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3. Which of the following statements concerning the status of women in Incan society can be inferred from the passage

"It is true that, as the Incan empire expanded, the state needed to ensure the loyalty of a growing bureaucracy, professional class, and military, and thus it began to award these groups various grants of land. Since the activities that earned grants of land from the state were defined by Incan culture as almost exclusively masculine, the result, scholars argue, should have been a corresponding diminishment of the authority and autonomy of women."

(A) Women were largely excluded from membership in the bureaucratic and professional classes. - Correct - Based on the highlighted portion in P2, we can infer Choice A.

(B) On marrying, women could acquire land and goods essential to establishing a new household. - Incorrect - This was mentioned in P1 in the pre-Incan Andean communities

(C) Women were given equal access to productive resources. - Incorrect - This was mentioned in P1 in the pre-Incan Andean communities

(D) In some instances women served as Caracas. - Incorrect - This was mentioned in P1 in the pre-Incan Andean communities

(E) Women had access to little information about political events in their communities. - Incorrect - Nowhere is this mentioned in the passage

Correct Answer: (A)
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4. It can be inferred from the passage that Gertrude Solari assumes which of the following in her discussion of the symbolic designs woven into Incan textiles

"Primarily by decoding designs found in modem weavings, designs also found in pre-Columbian Incan material, Gertrude Solari has shown that through these textiles women recorded not only incidents of household life"

Why did GS consider the modern and the pre-Columbian Incan? Clearly, she believes there is some similarity between the two

(A) The designs have meanings similar to those found in modern weavings. - Correct

(B) The designs are similar to those found in weavings done by women in other pre-Columbian cultures. - Incorrect - Comparison of OTHER cultures is not made

(C) The designs were meant to be decipherable only to members of the Incan bureaucracy. - Incorrect - The designs were a form of symbolic communication. BUT the passage doesn't suggest that ONLY the members could decipher the designs

(D) The designs provided Spanish clerics and conquistadores with much of their information about Incan culture and society. - Incorrect - The mention of the highlighted people is nowhere done in the passage let alone in GS' study

(E) The women who manufactured the textiles were considered by the Incans to be the official historians of their empire. - Incorrect - Again, no such information is mentioned not considered by GS

Correct Answer: (A)
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5. The passage suggests that recent scholarship describing the effect on women of the Incan conquest is

"It is true that, as the Incan empire expanded, the state needed to ensure the loyalty of a growing bureaucracy, professional class, and military, and thus it began to award these groups various grants of land. Since the activities that earned grants of land from the state were defined by Incan culture as almost exclusively masculine"

(A) inaccurate in its interpretation of the impact that new methods of distributing community resources had on women’s access to land - Incorrect - The it true and hence accurate

(B) inaccurate in its interpretation of the significance of women’s participation in the political life of pre-Incan Andean communities. - Incorrect - Political life isn't mentioned

(C) accurate in its interpretation of the basis on which land in pre-Incan Andean communities was apportioned - Correct - Compared to the pre-Incan Andean the women were not given land grants.

(D) accurate because it correctly interprets the significance of women’s work in Incan society - Incorrect - Rather, the scholars expected "corresponding diminishment of the authority and autonomy of women."

(E) accurate because it is based on the firsthand accounts of Spanish observers - Incorrect - Nowhere mentioned
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