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Abstract

George Peter Murdock began his anthropological career when the concerns of the cultural evolutionary and cultural historical schools both required the creation of large ethnographic databases and systematic comparative or cross-cultural research. Other kinds of newly emerging questions in behavioral, social, and cultural theory also required such research. Murdock led the way in undertaking the creation of the badly needed databases with the creation of the Cross-Cultural Survey and later with Human Relations Area Files. His pioneering use of these databases was a powerful stimulus to the growth of cross-cultural research and its methodology, culmi nating in the founding of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research.

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References

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Murdock as Bridge: From Sumner to HRAF to SCCR

Abstract

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