Tag Archives: culture

Unconditional Love: Is devotion to pets a cultural universal?

If the number of cute animal memes on the internet is a fair benchmark, then the human love of pets is a powerful and global phenomenon. For many pet owners, their furry (or scaly) domestic…

Researchers Use eHRAF World Cultures to Demonstrate “Universality and Diversity in Human Song”

Does vocal music, or song, exist across all known human cultures? What behaviors are commonly associated with it? Do the musical features of a song predict the behavioral context in which it is performed? Samuel…

The Mesoamerican origins of chocolate featuring eHRAF Archaeology

In their book, The True Story of Chocolate, husband and wife co-authors Sophie Coe and Michael Coe make claim to the idea that chocolate – which originated in ancient Mesoamerica – is far older than…

Remembering Lévi-Strauss and pre-digital HRAF collections: A conversation with Bernadette Bucher

Editor’s note: The following post contains contributions from Bernadette Bucher, Professor Emerita of Anthropology and Comparative Literature, Fordham University. The early history of the Human Relations Area Files from 1949 in North America is public…

Food Anthropology on Television: Ethnographic Culinary Adventures

Today, popular television shows featuring ethnographic culinary adventures bring food and film together for the enjoyment, entertainment, and enlightenment of foodies and anthropologists alike. While most of us do not have the opportunity to travel…