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Book of Peoples of the World: A Guide to Cultures
As cultures and languages disappear from the Earth at a shocking rate, it becomes all the more urgent for us to know and value the world’s many ethnic identities. National Geographic’s Book of Peoples of the World propels that important quest with concern, authority, and respect. Created by a team of experts, this hands-on resource offers thorough coverage of more than 200 ethnic groups—some as obscure as the Kallawaya of the Peruvian Andes, numbering fewer than 1,000; others as widespread as the Bengalis of India, 172 million strong. We’re swept along on a global tour of beliefs, traditions, and challenges, observing the remarkable diversity of human ways as well as the shared experiences. Spectacular photographs reveal how people define themselves and their worlds. Specially commissioned maps show how human beings have developed culture in response to environment. Thought-provoking text examines not only the societies and the regions that produced them, but also the notion of ethnicity itself—its immense impact on history, the effects of immigration on cultural identity, and the threats facing many groups today. Threading through the story are the extraordinary findings of the National Geographic Society’s Genographic Project—a research initiative to catalog DNA from people around the world, decoding the great map of human migration embedded in our own genetic makeup.
At once a comprehensive reference, an appreciation of diversity, and a thoughtful look at our instinct to belong, this uplifting book explores what it means to be human and alive.
At once a comprehensive reference, an appreciation of diversity, and a thoughtful look at our instinct to belong, this uplifting book explores what it means to be human and alive.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
15 people are currently reading
616 people want to read
About the author
Wade Davis
85 books829 followersEdmund Wade Davis has been described as "a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet, and passionate defender of all of life's diversity."
An ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker, he holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. Mostly through the Harvard Botanical Museum, he spent more than three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among 15 indigenous groups in eight Latin American nations while making some 6,000 botanical collections. His work later took him to Haiti to investigate folk preparations implicated in the creation of zombies, an assignment that led to his writing Passage of Darkness (1988) and The Serpent and the Rainbow (1986), an international best seller that appeared in ten languages and was later released by Universal as a motion picture.
His other books include Penan: Voice for the Borneo Rain Forest (1990), Shadows in the Sun (1993), Nomads of the Dawn (1995), The Clouded Leopard (1998), Rainforest (1998), Light at the Edge of the World (2001), The Lost Amazon (2004), Grand Canyon (2008), Book of Peoples of the World (ed. 2008), and One River (1996), which was nominated for the 1997 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction. Into the Silence, an epic history of World War I and the early British efforts to summit Everest, was published in October, 2011. Sheets of Distant Rain will follow.
Davis is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2002 Lowell Thomas Medal (The Explorers Club) and the 2002 Lannan Foundation prize for literary nonfiction. In 2004 he was made an honorary member of the Explorers Club, one of just 20 in the hundred-year history of the club. In recent years his work has taken him to East Africa, Borneo, Nepal, Peru, Polynesia, Tibet, Mali, Benin, Togo, New Guinea, Vanuatu, and the high Arctic of Nunavut and Greenland.
A native of British Columbia, Davis, a licensed river guide, has worked as park ranger and forestry engineer and conducted ethnographic fieldwork among several indigenous societies of northern Canada. He has published 150 scientific and popular articles on subjects ranging from Haitian vodoun and Amazonian myth and religion to the global biodiversity crisis, the traditional use of psychotropic drugs, and the ethnobotany of South American Indians.
Davis has written for National Geographic, Newsweek, Premiere, Outside, Omni, Harpers, Fortune, Men's Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Natural History, Utne Reader, National Geographic Traveler, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Globe and Mail, and several other international publications.
His photographs have been featured in a number of exhibits and have been widely published, appearing in some 20 books and more than 80 magazines, journals, and newspapers. His research has been the subject of more than 700 media reports and interviews in Europe, North and South America, and the Far East, and has inspired numerous documentary films as well as three episodes of the television series The X Files.
A professional speaker for nearly 20 years, Davis has lectured at the National Geographic Society, American Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and California Academy of Sciences, as well as many other museums and some 200 universities, including Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Yale, and Stanford. He has spoken at the Aspen Institute, Bohemian Grove, Young President’s Organization, and TED Conference. His corporate clients have included Microsoft, Shell, Hallmark, Bank of Nova Scotia, MacKenzie Financials, Healthcare Association of Southern California, National Science Teachers Association, and many others.
