FAQ

New eHRAF World Cultures Application (2022) (3)

The new eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology applications offer a fresh look that combines the best aspects of our classic eHRAF interface with a host of added features and enhancements. For example, search filters have been expanded with new options, and users can customize how they would like their search results to be displayed on the page. Search Insights offer additional options for visualizing and drilling down through results sets. An exciting new development for researchers is the eHRAF Notebook, which allows paragraph search results to be saved, organized, annotated, and shared. Users can sign up for their own Notebook account (independent of access provided by your institution).

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eHRAF Notebooks allows users to save, organize, annotate, and share paragraphs from their search results. Selected results can be added to custom Notebook folders in order to facilitate study and research. You can then access your annotated results from anywhere by logging in to your Notebook account.*

To enable Notebooks, users will be prompted to sign up for an account by using the Sign Up button in eHRAF. At this time, Notebooks are not accessed through institutional credentials. Users must create a new account inside the eHRAF interface which is separate from their university or college library ID.

* You may still need to authenticate through your library on your device from on- or off-campus for full access to saved search results.

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No. The legacy version of eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology were discontinued in 2023.

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Getting Started With eHRAF (3)

First, check to see if your institution is a member by searching the lists on this page. If your institution is a member, the best way to ensure that you can access the databases from home or an off-campus location is to check your library website for proxy access information. Libraries typically require that you authenticate as a member of your university or college using your NetID/username and password before connecting to eHRAF.

If you have tried to authenticate via your library’s catalogue or online resources portal, but are still reaching our paywall, try using this free online Proxy List tool to generate an EZProxy link.  Search for your institution, then enter the link you are trying to view. Click the Proxify! button to follow the link.

sample proxy entry

NB. This tool is not provided by HRAF and may not include all institutions.

 

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Welcome to eHRAF! We have a series of user guides and tutorials available to take you through the various aspects of using eHRAF for cross-cultural research.

If you’re a teacher or lecturer and you want to get started with using eHRAF in your classroom assignments, visit Teaching eHRAF where you can find sample syllabi, eHRAF Workbooks, teaching resources and read testimonials from other educators.

Feel free to browse this homepage to learn more. The Resources menu at the top of the page has tailored information for students, researchers, faculty and librarians.

Can’t find what you’re looking for or prefer more personal assistance? Contact Member Services at hraf@yale.edu or 1-203-764-9401.

 

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If you are currently reading this FAQ, you are on the HRAF home page (https://hraf.yale.edu) and you are not currently inside the eHRAF databases. The only place you can conduct your cross-cultural research using eHRAF is from within the database interface. Don’t worry. We can help you get there!

How to access eHRAF and begin searching:

On the right-hand side of this site, you will see two access buttons (one brown and one blue) that will direct you to the databases so that you can begin your cross-cultural searches using either eHRAF World Cultures or eHRAF Archaeology. Alternatively, your college, university or school library may have special instructions for you to access the eHRAF from on- or off-campus. This troubleshooting page will tell you what to do if you are having issues accessing the databases.

Ready to begin your cross-cultural research in eHRAF? Our Practical Guide will help you get started.

Keep in mind:

The HRAF homepage is a useful companion site to keep open while browsing or searching eHRAF because there are additional guides, information and articles here that can help you learn more about HRAF as an organization, the contents of the eHRAF databases, and cross-cultural research methods and findings. Feel free to keep this page open in a separate tab for reference. You can also visit the homepage at https://hraf.yale.edu regularly to read our latest blog posts and site updates. You do not need any special passwords to browse this site. However, please note that if there are any hyperlinks throughout the homepage connecting you to information within the database(s), you may be prompted to sign in to eHRAF.

 

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About Human Relations Area Files (3)

You can learn more about our organization at About HRAF. Additional information about important dates and events in HRAF’s history can be found on our timeline.

HRAF Timeline

 

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To advance a mission to promote understanding of cultural diversity and commonality in the past and present, HRAF relies largely on dues paid by member institutions (primarily universities and colleges). These dues directly support the production of the databases eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology as well as development of educational materials and member support services.

Occasionally, HRAF receives grant support for database development, training scholars in cross-cultural methods, or for basic research. Currently the National Science Foundation (NSF) is supporting the development of enhanced data services for eHRAF World Cultures (available beginning in 2023) as well as Summer Institutes (2021-2023) to train faculty, researchers, and advanced graduate students in cross-cultural anthropological methods. The HRAF Board of Directors, made up of representatives from sponsoring member institutions, has authorized HRAF to apply for basic research grants that are consistent with HRAF’s mission and that are fully transparent to the scholarly community.

