Anthropology: Everyday Objects
Contents
Contents
General Library Sources
Resources for Everyday Objects
This list organizes resources for the Situated Knowledge project, in which students "investigate the social life" of an everyday object.
This guide is an instructional tool and should not be considered as complete. For leads to further resources, review the list of subjects in the Fondren Libguides page.
General Library Resources
Books & More
- OneSearchSearch books, ebooks, articles, video, audio and other resources at Fondren Library.
- WorldCatSearch the holdings of libraries worldwide, then request non-Rice items for delivery using Interlibrary Loan.
- Interlibrary LoanGet books, articles, and other materials not available at Fondren delivered for your use.
- Object Lessons SeriesThis series of books explores and analyzes the "hidden life of ordinary things." Volumes include Refrigerator, Bookshelf, Hood, Shipping Container, and Remote Control. The library has the first 40 or so of these books in an online collection.
- Chicago Manual of Style This link opens in a new windowThe full text of the latest edition. Your guide to formatting and editing anthropology papers (use the Author-Date citation system).
- AnthroSource This link opens in a new windowSearch full text of journals, newsletters and bulletins published by the American Anthropological Association. For more anthropology databases see the articles tab on this guide.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowScholarly and general interest sources in business, medicine, humanities, social sciences, and science and technology, including books, journal and magazine articles, bibliographies, and trade publications.
- OneSearch This link opens in a new windowOneSearch searches Rice's library catalog, digital collections, and e-resources such as ebooks, e-journals, databases, and more.
Reference
- Material Culture, from Oxford Bibliographies OnlineThis expertly-curated bibliography gives the history of the field and sources across many aspects of study. This is an excellent starting point for guided research.
- Geography of Retail Trade, from Oxford Bibliographies OnlineSurveys scholarship on spatial aspects of retail, including sourcing and retail locations.
- Followthethings.comStudents, activists and filmakers explore the origins of a wide variety of products.
- Britannica Online Academic Edition This link opens in a new windowComplete Encyclopedia Britannica, as well as Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, Britannica Student Encyclopedia and the Britannica Book of the Year. Also includes a directory of more than 300,000 websites vetted by Britannica editors.
- Oxford Reference This link opens in a new windowPremium Collection contains over 200 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. It is a fully-indexed, cross-searchable database of these books, giving subscribers unprecedented access to a comprehensive information resource. Includes added functionality and more detailed information across a broad subject range from titles in the world-renowned Oxford Companions Series.
Business and Industry Sources
When searching these resources, you will mainly be looking for information on either a company or an industry.
When searching for a company, start with the company or brand name. Look for helpful identifying information like the names of parent companies and unique ticker symbols in the item records you find. Databases like LexisNexis will have pages listing financials and other essential information for public companies, which are traded on stock exchanges and are required to disclose that information. Private companies, which can be small or very large, often keep much information about themselves secret. You might learn about them from news and magazine articles, and from their websites (which should be considered more as an advertisement than an information resource).
Many item records will also include a code number and/or title for the company's main industries. These codes (called NAICS codes) were developed by the US Census Bureau. Knowing them will help you find industry reports treating your company's products and competitors.
A good workflow might be to find articles on a company, then use the article record's industry codes to find relevant industry reports.
Always scan the left side of the results page in business databases to narrow your results to news reports, trade publications, SWOT analyses, industry reports and other document types.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowOn the main search page, click "Get Company Info" to search for data and news on a particular company. LexisNexis has broad, full-text worldwide news coverage; access from "Search the News". Click "Search by Subject or Topic" for an overview of available resources.
- Business Source Complete This link opens in a new windowContains scholarly articles, news, and reports on all aspects of business, finance and economics. Search for a company name, industry, person, material, or other keyword and use the facets on the left side of the results page to find particular types of resources.
- Factiva This link opens in a new windowUse the industry branched search on the main search page to get news results on the industries that produce your object.
- Industry Information LibGuideReview this guide for many more resources to learn about industries.
- Public Company Information LibGuideA guide to resources on companies whose stock is publicly traded.
- Private Company Information LibGuideA guide to information on companies that are not publicly traded. Typically, private companies have much less information available than public companies.
Commodity Chains
Commodity chains can be very difficult or practically impossible to trace for many products, since manufacturers themselves may only know one or two steps in their materials' backgrounds, and usually do not make that information public. The resources below represent investigations into the commodity chains of certain products, or provide manufacturers with tools to understand more about their resources.
Coca-Globalization by
Coca-Globalization explores globalization through an historical and anthropological study of soft drinks such as Coke and Pepsi, examining how they have become more than mere commodities.
