A Cross-Cultural Search for Children’s Activities

In eHRAF’s Advanced Search the “Add Subjects” function can be used to pick “childhood activities” as OCM subject. This and other OCM subjects can be used to search across all cultures and to find paragraphs and pages of ethnographic texts with information on the extent to which a special culture of childhood exists; children’s play; imitative activities (e.g., make-believe); habits of rest and sleep; children’s play groups, cliques, and gangs; quarreling and fighting; children’s explorations and haunts; tasks performed by children and age at which each is undertaken (e.g., errands, chores, care of younger children); etc.

This image shows “childhood activities” as selected OCM subject in an Advanced Search in eHRAF World Cultures.

An Advanced Search for the OCM subject “Childhood Activities” (OCM 857). Only using the OCM subject will automatically perform a cross-cultural search.

Using OCM subject(s) in an Advanced Search in eHRAF World Cultures

Step 1. Find a subject that is related to children’s activities.
Click Add Subjects –use A-Z index, Major Subjects, ortabs to find “matching” subjects for your topic:
>A-Z Index (type the word “children” in index box)
>Major Subjects>”Life Cycle” >Infancy and Childhood> Childhood Activities (OCM 857)
>OCM Code>800 range under “Infancy and Childhood”> Childhood Activities (OCM 857)

Step 2. Click “Search” to perform a cross-cultural search. This will search the ethnographic texts of cultures, ethnic groups, and indigenous people (e.g. of major geographic regions such as Middle America, Asia, Oceania, Middle East, etc.).

Try your own eHRAF Advanced Search in eHRAF World Cultures . Contact hraf@yale.edu for a current login.