Because the very subject matter of anthropology is so volatile

Question

Because the very subject matter of anthropology is so volatile, it’s no surprise that the discipline is frequently embroiled in controversy. Even when social commentators and outside observers fail to criticize the latest anthropological theory on human nature, the social science’s own practitioners are often up in arms over some study or another. Consider Ekman’s landmark study of human emotions in the 1960s.

At the time, the accepted movement in anthropology was relativism. In an effort to rid the discipline of accusations of bias, anthropologists attempted to study cultures as isolated systems. The norms, mores, and practices of each culture were analyzed only in terms of the internal consistency they possessed and any suggestion of judgment was met by howls of outrage by the anthropological establishment. Into this arena came Ekman with his startling heresy; emotions, argued Ekman, were not arbitrary cultural constructs but universal human traits. Ekman had spent years traveling the world, showing people around the globe photographs of other people expressing six basic emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise. Not one person studied by Ekman failed to recognize these emotions, whether the person in the photograph was wearing the suit of a Western businessman or the tribal dress of the Fore foragers of New Guinea.

When Ekman presented his findings at an anthropological conference, he was denounced as a fascist and a racist. Some of his fellow scientists even took his research to prove not that human emotions were universal but that the hegemony of Western culture was so complete that even the most far-flung peoples were socialized into the Western mindset. Ekman was shocked at the reaction. He thought his findings would be evidence of the brotherhood of man, not of the subjugation of the world by the West. And yet, Ekman’s conclusions have been replicated again and again and are now generally accepted in the anthropology community, which apparently is like its subject matter: quick to anger but perhaps slow to admit mistakes.   1 
 1. Which of the following most accurately expresses the main idea of the passage?

A. Despite an initial outcry over his work, Ekman was eventually vindicated by the scientific community for his research findings.
B. The anthropological community as a whole is characterized by rigidity and an unwillingness to accept new ideas.
C. Anthropologists take longer to accept controversial ideas about human nature than do scientists in other fields.
D. The anthropological community’s reaction to certain heretical ideas may reflect a basic truth about the nature of the discipline.
E. Ekman’s revolutionary study about the universality of human emotions caused a stir in the anthropological community that reverberates to this day.

2 
 2. According to the passage, the results of Ekman’s study were

A. unequivocal in their support of Ekman’s thesis that there are certain emotions that are universally recognized
B. inconclusive, as they may have simply indicated the hegemony of Western culture rather than the universality of human emotions
C. invalid because Ekman only used pictures of Western businessmen and Fore tribesmen
D. inflammatory because Ekman’s personal biases influenced the results
E. limited because Ekman did not carry out enough research to properly draw the conclusion he reached

3 
 3. The passage suggests which of the following about anthropology?

A. For much of the discipline’s history it was often charged with making racist assumptions about the value of other cultures’ practices.
B. The relativist approach is no longer employed by modern anthropologists.
C. At one time, anthropologists evaluated cultures based on a culture’s relationships to other cultures in the world.
D. Members of the anthropological community are more sensitive to accusations of bias than are the members of other disciplines.
E. Anthropologists believe that the prevalence of Western cultural norms represents a threat to indigenous peoples around the world.

4 
 4. Ekman’s experiences with the anthropological community as detailed in the passage are most analogous to which of the following?

A. an inventor who must discard hundreds of failed models before eventually discovering one that works
B. a scientist who withdraws his research after his colleagues attack the ethics of his experimental design
C. a literary critic who challenges the accepted practices of his discipline and ends up developing a new paradigm for textual analysis
D. a painter whose revolutionary work is met by opposition from his peers but eventually gains mainstream acceptance
E. an architect who proposes building a structure unlike any other but is forced to change his plans after his coworkers object

5 
 5. The author states “At the time...was relativism,” in the second paragraph in order to

A. explain why the discipline was plagued by accusations of bias
B. support the criticisms of Ekman’s work made by his colleagues
C. indicate a possible reason that Ekman’s results were met with such outrage
D. describe an important moment in the evolution of the anthropological discipline
E. argue that if anthropologists wanted to be respected as a scientists, they would need to revise their methods

6 
 6. The author’s attitude toward the anthropological community’s reaction to Ekman’s work is best described as one of

A. anger at the community’s shortsightedness
B. understanding of the community’s character
C. disappointment at the community’s treatment of Ekman
D. agreement with the community’s righteous indignation
E. puzzlement at the community’s eventual acceptance of Ekman’s work.

Sajjad1994 · Accepted Answer

Official Explanation

1. Which of the following most accurately expresses the main idea of the passage?

Explanation

First assess the question. This is clearly a main idea question. In order to answer this type of question, first refer to the notes you took from your analytical reading. The answer to a main idea question should reflect the major points of the entire passage, not just one part. Focus on the beginning of the paragraphs and the final few sentences to get a sense of the big picture; unless you see a word like  “however,” “but,” or “although,”  don’t look at the details contained in the body paragraphs.

