UPSC Mains 2023 Anthropology Optional Question Papers with Model Answers

All 56 questions of the 2023 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 2023 Anthropology Paper I

Question 1 (50 marks)

Q1(a) · Foundations of Anthropology · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Main Branches of Anthropology
Scope and relevance of Social and Cultural Anthropology
हिंदी में प्रश्न
सामाजिक तथा सांस्कृतिक मानवविज्ञान का विस्तार एवं प्रासंगिकता
Practise this question Foundations of Anthropology notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(a)
Approach: A short note: define social-cultural anthropology (British and American emphases), outline its scope with classic and Indian ethnographies, and state its relevance today.
Social-cultural anthropology studies human societies and cultures, their institutions, beliefs and change. British social anthropology (Radcliffe-Brown) stressed social structure, while American cultural anthropology (Boas, Kroeber) stressed culture as learned patterns and meanings.
Scope: family, marriage and kinship; economic organisation, as in Malinowski's Trobriand kula (1922); political organisation and social control, as in Evans-Pritchard's Nuer (1940); religion, magic and ritual; culture and personality; and social change. In India, S.C. Roy's The Mundas and Their Country (1912) and Srinivas's Coorg study (1952) are landmarks.
Method: long-term fieldwork, participant observation, genealogies and comparison, with the emic view and cultural relativism.
Relevance: it guides tribal welfare, PESA (1996) and Forest Rights Act (2006) implementation, rehabilitation of displaced people, public health communication and the study of caste, migration, gender and digital communities.
It is thus the core of the discipline, linking understanding of human diversity with practical policy.
Q1(b) · Prehistoric Archaeology · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age
Cultural impact of Iron Age
हिंदी में प्रश्न
लौह-युग का सांस्कृतिक प्रभाव
Practise this question Prehistoric Archaeology notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(b)
Approach: A short note on how iron spread and its impact on agriculture, crafts, warfare, settlement and polity, with Indian evidence and the debate on its role.
The Iron Age began when iron smelting, known in Anatolia in the second millennium BCE, spread widely after about 1200 BCE. Because iron ore is common, iron tools reached ordinary farmers.
In India early iron appears in the late second millennium BCE at sites such as Atranjikhera, Malhar and Hallur, with the Painted Grey Ware culture of the upper Ganga plain and the megaliths of the south.
Impact: iron axes and ploughshares helped clear forests and extend farming in the middle Ganga plain; surplus supported the second urbanisation of the NBPW phase, the mahajanapadas, punch-marked coins and specialist crafts; iron weapons changed warfare; in the south, megalith builders used iron tools and horse equipment.
D.D. Kosambi and R.S. Sharma linked iron to state formation, but others argue its role in forest clearance has been overstated.
Iron smelting by the Agaria and Asur shows the technology surviving in tribal India.
Q1(c) · Population Genetics, Race and Human Variation · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Race and Racism
Race and Ethnicity
हिंदी में प्रश्न
नस्ल तथा नृजातीयता
Practise this question Population Genetics, Race and Human Variation notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(c)
Approach: Define race and ethnicity, contrast them on basis, boundaries and change, with Indian and world examples, and conclude on current usage.
Race traditionally meant a division of humankind sharing inherited physical traits such as skin colour, hair form and head shape, as in the schemes of Linnaeus, Blumenbach and, for India, Risley and B.S. Guha (1931). Ethnicity refers to a group’s shared cultural identity, based on common descent claims, language, religion, customs and history.
Differences: race was claimed to be biological and fixed, ethnicity is cultural and learnt; racial boundaries were drawn by outside observers, ethnic boundaries are maintained by members themselves, as Fredrik Barth (Ethnic Groups and Boundaries, 1969) showed; ethnicity changes and can be mobilised politically.
Examples: the Naga, Bodo, Santal and Tamil are ethnic groups, whereas Guha classed Indians into races such as Proto-Australoid and Mongoloid.
Since the UNESCO statements on race (1950 onwards), and Ashley Montagu’s suggestion to replace race with ethnic group, anthropologists treat race as a social construct, while ethnicity remains a central analytical concept.
Q1(d) · Political Organisation and Social Control · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Social Control, Law and Justice in Simple Societies
Customary laws and Environmental conservation
हिंदी में प्रश्न
प्रथागत कानून एवं पर्यावरणीय संरक्षण
Practise this question Political Organisation and Social Control notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(d)
Approach: A short note: define customary law, show with Indian examples how its rules and sanctions conserve forests, water and wildlife, and add its legal recognition and present weaknesses.
Customary law is the body of unwritten norms, enforced by community councils and supernatural sanctions, that governs tribal life, including the use of land, forest, water and animals.
Sacred groves: the sarna of the Munda and Oraon, the Santal jaher than and the Khasi law kyntang forests such as Mawphlang may not be felled, because deities dwell there; Madhav Gadgil documented such groves as refuges of biodiversity.
Taboos and totems: clan members avoid harming their totem, as in Oraon clans such as Ekka (tortoise), and many tribes forbid hunting in breeding seasons.
Commons rules: Khasi village councils (dorbar shnong) and Naga village councils regulate felling and jhum cycles, and the Dongria Kondh protect the Niyamgiri hills as the seat of Niyam Raja.
Legal recognition: the Forest Rights Act, 2006 grants community forest resource rights, among the first won by the Gond village of Mendha-Lekha (2009), alongside PESA (1996) and the Biological Diversity Act (2002).
Markets and state forestry have weakened these customs, so community-based conservation should build on them.
Q1(e) · The Biological Basis of Life · 10 marks≈ 7 min
The Cell, DNA and Protein Synthesis
Gene expression
हिंदी में प्रश्न
जीन प्रकटन
Practise this question The Biological Basis of Life notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q1(e)
Approach: A short note: define gene expression, explain its two steps (transcription and translation) and its regulation, with an example and its anthropological relevance.
Gene expression is the process by which the information in a gene is used to make a functional product, usually a protein, following the central dogma stated by Francis Crick (1958): DNA to RNA to protein.
Transcription: in the nucleus, RNA polymerase copies one strand of DNA into messenger RNA; non-coding introns are spliced out and the exons joined. Translation: on ribosomes in the cytoplasm, each three-base codon of the mRNA is read and transfer RNAs bring the matching amino acids, which are linked into a polypeptide.
Regulation: every cell has the same genes, but only some are switched on, through promoters, enhancers and transcription factors, the lac operon model of Jacob and Monod (1961) in bacteria, and epigenetic marks such as DNA methylation.
Examples: lactase is normally switched off after weaning, but in lactase-persistent populations a regulatory variant keeps it on in adults; foetal haemoglobin is replaced by adult haemoglobin after birth.
Changes in regulation, not only in genes, help explain human-chimpanzee differences and gene-environment interaction.

