UPSC Mains 2014 Anthropology Optional Question Papers with Model Answers

All 56 questions of the 2014 Civil Services Main Examination, Anthropology Paper I and Anthropology Paper II, with marks and a suggested time per part. Solve each part on paper first, then open the model answer, or send it to answer-writing practice for evaluation.

UPSC Mains 2014 Anthropology Paper I

Question 1 (50 marks)

Q1(a) · Kinship · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Consanguinity, Affinity and Principles of Descent
Double Descent
हिंदी में प्रश्न
द्वैध वंशानुक्रम (डबल डिसेंट)
Practise this question Kinship notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(a)
Approach: Define double descent, explain how rights are divided between the two lines with the Yakö and other cases, and distinguish it from bilateral and ambilineal descent.
Double descent is the recognition of both patrilineal and matrilineal descent groups, a person belonging to the father's patrilineage and the mother's matrilineage, with each line governing different rights.
The classic case is the Yakö of Nigeria described by Daryll Forde (1950): patriclans hold and allocate farmland and house sites, while matriclans control movable wealth and have ritual and funeral roles, so a man inherits land from his father's line and movable goods through his mother's.
Among the Ashanti, a person receives blood and lineage membership from the mother (abusua) and a spiritual element (ntoro) from the father; Rivers recorded patrilineal clans and matrilineal groups among the Toda.
Double descent differs from bilateral descent, which forms ego-centred kindreds rather than groups, and from ambilineal descent, where a person joins either parent's group but only one.
It is rare, but it shows that descent is a way of allocating rights and that unilineal principles can be combined to suit economy and ritual.
Q1(b) · Culture, Communication and Research Methods · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Tools of Data Collection and Analysis
Genealogical Method
हिंदी में प्रश्न
वंशावली विधि (जिनिओलोजिकल मैथड)
Practise this question Culture, Communication and Research Methods notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(b)
Approach: Define the genealogical method with Rivers, explain the procedure, its uses in social and physical anthropology with examples, and limitations.
The genealogical method was developed by W.H.R. Rivers on the Cambridge Torres Strait expedition (1898) and set out in his paper “The Genealogical Method of Anthropological Inquiry” (1910). It collects the complete family trees of informants as a framework for studying social organisation.
Procedure: starting from an informant (ego), the researcher records parents, siblings, spouses and children over several generations, noting each person’s name, sex, kin term used by ego, marriage, residence, clan, status and cause of death, and cross-checks with other informants.
Uses: it reveals kinship terminology, rules of marriage such as exogamy, cross-cousin marriage and polyandry (Rivers’s The Todas, 1906), descent, succession and inheritance, migration and demographic data such as fertility and mortality; in physical anthropology it supports pedigree and consanguinity studies.
Limitations: memory fails beyond three or four generations, names may be taboo, fictive kin and adoption complicate records, and genealogies can be manipulated to claim status. Even so, it remains a basic field tool.
Q1(c) · Foundations of Anthropology · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Main Branches of Anthropology
Major sub-divisions of Anthropology
हिंदी में प्रश्न
नृविज्ञान के प्रमुख उप-प्रभाग
Practise this question Foundations of Anthropology notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(c)
Approach: A short note: name the four major sub-divisions (Boas's four fields) with their concerns and main sub-fields, add applied anthropology, and close on their interrelation.
Anthropology, the holistic study of humankind, is conventionally divided into four fields, following Franz Boas.
Social-cultural anthropology: studies society and culture, including kinship, economy, polity and religion, through fieldwork; examples are Malinowski's Trobriand studies and S.C. Roy's work on the Mundas.
Biological anthropology: studies human evolution, fossil hominids, primates, human genetics, growth, variation and adaptation; sub-fields include palaeoanthropology, primatology, human genetics and forensic anthropology.
Archaeological anthropology: reconstructs past cultures from material remains; it includes prehistoric archaeology and ethnoarchaeology, as at Bhimbetka and Mehrgarh. Linguistic anthropology: studies language in its cultural setting, through descriptive, historical and sociolinguistics, and the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis.
Applied anthropology uses all four for health, development, tribal welfare and forensic work, such as sickle-cell screening and disaster victim identification. The divisions overlap, and their combination gives anthropology its holistic character.
Q1(d) · Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Ecological Anthropology and Bio-cultural Adaptation
Ecological Anthropology
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पारिस्थितिक (इकोलोजिकल) नृविज्ञान
Practise this question Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(d)
Approach: Define ecological anthropology, trace its main approaches (cultural ecology, neo-functionalist ecosystem studies, political and historical ecology), give classic and Indian examples, and note its present relevance.
Ecological anthropology studies the relationships between human populations and their environments: how culture mediates adaptation to the environment, and how people transform it.
Approaches: (i) Julian Steward’s cultural ecology (1955) linked a culture core of subsistence traits to environment, as among the Shoshone; (ii) neo-functionalist ecosystem studies, above all Roy Rappaport’s Pigs for the Ancestors (1968), showed that the kaiko ritual cycle of the Tsembaga Maring of New Guinea regulated pig numbers, warfare and land use; Marvin Harris explained India’s sacred cattle ecologically; (iii) political ecology and historical ecology examine how markets, states and history shape resource use and conflict.
Indian examples: shifting cultivation (jhum) cycles in the north-east, sacred groves such as Meghalaya’s law kyntang, the Bishnoi protection of khejri trees and blackbuck, and the Dongria Kondh defence of Niyamgiri.
Today it informs climate change, conservation and indigenous rights debates.
Q1(e) · Culture, Communication and Research Methods · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Fieldwork Tradition, Technique, Method and Methodology
Field work tradition in Anthropology
हिंदी में प्रश्न
नृविज्ञान में क्षेत्र कार्य (फील्ड वर्क) परंपरा
Practise this question Culture, Communication and Research Methods notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(e)
Approach: A short note: define fieldwork, give its landmarks (Rivers, Boas, Malinowski, Indian pioneers), its core features and present trends.
The fieldwork tradition refers to anthropology’s practice of collecting data first-hand by living among the people studied, which distinguishes it from armchair speculation and from survey-based social sciences.
Landmarks: the Torres Strait expedition (1898) and Rivers’s genealogical method; Boas’s long-term work among the Kwakiutl; and Malinowski’s Trobriand fieldwork (1915–1918), which established participant observation, learning the language and grasping the native’s point of view. In India, S.C. Roy among the Mundas and Oraons, Verrier Elwin among the Baiga and Haimendorf among the Chenchus and Nagas built the tradition, followed by village studies of Srinivas and Dube.
Core features: residence of a year or more, holism, rapport, key informants, genealogies, case studies and detailed field notes.
Present trends: reflexivity, ethics, collaboration with communities, multi-sited and digital ethnography and mixed methods. Fieldwork remains the hallmark of the discipline.

