Influenced by Western individualism and they studied European women

hero_with_1000_faces , I am not sure I understand what you are asking.
Your language is a bit strong, and as written, it suggests that the definition itself is some Eternal truth. '

The sentence is not about the content of the definition.
The sentence is about a particular group of scholars under certain conditions.
That groups defines X as Y.

How, logically, do we jump from "[these particular] anthropologists define X as Y" to "these anthropologists' definition of X as Y is an unchanging, eternal truth"?
The sentence does not imply the latter and it does not have to do so.

The sentence is descriptive.
It narrows down a group of anthropologists who define X as Y.

With respect to (E): has defined is not past tense. It's present perfect. I do not follow your past tense question.

Are you also asking whether (E) is wrong mostly because "has defined" is not "defines" ? If that is also your question, then, no.
Option E is incorrect because:
(1) Defined to be is not idiomatic. The phrase is not very logical, either.
(2) the anthropologist who has studied European women of the Renaissance suggests that we know who this person is. AN anthropologist who has studied would be correct.
Some people might let the "the" pass grammar inspection. The reference is still not as good as "anthropologists" (unknown to us) in (D). Not THE anthropologists. This test is multiple choice. D is better than E.
(3) the focus of the sentence is on systems of beliefs, scholarly undertakings, and a result in one field.

Or are you saying that option (D) should state "anthropologists have defined"?

When Stephen Hawking was alive, should I have said, "Stephen Hawking has defined black holes as regions of spacetime that can emit radiation and can evaporate." ??
Are you suggesting that when Hawking was alive, I could not have said, "Stephen Hawking defines black holes as regions of spacetime that can emit radiation and can evaporate." ??

Google "A Brief History of Time" book review and read a review from 1988 through 1992.
Or take the example below.

This excerpt is from a book review of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time:

In his preliminary figurings, Mr. Hawking surmises that the embryonic universe did not emerge from a singularity. Instead, he imagines a union of space and time that was finite yet boundless in the beginning, much the way the surface of a globe has no edges. Current astronomical observations do not support Mr. Hawking's vision . . .

Bartusiak, M. The New York Times. April 3, 1988. Accessed here, September 27, 2019.

The words in blue are simple present tense. They describe the thought process of a scholar.
Option D describes the thought processes of a group of scholars.
Rendition in simple present is appropriate.

I hope that answer helps. If it does not, you could reframe your question and include (1) what bothers you about D (2) what rule or guideline you think that D violates.
I worked hard to understand what you were asking, but I am not sure that I succeeded.

TheNightKing , tentatively . . . I am 90% sure: yes, there are two other official examples. One is very old (-20 years). The other is sort of old (-10, I think).
I am not going to hunt for them because you do not need them.
You need to know only that [comma + __ING] might refer to the immediately preceding noun.
The construction is very rare.

I saw at least two huge "one-offs" in the official questions from 2019-2020.
The subject of this post is one of the one-offs.
The other one-off?
In SC #832 OG 2020, the word THIS is a standalone pronoun.
Usually GMAC requires "this," a determiner, to be followed by a noun: this tree, this house, this question.

You are not likely to see either one-off. But if you do, now you know that both are possible.

Influenced by ...... and studied....., are the modifier of anthrophologists.
Thus Answear is D

Posted from my mobile device

The option D is totally wrong. How can influenced and studying be correct?. They both have different tense and this option defies parallelism. So D is and should be wrong.
E makes perfect sense.

GMATNinja
Hi Sir, Could you let me know if this is a good question.
With the right option D I find two things wrong.
1. in the original sentence anthropologist is singular. One of them defined, so can we just go ahead and change that to plural as given in D. Does it not distort the meaning.
2. Also it should still be defined and not define, which is simple present and that makes it a general characteristic. Again distorting the intended meaning. Am I right?

As with strategy, I tend to do the do the 4 option elimination process instead of selecting one, as you would advice, but in questions such as these, when I incorrectly believe that an option is wrong, I tend to be sure of the option that I select. Any advice on this? Thanks in advance sir.

Input from anyone is welcome.

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