Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 2 - Oceania - Overview pptx

David LevinsonEditor in Chief North America Oceania South Asia Europe and the Middle East East and Southeast Asia Soviet Union and China South America Middle America and the Caribbean Af

Volume 11 OCEANIA

David Levinson

Editor in Chief

North America Oceania

South Asia Europe and the Middle East East and Southeast Asia Soviet Union and China

South America

Middle America and the Caribbean

Africa Bibliography

The Encyclopedia of World Cultures was prepared under the auspices and with

the support of the Human Relations Area Files at Yale University HRAF,

the foremost international research organization in the field of cultural pology, is a not-for-profit consortium of twenty-three sponsoring members and

anthro-300 participating member institutions in twenty-five countries The HRAF

archive, established in 1949, contains nearly one million pages of information

on the cultures of the world.

Volume II OCEANIA

Terence E Hays

Volume Editor

G.K Hall & Company

NEW YORK

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Libnry ofCongress Catalog in-Publication Data

(Revised for vol 2)

Encyclopediaof world cultures

Includesbibliographicalreferences and index

Filmography: p

Contents:v. 1 NorthAmerica / Timothy 1 O'Leary,

David Levinson, volumeeditors v.2.Oceania / Terence E Hays, volume ed

ISBN 0-8161-1809-4 (v 2)

The paper usedin thispublication meets the minimumrequirements of American

National Standard for InformationSciences-Permanence ofPaper forPrinted Library

Materials ANSIZ39.48-1984 i).MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Christopher Latham

Nancy Gratton

Linda A Bennett Memphis State University Europe

Fernando Cimara Barbachano Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico City

Middle America and the Caribbean

Editorial and Production

Paul Friedrich University of Chicago Soviet Union

Cartography

Robert Sullivan

Oceania Paul Hockings University of Illinois at Chicago South and Southeast Asia

Robert V Kemper Southern Methodist University Middle America and the Caribbean Kazuko Matsuzawa

National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka East Asia

John H Middleton Yale University Africa

Timothy J O'Leary Human Relations Area Files North America

Amal Rassam Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Middle East Johannes Wilbert University of California at Los Angeles South America

vi

Steven M Albert LakPhiladelphia GeriatricCenter

JohnBarker Main

Department of Anthropology and Sociology

University of British Columbia

Vancouver, British Columbia

Canada

Kathleen Barlow MuriJ&

Department ofSociology andAnthropology

GustavusAdolphus College

Saint Peter, Minnesota

United States

Robert Borofsky Puspw

Department ofAnthropology

Hawaii Loa College

Kaneohe, Oahu, Hawaii

StateUniversity ofNewYork atStony Brook

StonyBrook, NewYork

UnitedStates

Boazi;Kiwai

Mark Busse

PapuaNewGuinea National Museum

Boroko, National Capital District

Papua New Guinea

MarjorieTuainekore Crocombe

Universityof the South Pacific

William H Davenport Santa Cna

University Museum ofArchaeology/Anthropology

Ellen E Facey Nguna

Department ofSociology and Anthropology

MountAllison University

Sackville, NewBrunswick

Canada

RichardFeinberg Anuta

Departmentof Sociology and Anthropology

Kent State University

Kent, Ohio

United States

EdwinN Ferdon,Jr Tahiti

Arizona State Museum

DepartmentofSociology andAnthropology

UniversityofSouthern Mississippi

Hattiesburg, Mississippi

United States

KarlJ Franklin Kewa

Summer Instituteof Linguistics

UkarumpaviaLae

Papua NewGuinea

Deborah Gewertz Chambri

Jane C Goodale Tian

DepartmentofAnthropology

Bryn MawrCollege

Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

UniversityofCalifornia,Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, California

