Like a lesser Galapagos, these islands boast flora and fauna found nowhere else on Earth. Moreover, the Socotran people have their own language (which lacks a script) and distinctive culture, cuisine and architecture: neither Arabian nor African, yet strongly and distinctively Socotran. Richard Boggs spent many months in this remote and other-world

Soqotra, the largest island of Yemen's Soqotra Archipelago, is one of the most uniquely diverse places in the world. A UNESCO natural World Heritage Site, the island is home not only to birds, reptiles, and plants found nowhere else on earth, but also to a rich cultural history and the endangered Soqotri language. Within the span of a decade, this Indian Ocean archipelago went from being among the most marginalized regions of Yemen to promoted for its outstanding global value. Islands of Heritage shares Soqotrans' stories to offer the first exploration of environmental conservation, heritage production, and development in an Arab state. Examining the multiple notions of heritage in play for twenty-first-century Soqotra, Nathalie Peutz narrates how everyday Soqotrans came to assemble, defend, and mobilize their cultural and linguistic heritage. These efforts, which diverged from outsiders' focus on the island's natural heritage, ultimately added to Soqotrans' calls for political and cultural change during the Yemeni Revolution. Islands of Heritage shows that far from being merely a conservative endeavor, the protection of heritage can have profoundly transformative, even revolutionary effects. Grassroots claims to heritage can be a potent form of political engagement with the most imminent concerns of the present: human rights, globalization, democracy, and sustainability.

This book addresses the numerous national movements of ethnic groups around the world seeking independence, more self-rule, or autonomy—movements that have proliferated exponentially in the 21st century. In the last 15 years, globalization, religious radicalization, economic changes, endangered cultures and languages, cultural suppression, racial tensions, and many other factors have stimulated the emergence of autonomy and independence movements in every corner of the world—even in areas formerly considered immune to self-government demands such as South America. Researching the numerous ethnic groups seeking autonomy or independence worldwide previously required referencing many specialized publications. This book makes this difficult-to-find information available in a single volume, presented in a simple format accessible to everyone, from high school readers to scholars in advanced studies programs. The book provides an extensive update to Greenwood's Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups around the World that was published more than a decade earlier. Each ethnic group receives an alphabetically organized entry containing information such as alternate names, population figures, flag or flags, geography, history, culture, and languages. All the information readers need to understand the motivating factors behind each movement and the current situation of each ethnic group is presented in a compact summary. Fact boxes at the beginning of each entry enable students to quickly access key information, and consistent entry structure makes for easy cross-cultural comparisons.

"Secret Journeys of a Lifetime" presents 500 off-the-beaten-path travel destinations around the world that are notable for their vistas, wildlife, and historical and cultural significance.

The first field guide to the birds of this varied and fascinating region and a companion to Birds of East Africa by two of the same authors.

This advanced textbook is about Middle Eastern plants and plant ecology, presented within the wider context of the changing landscape, global climate change, and human history (particularly in relation to agriculture, conflict, and religion).

Becoming Plural combines a warm appreciation of the Sudanese people with an astute sense of the circumstances under which they live. The author documents in candid portraits the Sudanese at grass roots level, and records their hopes and fears as Sudan formally breaks into two separate states. "In July 2011, Sudan officially 'became plural' as the country split in two; the unofficial north-south divide between the Arab-dominated north and the more ethnically African south was formalized, after the people of Southern Sudan voted overwhelmingly to separate from the rest of the country. Richard Boggs lived and worked among the Sudanese for many years, first coming to Sudan as a volunteer in 1986. He has lived in both Juba and Khartoum, and shared the reality of life in Sudan with the people around him. This has enabled him to provide an intimate portrait of the characteristics and values of the Sudanese people. He conveys astutely the particular circumstances in which they live, creating a record of their hopes and fears as Sudan formally breaks into two separate states. Written during a key moment in Sudanese history, as South Sudan gained its independence in July 2011, this unique portrait contains over 100 never-before-published photographs. It brings Sudanese cultures and traditions to a Western audience.