Earlier, you gathered that the main idea was something like “Ekman’s experience shows how members of the anthropological community may initially react negatively to a new finding, but may eventually come to accept the finding.” Now look at the answer choices and see how well they match your take on the passage. Choice A focuses on Ekman, stating he was vindicated by the scientific community. But look back at the passage. Ekman and his experience is an example used by the author to support a statement about the anthropological community. So while choice A may discuss a part of the passage, it is not the main idea.  Choice B  makes a claim that is not supported by the passage. The author claims that the community eventually accepted Ekman’s new idea, although it caused controversy at first.  Choice C  compares anthropologists to scientists in other fields, but the passage makes no explicit comparison to other scientists. Now look at  choice D . The best answer to main idea question encompasses all major parts of the passage. The first paragraph makes a claim about the nature of the anthropological community, the second and third paragraphs detail the reaction of the community, and the final sentence reiterates the author’s belief about the nature of the members of the anthropological community. Choice D is looking pretty good, but you must check the final answer.  Choice E  focuses on Ekman’s study, but it doesn’t mention anything about the nature of the anthropological community, a key idea in the passage. Furthermore, nothing in the passage supports the idea that the ideas “still reverberate to this day.”   So it looks like choice D is best after all  .

2. According to the passage, the results of Ekman’s study were

Explanation

This is a supporting detail question. It asks you to figure what the passage says about the results of Ekman’s study. For questions that ask about specific parts of the passage, your goal is to find the particular lines in which the author discusses the supporting idea asked about in the question. Your analytical reading should give you an understanding of the structure of the passage, which may help you figure out where to look for the answer. Alternatively, you can use the words in the question itself to aid you. The GMAT writers typically use specific words from the passage in the question stem, so scan around the passage for something like “results of Ekman’s study.” The second paragraph would probably be the best place to look first because you know from your analysis that this paragraph details Ekman’s experience. At the end of the paragraph you will find the sentence “Not one person studied by Ekman failed to recognize these emotions, whether the person in the photograph was wearing the suit of a Western businessman or the tribal dress of the Fore foragers of New Guinea.” These lines contain the answer: the results showed that everyone Ekman studied was able to recognize the emotions pictured.

Now you have to find the answer choice that matches what the passage states. Choice A looks promising since it says that the results clearly supported Ekman’s thesis. Even if you think  choice A is good , you still must look at the other answer choices; sometimes it’s easy to become enamored of a certain answer choice but there may be an even better answer.  Choice B  is incorrect because the passage doesn’t state that the results indicated Western hegemony. Some scientists argued that but the passage states that the conclusions have been replicated and are now accepted. There is nothing in the passage to support  choice C .  Choice D  may look tempting because the results certainly were inflammatory. However, the passage doesn’t explicitly state that the results were controversial because of Ekman’s biases.  Choice E  is also not stated by the author. If anything, the passage indicates the opposite by saying that Ekman spent years traveling the world for his study. Thus,   choice A turns out to be the best choice.

3. The passage suggests which of the following about anthropology?

Explanation

Any question that asks what the passage suggests or implies is an inference question. Inference questions tend to be slightly more difficult than supporting detail questions, even though they both ask you about the facts in the passage. One difficulty is that inference questions tend to be open ended; from reading the question, it may not be obvious where exactly in the passage you should look for the answer. Another difficulty concerns the inference itself. An inference is not merely a guess or a hunch. Inferences on the GMAT need to be supported by the passage. Any choice that could be true or might be true just won’t cut it. This question requires you to use the information in the passage to draw an inference about anthropology. Where should you look? Considering that the entire passage is about anthropology, it would be inefficient to read practically everything.

When the question doesn’t give you much help figuring out where to look, go to the answer choices. Take each choice one by one and see if you can prove it to be true based on the passage. For  choice A , look at the parts of the passage that deal with accusations of racism. The last paragraph states some scientists accused Ekman of racism, but that doesn’t help. The beginning of the second paragraph said anthropology had been accused of bias, but nothing supports the idea that these accusations occurred for  “much of the discipline’s history.”  So while this answer might be true, it’s not an inference.  Choice B  is easier to find—relativism appears in the beginning of the second paragraph. But nowhere does the passage state that relativism is no longer practiced, so choice B can be eliminated. Now for  choice C , look for the part of the passage that talks about how anthropologists used to evaluate cultures. The second paragraph is a good place to look because the beginning talks about judging other cultures. The passage states that anthropologists tried  “to study cultures as isolated systems. The norms, mores, and practices of each culture were analyzed only in terms of the internal consistency they possessed.”  Since this was a change, it means that before, cultures were not studied as isolated systems or in terms of internal consistency. This makes choice  C a good inference .  Choice D  is easy to eliminate because the passage doesn’t compare anthropologists to other scientists. The final choice goes too far for an inference. In the passage, Western hegemony was mentioned by a “few” scientists. But that doesn’t mean that anthropologists in general feel this way.   Choice C is best.