Call Number: GN450 .F67 2008ISBN: 0312238711Publication Date: 2008-04-09
Commodities and Globalization by
Today's growing fascination with flows of people, commodities, technology, capital, images and ideas across national and other boundaries poses fresh theoretical and methodological challenges to anthropology. Commodities offer a particularly useful window on globalization because they, unlike electronically conveyed capital, transport cultural messages. These ideological or symbolic transfers are of particular interest to economic anthropology. This collection considers how conceptions and roles of commodities may change in response to widening spheres of economic interaction and exchange. The essays in this volume are ordered under two themes. Those included in the first section, Commodities in a Globalizing Marketplace, address historically and culturally defined variations in meanings and practices associated with commodities in globalizing markets. In Part Two, The Circulation and Revaluation of Commodities, contributors analyze how commodity producers experiences are informed by colonial and post-colonial history, state directives in the marketplace, and locations in dependent or marginalized regions. The chapters all focus on the production process as it responds to, is distorted by and increasingly is controlled by the determination of the value of those commodities outside a locality.
Call Number: HF1040.7 .C65 2000ISBN: 0847699420Publication Date: 2000-07-05
- The California Transparency in Supply Chains Act: A Resource GuideThis guide is to help companies enforce the CA law to combat human trafficking and slavery. Includes a helpful list of resources and other relevant laws.
- China Blue (Film) byCall Number: DVD Coll. HD2339 .C6 C55 2005Publication Date: 2005"A clandestinely shot, deep-access account of how the clothes we buy are actually made."
- Driving Force: Automotive Supply Chains and Forced Labour in the Uyghur RegionFrom Sheffield Hallam University Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice and Nomogaia. "If you have bought a car in the last five years, some of its parts were likely made by Uyghurs and others forced to work in China." Includes information on steel, aluminum, copper, nickel, batteries, electronics, tires and other parts.
Dying for an IPhone by ISBN: 9781642591248Publication Date: 2020-09-01Suicides, excessive overtime, and hostility and violence on the factory floor in China. Drawing on vivid testimonies from rural migrant workers, student interns, managers and trade union staff, Dying for an iPhone is a devastating exposé of two of the world's most powerful companies: Foxconn and Apple.
- KnowTheChain.orgThis organization helps companies comply with laws regarding human trafficking and slavery in supply chains. The Resources tab contains many interesting reports and supporting materials.
- MIT Sustainable Supply Chains"We seek to improve visibility of supply chain impacts and develop strategies to help reduce them, so companies can better address consumer, political, and shareholder concerns." A project of the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics.
- Planet Money Buys OilThis series of audio reports follows 100 barrels of oil "out of the ground, through a refinery, and into someone's gas tank". From the NPR show Planet Money.
- Planet Money Makes a T-ShirtThis annotated video documentary follows the story of a T-shirt from a cotton farm through weaving, sewing and shipping. From the NPR show Planet Money.
- Plastic China"PLASTIC CHINA reflects the harsh reality of the nation’s economic development through the conditions of two families at a waste recycling facility, the great material, physical, and psychological price they pay, their aspirations toward wealth, and their complete disregard for individual quality of life." – Ai Weiwei. From the Kanopy streaming video database.
- The Story of Stuff ProjectIncludes movies (some with helpful annotated scripts), podcasts and other resources describing the costs of over-consumption and waste and advocating for solutions.
- Stronger TogetherA resource for UK businesses to comply and further the goals of the Modern Slavery Act against forced labor and human trafficking.
- Transparency in Supply Chains etc. A Practical GuideA guide for UK business to comply with the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Can be helpful when researching companies' websites and exploring legal measures against human trafficking and forced labor.
- Penn State School of Labor and Employment Relations Resource ListReview this list for links to major labor organizations, labor rights campaigns, government labor organizations, and trade and development NGOs. In case of broken links, search Google for the organization's name.
- Scientific American Archive This link opens in a new windowGet current and historical perspectives on the history of technology and innovation from 1845 to the present, written by science journalists in an accessible style. This is a full text archive with original page images and illustrations.
- Applied Science and Technology Source This link opens in a new windowResearch and development in applied sciences and computing, with a focus on traditional engineering and business and social applications.
- USGS Mineral Resources ProgramAccess point for a wealth of US Geological Survey information on minerals-- their extraction, use and environmental impact. An interesting starting point is this graphic: https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/building-materials-and-minerals-graphic
Video Resources
There is a whole genre of videos devoted to the design, manufacture and use of everyday objects. Search for them on Youtube and also in our Films on Demand database. Many documentaries are also available in our DVD collection and the Kanopy streaming video database; use OneSearch to search across all these resources (this tutorial explains how).
- YoutubeLook in particular for series such as Discover: Factory Made, Home Factory and How It's Made.
- Academic Video Online This link opens in a new windowEducational videos covering multiple subject areas, including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, and music.
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowStreaming educational, documentary, and feature films.
Note: These films do not have public performance rights, which means they can only be streamed in person in classroom settings; they cannot be viewed in live online meetings. - Kanopy Streaming This link opens in a new windowStreaming films, documentaries, and TV shows, from studios and producers like A24, PBS, BBC, MUBI, and Criterion.
Note: You'll need to set up a free account using your Rice email address in order to watch videos. If using a public PC in the library, users need to use Firefox.
Web Address: library.rice.edu | Physical Address: 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005 | Mailing Address: MS-44, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77251-1892 | Phone: 713-348-5698 | © 2014 Rice University