This collection was curated by an ASCCC OERI discipline lead. The curated list provided here is intended to facilitate faculty selection of an OER text in lieu of a commercial text. If you are aware of additional resources that should be included, please contact us via our general OER e-mail. Resources with a C-ID designation are listed numerically by C-ID number and followed by a collection of OER by course title when there is no C-ID to reference.
If you are interested in seeing how available OER might be used to develop an anthropology associate degree for transfer that is a zero textbook cost (“ZTC”) degree, please see OER and the Anthropology TMC.
Archived Anthropology Webinars
| Title | Date | Tag |
|---|---|---|
| Cultural Anthropology Reader OER | April 7, 2023 | |
| Anthropology OER – An Overview of In-Progress Work and a Discussion of Discipline Needs | October 7, 2022 | |
| A Faculty Conversation on Sharing OER resources in Anthropology and Sociology | November 19, 2021 | |
| OER and Anthropology | December 4, 2020 | |
| OER for Anthropology | March 15, 2019 |
Introduction to Biological Anthropology (C-ID ANTH 110)
- Introduction to Anthropology (Jennifer Hasty, David G. Lewis, & Marjorie M. Snipes, 2022, OpenStax) (CC BY)
OpenStax Introduction to Anthropology is a four-field text integrating diverse voices, engaging field activities, and meaningful themes like Indigenous experiences and social inequality to engage students and enrich learning.
- Introduction to Anthropology: Holistic and Applied Research on Being Human (Palmiotto A, Homsey-Messer L, Ford B, Poole A, Adams A, Allard F, Chadwick W, 2022) (CC BY-SA)
Introduction to Anthropology: Holistic and Applied Research on Being Human was created through the cumulative efforts of the Department of Anthropology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania… This textbook will take students through a range of themes and subject matter, covering the field of anthropology from its history to topics of kinship, human rights, and so much more.
- Explorations: An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology Second Edition (American Anthropological Association, 2023) (CC BY-NC)
A comprehensive, peer-reviewed, multi-authored OER for introductory biological anthropology courses. This book chapters explore evolutionary theory, genetics, nonhuman primates origin/evolution, hominin origin/evolution, human adaptation, and other topics. Provides ancillaries, including lecture slides, guided reading notes, and testbank. A complete lab manual, with 2-4 labs/activities per chapter is also available.
- Introduction to Physical Anthropology (Schoenberg, 2020) (CC BY-NC)
Developed by a California Community College faculty member, this is an introductory biological anthropology OER textbook. The text (except quotations) is licensed under CC-BY-NC, but the author notes “be careful with the graphics.”
- The History of Our Tribe: Hominini (Welker, 2017) (CC-BY-NC-SA)
This book includes a section on nonhuman primate origins, but the main focus of the book is on hominin species beginning in the Miocene. This resource from Open SUNY “is designed as a textbook for a course on Human Evolution but can also serve as an introductory text for relevant sections of courses in Biological or General Anthropology or general interest.”
- Becoming Human: How Evolution Made Us (Downey, 2013) (CC-BY-NC 3.0)
This ebook is distributed free through the support of Smashwords, Open Universities Australia and Enculture Press. Focused on the origins of our species (Homo sapiens), this book is an introduction to evolutionary theory and to human origins.
- Biological Anthropology (Saneda and Field) – LibreTexts (CC-BY-NC-SA)
This open text is disseminated via the Open Education Resource (OER) LibreTexts Project. This textbook introduces students to evolutionary theory, nonhuman primates, and human evolution.
Biological Anthropology Laboratory (C-ID ANTH 115 L)
- Explorations: An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology – Lab Manual (American Anthropological Association, 2021) (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Materials-based and virtual labs, as well as in-class activities, to accompany each Explorations chapter. Multi-authored labs/activities include:
- Learning objectives
- List of required supplies
- Instructions for faculty
- Estimated duration
- Student worksheets
- Reference to the corresponding Explorations chapter and other readings
- Consistent format and style
- Biological Anthropology – Laboratory Activities – LibreTexts (CC BY-NC-SA)
A collection of labs covering: bone identification; Hardy-Weinberg; primates; bone injuries; hominin cranium comparison. Recommended to be used with Biological Anthropology coursework. From the author: The instructor is expected to present the base material that students will need to complete each activity. This allows the instructor to mold the activities to their own approach. Students will need an assigned text to assist with these activities…The contents of this manuscript are available by means of Creative Commons. They may be used free of charge as long as this author and all other copyright holders are given credit for their work. Should you have any activities you wish to add to this manual, and make available under creative commons to other instructors, please notify this author.
