Humanities Passages

The author refers to l'homme (

line 8

(““l'homme””)

) in order to

• 
  express a similarity between institutions

• characterize a school of historical scholarship

• contrast two political systems

• refer to an authoritative source

• question an approach's validity

Which one of the following titles best summarizes the content of the passage?

• "Marc Bloch's Methodology in the Historical Reconstruction of French Agriculture"

• "The Concept of mentalité in the Scholarship of the Annales School"

• "Lordship as the Distinctive Element in Marc Bloch's Analysis of Feudal Society"

• "Marc Bloch's Contributions to the Annales School"

• "Ritual Kingship and mentalité in the Writings of Marc Bloch

According to the passage, Bloch's research on "the king's touch" is primarily concerned with the

• causes and cure of scrofula

• origins of lordship

• bond between monarchs and vassals

• institution of ritual kingship

• feudal nobility's forms of religious devotion

Which one of the following best illustrates the influence of what Bloch, according to the passage, regarded as the central institution of feudalism (lines 43–44(“Bloch showed how the centrality of the institution of lordship,”))?

• peasant customs that required the setting aside of certain communally held lands for the grazing of livestock

• ceremonies in which a vassal pledged military service to a monarch

• medieval documents confirming that some vassals were in fact independent of local lords

• reports that monarchs as late as the eighteenth century cured scrofula by touching the afflicted

• ecclesiastical documents of the Middle Ages chronicling the history of Christianity

Which one of the following statements would represent the most logical continuation of the passage?

• The work of many contemporary social historians owes much to Bloch and the Annales school.

• The legacy of positivism went back at least to the naive attempt of nineteenth-century scholars to apply the methods of natural science to historical study.

• The Royal Touch was important in shaping the way a generation of historians grasped the notion of mentalité, but the book has only antiquarian interest today.

• The Annales scholars showed little interest in the mentalité or agricultural practices of medieval peasants.

• Bloch's treatment of the intricate political maneuvers of Louis IX stands out as the crowning achievement of his scholarly career.

According to the passage, in their historical approach the Annales scholars

• emphasized the need to abstain from sweeping generalizations about past societies

• stressed the primacy of economic forces in determining the nature of a culture

• relied primarily on evidence from archival sources

• emulated the successes of their positivist predecessors

• explored aspects of a bygone culture that its contemporaries might have taken for granted

Bloch's scholarship is described in the passage as touching on all of the following EXCEPT:

• social structure

• agricultural patterns

• political conflicts

• healing powers

• ties of loyalty

The author of the passage would be most likely to characterize Bloch's scholarly work as

• unique in its approach to material culture

• innovative in its time and still of major importance

• a refinement of the historical approach advocated by positivists

• less relevant to the study of economic history than to the study of political history

• less convincing in its interpretation of ritual kingship than in its account of ties of dependency