Relational database table © Shutterstock/Yurich

A popular annual request from our members is for information about how we are growing our culture collections in our eHRAF databases. Below is a brief summary of what cultures and traditions we have added or updated in the past year, followed by a preview of what we will be working on analyzing throughout 2021 to include in eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology.

Please note that the collections added to 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. The sample tried to minimize cultural relatedness, so only one society was chosen from a given culture area. Each society is pinpointed in time and space. Researchers coding variables for this sample are expected to adhere to the specified time and place focus. With these additions, eHRAF World Cultures currently has about 97% of the SCCS societies in the database. We are planning to add the remaining SCCS societies to eHRAF World Cultures soon.

Source: https://hraf.yale.edu/new-and-forthcoming-cultures-and-traditions-in-ehraf-world-cultures-archaeology-2020-2021/?fbclid=IwAR0NEzUGXcEyyDpmBJOZP8p1gq6IwSkwgf56gbTmhqwoJHfgoZM6IAKjTGY