1.

Indian Social System by Ram Ahuja

2.

Tribal India by Nadeem Hasnain

3.

General Anthropology by Nadeem Hasnain

4.

Physical Anthropology by P. Nath

5. .Haviland
6. BM Das
7. Upadhyay and Pandey
8. Nadeem Hasnain

Anthropology Strategy
Neha Kumari, Rank 26, CSE 2014
.
DISCLAIMER: Dear friends, I secured 271 marks in Anthropology.
This was my first attempt and, like many of you, I was clueless
about the subject before filling notification. I did not take any
classroom coaching for the optional subject and depended
entirely on self-study, guidance from a friend and feedback
on answer writing (Vaids Test Series).
.
I am no expert in this subject, I have just shared how I prepared
Anthropology because many wanted to know about this. Hope it will
be useful.

My optional preparation was mainly done from Mid September

2014 to December 2014. (balancing between GS test series

at Insights offline classes). Hence it might NOT be the best

strategy in an ideal case.
Moreover due to paucity of time, for the initial reading I stuck to
basic notes by Braintree. Then I tried to read the specific book for
particular section and finally made short notes/highlighted those
important pages in the book itself.
Please customize my strategy as per your requirements,
preparedness and time availability

Thank you.

.
Basic Requirement
1) Please sit with the syllabus and previous years question bank. You will
realise that most of the previous year questions have been repeated number of
times. Hence it is very important to cover the syllabus along with clarity of
understanding as well as making 200-400 words of notes on each sub-topic.
.
For this I tried to follow this method ( one senior aspirants strategy):
.
In a separate notebook, I divided syllabus of each section into 10 to 12 parts
each. Then I noted down one topic. Under this topic, I wrote down all the
questions asked in previous years. I completed this exercise for all topics.
.
Then made short notes of each topic. Notes must be concise crisp.
Please remember these notes are useful for only for the
person who has made it. So please dont ask others for their
notes as notes are only pointer to the information we read in
books and materials.

MATERIALS
I bought Braintree (BT) and Vaid sir (VS) materials. We are not supposed to
go through entire material, they are there for ready reference.
PART 1
Physical Anthropology
Though I entirely depended on Braintree material for this section, if time is
available I would suggest the following:

P Nath -( some topics are not at all useful, please avoid them)
Must buy

Das few topics are really good Desirable

Vaid Sirs Notes

So for every topic in this section first go through P Nath and

VS thoroughly. Now make notes and mug them up. If a
question is coming then ideally one should recall entire 100200 words of the notes. Even if you can recollect 60% then
also we will get at least 50% marks
Fossil Evidence:

S Das

Photocopy of one booklet (40 50 pages) in Vaid Sirs It is

must summary of each fossil with evolution tree and proper
easily reproducible diagrams are given. Here no need to make
separate notes. For most of the topics just enrich this booklet
with information you get from other sources.

Theories
Please Visit: http://anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/cultures.php
For this section I depended on Vaid Sirs Socio-Cultural Anthropology book
and the remaining topics from Braintree material.

Take one theory at a time, make notes from both of above sources and
memorise them on same day. It will take 2 hours daily for ten days and believe
me you wont require anything else.
(P.S.- While doing the theories, I was feeling like doing a PHD on
each of them, but after it was over once I felt really good and
confident about them.)
PART 2
Socio Cultural Anthropology:Introduction to Socio-cultural
Anthropology by Dr N K Vaid, recently revised, Palka publications
This book is very good. No need for making separate notes.BrainTree
notes are good and crucial for topics not covered in the above
book.Though I heard about Ember and Ember I could not find time
for it and hence left that book altogether. Some topics are good in
Ember and Ember (For example, Segmental Lineage, Chart for Band
vs Tribes vs. ) If we have time then for this section, then Ember
and Ember can be referred. I didnt find this book important for any
other section.Indian Anthropology
Books:Usually no need to refer notes for this section.

Nadeem Hasnani

For topics like ST SC OBC their backwardness and welfare,

newspapers are important and 12th FYP relevant chapters
are must.
Archeology :
The book mentioned above covers this section also.
Archeology and Theories are the core of Anthropology and I
personally believe that if attempted, questions of this section fetch
more marks and creates good impression.
.

Here we must make notes of sites, Indian archaeologist associated

with them.Tribals:Friends, being from Chota Nagpur plateau this was
my forte. I really enjoyed reading this part.

Referred mainly to Nadeem Hasnanis Tribal Anthropology.

N.K Vaids Who cares for tribal development can also be very
helpful.

Last year January Yojana article completely covered tribal issues,

planning related problems, Forest rights etc.This was very useful for
me.
.
For basics we must know the various tribes of various regions, their
special traditions, diseases prevalent in them, their socio economic
status, problems of tribes in general with latest concrete data. Any
new policy affecting or for tribes must be thoroughly prepared.
.
I still feel I could have planned better for my optional which could
have fetched me better marks. I had skipped the Fossil Evidence
chapters due to lack of time and revision. But Anthropology paper
was kind and gave us an opportunity to write good answers.
.
Again I would like to point out that the excessive answer writing
practice for optional (Vaid Test Series), Anthropology Answer Writing
Challenges (Insights), General Studies papers
through insightsonindia.com , Secure, Daily Tests were helpful when
writing answers as paper 2 was of general nature.
.
Overall as an optional Anthropology has been a life saviour for me
and has beautifully bailed me out. I hope it does the same for you.