Michigan State University
Michigan State University: Global Edge: Kuwait: Introduction
Provides statistics, history, politics, and demographics for the Middle Eastern country of Kuwait.
Michigan State University
Michigan State University: Global Edge: Lebanon: Introduction
Provides statistics, history, politics, and demographics for the Middle Eastern country of Lebanon.
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Bedu
Provides an overview of the traditional culture and lifestyle of the Bedu, known as the Bedouin to Westerners, people of the Middle East. Gives basic facts about location, language, folklore, foods, social customs, family life,...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Multicultural America: Druze
Provides an overview of the traditional culture and lifestyle of the Druze people from the Middle East. (Note: Content is not the most current.)
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Aimaq
In western Afghanistan and far eastern Iran, "Aimaq" means "tribal people," which distinguishes the Aimaq from the nontribal population in the area, the Persians (Fariswan) and Tajiks. Most of the population of live in Afghanistan; those...
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: Chaldeans
Today the term "Chaldean" is used to refer to a branch of the Nestorian Orthodox church that became affiliated with Rome while preserving its liturgical language and ecclesiastical customs. For example, Chaldean priests, unlike their...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Luba of Shaba
The patrilineal Luba of Shaba differ in their descent system from the Eastern Luba by their culture and language, they are distinct from the Western Luba. Most live in southern Zaire. The Luba practice slash-and-burn agriculture; fields...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Lunda
"Lunda" is the most widely used English term to refer to literally hundreds of social groups whose oral histories link them in varying ways to a far-flung empire that controlled trade and tribute in much of Central Africa from the...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Mbeere
The Mbeere live in Embu District in the Eastern Province of Kenya, East Africa. The name "Mbeere" means "first," referring to their belief that they were the initial occupants of their territory. Aesthetics center on the verbal arts,...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Shilluk
The Shilluk are the most northern Nilotic-speaking people in modern Africa. Shilluk country covers approximately 320 kilometers on the west bank of the White Nile. Most of Shilluk country is open savanna and free from the annual floods...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Igbo
Igbo-speaking peoples can be divided into five geographically based subcultures: northern Igbo, southern Igbo, western Igbo, eastern Igbo, and northeastern Igbo. Each of these five can be further divided into subgroups based on specific...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Somalis
The Muslim Somalis of the Horn of Africa speak the Somali language and live in the Somali Democratic Republic (Somalia). There are also substantial numbers of Somalis in neighboring countries: the southern half of Djibouti, the eastern...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Songhay Marriage and Family
The Songhay are the fourth-largest ethnic group in Niger, West Africa. There are also considerable Songhay populations in Mali and Benin. They are closely related culturally to the Zarma. The Songhay are spread over a large area of...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Syriacs
Syriac is a branch of the Aramaic family of languages and was the lingua franca of the eastern Roman Empire at the beginning of the Christian era. It is also spoken extensively in the regions farther east. It became the language of...
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: Bamileke
Bamileke is a collective term referring to a loose agglomeration of some 100 kingdoms or chiefdoms of the eastern Grassfields in the Western Province of Cameroon. These kingdoms have similar cosmology and social and political structures;...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Bemba
The Bemba are the largest ethnic group in the Northern Province of Zambia. Seventeen or eighteen ethnic groups in this general area of Zambia comprise the Bemba-speaking peoples, and they form with the Bemba a closely related culture...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Assyrians
Ancient Assyrians were inhabitants of one the world's earliest civilizations, Mesopotamia, which began to emerge around 3500 B . C . The Assyrians invented the world's first written language and the 360-degree circle, established...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Nandi and Other Kalenjin Peoples Kinship
Nandi; about one-third of all Kalenjin and second-largest of the Kalenjin subgroups, they are geographically the most centrally located. The Kalenjin live mainly in the highland of western Kenya, although the Sebei and some Pokot are...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Nestorians
The designation "Nestorian" connotes both a religious rite and a linguistic minority, a phenomenon that is often misunderstood. Nestorians today, some 100,000 of them, have found a lasting home in the mountains of Kurdistan, the...
Other
Al bab.com: An Open Door to the Arab World
This English-language site offers information about all aspects of the Arab world, from material culture to human rights. There are also sections on minority populations living in the Arab Middle East (e.g., the Kurds). Site is entirely...
American Forum for Global Education
American Forum for Global Education: Spotlight on Muslim Identity [Pdf]
This downloadable booklet is a comprehensive teacher's guide you can use to help students' understand Muslims and their countries and cultures of origin. 100 pages include background information and teaching tips, activities and...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Multicultural America: Afghan Americans
Provides an overview of the traditional culture and lifestyle of Afghan Americans. (Note: Content is not the most current.)