| Description: |
Emphasizes the interaction across cultures and the movement of peoples, ideas, goods, and customs that have produced the complex multicultural world of the 21st century. This encyclopedia covers the cultures of the world from the perspectives of modern world history, cultural anthropology, and human geography. |
| Synopsis: |
This new encyclopedia, edited by anthropologist David Levinson, "Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of World Cultures" and author of "Ethnic Groups Worldwide", emphasizes the interaction across cultures and the movement of peoples, ideas, goods, and customs that have produced the complex multicultural world of the 21st century. This complexity is a significant feature of global politics and economy today. This encyclopedia is interdisciplinary and draws upon knowledge from cultural anthropology, archaeology, geography, history, regional studies, religious studies, demography, and other fields of inquiry. It is closely linked to, and a companion to and extension of Berkshire Publishing's award-winning "Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History" which takes a processual, interactionist view of world history.What World History does for history, World Cultures does for cultures, past and present. The encyclopedia is also interactive and is meant to draw readers into the cultures and processes they read about. It is interactive in two ways.First, it provides detailed instructions for over 100 projects that allow readers and others and others to experience first-hand the ways of life of other peoples around the world. Second, it provides extracts of primary text from ethnography, indigenous and minority writers, government documents, and religious texts. It contains 600 articles, 400 sidebars of primary text, 400 illustrations and photographs, 100 original and historical maps and four appendices. The articles cover six general topics: Concepts and Theories; Movement of people, goods, and ideas; Profiles of major ethnic conflicts; Descriptions of cultures around the world; Religion; and Communication. |