UPHESC Assistant Professor Anthropology 2025 PYQs

Concept: Sarat Chandra Roy (1871–1942) is called the father/founder of Indian anthropology (and of Indian ethnography).

1. He wrote The Mundas and Their Country (1912), The Oraons of Chota Nagpur.
2. He founded the journal Man in India (1921).
3. B. S. Guha – first director of the Anthropological Survey of India (physical anthropology).

Short trick: S. C. Roy – Ranchi – 'Man in India' – Father.

Concept: The first Homo erectus fossil (Java man, Pithecanthropus erectus) was found by Eugene Dubois at Trinil, Java, in 1891.

1. Peking man (Zhoukoudian, China) came later (1920s).
2. Olduvai (Tanzania) and Ternifine (Algeria)/Morocco finds are later too.

Short trick: Dubois 1891 – Trinil – Java.

Concept: Arrange by geological age.

1. Dryopithecus – Miocene ape (≈ 15–10 mya).
2. Australopithecus – Pliocene–early Pleistocene (≈ 4–2 mya).
3. Homo erectus – ≈ 1.9 mya–0.1 mya.
4. Neanderthal – ≈ 400–40 kya. Order: I, II, IV, III.

Short trick: Ape → Southern ape → Erect man → Neanderthal.

Concept: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck coined the term 'invertebrates' (animaux sans vertèbres) and classified them.

1. He also coined 'biology' (with Treviranus) and proposed inheritance of acquired characters.
2. Darwin – natural selection; Malthus – population; Weismann – germ-plasm theory.

Short trick: Lamarck – spineless animals named.

Concept: Miocene ape fossils (Dryopithecus/Sivapithecus/Ramapithecus) in India come from the Siwalik (Shivalik) hills.

1. Siwalik deposits are Mio-Pliocene fluvial sediments rich in mammal fossils.
2. Vindhya and Kaimur are ancient Precambrian ranges — no ape fossils.

Short trick: Ape fossils of India = Siwaliks (Siva-pithecus!).

Concept: Cro-Magnon man (Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens, France) had a large cranial capacity of about 1590–1600 cc.

1. Higher than the modern average (≈ 1350–1400 cc).
2. 1150 cc fits late Homo erectus; 1360 cc ≈ modern average.

Short trick: Cro-Magnon ≈ 1600 cc — bigger than us.

Concept: Arrange the tribal-policy bodies chronologically.

1. Lokur Committee (1965) – criteria for ST identification – earliest.
2. Haldipur and B. K. Roy Burman committees followed in the later decades of the 20th century.
3. National Commission for Scheduled Tribes – created by the 89th Amendment (2003), set up in 2004 – latest.
4. Only code D begins with I and ends with IV: I, III, II, IV.

Short trick: Lokur first, NCST (2004) last.

Concept: Deletion (deficiency) = loss of a chromosome segment.

1. Duplication – a segment repeated.
2. Translocation – segment moved to a non-homologous chromosome.
3. Inversion – segment reversed by 180°.
4. Example: Cri-du-chat syndrome = deletion of 5p.

Short trick: Delete = lose.

Concept: Bhimbetka rock shelters are in Raisen district, Madhya Pradesh (discovered by V. S. Wakankar, 1957).

1. Occupation from Lower Palaeolithic onwards; famous rock paintings.
2. UNESCO World Heritage Site (2003).

Short trick: Bhimbetka – Bhopal ke paas – M.P.

Concept: The Pleistocene (≈ 2.6 mya – 11,700 yrs ago), the Ice Age, saw the evolution of genus Homo and the emergence of modern Homo sapiens (≈ 300 kya).

1. Miocene – age of apes (Dryopithecus).
2. Pliocene – Australopithecines.
3. Holocene – post-glacial; agriculture, civilisation.

Short trick: Pleistocene = Ice Age = Age of Man.

Concept: Mature mammalian red blood corpuscles lose their nucleus during maturation.

1. This gives more room for haemoglobin and the biconcave shape.
2. Nerve cells and WBCs are nucleated; 'thrombosin' is not a cell (platelets are cell fragments).

Short trick: RBC = no nucleus, more haemoglobin.

Concept: 'Thick description' is associated with Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (1973).

1. Geertz borrowed the phrase from philosopher Gilbert Ryle (wink vs twitch example) and made it the method of interpretive anthropology.
2. Ryle is not an option, so Geertz.

Short trick: Geertz – wink – thick description.

Concept: Francis Galton coined 'regression' (regression towards mediocrity) from his study of parents' and children's stature (1886).

1. Tall parents had children shorter than themselves, short parents taller — drift towards the mean.
2. Galton also founded eugenics, fingerprint classification and twin studies.

Short trick: Galton: Regression, Correlation, Twins, Fingerprints.

Concept: Heredity, Race and Society (1946) was written by L. C. Dunn and Theodosius Dobzhansky.

1. Huxley & Haddon – We Europeans (1935).
2. Heath & Carter – somatotype method (1967).
3. Kalmus – Genetics, Variation and Heredity.

Short trick: Dunn + Dobzhansky = Heredity, Race, Society.

Concept: The 2008 individual genome projects (Yoruba NA18507 and the Asian YH genome of Jun Wang's BGI team, Nature 2008) used Illumina (Solexa) short-read sequencing-by-synthesis.

1. Sanger – first-generation, used for the Human Genome Project and Venter's genome.
2. Roche 454 – pyrosequencing, used for James Watson's genome (2008).

Short trick: 2008 Nature: Yoruba & YH = Illumina; Watson = 454.

Concept: The Santhal Hul, led by Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu, broke out on 30 June 1855 in the Rajmahal hills (Damin-i-koh) and was crushed by 1856–57.

1. Causes: zamindars, moneylenders (dikus) and British oppression.
2. Result: creation of the Santhal Parganas district (1855).

Short trick: Hul 1855 – Sidhu-Kanhu – just before 1857.

Concept: The Untouchability (Offences) Act was passed in 1955 to enforce Article 17.

1. Amended and renamed the Protection of Civil Rights Act in 1976.
2. Later: SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

Short trick: 1955 Act → 1976 PCR → 1989 Atrocities.

Concept: Census 2011: Punjab has the highest proportion of Scheduled Castes — about 31.9% of its population.

1. Next: Himachal Pradesh (25.2%), West Bengal (23.5%).
2. Largest absolute SC number – Uttar Pradesh.
3. Bihar ≈ 15.9%, M.P. ≈ 15.6%, Maharashtra ≈ 11.8%.

Short trick: Percentage – Punjab; number – U.P.

Concept: The pair 'Apollonian' and 'Dionysian' was introduced by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy (1872).

1. Ruth Benedict borrowed these terms from Nietzsche in Patterns of Culture (1934): Zuni = Apollonian (restrained), Kwakiutl/Plains = Dionysian (excess).
2. So the term was provided by Nietzsche and applied to cultures by Benedict.

Short trick: Nietzsche coined, Benedict applied.

Concept: Cultural sequence after the Stone Age: Neolithic → Chalcolithic (copper + stone) → Bronze Age → Iron Age.

1. Neolithic – farming, polished stone.
2. Chalcolithic – first metal (copper) alongside stone.
3. Bronze – copper-tin alloy.
4. Iron – last. Order: I, IV, III, II.

Short trick: Stone → Copper → Bronze → Iron.