UPHESC Assistant Professor Anthropology 2025 PYQs

Concept: The UNESCO Statement on Race (1950, drafted with Ashley Montagu, Lévi-Strauss and others) declared that all humans belong to one species, Homo sapiens.

1. It rejected the idea of 'pure races' — human populations always interbreed.
2. It denied any scientific basis for racial superiority in intelligence or temperament.
3. Options A, C and D are exactly the racist ideas the statement refuted.

Short trick: UNESCO 1950 = 'One species, no pure race, no superior race'.

Concept: Malinowski described the Kula ring of the Trobriand Islands in Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922).

1. Kula: ceremonial exchange of red shell necklaces (soulava, clockwise) and white shell armbands (mwali, anticlockwise).
2. Tylor – culture & animism; Boas – historical particularism, potlatch; White – cultural evolution (energy).

Short trick: Trobriand → Argonauts → Kula → Malinowski.

Concept: The Mousterian (Middle Palaeolithic) flake-tool industry, named after Le Moustier (France), was made mainly by Neanderthal man.

1. Typical tools: side-scrapers and points made by Levallois technique.
2. Homo erectus – Acheulian hand axes (Lower Palaeolithic).
3. Grimaldi and Chancelade men – Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens (Aurignacian/Magdalenian).

Short trick: Moustier → Middle Palaeolithic → Neanderthal.

Concept: BMI = weight (kg) / height² (m²), introduced by Quetelet.

1. It classifies under-nutrition (BMI < 18.5) — nutritional assessment.
2. It classifies overweight (25–29.9) and obesity (≥ 30) — the standard tool in obesity research.
3. So it serves both purposes.

Short trick: BMI shows both ends — thin and fat.

Concept: Among the Tangkhul Nagas of Manipur the hereditary village chief is called Khullakpa (also Awunga).

1. The Khullakpa presides over the village council and performs village rituals.
2. Chenchus and Kadars are food-gathering tribes of the south with no such office; Koli Mahadevs are a Maharashtra tribe.

Short trick: Khul = village (Manipur) → Khullakpa = Tangkhul village chief.

Concept: The schools developed in the order Evolutionism → Diffusionism → Functionalism → Structuralism, i.e. I, II, III, IV.

1. Evolutionism – Tylor, Morgan (1860s–1890s).
2. Diffusionism – Graebner, Schmidt, Elliot Smith (c. 1900–1930).
3. Functionalism – Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown (1922 onwards).
4. Structuralism – Lévi-Strauss (1949–1950s). The correct order I, II, III, IV is not among the four codes, so no option is correct.

Short trick: E-D-F-S: 'Every Diffusion Follows Structure'.

Concept: L. L. Langness wrote The Life History in Anthropological Science (1965), the classic review of the life-history method.

1. Life history = detailed biography of one person used to understand a culture.
2. Mead – Coming of Age in Samoa; Modell – works on culture & personality, not this title.

Short trick: Langness = Life history (both start with L).

Concept: Fraternal polyandry is practised by the Kinnauras of Kinnaur (Himachal Pradesh), as also by the Khasas of Jaunsar-Bawar and the Todas.

1. Brothers share one wife; it keeps scarce land undivided.
2. Saharia, Kathodi and Warli are monogamous/polygynous tribes of central and western India.

Short trick: Polyandry belt: Toda – Khasa – Kinnaura – Ladakhi.

Concept: The Anthropological Society of London was founded in 1863 by James Hunt and Richard Burton.

1. Ethnological Society of London – 1843.
2. In 1871 the two merged to form the (Royal) Anthropological Institute.
3. Paris Anthropological Society (Broca) – 1859.

Short trick: 1843 Ethnological, 1863 Anthropological, 1871 merger.

Concept: Watson and Crick (1953) proposed the double-helix model: two long antiparallel polynucleotide chains joined by base pairs.

1. A–T (2 H-bonds) and G–C (3 H-bonds) pairing.
2. Mendel – laws of heredity (no DNA); Lévi-Strauss – structuralism; MacIver – sociologist.

