Appendix
The Internet and Anthropology
Prepared with the assistance of Deborah Carter Peoples
As almost everyone knows by now, you can use the Internet to access an enormous amount of information about every imaginable subject. Indeed, there is so much information available that the major problem in using the Internet is locating the materials you are interested in. Evaluating the quality, accuracy, and bias of those materials is equally difficult. This appendix is written to help you find materials dealing with anthropology. Evaluating the quality of those materials is largely up to you.
We assume a basic familiarity with the Internet, but the following are a few things you need to have and to know. Very simply, the Internet is a world wide network of computers organized so that each computer can access the information stored on all the others. You must have a modem or other communications card installed inside your computer to send and receive messages from other computers. If you are a student in a college or university, your institution will probably have a server that your personal computer can communicate with; if you don’t know about this, call your campus computing services or information systems office.
If you want access to the Internet on your home computer, you will need to sign up (and pay for!) an Internet Service Provider (ISP). They will sell you access to the Internet, which typically costs around $20 per month. The ISP will tell you all you need to know about how to connect your home computer to their server. Think of your ISP as your link to the world wide network of computers that makes up the internet.
The final thing you need is software that allows you to browse the Internet (or to "surf the web"). The two most popular browser software packages are Netscape’s Navigator (or Communicator) and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Either works fine. Best of all, both now can be downloaded for free!
Two other things are helpful but not essential. First, it is advisable to have antivirus software loaded into your machine’s RAM when you are surfing. Second, the smoothest surfing will occur with at least 16 megabytes of RAM, a fast Pentium processor (133mHz or faster), at least 2 megabytes of video RAM, and a modem connection with speed of at least 28.8 K. Even if your computer is up to these standards, you may have to wait many seconds—or even minutes—for some pages to load.
If you don’t know how to use Netscape’s or Microsoft’s browser, you can learn all that you need to know for most purposes in only an hour or two. The easiest way is to get a friend to teach you. You also can use a book or other written instructions.
Or you might try asking a reference librarian at your college or university.
The main problem in browsing the Internet is locating the specific information you are interested in. The information is located in "web sites" and is stored on "web pages". A "web site" or "address" is a file stored on someone’s server, anywhere in the world. You access each site by typing in a string of characters in the box marked "Location", "Address," or "URL" at the top of your browser. (Think of typing in the characters as like dialing a telephone number, which connects you to a specific telephone.) Most of this appendix is a list of web site addresses. You must enter the address correctly—leaving out a letter, misspelling a word, or forgetting to add a "." or a "/" will take you nowhere, or will take you to a different web site.
When you have typed in the address, your computer will exchange messages with the computer whose address you have entered, and new information will appear on your monitor. You then are reading someone’s "web page." Many web pages have pictures ("graphics") as well as textual material. On many pages, some of the words or phrases are a different color (blue, usually). These are called "links" or "hyperlinks," which means that if you place your mouse cursor over these words (it usually will turn into an index finger) and click, you will be taken to another web page. By clicking on hyperlinks, you can move from one web site to another quickly, and thus access the information on different web pages stored on any computer connected to the Internet from anywhere in the world. This ability to get information so quickly and easily, from such a variety of worldwide sources, is why many people believe that the Internet is an information revolution.
When you find a site that you want to access again later, it is useful to "bookmark" it. If you are using Netscape’s browser, here’s how to create a bookmark. With the address still appearing in the "location" box, click on "Bookmarks" at the top of your browser. Then click on "Add Bookmark". Your browser will store the web address. You can get to it later, without having to type the address in the location box, by clicking "Bookmarks", then "Go to Bookmarks", then scroll down to the name of the site. The web page will soon appear on your monitor. Bookmarks are incredibly convenient.
Unfortunately, the sheer number of web sites (no one knows how many there are) means that you have to find the ones that house the web pages that contain the information you want. For anthropology, this appendix will help. It contains the web site addresses that we have found useful for a variety of subjects in anthropology. For each address, we have indicated briefly the kinds of information contained on the page and some of the hyperlinks you can access from the page. We have organized the web site addresses it into five major sections:
General resources is a list of addresses that are useful for locating a wide variety of information about anthropology. Most of the sites are subdivided into subjects (e.g., cultural anthropology, peoples of Africa, museums, departments of anthropology). Find the general subject category you want, and click on a hyperlink to get to the subject category listed, which will contain more specific information. You may need to link to several sites to locate the information you want.
