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Background Sources
A Companion to the Anthropology of Politics
Offers an overview of anthropology's unique contribution to the study of politics. Explores the key concepts and issues of our time - from AIDS, globalization, displacement, and militarization, to identity politics and beyond.
Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology: Humanity, Culture and Social Life. 1994.
This comprehensive survey of contemporary thought in biological, social and cultural anthropology sets the foundation for their future development and integration. The principal rationale behind the Encyclopedia is to overcome the division and fragmentation within the approaches of the humanities and natural sciences to anthropology. It emphasizes interconnections between perspectives and sub-disciplines, producing a complete perspective on what it means to be human.
Encyclopedia of Modern Ethnic Conflicts
"The case studies in this text chart ethnic conflicts that shape human existence in the second decade of the new millennium"
A Handbook of Economic Anthropology
Offering a new and comprehensive overview of important topics and orientations in the anthropological study of economic life, this invigorating third edition of A Handbook of Economic Anthropology addresses key changes in the decade since the previous edition in people’s economic lives and environments, as well as in intellectual interest among scholars.
Lectures on Political and Economic Anthropology
Eight lectures for first year Cambridge University students in February 2006. Introducing some of the major approaches to the anthropology of politics and economics.
Concise Dictionary of Social and Cultural Anthropology
The Concise Dictionary of Social and Cultural Anthropology is an accessible, hands-on guide to the hundreds of terms a student of anthropology or general reader will encounter in dealing with anthropological and ethnographic literature. It includes related terminology from allied fields such as sociology, economics and geography. The focus is on key concepts in anthropology, with a number of biographies included to identify influential figures who have formulated central theories and conducted its most famous field research among other cultures around the world.
Shamanism : an Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture
This two-volume reference is the first international survey of shamanistic beliefs from prehistory to the present day. In nearly 200 detailed, readable entries, leading ethnographers, psychologists, archaeologists, historians, and scholars of religion and folk literature explain the general principles of shamanism as well as the details of widely varied practices.
Encyclopedia of Taboos
The "Encyclopedia of Taboos" is a mine of unusual information from around the world, including a comprehensive analysis of individual taboos from the ancient world to the present day, covering both well- and lesser-known examples.
CIA: The World Factbook
The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities
Country Studies
The Country Studies Series (Library of Congress) presents a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of 80 countries, including some no longer in existence, such as East Germany or the Soviet Union.
BBC Country Profiles
Full profiles provide an instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries and territories, and background on key institutions.
Nations: Law Library, Library of Congress
From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, this annotated guide to links to the Constitution, Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches, and to additional sources for each country.
Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets, U.S. State Department
History of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and other countries.
World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples
This online directory of minorities and indigenous peoples grew out of Minority Rights Group’s encyclopaedic World Directory of Minorities. It is a searchable database containing information on countries, their history, peoples, governance and minorities.
Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Reports This link opens in a new window
Each country page in the EIU database provides forecast updates and featured analysis on economic and political events as well as content pertaining to market opportunities, government regulations and the financial services sector.
Classics in Political Anthropology & Related Fields
The Communist Manifesto
"The Communist Manifestois perhaps the most extensively published and widely read text in the history of political thought. An obscure pamphlet penned by and for marginal German émigré radicals in 1847–48, in its 160-plus years it has been translated into scores of languages and published in hundreds of editions." (from the Introduction)