Raoul Naroll (September 10, 1920 – June 25, 1985) was a Canadian-born American anthropologist who did much to promote the methodology of cross-cultural studies.
Early life and education
Naroll was born in Toronto, Ontario but was raised in Los Angeles and attended UCLA at the age of 16, dropping out in his junior year to join the military.
In 1939, he joined the army serving in Infantry, as an Officer in the Army Finance Department and in the Military Intelligence Service, screening officials and prisoners of war in Germany.
After the war, Naroll returned to UCLA, receiving an A.B. in 1950, a Master's in 1952, and his Ph.D. in history in 1953. He did fieldwork in Austria (1956) and in Greece, Switzerland and Belgium (1965–1966).
Career
From 1954 to 1955, Naroll was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. After, he moved to the Washington, D.C. branch of the Human Relations Area Files, Inc. (HRAF) working as a research associate where he wrote country background studies. point to Naroll's concerns and scholarship on war and military studies. The Moral Order: An Introduction to the Human Situation (1983) is a broad, evolutionary study of ten factors of social life, from a cross-cultural perspective.
Publications
- Data Quality Control (1962)
- Imperial Cycles and World Order (1966)
- Handbook of Method in Cultural Anthropology (1970)
- Main Currents in Cultural Anthropology (1973)
- Military Deterrence in History: A Pilot Cross Historical Survey (1974)
- HRAFLIB (HRAF Hologeistic Computer Program Library) (1975)
- Worldwide Theory Testing (1976)
- The Moral Order: An Introduction to the Human Situation (1983)