What are some good "official" programs, websites and journals on [any form of] anthropology?

December 21, 2011 8:25 AM

What are some good "official" programs, websites and journals on [any form of] anthropology?

I've always been interested in learning anthropology, however it isn't offered at my university as a discipline. What are some programs (notable study abroad programs, research centers, think tanks, internships, or fellowships, etc.) that are related to any form of anthropology?

Alternatively, what are some good anthropology websites or journals to learn from?

posted by enroute888 to education (4 answers total)

Well, Anthropology is a large discipline with several sub-disciplines (linguistic, cultural, physical, etc.), so one place to start might be the American Anthropological Association and some of their publications, such as Anthropology News, just to give you an overall view of the variety of the discipline.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 8:53 AM on December 21, 2011

The Anthropologies blog/project features current and recent grad students covering a variety of issues in contemporary anthropology. To get started, Issue 1: What is Anthropology? can introduce you to the discipline, and Issue 7: Anthropology with Purpose: Applied, Public, Academic places the discipline in context. Overall they emphasize the "four-field approach" which is what DiscourseMarker was referring to: cultural, physical/biological, linguistic, and archaeology.
posted by illenion at 11:03 AM on December 21, 2011

As DiscourseMarker and illenion allude to, Anthropology as a field is incredibly diverse; note also that the subfields can be pretty specialized and pretty different from each other.

Savage Minds is one of the better blogs out there. If you scroll down to the bottom of main page on the site, they have a very good section with links to other sites and blogs by category.

AnthroNotes is a publication aimed at K - 12 educators, but it has some good introductory articles you might take a look at; the issues are available online back to 1996.

The Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology has some short online staff interviews where people talk about their careers and work that may be of interest.
posted by gudrun at 11:16 AM on December 21, 2011

Perhaps your school has a capstone/thesis/independent study opportunity that, once you are abroad in a program, you could turn more anthropological. I went to Tokyo thru CIEE and found the anthropology faculty at Sophia University, my host university, to be very engaging and supportive. My department required undergrads to conduct independent research, which meant lots of office-hour conversations, interviews with informants, wandering around and taking field notes. I tried to draw upon faculty at Sophia and bounce ideas off them whenever possible. I've spoken to other friends who have done research one way or another and the consensus is that professors are happy when students take extra initiative and actually create a dialogue when they are abroad. Anthros are some of the more reflective and inviting folks, and I'm sure you could make your own opportunities at a foreign university.

I'll second Savage Minds as a good way to get a vibe check on contemporary anthropology.

If you're looking for a very short introduction to anthropology, there's one of those you might like.

I've found that while libraries and book stores often have a gem or two, anthropology books chosen at random tend to be out of date and not especially helpful for orienting yourself in the field. If you are feeling like randomly diving into a book, however, here's a few places I might start (this is super-slanted towards what I find most interesting in anthropology, but oh well!) Debt: The First 5,000 Years, Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology, Ordinary Affects.

I hope you find some cool stuff! Feel free to memail me any questions you have.
posted by elephantsvanish at 8:54 PM on December 22, 2011