Argument essay - Can someone please grade my essay?

[MateusFLima]

The ancient Oppo tribe has long been thought to have hunted only with wooden spears because none of their cave paintings depict bows or arrows. Recently, however, flint arrowheads have been found among fossilized bones of ibex, animals thought to be a staple of the Oppo tribe's diet. Since these finds were made on land previously inhabited by the Oppo tribe, it follows that the Oppo used both spears and arrows to hunt.

 

The argument that the Oppo tribe used both spears and arrows to hunt is not entirely logically convincing, since it ignores certain crucial assumptions.

 

Firstly, the argument assumes that flint arrowheads have been found among fossilized bones of ibex, an animal typical of Oppo´s diet. While this premisse may seem valid to support the conclusion that Oppo tribe actualy used arrows to hunt, the author ignores the fact that other tribes could also have the ibex as main part of their diet. Therefore, since the author did not establish that ibex were solely hunted by Oppo´s people, there is a possibility that other tribes could also have hunted this animal and used other weapons to hunt, such as bow and arrows.

 

Secondly, the autor of this argument states that these findings were made on land previously inhabited by Oppo tribe. However, similarly to the flaw discussed above, the author did not reject the hypothesis that other tribes could also have lived in the same area after Oppo tribe, or even before. Therefore, it is possible to presume the arrows found in the bones of ibex are from other tribe. Moreover, nothing is said about Oppo people living solely on this land. Because of this, it is also possible to assume that other people could have lived there concomittantly to Oppo’s people.

 

Lastly, the author rejects previous evidence about the paintings depicted in ancient caves. Since it is known that ancient people would only paint things that were part of their routine, neglecting that they used only wooden spears because they had no knowledge of any other weapon would be a flaw. Through this line of reasoning, it would be expected to find cave paintings containing arrows and other weapons, but the argument says there is none. Therefore, we have no evidence that arrows and bows were weapons actualy used by the Oppo tribe.

 

In conclusion, the argument is not completely sound. The evidence provided by the author is not sufficient to support the conclusion of the argument because if overlooks some important points.

 

Ultimately, the argument might have been strenghtened if the author had consider the possibility that other tribes could also had ibex as part of their diet; if other people could also have lived on the same land that Oppo tribe did and, finally, if he had consider the fact that weapons were usually depicted in the paintings of ancient people and since there is no reference to bows and arrows there is no ways to guarantee that these weapons were indeed used by the Oppo tribe.