SS 110: GENERAL ANTHROPOLOGY

PROFESSOR LAGANA

FALL 2009:WEB SITES FOR ANTHROPOLOGY

Here is a listing of some good anthropology-related web sites. At all of these sites you will find links to other good sites. You should also try to visit at least some of the web sites referred to in your textbook. There are literally thousands of anthropology related web sites out there. Do some exploring on your own and you might be surprised at what you can learn.

You’ll also find this list at my own web site:

http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/SocialSciences/flagana/flagana.asp    

Going to the Queensborough web site will save you the trouble of having to type the whole web address yourself. 

All of these sites were functioning as of early July; if you find any sites that are no longer functioning, please let me know so I can remove it from this list.   If you find any interesting sites that are not on this list, please let me know so I can add them.

Please remember to type the addresses (what are known as URLS) exactly as they appear here.

Have fun.

1.  The American Anthropological Association : this is the website for the main professional organization of anthropologists in the United States.

http://www.aaanet.org

2.  The Mesoamerican Ballgame:  long before Europeans arrived here, many of the native peoples of  Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central  America), played various versions of a ballgame. In some societies, members of the losing team were occasionally sacrificed to the gods. This site is all about the Mesoamerican ballgame and its significance in the cultures of this area. You can even be a player in a virtual reality version of the game.

http://www.ballgame.org/main.asp

3. The Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian Institute:  this is an excellent site for anyone interested in learning more about human evolution.

http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/index.htm

4.  The Archaeology Channel: another very good source of information about archaeology. This site also has a number of excellent films that you can watch.

http://archaeol ogychannel.org

5.  Archnet – The Worldwide Web Virtual Library for Archaeology: another good web site devoted to archaeology. The site contains lots of links to archaeological data and theory from all over the world.

http://archnet.asu.edu/

6.  Anthropology Resources on the Internet: a good place to find websites on a variety of anthropological topics.

http://www.anthropologie.net/

7.  Evolution Web Site: check out this site for a good introduction to the study of evolution.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution

8.  The Teotihuacan Web Site: over a thousand years ago, not too far from the modern city of Mexico City, there was the great city of Teotihuacan, with a population estimated to be between 75-100 thousand people, possibly more. This site is all about Teotihuacan; it even includes a virtual guided tour of the city.

http://archaeology.asu.edu/teo/index.php

9.  The HearstMuseum: one of the best anthropology museums in the United States.

http://hearst m useum. berkeley.edu/

10.  Anthropology in the News: just what the name says – this site collects news from around the world that’s of interest to anthropologists.

http://www.tamu.edu /anthro polo gy/news.html

11.  Arctic Circle Site: this is a web site devoted to the peoples and cultures of the Arctic, past, present and future. If you’ve ever wondered how people  could have possibly survived for so long in such a harsh environment, take a look at this site for answers.

http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/index.html

12.  Institute of Human Origins: an excellent web site if you’re interested in what anthropologists and other scientists have to say about human evolution, as well as the evidence they base their ideas on.

http://www.becomingh uman.org/

13.  The Aztecs: when the Spanish arrived in what is now Mexico in 1519, they found a great empire, the Aztec empire. There may have been 30 million people or more who were under the political and economic control of the Aztecs. This site is a good introduction to the history and culture of these fascinating people.

http://home.freeuk.net/ellou ghton13/mexico.htm

14.  Talk-Origins Archives:  another excellent web site about human evolution.

http://ww w.talko rigins.org/

15) Dread History – The African Diaspora, Ethiopianism, and Rastafari: here’s an excellent web site for anyone interested in learning more about the history and culture of the Rastafarian movement in Jamaica.

