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UPSC CSE Mains 2025 — Anthropology Questions with Answers

All 56 Anthropology previous-year questions from UPSC CSE Mains 2025, each with the correct answer and a full explanation. Practise them as a free, timed mock test with instant scoring.

1. Q1.Human Genetics & Molecular Anthropology

   Write a short note in about 150 words: Mendelian and non-Mendelian traits.

   Explanation: Mendelian traits: single-gene, clear dominant/recessive, follow Segregation & Independent Assortment (ABO blood group, pea colour). Non-Mendelian: incomplete dominance, codominance, multiple alleles, polygenic (height, skin colour), mitochondrial inheritance. Together they give a full picture of heredity.

2. Q2.Social-Cultural Anthropology

   Write a short note in about 150 words: Theoretical significance of the Purum kinship system.

   Explanation: Purum (NE India): patrilineal exogamous clans (khels). Exemplifies structural-functionalism (kinship upholds social order) and Levi-Strauss's alliance theory (prescriptive cross-cousin marriage as inter-clan alliance). Kin categories carry prescriptive roles regulating ceremony, resources, politics.

3. Q3.Prehistoric Archaeology

   Write a short note in about 150 words: Osteodontokeratic culture and its makers.

   Explanation: Coined by Raymond Dart: bone-tooth-horn tool culture of Pleistocene South Africa (c.2.5-1 mya), makers Australopithecus africanus. Evidence from Makapansgat, Sterkfontein, Taung shows bone accumulations with cut marks/wear. Predatory hypothesis debated; taphonomy reassesses it.

4. Q4.Physical & Biological Anthropology

   Write a short note in about 150 words: Smell as a signal among non-human primates.

   Explanation: Chemical signalling central to primate social/reproductive behaviour: scent marking (lemurs, marmosets) for territory and reproductive readiness; oestrus odours attract mates; individual odours signal age, sex, status, kinship, health. Complements visual/vocal channels, especially in prosimians.

5. Q5.Fundamentals of Anthropology

   Write a short note in about 150 words: Culture and embodiment.

   Explanation: Embodiment: cultural knowledge/identity inscribed on and expressed through the body. Mauss's 'techniques of the body' (learned bodily habits); Bourdieu's 'habitus' (practice shapes disposition/perception); body as site of cultural reproduction. Gender, caste, ethnicity manifest in comportment and health.

6. Q6.Physical & Biological Anthropology

   Discuss the Miocene hominoid remains and their significance in evolution. (20 marks)

   Explanation: Miocene (23-5.3 mya) = hominoid radiation: Proconsul (E Africa), Dryopithecus (Europe), Sivapithecus/Ramapithecus (Siwaliks; Sivapithecus to orangutan line), Gigantopithecus. Significance: dental/postcranial traits document ape-hominid divergence, diet and locomotor adaptation, biogeography, and debate on timing of the human-pongid split.

7. Q7.Anthropological Theories

   Compare and contrast the symbolic approaches of Clifford Geertz and Victor Turner to understand culture. (15 marks)

   Explanation: Geertz: interpretive 'thick description', culture as webs of significance read like a text (Balinese cockfight). Turner: symbols as dynamic ritual operators — multivocality, dominant/instrumental symbols, liminality, communitas (Ndembu). Both centre symbols; contrast hermeneutic-textual (Geertz) vs processual-action (Turner).

8. Q8.Physical & Biological Anthropology

   How is political economy integrated with ecological and adaptability perspectives in bio-cultural anthropology? (15 marks)

   Explanation: Cultural ecology (Steward) and human-adaptability studies explained populations via environment; political economy (Eric Wolf; critical medical anthropology) adds that history, power, inequality and markets shape resource access, nutrition, stress and health. Integration treats adaptation as both ecological and politically structured.

