Educators: Did you know that the HRAF website contains an open access collection of over 50 teaching exercises (sample syllabi) for classroom use that include questions and class assignments based on eHRAF World Cultures or eHRAF Archaeology?
The Teaching eHRAF section of our homepage contains all the teaching exercises categorized by field and level of difficulty. A number of the exercises have been prepared in-house by experts at HRAF. Others have been written by educators from our member institutions who use the exercises as part of their curricula. All of the exercises make effective and thorough use of eHRAF databases and associated resources such as the OCM (subject) or OWC (culture) codes used in the databases, and even the new HRAF homepage. Supplementary materials, images or answer keys are also provided where relevant.
The best use of the Teaching eHRAF exercises is to supplement classroom assignments and themes that suit your course or curriculum. Topics range from gender, religion or kinship to hunter-gathering or nomadism. Many of the teaching exercises in the series include detailed, step-by-step database search examples, and most also directly address the methodological process behind cross-cultural researching, making them ideal for building critical skills among students.
There are four main categories:
- General Anthropology
- General Archaeology
- Medical Anthropology
- Research Methods
You can browse the entire list of teaching exercises at Teaching eHRAF.
Featured exercises
New! From time to time, selected teaching exercises will be featured on our homepage blog, eHRAF Highlights. Return to this page for updates.
More information
Teaching eHRAF exercises are sample syllabi that encourage the exploration of eHRAF and teach students to navigate and engage with our database materials. The teaching exercises are freely available to everyone, access to the eHRAF databases is by subscription only. Check to see if your institution is already a member with database access (or contact your librarian). If your institution is not yet a member of eHRAF, you can also contact us for a free trial to make the most effective use of these materials in your school or classroom.
Your contributions
Teaching eHRAF is made possible with the help and generosity of educators who use eHRAF in their classrooms. If you find these teaching exercises useful, please let us know. We also encourage educators to collaborate with us and to share any eHRAF-themed teaching materials that they have produced. If you would like to contribute, email us at hraf@yale.edu.