The section titled Addresses by chapter includes sites that contain information of relevance to specific topics (numbered chapters) in this book. For most chapters, we’ve chosen only one or two sites. (You can often locate more sites dealing with the topics covered in a particular chapter by looking at some of the sites listed under General Resources. For some chapters, though, you will find little or nothing!) For chapter 1, however, we have included a greater number of web sites, all of which have many links to two other subdisciplines of anthropology: physical and archaeology.
Cultural regions and areas are sites that contain information on the peoples and cultures of particular geographic regions or nations. If you want to see what is available on the Internet about, say, Native American or Middle Eastern cultures, use the appropriate sites in this section.
Organizations connected to anthropology lists the addresses of a few of the associations within the field that might be of greatest interest to students. The list is not meant to be exhaustive.
Miscellaneous consists of useful sites that do not fall neatly into one of the other categories. An exciting (and fun) experience is to visit some of the sites identified in this section as "Virtual Reality." To do so, you will need "plug ins", which are additional software designed to work with your browser, allowing you to view movies or animations, or to simulate your movement at a virtual location. Popular plug-ins are QuickTime (developed by Apple) and Shockwave. You can download them.
Experienced users know that some sites that are listed here will turn out not to be present when you enter the address. Usually, this is because they have been taken off the computer or server, and therefore are no longer available. Sometimes, the server is being worked on, and the site is only temporarily unavailable. Try again later.
Before you begin, there is one more crucial point to make about the information you obtain from the Internet: Don’t believe everything that appears on your computer monitor. Internet information is incredibly variable in quality and accuracy, because no one has the authority to remove web pages from the Internet. Anyone who knows how to do so can post a web page full of total garbage. Therefore, anything you see or read on the ‘net should be checked with other sources--like your library! It is an especially bad idea to do a research paper using only materials you’ve acquired from the Internet. Use it as a starting point only.
There is no easy way to evaluate the quality and accuracy of Internet materials, but here is a good rule of thumb: In general, sites posted and maintained by academic departments in universities, professional organizations, libraries, museums, and government institutions are the most reliable. Sites posted and maintained by "unaffiliated individuals" should be evaluated critically for the reliability of their content.
Here are two sites you might want to "visit" right away:
http://www.wadsworth.com/This is the home page of the company that published this textbook. The page is quite well organized and relatively easy to use. Click on "Anthropology" to get to another page. Click on "Surfing Lessons" to get information about using the Internet. Then click on "Anthropology Surfing" to access links to sites on anthropological subfields, associations, museums, journals, newsgroups, and other categories. Scroll down the page to view the hyperlinks to other sites.
http://www.infotrac-college.com/wadsworthAs a buyer of this textbook, you may have access for four months to this extensive library of published articles in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Nearly 500,000 articles are available. If you do have access, you should have received a password. Once you have accessed the address listed above, click on "Enter InfoTrac." You will be taken to a page that asks for a password. Enter the password you were given and provide the information requested. After you have done this, you can perform searches either by subject or by key words. (You have to enter your password every time, of course.) Your instructor may have specific assignments using the articles available through InfoTrac.
If you don’t want to have to type in a particular site address listed in one of the five categories below, never fear—you have two alternatives. Both involve accessing another site that contains the exact information given below. But instead of entering the addresses yourself from the text below, all you have to do is click on the hyperlinks given on the web page. The two sites are:
http://www.owu.eduThis is the home page of Ohio Wesleyan University, where one of the authors of this book teaches. Once you are at Ohio Wesleyan’s home page, click on "Academic Programs," then on "Sociology and Anthropology." You will see a page describing the Sociology/Anthropology Department’s faculty and program. Click on "The Internet and Anthropology" and what you are reading right now will be available, with hyperlinks. You won’t have to type in the following addresses yourself!
http://www.wadsworth.com/This is the home page of Wadsworth Publishing Company. Click on "Anthropology," then on "
General Resources
http://www.nitehawk.com/alleycat/anth-faq.htmlTitled "Anthropology Resources on the Internet," this is one of the more comprehensive web indexes on anthropology, with a large number of links to other sites. Among the many general subject categories included are: Discussion Groups, Archaeology, Archaeological Sites/Digs, Field Schools, Linguistics, Cultural Anthropology, Physical Anthropology, Museums, Academic Institutions, and Journals. Scroll down through these categories and click on the links to web sites that look interesting.
http://www.ameranthassn.org/resinet.htmSite maintained by the American Anthropological Association. Links to various topics arranged by category.
http://www.sscf.ucsb.edu/anth/netinfo.htmlThis is the impressive home page of the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Department of Anthropology. Has links to pages in all four subfields as well as to world regions and continents
http://server.berkeley.edu/AUA/resources.htmlThis University of California web site includes links to addresses in all four subfields. You also can access electronic journals and museums.
http://www.wsu.edu:8000/~i9248809/anthrop.html
Click on the button labelled "Anthro Page Text" to see a list of links to various subjects in anthropology. You can also post and receive messages. Site developed by Nicole Noonan.
