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Ian S. McIntosh

Australian Apocalypse. The Story of Australia's Greatest Cultural Monument by Robert Bednarik

Australian Apocalypse. The Story of Australia’s Greatest Cultural Monument

By Robert Bednarik

Melbourne: Occasional AURA Publication No. 14. Australian Rock Art Research Association Inc., 2006.

ISBN 0-9586802-2-1

Reviewed by Ian S. McIntosh

A Museum for the Americas

On September 21, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), the first U.S. national museum dedicated exclusively to Native Americans, opened on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Festivities included a procession of more than 11,000 American Indians in traditional regalia, a dedication ceremony, a marketplace featuring Native-made arts and crafts, and an evening concert with Cree singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, as well as traditional music ranging from throat singing to Hawaiian chants.

Established in 1989 through an act of the U.S.

Seeking Environmental and Social Justice

An interesting new volume from the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) spotlights environmental advocacy within the world’s 11 major faiths in 60 countries to convey a simple but powerful message: Through storytelling, celebration, practice, spiritual guidance, community activism, and advocacy worldwide, faith groups can be powerful and effective partners in conservation.In the 2004 World Bank report, Faith in Conservation: New Approaches to Religions and the Environment, authors Martin Palmer and Victoria Finlay describe the manner in which ARC works to help the major faiths

Seeking the Shaman

In this issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly, readers are introduced to the extraordinary category of people who have come to be known as “shaman”—those otherworldly men and women chosen by the spirits to mediate between the human and spiritual dimensions. In a collection of papers from numerous settings assembled by anthropologist Michael Winkelman, shamanism’s universal features become apparent, including the characteristics of the elusive practitioners who have the power to negotiate life and death in some communities.

U.N. Spotlights Indigenous Youth

The hallmark of Cultural Survival’s work in the international indigenous rights arena over the past 31 years has been the depth and diversity of our programming. The problems faced by the world’s indigenous peoples are of such gravity and scope that we decided early on that a multi-faceted approach, bringing to bear the expertise of scholars and specialists from all walks of life, was warranted.

Review: In the Arms of Africa: The Life of Colin Turnbull

In the Arms of Africa: The Life ofColin Turnbull

By Roy Richard Grinker

University of California Press 2001

ISBN 0-226-30904-5

Reviewed by Ian S. McIntosh

Review:World Directory of Minorities

The vast majority of violent conflict in the world occurs not between states but between majority and minority groups within states–peoples polarized by ethnic and religious divides. There is an urgent need for more dialogue on minority rights issues, and it is absolutely essential that accurate, objective, and up-to-date information is available on the 10 percent to 20 percent of the world's population who self-identify as minorities. The World Directory of Minorities, published by the internationally renowned London-based Minority Rights Group, meets this need.

Turkey and Armenia:<br>Is There Any Other Solution Than Dialogue?

Dialogue Across an International
Divide: Essays Towards a Turkish
Armenian Dialogue
By Taner Akcam
Zoryan Institute 2001
ISBN 1-895485-03-7

 

“It is absolutely necessary to eliminate the Armenian people in its entirety, so that there is no further Armenian on this earth and the very concept of Armenia is extinguished.”
—Turkish Committee of Union and Progress, 1915

Review: People, Nation and State: The Meaning of Ethnicity and Nationalism

Enlightenment thinking prioritized the interests of humanity over the interests of nations. Immanuel Kant, for example, envisioned a future federation of free states bound by laws of universal hospitality where a violation of rights in one part was felt everywhere. But, at the beginning of the 21st century, are we any closer to overcoming the narrow confines of national self-interest and achieving a universal cosmopolitan existence where members renounce patriotism and nationalism and defend universal values as opposed to national ones?

A Conditional Coexistence:Yezidi in Armenia

In August 2001 the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) held a conference in Armenia on the practical implementation of the European Convention on the Protection of National Minorities. A series of recommendations was issued, including one to amend the Armenian constitution to make it correspond with the terms and conditions of the European convention and other international norms regarding the involvement of minorities in state institutions. The impact was negligible. In the Republic of Armenia’s 2002 periodic report to the U.N.

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