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/migrations/rasta/terms.html  

16) Hominid Fossil Web Page: many people wonder about the evidence that scientists use to explain the evolution of the human species. This site focuses on the main source of evidence: fossils, the bones and teeth of our ancestors.

http://www.msu.ed u/~heslipst/co ntents/ANP440/index.htm

17.  Native Web: a good resource for information on indigenous peoples around the world.

 http://www.nativeweb.org

18) The History of Chocolate: the role of food in human social life is just one of the many different things that anthropologists are interested in. This site tells you something about the history of a food that today is enjoyed by people all over the world.

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/Chocolate/history.html  

19)  Lords of the Earth:   there were a number of complex civilizations in parts of      

Mexico and Central America before the European invasion. These included   people like the Maya, Aztecs and Mixtec. site focuses on them and the complex civilizations they created.

http://www.may alords.org

20) The Taino World: in 1492 many of the islands in the Caribbean Sea were inhabited by the people anthropologists call the Taino (the same people that used be known as the Arawak). This site gives you an introduction what life was like for these people and what happened to them after the European invasion.

http://www.elmuseo.org/taino/tainoworld.html

21) Race – The Power of an Illusion: a site that focuses on the concept of “race”, what it means and what it doesn’t mean.

http://www.pbs.org/race/000_General/000_00-Home.htm

22. Handprints – Ancestral Lines: another very interesting web site about human evolution.

http://www.handpri nt. com/ LS/ANC/evol.html

23. Lucy: on page 11 of your textbook there is a picture of a partially-preserved skeleton that was discovered by anthropologists in 1974 in the African nation of Ethiopia. This individual lived and died sometime around 3.2 million years ago; the skeleton was given the name of “Lucy”. This site explains why this was such an important discovery, and what anthropologists have been able to learn about some of our early ancestors.

http://www.asu.edu/clas/iho/lucy.html

24. Machu Picchu Ruins of Peru: high up in the Andes Mountains in the South American country of Peru are the ruins of the old Inca city known as Machu Picchu. Anyone who still believes that Europeans brought “civilization” to the New world needs to take a look at this site.

http://www.dennisadamsseminars.com/machu-picchu/      

25. Archaeological Sites of the World Website: here you can see pictures of  and read about a variety of important archaeological sites from around the world.

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/archaeology/sites/north.html

26. The Five Points Website:  back in the 19th century the Five Points neighborhood in lower Manhattan was one of New York City’s most notorious and dangerous slums. This  web site tells you what urban archaeologists have learned about this fascinating chapter in the history of the city.

http://r2.gsa.gov /fivept/fphome.htm

27. Evolution: another good web site for anyone interested in learning more about evolution and how it works.

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/biology/evolution/index.shtml

28. The Gorilla foundation – Koko the Gorilla:  Koko is a remarkable gorilla who has been taught how to communicate with humans using sign language, the same sign language used by deaf people here in the United Sates. On this site, you can learn more about Koko’s achievements; you can even watch videos of Koko communicating with humans and other gorillas.

http://www.gorilla.org

29. BBC Site on Human Evolution: another good source of information for anyone interested in learning more about what scientists have to say about the evolution of Homo sapiens and about the early history of our species.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/cavemen/chronology/

30. The Emuseum Web Site: lots of interesting information and resources here relating to the various fields of anthropology.

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/emuseum1.html

31. The Maya Astronomy Page: the Maya of Mexico and Central America, seem to have had a relatively advanced system of astronomical and mathematical knowledge. This site gives you some interesting information about this very advanced civilization and some of its achievements.

http://www.michielb.nl/maya/astro_content.html?t3=1017700741806

32.  Slavery Images: on this site you’ll find over a thousand images relating to the Atlantic slave trade.

http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/

33. The Maya Cosmos: here’s a good web site for anyone interested in learning more about the Maya people of Mexico and Central America, especially the way the viewed the universe in which they lived.

http://maya.csuhayward.edu/mayacosmos/index.html

34. Forensic Anthropology: here you’ll find some information on the field of forensic anthropology. Forensic anthropologists specialize in the reconstruction and identification of human remains.