Our grant-supported research over the last seven years has broadly focused on climate-related hazards and how they have impacted and transformed culture in prehistory and in the recent past. The aim of this research is to derive understanding of past human responses to climate change to help understand potential resilience to climate change in the future. Some research findings are illustrated in this post. For a full list of publications, click here.

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These clarifications will help you when referring to HRAF and eHRAF.

  • Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) is the name of our non-profit organization at Yale University.
  • eHRAF World Cultures is the name of HRAF’s online ethnographic database.
  • eHRAF Archaeology is the name of HRAF’s online archaeological database
  • HRAF Collection of Ethnography refers to the paper and fiche collections. (Note that many people have referred to this collection as the “HRAF files” for short, but we think the full name is clearer, especially since we now have an archaeological database.)

In short, HRAF refers to our organization as a whole, while eHRAF refers to our searchable online databases for cross-cultural research.

Notes on access

The HRAF homepage (hraf.yale.edu), which contains the eHRAF Highlights blog, teaching resources, research materials, user guides and other information, is freely available to all visitors. The eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology databases are only accessible via member institutions or through paid subscription (free trials are available).

 

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About the eHRAF Databases (9)

We offer HTML, PDF and Excel versions of our coverage information on our Reference Materials page.

 

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There is a link at the foot of every page in eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology to our up-to-date ADA/Web Accessibility compliance information.

The following is a direct link to this information: https://ehrafworldcultures-legacy.its.yale.edu/ehrafe/accessibility.do (Please note that this link requires an active eHRAF session be already open. Otherwise, you may need to click the link twice to load the page).

 

 

 

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As of May 2022:

eHRAF World Cultures

361 cultures
6,676 documents
769,002 pages

eHRAF Archaeology

107 traditions
2,589 documents
157,482 pages

 

 

 

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As of 2020, eHRAF has 330 cultures included, which is well below the thousands of cultures that exist in the world. HRAF’s mission is to facilitate cross-cultural research with as much in-depth cultural coverage as we can provide for each culture rather than to have complete coverage of all the cultures of the world.

Adding cultures to eHRAF is labor-intensive. Before an ethnographic document can be added to the database, it is processed by our research analysts who index each and every paragraph to enable meaningful searching using subject codes. Our small, non-profit team is largely supported by membership dues. While we continue to add additional pages of ethnography every year (see “How often are the databases updated?“), we cannot possibly process as many cultures as people might like.

That said, if you have a particular culture you want to see in eHRAF, please write to us and let us know (hraf@yale.edu). Your suggestions may help us decide what to include in the future.

 

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At this time, we do not have a system for providing updates of HRAF’s Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM) thesaurus to external users. However, we are actively pursuing creating such a system which should include distribution of an ISO-25964 version and additional services. Based on similar recent requests, our team has already assigned higher priority to this goal. The same situation applies to our Outline of World Cultures (OWC) thesaurus.

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We attempt to include as much information as we can about each culture, keeping in mind that the aim of our database is to compare and contrast cultural and social life. Since the emphasis is on comparison, it is not possible to include everything about every culture.

How much of the total ethnographic literature on a culture that we include is difficult to answer because the situation has changed over time. At the outset, the plan was to have a complete list of the world’s cultures – the Outline of World Cultures) which has about 2,000 described cultures – and include in the HRAF Collection of Ethnography (then available on paper) about ¼ of the world’s cultures. The available literature was much smaller then, so the million or so pages collected could have been about ¼ of the existing literature at that time. Since then, the number of described cultures has grown as well as the body of literature, and our aims have changed somewhat. We know we cannot include everything available about each culture, so we aim to include at least two comprehensive “ethnographic snapshots” (each of a particular time and place focus) based on extensive observation and interviewing. We supplement these larger ethnographic works with more specialized articles and/or chapters.