Question 2 (50 marks)

Q2(a) · Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Applications of Anthropology
Critically examine the role of anthropology in Contemporary India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
समकालीन भारत में नृविज्ञान की भूमिका का समालोचनात्मक परीक्षण कीजिए ।
Practise this question Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(a)
Approach: Critically examine: show anthropology's contributions to contemporary India (tribal policy, development, health, law, forensics, design, heritage), then its limitations, ending with a balanced judgement.
Anthropology, the holistic study of humans, has been part of Indian governance since colonial ethnography; after independence the Anthropological Survey of India (1945) and state Tribal Research Institutes made it an applied discipline.
Contributions: Verrier Elwin's ideas shaped Nehru's tribal Panchsheel; anthropological research informed the Fifth and Sixth Schedules, PESA 1996, the Forest Rights Act 2006 and the Xaxa Committee report (2014); K.S. Singh's People of India project (1985) documented 4,635 communities; social impact assessment under the land acquisition law of 2013 uses ethnographic methods.
Applied physical anthropology serves health (sickle-cell screening, nutrition surveys), forensic identification, design of equipment and sports; medical and development anthropology explain resistance to programmes, as Mamdani's study of family planning showed; anthropologists also contribute to disaster rehabilitation, heritage and corporate research.
Limitations: a colonial legacy of classifying 'races' and 'criminal tribes'; recommendations often ignored, as displacement by dams and mines continued; few anthropologists in policy posts; limited applied training; and ethical tension when studies serve the state rather than the people studied.
Anthropology thus remains relevant to inclusive development, but its role would grow through participatory research, recruitment in policy bodies and closer links with communities.
Q2(b) · Culture and Society · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Concept and Characteristics of Culture and Civilization
Is culture unique to human beings? Critically examine.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
क्या संस्कृति मानवजाति के लिए अनन्य है ? समालोचनात्मक परीक्षण कीजिए ।
Practise this question Culture and Society notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(b)
Approach: "Critically examine" needs both sides: evidence of traditions among primates and other animals, then what makes human culture distinct (symbols, language, cumulative change), and a qualified conclusion.
If culture is defined broadly as behaviour learned socially and shared within a group, some animals have it; if it is defined, with Tylor and Leslie White, as a symbolic, cumulative complex whole, it is distinctively human.
Evidence for animal culture: Jane Goodall (from 1960, Gombe) recorded chimpanzees making and using termite-fishing probes; Japanese macaques on Koshima began washing sweet potatoes in 1953, starting with a young female, Imo, and the habit spread through the troop; Whiten and colleagues (1999) listed 39 behaviours varying across chimpanzee communities, such as nut-cracking with stones in West Africa; similar traditions are reported among orangutans, whales and songbirds.
What is unique to humans: Leslie White argued that only humans give arbitrary meanings to things (symbolling), as in holy water; human language is open and productive; human culture accumulates improvements across generations, a ratchet effect (Michael Tomasello), building on earlier inventions, while animal traditions remain simple and are re-invented.
Institutions and norms: only humans create kinship systems, laws, religion and art that are taught deliberately and enforced by sanctions.
Hence culture in a rudimentary sense, or proto-culture, exists in some animals, but culture as a symbolic, cumulative and normative system is unique to human beings.
Q2(c) · Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Epidemiological Anthropology
Discuss the role of anthropology in the understanding of health and disease. What specific understanding is available with respect to infectious and non-infectious diseases?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
स्वास्थ्य और रोग को समझने में नृविज्ञान की भूमिका पर चर्चा कीजिए । संक्रामक और असंक्रामक रोगों के संबंध में क्या विशिष्ट समझ उपलब्ध है ?
Practise this question Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(c)
Approach: Two parts: the general role of anthropology in understanding health and disease (holistic, bio-cultural, emic, applied), then the specific insights it offers for infectious and for non-infectious diseases, with examples.
Anthropology brings a holistic, bio-cultural view to health: disease arises from the interaction of biology, environment, culture and social structure, and healing is a cultural process.
General role: (i) medical anthropology studies beliefs and practices of healing, such as Kleinman’s explanatory models and Foster and Anderson’s personalistic and naturalistic systems; (ii) biological anthropology studies genetic susceptibility, growth, nutrition and adaptation; (iii) ethnography reveals the emic view of patients and healers, the role of traditional healers (gunia, bhagat, vaidya) and barriers to care; (iv) applied anthropology helps design culturally acceptable health programmes and evaluates them.
Infectious diseases: anthropology shows how behaviour and ecology spread pathogens. Kuru among the Fore was linked to mortuary cannibalism (Lindenbaum); yam farming spread malaria and the sickle-cell gene (Livingstone); Ebola spread through funeral practices in 2014; sexual networks and stigma shape HIV; displacement and malnutrition worsen malaria and tuberculosis in tribal India; and indigenous peoples suffer virgin-soil epidemics, as the Great Andamanese did.
Non-infectious diseases: evolutionary mismatch (Neel’s thrifty genotype, Barker’s foetal origins) explains rising diabetes among the Pima and South Asians; migration studies (Tokelau) link modernisation to hypertension; culture shapes diet, tobacco and betel use behind oral cancer; endogamy and consanguinity explain clusters of genetic disorders such as thalassaemia and sickle-cell disease; and culture-bound syndromes illuminate mental illness.
Anthropology thus explains why disease is unequally distributed and how interventions can respect local culture, complementing biomedicine.

