HRAF is pleased to announce a one-year full-time internship in honor of Melvin Ember, President of HRAF from 1987 until his passing in 2009.

The purpose of the internship is to learn about cross-cultural research through practical experience. Duties include reading and analyzing recent cross-cultural research with the goal of summarizing materials in Explaining Human Culture, as well as participating in ongoing cross-cultural research projects.

The interns will receive a stipend for living expenses and travel costs. Preference will be given to candidates who intend to pursue graduate study in anthropology or a closely related field, or who have already started graduate school. Candidates must demonstrate an ability to perform statistical analyses and have accomplished academic records, particularly in their major fields and in anthropology courses.

Click here to read about the Melvin Ember Internship

In the last edition of the Academic Quarterly from 2024, we are excited to share cross-cultural research on hunter-gatherer locomotion, men’s contributions to marital dynamics, the association between cousin marriage and honor killings, and a critical overview of archaeological approaches to gender and social inequality. HRAF staff presented multiple papers this quarter at the American Anthropological Association meeting this past November. The papers and presentations covered how exogenous forces such as war and climate might affect cultural variation and change.

The Academic Quarterly, written by Dr. Francine Barone, is a great way to catch up on how eHRAF data and other HRAF resources have been used by scholars for research publications and conference presentations.

Make sure to sign up to receive updates! 

Click here to read the current Academic Quarterly

In honor of our 75th anniversary, we are pleased to feature video recordings from members of the HRAF community. This month we are featuring a video from Irene Glasser, Adjunct Lecturer of Anthropology at Brown University. Irene specializes in the anthropology of addiction and homelessness.

As she describes in her video, Irene teaches a course on the Anthropology of Addiction and Recovery at Brown University and finds eHRAF to be a useful teaching tool. In her hands-on course, students attend an AA meeting and conduct an interview on drinking behavior.

Before going into the field, the first assignment for students uses eHRAF to start individual research without intruding on the lives of others. Irene spends a class day explaining how to research addiction in the eHRAF World Cultures database. In her book Anthropology of Addictions and Recovery, she also instructs people on how to use eHRAF in addiction research.

At the end of her video, Irene encouragingly remarks that "when students learn HRAF, they take it with them..." further into their lives and careers.

Click here to watch the video from Irene Glasser

As we reflect on the past year and begin a new year, HRAF would like to extend a heartfelt welcome to our new and reactivating members from 2024. We are especially pleased by the diversity and global reach of these members.

Here are the members who joined or rejoined in 2024:

• University of Amsterdam
• Bowling Green State University
• Eastern New Mexico University
• University of Ferrara
• University of Melbourne
• Mohammed VI Polytechnic University
• Northwestern Connecticut Community College
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
• Quinebaug Valley Community College
• Register of Professional Archaeologists
• Seoul National University
• Trinity College
• University of Tulsa
• Yukon University

We look forward to engaging with these members and to following the progress of their research and teaching activities using the eHRAF databases.

Click here to see a full list of new eHRAF members