What is the HRAF Collection of Ethnography?
The University of Akron is an institutional member of the Human Relations Area Files, Inc. (HRAF), located at Yale University. The University Libraries provides access to two HRAF products: the eHRAF Collection of Ethnography on the Web and the HRAF Collection of Ethnography on microfiche. Both Collections of Ethnography consist of monographs, manuscripts, unpublished theses and dissertations, newspaper articles, chapters from books or edited symposia, and journal articles. These source documents provide information on nearly 350 world cultures, past and present. These cultures have been selected by HRAF to reflect the known range of cultural diversity.
Source documents in the Collection of Ethnography are arranged according to HRAF's cultural and subject classification systems: The Outline of World Cultures and The Outline of Cultural Materials, respectively. This unique arrangement of source materials is meant to facilitate cross-cultural research on topics of interest to anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and other social and behavioral scientists. Researchers have used the data contained in the eHRAF and HRAF Collections of Ethnography to examine socialization, gender roles, warfare, and many other cross-cultural phenomena.
The HRAF Collection of Ethnography on microfiche consists of 42 installments of source documents. The eHRAF Collection of Ethnography on the Web is made up of installments 43 through current. (Installments 43-49 were also issued in CD-ROM format, and Bierce Library maintains these for archival purposes.) Researchers interested in using eHRAF to test cross-cultural hypotheses should note that installments 43-48 comprise the 60-culture Probability Sample Files (PSF).
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Where can I find the HRAF Collection of Ethnography?
- The HRAF Collection of Ethnography on microfiche is housed in the Microforms Department, located on the ground floor of Bierce Library.
- The eHRAF Collection of
Ethnography on the Web is accessible to University of Akron students,
faculty and staff. For information on accessing eHRAF from off-campus, please
consult the guide to Connecting to Online
Library Resources from Off-Campus.
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How do I use the HRAF Collection of Ethnography?
Users of the HRAF Collection of Ethnography should become familiar with two standard reference works: The Outline of World Cultures and The Outline of Cultural Materials. The HRAF Collection of Ethnography utilizes the cultural and subject classification systems presented in these two works to direct researchers to information on specific cultural groups and to information on particular cultural phenomena, respectively.
Murdock, George P. The Outline of World Cultures. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files, 1983. Reference GN345.3.M87
The Outline of World Cultures (OWC) is a cultural classification system. This system assigns an alphanumeric OWC code to all known cultural groups. The first letter of an OWC code represents the general geographic region in which a cultural group is situated. The following table lists the letters for each of these regions:
- A = Asia
- E = Europe
- F = Africa (sub-Saharan)
- M = Middle East and North Africa
- N = North America
- O = Oceania
- R = Eurasia (cultures located in the former Soviet Union)
- S = South America
The second letter of an OWC code represents a subregion, such as "FP" for Angola. A number is then added to this sequence of letters to form an OWC code, for example "FP13" for the Ovimbundu, a cultural group in Angola.
While The Outline of World Cultures attempts to classify all known cultural groups using OWC codes, it is not a listing of the cultural groups represented in the HRAF Collection of Ethnography. HRAF includes only a sample (about 10%) of the cultural groups classified by the OWC. A complete listing of cultural groups included in the HRAF and eHRAF Collections of Ethnography is contained in the User's Guide and on the HRAF Web site.
Files within the HRAF Collections of Ethnography are arranged according to the OWC classification system. Within each file, source documents are indexed at the paragraph level. These documents are then arranged according to The Outline of Cultural Materials, a subject classification system.
Murdock, George P. The Outline of Cultural Materials. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files, 2000. Reference H62.B36
The Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM) is a subject classification system. This system assigns a numeric OCM code to an extensive set of defined cultural phenomena. Each main subject category is represented by a two-digit number, such as 27 (or 270) for Drink and Drugs. Subcategories are represented by a three-digit number, for example 273 for Alcoholic Beverages.
Within each file of the HRAF Collection of Ethnography, source documents have been indexed at the paragraph level using OCM codes. In other words, HRAF staff have assigned OCM codes to all paragraphs within a source document, such as an unpublished dissertation. Users can then look under an OCM code within a file to find information from a variety of sources on a particular cultural variable.
