RC Session

PASSAGE 1

How does ritual affect relationships between groups and entities external to them?

According to traditional cultural anthropology, aggregates of individuals who regard their collective well-being as dependent upon a common body of ritual performances use such rituals to give their members confidence, to dispel their anxieties, and to discipline their social organization. Conventional theories hold that rituals come into play when people feel they are unable to control events and processes in their environment that are of crucial importance to them.

However, recent studies of the Tsembaga, a society of nomadic agriculturalists in New Guinea, suggest that rituals do more than just give symbolic expression to the relationships between a cultural group and components of its environments; they influence those relationships in measurable ways.Perhaps the most significant finding of the studies was that, among the Tsembaga, ritual operates as a regulating mechanism in a system of a set of interlocking systems that include such variables as the area of available land, necessary length of fallow periods, size of the human and pig populations, nutritional requirements of pigs and people, energy expended in various activities, and frequency of misfortune. In one sense, the Tsembaga constitute an ecological population in an ecosystem that also includes the other living organisms and nonliving substances found within the Tsembaga territory. By collating measurable data (such as average monthly rainfall, average garden yield, energy expenditure per cultivated acre, and nutritive values of common foods) with the collective decision to celebrate certain rituals, anthropologists have been able to show how Tsembaga rituals allocate energy and important materials. Studies have described how Tsembaga rituals regulate those relationships among people, their pigs, and their gardens that are critical to survival; control meat consumption; conserve marsupial fauna; redistribute land among territorial groups; and limit the frequency of warfare. These studies have important methodological and theoretical implications, for they enable cultural anthropologists to see that rituals can in fact produce measurable results in an external world.

By focusing on Tsembaga rituals as part of the interaction within an ecosystem, newer quantitative studies permit anthropologists to analyze how ritual operates as a mechanism regulating survival. In the language of sociology, regulation is a "latent function" of Tsembaga ritual, since the Tsembaga themselves see their rituals as pertaining less to their material relations with the ecosystem than to their spiritual relations with their ancestors. In the past, cultural anthropologists might have centered on the Tsembaga's own interpretations of their rituals in order to elucidate those rituals; but since tools now exist for examining the adaptive aspects of rituals, these anthropologists are in a far better position to appreciate fully the ecological sophistication of rituals, both among the Tsembaga and in other societies

1) The primary purpose of the passage is to

A) Propose that the complex functions of ritual have been best analyzed when anthropologists and ecologists have collaborated in order to study human populations as measurable units.

B) Criticize anthropologists' use of an ecological approach that ignores the symbolic, psychological, and socially cohesive effects of ritual.

C) Evaluate theories of culture that view ritual as an expression of a society's understanding of its relationship to its environment.

D) Point out the ecological sophistication of Tsembaga ritual and suggest the value of quantitative methods in assessing this sophistication.

E) Argue that the studies showing that the effects of Tsembaga ritual on the environment can be measured prove that the effects of ritual on other environments can also be measured.

2) On the basis of the information in the passage, one might expect to find all of the following in the recent anthropological studies of the Tsembaga except

A) An examination of the caloric and nutritive value of the Tsembaga diet.

B) A study of the relationship between the number of Tsembaga rituals and the number of pigs owned by the Tsembaga.

C) An analysis of the influence of Tsembaga forms of worship on the traditions of neighboring populations.

D) A catalog of the ways in which Tsembaga rituals influence planting and harvest cycles.

E) A matrix summarizing the seasonality of Tsembaga rituals and the type and function of weapons made.

3) Which of the following best expresses the author's view of ritual?

A) Rituals symbolize the relationships between cultural groups and their environ ments.

B) As a cultural phenomenon, ritual is multifaceted and performs diverse functions.

C) Rituals imbue the events of the material world with spiritual significance.

D) A society's view of its rituals yields the most useful information concerning the rituals' functions.