Hope it helps

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Question# 5

Analysis

This is a logical structure question. Whereas supporting idea questions ask you to figure out what the passage says, these questions test your understanding of why an author includes certain information. In order to answer these questions, you must go back to the passage and look at the context in which the line or lines appear. Ask yourself why the author may have included the lines or what the lines contribute to the paragraph as a whole. Look at the second paragraph and think about the structure. The first few lines explain the state of anthropology at the time of Ekman’s research. The author establishes that the discipline was dominated by relativism. The second half of the paragraph then describes Ekman’s “startling heresy”—that emotions were universal. So the first part helps to establish why Ekman’s results were so controversial. The lines don’t explain why anthropology was accused of bias, as choice A states. Nor do they support the criticisms of Ekman’s work. Choice C,however, is accurate. Choice D doesn’t make sense in the context of the passage. The author is detailing the effects of a particular finding, not the evolution of anthropology. Similarly, choice E has nothing to do with the purpose of the paragraph. Knowing the purpose of a passage or a paragraph is useful when answering logical structure questions. Answer choices that introduce information unrelated to the purpose will be incorrect

Question# 6

Analysis

Because the texts used on the GMAT are taken from academic publications, the passages rarely demonstrate strong tones. Most passages are more or less neutral in their treatment of subjects. However, when tone questions do appear, you must be sure that you find evidence in the passage for a particular tone. Don’t rely on your “feelings” about a passage; you need to find concrete support. Also, because tone refers to the author’s opinion of his or her subject, you can’t just look at the examples presented in the passage. A passage could contain criticisms of a theory, but that doesn’t mean the author’s tone is negative. Evidence of tone comes not from the nature of the content of a passage but instead from what the author says about that content. For this question, you need to go back to the passage and find the parts in which the author talks about the community’s reaction to Ekman’s work. This information is in the last paragraph. The passage states that after Ekman presented his work, he was denounced as a racist and some interpreted his work as evidence of Western hegemony. But these lines only describe what the reaction was, not how the author feels about it. So keep looking. The last line gives an indication of the how the author feels: the community is “like its subject matter: quick to anger but perhaps slow to admit mistakes.” This is the information you need. Choice A describes the author’s tone as angry but that is not supported by the passage. The anthropologists may have been angry, but the author isn’t. Choice B is a pretty good match. The author acknowledges that anthropologists are like the people they study—they can get angry quickly but are slower to admit mistakes. There is nothing stronger in the author’s tone than an acceptance of the character of the members of the discipline. Even though the author describes the negative reaction of the community, there are no indications of “disappointment” in the passage, so choice C is no good. The author certainly doesn’t agree with the reaction of the community. The passage acknowledges the reaction, but doesn’t indicate support for it, so choice D is wrong. And because the author indicates an understanding of he community’s reaction, the tone can’t be puzzled as choice E states. Choice B is best.

Hope it Helps

arvind910619 · Answer

1. Which of the following most accurately expresses the main idea of the passage?

A. Despite an initial outcry over his work, Ekman was eventually vindicated by the scientific community for his research findings.
B. The anthropological community as a whole is characterized by rigidity and an unwillingness to accept new ideas.
C. Anthropologists take longer to accept controversial ideas about human nature than do scientists in other fields.
D. The anthropological community’s reaction to certain heretical ideas may reflect a basic truth about the nature of the discipline.
E. Ekman’s revolutionary study about the universality of human emotions caused a stir in the anthropological community that reverberates to this day.

B is not inferred from the passage. Moreover there are reasons that anthropology field may take in new ideas but folks in the same field will denounce it. To clearly point out this please read the following from the passage.

Because the very subject matter of anthropology is so volatile, it’s no surprise that the discipline is frequently embroiled in controversy. Even when social commentators and outside observers fail to criticize the latest anthropological theory on human nature, the social science’s own practitioners are often up in arms over some study or another. Consider Ekman’s landmark study of human emotions in the 1960s.

At the time, the accepted movement in anthropology was relativism. In an effort to rid the discipline of accusations of bias, anthropologists attempted to study cultures as isolated systems. The norms, mores, and practices of each culture were analyzed only in terms of the internal consistency they possessed and any suggestion of judgment was met by howls of outrage by the anthropological establishment.