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Anthropology/sites.htmlDeveloped at Brown University, this easy to use site is titled "Anthropology Sites on the Internet." You can link to the home pages of various departments, or to subfields, or to general sites of interest.
http://www.yahoo.com/social_science/anthropology_and_archaeology/Best place to start in Yahoo (one of the major search engines) to link to other sites in anthropology.
http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~anthro/ca/papers/schwimmer/intro.html"Anthropology on the Internet," by Brian Schwimmer. Click on "Networked Anthropological Resources" to see the text of an article published in Current Anthropology in 1996. Click on "List of URL’s" for hyperlinks. Some of the hyperlinks in the article are now unavailable.
http://www.tamu.edu/anthropology/news.htmlExcellent site for current news about anthropology in the popular media. Seems to be frequently updated, and therefore should be quite current.
http://www.temple.edu/anthro/resources.htmlVery clearly organized into 22 categories, each with links to specific web sites.
http://www.anthrotech.com/Fairly new site. You can search by topics in any of the anthropological subfields.
http://www.usc.edu/dept/v-lib/anthropology.htmlA Virtual Library site. Links to web sites organized into categories, including specialized fields, general resources, and institutions (mainly academic departments and museums)
http://pages.prodigy.com/asscinc/four1998.htm
Calls itself "Web Site Excellence—Anthropology." The link to "Atlantis" is—well, interesting.
http://www.wcsu.ctstateu.edu/socialsci/antres.html#1Well-organized, easy to use, and covers all four subfields.
http://www.internic.net/aldea/attframes2.htmlGood source for lots of information besides anthropology. Click the button "Social, Behavioral, and Environmental Sciences," then "Anthropological Sciences" to get to anthropological topics.
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/misc/anthro.htmlDeveloped and maintained by Stanford University Library. Has extensive links to resources in support of the anthropology curriculum at Stanford University.
Addresses by Chapter
Chapter 1
Here are some places to learn about physical anthropology and archaeology. Sites focussing on linguistics are listed under chapter 3.
Physical/biological anthropology
http://netvet.wustl.edu/primates.htmFine site to learn about primates.
http://night.primate.wisc.edu:80/pin/infores.htmlA well indexed site covering all areas of primatology.
http://night.primate.wisc.edu:80/pin/other.htmlAn extensive, alphabetical list of sites dealing with primates.
http://www.asu.edu/clas/iho/Focusses on paleoanthropology. Click on "Science" to get to the paleoanthropology links. Contains good coverage of the latest fossil evidence. Extensive hyperlinks to sites dealing with "Lucy," one of the earliest hominid species.
http://www.odc.com/anthro/Excellent site for anthropometry, the science of measuring anatomical features. Contains detailed discussions of what to measure and how to measure the human body.
Archaeology
(For movies and virtual reality experiences of archaeological sites in Maya, El Salvador, and Chaco Canyon, see the section titled Miscellaneous.)
http://www.lib.uconn.edu/archnet/
The WWW Virtual Library site for ArchNet, which is a popular archaeology web site.
Links to specific topics of investigation in archaeology. Click on "Subject Areas" to find the topic of interest to you. Includes a search engine.
http://hanksville.phast.umass.edu/misc/NAarch.htmlArcheology web site focussing on the prehistory of North America, with less extensive coverage of Central America, the Caribbean, South America. Has many links to specific archaeological sites and to web sites dealing with rock art.
http://www.cc.ukans.edu/~hoopes/Home page of Professor John Hoopes at the University of Kansas, who certainly knows his way around the World Wide Web. Includes links to his archeology courses dealing with the Andes and Mesoamerica. Also has links to many other sites of interest to anthropologists and students.
Chapter 2
http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vcwsu/commons/topics/culture/culture-index.htmlThis is a pleasant way to investigate the anthropological conception of culture, with lots of subtopics and specific definitions.
http://www.beadsland.com/nacirema/This site is a resource for studying and parodying americaN culture.
