HRAF News Vol. 2022-1
Register Today for our AAA Virtual Workshop
Welcome to 2022. We look forward to sharing many new and exciting developments this year. Let's get started with our annual year in review and preview, which summaries what we accomplished in 2021 and looks forward to what we have planned for 2022. HRAF staff members Matthew Longcore and Dr. Francine Barone look forward to presenting a virtual workshop next week on Teaching with the eHRAF Workbooks sponsored by the American Anthropological Association (AAA). HRAF has collaborated with the AAA to help them develop a new anthropological taxonomy based on the OCM and OWC for searching publications across AAA platforms and people. We are also announcing a search for candidates for the Melvin Ember Internship 2022-2023. See below for application instructions.
New eHRAF World Cultures application updates
Many thanks to all who have provided feedback on the latest version of our eHRAF World Cultures database. In response to feedback from teaching faculty, the current eHRAF will not be replaced with the new version until Fall 2022. Users may still opt to switch now if preferred. Once you have explored the new design, we would love to know what you think.
As we begin a new year, it is time for our annual recap and preview. Our HRAF 2021 in Review & 2022 Preview summarizes our highlights from the previous year, as well as what you can expect to see from HRAF over the next 12 months.

The topics featured include:

  • Staff Updates
  • Membership Updates
  • Global Scholars
  • Culture & Tradition Updates
  • Research & Grants
  • Teaching eHRAF
  • Explaining Human Culture
  • Conferences & Events
  • Anthropology Day
  • Homepage & Social Media
  • IT & Development
  • Friends of HRAF
On Wednesday, January 19th 12:00-2:00 PM ET, HRAF will facilitate a virtual workshop on Teaching with the eHRAF Workbooks via the American Anthropological Association.

In this workshop, participants will learn the following:

  • Background information about HRAF
  • How to navigate the eHRAF databases
  • How to utilize the eHRAF Workbooks for teaching, including remote classes
  • How eHRAF is ideal for comparative studies

Please be sure to register in advance. There is no registration fee. Here is the link to register.

A new classification system based on our original Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM) and our Outline of World Cultures (OWC) is being developed as an anthropological taxonomy through a partnership with the American Anthropological Association (AAA). This system provides a consistent way of classifying the terms for specialty research topics and cultural areas and will soon be available to help locate relevant publications and people across AAA platforms.

AAA worked with experts in thesauri, indices, and taxonomies to compare the OCM and OWC with keywords used in American Anthropologist to update existing terms and add new ones. The taxonomy will be fully implemented soon as a search tool, and AAA will make periodic updates to ensure that the most current terminology and areas of research are being utilized.

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 internship will be reimbursed 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.
HRAF at Yale University|hraf.yale.edu