"Have you wondered about the world's diverse cultures?"

Have you ever wondered about the innumerable people representing diverse cultures that populate the world? What constitutes a people? What are the elements necessary to coalesce in order to produce an ethnic group? Where do they live? What languages do they speak? How did they originate? What are their customs?

Look no further, National Geographic's coffee-table reference book, PEOPLES OF THE WORLD, provides us with transportation to 150 countries around the world where we meet some of the world's most compelling ethnic groups. No doubt, this is a daunting task and as mentioned in the introductory Editor's Note, "Peoples of the World is unquestionably an ambitious topic for a single book."

Soliciting the advice of no less than fifteen contributors, who are experts in the fields of anthropology and demography, this brilliant reference text, quenches our thirst. At the same time, and as a coda to the book, the reader is encouraged to investigate the topic further and is provided with an extensive list of five thousand ethnic groups scattered around the globe.

The tome divides itself into nine chapters each of which concentrates on a particular geographical area of the globe that have a unique broad cultural cohesion. These are: Asia, Oceania, South America, Mesoamerica & The Caribbean, North America, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa & The Middle East and the Arctic. Within these nine divisions we are introduced to more than 150 peoples that constitute part of the myriad of cultures inhabiting the earth.

To name a few, we discover the descendants of escaped African slaves, the Saramaka, who live in the deep forests of Suriname; the Nukak of eastern Colombia, who not until 1988 have had any sustained contact with Western civilization; the Tapirapé of central Brazil, who until the early 20th century had virtually no contact with Europeans; the Yanomami, the most numerous of the indigenous groups of South America; the Inuit that encompass the Greenlanders, the Polar Eskimos, the Caribou, Iglukik, Netsilik and Copper Eskimos.

We are also fortunate in being provided with a wealth of exquisite colour photos depicting the many characters and scenes that form part of this cultural diversity. These photos illustrate the desire expressed by humans to relish their distinctiveness and their ability to express themselves as part of a particular group.

Wade Davis, Explorer-in-Residence of the National Geographic Society concludes the book in his thought provoking observation that by destroying a people's way of life, or ethnocide, we will all become poorer. As Davis points out to us, Margaret Mead before her death, expressed her concern about the diminishing cultural diversity and stated: "as we drift toward a more homogeneous world, all of human potential might be reduced to a single modality, a blandly amorphous generic culture, a monochromatic world of monotony. Her greatest fear was the possibility that we might awake one day as from a dream, having forgotten there had ever been any other options."

Reviewed by Norman Goldman
Posted July 14, 2002

Summary

Introduction by David Maybury-Lewis... Long viewed as an authority on exotic peoples, National Geographic has drawn together a dozen leading experts to explore for the first time the astounding array of cultures still surviving on Earth, even as many are threatened with extinction. Spectacular photographs and compelling essays by such notables as Harvard-based anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis, archaeologist and writer Brian Fagan, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis, reveal how people define themselves, their cultures, and their worlds. And an exhaustive reference list of hundreds of cultures worldwide will help readers place ethnic groups in the most remote corners of the globe. Extensive, specially commissioned maps detail the topography and help explain how people develop culture in response to their environments. In thought-provoking text, these experts not only examine the diversity of these cultures and the regions that produced them but also the notion of ethnicity itself--its impact on history; the effects of immigration on ethnic identity; and the threats facing many of these marginal cultures. Peoples of the World is a groundbreaking and fascinating book that reveals the true diversity of humankind.