The table below lists 265 subject-indexed ethnographic documents recently added to eHRAF World Cultures. Previously available only on microfiche, these documents augment 44 online culture collections. Several culture collections gained ten or more new documents:…
Jeffrey Vadala Archaeological and anthropological research shows that many human societies across time and space have used alcohol in religious and ritual contexts. There are often customs and ethics that govern how alcohol is produced,…
Jeffrey Vadala Often considered evidence of humanity’s first artistry, prehistoric rock art has captivated people all over the world. Associated with many different cultures, the meaning and purpose of most forms of prehistoric rock art…
Damián Blasi at the University of Zurich and a research associate here at HRAF has just published a paper with colleagues in Science reporting significant differences in the frequency of “F” and “V” sounds in…
Jeffrey Vadala “The shaman is not merely a sick man or a madman; he is a sick man who has healed himself.” -Terence McKenna, The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens & the I Ching During the…
How does the relationship between gender and power vary cross-culturally? According to Forbes, Angela Merkel tops the list of “world’s most powerful women“, with Hillary Clinton and Melinda Gates labelled the second and third most…
Carol R. Ember, Michele J. Gelfand, Joshua Conrad Jackson, and Tahlisa Brougham All societies have expectations about how people should behave. But some societies appear to have more rules than others, have more people who…
Jeffrey Vadala Given that the archaeological record is often incomplete, how can archaeologists make reliable conclusions about human behavior in the past? Archaeologists employ a variety of approaches to this end, using statistical, interpretive, comparative…
![2019 HRAF Internship in Honor of Melvin Ember [CLOSED]](https://hraf.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Photo-of-Melvin.jpg)
The Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) at Yale University is pleased to announce a one-year internship in Melvin Ember’s name. Melvin Ember was President of HRAF from 1987 until his death in 2009. The intent…
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…