Text Search

Culture/OWC Search

The final area of the search page is the Culture/OWC Search.  Unless you want to find all of the material on a given culture, it is best used as an additional filter for OCM and word searches.  To use it, you have to know the standard name for the culture you are interested in.  Thus, you will not find Pikunii in the culture list, but you will find Blackfoot, which is the standard ethnonym for the same culture.  The list also contains each culture’s OWC Code for reference when using the Browse Cultures mode.

Combining Searches

Multiple Sections

Up until now, we have been using each part of the search page separately, but you can combine sections to create more specific searches.  One of the most effective ways to do this is by using an OCM category for a general idea, and then to narrow the idea with exact words or phrases.  Further, you can get matches for only the culture you are interested in by selecting it in the drop-down menu.  So, going back to our search examples, you now know what to do with each piece of information:

1)   From the culture search, you select the appropriate culture (Blackfoot)

2)   For the broad subject, you use an OCM code (773)

3)   To narrow the broad subject, you use truncated words (wolf*, wolves, canis*) and the Boolean operator “or”  

Figure 18: Paragraph Results - Click to see image

Using the information above we will find information on wolves in Blackfoot mythology.  Realize that using multiple sections will narrow your search, meaning you will get fewer matches, but those matches will be more specific to what you are searching for.   When performing the search outlined above, your results page will provide excerpts of paragraphs that contain the word or words you searched for (fig 18).  Clicking on the word “match” will display the entire paragraph. 

Changing the OCM will provide different information.  For example, if you change the OCM to 825 (ethnozoology), you will get information on the Blackfoot’s notion of wolves, rather than their mythological representations. 

Multiple OCMs

Another way to search for a specific idea is to combine OCM categories.  Thus, you can find information about the role of meals in mythology by searching for OCM 773 (mythology) and OCM 260 (food consumption).  Note that the Boolean operator should be “and” in this case, because you want to find paragraphs that contain information on both topics, not one or the other.  If you want to search for an entire OCM category, including its subheadings, you can truncate the last digit of the category number.  Thus, OCM 26* will search for food consumption, and all of its subcategories, such as “eating” and “cannibalism.” 

Additional Information:

Terms: Ethnonym, OWC Code