Research Guides: Anthropology: Articles

Anthropology Databases

Article Tips

Remember to use only articles as specified by your professor in your work, for example, the author of any article you reference should be an anthropologist!

The articles you find on AnthroSource articles will usually be by anthropologists, but you should always double check. With the other databases listed (Anthropology Plus, etc), some articles are by anthropologists and some may not be, so remember to look.

How do I tell if an article is by an anthropologist?

There are some good ways to tell.

Many articles give the author's credentials on the first page of the article, either under the author's name or in the footnotes. You can always Google the authors as well: what else have they written, where do they work currently, etc.
And of course, the tone and language used in an article should be indicators to you. Does the author seem to be writing for other researchers in anthropology? Are they using discipline-specific language? If you're ever unsure, ask a librarian!

AnthroSource This link opens in a new window
Access full-text publications from the American Anthropological Association including journals, newsletters, bulletins, and monographs.
Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new window
Covers journal articles, edited books, and essays in anthropology, archeology, and related interdisciplinary research.
Anthropological Index Online (AIO) This link opens in a new window
Index to articles on various areas of anthropology. Published by the Royal Anthropological Institute of the British Museum, materials cover 1957 to the present.
HRAF World Cultures (eHRAF) This link opens in a new window
Contains ethnographic collections covering aspects of cultural and social life. Search through subject indexing at the paragraph level. Materials include books, journal articles, and dissertations.
The annually-growing eHRAF database is unique in that the information is organized and searchable by cultures/ethnic groups and the full-text sources are subject-indexed at the paragraph level. It is great for cross-cultural comparisons of customs and beliefs of groups all over the world.

General Databases

General databases are research databases that contain materials (articles, data sets, images, charts, and more) from a wide variety of publications that cover many different disciplines. Below are a few examples of Emory Libraries most popular multidisciplinary databases.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Access a wide variety of journal articles in the humanities and other disciplines.
Note: You may not be able to access the most current 2–7 years of certain journals—but many of these recent publications are found in Project MUSE.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and abstracts for thousands of journals and other publications. Access broad ranging resources that include full-text journals, monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and video content from the Associate Press etc.
Access broad ranging resources that include full-text journals, monographs, reports, conference proceedings, and video content from the Associated Press, etc.
Research Library (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Covers publications from academic journals and popular magazines in the humanities, social sciences, general sciences, and business.
Oxford Bibliographies Online. Anthropology This link opens in a new window
Guide to scholarly literature in the field of Anthropology. Subdivided into articles by established scholars covering major categories of research with corresponding bibliographies of recommended resources.

Subject-Specific Databases

Since Emory Libraries have access to more than 1,000 research databases, sometimes it is easier to filter the databases by subject and choose a database based upon your research need. Simply do this by clicking on the "All Subjects" dropdown menu and click on a subject to narrow the results to the available databases that are within the selected discipline.

Search databases by subject

How to Find: Articles

Click on the tabs in this section for a quick how-to on when and how to access both general multidisciplinary research databases and subject-specific databases.

Watch the short tutorial video to learn some quick tips and steps for searching the library's research databases.

Journals

Academic journals are subject-specific and may focus on specific topics within a broader discipline. Because databases are more broadly focused, you may want to look at one of these subject-specific journals when doing research on your topic as well.

Notable journals in the field of anthropology include:

American Anthropologist
Annual Review of Anthropology
Anthropological Quarterly
Anthropology News
Cultural Anthropology
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI)
Journal of Material Culture

Notable journals in biological anthropology include:

American Journal of Biological Anthropology
American Journal of Human Biology
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Anthropology & Medicine
Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry: An International Journal of Cross-Cultural Research
Evolutionary Anthropology
Human Ecology
Human Nature
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
Journal of Ecological Anthropology
Journal of Human Evolution
Journal of Social and Biological Structures
Medical Anthropology Quarterly
Medical Anthropology: Cross-Cultural Studies in Health and Illness
Social Science & Medicine
Journal of Ethnobiology & Ethnomedicine
Transcultural Psychiatry

e-Journals
Use e-Journals to track down an article in a specific journal.