Short trick: Watson–Crick 1953 = two strands, one helix.

Concept: Annihilation of Caste (1936) is Dr B. R. Ambedkar's undelivered speech for the Jat-Pat Todak Mandal, Lahore.

1. N. K. Bose – The Structure of Hindu Society; A. R. Desai – Social Background of Indian Nationalism; Murdock – Social Structure.

Short trick: 1936 – Ambedkar – 'Annihilation'.

Concept: In the standard textbook treatment of Himalayan Buddhist tribes, 'Jangtopa' is listed among the rites performed for the dead, i.e. a funeral/death rite.

1. Such rites are conducted by lamas after a death, for the welfare and good rebirth of the departed (compare the Tibetan byang-chog rite for the dead).
2. Nothing links the term to a worship system, a game or warfare, so options B, C and D do not fit.

Short trick: 'Jang' rites = for the dead.

Concept: The giraffe painting at Adamgarh rock shelters, Hoshangabad (M.P.), is assigned to the Mesolithic period.

1. Mesolithic rock art of central India (Adamgarh, Bhimbetka) shows animals and hunting scenes.
2. Adamgarh also yielded microliths and evidence of early animal domestication.

Short trick: Hoshangabad giraffe = Adamgarh = Mesolithic.

Concept: Ol Chiki script was created by Pandit Raghunath Murmu (1925) for the Santali language.

1. Santali is in the Eighth Schedule (92nd Amendment, 2003).
2. Oraon (Kurukh) uses Tolong Siki; Gond – Gunjala Gondi script.

Short trick: Ol Chiki – Murmu – Santhal.

Concept: Match each tribe with its traditional economy.

1. Foraging – Sentinelese (North Sentinel Island) → IV.
2. Pastoralism – Gaddi shepherds of Himachal → III.
3. Settled agriculture – Gond → II.
4. Shifting cultivation (bewar) – Baiga → I.

Short trick: Baiga = bewar; Gaddi = sheep; Sentinelese = hunt & gather.

Concept: E. E. Evans-Pritchard (Social Anthropology, 1951): social anthropology is a branch of sociological studies which chiefly devotes itself to primitive societies.

1. Radcliffe-Brown called it 'comparative sociology' — close, but not this wording.
2. Lévi-Strauss saw anthropology as a semiotic science; MacIver was a sociologist.

Short trick: 'Branch of sociology for primitive societies' = Evans-Pritchard.

Concept: Georges Cuvier (French palaeontologist) proposed catastrophism: life on earth was repeatedly destroyed by sudden catastrophes and replaced by new forms.

1. It explained extinct fossils without evolution.
2. Opposite view – uniformitarianism (James Hutton, Charles Lyell). Note J. H. Hutton (option A) is the Indian census anthropologist, not the geologist.

Short trick: Cuvier = Catastrophe; Hutton/Lyell = Uniform.

Concept: Microliths (tiny blades, lunates, triangles hafted as composite tools) are the hallmark of the Mesolithic, made by anatomically modern man, Homo sapiens sapiens.

1. Homo erectus – Acheulian hand axes.
2. Neanderthals – Mousterian flakes.
3. Microliths appear after the Upper Palaeolithic, made only by fully modern humans.

Short trick: Smallest tools by the latest man.

Concept: H. P. Fairchild (Dictionary of Sociology): sociology is the study of man and his human environment in their relations to each other.

1. MacIver & Page: sociology is about social relationships, the 'web of social relationships'.
2. Darwin and Mendel were biologists.

Short trick: Fairchild – man + human environment; MacIver – web of relationships.

Concept: Man is a social animal (Aristotle): sociality is a basic feature of human life.

1. (A) is true.
2. (R) is true: humans are born into and depend on groups, living in constant interaction with fellow members.
3. This constant group living is exactly what makes sociality a feature of human life, so (R) explains (A).

Short trick: Living together → sociality.