ANT102 Introduction to Sociocultural and Linguistic Anthropology

A scholarly book is written by researchers and scholars for an academic audience. Here are some features of scholarly books you should be looking for when determining whether you have found a scholarly book (1) :

1. written in a scholarly and formal style;
2. on a narrowly defined or specialized subject;
3. usually published by a university press or a scholarly society;
4. having an index (alphabetical listing of topics, places, people and events mentioned) and a bibliography or list of references for further reading at the end.

1. Joan M. Reitz, "Scholarly book," in Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science, (ABC - Clio, 2013), accessed November 4, 2013, http://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/searchODLIS.aspx .

Here is an example of a catalogue record for a scholarly book.  You will see that the title describes a very specific topic of inquiry, and the book is published by the Columbia University Press:

A good way to get started is to look up the terms you are working with in a scholarly reference book.  (Note: The excellent Routledge Encyclopedia has entries on kinship, subculture, food, culture, money, religion, ethics, but NOT on metaphor.)

Try these with unfamiliar or general concepts: