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…
Author Archives: Francine Barone
Starting the fall semester with HRAF
With the fall semester upon us, now is a good time to update yourself with HRAF’s products and services. This post will recap our essential anthropology resources for students, faculty and researchers. Our Products The…
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”…
Surviving Winter Weather
Here in New England, a deep freeze has blanketed homes and streets with snow and ice this winter, making for treacherous and exhausting conditions including power outages, frozen plumbing and unending traffic congestion. With the…
Trick or treat: Ghosts, demons and zombies found in eHRAF
Happy Halloween! It’s the time of year for ghastly ghouls, wicked witches and terrifying things that go bump in the night. From haunted houses to headless horsemen, there are many spooky legends in Western culture.…
“I have worth”: female body confidence and perceptions of beauty around the world
Based on interviews of 10,500 women – including 5,165 girls aged 10 to 17 – in 13 countries worldwide The Dove Global Beauty and Confidence Report (2017) investigates the current state of female body confidence (Dove…
Hunter-Gatherer Resources from HRAF
Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) has an ever-expanding collection of resources on hunter-gatherers and foragers. Indeed, hunter-gathering is one of the most popular subsistence types in the eHRAF databases. This post will introduce some of…
Special rates for 3- & 5-year HRAF memberships
Did you know that as a small, non-profit organization, Human Relations Area Files services over 500 academic member institutions from around the world? Anthropologists, archaeologists, social scientists, and cross-cultural researchers from these institutions benefit from…
Featured eHRAF teaching exercise: Comparison of prehistoric burial practices
This week’s featured eHRAF teaching exercise was produced in-house here at HRAF by Christiane Cunnar. Designed for classroom use or as a homework assignment, Exercise 2.3 Burial Practices: A world-wide comparison of burial practices in…
Featured Culture: Aztecs, cosmology, and ancient rituals in eHRAF
The Aztec Empire constituted the greatest empire in Mesoamerican prehistory, both territorially and demographically, extending from highland basins to coastal plains, valleys and lowland forests. The Mexica – as the Aztec people are known –…