Rhode Island College

Providence, Rhode Island

United States

Karl G Heider Dani

DepartmentofAnthropology

Universityof South Carolina

Columbia, SouthCarolina

United States

Gilbert Herdt Sambis

Committeeon Human Development

Pennsylvania State University

UniversityPark, Pennsylvania

University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles

LosAngeles, California

UnitedStates

David Levinson

Human Relations Area Files

NewHaven, Connecticut

NancyC Lutkehaus

Department ofAnthropology

University of Southern California

LosAngeles, California

Department ofAnthropologyand Sociology

University of British Columbia

Vancouver, BritishColumbia

Canada

David F Martin

Department of Prehistory and Anthropology

Australian National University

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

Department of Human Ecology

Cook College, RutgersUniversity

New Brunswick, New Jersey

DepartmentofSociology, Anthropology, SocialWork

EdinboroUniversity ofPennsylvania

Edinboro, Pennsylvania

United States

Philip L Newman

Department ofAnthropology

UniversityofCalifornia, Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

OhioWesleyan University

Delaware, Ohio

United States

Nicolas Peterson

Department of Prehistory and Anthropology

Australian NationalUniversity

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

Gururumba

Departmentof PrehistoryandAnthropology

Australian National University

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

Australia

RobertTonkinson

Department ofAnthropology

University of Western Australia

Nedlands, Perth, Western Australia

Peter VanArsdale

GraduateSchoolof International Studies

New YorkUniversity

New York, New York

Pennsylvania State University

University Park, Pennsylvania

United States

Michael Young

Department of Anthropology

Research School ofPacific Studies

Australian NationalUniversity

Canberra, Australian CapitalTerritory

This project beganin1987with thegoalofassemblingabasic

referencesourcethatprovidesaccurate,dear,andconcise

de-scriptions of the cultures ofthe world.Wewantedtobeas

comprehensive and authoritativeaspossible: comprehensive,

byprovidingdescriptionsof all the cultures of each region of

the worldorbydescribingarepresentativesampleof cultures

for regions where full coverage is impossible, and

authori-tativeby providing accurate descriptions of the cultures for

both the past and the present

Thepublication oftheEncyclopedia ofWorldCulturesin

thelastdecadeof the twentieth centuryisespecially timely

Thepolitical,economic, and socialchangesofthe pastfifty

yearshaveproducedaworldmorecomplexand fluid thanat

anytime inhumanhistory.Three sweeping transformations

of theworldwideculturallandscapeareespecially significant

Firstiswhatsomesocialscientists arecallingthe 'New

Diaspora"-thedispersalofculturalgroupstonewlocations

acrosstheworld.Thisdispersalaffectsallnationsandtakesa

widevarietyofforms: inEastAfricannations,the formation

of newtowns inhabitedbypeople from dozensofdifferent

ethnic groups; inMicronesiaandPolynesia,themovementof

islanders to citiesinNewZealandand the UnitedStates;in

North America,thereplacementbyAsiansandLatin

Amer-cansof Europeansasthemost numerousimmigrants;in

Eu-rope, theincreasedrelianceonworkers from the Middle East

andNorth Africa; andso on

Second, andrelatedtothisdispersal,istheinternal divi

sionofwhatwere oncesingle,unifiedculturalgroupsinto two

ormorerelativelydistinct groups.This pattern of internal

di-vision ismostdramatic amongindigenousorthirdorfourth

worldcultureswhosetraditionalways oflife have been altered

by contact with theoutside world Underlyingthis division

areboth thepopulationdispersionmentioned above and

sus-tainedcontact with theeconomically developedworld The

result is that groups whoat one time sawthemselvesandwere

seen by others as single cultural groups have been

trans-formed intotwo or moredistinctgroups.Thus,inmany

cul-tural groups,wefinddeepandprobablypermanentdivisions

betweenthose who liveinthe country and those who livein

cities,thosewhofollow the traditionalreligionand those who

have converted to Christianity, those who live inland and

those wholive on the seacoast, and those who live bymeans

of asubsistence economyandthosenowenmeshedin acash

economy

The third important transformation of the worldwide

territorial integrity on the basis of ethnic solidarity andethnic-basedclaims to theirtraditional homeland Although

most attentionhas focusedrecently on ethnic nationalisminEasternEuropeand the Soviet Union, the trendisnonethe-

lessaworldwidephenomenoninvolving, for example,

Amer-can Indian cultures in North and South America, theBasques in Spainand France, the Tamil and Sinhalese in SriLanka, and the Tutsi and Hutu in Burundi, among others