While OCM codes can help researchers to quickly find information about a specific aspect of a particular culture, they are even more useful for conducting cross-cultural research. For example, if one wanted to find out about cultural aspects of alcohol use in different cultures, s/he would look under OCM code 273 in the file for each culture.
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How do I know what sources are included in the HRAF Collection of Ethnography on microfiche?
- Within each microfiche file, documents are arranged according to OCM codes. A user can look under OCM code 111 to find a listing of all source documents included in a particular file. Complete texts of source documents can be found under OCM code 116.
- Human Relations Area Files, Inc. HRAF Source Bibliography: Cumulative. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files, 1976. Reference H62.H853
This work lists all sources included in the HRAF Collection of Ethnography through January 1, 1994.
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How do I cite information from HRAF and eHRAF?
Chicago-style citation to the HRAF Collection of Ethnography on microfiche
Musil, A. (1928). The manners and customs of the Rwala Bedouins. New York: American Geographical Society (HRAF Source 2 in the Rwala file).
Citation in text:
(HRAF Source 2: Musil, p. 255-56)
APA-style citation to the eHRAF Collection of Ethnography on the Web
Spier, L. (1930). Klamath ethnography (as found in eHRAF, OWC#NR10). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Citation in text:
(Spier, 1930)
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How do I find examples of studies that have used HRAF?
Cross-cultural research studies using HRAF data have been published in many journals, including:
A number of encyclopedias summarize the cross-cultural data contained in the HRAF Collection of Ethnography:
- Levinson, David, ed. Encyclopedia of World Cultures. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1991. Reference GN307.E53
- Levinson, David, and Melvin Ember, eds. American Immigrant Cultures: Builders of a Nation. New York: Macmillan, 1997. Reference E184.A1 A63448
- Levinson, David, and Melvin Ember, eds. Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology. New York: Henry Holt, 1996. Reference GN307.E52
- Peregrine, Peter N., and Melvin Ember, eds. Encyclopedia of Prehistory. New York: Kluwer, 2001. Reference GN710.E53
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Other guides to using the HRAF Collection of Ethnography
- Ember, Carol R., and Melvin Ember. Cross-Cultural Research Methods. Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira, 2001. GN345.7.E53
An excellent introduction to hypothesis testing, sampling, data coding, reliability and other topics. Includes a brief introduction to using the Human Relations Area Files. - Ember, Carol R., and Melvin Ember. Guide to Cross-Cultural Research Using the HRAF Archive. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files, 1988. Reference H62.E521
Brief introduction to developing hypotheses, defining and scaling variables, coding, and testing. - Human Relations Area Files, Inc. http://www.yale.edu/hraf
The HRAF Web site provides access to online versions of the collections list, the guide to cross-cultural research, help files, and many other resources. - Human Relations Area Files, Inc. User's Guide. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files, Inc., n.d. Reference Desk GN301.E443
Includes guides to using the eHRAF Collection of Ethnography on CD-ROM and the HRAF Collection of Ethnography on microfiche, as well as on using HRAF to conduct cross-cultural research. Also includes the current collection list, which identifies cultures by OWC code and indicates whether files are present on microfiche and/or on the Web. - Lagacé, Robert O. Nature and Use of the HRAF Files. New Haven, Conn.: 1974. Reference H62.H743
A general guide to the arrangement of the HRAF Collection of Ethnography on microfiche. - Levinson, David. Instructor's and Librarian's Guide to the HRAF Archive. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files, 1988. Reference H62.L4471
A good guide to teaching students how to use the HRAF Collection of Ethnography on microfiche. - Parman, Susan. "Lot's Wife and the Old Salt: Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Attitudes toward Salt in Relation to Diet." Cross-Cultural Research 36, no. 2 (2002): 123-50.
Includes a well-written methodology section that explains the process of defining variables, scaling, coding, and hypothesis testing, using data from the eHRAF Collection of Ethnography. - Price, David A. Atlas of World Cultures: A Geographical Guide to Ethnographic Literature. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage, 1989. Reference G1046.E1 P7
Presents a set of maps indicating where specific cultural groups represented in HRAF are (or were historically) located; also provides the OWC code for these groups.
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