| This volume, with one hundred new articles, supplements the award-winning 10-volume Encyclopedia of World Cultures, which was also organized and prepared by the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) at Yale University, and published by G. K. Hall/Macmillan Library Reference between 1991 and 1996. The volume includes three kinds of entries. One kind is an important culture that was not included, for one reason or another, in the original encyclopedia. These new cultures are located in most regions of the world, but especially in Africa and North America. For example, Rwandans and Barundi are now included. New or updated articles on cultures that have been strongly affected by recent political events are a second kind of entry here. For example, the wars in the former Yugoslavia required expansions and updates of the articles on the Bosnian Muslims, Albanians, and Serbs, and the Afghanistan war called for revisions of the articles on the Tajiks and Uzbeks. Finally, there originally were only short entries on some important cultures, including some that are of classic interest in anthropology (for example, Crow, Zulu). These have now been expanded and updated.
In preparing this supplement, we have asked for advice from many scholars and contributors. We particularly thank our advisory editors, Norma Diamond (China), Terence E. Hays (Oceania), Paul Hockings (South Asia, East and Southeast Asia), M. Marlene Martin (North America), and Johannes Wilbert (South America) for suggestions about which cultures to add, enlarge, and update, and possible authors. The cultures described here are listed alphabetically. The cultural summaries generally provide a mix of information— demographic, historical, social, economic, political, and religious. But the emphasis is on the culture, on the ways of life of the people, past and present. This is an anthropological reference work, designed for comparing the ways of life of cultures around the world. Usually the authors of the entries are anthropologists who have first-hand experience with the cultures they describe. |