Question 2 (50 marks)

Q2(a) · Fossil Hominids · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Australopithecines and Plio-Pleistocene Hominids
Discuss major species of Australopithecus discovered from South and East Africa. Describe the discovery, physical features and significance of Taung baby.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
दक्षिण तथा पूर्वी अफ्रीका से खोजी गई प्रमुख ऑस्ट्रेलोपिथिकस प्रजातियों की विवेचना कीजिए । टाउन्ग शिशु की खोज, शारीरिक लक्षण एवं महत्त्व का वर्णन कीजिए ।
Practise this question Fossil Hominids notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(a)
Approach: Two parts: the main Australopithecus species of South and East Africa (a regional survey with sites and dates), then the Taung child's discovery, features and significance; add a distribution map.
Australopithecus (southern ape) comprises bipedal, small-brained African hominins of about 4.2 to 2 million years ago, with an ape-like skull but a human-like pelvis and legs.
East Africa: A. anamensis (Kanapoi, Kenya, Meave Leakey's team, 1995, about 4.2 to 3.8 million years); A. afarensis, with Lucy (AL 288-1, Hadar, Ethiopia, Johanson and Gray, 1974, about 3.2 million years), the First Family and the Laetoli footprints (about 3.66 million years); and A. garhi (Bouri, Ethiopia, 1999, about 2.5 million years).
South Africa: A. africanus from Taung, Sterkfontein (Mrs Ples, found by Robert Broom in 1947) and Makapansgat, about 3 to 2 million years; A. sediba from Malapa (Lee Berger's team, 2008, about 1.98 million years), mixing Australopithecus and Homo traits.
Diagram: outline map of Africa marking Hadar, Laetoli, Kanapoi and Koro Toro (Chad, A. bahrelghazali) in the east and centre, and Taung, Sterkfontein, Makapansgat and Malapa in the south.
Taung baby, discovery: in 1924 quarrymen at the Buxton limeworks near Taung found a fossil skull that reached Raymond Dart of the University of the Witwatersrand; he named Australopithecus africanus in Nature in February 1925.
Features: a child of about three years with milk teeth and erupting first permanent molars; a natural endocast of about 400 cc; a forward foramen magnum showing upright posture; small canines, no simian shelf and a less projecting face; about 2.8 to 2.5 million years (uncertain); eye-socket damage suggests an eagle killed it (Berger and McGraw, 2006).
Significance: the first australopith found, it supported Darwin's view (1871) of an African origin and showed that bipedalism preceded brain enlargement; Arthur Keith and others rejected it, partly because the Piltdown forgery suggested the opposite, but Broom's adult finds and the exposure of Piltdown in 1953 vindicated Dart.
These species show a bushy African radiation from which Homo and Paranthropus later branched.
Q2(b) · Prehistoric Archaeology · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Cultures
Discuss the Paleolithic environment in light of available evidences with special reference to India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत के विशेष संदर्भ में उपलब्ध साक्ष्यों के आलोक में पुरापाषाण पर्यावरण की विवेचना कीजिए ।
Practise this question Prehistoric Archaeology notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(b)
Approach: Explain how Palaeolithic environments are reconstructed (sediments, fauna, pollen, tephra, dunes), then apply this to India phase by phase, and conclude on the link between climate and human occupation.
The Palaeolithic coincides with the Pleistocene (about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago), when glacial and interglacial phases alternated; in the tropics these appear mainly as shifts in rainfall and the monsoon rather than ice.
Kinds of evidence: river and lake sediments (gravels indicate high-energy flow, silts calmer conditions), fossil soils, animal fossils, pollen, volcanic ash, sand dunes and deep-sea oxygen isotopes.
Himalaya: De Terra and Paterson (1935) recognised glacial deposits in Kashmir and correlated them with terraces of the Soan valley.
Peninsular rivers: the Narmada alluvium at Hathnora holds fauna such as the straight-tusked elephant, hippopotamus, wild cattle and horse, indicating open grassland with abundant water. Didwana (Rajasthan) shows Acheulian occupation on lake margins in a wetter phase, followed by dune building.
Volcanic ash: the Toba eruption of about 74,000 years ago spread ash across India; at Jwalapuram (Andhra Pradesh), tools below and above the ash suggest that people survived it (Michael Petraglia and team, 2007), though its severity is debated.
Late Pleistocene: ostrich eggshell at Patne, Bhimbetka and Son valley sites shows semi-arid open grassland, and the Last Glacial Maximum (about 20,000 years ago) brought aridity and active dunes in the Thar.
The older pluvial–interpluvial scheme (F.E. Zeuner) is now abandoned; monsoon fluctuations instead shaped where water, game and stone were available, and hence where people lived.
Q2(c) · Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Epidemiological Anthropology
Elucidate the different forms of malnutrition. Describe protein-calorie malnutrition with suitable examples.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
विभिन्न प्रकार के कुपोषण को स्पष्ट कीजिए । उपयुक्त उदाहरणों सहित प्रोटीन-कैलोरी कुपोषण का विवरण प्रस्तुत कीजिए ।
Practise this question Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q2(c)
Approach: Classify the forms of malnutrition (undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, overnutrition, double burden), then describe protein-energy malnutrition (kwashiorkor, marasmus, marasmic kwashiorkor) with causes, features and Indian and world examples.
Malnutrition means deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and nutrients. WHO groups it into three broad forms.
Forms: (i) undernutrition: wasting (low weight-for-height), stunting (low height-for-age) and underweight; (ii) micronutrient deficiencies: iron-deficiency anaemia, iodine deficiency causing goitre, vitamin A deficiency causing night blindness, and zinc deficiency; (iii) overnutrition: overweight, obesity and diet-related NCDs. Many Indian households now face the double burden, with stunted children and overweight adults.
Protein-energy malnutrition (PEM): (i) kwashiorkor, described by Cicely Williams in the Gold Coast (Ghana) in the 1930s, a Ga word for the illness of a child displaced from the breast by a new baby; it occurs when a weaned child gets starchy, protein-poor food, causing oedema, a moon face, flaky-paint skin lesions, discoloured, sparse hair (the flag sign), fatty liver and apathy; (ii) marasmus, severe deficiency of both energy and protein, usually in infants, causing extreme wasting, an old-man face and no oedema; (iii) marasmic kwashiorkor combines both.
Examples: famines in Ethiopia and the Sahel; in India, child deaths among the Korku of Melghat and in tribal districts of Jharkhand and Odisha. Infection, poverty, poor weaning practices and food insecurity interact.
Responses include ICDS (1975), Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres, POSHAN Abhiyaan (2018) and community management of acute malnutrition.

