Foreign Cultures

("Foreign" meaning non-American, of course.) This is where I've put links to various cultures that aren't my own. This is for information on the cultures and the peoples themselves, rather than on their histories; those are found in the History section, below.

The Web is, still, largely an American phenomenon, but every day that grows increasingly untrue, and that's all to the good. The more information out there by non-Americans, on non-American topics, the better; the average computer geek just doesn't know that much about his own culture, much less anybody else's.

Aboriginal

Okay, I know the term "aboriginal" has a certain pejorative baggage, but, honestly, what else can I call this section?
 

Aboriginal Connections Yahoo, but for Aboriginal web sites--"an indigenous peoples' web directory."

* Aboriginal Studies WWW VL From the WWW Virtual Library, so of course you know it's going to be good.

American Southwest Info Pictures of and essays about the American southwest.
Ancient MesoAmerican Studies Essays and links on the Maya, Mixtec, Zapotec, and Aztec.
Ancient Middle America Links and essays and other such stuff on the prehistoric cultures of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.
Animals, Myths and Legends Stories and fables from ancient aboriginal cultures.

Bill's Aboriginal Links A list of links on various aboriginal cultures and issues.

* Center for World Indigenous Studies Home Page Documents by and about the Fourth World.

Comanche Lodge Do have any idea how hard it is to find information on the Comanche? They are a culture that most everyone has heard of, but about which surprisingly little is known, or easy to find out about. This is as good a site as I've found for information on the Comanches' past and present.
Dr. Tom's Homepage Four essays on the Comanche, Pawneee, and the Ghost Dance.
* First Nation Information Project The start page to a very handy guide to the First Nations of Canada. (What? Native Americans in Canada? Yes, hard though it may be for us stupid Americans to believe, there are in fact a good many Native Americans in Canada, too.)
* First Nations Site Index A superlative site on First Nations and First Peoples. Not only are there many dozen links to a wide variety of pages on the First Nations, but there are 49 essays on the histories and cultures of individual Nations/Peoples. Maybe the best site for information on the First Nations.

The Illini Confederation A medium/long-length essay on the history and culture of the Illini Confederation.

Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mesoamerica Not exactly thorough--each letter seems to average 3-4 entries--but the entries themselves are long, rather than short. A good start.
Mesoamerican Governments A long page of short/medium-length essays on the governments of various MesoAmerican cultures.
Moundbuilders - North Georgia's Early Inhabitants A short essay, with two illustrations, on the Moundbuilder culture of NW Georgia.
Native American Indian Resources More links.
Native American Links Despite a really, really ill-advised coloring scheme that makes this page hard to read, it's still worth struggling through, as there are some very good links here.

* The Native American Nations of the Black Mesa Region The Black Mesa region being an area in Northeastern Arizona; it was the home of the Hopi and Navajo nations. This is a very thorough guide to their histories and cultures.

Native American Timeline A timeline and a bunch of links to Native American sites.

Native Language Sites For Cherokee and Hawaiian, although they are in the process of adding more.

Native Languages I really hate the layout and color scheme they have here, but they do have some good sites, too.

Native People's Languages Many links on First Peoples' languages.

* NativeWeb - an Internet Community A great site for resources for indigenous cultures.

Reconstructing Maya and Zapotec Political Structure A short/medium-length essay on the Maya & Zapotec gvts, with links to a few other related sites.
Symbols of the Native Northwest Culture An interesting guide to the symbolism of various animals in the art of the First Nations of the Northwest.
Vicnet Database Server Databases and links for Australian First Peoples.

Africa

Africabib Two good bibliographic databases on Africa

* Africanet A big site of 800 pages on 27 countries.

* Africa - Journals Links to several dozen journals on Africa, ranging from the Arid Lands Newsletter (devoted to combatting desertification) to the Alem Mar (articles of Portuguese missionairies who worked in Africa). If you're looking for information on Africa, this is a great place to go.
* Africa - Politics & Government Links to several dozen sites on the politics and governments of various African nations - some scholarly, some popular. Like Africa - Journals (this site is run by Stanford, just like that one), an invaluable resource for information on Africa.
* Africa South of the Sahara Another site from Stanford, this one giving links by region/country - and not just plain information links, either - everything from culture to news to weatherr, and everything in-between.

