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Nicola Tannenbaum is a Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. |
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by Nicola Tannenbaum
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA.
Assignments are due in class on date assigned. Late assignments will not be accepted.
How
to find the eHRAF database at Lehigh University's
digital library.
On the Lehigh home page, click on libraries.
Click on electronic resources, click databases
(you will have to logon with your account number and
password). Either
scroll down or click on “G-L” to find the Human
Relations Area Files (eHRAF) and click on the title.
Once in the database, click on Help for
explanations of OCM and OWC codes. For further
explanations of the OCM and OWC view the eHRAF User's
Guide at www.yale.edu/hraf/guides.htm.
Answer the following questions:
1. What does OWC stand for? What is it used for? List one OWC code and explain how to read it.
2. What does OCM stand for? What is it used for? List one of the OCM subject/codes and describe its contents.
Answer the following questions:
1. How many major OCM codes, those ending in “0,” are there?
2. Match up the major OCM codes (those ending in “0”) to the topics in the Ethnographic Outline. Note: some OCMs will provide information for more than one topic in the outline.
3. Pick one topic from the Ethnographic Outline and find the corresponding major OCM subject codes and their relevant sub-categories in the Browse >Subjects > OCM Code section of the eHRAF database. For example, in the Ethnographic Outline (part II, section C), the question is asked "What methods did the anthropologist use"? In the eHRAF database you will find that for this question, the major OCM subject code is "120," standing for "Research Methods." To get a sense of what the category contains, click on it and read the information on it and its sub-categories. After reading all this information, you may decide that the relevant OCM subcategories are: 122 Observational Role in Research, 123 Interviewing in Research, 125 Tests and Schedules Administered in the Field, and 127 Historical and Archival Research.
You need to list the OCM subject code and discuss what it means. For example, 122 Observational Role in Research, not 122 by itself and not simply Observational Role in Research. Note: you may not use this example.
4. What OCM subject codes do not correspond to the topics and culture categories listed in the Ethnographic Outline? Why?
Log onto the eHRAF database. Click on Browse, then on Regions.
1. Identifying your culture. Find your culture in the Browse > Regions page. If you don’t know where your culture is located, click on the A-Z index and find it alphabetically.
Answer the following questions:
1. What region of the world is your culture in? Sub-region? Country?
2. What is the OWC code for your culture?
3. Introduction to your culture. Click on your culture’s name in the Browse Cultures section and then on Culture Summary.
Read the Culture Summary and answer the following questions:
1. What is the social organization?
2. What is the political organization?
3. What is the religion?
4. How to most people make their livings? (This is not limited to ways in which people earn money; making a living can be hunting and gathering, horticulture, farming, etc.)
5. What sort of kinship system?
Notes for assignments 4-9.
1. On each of your eHRAF assignments identify your culture with both the OWC culture code and name.
2. You must follow the Ethnographic Outline format. Report information for each topic. Provide the OCM subject code for each piece of information. For example, the Shan believe in a wide range of spirits including spirit owners of the land, water sources, ancestors, spirits which cause illnesses, and spirits which protect people which would fall under "1. Supernaturals" in the Part III Cultural Categories of the Ethnographic Outline. OCM subject codes, corresponding to the Cultural Categories can be found in the Browse OCM Code section of the eHRAF database. For example, OCM subject code 776 Spirits and Gods would be similar to "Supernaturals," and thus an appropriate OCM subject code for this topic. Listing the OCM code replaces the bibliography and citing each work for the information.
Two caveats: use your own words and follow the Ethnographic Outline format. Failure to do both will seriously reduce your grade. If you have trouble understanding what you are reading, look up the words you don’t know in the glossary in Kottak or send me or my assistant an e-mail (keeping in mind that neither of us are on-line late the night before an assignment is due).
3. Log onto the eHRAF database and click on Lookup Search. Use the Quick Guide (http://www.yale.edu/hraf/guides.htm) or Visual Tutorial in the left-hand margin to get familiar with searching in eHRAF.
Take notes on the relevant material and fill in your own ethnographic outline. It may take searching a number of OCM subject/codes to find any information. Your culture may not have matches on all the OCM subject/codes. When this happens, list the code and report that there were no matches. Even when there are matches, OCM subject/codes contain more information than the material in the outline. Report only the relevant information. The information may be repetitive, after checking two or three “hits” and getting the information you need, stop and go on to the next category.
Repeat your search until you have checked all your relevant OCM subject/codes. After checking all the OCM subject codes and not finding the information, simply report that there was no relevant information.
Note: only find the OCM subject/codes that correspond to the topics listed in the Ethnographic Outline.
URL Index for Explorations
in Cross-Cultural Anthropology
Part I: Syllabus--Assignments and Topics: http://www.yale.edu/hraf/cross-culturalanth_part1.htm
Part II: Ethnographic Outline: http://www.yale.edu/hraf/cross-culturalanth_part2.htm
Part III: eHRAF Assignments: http://www.yale.edu/hraf/cross-culturalanth_part3.htm
eHRAF World Cultures database: http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu.
eHRAF User's Guide at http://www.yale.edu/hraf/guides.htm for help on how to navigate around the database..
Citing eHRAF
documents:
You should include a standard bibliographic reference
for the material, i.e.
Appadurai, Arjun
1996 Modernity at
Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Don't forget to include page numbers when citing material in the text! You should also include the basic retrieval statement for an on-line database: Retrieved [month day, year,] from [source] on-line database ([name of database], [item no.--if applicable]).
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Nicola Tannenbaum is a Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. |
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