Reading comp PrepTest 104 · Section 3 · Question 9

Topic: Social Science

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • European thinkers generally think of personal names as lacking semantic content, while other societies, like the Hopi, assemble personal names as miniature poetic compositions.
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • European perspectives on personal names lack semantic content (first sentence)
    • Two major perspectives on personal names:
      • John Stuart Mill: distinguish individuals from one another (second sentence)
      • Claude Levi-Strauss: classify people socially (second sentence)
    • Interpretation and understanding of personal names in societies that imbue them with more significance than Europeans has been lacking (third sentence)
      • Hopi: names refer to historical or ritual events (fourth sentence)
        • Names not only confer identity and place people in society, but they are poetic compositions (fourth-fifth sentences)
      • Author’s attitude: “both of which deny” (first sentence); “instruments of social classification” (second sentence); “neglected” (third sentence); “confer an identity” (fourth sentence); “type of poetic composition” (fifth sentence)

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • Hopi names have meaning because they reflect the ritual initiations the person has gone through.
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Hopis receive several names during ritual initiations (first sentence)
    • Occasions are birth, childhood, and puberty (second sentence)
    • Names are conferred by adult of another clan (third sentence), and can combine a person’s characteristics with the animal of the name-giver’s clan (third sentence)
  • Author’s attitude: “sometimes combining characteristics” (third sentence); “name might translate” (fourth sentence); “reflects” (fourth sentence)

Paragraph 3

• Paragraph note
  • However, Hopi names are usually more complex and poetic, reflecting events and rituals that are not discernible in the literal translation of the name.
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • More often, names refer to events or rituals (first sentence)
    • A Lizard clan member is named “beautifully ascended” by a member of the Badger clan because the Badger clan performs a ceremony evoking the ascension of spirits (second-fifth sentences)
  • Hopi personal names evoke a condensed image, which, similar to Western Apache place names, can be seen as poems (sixth sentence)
  • Author’s attitude: “not apparent” (first sentence); “tells nothing” (third sentence); “splendid colors and movements” (sixth sentence); “condensed image” (seventh sentence); “tiny imagist poems” (seventh sentence)

Paragraph 4

• Paragraph note
  • Hopi personal names indicate social positions and individual identity, but they are also aesthetic compositions that produce delight.
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Hopi names do several things at the same time (first sentence)
    • Confer identity and indirectly indicate social relationships (second sentence)
    • Are poetic texts as well with aesthetic beauty (third sentence)
  • Hopi names debunk Mill’s contention that names don’t have meaning and Levi-Strauss’s contention that names only indicate social standing (fourth sentence)
  • Author’s attitude: “do several things simultaneously” (first sentence); “equally important” (second sentence); “poetic quality” (second sentence); “aesthetic delight: (second sentence); “opposed” (third sentence); “beauty and significance” (fourth sentence)

Main Point: Typical European views that personal names lack meaning except to confer identity and indicate social position are inadequate to describe the functions of names in cultures like that of the Hopi, where personal names refer to events in a poetically evocative and semantically significant way. 

Paragraph 1, Sentence 2 (P1 S2) - European views of personal names (Mill and Levi-Strauss)

P1 S3 - Author’s criticism of both European views

P1 S5 - Hopi names do not conform to either European view

P3 S7 - Hopi names, like Western Apache place names, are miniature poems

P4 S3 - Hopi names subvert Mill’s view and Levi-Strauss’s view

Criticizing a Viewpoint: This passage uses a Criticizing a Viewpoint Meta-Structure. The author begins by laying out the two viewpoints they intend to criticize: John Stuart Mill’s contention that personal names lack meaning except to individuate persons and Claude Levi-Strauss’s contention that personal names simply indicate social status. Both views, the author says, deny that personal names have any semantic content or significance. The author then goes on to discuss the functions performed by Hopi personal names, which they say defy both Mill’s and Levi-Strauss’s views. Hopi names, according to the author, have semantic content in that they recall important rituals and events, indicate personal characteristics, indirectly indicate social relationships, and function as miniature evocative poems. All of these characteristics prove, the author contends, that the popular European views that personal names have no semantic significance is wrong.

The minor Meta-Structure evident in this passage is Comparison. It is by comparison to the popular European views of Mill and Levi-Strauss that the author defines the functions performed by Hopi personal names. And it is the European views that the author compares, to their disadvantage, with Hopi views on the formulation and poetic potential of personal names.

The author’s viewpoint is prominent throughout this passage. It is the author making the argument against the European views of personal names and for the Native American views; they don’t speak through “critics” or other people. The clarity afforded by this approach is helpful in tracing the various arguments being made throughout the passage.

This passage wears its heart on its sleeve. Two viewpoints are put forward, evidence is presented that disproves those views, and a conclusion is drawn based on the evidence. The focus in this passage is not on coming up with a comprehensive definition of personal names or a list of all the functions they can perform, but on indicating that the European views presented at the beginning of the passage are inadequate to cover the functions of personal names in all cultures.