The University of Queensland

1. Purpose of the collection

The library collects in the subject area of Anthropology and Archaeology primarily to support the teaching, research and community needs of the Anthropology and Archaeology sections of the School of Social Science. The discipline uniquely focuses on understanding humans and human behaviour through a cross-cultural perspective and as such has significant links to the humanities, natural sciences and social sciences.

2. Primary user group served

The school offers a Bachelor of Arts, and Honours through the Faculty of Arts. The school also makes a substantial contribution to the Bachelor of Social Science in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. Honours and a Master of Social Science are available through this Faculty. Candidates for Higher Degree research are also accepted.

At the Undergraduate level areas of teaching focus on the broader field of general anthropology, which includes four sub-disciplines - archaeology/prehistory, linguistic anthropology, physical anthropology, and socio-cultural anthropology

• Archaeology/prehistory including contemporary archaeological theory / methodology / practice, historical archaeology, World prehistory, Australasian Aboriginal & Pacific peoples, Australian coastal archaeology, Maya civilisation, molecular archaeology, prehistoric residue analysis and museum anthropology
• Linguistic anthropology including evolution, history and functions of human languages and speech, language as social action cross-culturally in formal and informal settings, Indigenous Australian languages, Aboriginal English, language and gender
• Physical anthropology including human biological evolution, cultural and biological factors in human evolution and adaptation
• Social cultural anthropology including cultural and social structural approaches, Aboriginal and Islander studies, material culture studies, functionalist, Marxist and interactionist theories, history of anthropological theory, ethnography from Africa, Australia and North America, ethnographic methodology, cultural heritage and built heritage management, medical anthropology, law and anthropology, political/human ecology of Indigenous peoples in Asia/Pacific especially Melanesia and Philippines

At the Academic, Research and Postgraduate level - research interests cover this same wide anthropological view of the world. Some current research projects are:-

• Animating Landscape
• Diwurruwurru Uanyuwa website
• Forget about Flinders: Towards a post colonial atlas of the southwestern Gulf of Carpentaria.
• Landscapes, Memory and Music
• People without faces and Land management Issues: Tourism and Indigenous communities in the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria
• New Orientations: Gender and Information and Communication Technologies in the Asia Pacific
• Present but Not Counted: Rural and Urban Womens Unpaid Labour Pilot Project
• Gender and Kunie Women in New Caledonia
• Indigenous Resource Management
• Integrated Teaching and Student Learning
• Quandamooka Heritage (Moreton Bay)
• 2 million year old residues on Stone tool from Sterkfontein Cave
• Characterisation of novel Nano-organisms
• Genes, Teeth, Bones and Evolution
• Archaeological Research at Copan, Honduras

3. Description of the collection

The collections cover the School's broad theme areas: Family and Individual Well being, Indigenous Cultures, Cultural Heritage and Archaeological Science, Communication and Cultural Studies, Social Cohesion and Identity, and Development. Print resources consisting of books, reference material and journals are being significantly enhanced by access to many electronic bibliographic databases and e-resources.

Strengths lie in the academic journals devoted to the social sciences in general, academic journals devoted particularly to Anthropology and monographs relating to Australian Aboriginal and Islander Studies, Ethnography, Melanesia particularly Papua ,and cross-cultural data sets like the Ehraf Collection of Ethnography. <.p>

The Library subscribes to major journal indexing services that cover this broad disciplinary area with titles such as Anthropological plus, APAIS, APAIS-ATSIS, AIATSIS, Australian Heritage Bibliography (HERA), Mura, Sociological Abstracts, Social Sciences Plus, Humanities index, Web of Knowledge. Increasingly access is to the full text online of the major disciplinary journals.

Resource guides are also produced to link users to relevant information.

4. Interdisciplinary relationships

Anthropology broadly speaking covers the GN area but also shares common areas of interest with the Archaeology (CC), History of Australia & Oceania (DU), History of America(E&F), Human Ecology and Anthropogeography (GF)

5. Scope of current collecting

1. Languages collected

The bulk of the collection is in English, though no languages are excluded.

2. Geographical areas collected

No Geographical areas collected, however there is strong emphasis on maintaining depth in Australian material.

3. Chronological periods collected

No chronological periods are specially excluded.

4. Types (formats) of material collected

No types of material are excluded. However at present the emphasis is on journal and monograph literature.

5. Publication dates

The emphasis is on collecting recent publications, however older materials will be purchased to support teaching and research.

6. Conspectus

Substantial parts of the holdings were assessed as being of the intermediate introductory (3a) or intermediate augmented (3b) and /or research (4) level in the library's assessment of its collections by the Conspectus method in 1993-94.