An honorary research associate of the Institute of Economic Botany of the New York Botanical Garden, he is a fellow of the Linnean Society, the Explorers Club, and the Royal Geographical Society.
(Source: National Geographic)
An ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker, he holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. Mostly through the Harvard Botanical Museum, he spent more than three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among 15 indigenous groups in eight Latin American nations while making some 6,000 botanical collections. His work later took him to Haiti to investigate folk preparations implicated in the creation of zombies, an assignment that led to his writing Passage of Darkness (1988) and The Serpent and the Rainbow (1986), an international best seller that appeared in ten languages and was later released by Universal as a motion picture.
His other books include Penan: Voice for the Borneo Rain Forest (1990), Shadows in the Sun (1993), Nomads of the Dawn (1995), The Clouded Leopard (1998), Rainforest (1998), Light at the Edge of the World (2001), The Lost Amazon (2004), Grand Canyon (2008), Book of Peoples of the World (ed. 2008), and One River (1996), which was nominated for the 1997 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction. Into the Silence, an epic history of World War I and the early British efforts to summit Everest, was published in October, 2011. Sheets of Distant Rain will follow.
Davis is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2002 Lowell Thomas Medal (The Explorers Club) and the 2002 Lannan Foundation prize for literary nonfiction. In 2004 he was made an honorary member of the Explorers Club, one of just 20 in the hundred-year history of the club. In recent years his work has taken him to East Africa, Borneo, Nepal, Peru, Polynesia, Tibet, Mali, Benin, Togo, New Guinea, Vanuatu, and the high Arctic of Nunavut and Greenland.
A native of British Columbia, Davis, a licensed river guide, has worked as park ranger and forestry engineer and conducted ethnographic fieldwork among several indigenous societies of northern Canada. He has published 150 scientific and popular articles on subjects ranging from Haitian vodoun and Amazonian myth and religion to the global biodiversity crisis, the traditional use of psychotropic drugs, and the ethnobotany of South American Indians.
Davis has written for National Geographic, Newsweek, Premiere, Outside, Omni, Harpers, Fortune, Men's Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Natural History, Utne Reader, National Geographic Traveler, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Globe and Mail, and several other international publications.
His photographs have been featured in a number of exhibits and have been widely published, appearing in some 20 books and more than 80 magazines, journals, and newspapers. His research has been the subject of more than 700 media reports and interviews in Europe, North and South America, and the Far East, and has inspired numerous documentary films as well as three episodes of the television series The X Files.
A professional speaker for nearly 20 years, Davis has lectured at the National Geographic Society, American Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and California Academy of Sciences, as well as many other museums and some 200 universities, including Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Yale, and Stanford. He has spoken at the Aspen Institute, Bohemian Grove, Young President’s Organization, and TED Conference. His corporate clients have included Microsoft, Shell, Hallmark, Bank of Nova Scotia, MacKenzie Financials, Healthcare Association of Southern California, National Science Teachers Association, and many others.
An honorary research associate of the Institute of Economic Botany of the New York Botanical Garden, he is a fellow of the Linnean Society, the Explorers Club, and the Royal Geographical Society.
(Source: National Geographic)
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 7, 2013
A- I was on a Wade Davis kick so I checked this out…massive, huge book with lots of text and beautiful photographs (it's a National Geographic production). It gives overviews of cultures (clustering them together by region), giving some pertinent but really broad information abt the cultures. Really fascinating stuff, interesting facts. For the armchair anthropologist or armchair traveler or anyone interested in diversity or understanding the world.
March 3, 2009
I love this book. It's categorized into sections by continent and area of the world. It has information on all different kinds of ethnic groups from little tribes in tiny places in Africa to the Amish and then also bigger groups like Italians. It tells you facts and statistics about the current population in that group as well as history, traditions, language, location, religions.
And obviously, because it's published by National Geographic is has AMAZING pictures.
Definitely worth the high price. It's one of those books I will probably have on my coffee table in 30 years. Love it.
This would also be really great for anyone who is studying anthropology or any kind of social science.
And obviously, because it's published by National Geographic is has AMAZING pictures.
Definitely worth the high price. It's one of those books I will probably have on my coffee table in 30 years. Love it.
