Lakshmi Nagappan

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2018

Anthropology Paper 1 – Booklist and Approach

By Lakshmi Nagappan | May 31, 2019 73 Comments

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I am providing my booklist here for Paper 1 of Anthropology. It could be quite exhaustive, but use them to gather the
material and make your own notes. Paper 1 usually takes a lot of time to complete as the syllabus is huge, the scope
is varied and is time consuming so plan accordingly.

1.1 Meaning, scope, and development of Ant hropology [ Generally 10 Marker is asked in this section 1.1 to 1.3, so
prepare notes accordingly]

Source : Telugu Academy, Ember and Ember, Brain Tree.

1.2 Relat ionship wit h ot her disciplines: History, Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Polit ical Science, Life
Science, Medical Science.

Source : Telugu Academy

1.3 Main branches of Ant hropology, t heir scope, and relevance: 

(a) Socio-cult ural Ant hropology.
(b) Biological Ant hropology.
(c) Archaeological Ant hropology.

Approach: The questions here are straight forward so prepare an answer before hand.

Source : Brain Tree

1.4 Human Evolut ion and emergence of Man:

Organic Evolut ion-T heories of evolut ion in historical perspect ive, pre-Darwinian, Darwinian and Post -
Darwinian period. Modern synt het ic t heory of evolut ion; a brief out line of t erms and concept s of
evolut ionary biology (Doll’s rule, Cope’s rule, Gause’s rule, parallelism, convergence, adapt ive radiat ion,
mosaic evolut ion)

Source : Physical Anthropology book by P.Nath

Principles of syst emat ics and t axonomy, major primat e t axa, t er t iary and quat ernary fossil primat es,
Syst emat ics of Hominoidea and Hominidae, Origin and evolut ion of man-‘Homo erect us and Homo sapiens’.

Source : P.Nath and Telugu Academy.

Approach: I usually skipped this part. Especially ones relating to quaternary fossils etc. However, if you wish to do it
you can do it from P.Nath.

1.5 Phylogenet ic st at us, charact erist ics and geographical dist ribut ion of t he following:

1. Homo erect us: Africa (Parant hropus), Europe (Homo erect us heidelbergensis), Asia (Homo erect us
javanicus, Homo erect us pekinensis).
2. Neander t hal Man- La-Chapelle-aux-saint s (Classical t ype), Mt . Carmel (Progressive t ype).
3. Rhodesian man.
4. Homo sapiens — Cromagnon, Grimaldi and Chancelede.

Source : P.Nath and IGNOU book on Physical Anthropology.

Approach: Here you can draw diagrams. Write the entire characteristics from Homo erectus to sapiens on an A4
sheet and stick it close to your study table and look at it repetitively. It will help you recall in the examination hall
easier. Also, learn to draw the diagrams here perfectly. Don’t make errors while writing the biological names. This unit
is a scoring one so make use of it.

1.6 Evolut ionary t rend and classificat ion of t he order Primat es, Relat ionship wit h ot her mammals, molecular
evolut ion of Primat es, Comparat ive anatomy of man and apes, primat e locomot ion;-t errest rial and arboreal
adapt at ion, skelet al changes due to erect post ure and it s implicat ions

Source : Telugu Academy , P.Nath

Approach: Here it is sufficient if you know the Comparative anatomy of man and apes, Primate locomotion and
relationship with mammals. This section is scoring if you practice diagrams for skeletal changes etc with proper
labeling.

1.7 T he biological basis of life: T he Cell, DNA st ruct ure and replicat ion, Prot ein Synt hesis, Gene, Mut at ion,
Chromosomes, and Cell Division.

Approach: I skipped this part. If you want to do it you can from Telugu Academy books

1.8

1. Principles of Prehistoric Archaeology. Chronology: Relat ive and Absolut e Dat ing met hods.
2. Cult ural Evolut ion- Broad Out lines of Prehistoric cult ures:
1. Paleolit hic
2. Mesolit hic
3. Neolit hic
4. Chalcolit hic
5. Copper-Bronze Age
. Iron Age

Source: Book by DK BHATTACHARYA [An outline of Indian Pre-History], E-Pathshala videos, notes by Sachin Gupta
Sir.
Approach: The questions here are direct. Prepare for each culture on an A4 sheet and reproduce the same in the
exam hall.

2.1 T he Nat ure of Cult ure: T he concept and charact erist ics of cult ure and civilizat ion; Et hnocent rism vis-à-
vis cult ural Relat ivism.

2.2 T he Nat ure of Societ y: Concept of Societ y; Societ y and Cult ure; Social Inst it ut ions; Social groups; and
Social st rat ificat ion.

2.3 Marriage: Definit ion and universalit y; Laws of marriage (endogamy, exogamy, hypergamy, hypogamy,
incest t aboo); Types of marriage (monogamy, polygamy, polyandry, group marriage). Funct ions of marriage;
Marriage regulat ions (preferent ial, prescript ive and proscript ive); Marriage payment s (bridewealt h and
dowry).

