UPHESC Assistant Professor Anthropology 2025 PYQs

Concept: Check each statement.

1. a – correct: the Ganga basin is India's largest (about a quarter of the country's area).
2. b – correct: the Bhagirathi rises at Gaumukh (Gangotri glacier) in Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand.
3. c – wrong: Satluj and Jhelum belong to the Indus system.
4. d – correct: the Son is the main right-bank tributary (others: Yamuna, Tons… ).

Short trick: Punjab rivers (Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, Satluj) → Indus; drop c.

Concept: The Khyber Pass, in the Spin Ghar (Safed Koh) range, is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

1. It links Peshawar (Pakistan) with Jalalabad/Kabul (Afghanistan) via Torkham border.
2. It was the historic invasion and trade route into the Indian subcontinent.

Short trick: Khyber → Khyber Pakhtunkhwa → Pakistan.

Concept: The Coriolis effect is the apparent deflection of moving objects caused by the Earth's rotation.

1. Deflection is to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern; it is zero at the equator and maximum at the poles.
2. Pressure differences drive winds, and the Coriolis effect deflects them; ocean currents are deflected by it, not its cause; the Moon causes tides.

Short trick: Rotation → Coriolis; Moon → tides.

Concept: Kirsty Coventry, a Zimbabwean former swimmer, was elected IOC President on 20 March 2025 (Costa Navarino, Greece).

1. She is the 10th IOC President, the first woman and the first African; she succeeded Thomas Bach (Germany) in June 2025.
2. She won 7 Olympic medals, including 200 m backstroke gold in 2004 and 2008, and was Zimbabwe's sports minister.

Short trick: First woman + first African IOC chief = Coventry of Zimbabwe.

Concept: NPP 2000 has immediate (unmet contraception needs), medium-term (TFR to replacement level 2.1 by 2010) and long-term objectives.

1. Long-term objective: a stable population by 2045, consistent with economic growth and environment protection → 1 correct.
2. National socio-demographic goals include reducing MMR to below 100 per 100,000 live births (and IMR below 30 per 1000) → 2 correct.

Short trick: NPP 2000: TFR 2.1 by 2010, stable population by 2045, MMR < 100, IMR < 30.

Concept: The capital market deals in long-term funds – equity and debt; the best-known capital markets are the stock market and the bond markets.

1. Stock (share) market → equity capital; bond market → long-term debt capital.
2. A depository account (with NSDL/CDSL) only holds securities in electronic (demat) form – it is a facility, not a market.

Short trick: Capital market = shares + bonds; demat = locker, not market.

Concept: FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) was founded in 1927 on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by G. D. Birla and Purshottamdas Thakurdas.

1. It is India's oldest and largest apex business organisation, headquartered in New Delhi.
2. Gandhi only advised; J. R. D. Tata was a co-author of the 1944 Bombay Plan with them, not a FICCI founder.

Short trick: FICCI 1927 = Birla + Thakurdas (Gandhi's advice).

Concept: Right to Equality = Articles 14–18 of the Constitution (the English List-II gives Articles; the Hindi version prints 'अनुसूची' (Schedule), but the numbers 14–17 can only be Articles – the Constitution has just 12 Schedules).

1. Art 14 – equality before law and equal protection of laws → a-I.
2. Art 15 – no discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth → b-II.
3. Art 16 – equality of opportunity in public employment → c-III.
4. Art 17 – abolition of untouchability → d-IV (Art 18 – abolition of titles).

Short trick: The rights follow the article order 14-15-16-17 → straight I-II-III-IV.

Concept: Article 81 caps the Lok Sabha at 530 members from the States + 20 from the Union Territories = 550.

1. Earlier, Article 331 allowed the President to nominate 2 Anglo-Indians, which made the maximum 552.
2. The 104th Amendment (2019, effective 25 Jan 2020) ended Anglo-Indian nomination, so the maximum now fixed by the Constitution is 550.
3. 545 was the actual strength (543 elected + 2 nominated) up to the 16th Lok Sabha; 543 elected seats today.

Short trick: Max now 530 + 20 = 550 (552 only before 2020).

Concept: Recall each Article.

1. Art 50 (DPSP) – separation of judiciary from executive → a-II.
2. Art 143 – President may seek the Supreme Court's advisory opinion → b-IV.
3. Art 61 – procedure for impeachment of the President → c-I.
4. Art 320 – functions of Public Service Commissions → d-III.

Short trick: Only option A has a-II and b-IV.

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.