Revision summary
Society is organised relations of persons. Culture is Tylor’s learned whole of custom and knowledge. Kroeber stressed culture as superorganic; Radcliffe-Brown stressed structure. Nuer lineages show society; cattle idiom shows culture. Keep both in one ethnography.
Model answer
Introduction
Society is the organised relations among persons. Culture is the learned design for living that those persons share. Anthropology holds the two together.
Body
The pair
- Radcliffe-Brown treated society as a structure of statuses. Tylor defined culture as knowledge, belief, art, law, and custom acquired as a member of society.
- Kroeber called culture superorganic: it outlives any one biography. Malinowski showed culture meeting needs inside a living social set.
- A Nuer cattle camp is a society of lineages. The cattle idiom, spear names, and feud rules are culture.
Why split at all
- Society answers who is related to whom. Culture answers what they know and value.
- Geertz later read culture as public meaning. Structure without meaning is empty; meaning without organisation will not feed a camp.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD SOC[Society relations] --> P[Persons statuses] CUL[Culture learned design] --> M[Meaning skill] P --> F[Field case] M --> F
Conclusion
Society is relation. Culture is learned meaning and skill. Fieldwork must name both, as in Nuer politics and Trobriand garden magic.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
Incest Taboos.
Next question in the 2015 paper (Q1). View answer →
-
Can there be culture without society?
Culture is stored in persons and artefacts, but it is practised in relations. The pair is analytic, not two islands.
-
Is society only modern states?
No. A band, a clan village, and a caste town are societies.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2025 · Q3(b) · Anthropology GS 1 · 15 marks
Critically examine the drawbacks in assuming culture as an 'integrated-closed system in understanding of contemporary society -
2024 · Q8(a) · Anthropology GS 1 · 20 marks
Examine critically the concept of social stratification as a basis for sustaining social inequality. -
2021 · Q7(a) · Anthropology GS 1 · 20 marks
Critically evaluate different types of social stratifications with suitable examples -
2016 · Q1(a) · Anthropology GS 1 · 10 marks
Differences between Social Anthropology and Sociology.
More from this paper
Q1(a) · UPSC Mains 2015 · Anthropology GS 1 · 10 marks
Archaeological Anthropology.
Archaeological Anthropology.
Archaeological anthropology reads past culture from tools, bone, and settlement. Foote and Sankalia framed the Indian record. Dates come from layers and laboratories. Ethnoarchaeology links living discard to dead sites. The goal is process, not a museum of objects.
Q1(c) · UPSC Mains 2015 · Anthropology GS 1 · 10 marks
Incest Taboos.
Marriage
Incest taboos forbid sex inside a culturally named kin set. Lévi-Strauss tied the rule to exogamy and alliance. Westermarck tied it to childhood familiarity. Genetics adds inbreeding cost but not the cousin map. Gotra and clan extend the ban beyond the nuclear house.
Q1(d) · UPSC Mains 2015 · Anthropology GS 1 · 10 marks
Horticulture.
Economic Organization
Horticulture uses hand tools and fallow, not the plough as the main engine. Swidden and mixed gardens are typical. Trobriand yam gardens show kinship claiming produce. Boserup tied intensification to population pressure. It is a skilled ecology, not a failed agriculture.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.