Skip to Main Content

Anthropology

Digital Libraries

These are some digital libraries that include primary source materials that may be useful in anthropological research. Listed alphabetically.

Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History
Monographic volumes that include some of the great ethnographies of the 20th century, particularly on North American Indians.

Bibliografía Mesoamericana
The Bibliografía Mesoamericana provides a comprehensive and continually updated bibliographic dataset of the published literature pertaining to the anthropology of Mesoamerica. Content includes archaeology, ethnography, ethnohistory, art history, linguistics, physical anthropology, and other related disciplines.

Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington, DC): Annual reports for 1878-1931
A digital collection of annual reports from the Bureau of American Ethnology. These reports offer first-hand accounts of North and South American tribes, including illustrations, by workers in the field.

Latin American Public Opinion Project
Specializes in the development, implementation, and analysis of public opinion surveys. Since the 1970s, LAPOP has gathered a treasure-trove of databases containing political perspectives from Latin America and the Caribbean.

Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
A large collection of maps organized by region.  I found the site useful when I was writing a research paper and wanted to include a map of the region I was discussing.

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
The subject material of the various collections is global in perspective and covers such topics as world ethnic performance traditions, historical and spoken word recordings, sounds of science and nature, occupational folklore, and family folklore. The collections are also strong in American, and more specifically Euro-American, African-American, Caribbean, and Native American musical and performance traditions.

World Digital Library
Resources include, but are not limited to, manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings. Items on the WDL may easily be browsed by place, time, topic, type of item, and contributing institution, or can be located by an open-ended search, in several languages.