Wayland Atlas of Threatened Cultures

'Culture' in this title means 'the traditional way of life of indigenous people' and the purpose of the atlas is to describe groups of people whose way of life is based on the lands where they live but is threatened by unrelated pressures from neighbours and incomers. Faced with this enormous brief the atlas sensibly confines itself to outlining the basic principles of culture-threat and selecting illustrative examples for its global examination. 503 different threatened groups are identified and, continent by continent, the maps show where they live while the pictures show what they look like and some detail about how they live. Traditional lifestyles and their evolutionary backgrounds are examined and current threat-trends analysed. This makes for depressing reading as throughout the threat-lists, the expected erosion of land-rights, timber and mineral extraction, military activity, environmental pollution, ranching and introduced disease keep recurring. Less expectedly (and more even-handedly) the atlas also brings to our notice the 'benign' threats posed by missionaries, tourism, environmental pressure groups and the 'sedentarization' of nomads. Here is a book with the potential to open a lot of eyes to the nature and diversity of culture-threat, to which it acts as a highly picturesque primer. A perceptive and wide-ranging materiography further increases the value of this atlas, which should be regarded as an essential acquisition for school libraries and (where they still exist) their support services.