GRE Argument Essay (humble request for grading)

[johnny1921]

The Argument:

 

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 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.

 

My Writing:

 

Several groundless assumptions are made in the  argument : the assumption that the Oppo's tribe paint their hunting weapons on their caves,  and that weapons found on a land that is once inhabited by the Oppo tribe belongs to them.  These questionable claims are discussed and reasoning is provided to explain why they are dubious and that there are many other possibilities that can be surmised from the evidence provided.

 

Little information is given regarding the cave painting, rendering its depiction unwarranted, for it is possible that the Oppo tribe neglected their hunting experiences in their paintings, or portrayed all kinds of hunting weapons using  a global label that is a wooden spear. What makes cave paintings even more unreliable is the second finding that discovered that flint arrowheads are likely to be the second set of hunting weapons.

 

Finding arrowheads near an animal that is part of the tribe's diet can by no means discern that it is their choice of weaponry. There could have been other tribes in the area who shared similar diet preferences. If the Oppo was ever at war,  their major food source, the ibex, might have been hunted by their adversaries, who used arrowheads, for the purpose of starving the tribe.  As these are possible counterexamples of the given claim, we can have it safely rebuked.

 

 

Overall, the correlations conjectured are not well-established, the justifications are weak enough to make the claims fallacious. Although, the authors made a remarkable attempt at analyzing the Oppo tribe, it is indeed elusive to discern their lifestyle from archaeological discoveries, as they are subject to many interpretations. Unless a solid evidence as excavating an Oppo member with an arrowhead in his hand is ascertained,  establishing a connection between the Oppo tribe and the arrowheads would be implausible.

Edited August 12, 2013 by johnny1921