Fabrics and Natural Dyes

Inca women dyeing wool with plant-based dyes. Photo Credit: D.Maucione

In eHRAF World Cultures you’ll find collected ethnographic texts for indigenous people, ethnic groups, and western- and non-western cultures. All these texts are indexed with subjects based on the Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM), a vast thesaurus of indexes and categories. For example, if you use keywords such as “dyes” and “wool” in a Basic Search you’ll find paragraphs and pages of texts containing these specific words but also indexed with subjects related to these topics.

In Advanced Search you can further refine your search by combining the Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM) subjects “paint and dye manufacture” with subjects such as “woven and interwoven fabrics” and keywords to find relevant results in paragraphs and pages.

The eHRAF Search Example & Methodology section shows how OCM subjects and culture names can be used to find information in eHRAF World Cultures.  Interested in trying out this unique cross-cultural database? Contact HRAF to request a temporary login.