MPPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 70 of 100

Correct — B, Totem. 'Netam' is one of the Gond clan names of central India, and Gond clans are totemic: each exogamous clan takes its name from, and identifies itself with, a natural species or object, whose killing or eating the clan members avoid. Netam sits alongside Markam, Tekam, Uike, Dhurve, Kunjam and Salam in the same list of Gond totemic clan names, which today survive as very common surnames in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Placed in the sequence of this paper — right after a question on Gond vocabulary — the word is being tested as a totemic clan name.

• (a)Taboo — A taboo is the prohibition attached to a totem — the rule that clan members must not harm or eat it. The two ideas travel together, but 'Netam' names the clan and its totem, not the prohibition.
• (c)Marriage custom — Gond marriage forms carry their own separate names. A clan name governs marriage only indirectly, through the rule that one must marry outside one's own clan — but the word itself is not a marriage custom.
• (d)Tribe name — Netam is a clan or sept inside the Gond tribe, not a tribe in its own right; it does not appear as a separate community in the Scheduled Tribes list.

Totemism is the anthropological principle behind Gond social organisation. The tribe is divided into exogamous clans, each linked to a totem — usually an animal, a tree or another natural object — from which the clan draws its name and identity, and towards which its members observe a taboo of reverence. Marriage inside the clan is forbidden, so the totemic name is the working device that regulates who may marry whom. Gond clans are further grouped into 'saga' divisions distinguished by the number of gods they worship.

The set of options is really an anthropology-terminology test dressed up as a vocabulary question: totem (the clan emblem and name), taboo (the prohibition that goes with it), exogamy (marrying outside the clan). Recognising that Netam, Markam, Tekam and Uike are the surnames one meets everywhere in the Gond districts of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh is enough to reject 'tribe name' — no Scheduled Tribe is called Netam — and to settle on the clan-totem option.

• A totem is a natural species or object with which a clan identifies and after which it is named
• Gond clans are exogamous — marriage within one's own clan is prohibited
• Netam, Markam, Tekam, Uike, Dhurve, Kunjam and Salam are common Gond clan names, still borne as surnames
• Gond clans are grouped into 'saga' divisions identified by the number of gods worshipped
• Totem and taboo are paired concepts: the totem is the emblem, the taboo is the prohibition on harming it

• Choosing 'taboo' because totem and taboo are always discussed together — the taboo is the rule, not the name
• Treating a clan name as a tribe name; Netam is a division within the Gond, not a separate Scheduled Tribe
• Assuming every unfamiliar tribal word is a ritual or a marriage term

MPPSC asks tribal terminology one-liners — a word and four spheres of tribal life — and also matches tribes with sub-tribes or clans. UPSC stays at the concept level: what a set of tribal terms refers to, or which community a tradition belongs to.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In anthropology, a totem is best described as:

  • (a)a prohibition on certain foods or acts
  • (b)a natural object or species with which a clan identifies and after which it is named
  • (c)a payment made to the bride's family at marriage
  • (d)a council of village elders

  Answer(b) a natural object or species with which a clan identifies and after which it is named — the prohibition attached to it is the taboo.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The rule that a person must marry outside his or her own clan, followed by Gond clans, is called:

  • (a)Endogamy
  • (b)Exogamy
  • (c)Polygyny
  • (d)Hypergamy

  Answer(b) Exogamy — marrying outside one's own clan; endogamy is the opposite rule.