Anthropology Department

Anthropology as a Field

Check out these links for more information about the field of anthropology. Anthropology has seen great changes since its emergence in the 19th century. There are now practitioners all over the world, and the field addresses the entire range of human experiences and practices. 

For more varied and specific links to anthropology research see the Library Research Guide for Anthropology.

  • American Anthropological Association
    Home page of the American Anthropological Association. Find out what's happening in American anthropology. Brief history of the field, Section news, updates on policy debates, great links for anthropology resources on-line.

  • GradSchools.com Directory of Graduate Programs in Anthropology
    Searchable by state, country.

  • Society for Applied Anthropology
    Links to graduate programs nationally, job opportunities, on-line publications and more.

  • Public Anthropology Journal Archive Project
    An excellent website offering a searchable database of 3 major anthropology journals, as well as links on possibilities for activist anthropology, annotated photos and more.

  • History of Anthropology Resources
    Timothy Mason's Resources for a History of Anthropology; lots of links to full-text articles and reviews, information on Spencer and Gillen (the guys whose research among Australian aborigines Durkheim and Levi-Strauss rely on), Malinowski, Margaret Mead.

  • Anthropology of this Century
    A major open access anthropology journal that publishes longer book reviews and a small number of research articles.

  • Cultural Anthropology
    The website of the Society for Cultural Anthropology. In addition to providing information about the open access journal Cultural Anthropology, the website has short essays, podcasts, ethnographic films and other items about contemporary issues in anthropology and the world.

  • Transforming Anthropology
    Journal of the Association of Black Anthropologists. Transforming Anthropology interrogates the contemporary and historical construction of social inequities based on race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, nationality and other invidious distinctions.

  • World Anthropology Network Journal (Red de Anthropologias del Mundo)
    Journal of RAM-WAN, a contemporary collective of international anthropologists who recognize Anglo-Saxon (and to a similar if lesser extent continental French) anthropological theory, thought and practice as stifling and silencing other ways of knowing, doing and living anthropology. The task of this project since the mid-1990s has been to lay out foundational arguments for pluralizing and diversifying what ‘we’ understand to be disciplinary knowledge. The Network as it has expressed itself thus far has consolidated three main approaches: 1) to examine how knowledge – by which it is meant a changing set of Western principles and practices – is transmitted and received around the world; 2) to highlight, recognize and historicize the plurality of anthropologies which operate in distinction from the dominant mode of, so called, ‘metropolitan hegemonies’; and 3) to initiate new dialogues, conversations and activities between anthropologists across inter/national, regional and disciplinary boundaries in order to unravel and disempower the dominance of Western anthropological discourse (Ribeiro 2006).
Popular Anthropology Blogs
  • Sapiens
    In January 2016, we launched SAPIENS with a mission to bring anthropology—the study of being human—to the public, to make a difference in how people see themselves and the people around them. Our objective is to deepen your understanding of the human experience by exploring exciting, novel, thought-provoking, and unconventional ideas. Through news coverage, features, commentaries, reviews, photo essays, and much more, we work closely with anthropologists and journalists to craft intriguing and innovative ways of sharing the discipline with a worldwide audience.

  • Anthro{dendum}
    Anthro{dendum} is a group blog devoted to ‘doing anthropology in public’ — providing well-written relevant discussion of sociocultural anthropology that everyone will find accessible. Our authors range from graduate students to tenured professors to anthropologists working outside the academy.

  • Anthropology News (AN)

    Anthropology News is the AAA’s award-winning member magazine. We publish bimonthly in print and online 24/7. The magazine includes feature articles, opinion columns, visual essays, AAA news, in memoriam notices, member profiles, section news, and more.