HRAF News Vol. 2020-8
eHRAF Workbooks for Teaching and Learning
This month we proudly announce the launch of our eHRAF Workbooks for teaching and learning, beginning with Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Wherever and however you are teaching this fall, we invite you to explore these adaptable eHRAF assignments. Our latest addition to Teaching eHRAF, Nascent Worlds uses culture summaries to teach students about four-field anthropology, ethnography, and cultural change, with a touch of imagination. HRAF's featured global scholar for August is Peter Mutiso Maundu who submitted a successful application on behalf of the Hekima Institute of Peace Studies and International Relations. Last but certainly not least, please join us in congratulating HRAF Research Anthropologist Dr. Teferi Abate Adem on his exciting and prestigious Fulbright Award!
As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting faculty engaged in online and hybrid teaching, HRAF is pleased to announce the launch of eHRAF Workbooks. Designed to complement any introductory textbook or anthropology curriculum, eHRAF Workbook activities are presented as PowerPoint slideshows that instructors can download, modify, share, and upload to Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, or a similar learning management system. Paired with the ethnographic and archaeological contents of our eHRAF databases, workbook activities are ideal for learning from anywhere.

All of the activities are based upon searching or browsing in eHRAF, and include links and navigation instructions for students to enter and explore the database in order to complete the assignments. The first workbook – Introduction to Cultural Anthropology – covers a wide range of topics including sex and gender, subsistence, religion, politics, kinship, and art, with more categories forthcoming.

Nascent Worlds, a Teaching eHRAF exercise by anthropologist Dr. Francine Barone, is a build-your-own-culture learning activity. Designed with introductory socio-cultural anthropology classes in mind, this fun and inventive teaching activity allows students to be as creative as they like in exploring and applying the anthropological concept of culture.

The idea behind Nascent Worlds is for students of anthropology to imagine themselves as ethnographers encountering an entirely distant culture for the first time. What would they discover at this moment of first contact? Over time, by exploring the different areas of life in that society, the alien anthropologist must file a report with an intergalactic board of ethnographers. Who are these beings, and what has been learned about their culture?

Using Culture Summaries in eHRAF World Cultures as a model, students are asked to prepare their own “culture summary” or overview of their invented society.

HRAF is pleased to announce that Dr. Teferi Abate Adem has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award in the field of anthropology for the 2020-2021 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Dr. Teferi Abate Adem is one of over 800 U.S. citizens who will conduct research for the 2020-2021 academic year through the Fulbright Scholar Program.

As a Fulbright scholar, Teferi will be teaching anthropology courses at Wollo University in Dessie, Ethiopia.

He will also conduct ethnographic research on the social dimensions of how farmers in two ecologically contrasting rural communities are responding to vagaries of climate change-aggravated irregularities in the onset, duration, and intensity of rainfall during local growing wet seasons. 
We are pleased to feature the research of our HRAF Global Scholarship recipients. This month we are featuring Peter Mutiso Maundu who submitted a successful application on behalf of the Hekima Institute of Peace Studies and International Relations (HIPSIR).

Peter’s research topic is titled “Is Colonialism to Blame for the Homophobic Attacks on Homosexuals in Africa?” He is using anthropological data and ethnographic research from eHRAF World Cultures to further facilitate his study. We wish him continued success with his research.

To support funding priorities such as the HRAF Global Scholarship program and the development of our open access resources (Explaining Human Culture, Teaching eHRAF, and Introducing Cross-Cultural Research), please consider making a tax-deductible donation.

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