HRAF News Vol. 2020-10
HRAF Global Scholars Program and Autumn Updates
The HRAF Global Scholars Program welcomes applications from graduate students or faculty affiliated with academic institutions in low- or middle-income countries. Our analysts have been busy adding new cultures and traditions to the eHRAF databases. We plan to add additional SCCS societies to eHRAF World Cultures and expect to be at 92% complete by November. Our Introduction to Cultural Anthropology workbook for teaching has been expanded to include six new eHRAF Workbook activities. This month we are featuring academic institutions who have requested a trial of the eHRAF databases for the fall academic term.
HRAF is pleased to announce that we are accepting applications for the HRAF Global Scholars Program. This program provides scholars around the world with one year of complimentary access to eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology. The application deadline is November 15, 2020. Awardees will be notified in December 2020, and access to the eHRAF databases will be granted for the 2021 calendar year.

Successful applicants will receive one year of free access to both of our databases, eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology, for the 2021 calendar year. Should further access be desired beyond the award year, memberships are available in our lowest dues category. Please consider a tax-dedcutible donation to support HRAF Global Scholars.

HRAF staff have been hard at work adding cultures to eHRAF World Cultures and traditions to eHRAF Archaeology. A total of 14 cultures and 3 traditions have been added recently.

The cultures and traditions added to the eHRAF databases represent diversity in terms of time and place. Regions covered include Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America.

With the exception of the British (1485-1603), all of the collections added to eHRAF World Cultures are part of the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS), which was created by George Peter Murdock and Douglas R. White in 1969. The SCCS consists of 186 anthropologically described societies chosen by the sample's creators to be representative of the world’s cultures.

Since the start of the academic year, HRAF is pleased to have begun 60-day institution-wide trials at the following institutions:

  • Bellevue College
  • CUNY Graduate Center
  • St. Mark's School
  • Trent University
  • Université de Montréal
  • University of British Columbia
  • University of Durham
  • University of South Carolina Columbia
  • University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison

These schools represent a diverse selection of academic institutions including an American boarding school and universities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. We look forward to welcoming these institutions as future members.

Since the debut of the eHRAF Workbooks, we have been hard at work producing new activities in the Introduction to Cultural Anthropology workbook. There are now 25 activities across 16 subject areas corresponding to popular topics covered by most introductory anthropology textbooks.

Our latest activities include:

  • Globalization & Change
  • Agrarian Societies
  • Class vs. Caste
  • Children's Work & Play
  • Egalitarian vs. Rank Societies
  • Race & Class

We have enjoyed positive feedback from our member faculty and instructors who are teaching with eHRAF Workbooks. Watch this space to see what additional workbook topics will be released in the coming weeks and months.

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