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:
- Probability Sample Files (PSF): 60 largely preindustrial societies that meet certain data quality controls, one randomly chosen from each culture area.
- Simple Random Sample (SRS): currently 28 societies randomly chosen from a compiled list of over 8 cross-cultural samples. (See also: SRS in eHRAF Archaeology)
- Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS): consists of 186 anthropologically described societies pinpointed in time and space.
- Ethnographic Atlas (EA): contains over 1264 societies and intended to be an “exhaustive” list of the world’s described societies. eHRAF currently contains over 200 of these societies.
eHRAF Archaeology has a Simple Random Sample.
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