LibGuides: Anthropology: Getting Started

About this guide

Welcome! This guide highlights key resources for conducting effective information research in anthropology, including the following:

Reference sources to find background information on your topic
Catalogs and e-book collections to search for books in print and online
Databases for locating scholarly journal articles, reviews, and newspaper articles
Anthropological streaming audio and video
Archaeology resources
Medical anthropology resources
Resources for citing your sources and writing in anthropology
Tips to to help keep textbook costs down

If you need assistance identifying additional resources, search terms or strategies, you can make an appointment by clicking on the "Schedule Appointment" button on the left.

Image: Justice for the Landless, from Jan Satyagraha, India (2012) via Wikimedia Commons

Background information

Consult scholarly reference sources to get an overview of a topic, an introduction to a theory, definitions to discipline-specific terms, and more.

A dictionary of cultural anthropology by Luis A. Vivanco
ISBN: 9780191836688

Publication Date: 2018

Comprising over 400 entries, this dictionary definitions for a range of concepts relating to cultural anthropology, as well as important findings and intellectual figures in the field.
The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology by Hilary Callan (Editor-In-Chief)
ISBN: 9780470657225

Publication Date: 2018-08-20

The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology features contributions from a team of over 800 international scholars. Over 1,000 entries, ranging from concise summaries to longer writings, present the reader with in-depth discussions of hundreds of key topics, including: ecology, human evolution, gender, health, language and education, kinship, politics, and power, as well as biographical entries of many of the world's most influential founding anthropologists. Organized alphabetically and written for both the specialist and the general reader, the Encyclopedia is a landmark reference resource for students and scholars engaged within the broad and dynamic field of anthropology, and those studying and working within the related disciplines of psychology, medicine, religious studies, and sociology.

Oxford Bibliographies Online

Offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on specific topics in a growing range of subject areas. There are at least 50 specific topical bibliographies in each subject area. Each of these features an introduction to the topic. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable.

Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology by Carol R. Ember (Editor); Melvin Ember (Editor)
ISBN: 0306477548

Publication Date: 2003-12-31
Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology by Alan Barnard (Editor); Jonathan Spencer (Editor)
ISBN: 9780415409780

Publication Date: 2010-01-20
The Oxford Companion to Archaeology by Neil Asher Silberman (Editor-In-Chief)
ISBN: 9780199735785

Publication Date: 2012

The second edition of The Oxford Companion to Archaeology offers over 700 entries covering historical archaeology, the development of archaeology as a field of study, and the ways the discipline works to explain the past. In addition to these theoretical entries, other entries describe major excavations, discoveries, and innovations, attending to recent developments in related fields. Entries include bibliographies and lists of linked related terms.