Question 3 (50 marks)

Q3(a) · Human Evolution: Theories and Concepts · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Biological and Cultural Factors in Human Evolution
What is hominization process ? Discuss the major trends in human evolution with the help of suitable examples and illustrations.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मानवीकरण प्रक्रिया क्या होती है ? उपयुक्त उदाहरणों एवं चित्रों की सहायता से मानव उद्विकास की प्रमुख प्रवृत्तियों की विवेचना कीजिए ।
Practise this question Human Evolution: Theories and Concepts notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(a)
Approach: Define hominisation, then discuss the major trends (bipedalism, encephalisation, dental and facial reduction, hand, life history, culture) with fossil examples, and illustrate with a brain-size graph or pelvis sketch.
Hominisation is the process by which the human lineage, after splitting from the chimpanzee lineage about 7 to 6 million years ago, acquired its distinctive traits: habitual bipedalism, a large brain, a reduced face and teeth, language and dependence on culture. These traits appeared gradually and at different times, a mosaic pattern.
Bipedalism: the earliest trend, seen in the forward foramen magnum of Sahelanthropus, the femur of Orrorin (about 6 million years), Lucy's pelvis (Australopithecus afarensis, about 3.2 million years) and the Laetoli footprints. It brought an S-shaped spine, a short broad pelvis, a valgus knee and an arched foot.
Encephalisation: cranial capacity rose from about 450 cc (Australopithecus) to about 600 cc (Homo habilis), 750 to 1,250 cc (Homo erectus) and about 1,350 cc in Homo sapiens, with expansion of the frontal and parietal lobes.
Dental and facial reduction: canines shrank and the diastema disappeared, the dental arcade became parabolic, and the face, jaw and brow ridges reduced, producing a chin and a vertical forehead in Homo sapiens.
Hand and tools: a long, fully opposable thumb gave the precision grip, linked with tools from the Oldowan (about 2.6 million years) to Acheulian, Levallois and blade industries.
Life history and culture: long childhood, helpless infants and a long post-reproductive life (the grandmother hypothesis of Kristen Hawkes); fire, cooking, symbolic art (Blombos Cave) and language completed the process.
Diagram: a graph with time (4 million years to present) on the horizontal axis and cranial capacity on the vertical axis, plotting about 450 cc for Australopithecus, 600 for H. habilis, 900 to 1,000 for H. erectus and 1,350 for H. sapiens; beside it a tall narrow ape ilium next to a short broad human ilium.
These trends show that hominisation was gradual and biocultural, with bipedalism first and brain expansion and culture later, each reinforcing the others.
Q3(b) · Religion · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion
How did Clifford Geertz look at religion ? Differentiate between anthropological and psychological approaches to the study of religion.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
क्लिफर्ड गीर्ट्ज़ ने धर्म को किस तरह देखा ? धर्म के अध्ययन में मानवशास्त्रीय तथा मनोवैज्ञानिक दृष्टिकोणों में अन्तर स्पष्ट कीजिए ।
Practise this question Religion notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(b)
Approach: Two parts: Geertz's interpretive view of religion (definition, thick description, Java study, critique); then distinguish anthropological and psychological approaches on unit, focus, method and scholars.
Geertz's view: in 'Religion as a cultural system' (1966) Clifford Geertz defined religion, in short, as a system of symbols that establishes powerful and long-lasting moods and motivations by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing them with an aura of factuality, so that they seem uniquely realistic.
For Geertz religion is a model of reality and a model for action, giving meaning to suffering, evil and bafflement. It must be studied by thick description, interpreting symbols from the actors' point of view. In The Religion of Java (1960) he described abangan (village ritual), santri (orthodox Islam) and priyayi (Hindu-Javanese aristocratic) variants;
Talal Asad (1983) criticised him for treating religion as a universal, private system of meaning and ignoring power and discipline.
Anthropological approaches treat religion as a social and cultural fact: Durkheim saw it as uniting a moral community, Radcliffe-Brown as expressing social sentiments, Lévi-Strauss as structured thought, and Geertz as shared meaning. They use fieldwork and comparison and study groups, rituals and symbols.
Psychological approaches locate religion in the individual mind: Freud in the Oedipus complex and wish fulfilment (Totem and Taboo, 1913), Jung in archetypes and Marett and Otto in awe of the numinous.
The two are complementary: psychology explains why individuals need religion, anthropology why religions take the social forms they do.
Q3(c) · Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Human Growth, Development and Ageing
What is mixed-longitudinal method of studying human growth ? Discuss its merits and demerits.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
मानव वृद्धि के अध्ययन में मिश्रित-अनुदैर्ध्य प्रविधि क्या होती है ? इसके गुण एवं दोषों की विवेचना कीजिए ।
Practise this question Ecological Anthropology, Epidemiology and Human Growth notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q3(c)
Approach: Define the mixed-longitudinal method in relation to cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, explain its design with an example and a diagram, then list merits and demerits.
Human growth is studied by three designs: cross-sectional (different children measured once at each age), longitudinal (the same children measured repeatedly over years) and the mixed-longitudinal method, which combines the two. It was advocated by growth researchers such as J.M. Tanner to obtain longitudinal information in a shorter time.
Design: several cohorts of different starting ages are each followed for a limited period, so that their age ranges overlap and together cover the full span. For example, children aged 5, 8 and 11 are each measured every six months for three years; the study then covers ages 5 to 14 in only three years.
Merits: (i) it yields growth velocity and individual curves like a longitudinal study, but in a fraction of the time; (ii) it reduces cost and subject loss; (iii) the overlapping ages allow checks for cohort and secular effects; (iv) it suits field studies where long follow-up is impractical, as in tribal or rural areas.
Demerits: (i) analysis is statistically complex, since each child contributes different numbers of observations; (ii) linking segments assumes cohorts are comparable, which secular trends or migration may violate; (iii) individual curves cover only part of growth, so the timing of events such as peak height velocity may be missed for some children; (iv) it still needs repeated, standardised measurement.
Diagram: a chart with age on the x-axis and three overlapping horizontal bars for the cohorts starting at 5, 8 and 11 years.

