At this time of year, HRAF staff would usually be preparing for the annual AAA meeting. However, as the meeting will not be taking place in person for 2020, we would love to have the opportunity to welcome you to attend ourvirtual workshop on teaching with the eHRAF Workbooks. The timing of this workshop is ideal since we have just produced a complete set of activities for Cultural Anthropology. HRAF is looking forward to beginning work on our NSF-funded iKLEWS grant and to hiring three team members in support of the project. Additionally, we are pleased to share the publication of new research on tightness-looseness theory from HRAF and affiliated scholars.
On December 2, 2020, HRAF will facilitate a workshop via the American Anthropological Association in which we will present our latest teaching materials, the eHRAF Workbooks. Featuring our Introduction to Cultural Anthropology workbook, this webinar and tutorial will cover all aspects of using the eHRAF databases for teaching and learning.
Workshops are typically hosted at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting. However, this year they will be taking place virtually via Zoom in the week following the Raising Our Voices event. Please be sure to register in advance. There is no registration fee. Here is the link to register.
We are pleased to announce that HRAF has received a two-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The iKLEWS project will enhance searching in eHRAF World Cultures and will also provide tools for visualizing, analyzing, and managing results. We are currently recruiting a team leader and two additional team members to support this grant.
The project will result in improved topical and temporal metadata with greater relevance of search results. In addition to the existing subject categories, we will establish links between paragraphs so that a researcher can follow topics more effectively when identifying and testing hypotheses.
Tightness-looseness theory suggests that cultures vary in how strictly they expect people to dress, eat, or act a certain way. Tighter cultures have very strong expectations, many rules, and severe punishment for those who violate those rules. In loose cultures, individuals are allowed more leeway in their behavior and are not as likely to be severely punished for violating expectations.
In a study recently published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Joshua Conrad Jackson, Michele Gelfand, and Carol Ember addressed whether this theory applies to societies in the anthropological record.
We continue to receive positive feedback from instructors who are teaching with the eHRAF Workbooks. In the coming months we will begin to develop new workbook activities for teaching with eHRAF Archaeology.
