UPSC Optional · 500 marks

Anthropology

Physical, social, cultural anthropology + tribal India. High scoring for beginners.

Five deep-dives: syllabus, booklist, paper analysis, strategy, PYQ trends (2021–2025).

What UPSC actually asked in Anthropology, 2021–2025

80 questions across 5 years, taken from the official papers. Every one has its own page with the directive word, marks, word limit and evaluation rubric.

Paper 1
40 questions · 2000 marks total
Paper 2
40 questions · 2000 marks total

Topics that came up

Indian anthropology - diverse themes · Anthropological theories and methods · Anthropology as bridge, Mousterian culture, Frazer's evolutionism and religion · Archaeology and Indian anthropologists · Archaeology and physical anthropology · Arjun Appadurai's global cultural economy · Attributes of culture, Harappan trade, kinship, genetics, hemoglobin · Australopithecus species and human evolution

Directive words used most

discuss (25) · write short notes (20) · critically discuss (5) · critically examine (5) · describe (4) — see the directive words guide for how each one changes the answer you should write.

Mark distribution

80 questions at 50 marks

Browse all 80 Anthropology previous year questions →

Practice Anthropology answers, get AI feedback

Write an answer, upload it, and our evaluator scores it on content, structure, examples and directive-word fidelity — trained on UPSC-style marking.