On Friday, October 18, HRAF will host an event in celebration of Archaeology Day. This will be HRAF’s third annual Archaeology Day event co-sponsored by the UConn Stamford Anthropology Society.

Students from the University of Connecticut have been invited to New Haven for a day celebrating archaeology. They will begin their day with coffee in downtown New Haven followed by a tour of the historic Yale University campus led by Matthew Longcore, Director of Membership and Outreach at HRAF and Anthropology adjunct faculty member at the University of Connecticut.

Following the tour, the group will visit the HRAF offices for lunch featuring famous New Haven pizza. After lunch, there will be a presentation from HRAF President Carol Ember. The day will conclude with a trip to the Yale Peabody Museum where the group will visit the Connecticut Archaeology and Babylonian Collection exhibits.

Click here to read more about Archaeology Day

In honor of our 75th anniversary, we are pleased to feature video recordings from members of the broader HRAF community. This month we are featuring a video from Václav Hrnčíř, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

As he describes in his profile, Václav focuses on cross-cultural research using data from eHRAF World Cultures and/or from D-PLACE. His cross-cultural research topics to date include slavery, architecture, weapons, post-marital residence, and human mobility. He touches on some of this earlier work in his video, but he also describes recent research on why non-industrial societies may vary in the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages and how drinking may have contributed to the development of societal complexity.

Václav holds a Ph.D. in Prehistoric and Medieval Archeology from Charles University in Prague.

Click here to watch the video from Václav Hrnčíř

HRAF is pleased to announce the release of four new eHRAF World Cultures Tutorial Videos.

Each video shows a step-by-step guide to using the database features, helping users get the most out of every search. The videos cover a wide range of eHRAF database functions, including how to perform a basic search, how to perform an advanced search, how to filter searches, and how to browse culture collections. Each tutorial covers comprehensive examples, including "do's and don't's" when using the eHRAF World Cultures database.

These new videos are a great way for users to learn key database functions, and for current users to brush up on their research skills. You can find the videos on the HRAF YouTube channel under the eHRAF Tutorials playlist.

To explore beyond these tutorials, HRAF encourages members to schedule a webinar to learn more about the eHRAF databases. To schedule a webinar, please contact Matthew Longcore at matthew.longcore@yale.edu

Click here to watch the eHRAF World Cultures Tutorials

Tegegne Mekuria is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Wollo University in Ethiopia. His research focuses on integrating critical thinking and cultural exploration in EFL learning.

In his research, Tegegne focuses on the ways in which language teaching can be tailored to the specific needs of conflict-affected communities, taking into account the unique cultural contexts and communication styles of these groups. He also explores the role of language in promoting social inclusion and addressing issues of power imbalance, discrimination, and marginalization. By examining the experiences of diverse communities around the world, he hopes to identify best practices and develop effective strategies for language teaching in conflict-affected contexts.

HRAF is honored to feature Tegegne Mekuria as one of our HRAF Global Scholars for 2024. To support funding priorities such as the HRAF Global Scholars program, please consider making a tax-deductible donation.

Click here to read more about Tegegne Mekuria