Electronic Resources

eHRAF: Collection of Ethnography

HRAF is an acronym for Human Relations Area Files, a non-profit institution founded in 1949 at Yale University. HRAF is a consortium of educational, research, and cultural organizations, and government agencies; its mission is to encourage and facilitate the study of human culture, society, and behavior. This mission is accomplished mainly through the compilation, indexing, and distribution of a collection of ethnographic and other texts that are indexed by culture and subject.

Today, HRAF has over 400 member institutions located in over 30 nations. In its early years the collection was distributed on paper slips. In 1958, HRAF began to reproduce the paper slips on microfiche. In 1993, with installment 42, microfiche production ended. Annual installments are now distributed to members on CD-ROM and the World Wide Web (spring 1997); currently there are three installments: 43, 44, and 45. Click here for a complete list of cultures available in these installments. More than 25% of each installment is new material not already in the microfiche files. New and recent documents are added to each culture to provide the researcher with a broader, more current selection of source material.

Information on eHRAF on CD-ROM

Microfiche HRAF is available in the Doheny Reference Center.

For USC users only. Requires USC network connection.