E) The spiritual significance of ritual is deemed greater than the material benefits of ritual

4) The author of the passage uses the term "latent function" (third paragraph) in order to suggest that

A) The ability of ritual to regulate the environment is more a matter of study for sociologists than for anthropologists.

B) Sociological terms describe ritual as precisely as anthropological terms.

C) Anthropologists and sociologists should work together to understand the symbolic or psychological

importance of rituals.

D) Anthropologists are more interested in the regulatory function of rituals of the Tsembaga than they are the psychological function of rituals.

E) The Tsembaga are primarily interested in the spiritual values that are embodied in their rituals.

PASSAGE 2

Supernovas are among the most energetic events in the universe and result in the complete disruption of stars at the end of their lives. Originally, the distinction between Type I and Type II supernovas was based solely on the presence or absence of hydrogen atoms (hydrogen lines). Supernovas without hydrogen lines were called Type I, while those with hydrogen lines were Type II. Subsequent analysis of many of these events revealed that this empirical classification schema instead reflected two different mechanisms for the supernova explosion.

Type I supernovas happen in binary stars — two stars that orbit closely each other — when one of the two binary stars is a small, dense, white dwarf star. If the companion star ranges too close to the white dwarf that it is orbiting, the white dwarf's gravitational pull will draw matter from the other star. When the white dwarf acquires enough matter to become at least 1.4 times as big as the Sun, it collapses and explodes in a supernova.

Type II supernovas occur when a star, much more massive than the Sun, ends its life. When such a star begins burning out, the core of the star quickly collapses releasing amazing energy in the form of neutrinos, a kind of particle smaller than even an atom. Electromagnetic radiation — energy that is electric and magnetic — causes the star to explode in a supernova. Whereas Type I supernovas typically destroy their parent stars, Type II explosions usually leave behind the stellar core.

The classification schema regarding the mechanism for supernova explosions helps to more succinctly answer the question: Is the Sun in danger of becoming a supernova? Neither does our Sun have a companion star orbiting it nor does our Sun have the mass necessary to become a supernova. Furthermore, it will be another billion years until the Sun runs out of fuel and swells into a red giant star before going into a white dwarf form.

1) How is this passage organized?

A) A single phenomenon is introduced and two overlapping classification schemas are contrasted.

B) An original theory is mentioned before being overturned as a result of new findings.

C) Two complementary mechanisms for describing a single phenomenon are discussed and a conclusion is offered.

D) A new classification schema is described and an example of how it works is provided.

E) Two different classification systems are outlined and a question posed to help reconcile both.

2) Which of the following best summarizes the author's answer to the question: Is the Sun in danger of becoming a supernova?

A) The Sun is too large to have a white dwarf as a partner and lacks the physical size required to become a red giant.

B) Even if the Sun were paired with a white dwarf, the Sun does not have the mass necessary to create sufficient electromagnetic radiation.

C) The Sun is not a white dwarf with a companion star orbiting it, nor does it have the size to qualify as a Type II supernova.

D) Without a white dwarf orbiting the Sun, the Sun has no obvious way to increase its size to become a Type II supernova.

E) The Sun will inevitably become a supernova once it passes from a red giant to white dwarf but not for at least a billion years.

3) It can be inferred from the passage that

A) Classifying a Type I or Type II event based on the presence or absence of hydrogen is not necessarily incompatible with a classification schema based on the mechanism by which these two events explode.

B) A dense white dwarf's gravitational pull on its companion star causes the companion star to collapse and explode as a supernova.

C) Before a star such as the Sun can become a red giant, it must first become a white dwarf.

D) In a Type II supernova, energy and electromagnetic radiation causes a star to collapse and explode.

E) Supernovas are rare events in our universe.

4) According to the passage, which statement or statements below are true?

I. The energy created from a Type II explosion is greater than the energy created by a Type I explosion.

II. The sun is not a binary star.

III. Both Type I and Type II supernovas result in the complete destruction of the exploding star.

A) I only

B) II only

C) I and III only

D) II and III only

E) I, II, and III