Question 3 (50 marks)

Q3(a) · Political Organisation and Social Control · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Social Control, Law and Justice in Simple Societies
Discuss the nature of Law and Justice in simple societies citing suitable examples.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सरल समाजों में विधि और न्याय की प्रकृति पर, उपयुक्त उदाहरण पेश करते हुए, चर्चा कीजिए ।
Practise this question Political Organisation and Social Control notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(a)
Approach: Discuss the nature of law and justice in simple societies: begin with the definitional debate, then bring out their features (unwritten, embedded, collective, restorative, supernatural) with named examples, and end with a critique and legal pluralism.
Whether simple societies have law depends on definition. Radcliffe-Brown, following Roscoe Pound, defined law as social control through the systematic application of the force of politically organised society, so some stateless peoples lacked law. Malinowski (1926) found law in the binding reciprocal obligations of Trobriand life, and E. Adamson Hoebel (The Law of Primitive Man, 1954) took a middle path: a norm is legal if its breach is regularly met by physical force applied by a socially recognised party.
Unwritten and embedded: law lives in custom and memory and is tied to kinship and religion; Llewellyn and Hoebel (The Cheyenne Way, 1941) used actual trouble cases to reveal it.
Collective responsibility: the kin group of the offender pays and the victim's group receives, as in Nuer cattle compensation arranged by the leopard-skin chief.
Restorative justice: because parties live together in many-stranded relations, settlement aims at reconciliation; Gluckman (1955) showed Barotse judges using the reasonable man standard, and the Inuit song duel ended quarrels without violence.
Mediation rather than adjudication: the Ifugao monkalun carried offers between parties, and Indian tribal councils, such as those of the Santal, Apatani and Khasi, settle disputes by fines and feasts.
Supernatural justice: oaths, ordeals and oracles such as the Azande benge decide guilt, and belief that ancestors punish wrongdoers supports human justice.
Critique: justice in simple societies is not always egalitarian; elders and men dominate councils, women are often excluded from land, and witchcraft accusations target the weak.
Law and justice in simple societies are therefore real but differently organised, and today they function within legal pluralism, recognised by the Sixth Schedule, Article 371A and PESA (1996).
Q3(b) · Marriage · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Types and Functions of Marriage
Define marriage and describe the various types of marriages in human societies.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
विवाह की परिभाषा कीजिए और मानव समाजों में विवाह के विभिन्न प्रकारों का वर्णन कीजिए ।
Practise this question Marriage notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(b)
Approach: Give two or three standard definitions, then classify marriage by number of spouses, choice of partner and mode of acquisition with Indian and world examples, and draw the kinship symbols for polygyny and polyandry.
Westermarck (The History of Human Marriage, 1891) defined marriage as a more or less durable connection between male and female lasting beyond propagation till after the birth of offspring. Notes and Queries (1951) stressed the legitimacy of children, and Gough (1959), to fit the Nayar, stressed birth-status rights.
Monogamy, one spouse at a time, is the legal norm under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the usual form among the Khasi and Kadar; serial monogamy is common in industrial societies.
Polygyny, one man with several wives, may be sororal (Crow) or non-sororal; Naga, Gond and Baiga chiefs or rich men practised it, and Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas found it permitted in most societies coded.
Polyandry is fraternal among the Toda (Rivers, 1906) and the Khasa of Jaunsar-Bawar (D.N. Majumdar), and non-fraternal among the traditional Nayar. Group marriage, Morgan's punaluan stage, is not known as a dominant form anywhere.
By choice of partner: endogamy, exogamy, hypergamy (anuloma), hypogamy (pratiloma) and preferential unions such as cross-cousin marriage, levirate and sororate.
By mode of acquisition in tribal India: capture (Ho oportipi), purchase (Santal and Ho bride price), service (Gond lamsenia), exchange, elopement and intrusion (Santal nir bolok).
Diagram: polygyny as one triangle joined by equals signs to two circles; fraternal polyandry as one circle joined to three triangles linked above by a sibling line.
The variety shows that marriage forms follow economy, ecology and descent rules rather than one evolutionary sequence.
Q3(c) · Culture and Society · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Society, Social Institutions, Groups and Stratification
Define Status and Role. Distinguish between Ascribed and Achieved Status.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्रस्थिति (स्टेटस) और भूमिका (रोल) की परिभाषा कीजिए । प्रदत्त प्रस्थिति (एस्क्राइब्ड स्टेटस) और साधित प्रस्थिति (ऐचीव्ड स्टेटस) के बीच विभेदन कीजिए ।
Practise this question Culture and Society notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(c)
Approach: Two parts: define status and role with Linton (and role set, role conflict), then distinguish ascribed and achieved status with Indian tribal and world examples, ideally in a short comparison.
Ralph Linton, in The Study of Man (1936), defined a status as a position in a social system carrying a collection of rights and duties, and a role as the dynamic aspect of status, the behaviour expected of its occupant; one occupies a status and performs a role.
Related ideas: Robert Merton (1957) noted that each status has a role set, such as a teacher's relations with students, colleagues and parents; role conflict arises between roles of different statuses, and William Goode (1960) called the difficulty of meeting role demands role strain.
Ascribed status: assigned at birth or by unchosen traits such as sex, age, kinship and caste; examples are caste membership, the hereditary Konyak Naga chief (Ang) and the Khasi youngest daughter (khadduh) who inherits ancestral property.
Achieved status: gained through effort and choice, such as an IAS officer, a sports champion or a shaman who proves his powers; Marshall Sahlins (1963) contrasted the Melanesian big-man, who achieves influence by generosity, with the Polynesian chief, who inherits office.
Distinction: ascribed status dominates in small, closed and traditional societies, achieved status in open, modern and mobile ones; yet they mix, since a Panchayat seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes is ascribed in eligibility but achieved by election.
Status and role thus link the individual to social structure, and the balance between ascription and achievement indicates how open a society is.

