Anthropologists have traditionally accepted the theory that the island

Question

Anthropologists have traditionally accepted the theory that the island of Kantoa in the South Pacific was first inhabited by humans when Polynesian colonists from Hawaii reached the island in around 1200 A.D. This theory was overturned, however, by the recent discovery of a cache of tools in a cave on the island. The tools are clearly man-made, and they could not have been manufactured later than 300 A.D. This find not only alters our understanding of when people first inhabited Kantoa, but it also clearly suggests that humans must have inhabited Hawaii earlier than the traditionally accepted date of 500 A.D.

Which of the following is a potential flaw in the conclusion that humans must have inhabited Hawaii earlier than 500 A.D.?

A. The earliest inhabitants of Kantoa could have come from somewhere other than Hawaii.

B. The colonization of islands in the South Pacific required not only the capacity to build ocean-going vessels, but also an extraordinary level of courage.

C. The Polynesian islanders who colonized new islands are thought to have left their old islands because of population pressure or scarcity of food.

D. Kantoa is a far smaller island than the largest island in the Hawaiian island chain.

E. The tools found on Kantoa are similar to, although not exactly the same as, tools known to be used by ocean-going Polynesians in the first millennium A.D.

shubham365 · Answer

'E' is the answer IMO.
Other 4 options do not talk anything about the tools. Only E tells us that the tools were also found about a millennium ago.

syedazeem3 · Answer

Is there a full explanation to this problem?

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aragonn · Answer

Let me try to help you .

Premise:  K was first inhabited by humans when Polynesian colonists from Hawaii reached the island in around 1200 A.D
 Counter  : cache of tools in a cave on the island. not later then 300 AD

Conclusion : 1. This find not only alters our understanding of when people first inhabited Kantoa but it also clearly suggests that humans must have inhabited Hawaii earlier than the traditionally accepted date of 500 A.D.

pre-thinking:  why and how our understanding altered? evidence suggests that people first inhabited K not later then 300AD. cause of the tools. we need to find flaw in conclusion that humans must have inhabited Hawaii earlier than the traditionally accepted date of 500 A.D. Lets think about the flaw before looking at choices. tools of 300AD, human came before 500 AD. thinking is of 1200 AD. well if tools are of 300AD then people should come prior to 300AD. as it is carrying an assumption that people(Polynesian colonists from Hawaii) came from and then they made tools over there. for finding the flaw we have to attack on this assumption. 
First How we are sure that first one came here were from Polynesian colonists from Hawaii? are tools connected to that fact ?? such as design or anything else is of Polynesian colonists from Hawaii. 
This all bring us to a may be --- may be tools are made/brought by some other colonists in a prior time frame. Now fit this explanation in above stem and situation is very much clear.
 
A. The earliest inhabitants of Kantoa could have come from somewhere other than Hawaii. --- this seems on line of thinking. although they gave half statement by skipping the timeline from this statement but statement is still pointing a flaw.
B. The colonization of islands in the South Pacific required not only the capacity to build ocean-going vessels, but also an extraordinary level of courage. ---- out of scope.
C. The Polynesian islanders who colonized new islands are thought to have left their old islands because of population pressure or scarcity of food. ---- irrelevant 
D. Kantoa is a far smaller island than the largest island in the Hawaiian island chain. --- irrelevant.
E. The tools found on Kantoa are similar to, although not exactly the same as, tools known to be used by ocean-going Polynesians in the first millennium A.D.  ---- this is a very good choice. except it has many problems. First, time line. it is talking about a later time line.  alot can happen in that duration. May be tools were made after 500AD. lot many May be can be raised. No clear picture. 2nd tools are not exactly same. it could be same could be not we are not sure. May be they are not influenced and it is just a close looking.

jayantbakshi · Answer

IMO A

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abhigulia3006 · Answer

Not very convinced with my answer, but I would go with option D. Only option A seems like it could be an alternate option, but requires too many assumptions for it to be true. Although I do believe that the use of the word millennium leaves too much ambiguity for my liking

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aragonn · Answer

I think you are talking about E not D,

abhigulia3006 · Answer

Yup my bad. Thanks for the correction

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venky90 · Answer

Premise 
Anthropologists have traditionally accepted the theory that the island of Kantoa in the South Pacific was first inhabited by humans when Polynesian colonists from Hawaii reached the island in around 1200 A.D.

Counter Premise 
Recent discovery of a cache of tools in a cave on the island. The tools are clearly man-made, and they could not have been manufactured later than 300 A.D.

Pre-thinking 
This leads us to think that the island could have been occupied by someone else before the Polynesian colonists came there in 1200 A.D. or these people came in earlier. But nowhere in the premise do they argue that the Polynesians came there before 1200 A.D. So that's not up for debate.

The premise doesn't recognize that people from anywhere else could have come to Kantoa and occupied it before the Polynesians. That's my understanding anyway. If flawed, do let me know.

That's why I chose A, when left between Choices A & E.

Kudos would help. Thank you.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Anthropologists have traditionally accepted the theory that the island

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Anthropologists have traditionally accepted the theory that the island

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