9. Q9.Indian Society & Civilization

   How do anthropologists assess the nutritional status of a community? Discuss the significance of the intersectionality of ecology, culture and social inequality in the study of nutritional anthropology. (20 marks)

   Explanation: Assessment: anthropometry (BMI, MUAC, stunting/wasting), dietary surveys, clinical/biochemical markers, food-security indices. Intersectionality: ecology (food availability), culture (food habits, taboos, breastfeeding), and social inequality (class, caste, gender) jointly shape nutrition; biocultural lens links them.

10. Q10.Fundamentals of Anthropology

    Critically examine the drawbacks in assuming culture as an 'integrated-closed system' in understanding contemporary society. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Functionalist 'integrated whole' view (Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown) ignores internal conflict, change, power and globalisation. Contemporary societies are open, plural, contested (practice theory, world-system, hybridity). Treating culture as closed misses migration, media, agency and inequality.

11. Q11.Research Methods & Fieldwork

    Differentiate between pedigree and genealogical analyses. Discuss the history and application of these methods in anthropological studies. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Pedigree analysis: biological/genetic charting of trait inheritance across generations (medical genetics, consanguinity). Genealogical method: Rivers's social tool to map kin relations, terminology and social structure. Differ in aim (biological vs social) though both use family trees; both foundational in physical and social anthropology.

12. Q12.Fundamentals of Anthropology

    Anthropology provides a multidimensional understanding of human beings by bridging the gap between science and humanities. Elucidate. (20 marks)

    Explanation: Holism: biological anthropology (evolution, genetics, adaptation = science) plus social/cultural and linguistic anthropology (meaning, symbol, interpretation = humanities), unified by archaeology. Biocultural approach, fieldwork and comparison let anthropology study humans as both biological organisms and meaning-makers.

13. Q13.Prehistoric Archaeology

    Write a note on the Mousterian tool tradition, Mousterian culture and its makers. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Mousterian = Middle Palaeolithic flake-tool industry (Levallois technique, scrapers, points), makers chiefly Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) of Europe/W Asia. Marks refinement in tool-making, hafting, hunting, and early symbolic/ritual behaviour (deliberate burial).

14. Q14.Physical & Biological Anthropology

    Critically examine James Frazer's theory of evolutionism. Elucidate the place of religion in modernity. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Frazer (The Golden Bough): unilineal progression magic to religion to science. Critiqued as armchair, ethnocentric, unilineal. Religion in modernity persists via revival, fundamentalism, privatisation and secularisation debates — not simple disappearance.

15. Q15.Research Methods & Fieldwork

    Write a short note in about 150 words: Multispecies, Multi-sited and Critical Ethnography.

    Explanation: Multi-sited (Marcus): follow people/things/ideas across connected sites in a globalised world. Multispecies: decentre humans, study human-animal-plant-microbe entanglements. Critical ethnography: reflexive, power-aware, emancipatory stance challenging inequality and the observer's position.

16. Q16.Physical & Biological Anthropology

    Write a short note in about 150 words: Evolutionary significance of menopause.

    Explanation: Human females uniquely cease reproduction mid-life. Grandmother hypothesis: post-reproductive women raise inclusive fitness by aiding grandchildren; also embodied-capital and mother hypotheses. Links life-history theory, longevity and cooperative breeding in human evolution.

17. Q17.Prehistoric Archaeology

    Write a short note in about 150 words: Fission track dating method and its applications.

    Explanation: Radiometric method using damage tracks from spontaneous fission of uranium-238 in minerals/volcanic glass. Track density vs induced tracks gives age. Applied to date volcanic layers at hominin sites (e.g., associated with Olduvai), spanning thousands to millions of years.

18. Q18.Physical & Biological Anthropology

    Write a short note in about 150 words: Mitochondrial DNA and human evolution.

    Explanation: mtDNA: maternally inherited, no recombination, high mutation rate — a molecular clock. 'Mitochondrial Eve' and Out-of-Africa model trace modern human origins; haplogroups reconstruct migrations and population history.

19. Q19.Physical & Biological Anthropology

    Write a short note in about 150 words: Foetal origin of adult diseases and the contribution of David Barker.

