eHRAF Tutorial: Culture File
by Christiane Cunnar,

Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) at Yale University

 [Last Page]  [Next Page]

Culture File: Overview
The culture file consists of three parts: 1) a file description, 2) file table of contents and full-text documents, and 3) cultural summary. 

File Description
The File Description (see Figure 5) contains a short identification of the Culture File including a brief description of the type of documents, number of documents, number of pages, and information (if any) about the microfiche file. 

Remember from the beginning of the tutorial that we wanted to find a culture from a specific geographic region? We were particularly interested in finding a culture from northwestern Plains of the United States. The File Description makes specific references to geographic locations for a culture.  These references help in "translating" geographic locations into specific cultures. As you can see in Figure 5, the File Description makes reference to the Blackfoot as being located in "northern Montana" of the United States. 

In the eHRAF database, you are now in the File Description of the Blackfoot Culture File. View the contents of the File Description and find any references made to the geographic location in the United States for the Blackfoot.

Figure 5. File Description for the "Blackfoot" in the Culture File

File Table of Contents (TOC)
The File Table of Contents (TOC) contains the list of  full-text ethnographic documents such as books, dissertations, journal articles, and monographs included in the culture file (see Figure 6). The number of documents in each File varies greatly, usually as a function of the amount of ethnographic study. 

The documents in the Culture Files are usually ethnographies-- descriptions of societies’ customary behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes. Therefore, the documents contain all aspects of social and cultural life of a culture or ethnic group, with diverse topics ranging from crafts to ethnobotany to folklore to medical beliefs. The documents usually contain descriptions of the culture at different points in time. 

For a document to be selected for eHRAF it must be specific to a culture. What does this mean? In the File Table of Contents you can see a document titled "The Sun god's children" which is a book specifically about Blackfoot mythology.  Nowhere in the database would you find a book or any other document that is about "mythology of the North American Indians." Why? Because such a document would refer to many culture groups (of a large region), rather an a specific group or culture.

In the eHRAF database, scroll down the File Table of Contents (TOC) and browse the titles of the documents (see Figure 6, abbreviated list). Locate the document title " The Sun god's Children" by James Willard Schultz.

Figure 6. File Table of Contents (TOC) with its documents in a Culture File.

Cultural Summary
The summary is usually adapted from the Encyclopedia of World Cultures and contains a general description of a culture with standardized headings (see list below). The Cultural Summary is useful if you want to learn about the general aspects of a culture such as its geographic location, language, settlement patterns, etc.

In the eHRAF database, scroll down the File Table of Contents (TOC) and view the contents of the Cultural Summary (see Figure 7) including the File Evaluation and Indexing Notes (see Figure 8). 

Figure 7.  Cultural Summary of a Culture File

The following headings and subheading are included in the Cultural Summary. 

Headings in the Cultural Summary:

File Evaluation and Indexing Notes

At the end of the Cultural Summary you can find the File Evaluation (see Figure 8). Referring to documents in the TOC, the File Evaluation is especially useful to librarians who want to compare the electronic materials to the ones in the microfiche collection. 

The Indexing Notes section is the final entry for the Cultural Summary and contains translations and explanation of words and terms from the documents with references to the corresponding OCM subject codes. The OCM subject codes will be explained in the next section and then, in more detail, in Browse Subjects.

It is important to note that the cultural summary cannot be searched in Text Search and it is NOT indexed with OCM subject codes.

Figure 8. File Evaluation and Indexing Notes in the Cultural Summary

This ends the section on the Culture File with its File Description, File Table of Contents (TOC) and Cultural Summary. Let’s now investigate one particular document from the File Table of Contents in the Culture File.  

 [Last Page]  [Next Page]

eHRAF Tutorial Index
   Introduction
   Browse Cultures
   Culture Files
   Documents
   Browse Subjects
   Text Search