Library Research Guides: Anthropology: Databases by Topic

Databases by Anthropology Subfield

Anthropology Plus
- This link opens in a new window
Index of journal articles in anthropology and related fields. The primary index for research in anthropology, it includes articles, reports, edited works, and obituaries in social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, as well as in ethnology, archaeology, folklore, and material culture.

Databases by Topic

Bioanthropology

Anthropology Plus
- This link opens in a new window
Index of journal articles in anthropology and related fields. The primary index for research in anthropology, it includes articles, reports, edited works, and obituaries in social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, as well as in ethnology, archaeology, folklore, and material culture.
Biosis Previews
- This link opens in a new window
BIOSIS Previews combines journal content from Biological Abstracts with supplemental, non-journal coverage from Biological Abstracts/RRM (Reports, Reviews, Meetings). It includes original research reports and reviews in traditional biological and biomedical areas. It also covers references to primary journal literature on vital biological research, medical research findings, and discoveries of new organisms.
Coverage includes fields of Botany, Zoology, Microbiology, Biomedical, Agriculture, Pharmacology, and Ecology. Interdisciplinary fields such as Medicine, Biochemistry, Biophysics, Bioengineering, and Biotechnology are also included.
Medline (Web of Science)
- This link opens in a new window
The Web of science interface to Medline, the primary source of world-wide literature on biomedicine and health care.
Medline provides access to bibliographic information that includes MEDLINE, OLDMEDLINE, as well as:

The out-of-scope citations (e.g., articles on plate tectonics or astrophysics) from certain MEDLINE journals, primarily general science and chemistry journals, for which the life sciences articles are indexed for MEDLINE.
Citations that precede the date that a journal was selected for MEDLINE indexing.
Some additional life science journals that submit full text to PubMedCentral and receive a qualitative review by NLM.

Medline's in-process records provide basic citation information and abstracts before the citations are indexed with NLM's MeSH Terms and added to MEDLINE.
PubMed
- This link opens in a new window
Free resource supporting the search and retrieval of biomedical and life sciences literature with the aim of improving health–both globally and personally. Contains more than 30 million citations and abstracts of biomedical literature.
Available to the public online since 1996, PubMed was developed and is maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), located at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Zoological Record
- This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive coverage of the zoological literature from around 1864. The sources are journals, review annuals, monographs, meeting proceedings, books and reports.

Linguistic Anthropology

Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)
- This link opens in a new window
Abstracts and indexes the international literature in linguistics and related disciplines in the language sciences.
The database covers all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Documents indexed include journal articles, book reviews, books, book chapters, dissertations and working papers.
Anthropology Plus
- This link opens in a new window
Index of journal articles in anthropology and related fields. The primary index for research in anthropology, it includes articles, reports, edited works, and obituaries in social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, as well as in ethnology, archaeology, folklore, and material culture.
Linguistics Abstracts Online
- This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic database with indexing and abstracts for journals encompassing the broad spectrum of linguistics and language study.
Includes indexing to over 800 journals in linguistics. Areas covered include: anthropological linguistics, clinical linguistics, comparative linguistics, computational and statistical linguistics, dialectology, discourse analysis, educational linguistics, ethnolinguistics, geolinguistics, grammar, historical linguistics, mathematical linguistics, morphology, neurolinguistics, philosophical linguistics, phonetics, phonology,pragmatics, psycholinguistics, reading and writing studies, semantics, sociolinguistics, stylistics, and syntax.
MLA International Bibliography
- This link opens in a new window
The MLA Bibliography indexes material in modern languages, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore, and film.
It contains references to scholarly research from journals and series, monographs, chapters of books, working papers, dissertations, proceedings, Festschriften and bibliographies.
International Encyclopedia of Linguistics
- This link opens in a new window
Covers a wide range of topics in linguistics.
Second Edition, Edited by William J. Frawley

The Encyclopedia encompasses a range of topics in linguistics, including such areas as historical, comparative, formal, mathematical, functional, philosophical, and sociolinguistics. Special attention is given to interrelations within these branches of the field and to relations of linguistics with other disciplines. This interdisciplinary focus makes the encyclopedia a resource relevant not only to linguistics but also to scholars working in the fields of computer science, mathematics, philosophy, the social and behavioral sciences, and literary studies.

