The question asks us what is the primary concern/ purpose of the author. Even though the author does discuss several approaches to the study of women's medical practice in medieval Europe, he introduces these alternative approaches to demonstrate inadequacies of the prevailing method.
Throughout the passage, he reiterates his criticism of the current practice:
-"This common practice obscures the fact....."("line 8) -"Scholars must reopen the whole question..." (line 23) -"Nonetheless, the parameters researchers choose ..may contribute to the problem."(lines 36-38) -"...[s]uch studies provide only statistical information.."(line 57)
This structure of the argument suggests that while answer choice (A) is technically true, the author merely uses the new approaches as evidence for his argument that changes in method are necessary (D).
Does this make sense? Let me know if you have any other questions.