    Explanation: Barker hypothesis (DOHaD): intrauterine undernutrition programs metabolism, raising adult risk of hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease. Low birth weight links early-life environment to later health — key for biocultural and public-health anthropology, especially in undernourished populations.

20. Q20.Applied & Forensic Anthropology

    What are genetic markers? Discuss their applications in understanding population variation, disease association and forensics. (20 marks)

    Explanation: Genetic markers: identifiable DNA variants (blood groups, HLA, SNPs, STRs, mtDNA, Y-chromosome). Applications: population variation/migration and admixture; disease association (GWAS, linkage); forensics (DNA fingerprinting, identification, kinship/paternity). Backbone of modern biological anthropology.

21. Q21.Fundamentals of Anthropology

    "The agenda of biological anthropology became more scientific from the middle of the twentieth century." Justify. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Post-1950 'New Physical Anthropology' (Washburn): shift from typological racial classification to population/evolutionary biology, genetics, the Modern Synthesis, adaptation and primatology. Hypothesis-testing, quantitative methods and later molecular tools made it experimental and scientific.

22. Q22.Linguistic Anthropology

    Describe briefly the theoretical perspectives in linguistic anthropology to explain the relationship of culture, language and thought. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Sapir-Whorf (linguistic relativity): language shapes thought/worldview. Ethnolinguistics, ethnosemantics/componential analysis, sociolinguistics (Hymes' ethnography of communication), and cognitive approaches debate determinism vs universalism in the language-culture-cognition link.

23. Q23.Social-Cultural Anthropology

    How has the study of variation in forms of marriage led to rethinking the concepts of social reproduction, kinship and family? (20 marks)

    Explanation: Diverse forms (polygyny, polyandry, woman-woman, ghost, same-sex marriage; new reproductive technologies) destabilise biological definitions. New kinship studies (Schneider, Carsten's 'relatedness') reframe kinship as culturally constructed; family and social reproduction become processual, not fixed.

24. Q24.Social-Cultural Anthropology

    What are the major theories proposed in support of the origin of food production? How did the change in subsistence economy bring revolution during this period? (15 marks)

    Explanation: Theories: Childe's oasis-propinquity, Braidwood's nuclear-zone/readiness, Binford-Flannery population-pressure/marginal-zone, Hassan demographic, climate models. Neolithic shift to farming/herding brought sedentism, surplus, population growth, property, craft specialisation and social stratification.

25. Q25.Physical & Biological Anthropology

    Critically discuss the centrality of the African continent in the narrative of human evolution. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Africa yields earliest hominins (Sahelanthropus, Ardipithecus, Australopithecus), genus Homo, and anatomically modern humans; Out-of-Africa I & II, mtDNA/Y evidence. Critique: fossil-recovery bias, multiregional debate, new Asian finds — but Africa remains the core cradle.

26. Q26.Anthropological Theories

    How are the theories of postmodernism relevant in promoting social justice and empowerment of marginalised communities? (20 marks)

    Explanation: Postmodernism (Foucault, Lyotard; writing-culture critique) questions grand narratives, exposes power/knowledge, gives voice to subaltern/marginal perspectives, reflexivity and representation. Aids social justice via deconstructing dominant discourse; critiqued for relativism and weak praxis.

27. Q27.Human Genetics & Molecular Anthropology

    'Genome-wide Disease Association Studies (GWAS) advanced our understanding of health and disease.' Discuss. (15 marks)

    Explanation: GWAS scan SNPs across genomes to link variants with diseases (diabetes, cardiovascular, etc.), enabling polygenic risk scores and pharmacogenomics. Limits: small effect sizes, population bias (Euro-centric samples), correlation not causation, ethical concerns — relevant to anthropological genetics.

