Documents
eHRAF is comprised of thousands of ethnographic sources including monographs, journal articles, dissertations and manuscripts. Use this page to find relevant documents by searching or filtering. Each document in eHRAF also contains a Publication Information page with added metadata including brief abstracts written by HRAF analysts who have subject-indexed the file.
Ethnology of Easter IslandBook 1940 • Métraux, Alfred
Rapa Nui • Oceania > Polynesia
Compiled by a member of a 1934-35 Franco-Belgian expedition, this monograph presents both original fieldwork and data from existing sources. Themes include the history, geography, material culture, social life, religion, art, warfare, tales, legends,...Easter IslandBook 1945 • Métraux, Alfred
Rapa Nui • Oceania > Polynesia
This article on the history of Easter Island offers a critique of various theories about the stonework, statues and the design-covered tablets interpreted as hieroglyphic script. Incorporating original observations, the author asserts that such trait...The Jivaro 1948 • Métraux, Alfred
Jivaro • South America > Amazon and Orinoco
...Tribes of the eastern slopes of the Bolivian Andesessay 1948 • Métraux, Alfred
Chiriguano • South America > Southern South America
This source discusses the Chiriguano (including the Chané) along with a number of other peoples occupying the eastern slopes of the Bolivian Andes. In addition to a general culture history of the Guaraní, it provides good foundational information on ...Ethnography of the Chacoessay 1946 • Métraux, Alfred
Abipón • South America > Southern South America
This this document, the Handbook of South American Indians, is a brief summary of the history of the Abipon, their relations with the Spanish and aboriginal groups, and of missionary activity among them. The author is a well-known French-Argentinian ...Myths and tales of the Matako Indians (the Gran Chaco, Argentina)Book 1939 • Métraux, Alfred
Mataco • South America > Southern South America
Métraux took down these tales and myths during an interval in his field trip to study the Toba and Pilaga. His interviews were short and casual, and mainly limited to two informants. He had frequent opportunities to ask questions about matters touche...Suicide among the Matako of the Gran Chacoarticle 1943 • Métraux, Alfred
Mataco • South America > Southern South America
This article deals with the high rate of suicide among the Matako Indians in the missions. After giving ten case histories the author discusses the motives involved, the relation of suicide attempts to personality traits and to the existing accultura...The Guaraniessay 1948 • Métraux, Alfred
Guaraní • South America > Eastern South America
This article is a summary of Guarani ethnography from the 16th century to the early twentieth century, as obtained mostly from written historical documents. In the opening pages of the article Métraux presents detailed information on Guarani tribal i...The Botocudoessay 1946 • Métraux, Alfred
Botocudo • South America > Eastern South America
This encyclopedic work covers what little was known about the Botocudo....The material culture of the Tupi-Guarani tribesbook chapter 1928 • Métraux, Alfred
Tupinamba • South America > Eastern South America
This book is an excellent source on Tupinamba material culture. Métraux bases his work on material gathered from existing sources and on data obtained by personally examining objects of Tupinamba origin found in various European museums. The book als...The Tupinambabook chapter 1948 • Métraux, Alfred
Tupinamba • South America > Eastern South America
This is a secondary source summarizing Tupinamba culture. All of the sources which Métraux uses have been processed for the files. Several of the illustrations referred to in this text have been reproduced. No fieldwork was involved in the preparatio...Affiliations through work in Marbial, Haitiarticle 1952 • Métraux, Alfred
Haitians • Middle America and the Caribbean > Caribbean
This paper discusses the work relationships deriving from agriculture as one aspect of interpersonal relationships among the people of Marbial in southern Haiti. It shows that the basic economic unit in Marbial is the household consisting of a man, h...Contribution to Andean folklorearticle 1934 • Métraux, Alfred & Reynolds, Priscilla
Aymara • South America > Central Andes
This monograph is on religious practices and beliefs of the Aymara in the province of Carangas, Bolivia. After four centuries of European-Indian contacts the Aymara showed Christian influence, but, according to Métraux, still retained many native rel...Studies on the culture of the Chiriguano IndiansBook 1930 • Métraux, Alfred & Winchell, J.
