HRAF News. Vol. 2018-2
New Cultures, New Archaeological Traditions, and Cross-Cultural Research at HRAF
In the past year, HRAF has released 5 new cultural collections, while June and July have given us two new archaeological collections (indexed by HRAF archaeologist Sarah Berry). Find out more below.

In other news, Milagro Escobar (from UCLA) and Noah Rossen (from Elon University) arrived at HRAF just a few days ago to begin a year of work as the 2018 Interns in Honor of Melvin Ember. Join us in wishing them a warm welcome! Find out more about their research and background in next month's issue of HRAF News.

And finally, take a moment to read about the exciting new cross-cultural research published by HRAF anthropologists in "Evolution and Human Behavior".
Our Better Nature: Resource Stress and Sharing Practices
What does resource scarcity have to do with sharing practices? In the past several decades, scholarship on evolution has begun looking more closely at cooperation in the animal kingdom and among humans.
The idea that humans are deeply cooperative comes largely from studies of hunter-gatherers who display a great deal of giving to others without expectation of a direct return, suggesting to some scholars that cooperation is a long-standing practice, if not part of human nature.  In our study ( Ember, Skoggard, Ringen, & Farrer 2018 ) of contemporary nonindustrial societies, we show that customary food and labor sharing outside the typical household is universal across societies . Although some sharing is ubiquitous, societies vary widely in the types and frequency of customary sharing practices. Resource stress appears to be an important predictor of sharing; societies subject to more resource stress (including chronic scarcity or climatic events that seriously destroy food supplies, such as floods or droughts) share more frequently than others. Why might this be the case? Read more here.
In Western societies like the United States and those of Western Europe, the period of adolescence is often regarded as one of the most dramatic and difficult stages for parents and children’s to undergo—-with teenagers exhibiting problematic and antisocial behavior just as parents are exerting as many methods as possible to control it.

Yet even though adolescent misbehavior is regarded as problematic in many of these societies, it is also considered equally as  natural,  or an innate quality of human development.
Do other societies have the same conception of adolescence as a deeply troubled time?   Keep reading and find out here.
We are pleased to announce that eHRAF World Cultures now contains cultural collections for Haida, Karajá, Kutenai, Kiribati, and Mormon peoples.

Materials across these collections cover topics of contemporary interest to cultural researchers, including gender and sexuality, economic development, divination and healing, indigenous life histories, and much more.

Read a synopsis of our new cultural collections here , or navigate straight to cultural summaries by heading to eHRAF World Cultures and clicking on "Browse Cultures".

Fresh off the presses, eHRAF Archaeology now has two new tradition collections for researchers to dig their teeth into. Over the past year, archaeologist Sara Berry has been meticulously indexing a South Asian Upper Paleolithic and South Indian Chalcolithic archaeological text collection, and they are available for HRAF members to dive into today!

The best part? The cultural summaries are now open access. Read about our new collections here.
It's the time of year for reminding you that we offer free 60-day trials to all institutions across the world! Are you interested in complimentary access to eHRAF World Cultures or eHRAF Archaeology for your academic institution or public library?
 
We are happy to reach out to your librarians and administrators and get the ball rolling. Just fill out the form here   or get in touch with me directly and someone in New Haven will be in touch with you and your librarians in a jiffy---usually within 24 hours.

Not at an institution? No problem. Individuals can get 30 days access by navigating here.
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