Question 4 (50 marks)

Q4(a) · Religion · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion
What is functionalism? Discuss the functional approach to the understanding of Religion.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्रकार्यवाद (फ़ंक्शनलिज़्म) से क्या तात्पर्य है ? धर्म की समझ के कार्यपरक उपागम (फ़ंक्शनल ऐप्रोच) पर चर्चा कीजिए ।
Practise this question Religion notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(a)
Approach: Define functionalism (Malinowski's need-based and Radcliffe-Brown's structural versions), then discuss the functional approach to religion through Durkheim, Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown and Homans with examples, latent functions and dysfunctions, and evaluate.
Functionalism explains a social institution by the part it plays in maintaining the whole, as an organ serves a living body. Malinowski's version related institutions to individual biological and psychological needs; Radcliffe-Brown's structural functionalism related them to the maintenance of social structure. Both rejected conjectural history in favour of fieldwork in the present.
Durkheim (1912): religion unites believers into a moral community; Arunta totemic rites produce collective effervescence and renew solidarity, so religion is society worshipping itself.
Malinowski: in 'Magic, Science and Religion' (1925) he argued that religion meets individual needs at life crises, birth, initiation, marriage and above all death. Trobriand mortuary rites console the bereaved, affirm immortality and restore group life.
Radcliffe-Brown: in The Andaman Islanders (1922) he argued that ceremonies express and transmit the social sentiments on which society depends; rites create anxiety about breaking norms rather than only relieving it. George Homans (1941) reconciled the two through primary and secondary anxiety.
Other functions: religion legitimises authority, as myths serve as charters (Malinowski); it supports social control through taboo and fear of spirits; and among Indian tribes, festivals like Sarhul and Karma, with the village priest (pahan), integrate the community and organise the agricultural cycle. Merton added latent functions and dysfunctions, such as witch accusations.
Evaluation: functionalism showed why religion persists in every society, but it cannot explain the content of beliefs, tends toward circularity and conservatism, and neglects conflict and change, as Marxists and Geertz noted.
It remains the base on which later structural and symbolic approaches built.
Q4(b) · Religion · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Forms of Religion in Tribal and Peasant Societies
What is understood by 'Rites of Passage'? Describe the various phases of the 'Rites of Passage' and their significance.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
'जीवन-यात्रा संस्कारों' (राइट्स ऑफ पैसेज) से क्या तात्पर्य है ? जीवन-यात्रा संस्कारों की विभिन्न प्रावस्थाओं और उनके महत्त्व का वर्णन कीजिए ।
Practise this question Religion notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(b)
Approach: Define rites of passage (Van Gennep, 1909), describe the three phases with examples of birth, initiation, marriage and death (world and Indian), add Turner's liminality, and explain their individual and social significance; a three-phase diagram helps.
Rites of passage, a term of Arnold van Gennep (The Rites of Passage, 1909), are rituals that accompany a change of place, status, social position or age, such as birth, puberty, marriage and death.
Separation (preliminal): the person is detached from the earlier status by symbolic acts such as shaving the head, removal to a hut or a ritual bath. Among the Ndembu, boys are taken from their mothers to a circumcision camp.
Transition (liminal): the person is between statuses, often secluded, stripped of rank, treated as ritually dangerous and taught sacred knowledge; Victor Turner (1969) called this state betwixt and between and noted the communitas it creates. A menstruating girl's seclusion at first menses among many Indian tribes is an example.
Incorporation (postliminal): the person returns with the new status, marked by new dress, name, ornaments or a feast, as when a Hindu bride enters her husband's home.
Indian examples: entry into the Muria ghotul and a youth's later departure on marriage (Elwin, 1947); the Toda pursutpimi ceremony that establishes social fatherhood; and the Hindu samskaras from namakarana to the funeral rites.
Diagram: a line divided into separation, liminal and incorporation phases, with a marriage or initiation example written under each.
Significance: for the individual, the rites reduce anxiety and make the change of identity clear; for society, they publicly announce the new status, rights and duties, transmit values, and renew solidarity, while the liminal phase can also allow critique of the social order.
Rites of passage thus link life crises to social structure, which is why they are universal while varying in form.
Q4(c) · Political Organisation and Social Control · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Band, Tribe, Chiefdom, Kingdom and State
Differentiate between State and Stateless Societies.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
राज्य और राज्यविहीन समाजों के बीच विभेदन कीजिए ।
Practise this question Political Organisation and Social Control notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(c)
Approach: Differentiate using Fortes and Evans-Pritchard's Group A and Group B, comparing the two on authority, basis of organisation, force and order, with African and Indian examples.
Meyer Fortes and E.E. Evans-Pritchard (African Political Systems, 1940) divided societies into states (Group A: Zulu, Ngwato, Bemba) and stateless societies (Group B: Nuer, Tallensi, Logoli).
Authority: states have centralised authority, administrative machinery and judicial institutions; stateless societies lack a permanent ruler, and authority is diffused among elders and lineage heads.
Basis of organisation: the state is territorial and cuts across kinship, while stateless societies are organised by kinship, as in the segmentary lineages of the Nuer, which unite and divide by segmentary opposition.
Force and order: the state claims the monopoly of legitimate force (Weber) through police, army and courts; in stateless societies order rests on feud, compensation, mediation by figures such as the leopard-skin chief, and ritual sanctions.
Economy and rank: states rest on tribute, taxation and stratification; stateless societies are largely egalitarian.
In India, Santal and Naga village councils are near the stateless pole and the Gond kingdoms of Garha-Mandla near the state pole; Leach's Kachin show that societies can move between the two.