Chiriguano • South America > Southern South America
This descriptive and historical analysis of Chiriguano technology and material culture attempts to reconstruct the origins, derivations and cross-cultural relationships of the Chiriguano and their technology through archeological and other distributi...Contribution to the ethnography and linguistics of the Uro Indians of Ancoaqui (Bolivia)article 1935 • Métraux, Alfred & Reynolds, Priscilla
Uru-Chipaya • South America > Central Andes
This source presents a succinct account of the material culture, social organization and religion of an Uru community of Ancoaqui (Iru-Itu) on the banks of the Desaguadero River, some twenty-five kilometers south of the Bolivian port of Guaqui. The a...The Uru-Chipaya Indians of Carangasarticle 1935 • Métraux, Alfred & Reynolds, Priscilla
Uru-Chipaya • South America > Central Andes
This is a basic source on the ethnography and language of the Chipaya segment of the Uru-Chipaya ethnolinguistic group of Atahuallpa (formerly Carangas) province, Oruro department. The monograph focuses upon religion, material culture (including the ...Report on the ethnography of the Mataco Indians of the Argentine Gran Chacoarticle 1944 • Métraux, Alfred & Muirden, Sydney
Mataco • South America > Southern South America
Métraux visited the Mataco in 1939 with the intention of doing a full-scale study, but was prevented by sickness from doing so. This article is a publication of some of his field notes from this trip. Data are included on birth and infancy, abortion ...Historical migrations of the Tupi Guaranibook chapter 1927 • Métraux, Alfred & Coughlin, Margaret
Tupinamba • South America > Eastern South America
This document consists of a detailed analysis of the migratory movements of the various Tupí-Guaraní tribes from the time of their first contacts with Europeans in the sixteenth century to the early twentieth century. As such, it deals with the mirat...Making a living in the Marbial Valley, HaitiBook 1951 • Métraux, Alfred et al.
Haitians • Middle America and the Caribbean > Caribbean
This document deals with the economic life of Haitian peasants in Marbial province as of the 1951. It shows that Haitian economy depends almost entirely upon the hard toil of rural people. When this report was compiled, rural communities lacked adequ...The peculiarities of French Antarctica, otherwise called (French) Americabook chapter 1878 • Thevet, André & Métraux, Alfred
Tupinamba • South America > Eastern South America
André Thevet visited Brazil in 1555 with the exception of Villegaignon. He gathered, during his short stay at the bay or Rio Janeiro, more information on the Tupinamba than any traveler or even missionary, who wrote on these Indians. He was naive, bu...The universal cosmographybook chapter 1575 • Thevet, André & Métraux, Alfred
Tupinamba • South America > Eastern South America
In this excerpt, the accounts are more detailed than those which appear in 2:Thevet (1878)....Journey made in the north of Brazil during the years 1613 and 1614book chapter 1864 • Yves, d'évreux & Métraux, Alfred
Tupinamba • South America > Eastern South America
This book, written by a French missionary in Brazil, contains invaluable information on the psychology of the Tupinamba. The author tells a great many anecdotes and reproduces conversations with the natives. The most precious data are on children, sl...The Goajiroessay 1948 • Armstrong, John M. & Métraux, Alfred
Goajiro • South America > Northwestern South America
This study is a summary article by two ethnologists, based on previously published materials. It contains information on location and history, subsistence, houses and villages, dress and adornment, manufactures, trade, socio-political organization, t...History of a voyage to Brazilbook chapter 1880 • Léry, Jean de & Métraux, Alfred
Tupinamba • South America > Eastern South America
The original edition appeared in 1576. Léry went to Rio de Janeiro in 1557 with a Protestant group to establish a French settlement in Brazil. His work, written many years after his return, is the classic source on the Tupinamba. He describes their c...Communication on the very many natural things which dwell in the province of St. Vincent (now São Paulo) systematically describedbook chapter 1812 • Anchieta, José de & Métraux, Alfred
Tupinamba • South America > Eastern South America
Short treatise in Latin on the natural history of the present state of S. Paulo, containing a few, but interesting, anthropological data....