UPHESC Assistant Professor Anthropology 2025 PYQs

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.

Concept: Adolf Bastian (German ethnologist) propounded the 'psychic unity of mankind' (Elementargedanken – elementary ideas common to all humans).

1. Similar cultural traits arise independently because all human minds work alike.
2. The idea was later used by evolutionists like Tylor and Morgan, but its originator is Bastian.

Short trick: Bastian – Elementary ideas – Psychic unity.

Concept: Racial traits (skin colour, hair form, blood groups, head shape) are hereditary characters transmitted through genes.

1. (A) true – a race is defined by a combination of inherited physical traits.
2. (R) false – environment can modify some traits, but heredity, not environment, is the foremost determinant; non-heritable traits cannot be racial criteria.

Short trick: Race = genes first, environment second.

Concept: Taxonomic position of man: Class Mammalia → Order Primates → Family Hominidae → Genus Homo.

1. Class – Mammalia (IV).
2. Order – Primates (III).
3. Family – Hominidae (II).
4. Genus – Homo (I).

Short trick: M-P-H-H: Mammal, Primate, Hominid, Homo.

Concept: Classic works on Indian peoples and races.

1. H. H. Risley – The People of India (1908) → II.
2. A. C. Haddon – The Wanderings of Peoples (1911) → I.
3. J. H. Hutton – Census Commissioner, Census of India 1931 → III.
4. B. S. Guha – Racial Elements in the Population (1944) → IV.

Short trick: Risley People, Haddon Wanderings, Hutton Census, Guha Racial elements.

Concept: Stone tools in order of appearance.

1. Chopper – Oldowan/Sohanian, earliest Lower Palaeolithic pebble tool.
2. Hand axe – Acheulian, later Lower Palaeolithic.
3. Blade – Upper Palaeolithic.
4. Microlith – Mesolithic. Order: I, II, IV, III.

Short trick: Pebble → Biface → Blade → Tiny blade.

Concept: Sir Alexander Cunningham founded the Archaeological Survey of India (1861) and was its first Director-General — the 'Father of Indian Archaeology'.

1. John Marshall – DG during Harappa/Mohenjo-daro excavations (1920s).
2. Mortimer Wheeler – stratigraphic method, Arikamedu.
3. Daya Ram Sahni – excavated Harappa (1921).

Short trick: 1861 ASI → Cunningham → Father.

Concept: Active biometrics need the conscious action/cooperation of the person; passive biometrics can be captured without it.

1. Fingerprint – person must place the finger on a scanner → active.
2. Signature and keystroke pattern – person must write/type → active.
3. Facial recognition – can be captured from a distance by a camera without cooperation → passive.

Short trick: Touch, write, type = active; camera = passive.

Concept: Kinanthropometry (Ross, 1972; ISAK) is the quantitative study of human size, shape, proportion and composition in relation to movement, exercise and performance.

1. (A) true – it measures individuals in a variety of morphological perspectives applied to movement.
2. (R) false – measurements are taken on the body in a standard static position (standing/sitting, anatomical landmarks), not while it is moving; the results are then related to movement.

Short trick: Measure static, interpret for motion.

Concept: Penetrance = proportion of individuals carrying a genotype who actually show the phenotype. When some carriers of a dominant allele show no trait, it is incomplete (reduced) penetrance.

1. Polydactyly is a classic example of incomplete penetrance.
2. Expressivity = degree of expression among those who do show the trait (e.g., extra finger fully or partly formed).

Short trick: Penetrance: whether it shows; Expressivity: how much it shows.

Concept: Epistasis: a gene at one locus masks the expression of genes at another locus.

1. Homozygous albinism (aa – no melanin) masks all the skin-colour genes, however dark they would be.
2. ABO – multiple alleles and co-dominance.
3. Haemophilia – X-linked recessive; sickle cell – single-gene (incomplete dominance/pleiotropy).

Short trick: Albino hides every colour = epistasis.