Question 5 (50 marks)

Q5(a) · Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Human Growth, Development and Ageing
Cross-sectional methods of studying human growth
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मानव संवृद्धि का अध्ययन करने की प्रतिनिध्यात्मक (क्रॉस-सैक्शनल) विधियाँ
Practise this question Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(a)
Approach: Define the cross-sectional method, describe its procedure and outputs with examples, and list merits and demerits.
The cross-sectional method studies growth by measuring different individuals of different ages once only, at about the same time, and treating the average for each age group as representing the growth of the population.
Procedure: a large, representative sample is stratified by age and sex; standard measurements (height, weight, circumferences, skinfolds) are taken; means, standard deviations and percentiles are calculated for each age and joined into distance curves and growth charts. National growth references and surveys such as NFHS and the WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study, whose cross-sectional component covered older children, use this method.
Merits: quick, economical, easily repeated, suited to large samples and to setting norms for nutritional screening.
Demerits: it gives no information on individual growth velocity or the timing of puberty; averaging across early and late maturers flattens the adolescent spurt; and differences between age groups may reflect sampling or secular change rather than growth.
Q5(b) · Human Genetics: Methods, Inheritance and Chromosomes · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Chromosomes and Chromosomal Aberrations
Genetic Counselling
हिंदी में प्रश्न
आनुवंशिक उपबोधन (जेनेटिक काउन्सिलिंग)
Practise this question Human Genetics: Methods, Inheritance and Chromosomes notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(b)
Approach: Define genetic counselling, give its aims, steps and indications, its principles (non-directiveness), Indian relevance and ethical issues.
Genetic counselling, a term introduced by Sheldon Reed in 1947, is the process of helping individuals and families understand the medical, psychological and family implications of a genetic disorder, the risk of its occurrence or recurrence, and the options available.
Indications: a previous child with a birth defect or genetic disease, a family history of disorders such as thalassaemia, haemophilia or muscular dystrophy, consanguineous marriage, advanced maternal age, recurrent miscarriage and abnormal prenatal screening.
Steps: history and pedigree construction, accurate diagnosis through clinical, cytogenetic or molecular tests, risk estimation (for example 25 per cent for two carriers of a recessive disease), explanation of options such as prenatal diagnosis, adoption or treatment, and follow-up support. Counselling should be non-directive, respecting the couple’s own decision.
In India it is vital for thalassaemia and sickle-cell disease, but counsellors are few and the PCPNDT Act 1994 guards against misuse for sex selection.
Q5(c) · Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Epidemiological Anthropology
Epidemiological Anthropology
हिंदी में प्रश्न
महामारी-वैज्ञानिक (एपिडेमिओलोजिकल) नृविज्ञान
Practise this question Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(c)
Approach: A short note: define epidemiological anthropology, its methods, two classic examples and its uses.
Epidemiological anthropology is the branch of anthropology that studies the occurrence, distribution and causes of disease in populations by joining epidemiological measurement with anthropological understanding of culture, behaviour, ecology and evolution. It bridges biological and medical anthropology with public health, asking why risk differs between groups.
Methods: population surveys, case-control and cohort designs combined with ethnography, genealogies, participant observation and life histories, so that rates and risks are interpreted in their cultural context.
Classic examples: the tracing of kuru among the Fore of New Guinea to mortuary cannibalism (Gajdusek, Lindenbaum and Glasse); Livingstone’s explanation (1958) of the sickle-cell gene through yam agriculture and malaria in West Africa; and the Tokelau Island Migrant Study of hypertension after migration.
Uses: understanding infectious and lifestyle diseases, genetic disorders in endogamous groups such as sickle-cell disease among Indian tribes, and designing culturally sensitive public health interventions.
Q5(d) · Fossil Hominids · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Homo erectus
Asian Homo erectus
हिंदी में प्रश्न
एशियाई होमो इरैक्टस
Practise this question Fossil Hominids notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(d)
Approach: A short note: the Asian finds (Java, China, Georgia) with discoverers, dates and features, then their distinctive traits and phylogenetic status.
Asian Homo erectus refers to the populations of the species in Java, China and western Asia from about 1.8 million to about 110,000 years ago.
Java Man: Eugène Dubois found a skullcap (about 900 cc) and a femur at Trinil in 1891–92 and named Pithecanthropus erectus (1894); von Koenigswald added Sangiran fossils (1936–41); the Ngandong (Solo) skulls, about 117,000 to 108,000 years, are the last known H. erectus.
Peking Man: Zhoukoudian near Beijing; Davidson Black named Sinanthropus pekinensis (1927); about 40 individuals, average about 1,040 cc, about 780,000 to 400,000 years; the originals were lost in 1941 and survive as Weidenreich's casts.
Western Asia: Dmanisi, Georgia, about 1.85 to 1.77 million years, with brains of about 550 to 775 cc.
Traits and status: thicker cranial walls, a stronger sagittal keel and brow ridge than African forms, and shovel-shaped incisors; chopper-chopping tools east of the Movius line; most see late Asian H. erectus as an extinct branch, though multiregionalists (Weidenreich, Wolpoff) linked it to modern East Asians.
Q5(e) · Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Menarche, Menopause and Fertility Patterns
Fertility and Fecundity
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्रजनन शक्ति (फर्टिलिटी) और प्रजनन क्षमता (फिकंडिटी)
Practise this question Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(e)
Approach: Define and contrast the two concepts, show their relationship through the intermediate variables, and give Indian data.
Demographers distinguish fecundity, the biological ability to conceive and bear a live child, from fertility, the actual number of live births a woman or population has. The terms are reversed in French usage, so English-language definitions should be stated clearly.
Fecundity is reduced by sterility (primary or secondary), adolescent sub-fecundity after menarche, lactational amenorrhoea, ageing after 35, malnutrition and infections; infertility affects roughly one in six adults worldwide by WHO's 2023 estimate.
Fertility depends on fecundity plus behaviour. Kingsley Davis and Judith Blake (1956) showed that all social factors act through eleven intermediate variables of exposure to intercourse, conception and gestation; John Bongaarts (1978) reduced these to four proximate determinants: marriage, contraception, postpartum infecundability and abortion.
In India, fecundity has risen with better health, yet fertility has fallen, with TFR declining from 3.4 in NFHS-1 (1992–93) to 2.0 in NFHS-5 (2019–21), because of later marriage, female education and sterilisation. Fertility is thus a social expression of a biological potential.

