The publication of Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas in 1967 marked the first time that descriptive information on the peoples of the world—primitive, historical, and contemporary—had been systematically organized for the purposes of comparative research. In this volume, Murdock has completely revised this work, selecting 563 societies that are most fully and accurately described in ethnographic literature. The identification of each society gives its geographical coordinates and date, its identifying number in the Ethnographic Atlas, and an indication of whether it is included in the Human Relations Area Files or the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. In addition, bibliographical references are offered for each society. The information and suggested research techniques will be of value to comparativists in anthropology, history, political science, psychology and sociology. Most importantly, it offers a simple method fro choosing a valid sample of the world's known societies for cross-cultural research.

The tribals contribute a share of about eight per cent population of the country s population and spread over about 1/5 part of the country s land with 500 different tribal groups having special cultural traits and identity. Keeping in view the importance of ethnography of every tribal group, there is a gap in literature. This was a voluminous work, so I have decided to work on major tribal groups residing in different parts of the country.

Newly available in paper, the Atlas of World Cultures is the ultimate resource for locating the myriad of cultures described in the ethnographic literature. The heart of the Atlas is a set of 40 maps which physically locate over 3500 groups, tribes or peoples. Through a comprehensive index and 1250 item bibliography it enables the reader to go beyond geographic location and place some of the classic literature on each of these groups. Cross-references to listings of the cultures in the Human Relations Area Files and Murdock's Outline of World Cultures provide other keys to learning more about a particular culture. The Atlas is a crucial reference and research tool. Students of anthropology, geography and other cross-cultural fields will be able to easily locate ethnic groups and use the volume as a starting point for conducting research.

"Co-operation project between the Department for Archaeology, University of Riyåad and the Institut fèur Vèolkerkunde, University of Vienna."