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Home/Anthropology/Mains PYQ/2021/Paper I/Human Genetics & Human Biology
UPSC MainsAnthropology Optional Paper I 2021 10 Marks Model Answer Available

Is Race a Valid and Biologically Meaningful Concept — 2021 Paper I

Question · 2021 · Paper I · 10 Marks

Is race a valid and biologically meaningful concept ?

Model Answer

VAID ICS

Approach

  • Demand of Question: Critically assess whether traditional racial categories correspond to real biological divisions in humans.
  • Structuring the Response: Classical race concept → genetic evidence against discrete races → population/ancestry as better alternatives.
  • Key Dimensions to Cover: Lewontin, Templeton, clinal variation, gene flow, non-concordance of traits and AABA position.

Model Answer

Introduction

Traditionally, race referred to geographically differentiated human populations identified through inherited physical traits such as skin colour, hair form and cranial features. Modern Biological Anthropology, however, rejects race as a set of discrete, natural biological subdivisions of Homo sapiens, while recognising that human biological variation and ancestry are real.

Why Biological Race is Problematic

  • Continuous or clinal variation: Traits usually change gradually across geographical space rather than forming sharp racial boundaries. Skin pigmentation, for example, broadly varies with UV radiation and latitude, not fixed racial divisions.
  • Non-concordance of traits: Different traits have different geographical distributions. Skin colour, blood groups, facial form and genetic variants do not cluster together into stable racial packages.
  • Extensive gene flow: Human populations have repeatedly migrated and interbred; therefore, they have never represented permanently isolated or “pure” biological lineages.
  • Greater variation within populations: Richard Lewontin, in “The Apportionment of Human Diversity” (1972), demonstrated that most human genetic variation occurs within populations, rather than between conventional racial groups.
  • No valid human subspecies: Alan Templeton, in “Human Races: A Genetic and Evolutionary Perspective” (1998), concluded that proposed human races do not meet genetic criteria for subspecies and do not represent independent evolutionary lineages.

What is Biologically Meaningful?

Rejecting race does not mean denying human biological diversity.

Human variation is better understood through:

Population + Ancestry + Gene flow + Natural selection + Clines

Populations may differ statistically in allele frequencies due to migration, drift, selection and demographic history, but such differences do not create sharply bounded races.

The American Association of Biological Anthropologists (AABA, 2019) states that racial categories do not accurately represent patterns of human biological variation; human populations are neither biologically discrete nor fixed.

Conclusion

Thus, race is socially significant but biologically inadequate as a taxonomic concept. Contemporary Biological Anthropology replaces typological racial classification with the study of populations, clinal variation and genomic ancestry, thereby viewing human diversity as continuous, dynamic and evolutionary.

2026 Distinguishing features of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. 2026 How would you find out that a particular disease/disorder is inherited and, if so, in which manner? Elaborate with suitable examples. 2026 What do you understand by fertility and mortality? How are these influenced by biological and socio-ecological factors? 2026 In what manner is our understanding of serogenetics and cytogenetics useful in reproductive biology? What are the major ethical issues involved in reproductive technology?

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UPSC Anthropology Optional 2021 — Paper I

28 questions

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10 Marks150 words
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5(d) Descent Groups

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 2.5 Kinship > Descent groups
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5(a) Human adolescent growth spurt

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 10. Human growth and development > Stages of growth > Adolescence
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5(e) Modes of Subsistence

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 3. Economic Organization > Modes of subsistence
2021Paper IEconomic & Political AnthropologyModel answer available

5(b) The losses and gains of erect posture

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 1.5 Characteristics of Primates > Skeletal changes due to erect posture
2021Paper IHuman Evolution & PrimatologyModel answer available

1(e) Thermoluminescence (TL) dating

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 1.8(a) Chronology: relative and absolute dating methods
2021Paper IPrehistoric ArchaeologyModel answer available