 

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HRAF collections are expanded and updated annually, with new cultures added to eHRAF World Cultures and new traditions added to eHRAF Archaeology typically in the spring. You can see recent and forthcoming additions to each database on the following pages:

Cultures Updates (eHRAF World Cultures)
Traditions Updates (eHRAF Archaeology)

 

 

 

 

 

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HRAF collections are expanded and updated annually, with new cultures added to eHRAF World Cultures and new traditions added to eHRAF Archaeology typically in the spring.

eHRAF World Cultures

Currently, we add 10-20 cultures annually with approximately 20,000 pages. About 25% is new ethnographic material and the remaining material is converted from the microfiche collection. See Culture Updates for recently added and forthcoming cultures.

eHRAF Archaeology

Currently, we add five archaeological traditions annually with approximately 10,000 pages. The focus is on archaeological tradition sequences. Some randomly selected traditions are also added from the Outline of Archaeological Traditions. See Tradition Updates for recently added and forthcoming traditions.

 

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Currently, GIS data is not available in eHRAF. Although latitude and longitude coordinates are not yet available as coded data, location information can be found in eHRAF by searching using the OCM code for Location (OCM 131). Note that some cultures are widely dispersed geographically.

 

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Cross-Cultural Research and Methodology (3)

View the Sampling section of HRAF’s Basic Guide to Cultural Research for a comprehensive overview of cultural sampling, including sample sizes, which samples are used within eHRAF, and how best to make use of these in your research.

In brief, eHRAF World Cultures contains four samples that can be considered representative:

eHRAF Archaeology has a Simple Random Sample.

 

 

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As explained in the Basic Guide to Cross-Cultural Research on the home page under Selection of Cultures and also under Sampling within the HRAF Collection, the eHRAF collection was initially designed to represent the diversity of cultures around the world (mostly described by ethnographers), but because we undertook some special programs such as immigrant cultures in North America, we do not claim that the whole sample is representative. For teaching purposes, we suggest that you consider the 60-culture Probability Sample Files, which does claim to be representative. You can sort results in eHRAF by Sample Type on the Region and Culture results page.

 

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Documents, Citation and Referencing (4)

As of May 2022:

eHRAF World Cultures

361 cultures
6,676 documents
769,002 pages

eHRAF Archaeology

107 traditions
2,589 documents
157,482 pages

 

 

 

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There are several ways that you can save a record of your eHRAF search results. Here’s what you can and cannot download:

  • Users can freely download bibliographic references for importing into bibliographic software such as EndNote or other purposes (see Citing eHRAF for more information).
  • In the current version of eHRAF, users can export a CSV file containing links to search results. Alternatively, use the Notebook feature to save and annotate results.
  • Consistent with fair usage, entire documents are generally not available to download or view in eHRAF. To download entire documents, users should contact their institution’s library for their holdings and/or use interlibrary loan.

 

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When citing a document from eHRAF, please include both the original publication citation (if applicable) followed by information about where and when you found it. You should also include the date of access for any eHRAF resource to complete your bibliographic reference.

For your convenience, preformatted references that you can copy and paste into your bibliography or save directly to your referencing software are provided directly within the eHRAF database interface. You may also choose to print or email citation information including selected excerpts from documents. For a detailed guide on how this works, see Finding citation information in eHRAF.

 

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This feature is not yet available. However, we are working on revamping our entire application to make it more modular and flexible. One of the items on our development list is to have more options for exporting. Various formats are under consideration.

 

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Library Information (10)

No. The eHRAF database model does not fit the COUNTER content models that are the bases for the COUNTER Usage Statistics Standard.

 

 

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Unfortunately, eHRAF databases are not currently compatible with OpenURL.

 

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Librarians can learn more about eHRAF and MARC records, OCLC, WorldShare, WorldCat and EBSCO Discovery Service on the Catalog Records page.

 

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Librarians can find information and instructions for setting up the eHRAF World Cultures and/or eHRAF Archaeology database(s) at their institution’s digital library at the following pages:

eHRAF World Cultures Library Information

eHRAF Archaeology Library Information

See also:

Librarians

 

 

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There is a link at the foot of every page in eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology to our up-to-date ADA/Web Accessibility compliance information.

The following is a direct link to this information: https://ehrafworldcultures-legacy.its.yale.edu/ehrafe/accessibility.do (Please note that this link requires an active eHRAF session be already open. Otherwise, you may need to click the link twice to load the page).

 

 

 

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Usage statistics are available for eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology. No administrative log-in is required. Email hraf-support@yale.edu to request access to your institution’s usage report(s).

 

 

 

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For subscribing institutions, the number of concurrent users is unlimited. Users are authenticated by the requesting IP address being among the subscribing member institution’s IP addresses provided to HRAF, or, in certain circumstances, by username and password.

