Library Resources for AN101:
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Section 2: Alicia Ory DeNicola

Article Indexes and Electronic Resources | Anthropological Literature Database Search Tips
Reference Books | Library Services

Article Indexes and Electronic Resources
Anthropological Literature
Anthropological Literature is a bibliographic index to articles and essays on anthropology and archaeology, including art history, demography, economics, psychology, and religious studies. Updated quarterly, Anthropological Literature indexes articles two or more pages long in works published in English and other European languages from the 19th century to the present.

Anthopological Literature does not offer the full-text of journal articles; instead, it matches your search terms to the bibliographic citations (author, title, journal source, subject terms) of journal articles. Once you have used Anthropological Literature to identify articles that you would like to read, you must check to see whether the library owns them or offers a link to the full text. You may do this by searching for the journal title that the article comes from in the library's "Search for a journal" search box. If the journal that you need is not available at the Scribner Library, please order your article through Interlibrary Loan.

Anthropological Index Online
This database provides access to the bibliographic citations of articles in journals held by the Anthropology Library at the British Museum. Coverage spans 1957 to the present. Like the Anthropological Literature database, it does not provide the full-text of articles, but instead gives you the bibliographic information that you need to find the articles (such as title, author, journal source, etc). The library will provide access to some of the journals that these aticles come from, but not to all. If we do not have a journal article that you need, order it from Interlibary Loan.

JSTOR
JSTOR is on online full-text archive of scholarly journal articles in a variety of subject areas including Anthropology. Be sure to select Anthropology as your subject area in the "Select Disciplines or Journals" section below the search boxes. Most journals in JSTOR are available back to their earliest issues (with some content going back to the 19th century), but coverage often ends between 1997 and 2000. JSTOR does not provide current journal issues. Project Muse, another online journal archive, offers access to current journal issues.

CountryWatch
CountryWatch provides maps, news articles and statistical, political, economic, social and environmental information on 192 countries throughout the world.

EHRAF Collection of Ethnography
EHRAF contains more than a quarter of a million pages of descriptive information on the cultures of the world.

Browse additional Anthropology resources

Anthropological Literature Database Search Tips
No one would ever describe Anthropological Literature as user-friendly. With persistence and these tips, though, you should be able to uncover some useful material.

Basic/default search page:
• Enter one or more words into the search box. Do not enter a phrase (such as indigenous peoples of the andes mountains); instead, enter one or more main terms that describe your topic (such as indigenous peoples andes).
• Next select a field for the database to search. If you choose "keyword," the search engine will look for your terms anywhere in the article record; if you choose "title word," it will look for your terms in the title field, and so on. A search for "subject word" will bring you to a listing of subject headings that contain your search term/s.
• The database search engine will look for article records that must contain each of your search words (this is a Boolean "AND" search) within the designated field (or in the case of keyword searching, anywhere in the article record). The example indigenous peoples andes as a keyword search retrieved 4 matches.
  Here's a look at one - the search terms are in bold italic print:

Advanced search page:
• The advanced search allows you to connect two search terms with Boolean operators (AND and OR). Use AND if you want two words to definitely appear in your search results (this works the same way that the basic search page does- both of your terms have to be in your results). Use OR if you want only one or the other of the terms (not both!) to appear in your results (OR works well if you are searching for a word with various synonyms or variants such as kin OR kinship; work OR labor; Yanomami OR Yanomamo)
• You may choose to search for your two terms within different fields, such as keyword apartheid AND subject South Africa.
• You may limit your search to a certain year or a certain date range, such as 1997-2003.
• Here is an example of an article record found by using subject word exchange OR subject word trade, limited to 2000-2003. The search term and date are in bold italic print. Notice that the word "exchange" appears but "trade" does not:

Other tips:
• If you retrieve more than 100 results, you may add more search terms to your search (thus narrowing it down), by clicking on "Refine" just above and to the left of your results list. You will be taken to the Advanced search page; click on the "clear" button, type in additional search terms connected by AND or OR, and select the fields you would like to search. The search engine will then look within your previous search for the newly added terms.
• If you click on the word "save" to the right of each retrieved article record, that record will be saved into a special set. Once you are done searching, click on "Saved" at the very top right of the screen, and you will be brought to a list of all of your saved records.
• You may print or e-mail your search results or your set of saved records.
• When you finish your Anthropological Literature search session, be sure to go to the "Previous Searches" option towards the upper right section of the default search screen. This will bring you to a list of all of your searches and the number of results you received for each search. Print this page - you may want to refer to this list the next time you search Anthropological Literature.
• See Elizabeth Putnam, eputnam@skidmore.edu, extension x5542, for more assistance

Ref GN1 .A15
Abstracts in Anthropology
Indexes thousands of international journal articles in Anthropology. Also provides an abstract (a short summary) of each article. Use this in addition to the Anthropological Literature database to find journal articles.

Ref GN25 .C65 2002
Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology / edited by Tim Ingold, 2002.

Ref GN307 .D485 1997
Dictionary of Anthropology / edited by Thomas Barfield, 1997

Ref GN307 .W56 1991
Dictionary of Concepts in Cultural Anthropology / Robert H. Winthrop, 1991.

Ref GN307 .E52 1996
Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology / editors, David Levinson, Melvin Ember, 1996.
This compilation of anthropological terms and concepts provides in-depth definitions along with discussion of people, research, and theory relating to those terms. Essays are signed and include a bibliography.

Ref GN307 .E53 v.1-10 and suppl.
Encyclopedia of World Cultures / David Levinson, editor in chief, 1991-1996, 2002.
Each entry in this encyclopedia discusses a particular culture group, including ethnonyms, settlements, economy, family, history, cultural relations, sociopolitical orientation and religion.

Various call numbers - search in Lucy2 catalog
Endangered Peoples: Struggles to Survive and Thrive [Series] 2000-2002
This series of 7 books (various call numbers) offers clear, readable introductions to indigenous peoples in Africa & the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, North America, Oceania, Southeast & East Asia, and the Arctic.

Ref GN333 .W67 1998
Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life  2001.

Reference Desk
A reference librarian is always happy to help you locate the information that you need. Please feel free to ask for assistance in person or by calling extension 5503.

Subject Librarian
Elizabeth Putnam (eputnam@skidmore.edu, extension 5542, library room 327) is the Social Sciences librarian. Please contact her with any questions or problems that you may encounter during your research.

Interlibrary Loan
The Interlibrary Loan service exists to supply library users with books, articles and other materials that are unavailable within the Lucy Scribner Library. The process is easy; simply fill out an online request form ("Submit Book Request" or "Submit Journal Article Request") and the library will contact you when your materials have arrived.