UPSC Mains 2026 Anthropology Optional Paper I questions

28 questions from the Civil Services (Main) Examination 2026. Official UPSC paper (PDF) · All Anthropology Optional PYQs

1. Health as a cultural construct

2. Canalization and catch-up growth

3. Myth as oral literature

4. Genetic polymorphism and natural selection

5. Ethnoarchaeology and classical archaeology

6. What is meant by a somatotype? Discuss the Heath-Carter anthropometric method, giving its advantages over that of Sheldon's method. How can somatotyping be applied in sports sciences?

   20 marks

7. How do religious beliefs help people to devise cultural mechanisms to adapt to their environment? Discuss in detail with appropriate examples.

   5 marks

8. How is the theory of structuralism helpful in understanding the concepts of caste and gender?

   5 marks

9. How do the concepts of power, authority, legitimacy and social control change with changing political organization? Discuss in detail giving suitable examples.

   20 marks

10. Human evolution is a product of both biological and cultural factors. Elaborate.

    5 marks

11. Give the distribution of Palaeolithic sites around the Himalayan and Sub-Himalayan areas, highlighting the typo-technologies of the tools.

    5 marks

12. Discuss the phylogenetic status, characteristic features, geographical distribution and lifeways of Paranthropus.

    20 marks

13. Discuss 'incest taboo' as the basis of development of kinship systems in human societies.

    5 marks

14. Numerical chromosomal aberrations can be due to abnormalities in autosomes as well as sex chromosomes. Elaborate in terms of the effects these have on human body, giving suitable examples.

    5 marks

15. Ethics in anthropological fieldwork

16. Distinguishing features of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA

17. Feminist movement and family.

18. Anthropometry in ergonomics

19. Thermoluminescence dating method / 3 [ P.T.O.

20. How would you find out that a particular disease/disorder is inherited and, if so, in which manner? Elaborate with suitable examples.

    20 marks

21. Critically discuss how culture determines human behaviour in the light of Leslie White's theory.

    5 marks

22. What are Strepsirhini Primates? Describe their geographical distribution and mention the characteristics that distinguish them from Haplorhini Primates.

    5 marks

23. Discuss the mixed method approach in anthropological research.

    20 marks

24. What do you understand by fertility and mortality? How are these influenced by biological and socio-ecological factors?

25. Write a detailed note on the characteristic features, chronology, geographical distribution, tool types and lifeways of Magdalenian cultural tradition of Europe.

26. Compare Edmund Leach's structuralism with interpretive anthropology of Clifford Geertz.

    20 marks

27. In what manner is our understanding of serogenetics and cytogenetics useful in reproductive biology? What are the major ethical issues involved in reproductive technology?

    5 marks

28. Discuss, with appropriate examples, how basic personality types may lead towards building up of national character.