eHRAF World Cultures

Performers in a sing-sing gather in Wabag, Enga Province of Papua New Guinea. These gatherings typically constitute multiple different tribes and are always bursting with various art forms, from decorative body adornments, to the dance, song, and musical drum lines.

Performers in a sing-sing gather in Wabag, Enga Province of Papua New Guinea. These gatherings typically constitute multiple different tribes and are always bursting with various art forms, from decorative body adornments, to the dance, song, and musical drum lines. From eHRAF.

"eHRAF World Cultures contains ethnographic collections covering all aspects of cultural and social life. eHRAF is unique in having subject indexing at the paragraph level. This allows detailed and precise searching for concepts not easily found with keywords." - From Publisher.

The "e" stands for electronic. The HRAF is for Human Relations Area Files.

Selected features from publisher Yale University:

  • Ethnographic collections organized by regions, subregions, and cultures
  • Cross-cultural database includes
    • Indigenous peoples and ethnic groups
    • Immigrant cultures in the U.S. and Canada
    • Historical to contemporary time periods
    • Probability Sample Files designed for hypothesis testing
    • Currently over 300 cultures and over 600,000 pages
  • Comprehensive summaries in Browse Cultures include topics such as
    • Economy
    • History and Cultural Relations
    • Family and Kinship
    • Sociopolitical organization
    • Religion

This teaching and research tool covers: 

  • Anthropology
  • Other social sciences–economics, sociology, psychology, political science
  • History
  • Religion
  • Law and Justice
  • Arts and Architecture
  • Interdisciplinary programs–Area studies, child development, environment, multicultural studies, peace and conflict, gender studies, gerontology
  • Agriculture
  • Biology and Botany
  • Health and nutrition
  • Medicine and nursing
  • Astronomy

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