Revision summary
Genetic adaptations include malaria alleles, altitude genes, and lactase. Non-genetic adaptations are sweating, ventilation, and developmental shape. Culture—clothes, food, houses—does most polar and desert work. Farming and malaria show culture selecting genes. No environment is solved by DNA alone.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
- Humans occupy desert, high altitude, Arctic, and wet tropics. Adaptation is biocultural: some of it is allele, much of it is plastic physiology and technology.
Body
Genetic factors
- Sickle cell and thalassaemia in malaria ecology.
- Tibetan EPAS1 and Andean haemoglobin patterns as different genetic altitude answers.
- Lactase persistence with dairying. Skin pigmentation clines with UV.
- These are population frequencies, not a passport for one person.
Non-genetic factors
- Acclimatization: ventilation at altitude, sweating in heat, shivering and clothing in cold.
- Developmental plasticity: chest growth in high-altitude children.
- Culture: Inuit diet and parkas, desert tents, monsoon agriculture, caste water rules that also spread or block infection.
- Behaviour: siesta, migration, and fire are adaptations without a new mutation.
Bio-cultural
- Livingstone on malaria and farming: culture changed the genetic landscape.
- A Tibetan village uses genes, large lungs, tea, and housing together.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD ENV[Environment] --> G[Alleles sickle EPAS1 lactase] ENV --> NG[Acclimatization culture] G --> BC[Biocultural adaptation] NG[NG] --> BC[BC]
Conclusion
Genetic factors are selected alleles for malaria, altitude, milk, and sun. Non-genetic factors are acclimatization, growth, and culture. Human adaptation to environments is almost always both.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Critically examine the physiological responses and acclimatization to cold climate in Man
Next question on this syllabus topic (2015 · Q7(b)). View answer →
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Is culture ‘non-genetic’ always?
Culture is learned, yet it can change selection on genes, as with dairying.
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Can one gene explain Himalayan life?
No. Multiple alleles plus behaviour and housing.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2025 · Q4(a) · Anthropology GS 1 · 20 marks
Anthropology provides a multidimensional understanding of human beings by bridging the gap between science and humanities. Elucidate -
2016 · Q6(c) · Anthropology GS 1 · 15 marks
Discuss different factors affecting growth and development in human beings. -
2025 · Q2(c) · Anthropology GS 1 · 15 marks
How political economy is integrated with ecological and adaptability perspectives in bio-cultural anthropology? -
2021 · Q1(d) · Anthropology GS 1 · 10 marks
"The bio-cultural approach is the hallmark of Biological Anthropology." Explain.
More from this topic
Q2(c) · UPSC Mains 2025 · Anthropology GS 1 · 15 marks · Solution
How political economy is integrated with ecological and adaptability perspectives in bio-cultural anthropology?
Concepts and methods of Ecological Anthropology: Bio-cultural Adaptations
Adaptability is plasticity, acclimatisation and subsistence flexibility. Ecology is energy, season, pathogen and land, and it is not a neutral stage. Political economy is class, market, state and colonial history, as in Wolf and Mintz. The join is political ecology and the embodiment of inequality, as in Goodman and Leatherman. The household is the hinge of diet, labour and exposure. Poverty is not an adaptation.
Q6(a) · UPSC Mains 2021 · Anthropology GS 1 · 20 marks · Solution
What is acclimatization? Discuss adaptive responses to high altitude and cold climate
Concepts and methods of Ecological Anthropology: Bio-cultural Adaptations
Acclimatization is reversible adjustment within a lifetime. It is not the same as genetic adaptation, though they combine. Altitude responses are ventilation, heart rate, and later haematology. Tibetans and Andeans solve hypoxia by different mixes of physiology and genes. Cold responses are shivering, vasoconstriction, diet, and Arctic clothing.
Q7(b) · UPSC Mains 2015 · Anthropology GS 1 · 15 marks · Solution
Critically examine the physiological responses and acclimatization to cold climate in Man
Concepts and methods of Ecological Anthropology: Bio-cultural Adaptations
Immediate cold defence is skin constriction and shivering. Finger hunting reaction rewarms digits at a cost. Acclimatization can raise heat production and habituation. Bergmann and Allen rules are population trends. Technology and diet do most of the work in polar life.