Question 4 (50 marks)

Q4(a) · Marriage · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Marriage Regulations and Marriage Payments
Discuss the role of marriage regulations in traditional societies in India for strengthening social solidarity.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत में परम्परागत समाजों की सामाजिक एकजुटता को सुदृढ़ बनाने हेतु विवाह अधिनियमों की भूमिका की विवेचना कीजिए ।
Practise this question Marriage notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(a)
Approach: Discuss each regulation (endogamy, exogamy, preferential unions, levirate and sororate, hypergamy) and show how it builds solidarity within and between groups in Indian tribes and castes, then note its costs; draw the concentric rings of marriage rules.
Marriage regulations are rules that forbid, prefer or prescribe certain spouses. Following Lévi-Strauss, they turn marriage into an exchange between groups, and in traditional India they build solidarity both within and between groups.
Endogamy of caste, sub-caste and tribe (Santal, Gond, the endogamous Toda divisions Tartharol and Teivaliol) keeps boundaries, culture and property within the group, a solidarity of likeness in Durkheim's sense.
Exogamy of clan, gotra, sapinda and village forces marriage outwards. The Munda and Ho killi, the Santal paris and Oraon totemic clans (S.C. Roy) ensure that every marriage links two clans, so affinal ties bind villages; in north India village exogamy spreads kin networks across a region (Karve, 1953).
Preferential rules renew existing ties: Gond marriage with the father's sister's daughter (dudh lautawa), cross-cousin and elder sister's daughter marriage in Dravidian south India, and sister exchange in central India.
Levirate and sororate, common among the Santal, Ho, Munda and Oraon and as karewa in Haryana, keep the widow, children and bride price within the lineage and preserve the alliance after a death.
Hypergamy linked ranked groups such as Rajput clans and the Nambudiri-Nayar sambandham, and bride price and gift exchange create reciprocal obligations.
Diagram: concentric rings: nuclear family (incest taboo) inside clan or gotra (exogamy) inside tribe or caste (endogamy), with arrows of marriage crossing clan boundaries within the tribe ring.
Solidarity has costs: hypergamy fed dowry and female infanticide, caste endogamy perpetuates exclusion, and caste councils enforcing gotra rules have attacked couples. Law, education and urban mobility are loosening these rules, so marriage regulations built a segmented but integrated order whose solidarity is now being renegotiated.
Q4(b) · Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Applications of Anthropology
Discuss various methods of personal identification based on skeletal remains.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
कंकालीय अवशेषों पर आधारित व्यक्तिगत शिनाख्त की विभिन्न प्रविधियों की विवेचना कीजिए ।
Practise this question Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(b)
Approach: Describe how sex, age, stature, ancestry and individual features are identified from the skeleton, naming the bones and methods with their authors; a pelvis diagram helps.
Personal identification from skeletal remains builds a biological profile, the 'big four' of sex, age, stature and ancestry, and then seeks individualising features that match a specific person.
Sex: the pelvis is most reliable; females have a wider subpubic angle, broad greater sciatic notch, preauricular sulcus and the ventral arc described by Phenice (1969); the skull of males has larger mastoids, brow ridges and a square chin. Krogman estimated accuracy of about 95 percent from the pelvis and 90 percent from the skull.
Age: in the young, tooth formation and eruption and epiphyseal fusion; in adults, pubic symphysis changes (T. Wingate Todd's ten phases, 1920; Suchey-Brooks six phases, 1990), auricular surface, sternal rib ends and cranial suture closure; Gustafson's dental method (1950).
Stature: regression formulae on long bones, Karl Pearson (1899) and Trotter and Gleser (1952), with Indian formulae such as Pan's (1924); the femur gives the best estimate. Ancestry: cranial and dental traits analysed with metric programs, given cautiously since human variation is clinal. Individualising features: healed fractures, dental restorations, surgical implants with serial numbers, and DNA from bone or teeth; skull-photo superimposition can confirm identity.
Diagram: male and female pelvis outlines side by side, labelling the subpubic angle (narrow V versus wide U) and the sciatic notch.
Since most standards come from Western samples, Indian population-specific formulae improve accuracy.
Q4(c) · Prehistoric Archaeology · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Cultures
Identify the major Mesolithic sites and describe the typo-technological features with special reference to India.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भारत के विशेष संदर्भ में प्रमुख मध्यपाषाणकालीन स्थलों की पहचान कीजिए तथा इनके प्ररूप-प्रौद्योगिकीय लक्षणों का विवरण प्रस्तुत कीजिए ।
Practise this question Prehistoric Archaeology notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q4(c)
Approach: Describe Mesolithic typo-technology (microliths, techniques, composite tools), then identify major Indian sites region by region with their features; sketch microliths and mark sites on a map.
The Mesolithic is the stone age of Holocene hunter-gatherers, whose hallmark is the microlith, a tiny blade tool usually less than about 5 cm long, set in wood or bone handles.
Typo-technology: small blades were struck from prepared cores of fine-grained chert, chalcedony, agate and quartz, and blunted along one edge (backing). They were shaped into non-geometric forms (backed blades, points, scrapers, burins) and geometric forms (lunates, triangles, trapezes); the microburin technique snapped blades to size. Hafted in a row, they made composite tools such as arrows and sickles.
Rajasthan and Gujarat: Bagor on the Kothari river (V.N. Misra) has geometric microliths and, in its earliest phase, bones of sheep and goat; Langhnaj (H.D. Sankalia) has microliths, burials and wild fauna.
Central India and the Vindhyas: Adamgarh (R.V. Joshi), Bhimbetka with painted shelters, and Chopani Mando in the Belan valley, which shows a sequence from non-geometric to geometric microliths and later handmade pottery.
Ganga plain: Sarai Nahar Rai, Mahadaha and Damdama (Pratapgarh) have hut floors, hearths, bone ornaments and burials of tall, robust people. East and south: Birbhanpur (West Bengal, B.B. Lal) with non-geometric microliths, and the coastal teri sites of Tamil Nadu.
Diagram: India map marking Bagor, Langhnaj, Adamgarh, Bhimbetka, Chopani Mando, Sarai Nahar Rai, Mahadaha, Birbhanpur and the teri sites, with sketches of a lunate, triangle and trapeze and an arrow armed with microliths.
Geometric forms generally follow non-geometric ones, but dates vary widely by region. Together the sites show broad-spectrum foraging and growing sedentism on the road to farming.