Tobe informedcitizensofourrapidly changing tural world we must understand the ways oflife of peoplefrom culturesdifferentfromour own 'We" isused here in thebroadest sense, toincludenot justscholars who study the cul-

multicul-turesofthe world andbusinesspeople andgovernment

offi-cialswho work intheworldcommunitybut also the averagecitizenwho reads orhears about multicultural events in the

newseveryday and young people who are growing up in thiscomplex cultural world For all of these people-whichmeansallofus-thereisa pressingneed for information ontheculturesoftheworld.Thisencyclopediaprovides this in-formationin twoways.First, itsdescriptions of the traditionalways of life of the world's cultures can serve as a baselineagainstwhich cultural change canbe measured andunder-stood.Second,itacquaintsthereaderwith the contemporarywaysof lifethroughoutthe world

Weareable toprovide this information largely throughthe efforts of the volumeeditors andthenearly one thousandcontributors whowrote thecultural summaries that are theheart ofthe book The contributors are social scientists (an-

thropologists, sociologists, historians, and geographers) aswell as educators, government officials, and missionaries whousually have firsthand research-based knowledge of the cul-turestheywriteabout Inmanycasesthey are the major ex-pert oroneof theleading experts on the culture, and some arethemselves membersof the cultures As experts, they are able

toprovide accurate, up-to-date information This is crucialfor many partsof the world where indigenous cultures may beoverlooked by official information seekers such as govern-mentcensustakers These experts have often lived among thepeople they writeabout,conducting participant-observationswiththem and speaking their language Thus they are able toprovide integrated, holisticdescriptions of the cultures, notjust alist of facts Their portraits ofthe cultures leave thereader witharealsenseof whatit meanstobe a'Taos" or a'Rom" or a"Sicilian."

Those summaries not written by an expert on the culturehaveusuallybeen written byaresearcher at the HumanRela-

