Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Tigray
The Tigray are the largest ethnic group in the Ethiopian province of Tigray and in the Eritrean nation. The Tigray have not been as thoroughly studied as their culturally similar neighbors, the Amhara, with whom they share an "imperial"...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Samaritans
The Samaritans are a sect numbering about 500 who currently reside in Nablus, on the west bank of the Jordan River in Israeli-occupied Jordan, and in Holon, south of Tel Aviv, on the Mediterranean coast of Israel. The Samaritans call...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Sakalava
The Sakalava inhabit an expansive region of Madagascar; their territory today encompasses nearly all of the west coast of this large Indian Ocean island. "Sakalava" is a compound term meaning "the long valleys" or "rivers." A noun as...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Pokot
During the colonial period, the Pokot were called "Suk" by Europeans. To some Pokot, the older designation is a reminder of an era in which Africans lacked the power to name themselves; to others, it represents the clever ruse of a...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Persians
Persians are an ethnic group defined primarily by language and location. The Persian language, also known as Farsi, which linguists classify in the Indo-Iranian Branch of the Indo-European Language Family, had about 23 million speakers...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Peripatetics of the Maghreb
Very little is known of peripatetic communities in the Maghreb. It is known, however, that in Morocco the Bez Carne were known to others as Beni Bacchar and consisted of four subgroups. The community that called itself Romani was known...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Rukuba
The Rukuba live in central Nigeria, on the High Plateau at some 30 kilometers west of the town of Jos, capital of Plateau State. They are one among the numerous small groups inhabiting the region. These groups are, by African standards,...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Qizilbash
The Qizilbash were formed out of several Turkish Shia groups that were living in northwest Persia (Azerbaijan) in the fifteenth century. These groups were oppressed by the Osmanli Turks in the early years of the Ottoman Empire. Shaykh...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Qashqa'i
The Qashqa'i are tribally organized, Turkic-speaking, nomadic pastoralists and agriculturists who live in southwestern Iran. They are Shia Muslims, unlike most of Iran's other minorities, who are either Sunni Muslims, Christians, Jews,...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Peripatetics of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Sudan, and Yemen
Most of these groups are now sedentary or semi-sedentary, and only a few are still nomadic. There is no overall system of political organization within any of these communities, but cohesion within each community is strong. In Egypt,...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Peripatetics of Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey
The data concerning Afghanistan and Iran refer to the period prior to the Saur and Islamic revolutions, respectively. It is not known whether such communities still exist in these two countries. Each existing community is primarily...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Pende
The Pende occupy a territory that extends from the banks of the Lutshima, a tributary of the Kwilu, to the Kasai. The last colonial census (1959) indicated that there were 200,000 western Pende and another 40,000 Pende in Kasai, the...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Luyia
"Abaluyia" refers to the nation, tribe, or ethnic group, Omuluyia" to an individual, and "Luluyia" to the language they speak. There are seventeen Luluyia-speaking sub-nations in Western and Nyanza provinces of Kenya. The Abaluyia are...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Lur
The Lur are found mainly in three regions of Iran -- Lorestan, Bakhtiari, and Kohkiluuyeh. Three primary languages spoken by Lur today. The traditional subsistence activity of the Lur is pastoralism; about half of the Lur population may...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Luo
The Luo live primarily within the Kenyan province of Nyanza, but several live in Tanzania and other countries. They farm the land in order for adequate food supply, they are first and foremost cattle herders. Wives keep separate houses...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Lugbara
The Lugbara people live on the plateau of the Nile -- Zaire watershed in northwestern Uganda and northeastern Zaire.
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Konso
The Konso are comprised of three groups living in southern Ethiopia; the Garati, the Takadi, and the Turo; that speak three very similar dialects. The Konso are intensive agriculturists, using animal and human manure and terracing to...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Kipsigis
Kipsigis are the southernmost and most populous of the Kalenjin peoples of Kenya. The term "Kalenjin" (lit. "I say to you") was coined in radio broadcasts and at political rallies during the late colonial period, at a time when political...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Kikuyu
The Kikuyu, a major ethnic group of Kenya, numbered about 4.4 million in 1987, accounting for about 20 percent of Kenya's population of 25 million.The Kikuyu were originally hunter-gatherers, but they gradually adopted horticultural...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Jacobites
The Jacobites, today numbering some half a million, adhere to a branch of Christianity that is most commonly known as the Jacobite church. They are to be found mostly in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey. The Jacobites were one of...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Iteso
The Iteso comprise the second-largest ethnic group in Uganda and a significant portion of the non-Bantu-speaking minority in Kenya's Western Province. For the Iteso of Kenya, there are substantial studies of social organization, social...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Jews, Arabic Speaking Settlements
Throughout their history, the vast majority of Jews have lived in large cities and market towns. They lived in neighborhoods that were largely Jewish, but in most cities they had neighbors who adhered to other religions. Preference was...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Hazara
Most Hazara live in central Afghanistan in an area known as the Hazarajat. Others live in areas north of the Hindu Kush. The Hazarajat and other Hazara territories are mountainous. The climate is severe in winter, with heavy snowfall;...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Ganda
The Ganda are a group of people who live in the province of Buganda in Uganda. The Ganda are primarily an agricultural society; their staple crops are bananas and yams. Cotton was introduced as a market crop early in the twentieth...