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It treats the impact of contemporary education on indigenous cultures. Filmed on location in the Indian Himalayas, it features interviews with Ladakhi people, anthropologists and educators. Using beautiful images and glimpses into other ways of thinking, the film challenges notions of cultural superiority, as sustainable ancient cultures are educated out of existence.
Awa tribe (Brazil)
Food of the Gods by
A Radical History of Plants, Drugs & Human Evolution
For the first time in paperback, the critically acclaimed counterculture manifesto by the wildly popular McKenna. "Deserves to be a modern classic on mind-altering drugs & hallucinogens."--The Washington Post.
Guns, Germs, and Steel by
"Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? In this groundbreaking book, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for history's broadest patterns. Here, at last, is a world history that really is a history of all the world's peoples, a unified narrative of human life even more intriguing and important than accounts of dinosaurs and glaciers." "A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world, and its inequalities, came to be. It is a work rich in dramatic revelations that will fascinate readers even as it challenges conventional wisdom." Taken from the book.
Indigenous knowledge systems and common people's rights by
ndigenous Knowledge (IK) is the local knowledge - knowledge that is unique to a given culture of society. IK contrasts with the international knowledge system generated by universities, research institutions and private firms. It is the information base for a society. Indigenous information systems are dynamic, and are continually influenced by internal creativity and experimentation as well as contact with external systems. One of the major lacunae in India agricultural and rural development is its relative failure to recognize the importance of IK of farm people, as a potent surface of powerful ingredient of a judiciously synthesized technology. The importance of global commitment towards the conservation of biodiversity is no longer questioned. The Global Biodiversity Strategy, for example, includes as one of is ten principles for conserving biodiversity. During the past few decades a rapidly growing set of evidence indicates a strong relationship between indigenous technical knowledge and sustainable development. Furthermore, this knowledge offers new models for development that are both ecologically and socially sound. Capitalistic approach towards exploitation of biodiversity and IK and unequal benefit sharing have raised issues of ownership of knowledge and questioning of intellectual property rights (IPR), the principal legal mechanism for protection of IK, innovation and practices. IKS and common people's rights has been explored and explained through 31 chapters focusing on (a) overall theme, (b) theoretical angles, (c) biodiversity and sustainability issues, (d) technology socialization and people's participation, and (e) people's rights and IKS.
Indigenous Organizations and Development by
Indigenous organizations are local-level institutions with a community base, such as women's groups, ethnic associations, traditional religious groups, and a wide variety of other social groups. This significant book investigates
local planning and management systems, local levels of technology use
and development, community-based systems of evaluation and capacity building, and distinct social roles of the varied groups which exist worldwide. Some chapters investigate the problems of imposition of new organizational structures on local communities, others look at the rhetoric of "empowerment" as against the reality of local decision-making. There is no other published collection which describes such a wide range of local organizations. It is of appeal to development workers as well as students and teachers of development studies, and of development management.
The Ragged Edge of the World by
For forty years Eugene Linden has explored global environmental issues in books and for publications ranging from National Geographic and Time to Foreign Affairs. Linden's diverse assignments have brought him to ragged edges of the globe, the sites where modernity, tradition, and wildlands collide. A money and ideas from the West have seeped into places like Polynesia, the Amazon, and the Arctic, Linden has witnessed dramatic transformations. Even in the Ndoki, celebrated as the most pristine and isolated rainforest in Congo, the impact of the outside world now intrudes in the form of dust blowing in from the north and loggers encroaching from all other directions.
In the Ragged Edge of the World, Linden recounts his adventures at this slippery and fast-changing frontier-Vietnam in 1971 and 1994, New Guinea and Borneo, pygmy forests and Machu Picchu, the Arctic and Antartica, Cuba and Midway Island-charting onrushing social and environmental change. An elegy for what has been lost and a celebration of those cultures resilient enough to maintain their vibrancy. Linden's new book captures the world at a turning point and offers an intimate look at creatures and cultures as they encounter and try to adapt to globalization.-- Goodreads
Tribe: endangered peoples world by
"Tribe" is about identity and belonging and the seemingly infinite ways that our species has found to make sense of the word around us. The book vividly illustrates the spiritual beliefs, concepts of beauty, home building techniques, hunting practices and every significant ritual from birth to death. Examples are drawn from nomadic reindeer hunters, the Sakha and Komi of Siberia, to the Matis of Brazil, the fishermen of the Anuta tribe in the Solomon Islands, the Akie of Tanzania, the Himalayan Adi Tribe and the Mongolian Darhad nomads. "Tribe" is an inspiring, eye-opening and sometimes poignant exploration of some of the least known people of the world.