Logic Breakdown

Passage Summary: Moving from hunting to farming was actually really hard on people's health, so they probably only did it because they wanted the money and status that comes with a settled life.

Conclusion: Groups moving to agriculture were likely motivated by benefits like wealth accumulation.

Reasoning: The transition to agriculture was physically traumatic, involving more disease and injury and a worse diet than hunting and gathering.

Analysis: The statement about the transition being 'traumatic' is a claim supported by the evidence regarding disease and diet. This claim then serves as a premise for the final conclusion: that there must have been a significant incentive (wealth) to justify such a difficult change. In structural terms, this is an intermediate conclusion, as it is both supported by premises and provides support for the main point.

Passage Stimulus

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8.

Which one of the following most accurately describes the role played in the anthropologist's overall argument by the statement that for early humans who moved from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture, the transition must have been traumatic?

Correct Answer
A
A is accurate: “the transition must have been traumatic” is a premise that is supported by the next sentence (disease, injury, diet) and that, in turn, helps support the overall conclusion about why groups made the transition.
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