- General Biology Labs – LibreTexts (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)
There are various resources listed here that may provide lab materials for Biological Anthropology lab courses, or background readings/resources for such courses.
Intro to Cultural Anthropology (C-ID ANTH 120)
- Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Edition (American Anthropological Association, 2020) (CC-BY-NC 4.0)
A comprehensive, multi-authored, peer-reviewed OER textbook for introduction to cultural anthropology courses. Includes chapters on all topics typically covered in an introductory course and chapters that explore specialized topics. Includes ancillaries, including lecture slides, instructor manual, and test bank.
- Cultural Anthropology – LibreTexts (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0)
An introductory textbook for cultural anthropology organized by three major topics: Anthropology & Culture; Social Institutions; Globalization, Modernization, & Development
- The Art of Being Human: A Textbook for Cultural Anthropology (New Prairie Press, 2018) (CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0)
This textbook accompanies the free and open Introduction to Cultural Anthropology multimedia course available at: ANTH101.com. Wesch introduces core anthropological concepts and illustrates them by drawing on his own fieldwork experiences and contemporary U.S. examples
- Introduction to Anthropology (Jennifer Hasty, David G. Lewis, & Marjorie M. Snipes, 2022, OpenStax) (CC BY)
OpenStax Introduction to Anthropology is a four-field text integrating diverse voices, engaging field activities, and meaningful themes like Indigenous experiences and social inequality to engage students and enrich learning.
- Introduction to Anthropology: Holistic and Applied Research on Being Human (Palmiotto A, Homsey-Messer L, Ford B, Poole A, Adams A, Allard F, Chadwick W, 2022) (CC BY-SA)
Introduction to Anthropology: Holistic and Applied Research on Being Human was created through the cumulative efforts of the Department of Anthropology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania… This textbook will take students through a range of themes and subject matter, covering the field of anthropology from its history to topics of kinship, human rights, and so much more.
Intro to Linguistic Anthropology (C-ID ANTH 130)
There are no specified OER for Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. However, some instructors may find the following OER useful for parts of this course.
- Essentials of Linguistics, 2nd Edition (Anderson et al., 2022) (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
This is an introductory textbook for linguistics (not linguistic anthropology) but chapters could be used to provide foundational knowledge about languages.
- Languages and Worldview (Allard-Kropp, 2024) (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
A brief introductory text for linguistic anthropology with chapters on: language and culture; conveying meaning; ethnolinguistics; worldview and intercultural communication.
Intro to Archaeology (C-ID ANTH 150)
- Writing as Material Practice – Substance, Surface and Medium (Piquette et al.) – LibreTexts (CC BY-SA)
Covering a temporal span of some 5000 years, from c.3200 BCE to the present day, and ranging from the Americas to the Near East, chapters in this volume bring various perspectives to questions of writing materialities.
- Introduction to Archaeology: A Workbook (Lemke, 2020) – LibreTexts (CC BY-NC-SA)
Introduction to Archaeology: A Workbook, is designed to assist students in the Intro to Archaeology course by giving them questions and assignments to reinforce what is learned in the classroom lectures.
- Archaeology (Ruth) – LibreTexts (CC BY-NC-SA)
This OER explores archeology as the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture specifically artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts and cultural landscapes, with a focus on the Americas.
- Digging into Archaeology: A Brief OER Introduction to Archaeology with Activities (Wolcott Paskey and Beasley Cisneros, 2020) – LibreTexts (CC BY-NC)
Multi-authored, peer-reviewed, accessible chapters. 16 chapters focus on essential topics in introductory archaeology courses (emphasis on theory and methods). Each chapter includes: learning objectives, terms list, review questions, one or more activities (activities include: short in-person activities, hands-on activities, short-term and full-term projects, indoor and outdoor activities, individual and group work). Flexible modality for in-person and online courses
- Traces: An Open Invitation to Archaeology (Whatcom Community College, FORTHCOMING) (CC BY)
This OER is a multi-authored, peer reviewed textbook for undergraduate lower-level introductory archaeology courses. It is nearing completion and currently being beta-tested.
Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion
- Beliefs: An Open Invitation to the Anthropology of Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion (Zunner-Keating and Avetyan, 2020) – LibreTexts (CC BY 4.0)
Includes Soundcloud recordings of each chapter, links to primary sources and articles, and eleven chapters covering topics typically included in an introductory course on anthropology of magic, witchcraft, and religion, including: theoretical approaches, witchcraft, ritual, myth, comparative religion, syncretism, altered states of consciousness, and religious specialists.
Using an OER resource that is missing from the list above? If so, please let us know.
This page was last updated on October 16, 2024.