Anthropology Optional Syllabus for UPSC
Posted by santosh on November 29th, 2021
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1.1 Meaning, Scope and development of Anthropology.
1.2 Relationships with other disciplines: Social Sciences, behavioural Sciences, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, Earth Sciences and Humanities.
1.3 Main branches of Anthropology, their scope and relevance:
(a) Social-cultural Anthropology.
(b) Biological Anthropology.
(c) Archaeological Anthropology.
(d) Linguistic Anthropology.
1.4 Human Evolution and emergence of Man:
(a) Biological and Cultural factors in human evolution.
(b) Theories of Organic Evolution (Pre-Darwinian, Darwinian and Post-Darwinian).
(c) Synthetic theory of evolution; Brief outline of terms and concepts of evolutionary biology (Doll’s rule, Cope’s rule, Gause’s rule, parallelism, convergence, adaptive radiation, and mosaic evolution).
1.5 Characteristics of Primates; Evolutionary Trend and Primate Taxonomy; Primate Adaptations; (Arboreal and Terrestrial) Primate Taxonomy; Primate Behaviour; Tertiary and Quaternary fossil primates; Living Major Primates; Comparative Anatomy of Man and Apes; Skeletal changes due to erect posture and its implications.
1.6 Phylogenetic status, characteristics and geographical distribution of the following:
(a) Plio-preleistocene hominids inSouth and East Africa—Australopithecines.
(b) Homo erectus: Africa (Paranthropus), Europe (Homo erectus (heidelbergensis), Asia (Homo erectus javanicus, Homo erectus pekinensis.
(c) Neanderthal man—La-chapelle-aux-saints (Classical type), Mt. Carmel (Progressive type). (d) Rhodesian man.
(e) Homo saoiens—Cromagnon, Grimaldi and Chancelede.
1.7 The biological basis of Life: The Cell, DNA structure and replication, Protein Synthesis, Gene, Mutation, Chromosomes, and Cell Division.
1.8 (a) Principles of Prehistoric Archaeology. Chronology: Relative and Absolute Dating methods.
(b) Cultural Evolution—Broad Outlines of Prehistoric cultures:
(i) Paleolithic
(ii) Mesolithic
(iii) Neolithic
(iv) Chalcolithic
(v) Copper-Bronze Age
(vi) Iron Age
2.1 The Nature of Culture: The concept and Characteristics of culture and civilization; Ethnocentrism vis-a-vis cultural Relativism.
2.2 The Nature of Society: Concept of Society; Society and Culture; Social Institution; Social groups; and Social stratification.
2.3 Marriage: Definition and universality; Laws of marriage (endogamy, exogamy, hypergamy, hypogamy, incest taboo); Type of marriage (monogamy, polygamy, polyandry, group marriage). Functions of marriage; Marriage regulations (preferential, prescriptive and proscriptive); Marriage payments (bride wealth and dowry).
2.4 Family: Definition and universality; Family, household and domestic groups; functions of family; Types of family (from the perspectives of structure, blood relation, marriage, residence and succession); Impact of urbanization, industrialization and feminist movements on family.
2.5 Kinship: Consanguinity and Affinity; Principles and types of descent (Unilineal, Double, Bilateral Ambilineal); Forms of descent groups (lineage, clan, phratry, moiety and kindred); Kinship terminology (descriptive and classificatory); Descent, Filiation and Complimentary Filiation;Decent and Alliance.
3. Economic Organization: Meaning, scope and relevance of economic anthropology; Formalist and Substantivist debate; Principles governing production, distribution and exchange (reciprocity, redistribution and market), in communities, subsisting on hunting and gathering, fishing, swiddening, pastoralism, horticulture, and agriculture; globalization and indigenous economic systems.
4. Political Organization and Social Control: Band, tribe, chiefdom, kingdom and state; concepts of power, authority and legitimacy; social control, law and justice in simple Societies.
