Anthropology 501: Research Questions
Background Information
Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology. 4 vols.
Offers articles, arranged alphabetically by topic, on many concepts in cultural anthropology, as well as linguistics, biological anthropology and archaeology. Each essay contains an extensive bibliography.
Ref. GN 307 q.E52 1996 v. 1-4
Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology.
Essays and bibliographies covering key concepts and geographical regions. A "biographical appendix" offers brief info on famous anthropological people.
Ref. GN 307 .E648 1996
Encyclopedia of the Peoples of the World.
Brief introductions to contemporary peoples and ethnic groups.
Ref. GN 495.4 q.E53 1993
Encyclopedia of World Cultures. 10 vols.
Lists cultures alphabetically and gives brief information (where known) about history, kinship, economy, marriage, religious customs and so on. Entries include a
bibliography of at least one item, usually more.
Ref. GN 550 q.E53 1991
Fieldwork in the Library.
Subtitled: "A guide to research in anthropology and related
area studies." Offers in-depth descriptions of a large
number of library sources.
Ref. Z 5111 .W47 1994
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. 25 vols.
An essential encyclopedia covering the social sciences. Entries are the length of short articles, are signed, and include bibliographies. There is one index volume for subjects and another for names.
Ref. H41 .I58 2001
Introduction to Library Research in Anthropology.
A basic guide to just about everything you need to know: searching library catalogs, specialized bibliographies, indexes and abstracts, HRAF, etc.
Ref. Z 5111 .W44 1998
The Sage Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods. 3 vols.
Provides essays, with bibliographies, on methods and isues in social science research.
Ref. H62 q.L456 2004
Other titles:
- American Folklore: An Encyclopedia. Ref. GR101 q.A54 1996
- American Indians. 3 vols. Ref. E 76.2 .A45 1995
- Biographical Dictionary of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Ref. GN20 .B56 2004
- Companion Encyclopedia of Archaeology. 2 vols. Ref. CC70 .C59 1999
- Dictionary of Concepts in Cultural Anthropology. Ref. GN 307 .W56 1991
- Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology: Health and Illness in the World's Cultures. 2 vols. Ref. RA418 .E354 2004
- Encyclopedia of Prehistory. 7 vols. Ref. GN710 q.E53 2001
- Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology. Ref. CC70 q.K56 2000
- History of Physical Anthropology. 2 vols. Ref. GN50.3 .H57 1997
- Folklore. 2 vols. Ref. GR 35 .F63 1997
- Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. 2 vols. Ref. E 77 .H68
- International Dictionary of Anthropologists. Ref. GN 20 q.I5 1991
- International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. 4 vols. Ref. P29 q.I58 2003
- The Oxford Companion to Archaeology. Ref. CC70 .O96 1996
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Finding Books
To find items owned by the library, search LUCIA. Try a search using the Subject begins with option, for example, physical anthropology or ethnography. LUCIA will list other subject headings (and subheadings) which may be of interest. For advanced research you should consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings, or LCSH, a guide to the terms commonly used in catalogs like ours. The LCSH can be found on the shelves behind the Reference Desk on the first floor of the library. To find materials published during a specific time period, limit by date.
To combine terms for a different kind of search, try a Keyword Anywhere search like cargo and new guinea or gender and anthropolog*. The asterisk acts as a truncation symbol and tells LUCIA to search for all words starting with anthropolog*: anthropological, anthropology, etc. In keyword searching, LUCIA will look for the terms you specify anywhere in the important areas of the cataloging records, and display a list of those records. To find videos owned by the Mudd, try a Keyword search like yanomamo and video*. Also try documentary films and video*.
Books are arranged on the library's shelves by Library of Congress Classification. This is a system that organizes materials by general subjects. Once you have a call number from searching LUCIA, see this guide to call number locations at Mudd and the library floor maps to find out where a book might be on the shelves.
Search LUCIA for materials in our library; try WorldCat to find materials beyond the Mudd. Make sure you've thoroughly searched our library before going to WorldCat. See a reference librarian if you need help.
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Finding Articles
The best index to use will depend on your topic. Be sure to check the Electronic Resources page for other options. Two of our resources, JSTOR and Project MUSE provide complete full text. Some of our indexes include:
Abstracts in Anthropology.
Good place to find sources for more information about people and cultures. Very general subject index.
Reference Indexes
Anthropological Index Online
From the Royal Anthropological Institute.
AnthroSource
Searchable full text current issues of 15 major journals published by the American Anthropological Association, plus a complete electronic archive of all AAA journals through 2003.
EBSCOhost.
A single Web source for multiple databases. Contains broad and specialized
coverage of academic and general periodicals. Follow the link for EBSCOhost Web. Academic Search Elite may be particularly useful.
Ethnic Newswatch
"An interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press."
ISI Web of Science
Provides access to the Social Sciences Citation Index, which includes indexing for over 1700 important titles in the social sciences over the past ten years. Author abstracts are provided for more than half of the articles included. Often used for citation searching.
Lexis/Nexis Academic
A version of the Lexis Nexis database for academic users. Provides access to a wide range of periodicals, and includes news, business, legal, and reference information.
Sociological Abstracts
Citations to articles on all aspects of sociology. Our subscription includes access to Social Services Abstracts as well.
Other indexes which might be appropriate include Psychological Abstracts, Women Studies Abstracts, or America; History and Life. Check with a librarian if you aren't sure where to start.
You may also want to browse some of the library's anthropology journals. The titles of these can be found by searching for subjects like anthropology--periodicals or by a keyword search for su anthropolog? and su periodicals.
Newspapers:
New York Times. 1851-current.
Considered to be the American paper of record. The New York Times
is on microfilm and on the web.