Question 5 (50 marks)

Q5(a) · Human Genetics: Methods, Inheritance and Chromosomes · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Mendelian Genetics and Patterns of Inheritance in Man
Polygenic Inheritance
हिंदी में प्रश्न
बहुजीनी वंशागति
Practise this question Human Genetics: Methods, Inheritance and Chromosomes notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(a)
Approach: Define polygenic inheritance, give its classic demonstrations and characteristics, illustrate with human traits, and note environmental influence.
Polygenic inheritance is the control of a trait by several genes at different loci, each contributing a small, additive effect, so that the trait shows continuous rather than discrete variation.
Demonstration: Herman Nilsson-Ehle (1909) showed that kernel colour in wheat was governed by several gene pairs, producing graded shades in a 1:4:6:4:1 ratio for two pairs. Charles Davenport (1913) explained skin colour in crosses between people of African and European descent as the effect of two or more additive gene pairs.
Characteristics: phenotypes form a normal, bell-shaped curve; extremes are rare; offspring tend to fall near the mid-parent value; and the environment modifies expression. It is measured by heritability.
Human examples: stature, skin colour, weight, intelligence, blood pressure and the total ridge count of fingerprints, which has heritability close to 0.9. Combined with environment, polygenic inheritance becomes multifactorial, as in diabetes.
Q5(b) · Prehistoric Archaeology · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age
Prehistoric significance of Rakhigarhi
हिंदी में प्रश्न
राखीगढ़ी का प्रागैतिहासिक महत्त्व
Practise this question Prehistoric Archaeology notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(b)
Approach: A short note: location and scale, excavations, cultural sequence, key finds including ancient DNA, and why the site matters.
Rakhigarhi, in Hisar district of Haryana, lies in the Ghaggar basin on an old channel of the Drishadvati (Chautang). With several mounds, it is among the largest Harappan sites in the subcontinent.
It was excavated by Amarendra Nath of the Archaeological Survey of India (1997–2000) and by Vasant Shinde of Deccan College (from 2013). The deposits run from Early Harappan to Mature Harappan levels, showing the local growth of a village into a planned city.
Finds include mud-brick and burnt-brick houses, drains, streets, seals, a bead-making workshop and a cemetery with extended burials and grave goods.
In 2019 a study (Shinde and colleagues, with geneticists including David Reich) published ancient DNA from a woman buried there: her ancestry mixed Iranian-related and South Asian hunter-gatherer lineages, without Steppe or Anatolian-farmer ancestry, suggesting that farming in South Asia was not brought by Anatolian farmers.
Rakhigarhi thus links the Hakra–Ghaggar region's prehistoric past with the Harappan civilisation; it was named one of five iconic archaeological sites in the Union Budget of 2020.
Q5(c) · Culture, Communication and Research Methods · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Culture, Language and Communication
Glottochronology
हिंदी में प्रश्न
भाषाकालक्रमविज्ञान
Practise this question Culture, Communication and Research Methods notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(c)
Approach: Define glottochronology, explain its assumptions, method and formula, mention applications and criticisms.
Glottochronology, developed by the American linguist Morris Swadesh in the early 1950s, is a method of estimating how long ago two related languages separated from a common ancestor, using the rate at which basic vocabulary is replaced.
Assumptions and method: (i) every language has a core vocabulary (pronouns, body parts, numerals, natural objects) that is resistant to borrowing; Swadesh prepared 200- and 100-word lists; (ii) this core is replaced at a roughly constant rate, about 81 per cent retained per thousand years for the 200-word list; (iii) the percentage of shared cognates between two languages therefore indicates time depth. Time is calculated as t = log C / 2 log r, where C is the proportion of cognates and r the retention rate.
Applications: it has been used to estimate divergence within language families such as Indo-European, Austronesian and Dravidian.
Criticism: retention rates are not constant (Icelandic changed little), borrowing and taboo replacement distort counts, and cognate judgement is subjective.
Q5(d) · Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Menarche, Menopause and Fertility Patterns
Menopausal symptoms
हिंदी में प्रश्न
रजोनिवृत्ति के लक्षण
Practise this question Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(d)
Approach: A short note: define menopause, list short-term and long-term symptoms with their hormonal basis, and add the anthropological point that symptoms vary across cultures.
Menopause is the permanent cessation of menstruation, confirmed after 12 months without a period; it follows the perimenopause, when ovarian hormones fall unevenly. Indian studies commonly report a mean age in the mid-to-late forties.
Short-term symptoms: irregular cycles, vasomotor symptoms (hot flushes and night sweats), sleep disturbance, irritability, low mood, poor concentration, joint and muscle pain and fatigue.
Long-term effects: vaginal dryness and urinary problems (genitourinary syndrome), loss of bone density leading to osteoporosis and fractures, and a higher risk of cardiovascular disease as oestrogen's protection declines; hormone therapy relieves symptoms but its risks were highlighted by the Women's Health Initiative trial (2002).
Cultural variation: Margaret Lock (Encounters with Aging, 1993) found Japanese women in konenki rarely reported hot flushes and spoke of shoulder stiffness, and called this local biology; Indian rural women more often report aches and fatigue than flushes, and some feel freer of menstrual taboos after menopause.
Menopausal symptoms are thus bio-cultural, shaped by hormones, diet, work and social meanings of ageing.
Q5(e) · Culture and Society · 10 marks≈ 7 min
Concept and Characteristics of Culture and Civilization
William Ogburn and Cultural lag
हिंदी में प्रश्न
विलियम ऑगबर्न एवं सांस्कृतिक अन्तराल
Practise this question Culture and Society notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q5(e)
Approach: A short note: Ogburn's distinction of material and non-material culture, the meaning and causes of cultural lag, his own and Indian examples, and a critique.
William F. Ogburn, in Social Change with Respect to Culture and Original Nature (1922), divided culture into material culture (tools, machines, buildings) and non-material or adaptive culture (customs, beliefs, laws, institutions).
Cultural lag: because inventions accumulate and spread quickly while norms and laws adjust slowly, the non-material part lags behind the material part, causing strain; Ogburn's own example was the long gap between rising industrial accidents and workmen's compensation laws.
Indian examples: mobile phones and social media spread faster than norms on privacy, leading only later to data protection law (2023); sex-selection technology spread before the PCPNDT Act (1994) was framed and enforced; forest laws long lagged behind the needs of forest dwellers until the Forest Rights Act (2006).
Critique: the material and non-material cannot be neatly separated; ideas can lead technology; and the theory leans towards technological determinism.
Still, cultural lag remains a useful tool for explaining social problems during rapid change and for designing timely policy.