Chapter 3
http://www.emich.edu/~linguist/topics.htmlWWW Virtual library site, with links to linguistics topics dealing with language and its relationships to culture.
http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/ethnologue.htmlWeb site listing world languages, with links to continents and regions, including maps
http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/guides.htmlAnother world languages site, with links to web sites dealing with specific languages
Chapter 4
http://www.indiana.edu/~wanthro/theory.htmlStudents in a course titled "Proseminar in Sociocultural Anthropology" contributed papers covering various topics in anthropological theory. Some of the topics are applied, legal, cognitive, feminist, and ecological anthropology. Two papers of special interest for the chapter discussion are cultural materialism and humanistic anthropology. Each topic includes a bibliography.
http://www.lawrence.edu/~bradleyc/cam.htmlHome page of the Cultural Anthropology Methods Journal (CAM). Includes the contents of issues between 1989 to the present (but not the articles themselves). Has links to other sites.
http://www.truman.edu/academics/ss/faculty/tamakoshil/index.htmlWonderful web site to introduce newcomers to the nature of ethnographic fieldwork. Written by Laura Zimmer-Tamakoshi about her field experiences in Papua New Guinea. Topics include planning for the study, methods of research, writing (field notes, correspondences, and reports), and references to the above topics.
Chapter 5
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~helmer/biblio.htmlEnormous bibliography of hunter-gatherers, from the University of Calgary
http://www.ucc.uconn.edu/~epsadm03/kung.htmlBrief overview of the !Kung of the Kalahari
http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/anthropology/kungsan/kungsan.htmlFine site for the !Kung, with links to specific aspects of their culture and life. Maintained by Lawrence University.
Chapters 7 and 8
http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/kintitle.htmlA good learning tool for the anthropological study of kinship and social organization. Includes tutorials on descent, marriage and family, residence, and kinship terminology. Includes brief ethnographic examples of how kinship works in five societies.
Chapter 9
http://www.hollyfeld.org/fgm/This site is titled "The Female Genital Mutilation Research Homepage." It concerns the topic of "female circumcision," although the operations performed often involve more serious procedures. You can link to topics such as an overview of FGM, references (books, films), "eradication efforts," and a discussion forum. One set of links connects to human rights issues. A nice place to start investigating these controversial cultural practices.
http://www.sherryart.com/women/bedouin.html
Titled "Reflections on Fieldwork Among the Sinai Bedouin Women," this web site discusses Ann Gardner’s field experiences. It has many links to other sites concerned with women’s issues.
Chapter 10
http://learnonline.micro.umn.edu/anthro/intro.htmlCourse of Professor David Lipset of the University of Minnesota, titled "Politics, Leadership, and Social Control." Takes you through some concepts and an example of a particular culture, the Murik of Papua New Guinea, with photographs.
Chapter 11
http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/419www.htmDeveloped for a course titled "Myth, Ritual and Magic," taught by Professor M.D. Murphy at the University of Alabama. This site has hyperlinks to specific religions (e.g., Buddhism, Native American religions), to topics (e.g., shamanism, witchcraft), and to theoretical orientations in the field (e.g., cultural materialism, postmodernism).
Chapter 12
(We struck out on this chapter, which demonstrates either that you can’t find everything on the web, or that we gave up too quickly! E-mail me at jgpeople@cc.owu.edu if you know of a good address and I’ll post it on our department’s home page.)
Chapter 13
http://WWW.Trinity.Edu/~mkearl/race.htmlOn "Race and Ethnicity." Links to web sites on African-, Hispanic-, Native-, and other kinds of Americans.
Chapter 14
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/7168/"Shamanism, Indigenous Knowledge, Medical Anthropology & Borneo", with links to other sites on indigenous knowledge, environmental diversity and deforestation.
http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/wwwvl/indig-vl.htmlResource with links to issues of survival of indigenous peoples in various world regions.
http://www.umd.umich.edu/cgi-bin/herbThis is a database on Native American medicines. Enter a subject word (e.g., "pain") in the box and a list of species appears along with people who used it and sources of information. Materials provided by Dan Moerman, Professor at the University of Michigan at Dearborn.
http://www.nativeweb.org/Home page of Native Web, devoted to information on indigenous peoples. Excellent resource for web sites on this topic. You can conduct searches. You can also link to web sites by geographic region or nation.