 

 

 

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At this time, eHRAF does not offer any SAML-based authentication system to support single sign-on.

If you would like to request this feature, please contact our developers at hraf-support@yale.edu.

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Institutions may need to provide HRAF with a proxy IP address in order to access eHRAF remotely via OpenAthens. If OpenAthens has not provided you with a proxy IP, you will need to contact them directly to obtain one by emailing help@openathens.net. You will also need to request that OpenAnthens whitelists the URLs for our databases, as follows:

eHRAF World Cultures:
https://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/

eHRAF World Cultures (legacy):
https://ehrafworldcultures-legacy.its.yale.edu/ehrafe/

eHRAF Archaeology:
https://ehrafarchaeology.yale.edu/ehrafa/

Then, please provide the proxy IP from OpenAthens to us at hraf-support@yale.edu so that we can enable access in our system.

Once OpenAthens associates the URLs for the database with your institution’s account, and once we have confirmed the OpenAthens proxy IP address in our system, you will be able to access the database remotely through the proxy address.

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With the launch of our new applications in 2022/2023, we are currently temporarily unable to offer institutional branding in eHRAF. We hope to make institutional branding available to member institutions at some point in the 2023-2024 academic year. Sign up for our newsletter to be informed when this feature becomes available.

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HRAF Membership (2)

Yes! We offer free trial memberships for individuals and institutions to access both eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology.

Individual trials are for 30 days. You will be provided with a temporary username and password for the duration of the trial.

Institutional (IP) trials are for 60 days and allow full campus access for all members of the requesting institutions without the need for a temporary username or password. To set up an IP trial, librarians will need to supply us with IP ranges including any proxy IPs. Usernames and passwords are not provided. IP trials come with usage statistics.

Visit this page to request a trial.

 

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You can view our list of HRAF sponsoring, associate, and consortia members here.

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HRAF Microfiche and Paper Formats (1)

The cultures in the microfiche/paper and electronic versions of the HRAF Collection of Ethnography are not covered in the same ways. The online version (eHRAF World Cultures) includes more recent documents, but not all of the older documents from the fiche version such as the historical country and city files.

View Microfiche vs. Online Cultures for further information.

 

 

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Troubleshooting and Technical Issues (5)

If you experience any technical issues or error messages while using eHRAF, the easiest fix is to create a new session. To create a new session, you can clear your web browser’s cache and start again. You may need to re-authenticate or log in again via your institutional library if you are off-campus. Alternatively, you can open an additional browser and start a new session from there (for example, using Firefox instead of Chrome).

If the problem or error you are experiencing is not helped by refreshing your browser, contact our Engineering team at hraf-support@yale.edu. If you can, please include the text of any error messages as well as any other details about when or where the error occurred.

 

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For each culture collection in eHRAF World Cultures and for each tradition collection in eHRAF Archaeology, there is a Culture Summary or Tradition Summary. Learn more about Culture Summaries here.

HRAF attempts to update all summaries regularly. Occasionally, a small number of collections are temporarily published without a summary. This may be because the summary is still being written by area experts, or because it has been taken down temporarily while updates are made to the information.

If you see an error such as the following, it means that the culture summary is temporarily unavailable. We endeavor to add or replace summaries as soon as they are ready for publication.

missing summary

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You can test that you are successfully authenticated to access eHRAF by attempting to conduct an Advanced Search. If you are able to complete a search and view your search results without being prompted to log in, this indicates that you are authenticated.

If you believe that you should have access to eHRAF, but are unable to view search results and are prompted to log in, please contact hraf-support@yale.edu with the name of your accessing institution for further assistance.

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Yes. In accordance with eHRAF terms and conditions, any authorized user may view all relevant paragraph results of their searches as displayed on the search results page(s). However, full context page views are more limited in scope.

Consistent with fair use provisions, it is usually not possible to view every page of an entire document in eHRAF if the work is protected under copyright. Users can view the entirety of documents that are in the public domain (such as works published prior to 1928 or US government publications) or documents originally published by HRAF. Should a user wish to read the entirety of a single work or download entire documents, they are advised to contact their institution’s library for their holdings and/or use inter-library loan.

Note that eHRAF is not an eBook host and does not offer PDF downloads of documents.

See also:

How can I download or save text from eHRAF?

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