6(a) What is acclimatization ? Discuss adaptive responses to high altitude and cold climate.
20 Marks
Syllabus: Paper I > 9.7 Man's physiological responses to environmental stresses
Modes of Subsistence — 2021 Paper I
Question · 2021 · Paper I · 10 Marks
Modes of Subsistence
Model Answer
VAID ICSApproach
- Demand of Question: Explain the major ways through which human societies obtain food and organise livelihood.
- Structuring the Response: Define subsistence → classify major modes → connect each with technology and social organisation.
- Key Dimensions to Cover: Foraging, fishing, horticulture, pastoralism, agriculture, cultural ecology and Indian examples.
Model Answer
Introduction
Modes of subsistence refer to the principal strategies through which societies obtain food and other necessities from their environment. Julian Steward, in Theory of Culture Change (1955), emphasised subsistence technology as a crucial component of the “cultural core”, linking environment, economy and social organisation.
Major Modes of Subsistence
- Hunting and Gathering: Humans obtain food from wild plants, animals and other naturally available resources rather than controlling their reproduction. Such societies are generally small-scale, mobile and relatively egalitarian. Traditional Indian examples include the Birhor, Chenchu and Kadar.
- Fishing: In riverine and coastal environments, fishing may become a specialised subsistence strategy through nets, traps, hooks and other techniques. It often supplements gathering or cultivation.
- Horticulture: Small-scale cultivation uses relatively simple tools and commonly involves fallowing or shifting cultivation. In India, forms include jhum among Naga groups, podu among Khond groups and bewar among Baiga.
- Pastoralism: Subsistence centres on the management of domesticated herds such as cattle, sheep, goats, camels or reindeer, often involving seasonal mobility. The Toda buffalo economy is a classic Indian example; the Saami illustrate reindeer pastoralism.
- Agriculture: Intensive cultivation employs techniques such as ploughing and irrigation, producing greater surplus and supporting permanent settlements, higher population densities and more complex social organisation.
Overall Pattern
Foraging → Horticulture/Pastoralism → Intensive Agriculture
Increasing control over resources → Surplus → Sedentism → Greater social complexity
However, these are analytical types rather than rigid stages; societies often combine cultivation, herding, hunting, gathering and exchange.
Conclusion
Modes of subsistence are therefore more than economic techniques. They shape settlement, mobility, division of labour, kinship, political organisation and human–environment relations, making them central to ecological and economic anthropology.
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UPSC Anthropology Optional 2021 — Paper I
28 questions1(a) Animism and Deep Ecology
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 5. Religion > Forms of religion > Animism
Syllabus: Paper I > 12. Applications of Anthropology > Anthropology of sports; nutritional anthropology
1(d) “The bio-cultural approach is the hallmark of Biological Anthropology.” Explain.
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 1.3 Main branches of Anthropology > Biological Anthropology
Syllabus: Paper I > 11.3 Biological and socio-ecological factors influencing fecundity and fertility
Syllabus: Paper I > 7. Culture, language and communication > Social context of language use
Syllabus: Paper I > 9.4 Chromosomes and chromosomal aberrations in man
2(b) Elucidate the concept of “thick description” of Clifford Geertz with a suitable example.
15 Marks
Syllabus: Paper I > 6. Anthropological Theories > Interpretive Anthropology > Geertz
5(d) Descent Groups
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 2.5 Kinship > Descent groups
Syllabus: Paper I > 12. Applications of Anthropology > Applied human genetics > Paternity diagnosis
Syllabus: Paper I > 1.8(b) Cultural Evolution: broad outlines of prehistoric cultures > Neolithic
Syllabus: Paper I > 9.3 Mendelian population and Hardy-Weinberg law > Evolutionary mechanisms
1(c) Historical Particularism and Franz Boas
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 6. Anthropological Theories > Historical Particularism (Boas)
5(a) Human adolescent growth spurt
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 10. Human growth and development > Stages of growth > Adolescence
5(c) Is race a valid and biologically meaningful concept ?
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 9.5 Race and racism > Biological basis of racial classification
Syllabus: Paper I > 2.5 Kinship > Alliance theory; structuralism
Syllabus: Paper I > 2.4 Family > Types and classification of the family
1(b) Marriage Regulations and Alliance Theory
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 2.3 Marriage > Rules of marriage; alliance theory
5(e) Modes of Subsistence
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 3. Economic Organization > Modes of subsistence
Syllabus: Paper I > 1.6 Phylogenetic status, characteristics and distribution > Homo erectus
Syllabus: Paper I > 10. Human growth and development > Ageing and senescence > Theories of ageing
3(a) How do political organisations of simple societies establish power, authority and legitimacy ?
20 Marks
Syllabus: Paper I > 4. Political Organization and Social Control > Power, authority and legitimacy
Syllabus: Paper I > 1.2 Relationships with other disciplines: Social Sciences
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
1(e) Thermoluminescence (TL) dating
10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 1.8(a) Chronology: relative and absolute dating methods
Syllabus: Paper I > 8.3 Research Methods: Tools of data collection
Syllabus: Paper I > 1.8(b) Cultural Evolution: broad outlines of prehistoric cultures > Mesolithic
Syllabus: Paper I > 2.2 The Nature of Society > Social stratification