This paper was the Presidential Address at the 11th annual meeting of
the Society for Cross-Cultural Research in Minneapolis, MN, February 19, 1982.
Three things are discussed: (1) some new activities being planned by the Human
Relations Area Files to encourage new kinds of comparative research; (2) the
author's hope that future comparative research will be more attentive to causal
mechanisms; and (3) some elements of a style of research that have proved useful to
the author and Carol R. Ember and may be useful to others.
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