LSAT 116 | Section 4 | Reading Comprehension: Q14

RC Question 14 Explanation

DISCUSSION: Make sure that your answer accurately capture the entire passage.

___________

1. Very tempting; the passage does argue that scholars overlooked important information. But…this is very narrow. “Some” early Native American cultures? The passage was talking about pre-contact cultures in general (lines 9 to 11). And it’s hardly “nuances” that scholars were overlooking: concepts of identity were completely different.
2. Huh? The passage focussed on Native Americans. They weren’t just used as some example to prove a point about autobiographies. 
3. The passage implies in lines 1-6 that the life stories by non-Native Americans were like European biographies. 
4. CORRECT. Native Americans did have autobiographies, but they are very different from ours. That is why scholars are wrong to focus mainly on biographies written by non-Native American authors. 
5. This is true, for someone with a Western perspective. But it’s hardly the main point of the passage. The point is that these stories are autobiographies.