28. Q28.Applied & Forensic Anthropology

    Examine the utility of human remains in forensic analysis. Discuss the facial reconstruction technique. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Skeletal remains establish identity: age, sex, stature, ancestry, trauma, time-since-death, individuation. Facial reconstruction (sculptural/2D/3D-digital) rebuilds soft tissue over the skull using tissue-depth data to aid identification in medico-legal cases.

29. Q29.Prehistoric Archaeology

    Write a short note in about 150 words: 'Soanian cultural' tradition.

    Explanation: Soanian: Lower/Middle Palaeolithic pebble-chopper-chopping-tool industry of the Siwalik/Soan valley (now Pakistan) and sub-Himalayan India. Core-and-flake on quartzite pebbles; contrasts with the Acheulian biface tradition; key to Indian prehistoric culture sequence.

30. Q30.Indian Society & Civilization

    Write a short note in about 150 words: Caste domination, factionalism and political power.

    Explanation: Srinivas's 'dominant caste' controls land, numbers and power locally. Factions (vertical, leader-based alliances) structure village politics; caste and faction shape vote-banks, patronage and competition, linking traditional hierarchy with democratic political power.

31. Q31.Tribal & Indigenous India

    Write a short note in about 150 words: Regionalism and Autonomy.

    Explanation: Regionalism: assertion of regional/ethnic identity over resources, language, development. Autonomy demands (Sixth Schedule, Autonomous District Councils, statehood movements in NE India) seek self-governance for tribal/regional groups — balancing integration and identity.

32. Q32.Tribal & Indigenous India

    Write a short note in about 150 words: Verrier Elwin's philosophy with respect to Arunachal Pradesh.

    Explanation: Elwin moved from 'national park' protectionism to a middle path shaping Nehru's Panchsheel/NEFA policy: develop tribes along their own genius, avoid over-administration and exploitation, respect land, art and institutions. Guided Arunachal (NEFA) tribal administration.

33. Q33.Indian Prehistory & Populations

    Write a short note in about 150 words: Characteristics and communication between Little and Great Traditions.

    Explanation: Redfield/Marriott/Singer: Great Tradition (reflective, textual, pan-Indian elite) and Little Tradition (local, folk, oral). Communication via universalization (local to Sanskritic) and parochialization (Sanskritic to local), linked by cultural performances and brokers — explaining Indian civilizational continuity.

34. Q34.Physical & Biological Anthropology

    Discuss the palaeoanthropological significance of the Siwaliks of India, giving its subdivisions, fossil primate fauna and major primate fossil localities. (20 marks)

    Explanation: Siwaliks (Mio-Pliocene foothill deposits): subdivided Lower/Middle/Upper. Rich fossil primates — Sivapithecus, Ramapithecus, Gigantopithecus. Localities: Haritalyangar (HP), Ramnagar (J&K), Chandigarh/Nadah. Crucial for Miocene hominoid evolution and the orangutan lineage.

35. Q35.Indian Prehistory & Populations

    Delineate the major features of S. S. Sarkar's classification of Indian populations. Was his classification better than Risley's? Explain. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Sarkar used anthropometric/serological criteria, recognising six main racial elements, updating Guha. Risley's earlier scheme relied on nasal index and was tied to caste/colonial assumptions. Sarkar is methodologically more rigorous and less value-laden, though racial typology itself is now superseded by population genetics.

36. Q36.Indian Society & Civilization

    Evaluate the impact of Christianity on the Scheduled Tribe societies of North-East India. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Positive: literacy, education, health, script, women's status, pan-tribal identity. Disruptive: erosion of traditional religion, festivals, customary institutions; new cleavages and identity politics. Mixed transformation of NE tribal society.

37. Q37.Prehistoric Archaeology

    Describe the distinctive features and distribution of the Upper Palaeolithic of India. (20 marks)

    Explanation: Features: blade-and-burin industry, bone tools, ornaments, early art (Bhimbetka). Distribution: Belan valley, Andhra (Renigunta, Kurnool caves), Maharashtra (Patne), Rajasthan, Gujarat, MP. Evidence of behavioural modernity and regional specialization.