tions AreaFiles, Inc.,workingfromprimarysource materials

xvii

The Human Relations Area Files, an international

educa-tional and researchinstitute,isrecognized by professionalsin

thesocial andbehavioral sciences,humanities,and medical

sciences as a major source of information on theculturesof

theworld

Uses of the Encyclopedia

Thisencyclopediais meant tobeusedbyavarietyofpeople

foravarietyof purposes.It canbe used bothtogainageneral

understandingofaculture andtofindaspecificpiece of

in-formationby lookingitup under the relevantsubheadingina

summary It can also be used tolearn aboutaparticular

re-gion orsubregion ofthe world and thesocial,economic, and

political forcesthathaveshapedthe cultures in that region

Theencyclopedia isalso aresourceguidethat leads readers

who want adeeperunderstandingofparticularcultures to

ad-ditionalsourcesofinformation.Resourceguidesinthe

ency-clopedia includeethnonyms listedineachsummary, which

canbe used as entry pointsintothe socialscienceliterature

where the culture may sometimes be identifiedbyadifferent

name; abibliographyatthe end ofeachsummary,which lists

booksandarticlesabouttheculture;andafilmographyatthe

end of eachvolume,whichlistsfilmsand videosonmany of

the cultures

Beyond being a basic reference resource, the

encyclope-dia also servesreaderswithmorefocusedneeds.For

research-ersinterested in comparingcultures,theencyclopediaserves

as the mostcomplete and up-to-datesampling frame from

which to select cultures forfurther study.Forthose interested

in international studies, theencyclopedia leadsonequickly

intothe relevant social science literature as wellasproviding

astate-of-the-art assessment of ourknowledgeofthe cultures

of aparticular region For curriculumdevelopersandteachers

seekingtointernationalizetheircurriculum,theencyclopedia

isitself abasicreference and educationalresource aswellas a

directorytoothermaterials Forgovernmentofficials, it is a

repository ofinformation not likely to be available in any

othersinglepublication or, in some cases, notavailableatall

Forstudents, fromhigh school through graduate school,it

provides backgroundandbibliographicinformation forterm

papers and class projects And fortravelers,itprovidesan

in-troductionintotheways oflifeoftheindigenous peoplesin

the area of the world theywillbe visiting

Format of the Encyclopedia

The encyclopedia comprises ten volumes, ordered by

geo-graphical regions of theworld.The order ofpublicationis not

meant to represent any sort ofpriority.Volumes 1 through9

contain a total of about fifteen hundred summaries along

with maps, glossaries, and indexes of alternate names for the

culturalgroups Thetenthand final volume contains

cumula-tive lists of the cultures of theworld, their alternate names,

and a bibliography ofselected publications pertaining to

those groups

North America covers the cultures ofCanada, Greenland,and

the United StatesofAmerica

Oceania covers the cultures ofAustralia,NewZealand,

Mela-nesia, MicroMela-nesia, andPolynesia.

South Asia covers the cultures ofAfghanistan, Bangladesh,

Burma, India,Pakistan,SriLanka,and theHimalayanstates

Europe and the Middle East covers the cultures of Europe,North Africa, the Middle East, and the Near East

Eastand Southeast Asia coversthe cultures of Japan, Korea,mainland and insular Southeast Asia, and Taiwan

Soviet Union and China covers the cultures ofMongolia, thePeople'sRepublicofChina,and the Union of SovietSocial-

ist Republics

South Americacovers the cultures of South America.MiddleAmerica and the Caribbean covers the cultures ofCen-

tral America, Mexico, and the Caribbean islands

Africa covers the cultures of Madagascar and sub-SaharanAfrica

Format of the Volumes

Each volume contains thispreface, an introductory essay bythe volumeeditor, the culturalsummariesranging from afew

lines toseveral pages each, maps pinpointing the location ofthecultures, a filmography,anethnonym index ofalternate

namesfor thecultures,andaglossaryofscientific and

techni-cal terms All entries are listed in alphabetical order and areextensively cross-referenced

Cultures Covered

Acentral issue in selecting cultures for coverage in theclopedia has been how to define what we mean by aculturalgroup The questions of what a cultureis and whatcriteriacan beused to classify a particular social group (such as a reli-giousgroup, ethnic group, nationality, or territorial group) as

ency-a cultural group have long perplexed social scientists andhave yetto be answered to everyone's satisfaction Two reali-ties account forwhythe questions cannot be answereddefini-tively First, a widevarietyofdifferenttypesof cultures existaround the world Among common types are nationalcul-

tures, regionalcultures, ethnic groups, indigenous societies,religious groups, and unassimilated immigrant groups Nosingle criterion ormarker of cultural uniqueness can consis-tently distinguish among the hundreds of cultures that fitinto thesegeneraltypes.Second,as noted above,singlecul-

tures orwhatwere at one timeidentifiedassingle cultures canand do vary internally over time and place Thus a markerthat mayidentify a specific group as a culture in one location

or at one time may notworkfor that cultureinanotherplace

or atanother time For example, use of the Yiddish languagewould have been a marker of Jewish cultural identity inEast-

emEurope in the nineteenth century, but it would not serve

as a marker for Jews in the twentieth-century UnitedStates,wheremost speak English Similarly, residence on one of theCookIslands in Polynesia would have been a marker of CookIslanderidentity in the eighteenth century, but notin thetwentiethcentury whentwo-thirdsof CookIslanderslive inNewZealand and elsewhere

Given these considerations, no attempt has beenmade

todevelop and use a single definition of a cultural unit or todevelop and use a fixed list of criteria foridentifyingcultural

units Instead, the task of selecting cultures was leftto thevolumeeditors,and the criteria and procedures theyusedarediscussedin their introductory essays In general, however, sixcriteria wereused, sometimes aloneandsometimesincombi-nation to classify social groups as cultural groups: (1) geo-graphicallocalization, (2) identification in the social scienceliterature as a distinct group, (3) distinct language, (4)

shared traditions, religion, folklore, orvalues, (5)

mainte-nanceofgroupidentityinthe faceofstrongassimilative

pres-sures,and (6) previouslistingin aninventory oftheworld's

cultures suchasEthnographicAtlas (Murdock 1967) orthe

Outline ofWorld Cultures (Murdock 1983).