http://library.med.utah.edu/kw/osteo/forensics/sasta.html

35. The Guggenheim Museum Aztec Exhibit: the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan recently had a special exhibit on the Aztec people of Mexico. This site gives you an overview of the exhibit as well as pictures of some of the works that were exhibited.

http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/aztecs/index.html

36. The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology: This world famous museum of anthropology has now put much of it collection online. You can view exhibits on a wide range of topics. For example, the museum currently has an online exhibit devoted to body modification in cultures around the world; people has been tattooing, piercing, and paint their bodies for thousands of years now.

http://www.museum.upenn.edu/

37. The Jane Goodall Institute for Primate Studies: of all the animals in this world, human are most closely related to chimpanzees (almost 99% of your DNA is identical to the DNA of a chimp). Jane Goodall is probably the world’s leading authority on these very close relatives of ours. This site will give you some very interesting information about what researchers like Dr. Goodall have learned about these fascinating animals.

http://www.discoverchimpanzees.org/

38. The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center: as many of you probably know, the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Nation in Connecticut operates one of the largest and most profitable casinos, Foxwoods, in the United States. The Pequot have used some of the profits from the casino to open a state-of the-art museum devoted to the native peoples who lived in this part of the country before the European invasion began. This site gives you an overview of the museum’s collection and has some valuable information on what life was like here for native peoples before and after 1492.

http://www.pequotmuseum.org/

39. Archaeologics.com – A Logistical View of Archaeology: this will be a good site for anyone interested in how archaeologists learn about peoples and cultures of the past: what happened, why it happened, and when it happened.

http://www.archaeologics.com/

40. The Genographic Project: this site focuses on what the study of human genetics can tell us about human migrations. The site also gives you a useful overview of human genetics as well as information on how you can have your own DNA tested for possible clues to where your ancestors came from.

https://www9.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html

41. The African Burial Ground: this site will tell you something about what archaeologists and other scientists have been able to learn about what life was life for African slaves right here in New York City during the 18th century.

http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/afb/shell.html

42. Charles Darwin – The American Museum of Natural History: an excellent site for anyone who would like to know more about the life and ideas of Charles Darwin, the 19th century British scientist whose ideas about evolution literally changed the world.

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/darwin/

43. The Arctic Studies Center: this is a good site for anyone interested in the peoples and cultures of the Artic regions of our planet. You can learn something here about how people have managed to survive for thousands of years in one of the harshest, most inhospitable environments on earth.

http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/

44. Traditional Music and Cultures of Kenya:  this very extensive and detailed site explores the interaction between music and culture in one African country. The site includes more than six hours of Kenyan music for you to listen to. Highly recommended for anyone who likes to discover new kinds of music.

http://www.bluegecko.org/kenya/kenya.htm

45. Understanding Race: what exactly are people talking about when they use the term “race”? What does science have to say about these ideas? This website will give you lots to think about.

http://www.understandingrace.org

46. Multiple Husbands:  hard as it may seem to believe, there are a few cultures in the world where one woman can be married to more than one man at the same time (this is a marriage pattern that anthropologists call polyandry). This video gives you a look at what life is like for one such family.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4yjrDSvze0

47. The Peopling of the World: this website tells the story of how are earliest ancestors migrated out of Africa and eventually colonized most of our planet.

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/

48. The World Atlas of Language Structures Online: this site is a comprehensive guideto more than 2600 of the world’s languages.

http://wals.info/index

49. Factory Farming: a look at the cost and consequences of our modern system of industrial agriculture.  

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/factoryfarming/

50. The Great Apes Trust: this site has a great deal of good information about our closest living relatives, the great apes: gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, and chimpanzees http://www.iowagreatapes.org/.  

51. Ape Intelligence: this site looks at what scientists are learning about ape (especially chimpamzees) intelligence and what makes us different from them. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/apegenius

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The 51 web sites on this list are just a sampling of the literally thousands of anthropology-related web sites that you can find on the internet. If you’d like to do some exploring on your own, you can start by going to http://www.anthro.net/