Question 6 (50 marks)

Q6(a) · Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Human Growth, Development and Ageing
What are the different stages of Growth? Describe any one of them in detail.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
संवृद्धि की विभिन्न अवस्थाएँ क्या-क्या हैं ? उनमें से किसी एक का विस्तारपूर्वक वर्णन कीजिए ।
Practise this question Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(a)
Approach: List the stages of the human life cycle (prenatal, infancy, childhood, juvenile, adolescence, adulthood, senescence) with their features (following Bogin), then describe adolescence in detail, with a velocity curve diagram.
Human growth from conception to death passes through distinct stages, each with its own rate and pattern of growth. Barry Bogin describes a human life cycle with stages not found in other mammals.
Stages: (i) prenatal (germinal, embryonic and foetal periods, about 38 weeks), with the fastest growth of life; (ii) infancy (birth to about 3 years), with rapid but decelerating growth, breast-feeding and the eruption of milk teeth; (iii) childhood (about 3 to 7 years), with slower growth, a large brain relative to body and dependence on adults for food; (iv) juvenile period (about 7 years to puberty), with slow, steady growth and growing independence; (v) adolescence; (vi) adulthood, when growth stops and reproduction and work dominate; (vii) senescence, with decline of function.
Adolescence in detail: it begins with puberty, triggered by reactivation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. The adolescent growth spurt raises height velocity to a peak (PHV) of about 8 cm a year at around 12 years in girls and 9 to 10 cm a year at around 14 years in boys. Weight, muscle (especially in boys) and fat (especially in girls) increase; shoulders broaden in boys and hips in girls.
Maturation: secondary sexual characteristics develop in a sequence described by Tanner’s five stages: breast development and menarche (about a year after PHV) in girls, genital and pubic hair development, voice change and facial hair in boys. Skeletal maturation closes the epiphyses, ending growth around 16 to 18 years in girls and 18 to 21 in boys.
Influences: nutrition, health, socio-economic status and the secular trend affect timing; Indian girls in better-off urban families now reach menarche earlier than earlier generations.
Diagram: a height velocity curve from birth to 20 years, high in infancy, low in childhood, with the pubertal peak earlier and lower for girls than for boys.
Q6(b) · Human Genetics: Methods, Inheritance and Chromosomes · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Chromosomes and Chromosomal Aberrations
Describe Turner and Klinefelter Syndromes in humans.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मानवों में टर्नर और क्लाइनफैल्टर संलक्षणों (सिन्ड्रोम्स) का वर्णन कीजिए ।
Practise this question Human Genetics: Methods, Inheritance and Chromosomes notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(b)
Approach: Describe both syndromes in parallel: discovery, karyotype and origin, physical and mental features, Barr body findings, variants and management; a comparison helps.
Turner and Klinefelter syndromes are the commonest sex-chromosome aneuploidies, both arising mainly through non-disjunction of sex chromosomes during gamete formation or early cell division.
Turner syndrome: described by Henry Turner in 1938; karyotype 45,X (about half of cases), with mosaics (45,X/46,XX) and structural variants such as i(Xq). It affects about 1 in 2,500 female births, though most 45,X conceptions miscarry. Features: short stature (partly from a single SHOX gene), webbed neck, low hairline, broad shield chest, puffy hands and feet at birth, streak ovaries with absent puberty and infertility, coarctation of the aorta and kidney anomalies. Intelligence is usually normal, with some difficulty in spatial tasks. Buccal smears show no Barr body. Growth hormone and oestrogen therapy help.
Klinefelter syndrome: described by Harry Klinefelter in 1942; karyotype 47,XXY, with variants 48,XXXY and 49,XXXXY. It affects about 1 in 600 to 1,000 males. Features: tall stature with long legs, small firm testes, low testosterone, reduced body hair, sometimes gynaecomastia, and azoospermia causing infertility; there may be language and learning difficulties, increasing with each extra X. Buccal smears show one Barr body. Testosterone therapy and assisted reproduction help.
Both show how sex-chromosome imbalance is milder than autosomal imbalance, because extra X chromosomes are inactivated.
Q6(c) · Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Ecological Anthropology and Bio-cultural Adaptation
What are the stresses at high altitudes? How do better cardio-respiratory functions help the native highlanders in combating low environmental pressure?
हिंदी में प्रश्न
उच्च तुंगताओं पर क्या प्रतिबल (स्ट्रैस) होते हैं ? निम्न पर्यावरणीय दाब का सामना करने में बेहतर हृद्-श्वसन संक्रियाएँ उच्चभूमि मूल निवासियों की किस प्रकार सहायता करती हैं ?
Practise this question Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(c)
Approach: Two parts: list the stresses of high altitude, then explain the cardio-respiratory adaptations of native highlanders (lungs, ventilation, diffusion, blood and haemoglobin, heart and circulation, tissue level) and how each helps combat low oxygen pressure, noting Tibetan-Andean differences.
Stresses at high altitude: the chief stress is hypobaric hypoxia, since barometric pressure and oxygen partial pressure fall with height (to about 60 per cent of sea level at 4,000 metres); others are cold, low humidity and dehydration, strong ultraviolet radiation, rugged terrain and limited food production.
Respiratory adaptations: native highlanders such as the Quechua and Aymara have larger chests, greater vital capacity and residual lung volume, and higher pulmonary diffusing capacity, developed largely during growth (Frisancho). Tibetans maintain higher resting ventilation and a strong hypoxic ventilatory response, while Andeans show a blunted response.
Blood: Andeans have raised red cell counts and haemoglobin, increasing oxygen-carrying capacity; Tibetans achieve good oxygen delivery with near sea-level haemoglobin, avoiding thick, viscous blood, and their infants have higher oxygen saturation.
Heart and circulation: Andeans show some pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular enlargement; Tibetans have low pulmonary artery pressure, high levels of nitric oxide and greater blood flow to tissues. Higher capillary density, myoglobin and mitochondrial efficiency in muscle improve oxygen use.
These functions allow natives to work, reproduce and maintain growth at altitudes where lowlanders suffer mountain sickness, showing genetic and developmental adaptation.

