sat suite question viewer
Scholars are increasingly exploring the communication and preservation of ecological knowledge through Indigenous songs (e.g., Sakha songs about local ecosystems and those of the Kaluli people about rainforest sounds). In one study, ethnobiologist Dana Lepofsky et al. received insight from Kwaxsistalla Wathl’thla, a song keeper for the Kwakwaka’wakw people in Canada, into songs referencing the people’s use of terraced gardens in intertidal zones along the Pacific Northwest coast for the cultivation of clams for consumption. Archaeological evidence of significant increases in clam size and abundance in that area concurrent with the documented past implementation of the method described in the songs supports the conclusion that blank
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Explanation
Choice A is the best answer because it most logically completes the text’s discussion of the use of songs by the Kwakwaka’wakw people to record and communicate ecological knowledge. The text indicates that some songs of the Kwakwaka’wakw people of Canada’s Pacific Northwest region document how the people used terraced gardens in intertidal zones to cultivate clams for food. The text also explains that archaeological evidence shows increases in "clam size and abundance" that occurred along with the implementation of this cultivation method, suggesting the method’s efficacy in not just supporting clam yields but also improving them. It follows, then, that the use of intertidal terraced gardens, as described in the songs, allowed the ancestors of modern Kwakwaka’wakw people to maintain clams as a food source and to cultivate larger and more numerous clams.
Choice B is incorrect because the text doesn’t mention anything about cultivation practices among non-Indigenous people in the Pacific Northwest coastal region. Though the text conveys that archaeological evidence suggests that the clam cultivation practice mentioned in Kwakwaka’wakw people’s songs was efficacious when implemented, it gives no indication that people other than the Kwakwaka’wakw adopted that practice. Choice C is incorrect because the text provides no information about the archaeological record as it pertains to Sakha and Kaluli songs and doesn’t suggest that there is less corroboration of practices described in those songs than there is of the clam cultivation practice described in Kwakwaka’wakw songs. The Sakha and Kaluli songs are mentioned early in the text only as examples of Indigenous songs that contain ecological knowledge. Choice D is incorrect because archaeological evidence that clam size and abundance both increased when Kwakwaka’wakw ancestors implemented intertidal terraced gardens provides information only about the past use of that method and doesn’t suggest anything about present practices. The text indicates that knowledge of a past clam cultivation method is maintained in Kwakwaka’wakw songs but doesn’t indicate whether modern Kwakwaka’wakw people use that or other fishing and farming practices used by their ancestors.