PrepTest 137, Section 1, Question 8
Taking the explication of experience as its object(440 more words not shown)
Shostak's approach to ethnography differs(13 more words not shown)
- AShe observes the(15 more words not shown)
- BShe studies the(12 more words not shown)
- CShe contrasts individuals'(8 more words not shown)
- DShe exemplifies her(10 more words not shown)
- EShe emphasizes the(7 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The opening sentence gives us the contrast: most ethnographers favor broad accounts of a people, while Shostak follows a particular woman. We learn about the !Kung through Nisa's memories, losses and relationships, rather than letting an anonymous description of the group stand in for her experience.
What we’re looking for
Look for that personal emphasis. It does not mean separating Nisa from her culture; the second paragraph explicitly explains her personality through !Kung ways.
Working the answers
- A
Shostak isn't studying one group as a substitute for studying a different, similar group. Nisa belongs to the very culture being explored.
- B
“Apart from” makes this wrong. Nisa's experiences are connected with her culture, not studied in isolation from its practices.
- C
We aren't told that Shostak sets Nisa's personal history against information about !Kung culture. The individual account helps us understand that culture; it isn't presented as a contrasting body of evidence.
- D
The book contains observations and experiences, but no process of starting with general cultural hypotheses and collecting examples to illustrate them is described. This sounds like a possible research method, not the particular difference the author identifies.
- ECorrect
This directly opposes the usual preference for the “general and the anonymous.” Shostak makes an identifiable person's experience central to understanding the culture.
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