Human Relations Area Files

Human Relations Area Files

The Human Relations Area Files, Inc. (HRAF), located in New Haven, Connecticut is a nonprofit international membership organization with over 300 member institutions in the U.S. and more than 20 other countries. A financially autonomous research agency based at Yale University since 1949, its mission is to encourage and facilitate worldwide comparative studies of human culture, society, and behavior in the past and present. It mainly pursues this mission by producing and distributing two full-text databases on the Web, eHRAF World Cultures (formerly "eHRAF Collection of Ethnography") and eHRAF Archaeology (formerly eHRAF Collection of Archaeology"). HRAF also sponsors and edits the quarterly journal, Cross-Cultural Research: The Journal of Comparative Social Science, and organizes and edits encyclopedias.

The two eHRAF databases on the Web are accessible to people at HRAF member institutions. Expanded and updated annually, eHRAF World Cultures includes materials on cultures, past and present, all over the world. (The entire HRAF Collection, in paper, microfiche, and on the Web, covers nearly 400 cultures.) The second database, eHRAF Archaeology, has been building solely in electronic format since 1999. Also expanding annually, this database covers major archaeological traditions and many more sub-traditions and sites around the world.

Read more about Human Relations Area Files:  History, Distinctiveness of The HRAF Databases, Uses of The EHRAF Collections

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