Category Archives: Feature

Thanks, but no thanks: Expressions of gratitude in eHRAF World Cultures

During the end-of-year “holiday season” throughout much of the Western world, we are often reminded to be grateful for the things that we have, and even to go out of our way to be gracious…

Announcing HRAF Global Scholars for 2024

HRAF is pleased to announce the recipients of the HRAF Global Scholars Program for 2024. This program provides scholars around the world with one year of complimentary access to our research databases, eHRAF World Cultures…

Ethnographic Data Science and eHRAF: inferring cultural patterns from ethnographic writing

What can artificial intelligence and machine learning contribute to anthropology, the most human of disciplines? Ethnography combines elements of science and humanities, with ethnographic writing mediating exposition and science. Data science techniques such as Natural…

The Social Life of Cheese

There are few signifiers of culture more potent and recognizable than food. Nourishment and cultural identity share a deep-seated connection. Food, and especially our preferences for preparing, cooking and eating it, are about far more…

Teferi Adem reflects on his experience as a Fulbright Scholar

My Fulbright Experience to Ethiopia, 2022-23 by Teferi Abate Adem, HRAF Research Anthropologist Conducting follow-up extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the Wollo area of Ethiopia has been a deeply felt dream of mine over the last…

A Cross-Cultural Study of Uniformity in Dress

Why do people in some societies dress in uniform or standardized ways, whereas in other societies individuals display considerable variability in dress? Tentative answers to this question will appear as an article titled “Uniformity in…