Cultural Anthropology Resources

Finding Books Specific to Your Culture

Use the Library Online Catalog to locate books on your culture in the GCC library. Refer to the Library Online Catalog tutorial for details on searching.

  1. The Library Online Catalog can be accessed from the library's web pages using the tab labeled Catalog next to the home tab.
  2. Select the Advanced Search Tab and enter the name of your assigned culture. Click on the Search button.
  3. Search for all possible names for your culture (Example: If Inuit is my culture, I would search for inuit or eskimo and selecting any of these from the drop-down menu as in the picture below to find all books about my culture. Also be sure to search for alternate spellings of your culture's name).

General Reference Books

Some reference books of interest include:

  • Atlas of Mankind
    (REF909 A881a)
  • Atlas of World Cultures
    (REF912.13058 P945a)
  • Dictionary of Anthropology
    (REF306.03 D554)
  • Encyclopedia of the Peoples of the World
    (REF305.8003 E56)
  • Encyclopedia of World Cultures
    (REF306.03 E56)
  • Ethnic Cultures of the World: A Statistical Reference
    (REF305.8021 P242e)
  • Ethnic Groups Worldwide: A Ready Reference Handbook
    (REF305.8 L665et)
  • Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life
    (REF305.8003 W927)

Reference Books for Specific Cultures/Groups

  • Cambridge Encyclopedia of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives
    (REF954.003 C178)
  • Encyclopedia of African Peoples
    (REF305.896003 E56)
  • Encyclopedia of China Today
    (REF 951.0503 E56, 1981)
  • Encyclopedia of Mexico: History, Society, and Culture
    (REF 972.003 E56)
  • Encyclopedia of Native American Religions
    (REF299.703 H669e)
  • Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes
    (REF970.00497 W164e, 1999)
  • Encyclopedia of North American Indians
    (REF970.00497 E56)
  • Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East
    (REF956.003 E56)
  • Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa: Archaeology, History, Languages, Cultures, and Environments
    (REF 960.2 E56)
  • Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico
    (REF970.00497 H236)
  • Handbook of Middle American Indians
    (REF970.00428 H236)
  • Handbook of South American Indians
    (REF980.00498 H236)
  • Korea: Its Land, People, and Culture of All Ages
    (REF 951.9 K84, 1963)
  • Modern Japan: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism
    (REF952 M689

Locating Magazine and Journal Articles - Periodical Indexes

GCC Library article database list can be accessed from the library web pages by selecting the database tab near the home tab and are listed on the library's web page: http://gcc.glendale.edu/library/research/databases.html

To use article databases from off campus:

    1. Go to the instruction page for Accessing Article Databases From Outside of the GCC Network
    2. Follow the instructions on that page.

    * In summary, once you attempt to use a database, you will be asked for a username and password. Your username is your student ID number. Your password is your birth date in six digit format (mmddyy) without slashes. (Example: February 14, 1975 would be 021475).

ProQuest is also useful for finding articles in magazines such as National Geographic. These articles can either provide information on your culture or be used as an example of how to write about a culture. GCC Library has National Geographic from 1894 to the present (but some of the older volumes are incomplete).

  1. Once you access ProQuest, use Advanced Search.
  2. In the first text box, type your culture's name(s). Example: inuit or eskimo
  3. In the second text box, type National Geographic.
  4. To the right of the second text box, change Citation and article text to Publication title. You are now searching for articles about either the Eskimo or the Inuit published only in National Geographic.
  5. Click Search.
  6. If you find an appropriate article, write down or print the citation so you can locate that article in the library's collection.
  7. If you simply need an article from National Geographic as an example of how to write about a culture, use any culture for searching.
Other Databases with Related Information:

There are other databases which may provide information related to your culture. These databases are also available on the library's web page: http://gcc.glendale.edu/library/databases.html. For directions on accessing databases remotely, see the instructions above.

ProQuest online database (includes both periodicals and newspapers with many full text articles and some graphics). It may be searched by subject, keyword, date, publication, and special topics.

Web Sites

Use a good search engine, such as Google, to locate web pages on the culture you've chosen. Remember to evaluate the information you find on the web according to the WebSite Evaluation criteria. Some helpful web sites include:

American Indians: WWW Virtual Library
an index of Native American resources on the Internet.
 
 
Native American Sites
includes information on individual native nations and much more.
NativeWeb
resources for indigenous cultures around the world.
Reading about Cultures on the World Wide Web
lists links by region.

Last Updated 09/26/14 sch

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