Question 6 (50 marks)

Q6(a) · Culture, Communication and Research Methods · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Fieldwork Tradition, Technique, Method and Methodology
Critically discuss the controversies related to fieldwork of Bronislaw Malinowski and Margaret Mead.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
ब्रॉनिस्लॉ मैलिनोवस्की तथा मार्ग्रेट मीड के क्षेत्रीय कार्यों से संबंधित विवादों की समालोचनात्मक विवेचना कीजिए ।
Practise this question Culture, Communication and Research Methods notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(a)
Approach: Take each controversy in turn: Malinowski (the diary, colonial context, contested findings such as paternity and the neglect of women’s exchange) and Mead (Freeman’s critique of Samoa and its rebuttals); critically weigh both sides and draw lessons for fieldwork.
Bronislaw Malinowski and Margaret Mead are icons of the fieldwork tradition, yet both became subjects of major controversies.
Malinowski: his diary, published posthumously in 1967 as A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term, revealed loneliness, irritation, sexual fantasies and contemptuous racial terms for the Trobrianders, contrasting sharply with the empathetic participant observer of Argonauts (1922). Critics asked whether his rapport was real and noted his dependence on colonial authority. Defenders such as Raymond Firth argued that a private diary vents feelings and that the published ethnography stands on its data.
Contested findings: his claim that Trobrianders were ignorant of physiological paternity was debated by Leach (“Virgin Birth”, 1966) and others, and Annette Weiner’s restudy (Women of Value, Men of Renown, 1976) showed that he had largely missed women’s wealth exchanges of banana-leaf bundles.
Mead: Coming of Age in Samoa (1928) argued that Samoan adolescence was free of stress because of relaxed sexual attitudes, supporting cultural over biological determinism. Derek Freeman (1983) claimed that Samoa was competitive, puritanical and violent, that Mead knew little Samoan, stayed only about nine months with an American family, and was misled by joking informants.
Rebuttals: critics of Freeman (Paul Shankman, 2009; Lowell Holmes) noted that he worked decades later in a different area, relied on selective sources and had his own biological agenda; Holmes’s restudy confirmed much of Mead’s data while finding more conflict.
Lessons: both controversies show that ethnography is shaped by the researcher’s personality, gender, theory and time in the field. They led to restudies, reflexivity, attention to women’s worlds, and the recognition that fieldwork findings must be tested, not treated as final truth.
Q6(b) · Economic Organisation · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Globalization and Indigenous Economic Systems
Discuss the impact of globalization on the economic systems of indigenous communities.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
देशज समुदायों की आर्थिक व्यवस्थाओं पर वैश्वीकरण के प्रभाव की विवेचना कीजिए ।
Practise this question Economic Organisation notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(b)
Approach: Discuss the impact of globalization on indigenous economies in a balanced way: define both, analyse negative and positive impacts with Indian cases and theory, and conclude with safeguards.
Globalization, the growing integration of economies through trade, capital, technology and media, has drawn indigenous economies based on subsistence, common property and reciprocity into the market.
Commoditization: land, labour, forest produce and crafts become goods for sale; tendu, mahua, lac and sal seeds earn cash but tie gatherers to traders and price swings. Cash crops such as cashew, rubber and coffee replace mixed farming and jhum in the North-East and Odisha.
Dispossession: mining, dams and industries displace tribal people; Walter Fernandes estimated that they form about 40 per cent of those displaced by development projects since independence. David Harvey's term accumulation by dispossession describes this.
Migration and inequality: seasonal migration to brick kilns and cities brings wages but also exploitation; reciprocity and labour exchange decline, and an emerging tribal elite widens inequality.
Positive outcomes: self-help groups and mobile phones give better prices and credit; the Kani benefit-sharing model in Kerala (the drug Jeevani from arogyapacha), GI tags such as Araku Valley coffee (2019) and global markets for Gond art and Dhokra show gains.
Eric Wolf reminded us that such peoples were never isolated, and Appadurai that local people reinterpret global flows. Outcomes depend on rights: the Fifth Schedule, PESA (1996), the Forest Rights Act (2006) and the Van Dhan Yojana (2018) can make globalization work for tribes rather than against them.
Q6(c) · Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Applications of Anthropology
Describe the practical applications of DNA technology in the current scenario.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
वर्तमान परिदृश्य में डीएनए प्रौद्योगिकी के व्यावहारिक अनुप्रयोगों का विवरण प्रस्तुत कीजिए ।
Practise this question Reproductive Biology, Demography and Applied Anthropology notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q6(c)
Approach: List current practical applications of DNA technology across medicine, forensics, agriculture, conservation and anthropology, with recent examples, and end with ethical caution.
DNA technology covers methods to isolate, amplify (PCR, Kary Mullis, 1983), sequence, compare and edit DNA. Falling costs since the Human Genome Project (completed 2003) have taken it from laboratories into daily life.
Medicine: RT-PCR testing during COVID-19 and India's indigenous Truenat test for tuberculosis; newborn and carrier screening for thalassaemia and sickle-cell disease; India's ZyCoV-D (2021), the first DNA vaccine approved for humans; gene therapy and the CRISPR-based sickle-cell therapy Casgevy, approved in the UK in 2023; and pharmacogenomics, such as testing for HLA-B*15:02 before prescribing carbamazepine.
Forensics and law: STR profiling for crime investigation, disaster victim identification and paternity disputes, pioneered in India by Lalji Singh, whose work led to the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad. Population genomics: the GenomeIndia project released data on 10,000 Indian genomes in 2025, useful for disease risk and drug response.
Agriculture, environment and anthropology: Bt cotton (approved in India in 2002) and marker-assisted breeding; environmental DNA to monitor wildlife; ancient DNA, such as the Rakhigarhi genome (2019), to reconstruct population history.
These benefits bring concerns about privacy of genetic data, consent, discrimination and germline editing; India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 and ICMR guidelines are first steps toward governance.