38. Q38.Physical & Biological Anthropology

    Examine the environmental and biocultural factors influencing the health of tribals of India. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Environmental: habitat, sanitation, vectors (malaria), nutrition, displacement. Biocultural: genetic disorders (sickle-cell, G6PD), diet/food taboos, ethnomedicine, alcohol, access barriers. Health outcomes from gene-environment-culture interaction; relevant for tribal health policy.

39. Q39.Indian Prehistory & Populations

    Highlight the significant contributions of B. S. Guha, Irawati Karve and S. R. K. Chopra to Indian anthropology. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Guha: racial classification of Indian people (1935 Census), founder of Anthropological Survey of India. Karve: kinship organisation in India, anthropometry, Maharashtra studies, Marathi public anthropology. Chopra: primatology and Siwalik palaeoprimatology at Panjab University.

40. Q40.Indian Society & Civilization

    What are the different types of caste mobility in India? Highlight the various factors responsible for it. (20 marks)

    Explanation: Types: Sanskritization (Srinivas), Westernization, secular positional mobility of whole jatis, individual mobility. Factors: economic change, land reform, reservation, education, urbanization, politicisation, migration, social movements. Mobility is largely positional within the system.

41. Q41.Physical & Biological Anthropology

    Elucidate the role of demographic and social factors for population growth in India. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Demographic: high fertility, declining mortality, demographic transition, age structure/momentum. Social: early marriage, son preference, low female education, religion/region, poverty, weak family-planning uptake. Explains India's growth and regional variation.

42. Q42.Tribal & Indigenous India

    Critically examine the concept of Scheduled Tribe (ST) and mention the limitations of the administrator's criteria. (15 marks)

    Explanation: ST: constitutional category (Art. 342); Lokur Committee criteria — primitive traits, distinct culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact, backwardness. Limitations: vague, dated, evolutionary bias, exclusion/inclusion errors, ignores acculturation and self-identification.

43. Q43.Indian Prehistory & Populations

    Write a short note in about 150 words: Impact of urbanization and industrialization on tribal communities of India.

    Explanation: Displacement, land alienation, deforestation, migration to towns/mines, detribalization, wage labour, new diseases, cultural erosion — but also education, mobility and political assertion. Mixed, often disruptive, transformation (e.g., Jharkhand mining belt).

44. Q44.Physical & Biological Anthropology

    Write a short note in about 150 words: Taxonomic status of Ramapithecus in the light of the Ramapithecus-Sivapithecus controversy.

    Explanation: Once hailed as earliest hominid (small canines, arcade). Later jaw/molecular evidence merged Ramapithecus into Sivapithecus, aligned with the orangutan (Pongo) lineage, not human ancestry. Cautionary tale on fragmentary fossils.

45. Q45.Tribal & Indigenous India

    Write a short note in about 150 words: Tribalism and Pseudotribalism.

    Explanation: Tribalism: genuine solidarity, identity and consciousness of a tribal community. Pseudo-tribalism: claiming tribal identity/benefits without authentic tribal characteristics — relevant to ST-list politics, reservation claims and the tribe-caste continuum debate.

46. Q46.Indian Society & Civilization

    Write a short note in about 150 words: Varnashrama and its contemporary relevance.

    Explanation: Varna (four orders) + ashrama (four life-stages: brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, sanyasa) frame classical Hindu social-ethical order. Contemporary relevance: ideological legacy in caste, life-cycle values; critiqued for hierarchy and exclusion in a modern egalitarian-constitutional society.

47. Q47.Indian Prehistory & Populations

    Write a short note in about 150 words: Lothal dockyard and international trade relations.

    Explanation: Lothal (Gujarat, Harappan): a tidal dockyard/basin indicating maritime trade. Bead industry, seals, Persian-Gulf contacts evidence international trade with Mesopotamia/Dilmun — showing Harappan commercial and engineering sophistication.

