Social Change and Applied Anthropology

About this unit

This unit looks at how Indian society is structured and how it has changed under colonial rule, modernisation, development and globalisation. It also shows how anthropological knowledge is put to practical use: in planning tribal development, in identifying individuals in forensic cases, in improving public health, and in understanding industrial and urban life. Applied anthropology turns understanding of culture and human biology into solutions for real problems.

Key ideas

• Caste: hereditary, endogamous groups ranked by ideas of purity and pollution; jajmani relations; mobility through Sanskritisation.
• Social stratification by caste, class, gender and other bases.
• Colonialism and its effects on land, forests and tribal life; processes of Westernisation, modernisation and globalisation.
• Development, displacement and tribal development programmes.
• Forensic anthropology: identifying sex, age and stature from bones; blood groups; fingerprints.
• Public-health anthropology: cultural beliefs about illness and community-based health work.
• Industrialisation, urbanisation and the challenges of cultural diversity.

How to prepare

Learn M. N. Srinivas's concepts (Sanskritisation, dominant caste, Westernisation) with examples. Memorise the skeletal clues used for sex and age and the basic fingerprint patterns. Prepare examples of development schemes and their social effects; case-based questions are common.