Medical Anthropology - Anthro 240

Reference books of interest:

Reference books provide background, overview, context, quick facts, keywords to pursue, suggested readings, and sometimes even possible authors to follow. They can be a handy way to get a jump-start or to get back on track.

For a medical focus or for help in reading medical articles, you might consider (for example):

Merck Manual, also online (free from Merck & Co, Inc.)
RC 55 M4 1999 Reference
A medical reference text that explains diseases and disorders, who is likely to get them, their symptoms, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.

Cambridge World History of Human Disease
R 31 C233 1993 Reference  
Essays on diseases from a historical more than medical perspective

Stedman's Medical Dictionary
R 121 S8 2000 Reference
Useful for deciphering the terminology in medical articles

Encyclopedia of Bioethics
also in print:  QH 332 E52 2005 (5vols) Reference
Covering topics on the ethics of health professions, animal research, population control and the environment.

Encyclopedia of Modern Asia
DS 4 L48 2002 Reference
A six volume encyclopedia on all aspects of Asian cultures - many useful entries.  Only in print in the Reference Room.

Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History
also in print:  E 185 E54 1996 Reference
Six volumes covering the African-American experience from 1619 to the present day. Includes biographies, historical essays, and thematic pieces on the cultural roots, participation in American life, and current condition of the African-American community

Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America (only online)
Contains essays on specific minority and ethnic groups in the U.S., with an emphasis on culture (religions, holidays, customs, language) in addition to information on historical background and settlement patterns.

Finding Books:

Start with our Five College Library Catalog
Keyword searching is a good start.   Break your topic down into its key concepts and remember to use synonyms and alternate spellings, etc.  Once you've found something interesting, build on that.   Check the subject headings for more stuff -- but don't go too "narrow".   Skim the subject categories themselves to see what might apply.

For example, some useful  Subject Headings might be: 

Medical Anthropology  Ethnopsychology

Ethnology -- Research Ethnology -- Philosophy

Beyond the collections of the five colleges, you can look nationally, & somewhat internationally, and have things sent via interlibrary loan (ILLiad).
WorldCat
is a major databases of thousands of library collections combined. 

Research databases for articles:

The trick here is to know what databases might prove the most fruitful as not everything is found in one place.   Most of these databases are essentially indexes to large groups of scholarly journals (& sometimes book resources, conference papers, etc) so that you can find where articles on your topic may have been published.  As a general rule the databases divide up the journals  along broad disciplinary lines.   You'll often want to search in more than one, though, as most topics are ultimately interdiscilinary or at least can be approached from more than one perspective.   Don't hesitate to ask the Reference Librarian for suggestions on which might be good databases to use.   Here are a few likely ones:

AnthroSource
The core anthropology journals from the American Anthropological Associations, most in full text.

PubMed/MEDLINE
The major database for journals on medical research.  Much of it is highly technical/specialized, but it also includes articles on health care policy and administration.

Academic Search Premier (from EBSCO)
A large, interdisciplinary database with a lot of full text.   It will overlap with some of the more focused databases, but also may include some unique items.

Ethnic NewsWatch
A mix of scholary and more popular articles, most in full text.  Features newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press.  A good resource for less mainstream publications.

Web of Science
(Science Citation Index + Social Science Citation Index + Arts & Humanities Citations Index)
A scholary database with multidisciplinary coverage of over 10,000 high-impact journals in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities.  

Special Websites: