ANTHROPOLOGY CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE JULY 2020 VISHNUIAS.COM WE PROVIDE A PATH FOR YOUR SUCCESS CURRENT AFFAIRS ANTHROPOLOGY A MAGAZINE FOR CIVIL SERVICES PREPARATION (Welcome To Vishnu IAS online ) (Research and Training Institute for the best civil services preparation in India) http://vishnuias.com/ CONTENTS PAPER -1 PHYSICAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1. IISER team maps evolutionary dispersal patterns 2. Explained: What are human challenge trials, and why are they controversial? 3. New Research: Protein identified as potential Achilles’ heel of coronavirus 4. Explained: This is how your body develops immunity against an infection 5. HIV, TB, and malaria deaths to increase in low and middle income countries in next 5 years: The Lancet Global Health 6. Neanderthals and Covid-19, beyond the hype 7. What is Covaxin, India’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate; how long before approval? 8. Indigenous people vital for understanding environmental change 9.Archaeologists use tooth enamel protein to show sex of human remains 10.Big brains and dexterous hands SOCIO-CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 11. After Mizoram, Nagaland bans sale of dog meat 12. From Manusmriti to Indian Matchmaking, tracing the roots of arranged marriages PAPER - 2 INDIAN & TRIBAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1. Reservation for Tribal Teachers 2. Initiatives of TRIFED amid COVID-19 3. The Forest Rights Act in Nagarahole. 4. The Lockdown Has Worsened the Plight of Odisha’s Indigenous Bonda Community 5. Bhil Tribe and their demand for separate State. 6. GOAL Programme | Going Online As Leaders 7. For Gujarat tribal children with no TV or Internet, school comes home on their teacher’s smartphone 8. Bastar has remained Covid-free. That’s because social distancing is tribal norm, experts say 9. World Health Day 2020: How nutrition gardens helped tribals in Odisha's Nagada 10. Tribes India e-Mart: Coming soon, an e-market place only for tribal sellers 11. TRIFED-UNICEF CAMPAIGN FOR SHG 12. How tribal communities in Kerala are helping to stop the spread of COVID-19 13. MAHE, NGO train Siddis for shot at Olympics 14. Adivasi Women Have Preserved Indigenous Seeds For Many Generations www.vishnuias.com (+91-7702170025) 6 PHYSICAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1. IISER team maps evolutionary dispersal patterns (Paper 1 - 1.4 : Evolution) Relate to Natural Selection (Density dependent selection) Study of biological movement is applicable to epidemiology, conservation and agricultural pests The prestigious U.S. biology journal Evolution has published the findings of a team of researchers at the Pune-based Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) dealing with the dispersal patterns of organisms across different environments. The three scientists, Professor Suthirth Dey at IISER’s Biology Department, Abhishek Mishra and Partha Pratim Chakraborty, carried out experiments to study the phenomena of ‘density-dependent dispersal’ by observing around 29,000 fruit flies to see if evolution had modified their tendency to move towards or away from crowded regions. “Many animals, including humans, move from one place to another. Such ‘dispersal’ is generally to find resources like food or escape from potential threats. The study of www.vishnuias.com (+91-7702170025) 7 this biological dispersal finds applications in epidemiology, conservation of biodiversity as well as control of agricultural pests,” said Prof. Dey. The scientists authored a paper titled ‘Dispersal evolution diminishes the negative density dependence in dispersal’, which was published in Evolution last week. Mr. Mishra observes that a number of factors influence how, why or when individuals disperse, not least of it is their population density. “This is similar to people’s preferences of living in rural (low-density) vs. urban (high-density) areas. Populous areas often offer greater opportunities and more socialisation, but also incur competition for space and high costs. As a result, we can see movement of individuals from scanty to crowded areas, and vice versa, depending on the relative costs and benefits,” he said. Likewise, non-human species, too, experience similar pros and cons of ‘high’ versus ‘low-density’ areas. “Just as some species live in large groups while others are solitary, movement occurs away from a crowd in some species and towards it in some others. This pattern, termed as ‘density-dependent dispersal’, is central to our understanding of which life forms occur where,” says Prof. Dey. www.vishnuias.com (+91-7702170025) 8 Strangely, little is known about how or why ‘density- dependent dispersal evolves’. “In fact, there had been no report of an evolutionary change in the direction of this movement in sexually reproducing species. It was