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In a 2017 article, historian Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin explains that in early modern London, members of the city’s guilds (trade and artisanal associations) were participants in a civic culture in which gift giving both signaled and conferred social status. Research on this phenomenon has tended to focus on philanthropic gifting by London’s largest guilds; for her part, Kilburn-Toppin focuses on the gifting of handmade objects and fixtures (such as decorative paneling or plasterwork) within the craft guilds, which were “composed of highly discerning producers and consumers of material cultures.” Given this characterization, it can reasonably be inferred that the gifting of such objects may have blank
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Explanation
Choice C is the best answer because it logically completes the text’s discussion of the role of gift giving among members of guilds in early modern London. According to the text, members of these guilds participated in a culture where giving gifts "both signaled and conferred social status"—that is, it indicated people’s social standing and also gave them social standing—and occurred in the forms of both philanthropic gifting (donations for humanitarian purposes) by large guilds, which much research has focused on, and the gifting of handmade items between craft guild members, which Kilburn-Toppin focuses on. The text indicates that Kilburn-Toppin characterizes craft guild members as people who made and consumed items and were "highly discerning," or were careful judges of quality. Because gift giving benefited one’s status and if craft guild members were particularly attentive to quality, it follows that gifting handmade items within the guilds—between people who had high standards for items they made and for items they received—may have been a way for members to maintain and enhance their professional reputations, or their professional statuses, among their peers.
Choice A is incorrect because the text emphasizes the idea that members of guilds participated in gift giving both to display and receive social status, suggesting that the gifting of handmade items between the "highly discerning" members of craft guilds had to do with the members’ interest in quality and status; nothing in the text suggests that the practice of gifting those items within the craft guilds was intended to limit knowledge of materials and techniques to the members of those guilds. Choice B is incorrect because the text doesn’t distinguish between "ostentatious," or very showy, and "prosaic," or ordinary, gifts and because the characterization at the end of the text pertains specifically to the gifting of handmade items indicative of great taste, not prosaic items, between members of craft guilds. And while the text indicates that London’s largest guilds gave philanthropic gifts (donations for humanitarian purposes), it doesn’t indicate whether these gifts would have been considered ostentatious. Choice D is incorrect because the characterization presented at the end of the text pertains specifically to the "highly discerning" members of craft guilds giving their handmade items as gifts to one another within the craft guilds; the text doesn’t suggest anything about gifting those items to members of London’s largest guilds or how that might affect status differently from giving them to other craft guild members.