This would also be really great for anyone who is studying anthropology or any kind of social science.
October 28, 2013
Its a fantastic book for those who are having interest in people and culture, a very useful tool for getting to know how people in all different parts of the world are living their lives.
If you are a frequent traveler, the book will be of a great help as it gives an insight on what to expect before arriving to the desired destination. Its really a must have book!
If you are a frequent traveler, the book will be of a great help as it gives an insight on what to expect before arriving to the desired destination. Its really a must have book!
August 16, 2008
A production of National Geographic and up to that organization's usual quality: beautiful photos and informative (if too short) articles.
And an example of just how freakin' complex this old world of ours is.
And an example of just how freakin' complex this old world of ours is.
February 11, 2024
Great armchair anthropology book that explores cultural and linguistic roots of many of the world's cultures with archeological information slated intermittently. Obviously it would be impossible to catalog every culture, but this book does a good job of touching on some of the better known and highlighting culture and language extinction as a growing problem. Wonderful pictures and quotes throughout. I read it as a "culture-a-day" book and had a great time exploring the diversity and unity of our global family. A couple typos here and there, which always gets me a little, but otherwise a great reference book.
July 13, 2017
Very interesting - it's hard to believe there are this many ethinic groups and different languages spoken by these various peoples.
300-399-social-science
December 9, 2019305.8
March 15, 2020
Comprehensive partial inventory and overview . Entertaining, informative, well laid out and illustrated with numerous distinctive photographs and maps.
February 10, 2021
Great overview of different ethic groups in the world, describing traditional practices and how they are living today. I wish there were more included but it’s a big project.
April 10, 2012
I picked this book up because it was given to me by my dad. He is always traveling and he gave me this book as a gift (from the airport), I have an interest on the people that live around the world and how our lives can be different/the same. One of my dreams is to travel all around the world and this book helps be knowledgeable about what is out there.
This book takes you through a journey across the globe, continent by continent and then culture by culture. It really is amazing, because they describe the people as they really are and how the want to be seen not as what the media makes of them. It is how the world is through their eyes and what they do, what are milestones are in their life, traditions and etc. This was a really long book to read but it kept me reading, the amazing photography (that I expect from National Geographic) helped to.
I finished this book because, I got this book a little while after the "Geo. Challenge" and I felt disappointed in myself when I found it sooo hard! So, I thought it would be a good way to rebuild on my knowledge.
I think my dad himself should read this book because I don't think he realizes the amount of cultures out there in the world that he might not know about. And I think it would help him when he is travelling to understand other peoples perspective on things.
This book takes you through a journey across the globe, continent by continent and then culture by culture. It really is amazing, because they describe the people as they really are and how the want to be seen not as what the media makes of them. It is how the world is through their eyes and what they do, what are milestones are in their life, traditions and etc. This was a really long book to read but it kept me reading, the amazing photography (that I expect from National Geographic) helped to.
I finished this book because, I got this book a little while after the "Geo. Challenge" and I felt disappointed in myself when I found it sooo hard! So, I thought it would be a good way to rebuild on my knowledge.
I think my dad himself should read this book because I don't think he realizes the amount of cultures out there in the world that he might not know about. And I think it would help him when he is travelling to understand other peoples perspective on things.
January 30, 2010
What an excellent book!
It's full of interesting information covering 222 ethnic groups, and a variety of photographs.
The articles aren't very detailed but enough to get a basic idea about the culture, language and religion of each group. I would have liked more photographs - at least one per group.
I also found it very distressing to learn how close we are to losing so many languages (and cultures).
We have a world filled with lots of wonderful and different people, it's definitely worth checking out.
It's full of interesting information covering 222 ethnic groups, and a variety of photographs.
The articles aren't very detailed but enough to get a basic idea about the culture, language and religion of each group. I would have liked more photographs - at least one per group.
I also found it very distressing to learn how close we are to losing so many languages (and cultures).
We have a world filled with lots of wonderful and different people, it's definitely worth checking out.
November 16, 2013
I used this book in social studies to teach students about the different cultures around the world. The photographs alone tell so much about different cultures around the globe, and how they do the same things differently. This book is excellent for teaching kids about Culture and also eye opening for adults.
July 29, 2011
very informative
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews