The Human Relations Area Files are a collection of ethnographic (and
sometimes historical) monographs which have been read through and the
text coded by topic. Thus, someone who wants to learn about, say, the
religious beliefs of the Hodenosaunee could go to the files under
culture group NM9 (N- for North America, -M- for the Iroquoians in
general, and -9 for the Ho. in particular) and read just the material
filed under the culture trait category for religious beliefs (I don't
recall that number off hand). This saves one the trouble of paging
through dozens of books and articles for a few paragraphs.
The drawback is that you won't find recent materials in the
HRAF (recent for some cultures could be as much as three decades).
However, it will provide a usefull start, and is good for cross-
cultural comparison.
There are about 15 universities which have the complete paper
set of the files, as well as ~40 other schools with microfiche copies.
Here at UB we've even had people stop in from other schools to use
our set.
Hope that answers the question.
-Pat Crowe, SUNY at Buffalo
[ Hmmm. I don't suppose access is possible via something like a
listserv interface. Can one obtain file via email, or is the use
limited to people with direct access to a system at a subscribing
institution? --Gary ]