Ingeneral,we have been bumperss" rather than

"split-ters"inwritingthesummaries.That is, if thereissome

ques-tionaboutwhether aparticulargroup isreallyonecultureor

tworelated cultures,wehave moreoftenthannottreatedit as

asingleculture, with internaldifferencesnoted inthe

sum-mary Similarly, we have sometimes chosen to describe a

number ofvery similarcultures in a singlesummary rather

than in aseries of summaries that would bemostly

redun-dant There is,however,some variation fromone regionto

anotherin thisapproach,andthe rationale for each region is

discussedinthe volume editor'sessay

Twocategories of cultures areusuallynotcoveredinthe

encyclopedia First, extinct cultures, especially those that

have notexistedasdistinctcultural units forsometime,are

usually not described Cultural extinction is often, though

certainly not always, indicated by thedisappearance of the

culture's language So, for example,theAztec are not

cov-ered,althoughlivingdescendantsof theAztec, the

Nahuat-speakersofcentral Mexico, aredescribed.

Second,thewaysof life ofimmigrant groupsareusually

notdescribedinmuchdetail,unlessthere isalonghistory of

resistance to assimilation and the group has maintained its

distinctidentity,ashavethe AmishinNorthAmerica.These

cultures are,however, described in the location where they

traditionally livedand,forthe most part, continuetolive,and

migration patterns are noted For example, the Hmongin

Laos aredescribedinthe SoutheastAsiavolume,but the

ref-ugee communities in the United Statesand Canadaare

cov-ered only inthe generalsummaries on SoutheastAsiansin

those twocountriesintheNorthAmericavolume.Although

it would beidealtoprovide descriptionsofalltheimmigrant

culturesor communities oftheworld,thatisanundertaking

wellbeyond thescope of thisencyclopedia,for thereare

prob-ablymorethan fivethousandsuch communities in theworld

Finally, itshould be notedthatnotall nationalities are

covered, onlythose that are alsodistinct culturesaswellas

politicalentities Forexample,the Vietnamese and Burmese

are includedbutIndians (citizensof the RepublicofIndia)

are not, becausethelatterisa politicalentitymadeup ofa

great mix of cultural groups Inthe case of nations whose

populationsincludeanumber ofdifferent,relatively

unassim-dated groups orcultural regions, each of the groups is

de-scribedseparately Forexample,thereis nosummary for

Ital-ians as such inthe Europevolume,but therearesummares

for the regionalculturesofItaly, such as theTuscans,

Sicil-ians, and TyrolSicil-ians, and other cultures such as the Sind

Piedmontese

Cultural Summaries

The heart of thisencyclopediaisthedescriptive summaries of

the cultures, which range froma fewlinestofiveorsixpages

in length They provide a mix of demographic,historical,

so-cial, economic, political, and religious information on the

cultures Their emphasis or flavor is cultural; that is, they

focus on the ways of life of the people-both past and

present-and the factors that have caused the culture to

changeovertime and place

A key issue has been how to decide which culturesshould be described by longer summaries and which byshorter ones.Thisdecision was madeby thevolumeeditors,whohad to balance a number ofintellectual andpracticalconsiderations.Again, therationalefor thesedecisionsis dis-

cussedintheiressays But among the factorsthatweresidered by all the editors were the total number of cultures intheir region,theavailabilityofexperts to writesummaries,the

con-availabilityof information onthecultures, thedegreeof

simi-laritybetweencultures,and the importance of a culture in ascientific orpoliticalsense

