History of Anthropology :
a guide to library resources

DICTIONARIES/BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

The guide to Anthropology dictionaries/encyclopedias will help if you need explanations of anthropological terminology or theory.

The following are additional biographical resources:

Anthropology Biography Web [web access]
[Brief, encyclopedic entries on the lives of significant anthropologists or prominent thinkers in other fields who have influenced the discipline]

Biographical directory of anthropologists born before 1920 (1988) [print]
[Provides brief biographical information together with sources for additional information]

Difficult folk? : a political history of social anthropology (2008) [print]
[Focuses on the field of social anthropology in twentieth-century Britain]

History of Oxford anthropology (2007) [print]
[Provides information about the first one hundred years of anthropology at Oxford University]

International dictionary of anthropologists (1991) [print]
[Entries consist of a biographical essay together with lists of major works & sources for additional information]

Makers of modern culture (1981) [print]
[Comprises a biography & a bibliography of works]

Makers of nineteenth century culture : 1800-1914 (1982) [print]
[Comprises a biography & a bibliography of works]

Women anthropologists : a biographical dictionary (1988) [print]
[Comprises a biography, a bibliography of selected works & a listing of critical studies. Also available as Women anthropologists : selected biographies]

FINDING BOOKS USING THE LIBRARY CATALOGUE

The following are terms which can be searched by Subject Heading in the catalogue

Anthropology History
Anthropology Philosophy
Ethnology History
Anthropologists
Ethnologists
Women anthropologists

To locate material by or about individual anthropologists, use the Keywords index (eg clifford and geertz)

FINDING JOURNAL ARTICLES

Journal articles can be found through databases listed in the listed in the Electronic Databases for Anthropology guide.

There are also specialist bibliographies available in print format for coverage of earlier material

SOME STARTING POINTS

After Tylor : British social anthropology, 1888-1951 (1995) [print]
[The first comprehensive exploration of the intellectual transition that gave rise to modern British social anthropology. A sequel to an earlier publication entitled Victorian anthropology - see below]

Among the anthropologists : history & context in anthropology (1999) [print]
[Essays on historical investigations of some of the classics sources of anthropology, portraits of individual scholars, & autobiographical reflections on recent developments in the field]

And along came Boas : continuity and revolution in Americanist anthropology (1998) [print]
[An examination of Americanist anthropology, based on Boasian and Powellist principles and centering on the core of the continuity across paradigm transition]

Anthropology and anthropologists : the modern British school (1996) [print]
[History of the theory and personalities in British social anthropology]

British social anthropology : a retrospective (2000) [electronic]
[Reviews the history of British social anthropology, concentrating on the expansion of the discipline in the British university sector since the 1960s. Published in volume 29 of the Annual Review of Anthropology. Also available in print format]

Building of British social anthropology (1981) [print]
[Covers W.H.R. Rivers and his Cambridge disciples in the development of kinship studies, 1898-1931]

Critical studies in the history of anthropology [print]
[A book series published by the University of Nebraska Press consisting of individual volumes devoted to specific historical themes]

Culture change : an analysis and bibliography of anthropological sources to 1952 (1953) [print]
[A survey of anthropological studies dealing with culture from the 19th century to 1952. Includes a chronological bibliography]

Development of anthropological ideas (1976) [print]
[A history of cultural anthropology]

Excluded ancestors, inventible traditions : essays toward a more inclusive history of Anthropology (2000) [print]
[Seeks to widen the anthropological past and, in doing so, to invigorate contemporary anthropological practice by focusing on little-known scholars who contributed to the anthropological work of their time]

History and theory in anthropology (2000) [print]
[Surveys the historical contexts of the debates in the discipline, tracing the genealogies of theories & schools of thought]

History of Anthropology [print]
[A book series published by the University of Wisconsin Press consisting of individual volumes devoted to specific historical themes]

History of ethnology (1975) [print]
[Historical review of the development of anthropology with an extensive bibliography of sources]

A hundred years of anthropology (1965) [print]
[A survey of the general history of anthropology from c.1835 to 1950]

Inconstant profession : the anthropological life in interesting times (2002) [electronic]
[Clifford Geertz traces the development of anthropology as a field of study between 1950 & 2002. Published in volume 31 of the Annual Review of Anthropology. Also available in print format]

Methodology and History in Anthropology [print]
[A book series published by Berghan Books designed to offer a forum for debate on the interrelationship between anthropology and other academic fields but also on the challenge to anthropological methods of new intellectual and technological developments, and the role of anthropological thought in a general history of concepts]

One discipline, four ways: British, German, French and American (2005) [print]
[Introduction to the four major traditions in anthropology

Readings in early anthropology (1965) [print]
[Commentary & text which covers Western anthropology from the 12th century to the 18th]

Settler colonialism and the transformation of anthropology (1999) [print]
[A study of the anthropological debates about social evolution, settler colonialism and anthropology in Australia]

Social history of anthropology in the United States (2001) [print]
[Shows how American anthropology has been shaped by the complex interplay of forces and conditions both within and without the United States]

Theory, practice, life: rethinking American anthropology for the Twenty-First Century (2003) [electronic]
[In-depth review commentary on recently published books. Published in volume 32.3 of Reviews in Anthropology. Also available in print format]

Victorian anthropology (1987) [print]
[Study of British anthropology and the Darwinian revolution. Continued by After Tylor - see above]

WEB RESOURCES

History of Anthropology homepage
[This site has been created around the book The History of Anthropology by Thomas Eriksen and Finn Nielsen (Pluto Press, 2001). At present it includes the full text of Chapter 2 entitled "Victorians, Germans and a Frenchman", and links to other resources in the history of anthropology]

Materials for teaching the history of anthropology
[This is an American Anthropological Association site which provides access to articles on the history of anthropology gleaned from their journal American Anthropologist]

Resources for a history of anthropology
[Compiled by Timothy Mason at the Université de Paris 8, this is an annotated listing of web sites which are of interest to the history of anthropology]

Last update: 10 December 2008

This page is maintained by Helen Attar