#18 - Concept Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Please post below with any questions!

[Alexander Rothschild]

I have no idea what the correct answer is on this one, but I do not see any support for any of the answer choices. I believe the correct answer is "D" because without a concept of wilderness, there would not be a concept of artifact to juxtapose it with.

[bli2016]

Hi, for this problem I was stuck between B and D and finally chose D because the author applies Yi-Fu Tuan's hypothesis that human behavior is driven by fear of the wilderness to the Mesolithic era (lines 33-35). However, I still don't know why B is necessarily wrong. If the Mesolithic humans established the paths, wouldn't they be the first to travel on them? I think I'm missing something in the passage here so some help pointing it out would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Kristina Moen]

Hi bli,

This passage is just about the Mesolithic populations, who were populations in Europe roughly 7,000 to 12,000 years ago. The passage does not talk about populations living in Africa, Asia, or any other place. So even if the Mesolithic humans established the first woodland paths in Europe, we can't infer that they were the first human beings to travel in prescribed pathways. Further, there may have been paths along the beach, in valleys, or other non-woodland areas.

[harvoolio]

I arrived at the right answer, but merely by process of elimination in that I knew the passage did not suggest (A), (B), (C) and (E) and that the burden of proof for "a concept of" is any awareness whatsoever which I figured but did not know was somewhere in the passage.

Where is the support for (B)? Thanks.

[Adam Tyson]

I assume you meant to ask where the support is for answer D, harvoolio? I found it at lines 51-52, where the author said

This allows us to legitimately consider wilderness as a motivating concept in the Mesolithic

If the concept of wilderness motivated the Metholithic people, then they must have had that concept. If they did not, then it could not motivate them.