eHRAF World Cultures
Library Database
Grinnell College Libraries has access to the eHRAF World Cultures database which contains information on present and past aspects of cultural and social life for a worldwide sample of societies.
The database is designed with cultural researchers in mind. The contents are organized by cultures and indexed at the paragraph level by HRAF anthropologists with unique subject identifier codes from the Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM), making it ideal for both exploratory, in-depth cultural research, and cross-cultural comparisons. A quick start guide is also provided to walk you through the basics.
Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) is internationally recognized in the field of cultural anthropology. Founded in 1949 at Yale University, HRAF is a membership-supported nonprofit organization comprised of universities, colleges, libraries, and research institutions. Its mission is to promote understanding of cultural diversity and commonality in the past and present. To accomplish this mission, HRAF produces scholarly resources and infrastructure for research, teaching and learning, and supports and conducts original research on cross-cultural variation.