2.4 Family: Definit ion and universalit y; Family, household and domest ic groups; funct ions of family; Types of
family (from t he perspect ives of st ruct ure, blood relat ion, marriage, residence, and succession); Impact of
urbanizat ion, indust rializat ion and feminist movement s on family.

2.5 Kinship: Consanguinit y and Affinit y; Principles and t ypes of descent (Unilineal, Double, Bilat eral,
Ambilineal); Forms of descent groups (lineage, clan, phrat ry, moiet y and kindred); Kinship t erminology
(descript ive and classificatory); Descent , Filiat ion, and Compliment ary Filiat ion; Descent and Alliance.

3. Economic organizat ion: Meaning, scope, and relevance of economic ant hropology; Formalist and
Subst ant ive debat e; Principles governing t he product ion, dist ribut ion and exchange (reciprocit y,
redist ribut ion, and market ), in communit ies, subsist ing on hunt ing and gat hering, fishing, swiddening,
pastoralism, hor t icult ure, and agricult ure; globalizat ion and indigenous economic syst ems.

4. Polit ical organizat ion and Social Cont rol: Band, t ribe, chiefdom, kingdom, and st at e; concept s of power,
aut horit y, and legit imacy; social cont rol, law, and just ice in simple societ ies.

5. Religion: Ant hropological approaches to t he st udy of religion (evolut ionary, psychological and funct ional);
monot heism and polyt heism; sacred and profane; myt hs and rit uals; forms of religion in t ribal and peasant
societ ies (animism, animat ism, fet ishism, nat urism and tot emism); religion, magic and science
dist inguished; magicoreligious funct ionaries (priest , shaman, medicine man, sorcerer and wit ch).

Source: Rahul Venkat notes, Sachin Gupta notes, Brain Tree, Indian Socio-Cultural Anthropology by Nadeem Hasnain,
Telugu Academy, Target Ias notes, Vaid notes.

Approach:

1.If you decide to attempt more questions from here. It can be impressive and fetch more marks if you have
conceptual clarity and can justify your stand with good examples.

2.The definitions here must be as per the ones in the book.

3. Questions on marriage, political organization chapter is quite direct while Kinship is largely contemporary.

4. It would be impressive if you can gather original thoughts of the thinker from their books who gave the concept
originally. Eg: Radcliffe Brown on Society.

5. Prepare on topics like Ethnocentrism, Formalist and Substantive debate, types of marriages, myth vs ritual well as
they can be asked for a 10 marker.

6. Collect examples from Ember & Ember. Otherwise well-known case studies like Kula Ring system for economic
organization, Kwakiutl of British Columbia, Sahlins and Service on modes of exchange, Balanced Reciprocity among
the tribes of Western Ghats are found in almost every book.
6. Ant hropological t heories:

1. Classical evolut ionism (Tylor, Morgan, and Frazer)

2. Historical par t icularism (Boas); Diffusionism (Brit ish, German and American)
3. Funct ionalism (Malinowski); St ruct ural- funct ionalism (Radcliffe-Brown)
4. St ruct uralism (Levi – St rauss and E. Leach)
5. Cult ure and personalit y (Benedict , Mead, Linton, Kardiner, and Cora – du Bois).
. Neo-evolut ionism (Childe, Whit e, St eward, Sahlins, and Service)
7. Cult ural mat erialism (Harris)
. Symbolic and int erpret ive t heories (Turner, Schneider, and Geer t z)
9. Cognit ive t heories (Tyler, Conklin)
10. Post modernism in ant hropology

Source: Rahul Venkat notes, Telugu Academy, Synopsis of the original book by the thinkers, Target IAS Booklets,
Ember and Ember.

Approach :

1. Spend a good amount of time here to get conceptual clarity.

2. Know the thoughts, concept provided, criticism, how useful the theory was and the area where they worked
3. There are few theories which are confusing like Structuralism and few where the material is not adequately
available. For these, you can prepare only for a 10 marker from Vivek Bhasme Sir’s book.
4. Also for those theories for which there are multiple views like Kardiner and Linton you must know the subtle
differences.
5. For the closely related theories, you must provide a comparative analysis eg: how Malinowski and Radcliffe
brown differed. Difference between evolution and neo-evolution etc.

7. Cult ure, language, and communicat ion: Nat ure, origin, and charact erist ics of language; verbal and non-
verbal communicat ion; social cont ext of language use.

8. Research met hods in ant hropology:

1. Fieldwork t radit ion in ant hropology

2. T he dist inct ion bet ween t echnique, met hod, and met hodology
3. Tools of dat a collect ion: observat ion, int erview, schedules, quest ionnaire, Case st udy, genealogy, life-
history, oral history, secondary sources of informat ion, par t icipatory met hods.
4. Analysis, int erpret at ion, and present at ion of dat a.

Source: Vivek Bhasme, Brain Tree,IGNOU books

Approach:

1. Questions are very direct here so you need to know only what is the research methodology about and who
used it and its criticism. Eg: Genealogical Method on Todas by W.H. Rivers

9.1 Human Genet ics – Met hods and Applicat ion: Met hods for t he st udy of genet ic principles in t he man-
family st udy (pedigree analysis, t win st udy, fost er child, co-t win met hod, cytogenet ic met hod, chromosomal
and karyot ype analysis), biochemical met hods, immunological met hods, D.N.A. t echnology, and recombinant
t echnologies.

