This is an explanation for passage 3 of LSAT preptest 76, the October 2015 LSAT. This passage is about the Haudenosaune beads known as wampum. The author discusses how wampum did not originally serve as a form of money but instead served as an evolving form of symbolic and political communication.
This section has paragraph summaries and an analysis of the passage, links to the explanations for the questions are below.
Paragraph Summaries
- The main purpose of wampum was as a means of communication, not money.
- Some examples of wampum’s meanings.
- The formation of the Haudenosaune confederacy increased wampum’s importance. It was used to communicate the Haudenosaune confederacy’s constitution.
Analysis
I found this passage very difficult. I made two mistakes on it when I first took it, which is very unusual for me. I think part of the problem is that I found the second paragraph very boring. It caused me to zone out and ignore the third paragraph, which I could have understood if I had tried.
When doing reading comprehension passages, you need to develop a sense of what information is important, and what is. The second paragraph doesn’t help answer any question. No question will ask “What color was associated with the sky-yearning spirit?” (line 22)
Whereas, information like “Council fire, possibly indicating talking in progress…” (line 50) is extremely important, because it shows that we don’t know for sure what every wampum arrangement meant.
Often when doing a passage I’ll reread/reskim key bits. I should have just ignored paragraph two, but read paragraph three 2-3 times. That’s where the important information was.
The main points you need to know about this passage are:
- Europeans misunderstood wampum. It was a means of communication, not money. (Paragraph 1)
- Wampum used colored symbols to show meaning, often religious. (Paragraph 2)
- String wampum was an early form of wampum used to send more complex messages. (Political messages, see lines 33-36)
- The formation of the Haudenosaune confederacy led to more elaborate use of Wampum. (Lines 37-43)
- Wampum belts combined string wampum to convey the constitution. Wampum belts could be deciphered by those who knew the meaning of string wampum. (See lines 43-48. This implies that the belts relied on the former, religious meanings of string wampum).
These aren’t exactly the only things you should know, but they’re the main points. Most of them are in paragraph 3.
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