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eHRAF
Collection of Ethnography: Web University of Minnesota-Morris is a member of the collections. Click here to continue: http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/e/ehrafe/
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The Human Relations Area Files, Inc.
(HRAF) is an internationally recognized organization in the field of cultural
anthropology. The mission of HRAF is to encourage and facilitate worldwide comparative
studies of human behavior, society, and culture. Founded in 1949 at Yale University,
HRAF is a financially autonomous research agency of Yale.
Whether you are interested in learning about the North American Hmong's beliefs
in the causes and cures of diseases or the Pashtun's religious views, this multi-cultural
database provides you with in-depth information on all aspects of cultural and
social life.
eHRAF is unique because each culture or ethnic group contains a variety of source
documents (books, articles, and dissertations) that have been indexed and organized
according to HRAF's comprehensive culture and subject classification systems:
the Outline of World Cultures (OWC), and the Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM).
These retrieval systems extend search capability well beyond keyword searching
thus allowing for precise culture and subject retrieval, even in a foreign language.
The Development and Applications of the HRAF Collections will provide you with
an extended overview of these resources.
Features and Benefits
• Supports college and high school curricula in humanities and social
sciences -- anthropology, social studies, history, sociology, geography, language,
multicultural studies, political science, human development, arts, and medicine.
• Brief overviews of cultures on general topics such as demography, economy,
social organization and more.
• Students can browse a single culture or conduct cross-cultural research
within regions or throughout the world.
• Students learn about cultural similarities and differences, about the
cultural customs and ethnic beliefs of groups all over the world, including
US and Canadian immigrants and Native North Americans.
• The works include ethnohistories as well as recent ethnographies thus
allowing for the fullest coverage of the culture
• eHRAF serves as an excellent research and teaching tool for cross-cultural
studies
• Teaching eHRAF is a teaching resource that can be used in association
with the ethnographic database.
eHRAF'S UNIQUE SEARCH FEATURE:
The database uses a numeric subject retrieval system that allows for “conceptual”
rather than “keyword” searches. For example, you can search the
concept "illness causation" more effectively by using the OCM subject
code "753" rather than words. This powerful search system allows for
in-depth retrieval of information at the paragraph-level. See the Outline of
Cultural Materials (OCM) at www.yale.edu/hraf/OCM.html for topics and view the
eHRAF User Guides at www.yale.edu/hraf/userguides.html for a Web-based tutorial.
TEACHING eHRAF: A PRACTICAL APPROACH
TO USING eHRAF:
These undergraduate online student exercises at www.yale.edu/hraf/teachingehraf.html
serve as pedagogical tools for undergraduate social science classes.
DIRECT DATABASE ACCESS:
You can also access the databases directly by using the following URLs. The
archaeology database will require the use of a password.
eHRAF Collection of Ethnography:
http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/e/ehrafe
eHRAF Collection of Archaeology: http://ets.umdl.umich.edu/e/ehrafa
username: hraf
password for February 2003: paidh-te
password for March 2003: convok0s