Basic Cross-Cultural Research Assignment
by Brian Mooney, 

Department of Social Sciences, York College (CUNY), Jamaica, NY.

Assignment Purpose:
The purpose of this assignment is for you to become familiar with the contents and structure of the eHRAF World Cultures by learning to navigate around the database and by performing searches on topics of your choice.

Contents and Purpose of the eHRAF Database:
The eHRAF World Cultures database is published by Human Relations Area Files (HRAF), a not-for-profit at Yale University. The database is often simply called "eHRAF," the "e" standing for electronic and "HRAF" for the name of the organization.  As of 2008, the database contains about 165 cultures from around the world, particularly ethnic and minority groups in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and South America, and indigenous and immigrant groups in North America. 

The ethnographic information on a culture or ethnic group is compiled into what's called the "culture profile." A culture file include three parts: 1) a general abstract about the culture file 2) the table of contents (TOC) with documents including full-text anthropological books, articles, reports and dissertations, and 3) a brief cultural summary. Please note that the cultures included in the database are mostly "non-industrial" cultures. Therefore, although you can do research on, for example, Native American groups such as the Iroquois or Hopi, you cannot use the database to do research on, for example, the Italians (as a nation). One exception is that the database now includes information about immigrant groups in the United States (e.g., Italian Americans or Chinese Americans). 

In the eHRAF database the full-text of the documents is indexed with subjects called the "OCMs" or "OCM subject codes."  By the way, OCM is the acronym for "Outline of Cultural Materials." So, for example, if a book chapter contains a paragraph with information on making tattoos, including the use of instruments, and dyes then the paragraph is indexed with three OCM subject codes: OCM 304 for Body Alteration (which includes tattooing, nose piercing, etc.), OCM 413 for Special Tools, and the OCM 386 for Paint and Dye Manufacture (which includes pigments, dyes, etc.). Using the OCM subjects/codes instead of words can be more effective in retrieving good information on topics. There are approximately 800 OCM subject categories which can be found in the "Browse Subjects" section of the database.  Keep in mind that there is not information on every subject for every culture.  So, for example don't expect to find much (if any) information on the OCM 378 (for Atomic Energy) in the documents because the ethnographies included are mostly on "non-industrial" ethnic groups. However, do expect to find much information on cultural and social aspects of life, e.g., for OCM 773 (for Mythology). 

The database allows you to choose a cultural feature (by using one of the OCM subject categories or by doing a text search for particular words of your choosing) and the database identifies cultures in which that cultural feature is discussed. For example, you can choose mythology, ritual, extramarital sex relations, kin relationships, and so on to learn what is said about those subjects for cultures included in the database. This allows you to do comparative cross-cultural research.

Instructions for Using the Web-based eHRAF Database:
Thoroughly study the various sections of  the eHRAF User's Guide at http://www.yale.edu/hraf/guides.htm and the "Help" section in the database to learn about the OCM subject categories and to learn how to navigate around the database. 

Here are a few additional tips:

Printing: Once you have located the material that you want, you can simply print it from the computer you are using. Then you don't need to go through the trouble of downloading it and saving it as a file.

Navigation: Browse back and forth as you are conducting your research by using the "Back" and "Forward" internet browser buttons (usually) located in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

Assignment: 
I do not expect you to do formal "cross-cultural research." Instead, I merely expect you to do some research on some subject matter and culture that interests you as a way of familiarizing yourself with the use of this type of resource. 

#1. Learn about the cultures and the subject codes by visiting the Browse section of the database. 

#2. After you have familiarized yourself cultures and the OCM subject codes , choose whichever OCM subject category you wish to research. Finding an OCM for your topic can sometimes be tricky (e.g., you might not view tattoos as "Body Alteration").  Therefore, it's best to use the "A -Z Index" as well as the "Major Subjects " in the Browse section of the database.  

Bear in mind that some of the OCM subject/code searches will produce very few matches. I recommend the categories numbered 50 and over. The database contains a lot of information on religion, marriage, family life, kinship, law, sex and reproduction, and infancy and childhood (see the Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM) at www.yale.edu/hraf/collections_body_ocmshort.htm for a quick view of the OCM subject codes). Those are just suggestions. 

#3. Depending on what you are searching, you may need to perform a word/OCM subject search combination in Lookup Search. Carefully study the eHRAF User's Guide to gain a better understanding of how to use Lookup Search. 

#4. Once you perform a search, the "intermediate results" page will appear with a list of cultures and number of matches for the OCM subjects searched.  Click on a culture name to view your search results.

#5. Write a 1-2 page review of your research procedure and briefly answer the following specific questions:

Why and how did you choose the subject file that you chose?
Why and how did you choose the culture that you chose?
How can this kind of information be useful in conducting cross-cultural research? 
What, if anything, did you learn about the subject and the culture that you chose? 

Grading will be on the basis of completeness: if you do the assignment as stated above, you'll receive the 10pts. I'm not grading the quality of your essay, although I encourage you to compose your essay with the usual careful attention you devote to writing!

SUBMIT BOTH THE WRITTEN REVIEW AND THE PRINTOUTS THAT YOU PRODUCED IN YOUR RESEARCH

DUE DATE: March 5
The assignment is worth a total of 10 pts