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This outline supplements the topical classification of the "Outline of Cultural Materials" with a new outline organizing and classifying the known cultures of the world. The new system: (1) expedites the beginning of actual processing of information into the Human Relations Area Files, (2) permits excerpting of sources processed that pertain to cultures other than those for which files have been established, and (3) assures that societies selected for processing approach the ideal of a representative sample of the world's cultures. Thus, this outline is a reference to files of materials on 400 cultures covering eight geographical regions of the earth. Used in conjunction with the "Outline of Cultural Materials," researchers can locate data on a cross-section of the world's cultures in 79 major divisions of information pertaining to cultural background. A sample and index of world cultures are included. For the companion document see FL 002 066. (RL)

First developed as a tool for the Cross-Cultural Survey, an organization established in 1937 by the Institute of Human Relations at Yale University, this topical outline serves as the key to the assembling and classification in the files of the basic information on a sample of the peoples of the earth. With the ultimate objective of organizing in readily accessible form the available data on a statistically representative sample of all known cultures--primitive, historical, and contemporary--for the purpose of testing cross-cultural generalizations, the outline uniformly classifies material according to seven basic criteria among 79 major divisions of cultural background information. They include: (1) patterned activity, (2) circumstance, (3) subject, (4) object, (5) means, (6) purpose, and (7) result. The actual materials, meant to be used by those concerned with human behavior in broad perspective, are available on microfilm at a number of educational institutions as well as at Yale in the original files. An index of cultural terms is provided. For a companion document see FL 002 033. (RL)