RC doubt

[nitya mithal]

At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native American customs and an increasing desire to understand Native American culture prompted ethnologists to begin recording the life stories of Native American. Ethnologists had a distinct reason for wanting to hear the stories: they were after linguistic or anthropological data that would supplement their own field observations, and they believed that the personal stories, even of a single individual, could increase their understanding of the cultures that they had been observing from without. In addition many ethnologists at the turn of the century believed that Native American manners and customs were rapidly disappearing, and that it was important to preserve for posterity as much information as could be adequately recorded before the cultures disappeared forever.
There were, however, arguments against this method as a way of acquiring accurate and complete information. Franz Boas, for example, described autobiographies as being "of limited value, and useful chiefly for the study of the perversion of truth by memory," while Paul Radin contended that investigators rarely spent enough time with the tribes they were observing, and inevitably derived results too tinged by the investigator's own emotional tone to be reliable.
Even more importantly, as these life stories moved from the traditional oral mode to recorded written form, much was inevitably lost. Editors often decided what elements were significant to the field research on a given tribe. Native Americans recognized that the essence of their lives could not be communicated in English and that events that they thought significant were often deemed unimportant by their interviewers. Indeed, the very act of telling their stories could force Native American narrators to distort their cultures, as taboos had to be broken to speak the names of dead relatives crucial to their family stories.
Despite all of this, autobiography remains a useful tool for ethnological research: such personal reminiscences and impressions, incomplete as they may be, are likely to throw more light on the working of the mind and emotions than any amount of speculation from an ethnologist or ethnological theorist from another culture

6. It can be inferred from the passage that a characteristic
of the ethnological research on Native Americans
conducted during the nineteenth century was the use
of which of the following?
(A) Investigators familiar with the culture under study
(B) A language other than the informant's for recording
life stories
(C) Life stories as the ethnologist's primary source of
information
(D) Complete transcriptions of informants' descriptions
of tribal beliefs
(E) Stringent guidelines for the preservation of cultural
data



8. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would
be most likely to agree with which of the following
statements about the usefulness of life stories as a source
of ethnographic information?
(A) They can be a source of information about how
people in a culture view the world.
(B) They are most useful as a source of linguistic
information.
(C) They require editing and interpretation before they
can be useful.
(D) They are most useful as a source of information
about ancestry.
(E) They provide incidental information rather than
significant insights into a way of life.




Can anybody please explain the 2 above questions...?

[aspire_mba2013]

6. It can be inferred from the passage that a characteristic
of the ethnological research on Native Americans
conducted during the nineteenth century was the use
of which of the following?
(A) Investigators familiar with the culture under study ( Out of Scope)
(B) A language other than the informant’s for recording
life stories ( Correct ) - refer 3rd line "they were after linguistic or anthropological data that would supplement their own field observations,"
(C) Life stories as the ethnologist’s primary source of
information ( Out of Scope )
(D) Complete transcriptions of informants’ descriptions
of tribal beliefs ( Out of Scope)
(E) Stringent guidelines for the preservation of cultural
data ( Out of Scope )



For , next question refer the last 3 lines of the passage,

Important take away point here is WORKING OF THE MIND AND EMOTIONS - and this pretty well complements with the option A in question number 8 - They can be a source of information about how people in a culture view the world.

incomplete as they may be, are likely to throw more light on the working of the mind and emotions than any amount of speculation


8. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would
be most likely to agree with which of the following
statements about the usefulness of life stories as a source
of ethnographic information?
(A) They can be a source of information about how
people in a culture view the world. ( Correct )
(B) They are most useful as a source of linguistic
information.
(C) They require editing and interpretation before they
can be useful.
(D) They are most useful as a source of information
about ancestry.
(E) They provide incidental information rather than
significant insights into a way of life.
E is incorrect - as the autobiography can provide both incidental information and significant insights into a way of life



Let me know , if its helpful !!!

[frank1]

I agree with
6.B
and
8.A
but i feel reason for number 6 could be this
"Native Americans recognized that the essence of their lives could not be communicated in English and that events that they thought significant were often deemed unimportant by their interviewers"
from the last paragraph rather than the lines stated above.
Informant's language was not english and english was used.