Question 7 (50 marks)

Q7(a) · Culture, Communication and Research Methods · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Tools of Data Collection and Analysis
Describe various methods of qualitative data analysis. Highlight some popular computer softwares used in qualitative analysis.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
गुणात्मक डेटा विश्लेषण की विभिन्न प्रविधियों का विवरण प्रस्तुत कीजिए । गुणात्मक विश्लेषण में प्रयोग आने वाले कुछ लोकप्रिय कंप्यूटर सॉफ्टवेयरों को इंगित कीजिए ।
Practise this question Culture, Communication and Research Methods notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(a)
Approach: Explain the main methods of qualitative analysis (thematic, grounded theory, content, narrative, discourse and conversation, domain and componential, interpretive), then list software and its proper use.
Qualitative data in anthropology, such as field notes, interview transcripts, life histories, texts, photographs and recordings, are analysed to find patterns, meanings and explanations rather than to measure. Analysis begins in the field and continues through coding, interpretation and writing.
Methods: (i) thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) identifies recurring themes through coding; (ii) grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) builds theory inductively through open, axial and selective coding and constant comparison until saturation; (iii) content analysis counts and categorises words or themes in texts, for example in tribal folk songs or media; (iv) narrative analysis studies the structure and meaning of life stories; (v) discourse and conversation analysis examine how talk constructs power and identity; (vi) domain and componential analysis (James Spradley, 1979) uncover native categories, such as kinship or disease classifications; (vii) interpretive analysis through Geertz’s thick description; (viii) case and situational analysis of the Manchester school.
Rigour comes from triangulation, member checking with informants, negative case analysis and an audit trail of decisions.
Software: computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) includes NVivo, ATLAS.ti, MAXQDA, QDA Miner and Dedoose; early programs included The Ethnograph. They help store, code, retrieve, link and visualise data, handle audio, video and images, and support teamwork.
Caution: software organises data but does not interpret it; over-coding can fragment context. Analysis remains the anthropologist’s intellectual task, guided by theory and sensitivity to the community.
Q7(b) · Population Genetics, Race and Human Variation · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Hardy–Weinberg Law, Genetic Polymorphism and Inbreeding
What assumptions must be met for a population to be in genetic equilibrium ? Explain the importance of genetic equilibrium.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
किसी जनसमूह के आनुवंशिक संतुलन में बने रहने हेतु किन धारणाओं का पूरा होना आवश्यक है ? आनुवंशिक संतुलन के महत्त्व को स्पष्ट कीजिए ।
Practise this question Population Genetics, Race and Human Variation notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(b)
Approach: State the Hardy-Weinberg principle, list and explain each assumption, then explain the importance of equilibrium as a null model with a worked example, and conclude.
The Hardy-Weinberg principle, stated independently by G.H. Hardy and Wilhelm Weinberg in 1908, holds that in an ideal population allele and genotype frequencies remain constant from generation to generation. With two alleles of frequencies p and q (p + q = 1), genotype frequencies are p² : 2pq : q², and this equilibrium is reached after one generation of random mating.
Assumptions: (i) a very large population, so that chance (genetic drift) does not alter frequencies; (ii) random mating, without inbreeding or assortative mating; (iii) no mutation; (iv) no migration or gene flow; (v) no natural selection, so all genotypes have equal survival and fertility; (vi) non-overlapping generations and equal allele frequencies in both sexes.
Importance: (i) it is the null model of population genetics; departure from it shows that an evolutionary force is acting, for instance an excess of homozygotes points to inbreeding; (ii) it allows estimation of carrier frequencies: if albinism affects 1 in 20,000, q² = 0.00005, q is about 0.007 and carriers (2pq) are about 1 in 70, which guides screening and counselling; (iii) it explains why dominant traits do not automatically spread and recessive ones do not vanish; (iv) it underlies forensic DNA probability calculations.
Real populations rarely meet every assumption, but the law remains the yardstick for measuring evolution.
Q7(c) · Anthropological Theories · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Culture and Personality, Neo-evolutionism and Later Theories
Discuss political and methodological aspects of national character studies. Elucidate the contemporary relevance of such studies.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
राष्ट्रीय चरित्र अध्ययनों के राजनीतिक एवं विधितंत्रीय पक्षों की विवेचना कीजिए । ऐसे अध्ययनों की समसामयिक प्रासंगिकता को स्पष्ट कीजिए ।
Practise this question Anthropological Theories notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q7(c)
Approach: Three demands: political context, methodological features and weaknesses, and contemporary relevance; organise in three blocks with examples.
National character studies, an outgrowth of the culture and personality school in the 1940s and 1950s, tried to describe the typical personality of modern nations such as Japan, Germany, Russia and the USA.
Political aspects: they were born of war. Benedict, Mead, Gorer and Bateson worked with the US Office of War Information to understand enemies and allies; Benedict’s The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946) advised on Japanese behaviour and occupation policy. In the Cold War, the Columbia University Research in Contemporary Cultures project studied Russia and Eastern Europe. Critics saw this as anthropology serving state power and producing images of the enemy.
Methodological aspects: since fieldwork was impossible, scholars developed the study of culture at a distance (Mead and Métraux, 1953) using immigrants’ interviews, films, novels, propaganda and projective tests. They assumed that child-rearing, such as Gorer’s swaddling hypothesis for Russians, shaped adult character, and generalised from small samples to whole nations, ignoring class, region and ethnicity.
Contemporary relevance: in a revised, statistical form the idea survives in cross-cultural psychology and management, for example Geert Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture (1980) used in multinational business, diplomacy and diaspora studies, and in debates on soft power. However, the danger of stereotyping and profiling means such studies are useful only as tendencies, combined with attention to internal diversity.