* ArabNet A large array of resources on 22 countries.

The Baobab Project The start page of an effort, by Harvard's Department of Fine Arts, to "make African visual culture available to a broader audience." Essays, images, and links, with historical as well as cultural information.

* Country-Specific Pages for Africa 55 pages of countries & Web links on them.

* Current Events - Countries Another site from Stanford, this one providing news links by country/region. Very thorough, and very useful.
CultureNet Home Page From the Egyptian government's site. Information on Egypt's culture: Ancient, Coptic, Islamic, and Modern, with links to archaeological sites and museums.
* Egypt WWW Index An enormous array of links on everything Egypt-related.
* Encyclopaedia of the Orient An outstanding resource; an online encyclopedia on the countries of the Near East.
NEW Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies An interesting journal with some interesting content.

Hizmet-Books Page on Islam E-text editions of books on Muslim dogma/theology. Be warned, though: the site is run by an ideologue, so there are some links and text here that are bigoted and likely to offend.

Middle East & North Africa Internet Resource Guide Lots and lots of links on nations and cultures of the Middle East and of Saharan and Mediterranean Africa. A cursory use of the site revealed more dead links than it should have, though.

NUL - Africana Collection From Northwestern University's Library of African Studies.

* Peoples Resources Information on over 100 African peoples. Very thorough and useful.

Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia The embassy's web page.
* Welcome to Africa Online A kind of CNN for Africa, it's got not only links to various countries, but also news, finance, sports, etc - the same sort of thing that CNN does for the US.

Asia

* Asian Studies WWW VL Another good site from the WWW Virtual Library, with loads and loads of links, broken down by country.

China News Daily Index The online index and site of the very good newspaper China News Daily.

Chinese Culture Online Library An online guide to current Chinese culture. The interface is a bit odd, with the framed menu on the left not indicating that what you're clicking on are actually links, but the information and links you (eventually) find is worth it. Note: Currently under construction, dadgummit.

* The Chinese Empire From the whizzo World Cultures page.

The Forbidden City A tour, with pictures, of the Forbidden City.

Grappling with the Korean Persona: A Cultural Profile An interesting essay on the Korean national character; I can't vouch for its veracity, and of course it's a huge generalization, but it's interesting nonetheless.

* India World An excellent site on India, with links, articles, news, and much more.

* India WWW Virtual Library The WWW Virtual Library's site on India, and so of course worth looking at.

* Interactive Central Asia Resource Project (ICARP) - Central Asia From the good folks at the WWW Virtual Library. Very nice--thorough information on Central Asia.

Japanese Aesthetics An interesting, long essay on Japanese art, aesthetics, and the tea ceremony.

Japanese Culture Page. aka A Guide to Japanese Culture For Roleplaying Games. Which may sound strange, but as I mentioned elsewhere on this site, roleplayers can often be the source of good information, and such is the case here.

Japan Home Page Maps and articles on Japan.

Japan links The page from a course, taught at Brown University, on the economic history of Japan. Click on the Links link to the left of the page.

Japan Times Online The web site of the newspaper Japan Times.

Japanorama - Japanese Culture More links on Japanese culture, history, government, etc.

* J-Guide: Japanese History and Culture Japan links from the WWW Virtual Library. Unfortunately down at the moment, but I trust it will return.

Kabuki From the World Cultures site, so you know it's good. Essays and links on the Japanese theatre of kabuki.
The Korean Judge A neat, short/medium essay on the role of the judge in traditional Korean culture.
Lonely Planet -- Destination: India The Lonely Planet site on India; both entertaining and informative.

Mongolia Online The English version of a good Mongolian site. Cultural information as well as news headlines.

The Mumbai Pages A site giving a tour of Mumbai/Bombay, a picture gallery, information on its geography and history.

Oriental Institute WWW Homepage The home page of the University of Chicago's excellent Oriental Institute, with links and images.

Russian and East European Links. A good, large set of links.

The Tibetan-English-Dictionary of Buddhist Teaching & