There are few signifiers of culture more potent and recognizable than food. Edibles and cultural identity share a deep-seated connection. Food, and especially our preferences for preparing, cooking and eating it, are about far more…
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…
Mardi Gras has become synonymous with the culture and lifestyle of New Orleans and southern Louisiana. “Fat Tuesday” or mardi gras in French, is the name given to the feast day that marks the onset…
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…
The New Year is underway, which means it’s time for our annual news and notes review. This post will summarize our highlights from the previous year as well as what you can expect to see…
Jeffrey Vadala Throughout history, humans have collected and buried groups of objects together, whether for ritual purposes (e.g., offerings to the gods) or pragmatic reasons (e.g., for secret stores of food). Today, many cultural groups…
Have you ever wondered how the Human Relations Area Files got its name? Or how we organized our ethnographic collections for members before the Internet? HRAF has partnered with Choice’s podcast The Authority File to…
Did you know that as a small, non-profit organization, Human Relations Area Files services over 500 academic member institutions from around the world? Anthropologists, archaeologists, social scientists, and cross-cultural researchers from these institutions benefit from…
This week’s featured eHRAF teaching exercise was produced in-house here at HRAF by Christiane Cunnar. Designed for classroom use or as a homework assignment, Exercise 2.3 Burial Practices: A world-wide comparison of burial practices in…