Cultural Regions and Areas
http://eawc.evansville.edu/index.htmSite is titled "Exploring Ancient World Cultures." Links to sites focussing on the Near East, India, Egypt, China, Greece, Rome, Islam, and Europe.
http://www.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Cultures_and_Groups/Cultures/Yahoo’s links to many specific cultures and regions.
http://www.lib.uconn.edu/ArcticCircle/University of Connecticut’s impressive page on the Arctic and its peoples. Click on "Other Resources" for hyperlinks to numerous other web sites.
http://www.lib.uconn.edu/ArcticCircle/CulturalViability/Cree/creeexhibit.htmlInformative web site on the Mistisinni Cree of Quebec, whose lives have been transformed by a massive hydroelectric project. Informative text plus four sections of photographs. Well worth visiting!
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/AS.htmlThe University of Pennsylvania’s African Studies program maintains this web page, which links to other web resources dealing with the continent. Click on "Country Specific" button at the top for links to information dealing with specific countries.
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/guide.htmlStanford’s page on Africa. You can search by topic (e.g., development) or by region (e.g., Horn of Africa). There is also a search engine, using key words.
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVL-AsianStudies.htmlVirtual Library for Asian Studies, including nations of the Pacific and Middle East. You can link to major geographic regions of Asia (e.g., South Asia) and/or to specific countries (e.g., India). Also has up-to-date news sources, covering both newspapers and magazines published in and/or about Asia. Maintained by the Australian National University.
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/misc/mideas.htmlAn easy to use site for sources on the Middle East and Islam.
http://www3.pitt.edu/~lmitten/indians.htmlDeveloped and maintained by librarian Lisa Mitten at the University of Pittsburgh, this is an excellent site to hyperlink to information on Native Americans.
http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/users/jlcox/first.htmlA site maintained by librarians at the University of Arizona. Aside from hyperlinks to Native American materials, this site is also a good source for anthropology generally.
http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVL-Aboriginal.htmlThis World Wide Web Virtual Library site provides resources on the Australian aborigines.
Organizations connected to anthropology
http://www.ameranthassn.org/Home page of the American Anthropological Association, which is the largest professional association of anthropologists in the United States. Clicking on "Careers/Placements" and "Ethics" is rewarding. Clicking on "Anthropology Resources on the Internet" will bring up a new page. Scrolling down this page will take you to "Other AAA Sites on the Internet," which is a list of organizations devoted to specific interests (e.g., "Anthropology and Environment" and "Culture and Agriculture.")
http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~dmoerman/fosap.html"FOSAP" refers to the Federation of Small Anthropology Programs, which exists to further the interests of small departments in colleges and universities. This site includes links to several other topics.
http://www.cs.org/Home page of Cultural Survival, an organization located in Cambridge, Massachusetts dedicated to the preservation of indigenous peoples and their cultures. Learn about the organization itself, including how to become a member. Also includes on-line articles and links to related topics. Excellent place for those concerned with the survival of indigenous peoples.
http://141.210.10.11/~dow/napafaq.htmNAPA is the National Association of Practicing Anthropologists, consisting largely of anthropologists working in nonacademic careers. This site includes frequently asked questions (FAQ) about jobs and careers in the field. It is designed for students and contains a nice bibliography on nonacademic career opportunities.
http://anthap.oakland.edu/"The Applied Anthropology Computer Network" is a place to learn about applied anthropology.
http://www.princeton.edu/~emartin/aes/Home page of the American Ethnological Association, still under construction in March, 1998.
Miscellaneous
http://wings.buffalo.edu/anthropology/ARD/available.cgiA book review site that reviews current monographs in cultural anthropology.
http://wings.buffalo.edu/WEDA/Directory of e-mail addresses for anthropologists around the world. You will understand if it does not include addresses for every single anthropologist!
http://www.plattsburgh.edu/ant/Web_Instructors.htmlA resource useful for teachers who want to integrate web resources into their classrooms.
http://ceren.colorado.edu/index.htmlA multimedia web site focussing on Ceren, an archaeological site in El Salvador under excavation by archaeologists at the University of Colorado. Includes "movies" and virtual reality tours. You need Quicktime and Shockwave for multimedia.
http://sipapu.ucsb.edu/html/kiva.htmlThe ancient Anasazi of the American Southwest have excited the general public as well as archaeologists for decades. At Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, these prehistoric people constructed some of the most impressive villages/towns on the continent. You can "enter and walk around inside" the Great Kiva at Chetrol Ketl in Chaco Canyon National Monument (New Mexico) using this virtual reality site. You need QuickTimeVR, and can download it from this site.
http://tesla.csuhayward.edu/sacredplaces/yaxuna.htmlYaxuna is a Maya site on the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. You can look at parts of the site in virtual reality if you have QuickTimeVR. There also are hyperlinks to other pages on the Maya.