to address this that the team published their findings in the journal. If we don’t know how the pattern of density-dependent dispersal emerges or changes over time, prediction of movement patterns becomes difficult,” says Prof. Dey. The team first “evolved” tens of thousands of fruit flies for over 75 generations (or three years), thus making them “better” dispersers than their ancestors. “We observed around 29,000 fruit flies over this period to see if evolution had modified their tendency to move towards or away from crowded regions. Not only did we find a sharp change in this behaviour owing to evolution, but a crucial discovery was that the dispersal rates of males and females had changed completely,” observes Prof. Dey, adding while females had been dispersing more than the males initially, the males overtook females in movement after evolution. He said that this finding was perhaps the first evidence for an evolutionary reversal in the dispersal of the two sexes. Prof. Dey says that by establishing that these behaviours www.vishnuias.com (+91-7702170025) 9 are evolutionarily malleable, the study highlights the need to frequently assess movement patterns of ecologically relevant species. “On the one hand, moving further away from each other hampers the survival chances of endangered species. On the other hand, the very same behaviour accelerates the takeover of an ecosystem by invasive species. Similarly, this can affect pathogen spread via altered movement of disease vectors,” he said. 2. What are human challenge trials, and why are they controversial? Paper 1 - 9.8 and 12 (applied anthropology) : here we can use anthropological analysis to determine ethical and physiological considerations when determining the conditions for Human Challenge trials While human challenge trials are not new, they are usually carried out in developing medications for diseases which are considered less lethal and have been better understood by scientists over the years, such as malaria. www.vishnuias.com (+91-7702170025) 10 As laboratories around the world race to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, many people have volunteered to take part in a controversial testing method called human challenge trials. As of April 27, a global initiative called 1DaySooner had registered 3,817 people in 52 countries who had signed up for such trials. The method, which involves intentionally infecting volunteers with the novel coronavirus, is being promoted in order to “speed up” the process of preparing a vaccine. How are vaccines usually developed? In most regulatory regimes, vaccines take several years to develop, and their development typically proceeds through three phases of clinical trials. www.vishnuias.com (+91-7702170025) 11 In Phase 1, small groups of people receive the trial vaccine. During Phase 2, the clinical study is expanded and the vaccine is given to people who have characteristics (such as age and physical health) similar to those for whom the new vaccine is intended. In Phase 3, the vaccine is given to several thousand people and tested for efficacy and safety. During this phase, participants either receive the vaccine or a placebo. The efficacy of the vaccine is determined by comparing the prevalence of infection in the group that was administered the vaccine with the one which received a placebo. The hypothesis that those in the vaccine group will be infected significantly less is thus tested. What are human challenge trials? Under human challenge trials, participants of both the vaccine group and placebo group upon consent are deliberately exposed to the infection – thus are “challenged” by the disease organism. Proponents of the method believe that such trials could save valuable time in developing a Covid-19 vaccine, as researchers would not have to wait for participants to contract the infection under real-world conditions. A paper released on March 31 in The Journal of Infectious Diseases by researchers Nir Eyal, Marc Lipsitch, and Peter www.vishnuias.com (+91-7702170025) 12 G Smith has proposed replacing Phase 3 with human challenge trials. The paper said, “Controlled human challenge trials of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates could accelerate the testing and potential rollout of efficacious vaccines. By replacing conventional Phase 3 testing of vaccine candidates, such trials may subtract many months from the licensure process, making efficacious vaccines available more quickly.” According to experts, such testing would also require significantly less number of people than regular Phase 3 trials, which require thousands of volunteers. As per the 1DaySooner website, “… by gathering detailed data on the process of infection and vaccine protection in a clinical setting, researchers could learn information that proves extremely useful for broader vaccine and therapeutic development