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Home/Anthropology/Mains PYQ/2017/Paper I/Human Genetics & Human Biology
UPSC MainsAnthropology Optional Paper I 2017 10 Marks Model Answer Available

Concept of Race — 2017 Paper I

Question · 2017 · Paper I · 10 Marks

Concept of race

Model Answer

VAID ICS

Approach

  • Demand of Question:Explain the historical anthropological concept of race and critically state its status in contemporary biological anthropology.
  • Structuring the Response:Define the older typological idea; show why it declined through clines, gene flow and genetics; distinguish biological ancestry from socially constructed race.
  • Key Dimensions to Cover:Typological race; Blumenbach and later classifications; clinal variation; Lewontin (1972); population structure; gene flow; social consequences of racial categories.

Model Answer

Introduction Historically, "race" was a typological concept used by early anthropologists (like Johann Blumenbach) to divide the human species into discrete, fixed biological categories (e.g., Caucasoid, Negroid, Mongoloid) based on observable physical traits like skin color and skull shape.

Body

  1. The Biological Invalidity of Typological RaceModern physical anthropology and genetics have thoroughly debunked the biological reality of discrete races due to the following reasons:
  • Clinal Variation: Traits do not change abruptly; they change gradually across geographic space (clines). Skin color, for example, correlates with UV radiation latitude, not with distinct genetic racial boundaries.
  • Non-Concordance: Traits are inherited independently (Mendel's Law of Independent Assortment). Grouping people by skin color yields a different classification than grouping them by blood type (ABO) or lactase persistence.
  • Genetic Evidence (Lewontin's Study, 1972): Geneticist Richard Lewontin proved that approximately 85% of human genetic variation exists within any given local population, while only about 6-10% differentiates the traditional "continental races."
  1. The Shift in Anthropological Thought
  • Anthropologist Ashley Montagu famously called race "Man’s Most Dangerous Myth" (1942).
  • Today, biological anthropologists have replaced the typological concept of race with evolutionary concepts like "Mendelian Populations," "Ancestry," and "Ethnic Groups," which reflect dynamic gene flow and local adaptation.
  1. The Social Reality of RaceWhile biologically invalid, race remains a profound social construct. Societies assign arbitrary meanings to superficial phenotypic differences, creating rigid racial hierarchies that result in real-world consequences (racism, health disparities, and socioeconomic inequality).

Conclusion Contemporary anthropology categorically rejects race as a scientifically valid biological taxonomy for humans. Instead, it recognizes human variation as continuous and evolutionary, while acknowledging "race" strictly as a powerful, historically constructed social reality.

2026 Canalization and catch-up growth. 2026 Genetic polymorphism and natural selection. 2026 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. 2026 Distinguishing features of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA.

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UPSC Anthropology Optional 2017 — Paper I

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