Celebrating 70 Years
HRAF turns 70 years old this month! The Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) celebrated its official 70th birthday on May 7, 2019, but its origins go back much longer than that. In the 1930s, an…
How do parents around the world teach children to control their anger?
What do you do when a child throws a temper tantrum? Enabling young children to control their emotions – especially anger – is a challenge that all parents face. From deciding the “right” or “wrong”…
Laissez les bon temps rouler: Mardi Gras and Cajun Traditions in eHRAF
Mardi Gras has become synonymous with the culture and lifestyle of New Orleans and southern Louisiana. “Fat Tuesday” or mardi gras in French, is the name given to the feast day that marks the onset…
Romantic or disgusting? Passionate kissing is not a human universal
From pop culture to evolutionary psychology, we have come to take kissing for granted as universally desirable among humans and inseparable from other aspects of affection and intimacy. However, a recent article in American Anthropologist…
Celebrating the Vernal Equinox
The vernal equinox marks the beginning of Spring, representing the moment when the sun passes directly over the equator. This time of year is known for its many cultural and religious celebrations. For instance, Easter…
eHRAF Highlights
Interactive African Rift Valley Culture Map and Analysis
A few years ago, HRAF anthropologists were involved in a project to help develop an agent-based model of violent conflict in…
Large Batch of Documents Added to eHRAF (from microfiche)!
The table below lists 265 subject-indexed ethnographic documents recently added…
An Introduction to Rock Art
Jeffrey Vadala Often considered evidence of humanity’s first artistry, prehistoric…
Why Hunter-Gatherers have Fewer “F” and “V” Sounds
Damián Blasi at the University of Zurich and a research…