Anthropology Optional Syllabus for UPSC Civil Services Mains

How the optional papers are set

The optional papers are numbered VI and VII in the mains scheme and both count for merit. Each is a three hour descriptive paper of 250 marks. In recent papers the format has been eight questions split into two sections, of which you answer five: question 1 and question 5 are compulsory, and you pick at least one more from each section. Question 1 of each section is usually a set of short notes of 10 marks each.

The optional is chosen once, at the time of filling the mains form, and stays the same through mains. You can write it in English or in a permitted Indian language such as Hindi, as allowed in the notification.

Anthropology optional syllabus: Paper I, foundations

• 1.1 to 1.3: meaning, scope and growth of anthropology; its links with social, behavioural, life, medical and earth sciences and the humanities; the main branches: social and cultural, biological, archaeological and linguistic anthropology.
• 1.4: human evolution and the emergence of man: biological and cultural factors, theories of organic evolution, the synthetic theory, and terms such as parallelism, convergence and adaptive radiation.
• 1.5: primates: characteristics, classification, adaptations, behaviour, fossil and living primates, comparison of apes and man, and the effects of erect posture.
• 1.6: the phylogenetic status, features and distribution of fossil hominids: Australopithecines, Homo erectus in Africa, Europe and Asia, Neanderthal man, Rhodesian man and early Homo sapiens.
• 1.7: the biological basis of life: cell, DNA, protein synthesis, gene, mutation, chromosomes and cell division.
• 1.8: prehistoric archaeology: relative and absolute dating methods and the cultures of the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages.

Paper I: socio cultural units

• Unit 2: culture and civilisation, ethnocentrism and cultural relativism; society, groups and stratification; marriage, its forms, rules and marriage payments; family and household, and the effect of urbanisation, industrialisation and feminism on family; kinship, descent, kin terms and descent versus alliance.
• Unit 3: economic organisation, the formalist and substantivist debate, and exchange in hunting gathering, fishing, pastoral, horticultural and farming societies.
• Unit 4: political organisation and social control: band, tribe, chiefdom, kingdom and state; power, authority and law in simple societies.
• Unit 5: religion: approaches to its study, monotheism and polytheism, sacred and profane, myth and ritual, magic and science, and religious specialists such as priest, shaman and sorcerer.
• Unit 6: anthropological theories, from classical evolutionism and diffusionism through functionalism, structuralism, culture and personality and neo evolutionism to cultural materialism, symbolic and interpretive approaches and post modernism.
• Unit 7: culture, language and communication.
• Unit 8: research methods: fieldwork, the difference between technique, method and methodology, tools of data collection, and analysis of data.

Paper I: biological and applied units

• Unit 9: human genetics: methods of study (pedigree, twin, cytogenetic and biochemical), Mendelian and non Mendelian inheritance, population genetics and the Hardy Weinberg law, chromosomal aberrations and syndromes, genetic screening and counselling, race and racism, genetic markers, ecological and epidemiological anthropology.
• Unit 10: human growth and development: stages, factors affecting growth, ageing, somatotypes and methods of studying growth.
• Unit 11: menarche, menopause and other bioevents; demographic theories; biological and socio ecological factors in fecundity, fertility, natality and mortality.
• Unit 12: applications of anthropology in sports, nutrition, the design of defence and other equipment, forensic work, applied human genetics including paternity diagnosis, and reproductive biology.

Diagrams such as pedigree charts, skull comparisons and the Hardy Weinberg working earn marks here, so practise drawing them quickly.

Paper II: Indian anthropology and tribal India

• Unit 1: the evolution of Indian culture and civilisation: prehistoric, protohistoric (the Indus civilisation) and the contribution of tribal cultures; palaeoanthropological evidence from India; ethno archaeology in India.
• Unit 2: the demographic profile of India: ethnic and linguistic elements and the structure and growth of the population.
• Unit 3: the traditional Indian social system: varnashrama, purushartha, karma and rina; the caste system and its theories, jajmani system, dominant caste and caste mobility; the sacred complex and nature, man and spirit; the impact of Buddhism, Jainism, Islam and Christianity.
• Unit 4: the emergence of anthropology in India and the contributions of Indian anthropologists.
• Unit 5: Indian village studies, linguistic and religious minorities, and processes of change such as Sanskritisation, Westernisation, modernisation and the effects of the media and development programmes.
• Units 6 to 8: the tribal situation: distribution of tribes, problems of land alienation, poverty, indebtedness, illiteracy and health; displacement and rehabilitation; forest policy; constitutional safeguards for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes; ethnicity, tribal movements and the impact of religions on tribal society.
• Unit 9: tribal administration and plans, Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups, NGOs, and the role of anthropology in tribal and rural development and in understanding regionalism, communalism and ethnic movements.

Where the optional helps your GS answers

Paper II overlaps with GS Paper I (Indian society, salient features, diversity) and GS Paper II (welfare schemes for vulnerable sections, constitutional safeguards). Tribal displacement and forest rights also turn up in essay topics. Biological units of Paper I help in science and health questions in GS Paper III. Keep a single file of case studies on tribal groups and government schemes and reuse it across papers.

Static parts of this optional rarely change, but Paper II questions often pick up current issues such as tribal health, forest rights or the census. Read Paper II with the newspaper beside you.

A plan to finish both papers

1. Months 1 and 2: Paper I units 1 to 8, building short notes and diagrams for evolution, primates and fossils.
2. Month 3: genetics, growth and applied units, with one diagram per topic.
3. Months 4 and 5: Paper II in order, adding Indian examples and tribe names to every answer.
4. Month 6 onward: daily answer practice of a couple of questions, and full papers every fortnight from the Commission's past question papers.

For the prelims side of the same exam, see the UPSC prelims syllabus, and compare this optional with others such as the sociology optional syllabus before you decide.

Books in general terms

Use one standard textbook each for physical anthropology, social and cultural anthropology and Indian anthropology, plus a reference on tribal India. NCERT Class 11 and 12 sociology books give a soft start to Paper II. Government reports on tribal welfare and the Constitution's provisions for Scheduled Areas supply facts for answers. Print the anthropology pages of the UPSC notice and tick off units as they are done.