Featured Databases: Ethnography In Research

In June we highlight research resources that aid the study of people in their own environment through the use of methods such as participant observation and face-to-face interviewing. While ethnographic accounts, classical and contemporary, are descriptive and interpretive, preparation for going into the "field" involves learning what is known about people and places.

Anthropological Fieldwork Online "brings the fieldwork underpinning the great ethnographies of the early 20th century into the digital world. This fully indexed, primary source database unfolds the historical development of anthropology from a global perspective, bringing together the work of early scholars who shaped the theories and methods students learn about, critique and re-shape today. Content is focused around each scholar's prominent field experience, with comprehensive inclusion of fieldwork, contextualizing documents from the same time period, including correspondence, and subsequent writings that led to major publications such as draft manuscripts, lectures and articles. Scholars can trace the full scholarly process in all of its stages, from qualitative data gathering to analysis through publication, while cross-searching contemporaneous research from the most important scholars in the discipline. Includes the original fieldwork of anthropologists such as: Bronislaw Malinowski, Victor and Edith Turner, Max Gluckman, Raymond Firth, Ruth Benedict, Charles Seligman, Edith Durha, Margaret Mead and others."

Anthropology Online (Alexander Street Press) provides the largest, most comprehensive resource for the study of human culture and behavior, through access to the content in Ethnographic Video Online and Anthropology Online. The collection covers every region of the world and features the work of many of the most influential documentary filmmakers of the 20th century, including interviews, previously unreleased raw footage, field notes, study guides, and more, and brings together a wide range of written ethnographies, field notes, seminal texts, memoirs, and contemporary studies, covering human behavior the world over. Thematic areas include: language and culture, kinesthetics, body language, food and foraging, cooking, economic systems, social stratification and status, caste systems and slavery, male and female roles, kinship and families, political organization, conflict and conflict resolution, religion and magic, music and the arts, culture and personality, and sex, gender, and family roles. A core collection for use across the curriculum - from introductory anthropology and sociology courses to advanced interdisciplinary courses in women's studies, economics, and international studies.

Anthropology Plus combines Anthropological Literature from Harvard University and the Anthropological Index, Royal Anthropological Institute from the UK. Anthropology Plus provides worldwide indexing of journal articles, reports, commentaries, edited works, and obituaries in the fields of social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, folklore, material culture, and interdisciplinary studies. The index offers coverage of all core periodicals in the field in addition to local and lesser-known journals. Coverage is from the late 19th century to the present.

Anthrosource contains Current issues of American Anthropological Association's journals and bulletins, as well as archived issues of all the AAA's journals, newsletters and bulletins. Journal issues generally appear online prior to distribution in print.

Cultural History "is an interactive online resource providing students, researchers, and scholars with ... digital access to Bloomsbury's ... Cultural Histories series. Comprising curated and illustrated reference works alongside extensive eBook and image collections Bloomsbury Cultural History presents essential content within a single, fully cross-searchable platform. The Cultural Histories Series offers an authoritative survey of a wide range of subjects throughout history. Each subject is looked at in Antiquity, the Medieval Age, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Age of Empire and the Modern Age and thematic coverage is consistent across all periods so that users can either gain a broad overview of a period or follow a theme through the ages."

eHRAF World Cultures is a collection of full-text primary source materials on ca. 400 different cultural, ethnic, religious and national groups in the following regions of the world: Asia, Europe, Africa, Middle East, North America, Oceania, Eurasia and South America. Access is via keyword, as well as through geographic (OWC) codes and a topical (OCM) classification scheme.

Ethnic newsWatch

eHRAF Archaeology is a collection of full-text information (e.g. books, journal articles, and dissertations) on archaeological traditions from around the world. The eHRAF Collection of Archaeology is unique in that the text is subject-indexed for quick retrieval of information. Every year more archaeological traditions are added to the eHRAF Collection of Archaeology.

Ethnic newsWatch provides full text articles from newspapers and periodicals published by the ethnic, minority and native press in the U.S. Coverage is from 1960 to date.

Ethnographic Video Online and Anthropology Online (Alexander Street Press) is a visual encyclopedia of human behavior and culture, online in streaming video. Contains classic and contemporary documentaries; previously unpublished footage from working anthropologists and ethnographers in the field; and select feature films. Includes footage from every continent and hundreds of unique cultures. Thematic areas include: language and culture, kinesthetics, body language, food and foraging, cooking, economic systems, social stratification and status, caste systems and slavery, male and female roles, kinship and families, political organization, conflict and conflict resolution, religion and magic, music and the arts, culture and personality, and sex, gender, and family roles.

Family and Society Studies Worldwide provides citations and some abstracts in social work, social science and family practice. Includes citations from the discontinued print publication Inventory of marriage and family literature and from its electronic continuation, Family studies database (1970-present); other citations derived from Australian family & society abstracts (1980-present), the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence of Health Canada, and the U.S. Military Family Resource Center Documents Database. Source documents include related websites, internet documents, professional journals, conference papers, books, book chapters, selected popular literature, government reports, discussion and working papers, unpublished material such as poster sessions, statistical documents, theses, dissertations and other sources.

Humanities and Social Sciences Index Retrospective includes a wide range of interdisciplinary fields covered in a broad array of humanities and social sciences journals.

JSTOR, a scholarly journal archive, provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.

Proquest Dissertations and Theses: Global (PQDTGlobal) is the world's most comprehensive collection of full-text dissertations and theses. As the official digital dissertations archive for the Library of Congress and as the database of record for graduate research, PQDTGlobal includes millions of searchable citations to dissertations and theses from 1861 to the present day together with over a million full-text dissertations that are available for download in PDF format. Over 2.1 million titles are available for purchase as printed copies. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full-text coverage for older graduate works. It also includes PQDT UK & Ireland content.

Race Relations Abstracts "includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to race relations, including ethnic studies, discrimination, immigration studies, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline. Records are selected from many of the top titles within the discipline, including Race, Ethnicity & Education and Ethnic & Racial Studies."

SocINDEX with Full Text "offers comprehensive coverage of sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study. These include abortion, criminology & criminal justice, demography, ethnic & racial studies, gender studies, marriage & family, political sociology, religion, rural & urban sociology, social development, social psychology, social structure, social work, socio-cultural anthropology, sociological history, sociological research, sociological theory, substance abuse & other addictions, violence and many others."

Sociological Abstracts indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides citations from 1963 to the present to journal articles, book reviews, books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Records for journal articles added after 1974 contain in-depth abstracts. Major areas of coverage include culture and social structure; demography and human biology; economic development; environmental interactions; evaluation research; family and social welfare; health and medicine and law; history and theory of sociology; management and complex organizations; mass phenomena and political interactions; methodology and research technology; policy, planning, forecast and speculation; radical sociology; religion and science; rural and urban sociology; social development; social differentiation; social psychology and group interaction; sociology of the arts, business, education; studies in violence and power; substance abuse and addiction; welfare services; women's studies.

Poster Image: The Bardo National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography 2, Courtesy Wikimedia

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