48. Q48.Indian Society & Civilization

    "The village was not merely a place where people lived; it had a design in which were reflected the basic values of Indian civilization." Who said this? Elaborate. (20 marks)

    Explanation: Said by M. N. Srinivas. Indian village as a social-cultural unit (not mere settlement): its layout, caste-jajmani interdependence, temples and commons mirror civilizational values — hierarchy, community, occupational specialization. Village studies (Srinivas, Dube, Beteille) reveal continuity and change in rural India.

49. Q49.Social-Cultural Anthropology

    Discuss the role of NGOs in the socioeconomic and political development of weaker sections and the manner in which they facilitate other stakeholders. (15 marks)

    Explanation: NGOs: service delivery, awareness, capacity-building, microfinance/SHGs, advocacy, rights mobilisation, bridging state and community. Facilitate government, donors and communities. Critiques: dependency, accountability, foreign funding, uneven reach.

50. Q50.Tribal & Indigenous India

    Trace the history and describe the methods of formulating the lists of OBCs, both at the State and National levels. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Kaka Kalelkar (1953) and Mandal Commission (1980) at the Centre; Art. 340; National Commission for Backward Classes (102nd Amendment, constitutional status). Criteria: social, educational, economic backwardness. States maintain own OBC lists; methods via commissions, surveys, indicators.

51. Q51.Tribal & Indigenous India

    Identify the contemporary limitations in the process of tribal development. How can anthropological knowledge contribute to this process? (20 marks)

    Explanation: Limits: top-down planning, displacement, land alienation, cultural insensitivity, poor implementation, indebtedness, weak PESA/FRA enforcement. Anthropology contributes ethnographic baseline, participatory/culturally-appropriate planning, action anthropology (Tax), and evaluation respecting tribal genius.

52. Q52.Tribal & Indigenous India

    Discuss the rising ethnic conflicts in India and propose their possible remedial measures. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Causes: identity assertion, resource competition, migration/insider-outsider, autonomy demands, politicisation, relative deprivation. Remedies: autonomy (Sixth Schedule), inclusive development, dialogue, safeguards, equitable resource sharing, conflict-sensitive governance.

53. Q53.Tribal & Indigenous India

    Critically evaluate the concept of the Nation-State and describe its impact on indigenous societies. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Nation-state assumes homogeneous nation + sovereign territory; often imposes dominant culture. Impact on indigenes: assimilation, land/resource loss, marginalisation, but also rights frameworks (ILO 169, UNDRIP), autonomy and identity movements. Tension between integration and self-determination.

54. Q54.Social-Cultural Anthropology

    Describe the nature of traditional socioeconomic interdependence among the Toda, Kota, Kurumba and Irula tribes of the Nilgiri Hills. Highlight the changes occurring in these interrelationships. (20 marks)

    Explanation: Classic symbiosis: Toda (pastoral, dairy), Kota (artisans/musicians), Kurumba (forest produce, sorcery/ritual), Irula (cultivators/labour) exchanged goods and services in a jajmani-like network. Changes: market economy, roads, tourism, plantations, reservation and decline of ritual interdependence.

55. Q55.Indian Prehistory & Populations

    Define minority. Elaborate the patterns of linguistic and religious minorities in India. (15 marks)

    Explanation: Minority: a numerically smaller, non-dominant group with distinct religion/language/culture seeking to preserve identity (Art. 29-30; TMA Pai). Patterns: religious minorities (Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis) and linguistic minorities by state; safeguards and identity concerns.

56. Q56.Tribal & Indigenous India

    What are the identifying criteria for PVTGs in India? Examine their current status, nomenclature and distribution. (15 marks)

    Explanation: PVTG criteria (Dhebar/earlier PTG): pre-agricultural technology, stagnant/declining population, low literacy, subsistence economy. 75 PVTGs notified; nomenclature changed PTG to PVTG (2006). Distribution concentrated in Odisha, Jharkhand, Andhra, MP, Andaman; among most vulnerable groups.