TMe summary authors followed astandardizedoutline so

that eachsummaryprovides informationon acore list ics Theauthors,however, hadsome leeway indeciding how

oftop-much attention was to begiven each topic and whether tional information should be included Summaries usuallyprovide informationonthe following topics:

addi-CULTURE NAME: Thenameusedmostoftenin the socialscienceliterature torefertotheculture or the name the groupuses for itself

ETHNONYMS: Alternatenames for theculture includingnamesused byoutsiders, the self-name, and alternate spell-ings,withinreasonablelimits

ORIENTATIONIdentification Location of the culture and the derivation ofits name and ethnonyms

Location Where the culture is located and adescriptionofthephysical environment

Demography. Population historyand the most recent

reli-able population figuresorestimates

inguistic Affiliation The name of the language spokenand/or written by the culture, its place in aninternationallanguage classification system,andinternal variationin lan-guage use

HISTORYAND CULTURALRELATIONS: Atracing

of theorigins andhistoryof the culture and the past and rentnature ofrelationshipswithother groups

cur-SE9LLEMENTS:Thelocation of settlements, typesof

set-tlements,types ofstructures, housingdesignand materials.ECONOMY

Subsistenceand CounmercialActivities Theprimaryodsof obtaining, consuming, anddistributingmoney, food,and othernecessities

meth-Industrial Arts Implements and objects produced by theculture either for its own use or for sale or trade

Trade Products traded and patterns of trade with othergroups

Division ofLabor How basic economic tasks are assigned byage, sex, ability, occupational specialization, or status.Land Tenure Rules and practices concerning the allocation

ofland and land-use rights to members of the culture and tooutsiders

KINSHIP

KinGroups and Descent Rules and practices concerning

kin-based featuresofsocial organizationsuchaslineages andclans andalliances between these groups

Kinship Terminology. Classificationof thekinship nological system on the basis of either cousin terms or genera-

