Tattooing and Techniques of Cross-Cultural Research
Part II: Culture Sample used for Tattoo Project

by William Divale

 Department of Anthropology

York College (City University of New York), Jamaica, NY

Overlap of cultures names with the OWC Code* from HRAF's Probability Sample Files (PSF)** and the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample.

Student A

Student B

Student C

Student D

Student E

Student F

Student G

Editor's Note regarding OWC and PSF

*Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
HRAF indexes the information in its collection by culture (or tradition) and subject. OWC is an acronym for the Outline of World Cultures, a systematic listing of the cultures of the world. An OWC code or OWC culture code is a four-character alphanumeric identification derived from the classification scheme presented in the Outline of World Cultures (OWC), developed by George P. Murdock more than 50 years ago. Each distinct culture in the list of cultures covered in eHRAF is assigned an OWC code, and text on that culture has been indexed using that OWC. The first letter of each OWC code represents a region of the world. 

A=Asia
E=Europe
M=Middle East and northern Africa
N=North America
O=Oceania
S=South America

For example, the Santal is given the OWC code AW42 which identifies this culture as being located in Asia (A) and India (W). A printed version of the OWC (6th revised edition, 1983) is available from HRAF. In the eHRAF Collection of Ethnography the OWC for the cultures in eHRAF can be found in Browse Cultures. Not every culture in the OWC is in the eHRAF Collection of Ethnography.

**Probability Sample File

 The 60-culture Probability Sample, now complete in eHRAF, was designed by HRAF to provide primary descriptive information on a representative sample of the world’s traditional and peasant cultures. After establishing a list of cultures that met certain criteria for eligibility, one case was chosen randomly from each of 60 culture areas. Among the criteria for eligibility were the ethnographer’s length of stay in the field, knowledge of the native language, and number of pages of ethnography.  This sample is used for both teaching and systematic cross-cultural comparisons. The PSF cultures are located in the eHRAF Collection of Ethnography database.

INDEX

Part I: Syllabus

Part II: Outline of Basic Steps of a Cross-Cultural Study
(contains Proposition Inventories, Data Entry Sheet, etc.)

Part III: Outline of a Cross Cultural Study Paper

Part I V: Outline of a Conference Paper