New York Times Index--Reference Indexes/Microform Area
New York Times (1851-2004)
Current issues available from many sources: see BESS
ProQuest Newspapers
Provides access to over 300 local, national, and international newspapers, most in full-text. Dates for backfiles vary by title.
Other sources are available for newspapers; In addition to the sources mentioned above, many papers also post current and recent issues on their own Websites. Be sure to ask a reference librarian about access to papers.
Once you have a citation for an article on your topic, try Citation Linker first to see if that particular article is available. If you don't find it, look in LUCIA for the title of the journal or newspaper to see if the library owns it. You should also search BESS, an automated search of the library's full text databases, for electronic copies of articles.
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Human Relations Area Files (HRAF and eHRAF)
The HRAF Collection of Ethnography consist of thousands of books, articles, reports, etc., in the field of ethnography, on microfiche cards. The data on the microfiche has been analyzed according to a system of 710 categories of cultural information. The files contain data largely on non-western cultures. The microfiche is accessed through the two sources, Outline of World Cultures and Outline of Cultural Materials. The HRAF microfiche files are located in the microfilm file cabinets on the first floor of the library. The items in the files are indexed by pulling information from them into hundreds of subject categories. A brief guide to using the HRAF Collection of Ethnography is available from our library.
The most recent installments (NOT the whole HRAF file!) are on the World Wide Web as the eHRAF Collection of Ethnography and the more recent eHRAF Collection of Archaeology. There are help files available for eHRAF from the University of Michigan and from eHRAF at Yale. Please ask a reference librarian for further help in using the HRAF and eHRAF collections.
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Finding Government Documents
Most United States Government Documents are not cataloged in LUCIA. There are several ways to search for government documents, but the two listed below will be the most direct. You might also want to take a look at the library's Guide to Understanding the Government Document Numbering System before you head to the Documents shelves on the second floor. Many sources for government information are on the Web; be sure to look at the library's United States Government Documents page.
Google U.S. Government Search
The popular and helpful Google search applied specifically to finding government information. Searches local, state, military, and national government Web pages.
GPO Monthly Catalog
Catalog of US government publications, covering 1976 - current. Searchable in many ways, via FirstSearch.
Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications.
An annual index is included at the end of each yearly volume, or you can search the Cumulative Subject Index to
the Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications, 1900-197l.
Reference Indexes
There are many historic publications by various government agencies that contain rich ethnographic material. You will need to consult the older issues of the Monthly Catalog on paper to find these. Some of these historic publications will be indexes, like the 1954 publication of the Index to Schoolcraft's "Indian Tribes of the United States," (Gov Doc I 20.2:3:In 2/Index) which itself indexes a major ethnographic work dating from one hundred years earlier. Some publications are from agencies you might not expect to be interested in anthropology, like the Department of the Interior and the Library of Congress. Others are from quasi-governmental agencies like the Smithsonian Institution, publisher of, among many other things, the List of Publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology with Index to Authors and Titles.
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Web Resources
Lawrence University: Anthropology Department
Haven't seen these yet? If not, it's time you did.
Internet Resources for Anthropology
Another list of useful resources for anthropology, this one maintained by the librarians of Seeley G. Mudd.
Resources in Ethnographic Studies: A Collection of Resources in Anthropology, Ethnomusicology, Folklore, and Folklife
Prepared by the Library of Congress. The LOC Website itself is worth a look for all the materials it makes available.
You might want to check out the library's list of Library Research Guides. Keep watching the Research Guides page for new guides as we write them.
Of course, there are many more web resources available that might be useful in your research. You might want to try looking at sources that select the best of the Web, like these:
It's important to think carefully about any information you find in any format, and to evaluate resources for their accuracy, applicability, and so forth. Evaluation of web resources is especially important. You may want to consult this guide to Evaluating Internet Resources. The library's Web Wise Guide to Searching give some helpful inside tips. You can often learn a lot about a page (and a site) by parsing the URL.
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Style Manuals
AAA Style Guide
The style guide of the American Anthropological Association.
Anthropology Citation Formats
Brief information on citing many kinds of materials, print and non-print. From the librarians at the Mudd.
The Chicago Manual of Style.
A standard source for bibliographic format.
RRef. Z253 .U69 2003
Citing Electronic Documents
This page provides guidance on citing electronic documents and links to other guides, some on specific styles of documentation.
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About Library Research in Anthropology
While you will find material on your topic in resources for anthropology, you may also want to consider searching for material from other fields, like history, literary studies, sociology, and more. In addition to consulting catalogs and indexes, be sure to look at bibliographies supplied at the end of relevant articles, chapters, and books, and to search library catalogs for book-length bibliographies.
Remember that in any written work you produce your sources must be fully documented. It may help to look at the information on style before you start your research, so that you will have all the details required for documentation at hand when you need them. Then as you write, go back to the resources on style for details on the exact format of your citations.
The sources listed here were chosen for the broad coverage they provide. Direct links are provided to Internet resources and searchable databases, as well as links to LUCIA, the library's online catalog. Be sure to check the library's Electronic Resources page regularly to see new databases and indexes; some of these will only be available to users on the Lawrence campus. Also, you may want to take a look at guides on related topics from the Library Research Guides page.
Evaluating the resources you find is an essential part of the research process. See this guide to hints on evaluation of books and articles and this guide to evaluating Internet resources.
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Definitions of terms and abbreviations:
Ref. = Reference collection, first floor
RRef.= Ready reference, shelves behind the reference desk
Periodicals = Level A
GovDoc = U.S. Government Documents, second floor
Reference Indexes = Alphabetically arranged at the end of the reference collection
Microform Area = Reading room east of the reference desk, near microform drawers
q. = Oversized books: interfiled in reference and in M class scores; at end of classes in other collections
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