HRAF News Vol. 2019-1
Happy New Year from HRAF!
We are starting 2019 off by introducing and welcoming our Global Scholarship Winners. These institutions will receive year-long memberships to eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology :

  • Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • Arba Minch University, Arba Minch, Ethiopia
  • Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria
  • College of Micronesia, Federated States of Micronesia
  • Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Primorsky Krai, Russia
  • Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia 
  • Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi, India
  • Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
  • Padma Kanya College, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India
  • University of Tirana, Tirana, Albania
  • University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis, Tunisia 

We are excited to see the various ways they put our databases to use!
Also, our research coordinator, Fran Barone, has penned a new article on winter solstice celebrations around the world. And if you want more details on the ways societies tracked and utilized the stars, Jeffrey Vadala's piece really digs into the archaeological evidence.

Finally, we are seeking a new IT person! See the job announcement below.
"[P]eoples all over the world have long revered this annual astronomical occurrence as a time to bid farewell to lengthy, dark nights and to welcome the impending return of the sun...For the Hopi people (northern Arizona), the winter solstice ceremony known as Soyal begins on the shortest day of the year. During this 16-day celebration, Hopi welcome kachinas –protective spirits who come down from the mountains – with singing, chanting, dancing and prayers. The mountain spirits are believed to bring gifts and bounty for the year ahead."

"The practice of looking to and tracking the heavens, stars, sun, and moon has roots and parallels in many cultures around the world...In cases both ancient and contemporary, humans have often observed the stars in order to achieve pragmatic goals such as planting fields at optimal times or learning to predict and associate the behavior of their environment based on cosmological timing. In other words, people look to the stars to understand their world and environment and utilize what they learn."

We are seeking candidates to join our IT team, full-time or part-time. The IT team is responsible for a range of activities required for producing, processing and distributing digital resources that relate to understanding cultural and social life of people in the past and present. Candidates must be flexible and learn skills as needed. We will begin reviewing applications on January 15, 2019.

T his month, we are switching all of our databases to Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (https). This requires no action on the part of our members. You will be transferred from the current URL.

We are still looking for volunteers to help us pretest our upcoming eHRAF World Cultures application. To sign-up, please contact our Membership Coordinator, Tahlisa, at [email protected] .
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