Before the advent of writing, each of the isolated clans of the X tribe had master story tellers whose function was to orally transmit the clan's tradition from one generation to the next. When writing was developed within certain clans of the tribe, their master story tellers disappeared within a few generations. This stands to reason, since the availability of written records obviated the need for masterful oral communicators to keep the tradition of literate clans alive.What has puzzled anthropologists, however, is the total lack of masterful storytellers in modern illiterate X clans. Which of the following, if true, best helps to explain the puzzling situation mentioned above? Options: A . &nbspModern illiterate X clan members display personality characteristics that resemble their ancestors more closely than they resemble the characteristics of modern literate X clan members B . &nbspModern illiterate X clans participate in more ritual gatherings than most modern literate X clans do, but they participate in fewer ritual gatherings than did their common ancestors C . &nbspModern illiterate X clans are recently descended from long time literate clans that failed to pass on the skills of reading and writing due to a devastating 75-year war. D . &nbspThe celebrations of modern illiterate X clans involve a great deal of singing and dancing, and children are taught clan songs and dances from a very young age

Before the advent of writing, each of the isolated clans of the X tribe had mast

Question

Before the advent of writing, each of the isolated clans of the X tribe had master story tellers whose function was to orally transmit the clan's tradition from one generation to the next. When writing was developed within certain clans of the tribe, their master story tellers disappeared within a few generations. This stands to reason, since the availability of written records obviated the need for masterful oral communicators to keep the tradition of literate clans alive.What has puzzled anthropologists, however, is the total lack of masterful storytellers in modern illiterate X clans. Which of the following, if true, best helps to explain the puzzling situation mentioned above?

Options:

A . Modern illiterate X clan members display personality characteristics that resemble their ancestors more closely than they resemble the characteristics of modern literate X clan members

B . Modern illiterate X clans participate in more ritual gatherings than most modern literate X clans do, but they participate in fewer ritual gatherings than did their common ancestors

C . Modern illiterate X clans are recently descended from long time literate clans that failed to pass on the skills of reading and writing due to a devastating 75-year war.

D . The celebrations of modern illiterate X clans involve a great deal of singing and dancing, and children are taught clan songs and dances from a very young age

Answer: Option C
:
C
The author clearly identifies the source of the confusion when he mentions what puzzles anthropologists. They are perplexed by two facts which seem inconsistent with each other. First, the advent of writing in certain tribe X clans seems to have caused the disappearance of the master storytellers within those tribes. Nevertheless, the second fact is that modern illiterate tribe X clans also lack master storytellers. The basic equation is: Why do these modern illiterate clans lack storytellers when earlier clans lost their storytellers only after they learned how to read? Let's look to the answer choices and find one that specifically answers this question.
(A)does nothing to explain why the modern literate clans lack storytellers. Personality similarities don't have any clear relationship to literacy and storytellers.
(B)A comparison of the frequency of clan gatherings also does not in any way explain why the current illiterate tribes lack storytellers.
(C)Would explain the discrepancy. If it were true, then the storytellers did disappear when the clans became literate, but they subsequently lost that literacy. Thus the modern tribes could both be illiterate and storytellers, as is the case in the stimulus, and they could have lost their storytellers during an earlier literate period. The inconsistency is no longer an inconsistency - all of the pieces of the puzzle find a home in this explanation. (C) is correct.
(D)Again touches on the issue of modern tribe X rituals without referring to literacy and storytelling, the central elements of the argument's paradox.

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