termi-don, and information about any unique aspects of kinship

terminology

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY

Marriage Rules and practices concerningreasonsfor

mar-riage, types of marmar-riage, economic aspects of marmar-riage,

postmaritalresidence, divorce, and remarriage

Domestic Unit Description ofthebasic householdunit

in-cludingtype, size, and composition

Inheritance.Rulesand practices concerningthe inheritance

of property

Socialization Rules and practices concerning child rearing

including caretakers, values inculcated,child-rearing

meth-ods, initiation rites, and education

SOCIOPOLITICAL ORGANIZATION

SocialOrganization.Rules and practices concerning the

in-ternal organization of theculture, includingsocial status,

pri-maryandsecondarygroups, and social stratification

PoliticalOrganiation.Rules and practices concerning

lead-ership, politics, governmental organizations, and decision

making

Social ControL The sourcesofconflictwithin the culture

and informal and formal social control mechanisms

Conflict.Thesourcesofconflict with other groups and

infor-mal andformalmeansofresolving conflicts

RELIGION ANDEXPRESSIVE CULTURE

Religious Beliefs. Thenature ofreligious beliefs including

beliefsinsupernaturalentities, traditionalbeliefs,andthe

ef-fects of major religions

ReligiousPractitioners.Thetypes,sourcesofpower, and

ac-tivities ofreligiousspecialists suchasshamans and priests

Ceremonies The nature, type, and frequency ofreligious

andotherceremoniesand rites

Arts.Thenature, types, andcharacteristicsofartistic

activi-ties including literature, music, dance, carving, andso on

Medicine.Thenatureof traditional medical beliefs and

prac-ticesand the influence ofscientific medicine

DeathandAfterlife.Thenatureof beliefsand practices

con-cerningdeath, thedeceased, funerals, and the afterlife

BIBLIOGRAPHY:Aselectedlist ofpublicationsabout the

culture The listusually includes publications that describe

both thetraditional and the contemporary culture

AUTHOR'SNAME:The name ofthesummary author

Maps

Each regionalvolumecontains mapspinpointingthe current

locationof the cultures described inthatvolume The first

map ineachvolumeisusuallyan overview,showingthe

coun-tries inthatregion Theothermaps providemore detailby

marking the locations of the cultures in four or five

subregions

Filmography

Each volumecontains a list of films and videos about cultures

coveredinthatvolume This listisprovidedas a serviceand

in no wayindicatesanendorsementbytheeditor,volume

ed-itor, orthesummary authors Addresses of distributors are

providedsothatinformationaboutavailabilityand prices can

be readilyobtained

Ethnonym Index

Each volume contains an ethnonym index for the culturescovered inthat volume As mentioned above, ethnonyms arealternative names for the culture-that is, names differentfrom those used here as the summary headings Ethnonymsmay bealternativespellings of the culture name, a totally dif-ferentnameused by outsiders, a name used in the past but nolonger used, or the name in another language It is not un-

usualthat some ethnonyms are considered degrading and sulting by the people to whom they refer These names may

in-nevertheless beincluded here because they do identify thegroupand may help some users locate the summary or addi-tional information on the culture in other sources Eth-nonymsarecross-referenced to the culture name in the index

Glossary

Each volume contains a glossary of technical andscientificterms found in the summaries Both general social sciencetermsand region-specific terms are included

Special Considerations

In a project of this magnitude, decisions had to be madeabout the handling of some information that cannot easily bestandardized for all areas of the world The two mosttrouble-some matters concerned population figures and units ofmeasure

Population Figures

Wehavetried to be asup-to-dateand as accurate aspossible

inreportingpopulation figures This is no easy task, as somegroupsarenotcountedinofficial government censuses, somegroups arevery likely undercounted, and insomecases thedefinitionof a cultural group used by the census takers differsfrom the definition we have used In general, we have relied

on population figures supplied by the summary authors.When other population data sources have been used in a vol-ume,they are so noted by the volume editor If the reportedfigure is from anearlier date-say, the 1970s-it is usuallybecause it is the most accurate figure that could befound

Units of Measure

In aninternational encyclopedia, editors encounter the

prob-lemof how to report distances, units of space, and ture Inmuch of the world, the metric system is used, but sci-entists preferthe International System of Units (similar tothe metric system), and in Great Britain and North Americathe English system is usuallyused We decided to use Englishmeasures inthe North America volume and metric measures

tempera-in the other volumes Each volume contains a conversion

table.

Acknowledgments

In a project of this size, there are many people toacknowledgeand thank for their contributions In its planning stages,members of the research staff ofthe Human Relations AreaFilesprovided many usefulideas These included Timothy 1.O'Leary,Marlene Martin,JohnBeierle,Gerald Reid, DeloresWalters, Richard Wagner, and Christopher Latham The ad-visoryeditors, of course,alsoplayedamajor roleinplanning

the project,and not justfor theirownvolumes but also for

the projectas awhole.Timothy O'Leary,TerenceHays,and

PaulHockingsdeservespecial thanksfortheircomments on

this preface and the glossary, asdoes Melvin Ember,

presi-dentof the Human RelationsAreaFiles.Members of the of

fice andtechnical staff alsomustbe thanked forsoquickly

andcarefullyattendingtothemanytasksaprojectof thissize

inevitably generates They are Erlinda Maramba, Abraham

Maramba, Victoria Crocco, Nancy Gratton, and Douglas

Black AtG K.HaLl, theencyclopediahas benefited from the

wise and careful editorial management of Elizabeth Kubik

and Elizabeth Holthaus, theeditorialand production

man-agement of Michael SimsandAraSalibian, andthe

market-ing skillsofLinda May andLisa Pemstein Finally, Iwould

liketothankMelvin Emberand theboardof directors ofthe

Human Relations AreaFilesfortheiradministrative and

in-tellectual support for this project

DAVID LEVINSON

ReferencesMurdock, George Peter (1967) Ethnographic Atlas Pitts-

burgh, Penn., UniversityofPittsburghPress

Murdock, George Peter (1983) Outline of World Cultures

6th rev ed New Haven, Conn Human Relations Area Files