The second edition of IEL contains 957 articles and about half as many more headwords and subheadwords, given an increase in blind entries (place-holder entries that point to others for their content). All the articles from the first edition are updated in some way, with most ranging from 40 percent revision to complete rewriting. About 15 percent of the articles are new and about 3 percent of the first-edition entries were eliminated from the second. The extensive updating of a ten-year-old reference work slated to endure at least another decade led to the addition of some theories and subfields, the elimination of others, expanded treatment of some existing concepts because of their rising importance, and reduced treatment of others because of their increasingly limited role in the field.

Socio-Cultural Anthropology

Anthropology Plus
- This link opens in a new window
Index of journal articles in anthropology and related fields. The primary index for research in anthropology, it includes articles, reports, edited works, and obituaries in social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, as well as in ethnology, archaeology, folklore, and material culture.
AnthroSource
- This link opens in a new window
Current issues of American Anthropological Association's journals and bulletins as well as archived, full-text issues of all the AAA's journals, newsletters and bulletins.
Also provides access to the current issues of peer-reviewed AAA journals, including: American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Annals of Anthropological Practice, Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Anthropology & Humanism, Anthropology News, Anthropology of Consciousness, Anthropology of Work Review, Archaeological Publications of the American Anthropological Association, Bulletin of the National Association of Student Anthropologists, Central Issues in Anthropology, City & Society, CSAS Bulletin, Cultural Anthropology, Culture, Agriculture, Economic Anthropology, El Mensajero, Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings, Ethos, Food and Environment, General Anthropology Bulletin of the General Anthropology Division, The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Museum Anthropology, National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA) Bulletin, North American Dialogue, Nutritional Anthropology, PoLAR: The Political and Legal Anthropology Review, Proceedings of the African Futures Conference, SOLGAN, Teaching Anthropology: SACC Notes, Transforming Anthropology, Visual Anthropology Review, and Voices. Journal issues generally appear online prior to distribution in print.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS)
- This link opens in a new window
Indexes anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology, and interdisciplinary research in social sciences.
IBSS indexes anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology, and interdisciplinary research in social sciences. It is compiled by the London School of Economics and Political Science, and includes over three million bibliographic references to journal articles and to books, reviews and selected chapters dating back to 1951. It incorporates over 100 languages and countries.

This database is the electronic equivalent of four separate print indexes: International Bibliography of Anthropology (REF Z5111.I62); International Bibliography of Economics (REF Z7164.E2 I62); International Bibliography of Political Science (REF Z7163. I62); and International Bibliography of Sociology (REF Z7161. I62).
eHRAF World Cultures
- This link opens in a new window
Searchable full-text ethnographies on hundreds of ethnic, cultural, religious, and national groups worldwide.
Nuer Field Notes
- This link opens in a new window
Work done by Eleanor Vandevort, a missionary in South Sudan from 1949 through 1963
Very little scholarly material exists about Southern Sudan, which can be readily explained given the unstable political situation and 50 plus years of civil war in the region; yet, the Nuer are known to most students of anthropology. In fact, it has been pointed out that the Nuer may well be the most important case study in the history of anthropology. This is a result of Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard’s classic studies from the 1930s. He was the first anthropologist working in Africa who used research methods based on long-term fieldwork and participant observation. Based on his fieldwork among the Nuer he published three ethnographies which are now classics in the field and studied by many students of anthropology (Evans-Pritchard 1940; 1951; 1956). In fact, he dedicated one of his books to the "staff of the American Mission at Nasser", which is where Ms. Vandevort was stationed. Jon Holtzman, author of a book about Nuer immigrants in the U.S. (Holtzman 2000), points out that 'virtually all introductory textbooks in anthropology make reference (and usually multiple reference) to the Nuer as a central example for various aspects of human culture.

Research and Writing Tools

Chicago Manual of Style Online
- This link opens in a new window
The online version of the classic guide to documentary style. Access is for the 16th and 17th editions.
Includes the complete, fully searchable text of the traditional print version of The Chicago Manual of Style. Also includes access to the Chicago Style Q&A, which is another fully searchable resource of questions and answers, and the Tools, which provides examples of forms, letters, and style sheets.