D on the other hand is correct as we can see form the first para that folks in the field criticize other folks with different theories.
Again we are given reaction to Ekman’s landmark study. D is the only valid answer.

vaibhav1221 · Answer

1. Which of the following most accurately expresses the main idea of the passage?

The passage talks about anthropology and how rigid a discipline it can be at when it comes to new ideas. The passage gives an example of Ekman, whose experience is consistent with the idea of anthropology that the author is trying to communicate - that it is a rigid field when it comes to accepting new ideas.
If you understood this much you'd be debating between B and D, more skewed towards option B, however, that option is incorrect for a simple fact. Anthropology is a rigid field when it comes to new ideas but the fellows do accept the new idea after a lot of resistance and the author gives the example of Ekman to reiterate the fact in the last line of the passage.
Hence, the answer should be D.

2. According to the passage, the results of Ekman’s study were

The author wasn't against the idea that Ekamn presented. The author was at least neutral about Ekman's findings if not for them, however, the fellows of the anthropological community was initially against the idea.
Only option A is seems to convey a positive reaction to Ekman's idea.
Hence, the answer should be A.

3. The passage suggests which of the following about anthropology?

A. For much of the discipline’s history it was often charged with making racist assumptions about the value of other cultures’ practices. -  Not true, it was only for Ekman's case that we know this happened. 
B. The relativist approach is no longer employed by modern anthropologists. -  This would've been a correct choice had this question asked about what one would infer from the passage about anthropology. This is directly not implied in the passage, however, can be inferred. Incorrect choice 
C. At one time, anthropologists evaluated cultures based on a culture’s relationships to other cultures in the world. -  Correct. It was 1960s when this was the case. 
D. Members of the anthropological community are more sensitive to accusations of bias than are the members of other disciplines. -  There has been no comparison in the passage. Again, this option might've been correct had this been an inference question. 
E. Anthropologists believe that the prevalence of Western cultural norms represents a threat to indigenous peoples around the world. -  The mention of this is only native to Ekman's case according to the given information in the passage and cannot be generalized for anthropology as a discipline.

Hope this helps!

rinkuda · Answer

Hi Sajjad,

Thanks. I have gone through the explanation provided. However, i am still unable to connect how text in the 2nd para leads to the inference draw in the explanation provided.

My confusion is how does the below leads to correct understanding C. In my reply i have given a reasoning for why B also could be correct.

" At the time, the accepted movement in anthropology was relativism. In an effort to rid the discipline of accusations of bias, anthropologists attempted to study cultures as isolated systems. "

It will be great if you could help me understand why B is wrong and why C is the correct answer. Thanks a lot.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

I have read the passage, read your reasoning and I can accept that are true in your findings, the words  "At the time"  create the problem and make option  B  very lucrative but you are going too extreme to conclude that  "The relativist approach is no longer employed by modern anthropologists."

Always differentiate a  could be true  and  must be true  options. It is possible that The relativist approach is no longer employed but we are not certified about it by the passage. This could be true also could be false. If you read first  5-6 lines of the second paragraph  it is clear that author is providing some of the characteristics of relativism. By this information it is also possible that the relativism movement has been modified a lot with the passage of time. Being sure about it is too extreme to consider.

Thank you

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

4. Ekman’s experiences with the anthropological community as detailed in the passage are most analogous to which of the following?

Difficulty Level:   Easy

Explanation

Analysis

Applying information questions may present you with new information in the answer choices, but the best answer is still based directly on the passage. These questions usually require a more involved process, as you must first refer to the passage and figure out what information you need, and then analyze the answer choices to find the one that matches the question task.

For this question, you need to first describe Ekman’s experiences. Your strategic reading should have provided you with this information: Ekman presented controversial findings to the anthropological community and was met with scorn and disdain. But eventually, his results were accepted by the community. Now apply that basic scenario to the answer choices. The best one will closely match the general idea of what you read in the passage, although the specific details might differ.

Choice A  is wrong. Ekman did not present hundreds of findings to the anthropological community before gaining acceptance. Nor does the passage indicate that Ekman failed—his conclusions were controversial but correct.

Choice B  is also no good. Ekman was attacked by his colleagues, but he didn’t withdraw his research.

Choice C  is close, but you must check the other choices.

Choice D  is good. Ekman’s work is described as a  “startling heresy”  and is denounced and criticized by the anthropological community. But the passage states that the results were eventually accepted by the community. That makes  choice D  a pretty good match, and better than C since the passage doesn’t state that Ekman challenged the accepted practices of his discipline. And his results didn’t result in a  “new paradigm.”

Choice E  is incorrect because Ekman’s work is not  “unlike any other”  and he did not change anything after his colleagues attacked him. Ultimately,  D  is the best choice.

Answer: D

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Because the very subject matter of anthropology is so volatile

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