Indigenous Studies

From Argentina to Zimbabwe, the industrialized world's encroachment on native lands has brought disastrous environmental harm to indigenous peoples. More than 170 native peoples around the world are facing life-and-death struggles to maintain environments threatened by oil spills, explosions, toxic chemicals, global warming, and other pollutants. This unique resource surveys those indigenous peoples and the environmental hazards that threaten their existence, providing a wealth of information not readily available elsewhere. Arranged geographically, each entry focuses on the peoples of a particular country and the environmental issues they face, from the global warming and toxic chemicals threatening the Arctic Inuits, to the logging that is devastating indigenous habitats in Borneo. General entries overview such topics as climate change, dam sites, and Native American Concepts of Ecology. The 'Guide to Related Topics' and index provide access to recurring themes such as deforestation, hydroelectric power, mining, and land tenure.

"Political and cultural changes throughout the world in recent years - caused by the breakdown of empires, new alliances, and demands for independence or autonomy - have created a need for reliable information on the many and diverse peoples and ethnic groups involved. Never before has the study of peoples and cultures been as popular as it is today. And never before have the names of so many "unknown" groups of peoples been discussed in the media." "The Encyclopedia of the Peoples of the World allows us to examine the ethnic infrastructure underlying economic, social, and political change. It is essential for assessing the news intelligently and becoming more aware of the cultures that surround us." "Edited and written by a distinguished team of international scholars, the encyclopedia contains more than 2,000 alphabetical entries on all peoples and ethnic groups of the world. Each entry includes the common, indigenous, or self-designated name of the group; geographical location; population; language; religion; and history when relevant or known." "The concise and clearly written entries are supplemented with 250 black-and-white maps and 48 pages of color illustrations. Many of the maps pinpoint little-known peoples and groups located in areas that do not correspond to official state boundaries. The maps are an invaluable tool for comparing neighboring ethnic groups and locating peoples who have been made famous by the evening news. The color illustrations and photographs represent culture, costume, environment, art, architecture, and people, and are spread throughout the book."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This work examines the world's indigenous peoples, their cultures, the countries in which they reside, and the issues that impact these groups.

This volume explores the complexity, vibrancy, and contemporaneity of indigenous cultures today. It understands the concept of "Comparative Indigenous Studies" in such a transnational and interdisciplinary sense. It links indigenous communities in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. Bringing together scholars from the humanities and social sciences, from law, economics, cultural geography, and medicine, this book highlights the ways in which indigenous cultures have resisted, time and again, the myth of their own disappearance.

Sources and Methods in Indigenous Studies is a synthesis of changes and innovations in methodologies in Indigenous Studies, focusing on sources over a broad chronological and geographical range. Written by a group of highly respected Indigenous Studies scholars from across an array of disciplines, this collection offers insight into the methodological approaches contributors take to research, and how these methods have developed in recent years. The book has a two-part structure that looks, firstly, at the theoretical and disciplinary movement of Indigenous Studies within history, literature, anthropology, and the social sciences. Chapters in this section reveal that, while engaging with other disciplines, Indigenous Studies has forged its own intellectual path by borrowing and innovating from other fields. In part two, the book examines the many different areas with which sources for indigenous history have been engaged, including the importance of family, gender, feminism, and sexuality, as well as various elements of expressive culture such as material culture, literature, and museums. Together, the chapters offer readers an overview of the dynamic state of the field in Indigenous Studies. This book shines a spotlight on the ways in which scholarship is transforming Indigenous Studies in methodologically innovative and exciting ways, and will be essential reading for students and scholars in the field.