Native Americans

Anthropology Plus
- This link opens in a new window
Index of journal articles in anthropology and related fields. The primary index for research in anthropology, it includes articles, reports, edited works, and obituaries in social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, as well as in ethnology, archaeology, folklore, and material culture.
Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America
- This link opens in a new window
Bibliographic database covering all aspects of Indigenous culture, history, and life in North America. Includes more than 350,000 citations for newspapers, magazines, academic journals, books, reviews, and trade publications from the United States and Canada with expanded content from Great Britain and Australia.
This resource covers a wide range of topics including acculturation, archaeology, education, Ethnohistory, and economic development, folklore, the gaming industry, missions, mythology, religion, and tribal governments.
Early Encounters in North America
- This link opens in a new window
Searchable text of letters, diaries, memoirs and other accounts of early contacts between Europeans and Native Americans in North America.
eHRAF World Cultures
- This link opens in a new window
Searchable full-text ethnographies on hundreds of ethnic, cultural, religious, and national groups worldwide.
North American Indian Drama
- This link opens in a new window
256 full-text plays by 49 American Indian and First Nation playwrights of the 20th century.
Indigenous Peoples of North America
- This link opens in a new window
Covers the historical experiences, cultural traditions and innovations, and political status of Indigenous Peoples in the United States and Canada. The archive includes monographs, manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals and photographs. Includes access to Part I and Part II: The Indian Rights Association, 1882-1986.

Ethnographies

Anthropology Plus
- This link opens in a new window
Index of journal articles in anthropology and related fields. The primary index for research in anthropology, it includes articles, reports, edited works, and obituaries in social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, as well as in ethnology, archaeology, folklore, and material culture.
eHRAF World Cultures
- This link opens in a new window
Searchable full-text ethnographies on hundreds of ethnic, cultural, religious, and national groups worldwide.
Ethnographic Video Online
- This link opens in a new window
Contains classic and contemporary documentaries, previously unpublished footage from anthropologists and ethnographers working in the field, and some feature films. Includes searchable transcripts.
Access is for Volumes 1-4.

Ethnographic Video Online, Vols. I and II: Foundational Films
Includes classic and contemporary ethnographies, documentaries and shorts from every continent.

Ethnographic Video Online, Vol. III: Indigenous Voices
Includes films by indigenous filmmakers. Emphasis is on the human effects of climate change, sustainability, indigenous and local ways of interpreting history, cultural change, and traditional knowledge and storytelling.

Ethnographic Video Online, Vol. IV: Festivals and Archives
Includes titles by contemporary visual anthropologists. Also contains the full catalog of anthropology films from Berkeley Media, formerly known as the University of California’s Extension Center for Media.

Food Studies

Anthropology Plus
- This link opens in a new window
Index of journal articles in anthropology and related fields. The primary index for research in anthropology, it includes articles, reports, edited works, and obituaries in social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, as well as in ethnology, archaeology, folklore, and material culture.
Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America
- This link opens in a new window
Covers the significant events, inventions, and social movements in American history that have affected the way Americans view, prepare, and consume food and drink.
Includes nearly 200 contributors discuss regions, people, ingredients, companies, advertising, historical eras, holidays and festivals, and political, scientific, and economic currents relevant to American cuisine.

Archaeology

Anthropology Plus
- This link opens in a new window
Index of journal articles in anthropology and related fields. The primary index for research in anthropology, it includes articles, reports, edited works, and obituaries in social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, as well as in ethnology, archaeology, folklore, and material culture.
Historical Abstracts
- This link opens in a new window
Index to journals, chapters and theses about world history, 1450 to present.
Covers modern world history (excluding the United States and Canada which are covered in the database America: History and Life) from 1450 to the present. It currently indexes about 2,300 journals in 40 languages, with indexing also for some books and dissertations. Most of the article citations include abstracts of 75-100 words.

Anthropology

Databases by Anthropology Subfield

Databases by Topic

Bioanthropology

Linguistic Anthropology

Socio-Cultural Anthropology

Research and Writing Tools

Native Americans

Ethnographies

Food Studies

Archaeology

Featured Databases

IU Libraries

Anthropology

Databases by Anthropology Subfield

Databases by Topic

Bioanthropology

Linguistic Anthropology

Socio-Cultural Anthropology

Research and Writing Tools

Native Americans

Ethnographies

Food Studies

Archaeology

Social media

Additional resources

Featured Databases

IU Libraries