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Lloyd Sealy Library
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
OER Open Educational Resources

OER FOR SUBJECTS & TOPICS: Anthropology

ANTHROPOLOGY BOOKS & JOURNALS

The below OER resources are a combination of Creative Commons licensed material, Internet resources and library resources. The resources accessed through the library are not free for the college, but they are free for the John Jay students with a login.

  • Global Perspectives on Gender: This textbook will take a regional approach to examining gendered lives from a social science perspective (primarily anthropological)
  • Cambridge Encyclopedia of AnthropologyThe Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology (CEA) is a growing open-access teaching and learning resource.

  • Encyclopedia of Anthropology: This five-volume Encyclopedia of Anthropology is a unique collection of over 1000 entries that focuses on topics in physical/ biological anthropology, archaeology, cultural/social anthropology, linguistics, and applied anthropology. 

  • Folklife and Fieldwork: An Introduction to Field Techniques: This is a full text government publication from 2002.

  • Introduction to AnthropologyOER Introductory Anthropology textbook by Lisa Pope Fischer, City College

  • Cultural AnthropologyFull text book by Tracy Evans, Santa Ana College, 2018 Lumen Learning.

  • Explorations: An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology“The first comprehensive, peer-reviewed open access textbook for biological anthropology courses. 

  • "Project Gutenberg, Anthropology Bookshelf"Not technically a reader, but an open access source that compiles classic anthropology texts by region.

  • The Anthropology of the State: A ReaderThis is a very thorough reader that compiles interesting, if at times theoretically complex, pieces on a subject that people often think is beyond anthropologists. This is an Internet source. Use for educational purposes is allowed under the Fair Use provision.

  • The History of Our Tribe: Hominini (SUNY Genesco)
    “The book explores the field of paleoanthropology past and present. Beginning over 65 million years ago, Welker traces the evolution of our species, the environments and selective forces that shaped our ancestors, their physical and cultural adaptations, and the people and places involved with their discovery and study. It is designed as a textbook for a course on Human Evolution but can also serve as an introductory text for relevant sections of courses in Biological or General Anthropology or general interest.”

  • How the World Changed Social Media
    “This book is one of a series of 11 titles. Nine are monographs devoted to specific field sites in Brazil, Chile, China, England, India, Italy, Trinidad and Turkey. These will be published during the course of 2016–17. The series also includes this volume, our comparative book about all of our findings, and a final book which contrasts the visuals that people post on Facebook in the English field site with those on our Trinidadian field site… Each book is based on 15 months of research during which time most of the anthropologists lived, worked and interacted with people in the local language.”

  • Native Peoples of North America (SUNY Potsdam)
    Native Peoples of North America is intended to be an introductory text about the Native peoples of North America (primarily the United States and Canada) presented from an anthropological perspective. […]. Prehistoric, historic and contemporary information is presented. Each chapter begins with an example from the oral tradition that reflects the theme of the chapter. The text includes suggested readings, videos, and classroom activities.

  • Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology
    Open textbook covering essential topics in cultural anthropology. Each chapter written by a different anthropologist. Includes teaching resources from the Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges.

  • Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom (SUNY / FIT)
    By Dr. Melissa Tombro of FIT. “Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom is dedicated to the practice of immersive ethnographic and autoethnographic writing that encourages authors to participate in the communities about which they write. 

  • anthro{dendum}
    “Anthro{dendum} is a group blog devoted to ‘doing anthropology in public’ — providing well-written relevant discussion of sociocultural anthropology that everyone will find accessible. Our authors range from graduate students to tenured professors to anthropologists working outside the academy.”

  • Anthropology Tutorials (Palomar College)
    Tutorials on major topics in anthropology, created and maintained by Dr. Dennis O’Neil of Palomar College.

  • Human Origins Initiative (Smithsonian)
    From the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the Human Origins Initiative shares research and other educational resources related to the study of human evolution and origins.

  • Sapiens
    “An editorially independent magazine of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research”

  • Society for Cultural Anthropology
    This open access journal of the SCA includes teaching tools, podcast episodes, and supplemental teaching materials alongside journal articles.

  • World Mapper
    “Worldmapper is a collection of world maps called cartograms, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.”

VIDEOS

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