What is the purpose of the Human Relations Area Files?
Imagine a dictionary with over 800,000 pages of definitions in it. It would have every definition of every word, and every pronunciation of that word in it. Well the Human Relations Area Files are almost that, but with culture in mind.
The HRAF started by George Murdock in 1949 at Yale University, is a collection on microfiche of over 800,000 pages of primary source materials, including books, journal entries, dissertations, unpublished field reports and many translations on selected cultures or societies from all over the world. These 800,000 pages of material contain and classify 700 cultural characteristics and it includes about 400 societies past and present. This includes warfare, substance practices, settlement patterns, marriage, and rituals. They are then catalogued and cross-indexed with ethnographic data, filed by geographic location and cultural characteristics. The subject access is provided by an alpha-numeric coding system based on geological area and cultural groups, subdivided by traits. Each culture or ethnic group contains a variety of source documents ( books, articles and dissertations ) that have been indexed and organized.
So what does all of this mean? Let me try to explain. It is all of the observation notes of one particular culture. But its even more than you think, its notes upon notes upon notes. It helps us find an explanation for certain cultural beliefs and practices. One fraction of an example is; Who dances for rain? Why do they dance for rain? What do they do if they do not get rain? Etc... All of this is recorded. It can be shared and then linked together, so we could one day find out that maybe the American Navaho Indians and the Australian Aborigines, both have a similar rain dance ritual. These files are like one big reference library, built by all cultures, that many people can gain access too.
Some of the purposes of these files are to allow us to establish correlations between cultural features, but not conclusions about the causes and effects.
Scarre, Christopher. The Human Past: World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2013.
In the book titled Around the World in 30 Years, Barbara Gallatin Anderson’s makes a precise and convincing argument regarding the acts of being a cultural anthropologist. Her humor, attention to detail, and familiar analogies really allow for a wholesome and educating experience for the reader. Her credible sources and uniform writing structure benefits the information. Simply, the book represents an insider’s look into the life of a cultural anthropologist who is getting the insider’s look to the lives of everybody
Each ethnicity has its own unique characteristics and knowledge from religion, language, food, art, music, and social traits; this is their cultural make- up. This Heritage tool is used to obtain a small fragment of family history, to help analyses their culture. The three people interviewed with the Heritage tool are from three distinctively different backgrounds. The first is from the rural Midwest, second is from Barbados and the third is from.
Nanda, S and Warms, R.L. (2011). Cultural Anthropology, Tenth Edition. Belmont, California: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. ISBN – 13:978-0-495-81083-4.
Sharma, B.R.. "Cultural Preservation Reconsidered." Critique of Anthropology 19 (1999): 53 - 61 . College of Anthropology . Web. 2 Apr. 2011.
Robbins, R. H. (2014). Cultural anthropology: a problem-based approach (Second Canadian ed.). Itasca: F.E. Peacock.
Research has shown the relationship between the types of child abuse. According to some research, it has been stated that there are three major forms of child abuse: physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse. Studies have also demonstrated reliable evidences to support how these forms of child abuse affects children and their adulthood relationship. According to some research performed by some authors, experts who work in the field of child-care are now able to identify and understand the psychological problems that abused victims are likely to develop later in their adulthood stage. Kathryn Hildyard and David Wolfe’s essay on child neglect mentions how child neglect affects children’s health development. Child neglect is known to be the most usual form of child abuse due to the large amount of children that have been neglected or not cared for. Kristen Springer and Jennifer Sheridan’s article on physical and mental health consequences explains how physical abuse affects children emotionally in their early stages of childhood.
When exposed during childhood, abuse can affect the completion of the developmental tasks due to the child having a feeling that they are a “bad child”. This may cause them to be fearful and anxious in social interactions and when learning something new causing attention to be unfocused.
All over the course of this class, I have learned the implication child maltreatment can have on the growth development of a child. Also, the lifetime impact it can have on an individual when they are an adult. I will be reflecting on both physical abuse and emotional/
Economic development typically involves improvements in a variety of indicators such as literacy rates, life expectancy, and poverty rates. Due to the fact that GDP alone does not take into account other aspects such as leisure time, environmental quality, freedom, or social justice; alternative measures of economic well-being have been proposed. Essentially, a country’s economic development is related to its human development, which encompasses, among other things, health and education. These factors are, however, closely related to economic growth so that development and growth often go together.
Child maltreatment is an important/significant issues because it affects more children today and it is more common than we realize. Child maltreatment is abuse and neglect occurring in children under 18 years old (Holden, 2105). There are four major types of child maltreatment. First being Physical Abuse, which is the extensively most studied form of maltreatment in children because it can be detected easiest (Holden, 2015). Second is Neglect, which is the most common type of maltreatment, based on community standards. Third is Sexual Abuse, which Holden (2015) found that research on children received sustained attention in the United States since the late 1970s. Finally there is Emotional Abuse, which is also known as psychological maltreatment.
Many factors can lead to the underdevelopment of a country. The most common sign of underdevelopment is that of a “Dual Economy”, this takes place when a “small modern elite and middle class make up about 20-30% of a country’...
There are at least four different research perspectives about the relationship between development and economic growth. Firstly, economic growth is the basis for social development. Secondly, economic growth and social development are not necessarily linked. Thirdly, both economic growth and social development are not basic causes by each other, but they depend on interaction. Fourthly, social development is the prerequisite for economic growth (Mazumdar. 1...
Economic development is fundamentally about enhancing the factors of productive capacity, such as land, labor, capital, and technology, of a national, state, or local economy, as stated by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Economic development influences growth and restructuring of an economy to enhance economic well-being. We experience economic growth when our standard of living is rising. Rather than being a simplistic process, economic development typically is a range of influences aimed at achieving objectives like creating jobs and wealth and improving the quality of life. It incorporates coordinated initiatives targeted at expanding infrastructure and increasing the volume and/or quality of goods and services produced by a community. A common measure of economic development is a country’s gross national ...
In order for any country to survive in comparison to another developed country they must be able to grow and sustain a healthy and flourishing economy. This paper is designed to give a detailed insight of economic growth and the sectors that influence economic growth. Economic growth in a country is essential to the reduction of poverty, without such reduction; poverty would continue to increase therefore economic growth is inevitable. Through economic growth, it is also an aid in the reduction of the unemployment rate and it also helps to reduce the budget deficit of the government. Economic growth can also encourage better living standards for all it is citizens because with economic growth there are improvements in the public sectors, educational and healthcare facilities. Through economic growth social spending can also be increased without an increase of taxes.