9.2 Mendelian genet ics in t he man-family st udy, single factor, mult ifactor, let hal, sub-let hal and polygenic
inherit ance in man.

9.3 Concept of genet ic polymorphism and select ion, Mendelian populat ion, Hardy-Weinberg law; causes and
changes which bring down frequency – mut at ion, isolat ion, migrat ion, select ion, inbreeding and genet ic
drift . Consanguineous and non-consanguineous mat ing, genet ic load, genet ic effect of consanguineous and
cousin marriages.

9.4 Chromosomes and chromosomal aberrat ions in man, met hodology.

1. Numerical and st ruct ural aberrat ions (disorders).

2. Sex chromosomal aberrat ions – Klinefelt er (XXY), Turner (XO), Super female (XXX), int ersex and ot her
syndromic disorders.
3. Autosomal aberrat ions – Down syndrome, Pat au, Edward and Cri-du-chat syndromes.
4. Genet ic imprint s in human disease, genet ic screening, genet ic counseling, human DNA profiling, gene
mapping, and genome st udy.

Source: Only P.Nath is sufficient for entire human genetics, However for diagrams, etc you can also look at IGNOU
Book.

Approach :

1. Highly Scoring and answers are very very direct. Eg: Mendel’s four laws could be asked for 15 marks.
2. All that is to be done is know 1/2 examples, structure your answer well and present it neatly. Questions here are
mostly static so this part is highly scoring.

9.5 Race and racism, biological basis of morphological variat ion of non-met ric and met ric charact ers.
Racial crit eria, racial t rait s in relat ion to heredit y and environment ; biological basis of racial classificat ion,
racial different iat ion and race crossing in man.

Source & Approach:

1. There is a little analytical part here with respect to racism for which Telugu Academy could be referred.
2. For racial classification learn the characteristics of major races- Mongoloid, Caucasian, Negroid.
3. You can draw diagrams here for metric characters.

9.6 Age, sex and populat ion variat ion as genet ic marker- ABO, Rh blood groups, HLA Hp, t ransferring, Gm,
blood enzymes. Physiological charact erist ics-Hb level, body fat , pulse rat e, respiratory funct ions and
sensory percept ions in different cult ural and socio-economic groups

Source : Brain Tree

Approach : I skipped this part as questions are not generally asked.

9.7 Concept s and met hods of Ecological Ant hropology. Bio-cult ural Adapt at ions – Genet ic and Non- genet ic
factors. Man’s physiological responses to environment al st resses: hot deser t , cold, high alt it ude climat e.

Source : Ignou, Telugu Academy , P.Nath

Approach :

1. Know who gave the concept and write the definition by Julian Steward.
2. Questions come every year on one of the above given environmental conditions for which you must specifically
write about their biological and cultural adaptations.
3. Prepare for a 15 or 20 marker here.

9.8 Epidemiological Ant hropology: Healt h and disease. Infect ious and non-infect ious diseases. Nut rit ional
deficiency relat ed diseases.

Approach :

1. I searched for research work done by few anthropologists. Collected a few examples like one by Christoph von
Fürer-Haimendorf on Nagas to quote them.
2. I skipped the rest as questions are not generally asked
3. You can also collect examples from XaXa committee report.

10. Concept of human growt h and development : st ages of growt h – pre-nat al, nat al, infant , childhood,
adolescence, mat urit y, senescence.Factors affect ing growt h and development genet ic, environment al,
biochemical, nut rit ional, cult ural and socio-economic. Ageing and senescence. T heories and observat ions –
biological and chronological longevit y. Human physique and somatot ypes. Met hodologies for growt h
st udies.

11.1 Relevance of menarche, menopause and ot her bioevent s to fer t ilit y. Fer t ilit y pat t erns and different ials.

11.2 Demographic t heories- biological, social and cult ural.

11.3 Biological and socio-ecological factors influencing fecundit y, fer t ilit y, nat alit y, and mor t alit y.

Source: Brain Tree, Telugu Academy, Vivek Bhasme’s book

Approach:

1. Here generally it is asked for 10 marks so prepare short notes on each topic.
2. For questions on somatotypes, diagrams can be drawn.
3. Collect case studies for topics like menopause, adolescence from Ember and Ember.
4. Draw graphs for growth studies, demographic theory, etc.

12. Applicat ions of Ant hropology: Ant hropology of spor t s, Nut rit ional ant hropology, Ant hropology in
designing of defense and ot her equipment , Forensic Ant hropology, Met hods and principles of personal
ident ificat ion and reconst ruct ion, Applied human genet ics – Pat ernit y diagnosis, genet ic counseling and
eugenics, DNA t echnology in diseases and medicine, serogenet ics and cytogenet ics in reproduct ive biology.

Source: P.Nath

Approach :

1. This is application oriented and scoring as well.

2. Case studies from Ministry of Tribal affairs can be quoted.
3. Practice diagrams from Vivek Bhasme’s book for topics like cytogenetics, forensic anthropology, karyotyping
for paternity diagnosis