Ethnic Groups Worldwide: A Ready Reference Handbook - Hardcover

Levinson, David H.

9781573560191: Ethnic Groups Worldwide: A Ready Reference Handbook

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1573560197 ISBN 13: 9781573560191

Publisher: Greenwood Pub Group, 1998

The arrangement of information and ease of use make this comprehensive handbook unlike any other reference source currently available on ethnic groups. Organized alphabetically by country name within four major regions, the book features a series of succinct profiles that describe the ethnic composition and ethnic relations of each country of the world. These profiles offer a quick snapshot of each ethnic.

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About the Author:

DAVID LEVINSON, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist and partner in Berkshire Reference Works. Previously, he was vice president for the Human Relations Area Files at Yale University. Levinson was editor-in-chief for the 10 volume Encyclopedia of World Cultures, senior editor (with Melvin Ember) of the Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology, author of Ethnic Relations, and coauthor (with Karen Christensen) of Global Village Companion.

From Booklist:

In an increasingly multicultural world where ethnic relations and conflict affect many people both directly and indirectly, interest in ethnic groups may well be at an all-time high. This handbook collects background and current information on ethnic groups and provides helpful analysis for users who would otherwise have to research a variety of sources to gather the same information. Author Levinson is well known in the ethnic studies area and has edited and contributed to a number of other books, including the 10-volume Encyclopedia of World Cultures (G. K. Hall, 1991^-96) and American Immigrant Cultures: Builders of a Nation (Macmillan, 1997). Levinson's description of how he chose which ethnic groups to include explains that, while neatly delineating ethnic groups is problematic, some of the criteria considered were language, religion, common history, occupational specialization, regional localization, common culture, and self-identification. When ethnic groups are known by several names, the one most common at the present time is used, with references to alternative names.

Information is divided into four sections--Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and the Americas--with each section containing description and analysis of ethnicity in each nation in that region. Each regional section begins with an introduction, bibliography of sources, and maps. The nation profiles include three categories of information. First, there is an overview of the major ethnic groups or clusters of related ethnic groups in the late 1990s. Included are indigenous groups and nonindigenous or immigrant groups. Second, there are brief descriptions of these ethnic groups, including location, population, religion, and basic economic, social, and political practices. Third, a brief analysis is given of the current state of ethnic relations in that nation. The book's introduction adds significant value by discussing topics such as ethnocentrism, stereotyping, ethnic politics, indigenous rights movements, immigration, and assimilation. The index is very detailed, allowing the user to locate, as examples, information on Croats in Sweden or Evangelical Christians in Kuwait.

Both Encyclopedia of World Cultures and the four-volume Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life [RBB My 1 98] are organized by culture group within broad geographic regions. The country-by-country approach adopted for his new title allows Levinson to provide a different perspective, highlighting relations among the various ethnic groups that share national boundaries. Although necessarily less detailed, the book's arrangement and convenient format nicely complement the multivolume sets. High-school, academic, and public libraries will find this to be a valuable resource for orientation to and education about ethnic groups and ethnicity.

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