Question 7 (50 marks)

Q7(a) · Population Genetics, Race and Human Variation · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Hardy–Weinberg Law, Genetic Polymorphism and Inbreeding
Discuss the factors affecting gene frequencies among human populations.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मानव समष्टियों में जीन आवृत्तियों (फ़्रिक्वेन्सी) पर प्रभाव डालने वाले कारकों पर चर्चा कीजिए ।
Practise this question Population Genetics, Race and Human Variation notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(a)
Approach: Begin from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and discuss the factors that alter gene frequencies, grouped as those changing allele frequencies (mutation, selection, drift, gene flow) and those changing genotype frequencies (inbreeding, assortative mating), with Indian and world examples and a short worked calculation.
Gene frequency is the proportion of a particular allele among all alleles at a locus in a population. The Hardy-Weinberg law predicts that it will stay constant unless disturbed; the factors that disturb it are the forces of evolution.
Factors changing allele frequencies: (i) mutation introduces new alleles, such as the sickle-cell and HbE mutations, but at low rates; (ii) natural selection favours alleles that raise fitness: HbS carriers survive falciparum malaria, so the allele reaches high frequencies among tribes of central India and in tropical Africa, while lactase persistence spread among herders in Europe and north-west India; (iii) genetic drift alters frequencies by chance in small populations, through founder effects and bottlenecks, as among the Amish and Pingelap islanders, and in small isolated Indian tribes; (iv) gene flow through migration and intermarriage homogenises populations, as in the African ancestry of the Siddis and the admixture of Ancestral North and South Indian components in most Indians.
Factors changing genotype frequencies: inbreeding, as in cross-cousin and uncle-niece marriages of South India, raises homozygosity by the inbreeding coefficient F (1/16 for first cousins), increasing recessive disorders; assortative mating for traits such as stature has a similar effect for those genes; endogamy subdivides the population into many small gene pools.
Worked illustration: if the frequency of an allele is 0.1, random mating gives 1 per cent homozygotes; with first-cousin marriage (F = 1/16) homozygote frequency becomes q² + Fpq, or about 1.6 per cent.
Cultural factors such as differential fertility, polygyny, warfare, famine and medical care also act as agents of selection. The gene frequencies of any population are therefore the outcome of biology and culture together.
Q7(b) · Primates · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Comparative Anatomy of Man and Apes and Erect Posture
Elucidate the skeletal differences between humans and chimpanzees.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मानवों और चिम्पैंज़ियों के बीच कंकाली भिन्नताओं को सविस्तार स्पष्ट कीजिए ।
Practise this question Primates notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(b)
Approach: Elucidate the skeletal differences between humans and chimpanzees region by region (skull, dentition, spine and thorax, upper limb, pelvis, lower limb and foot) with figures, and close with their meaning; a side-by-side skeleton sketch helps.
Humans and chimpanzees shared a common ancestor about 7 to 6 million years ago.
Skull: human cranial capacity averages about 1,350 cc against about 400 cc in chimpanzees; the human vault is high and rounded, with a vertical forehead and small brow ridges, while the chimpanzee has a low vault, a heavy supraorbital torus and a projecting face.
Dentition and jaw: chimpanzees have a U-shaped arcade, large canines with a diastema, a sectorial lower premolar and a simian shelf; humans have a parabolic arcade, small canines, no diastema, a bicuspid premolar and a chin.
Spine and thorax: humans have an S-curved spine with five lumbar vertebrae; chimpanzees a C-shaped spine with usually three or four.
Limbs: chimpanzee arms are longer than the legs (intermembral index about 106; human about 70), with long curved fingers and a short thumb used in knuckle-walking; humans have a long thumb for the precision grip.
Pelvis, femur and foot: the human pelvis is short and broad with laterally facing iliac blades; the chimpanzee's is tall and narrow. The human femur angles inward with a locking knee, and the foot is arched with an aligned big toe and a large heel; the chimpanzee femur is straight and the big toe opposable.
Diagram: a human standing beside a chimpanzee in knuckle-walking posture, labelling skull, foramen magnum, spinal curves, pelvis, femur angle and big toe.
These differences show adaptation to habitual bipedalism and a large brain in humans and to climbing and knuckle-walking in chimpanzees.
Q7(c) · Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Menarche, Menopause and Fertility Patterns
Discuss the relevance of menarche, menopause and other bio-events to fertility.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्रजनन शक्ति पर रजोदर्शन (मेनार्के), रजोनिवृत्ति (मेनोपौज़) और अन्य जैविक घटनाओं की सार्थकता पर चर्चा कीजिए ।
Practise this question Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(c)
Approach: Explain how each bio-event, menarche, marriage, pregnancy, lactation, pregnancy wastage and menopause, sets the limits of the reproductive span and fertility, with examples and a reproductive life-line diagram.
A woman's fertility is bounded by bio-events of the reproductive life course; between menarche and menopause lies a potential span of over 30 years, but cultural practices decide how much of it is used.
Menarche opens the span, but adolescent sub-fecundity (anovulatory cycles) keeps early fertility low; earlier menarche through better nutrition lengthens the span. Age at marriage starts exposure: NFHS-5 (2019–21) found 23.3 percent of Indian women aged 20–24 married before 18, which raises fertility and maternal risk.
Lactation suppresses ovulation through prolactin: among the !Kung San, frequent nursing produced birth intervals of about four years (Konner and Worthman, 1980). Postpartum abstinence and the custom of the wife's stay at her natal home lengthen intervals further.
Pregnancy wastage, miscarriage and stillbirth, linked to malaria, anaemia, consanguinity and heavy work, reduces live births; menopause, preceded by declining fecundability after 35, closes the span, while early sterilisation, the main contraceptive method in India, ends it even sooner.
Diagram: a horizontal life-line from birth to age 50 marking menarche, sub-fecund years, marriage, births separated by postpartum amenorrhoea, sterilisation or menopause, with the effective reproductive span shaded.
The Hutterites, with early marriage and no contraception, used almost the entire span and averaged about ten children. Bio-events thus set the outer limits, but the actual fertility of a population depends on how culture times and regulates them.

