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Anthropology

This is a guide to library resources in the fields of Anthropology and Archaeology. Here you will find databases, electronic journals, tutorials, and other information.

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Ebooks, Handbooks and Encyclopedias

The American Ethnological Society

The American Ethnological Society is the oldest professional anthropological organization in the United States.  It was founded in 1842 to encourage emerging anthropological research on human cultures.

Explore this feed to see some of the most current research Anthropologists in America are embarking on.

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Ethnographies of Various Topics: Fieldwork performed by Anthropologists

Friction: An Ethnology of Global Connection

A wheel turns because of its encounter with the surface of the road; spinning in the air it goes nowhere. Rubbing two sticks together produces heat and light; one stick alone is just a stick. In both cases, it is friction that produces movement, action, effect. Challenging the widespread view that globalization invariably signifies a "clash" of cultures, anthropologist Anna Tsing here develops friction in its place as a metaphor for the diverse and conflicting social interactions that make up our contemporary world.

Juju: A Social History and Ethnography of an African Popular Music

Now known internationally through the recordings of King Sunny Ade and others, juju music originated more than fifty years ago among the Yoruba of Nigeria. This history and ethnography of juju is the first detailed account of the evolution and social significance of a West African popular music. Enhanced with maps, color photographs of musicians and dance parties, musical transcriptions, interviews with musicians, and a glossary of Yoruba terms, Juju is an invaluable contribution to scholarship and a boon to fans who want to discover the roots of this vibrant music.

Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment

Zones of social abandonment are emerging everywhere in Brazil’s big cities—places like Vita, where the unwanted, the mentally ill, the sick, and the homeless are left to die. This haunting, unforgettable story centers on a young woman named Catarina, increasingly paralyzed and said to be mad, living out her time at Vita. Anthropologist João Biehl leads a detective-like journey to know Catarina; to unravel the cryptic, poetic words that are part of the "dictionary" she is compiling; and to trace the complex network of family, medicine, state, and economy in which her abandonment and pathology took form.

Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village

A delightful, well-written, and vastly informative ethnographic study, this is an account of Fernea's two-year stay in a tiny rural village in Iraq, where she assumed the dress and sheltered life of a harem woman. This volume gives a unique insight into a part of the Midddle Eastern life seldom seen by the West.

Practicing Community: Class Culture and Power in an Urban Neighborhood

Cincinnati's East End river community has been home to generations of working-class people. This racially mixed community has roots that reach back as far as seven generations. But the community is vulnerable. Developers bulldoze "raggedy" but affordable housing to build upscale condos, even as East Enders fight to preserve the community by participating in urban development planning controlled by powerful outsiders.

In the Shadow of Tlaloc: Life in a Mexican Village

The remote Mexican village of Jonotla lies in the shadow of the rock of Tlaloc, named for the ancient god of rain whose spirit has dwelt among its inhabitants for centuries. In the mid-1960s the twentieth century finally came to the fifteen hundred villagers of Jonotlain the form of roads, cars, buses, electricity, and a more competitive form of life. In this moving account Reck sets out to document what effect these changes have had on the villagers. This study is part of the universal drama that is inevitably played out wherever and whenever the past and the future meet in sudden conflict. 

Becoming Tongan: An Ethnography of Childhood

In this first detailed account of growing up in Tonga, Helen Morton focuses on the influence of anga fakatonga ("the Tongan way") in all facets of Tongan childhood, from the antenatal period to late adolescence. Childhood is a crucial period when cultural identity and notions of tradition are constructed, as well as beliefs about self, personhood, and emotion. Based on her anthropological fieldwork and her experiences in Tonga over several years, Morton traces the Tongan socialization process--from being vale (ignorant, socially incompetent) to becoming poto (clever, socially competent)--in fascinating detail. The socialization of emotion is also given detailed attention, especially the management of anger and emphasis on emotional restraint.

You Owe Yourself a Drunk: An Ethnography of Urban Nomads

An account of the experiences of men who are repeatedly arrested for public drunkenness. This book challenges the idea that these men are simply rejects from society, who cannot organize their behavior by cultural traditions. Using the recently discovered methods of formal ethnographic analysis, the author presents this urban sub-culture as it relates to law enforcement agencies. Life in one jail is described in detail, showing how it changes the men's personal identities, teaching them the skills of this sub-culture and motivating them to adopt a nomadic way of life where drinking is a great social value. Originally published by Little, Brown and Company in 1970.

Subjects: Anthropology