Karl Polanyi and other historians of capitalism rarely discuss domestic capitalism in Africa before the period of European colonization, implicitly presenting capitalism as external to and imposed on Africa. Mariana Candido and other Africanist scholars have shown, however, that in parts of Africa, centrally administered industrial production, the legal treatment of land as private property, and other features of capitalism predated colonization. One reason for this discrepancy is that historians of capitalism tend to focus on longitudinal economic data drawn from archival records, which do not exist for much of precolonial Africa.
Which choice best describes the main purpose of the text?
Explanation
Context: The passage notes that historians of capitalism rarely discuss precolonial capitalism in Africa, implicitly treating capitalism as an external imposition. Africanist scholars show this is wrong—capitalism predated colonization in parts of Africa. The explanation: historians rely on archival records, which don't exist for much of precolonial Africa.
Answer: B) To present and account for a potentially misleading characteristic of the work of historians of capitalism
Why? The passage identifies a misleading characteristic (ignoring precolonial African capitalism) and then explains why it happens (lack of archival records). Both the flaw and its explanation are the passage's purpose.
Traps:
- A) To explain why historians and Africanist scholars disagree about which activities are features of capitalism → both groups agree on what capitalism is; the disagreement is about its presence in precolonial Africa, not about the definition
- C) To describe and evaluate a method used by Africanist scholars → the Africanist scholars' methods aren't evaluated; only the historians of capitalism's reliance on archival records is explained
- D) To summarize a debate about how to interpret longitudinal economic data → the disagreement isn't about how to interpret data, but about whether to use it at all