Question 8 (50 marks)

Q8(a) · Anthropological Theories · 20 marks≈ 14 min
Culture and Personality, Neo-evolutionism and Later Theories
Critically examine Arjun Appadurai's conceptualization of global cultural economy.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
अर्जुन अप्पादुरै द्वारा प्रतिपादित वैश्विक सांस्कृतिक अर्थव्यवस्था की अवधारणा का समालोचनात्मक परीक्षण कीजिए ।
Practise this question Anthropological Theories notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(a)
Approach: Explain Appadurai’s five scapes and the idea of disjuncture, with examples (including Indian ones), then critically examine strengths and weaknesses.
Arjun Appadurai set out his model in “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy” (1990), expanded in Modernity at Large (1996). He argued that globalisation cannot be understood by centre-periphery or push-pull models, because cultural flows now move in overlapping, uneven and disjunctive ways.
The five scapes: (i) ethnoscapes, the shifting landscape of tourists, migrants, refugees and guest workers, such as Indian IT professionals in the USA or Malayali workers in the Gulf; (ii) mediascapes, images and narratives spread by film, television and the internet, such as Bollywood watched in Nigeria; (iii) technoscapes, the fast movement of technology across borders; (iv) financescapes, the rapid flows of global capital, currencies and stock markets; (v) ideoscapes, political ideas like democracy, rights and freedom, which take different meanings in different places.
Disjuncture: these flows do not move together; money may flow where people cannot, and images arrive without the institutions behind them. Imagination becomes a social practice, as migrants build imagined worlds and long-distance identities. Appadurai also showed indigenisation: in “Playing with Modernity” he described how Indians decolonised cricket through vernacular commentary and mass media.
Strengths: the model replaced the homogenisation (Americanisation) thesis with a picture of tension between homogenisation and heterogenisation, and gave anthropology tools to study deterritorialised culture.
Criticism: the scapes are metaphors that are hard to operationalise; the model underplays the continuing power of states, borders and capital, and the inequalities of class and gender in who can move (Heyman and Campbell, 2009).
Overall, Appadurai’s framework remains a useful heuristic for global flows if anchored in grounded ethnography of power and inequality.
Q8(b) · Human Genetics: Methods, Inheritance and Chromosomes · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Chromosomes and Chromosomal Aberrations
Describe the causes of structural abnormalities of chromosomes with suitable examples.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
गुणसूत्रों की संरचनात्मक विकृतियों के कारकों का उपयुक्त उदाहरणों सहित विवरण प्रस्तुत कीजिए ।
Practise this question Human Genetics: Methods, Inheritance and Chromosomes notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(b)
Approach: Explain the causes of chromosome breakage and faulty rejoining (radiation, chemicals, viruses, repair defects, recombination errors), then link them to each type of structural abnormality with examples.
Structural abnormalities arise when chromosomes break and the broken ends are lost or rejoin wrongly. They may be inherited from a balanced carrier parent or arise anew in a gamete.
Causes: (i) ionising radiation (X-rays, gamma rays), as seen in raised chromosome damage among survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; (ii) chemical clastogens such as benzene, some anti-cancer drugs and pesticides; (iii) viruses that break chromosomes; (iv) inherited defects of DNA repair, the chromosome breakage syndromes, such as Fanconi anaemia, Bloom syndrome and ataxia telangiectasia; (v) unequal crossing over or non-allelic homologous recombination between repeated sequences in meiosis; (vi) segregation from a parent carrying a balanced rearrangement.
Resulting types: deletion, as in cri-du-chat syndrome (5p−, cat-like cry and intellectual disability) and the 22q11.2 microdeletion of DiGeorge syndrome; duplication, as in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A; inversions, pericentric or paracentric, usually harmless in carriers but producing unbalanced gametes; reciprocal translocation, such as the Philadelphia chromosome t(9;22) in chronic myeloid leukaemia; Robertsonian translocation, such as t(14;21) causing familial Down syndrome; ring chromosomes; and isochromosomes such as i(Xq) in some Turner cases.
Identifying the cause matters for counselling, since inherited rearrangements carry recurrence risk while sporadic ones do not.
Q8(c) · Kinship · 15 marks≈ 11 min
Kinship Terminology, Filiation, Descent and Alliance
Critically discuss A.L. Kroeber's contribution to kinship studies.
हिंदी में प्रश्न
नातेदारी अध्ययनों में ए.एल. क्रोएबर के योगदान की समालोचनात्मक विवेचना कीजिए ।
Practise this question Kinship notes
Model answer
Paper and question: Paper I, Q8(c)
Approach: Critically discuss Kroeber's 1909 critique of Morgan, his eight principles and his psychological view of terms, then weigh the criticisms by Rivers and Radcliffe-Brown and his lasting influence.
A.L. Kroeber, Boas's student, in 'Classificatory systems of relationship' (1909) rejected Morgan's division of terminologies into descriptive and classificatory, arguing that all systems classify; English 'cousin' or 'uncle' groups many genealogical positions.
He identified eight principles of classification: generation, relative age within a generation, lineal versus collateral, sex of the relative, sex of the speaker, sex of the linking relative, consanguinity versus affinity, and whether the linking relative is alive or dead. English uses only four, while many Native American systems use more.
Kroeber argued that terms reflect psychology and language, ways of thinking, more than social institutions, so they cannot be used to reconstruct past marriage forms as Morgan had done.
Rivers (Kinship and Social Organisation, 1914) and Radcliffe-Brown replied that terms reflect social institutions such as cross-cousin marriage and lineage organisation, and most anthropologists today accept that both linguistic and social factors shape terminology.
His principles became the basis of componential analysis (Goodenough and Lounsbury, 1956) and of Murdock's cross-cultural classification; his Zuñi Kin and Clan (1917) also documented clan organisation.
Kroeber's lasting contribution was analytical rigour and the end of the evolutionist reading of terms, though his denial of social determinants proved too strong.

UPSC Mains 2023 Anthropology Paper II