The word 'Netam' is related to:

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

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.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) 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) 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) 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.

Concept: 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.

State PCS 2026 Q70 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2026 Q70 — Madhya Pradesh GK PYQ with Answer