Question 8 (50 marks)

Q8(a) · Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Human Growth, Development and Ageing
Discuss Ageing and Senescence. Describe either the biological or social theories of Ageing.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
काल-प्रभावन (एजिंग) और जीर्णता (सिनेसेंस) पर चर्चा कीजिए । काल-प्रभावन की या तो जैविक या सामाजिक थियोरियों का वर्णन कीजिए ।
Practise this question Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(a)
Approach: Distinguish ageing (chronological, biological, social) from senescence, describe biological changes briefly, then explain the social theories of ageing (disengagement, activity, continuity, modernisation, age stratification) with Indian relevance.
Ageing is the process of growing older, with chronological, biological, psychological and social dimensions; it begins at birth but usually refers to changes after maturity. Senescence is its biological component: the progressive decline of physiological function that increases vulnerability to disease and death.
Biological changes include loss of muscle and bone, reduced heart, lung and kidney function, weaker immunity, slower reflexes, changes in skin and hair, sensory decline and menopause. They arise from cellular damage and limits on repair, explained by free radical, telomere and evolutionary theories.
Social theories: (i) disengagement theory (Cumming and Henry, 1961): older people and society withdraw from each other in a mutually beneficial way; criticised for treating withdrawal as natural; (ii) activity theory (Havighurst, 1961): successful ageing comes from maintaining roles and activities; (iii) continuity theory (Atchley, 1989): people preserve earlier patterns, habits and identity; (iv) modernisation theory (Cowgill and Holmes, 1972): the status of the elderly falls with industrialisation, urbanisation, mass education and the decline of extended families; (v) age stratification theory (Matilda Riley, 1972): societies are layered by age cohorts with different roles and resources.
Indian relevance: traditionally the vanaprastha ideal and the joint family gave elders authority, but migration, nuclear families and rising longevity have created neglect, as modernisation theory predicts; the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act 2007 and the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (first wave 2017–18) respond to this.
Ageing is thus a bio-social process: biology sets the limits, society shapes the experience.
Q8(b) · Prehistoric Archaeology · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Principles of Prehistoric Archaeology and Dating Methods
Describe the absolute dating methods in Archaeology, highlighting the importance of each method.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
पुरातत्त्वविज्ञान में निरपेक्ष काल-निर्धारण विधियों (ऐब्सोल्यूट डेटिंग मैथड्स) का, प्रत्येक विधि के महत्त्व पर प्रकाश डालते हुए, वर्णन कीजिए ।
Practise this question Prehistoric Archaeology notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(b)
Approach: Group the absolute methods by principle and, for each, give the basis, material, range and why it matters, ending with a note on combining methods; a range chart can be drawn.
Absolute dating methods give the age of a sample in years, turning relative sequences into a true time scale for human evolution and culture.
Dendrochronology (A.E. Douglass) matches tree-ring patterns; it is accurate to a single year and, above all, calibrates radiocarbon. Varve analysis (De Geer) counts annual glacial lake layers and dated the end of the last Ice Age in Scandinavia.
Radiocarbon (Libby, 1949) dates organic remains up to about 50,000 years and built the chronology of the Neolithic and later cultures; calibrated dates led Colin Renfrew to show that European megaliths were older than Egyptian pyramids, undermining diffusionism.
Potassium-argon and argon-argon date volcanic layers from about 100,000 years to millions of years; Evernden and Curtis dated Olduvai Bed I to about 1.75 million years (1961), extending the human time scale. Fission track independently checks such tuffs.
Thermoluminescence and OSL date pottery, burnt flint and sediments over the gap beyond radiocarbon; electron spin resonance dates tooth enamel and uranium-series dates cave calcite, vital for Neanderthal and early Homo sapiens sites.
Archaeomagnetism dates hearths and kilns from past shifts of the magnetic field, and cosmogenic burial dating with palaeomagnetism gave about 1.5 million years for Attirampakkam's Acheulian.
Diagram: a range chart with horizontal bars on a logarithmic time axis for dendrochronology, radiocarbon, TL and OSL, uranium-series and potassium-argon.
No single method covers all materials and periods, so cross-dating, as at Olduvai, gives the most reliable chronology.
Q8(c) · Prehistoric Archaeology · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age
Describe the Neolithic culture of India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत की नवपाषाण संस्कृति का वर्णन कीजिए ।
Practise this question Prehistoric Archaeology notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(c)
Approach: Describe the general features of the Indian Neolithic, then its regional cultures with named sites, excavators and dates, and conclude on chronology, origins and continuity; an India map of sites helps.
The term Neolithic (John Lubbock, 1865) first meant polished stone tools; today it means the stage of food production and settled villages that Childe called the Neolithic Revolution. In India it appears at different times in different regions.
General features: ground and polished celts, adzes and ring stones, bone tools, handmade and later wheel-made pottery, querns, domesticated crops and animals, and houses of mud, wattle or pits.
North-west: Mehrgarh (Baluchistan; Jean-François Jarrige, from 1974) shows barley and wheat cultivation and domestication of goat, sheep and zebu cattle from about 7000 BCE, with mud-brick houses and burials.
Kashmir: Burzahom and Gufkral had pit dwellings, polished axes, bone points, perforated rectangular harvesters and dogs buried with their masters, from about 2700 BCE.
Vindhyas and Ganga plain: G.R. Sharma's sites of Koldihwa and Mahagara in the Belan valley, and Lahuradewa, have rice and cattle pens (very early rice dates debated); Chirand in Bihar is rich in bone and antler tools. North-east: Daojali Hading and Sarutaru in Assam with cord-marked pottery and shouldered celts.
South: the Southern Neolithic (about 3000 to 1200 BCE) of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, a cattle-herding culture whose burnt dung enclosures formed ash mounds at Utnur, Kupgal and Budihal (studied by F.R. Allchin), and native millets and pulses.
Diagram: India map marking Mehrgarh, Burzahom, Gufkral, Koldihwa, Mahagara, Chirand, Daojali Hading, Utnur, Sanganakallu and Brahmagiri.
The Indian Neolithic was regionally diverse, partly indigenous and partly linked to West and South-east Asia.

UPSC Mains 2014 Anthropology Paper II