Paper short abstract:

The Human Relations Area Files at Yale University is committed to developing dynamic, expertly indexed, and curated online databases and open access resources for the global community. Our teaching materials include eHRAF Workbooks, Explaining Human Culture, and Introducing Cross-Cultural Research.

Paper long abstract:

The Human Relations Area Files at Yale University is a nonprofit organization committed to developing dynamic, expertly indexed, and curated online databases and open access resources. Our mission is to promote understanding of cultural diversity and commonality in the past and present. From colleges, universities, museums, and libraries to cross-cultural researchers within and beyond the social sciences, we believe that a dedication to cultural discovery can be at the forefront of a public-facing anthropology. HRAF produces two membership-supported online databases, eHRAF World Cultures and eHRAF Archaeology. The eHRAF databases feature cultures and traditions around the world with ethnographic and archaeological data subject-indexed at the paragraph level to facilitate rapid retrieval of information. To date, our open access resources for teaching and learning include Teaching eHRAF, Explaining Human Culture, and Introducing Cross-Cultural Research. Explaining Human Culture contains findings from over 1,200 cross-cultural studies and summarizes broad topics such as hunter-gatherers, marriage and family, gender, and sexuality. Introducing Cross-Cultural Research is a short visual course on cross-cultural research methods. The open access repository Teaching eHRAF includes eHRAF Workbooks designed to complement introductory courses in cultural anthropology and archaeology. The workbooks are presented as PowerPoint slideshows that instructors can modify to suit their own teaching styles. Students are taught how to analyze and interpret ethnographic data, looking for similarities and differences to make comparisons across cultures. A newly developed pilot resource, currently named Ethnographic Dimensions, opens up macro-ethnographic exploration with prototype tools and applications based on AI and natural language processing.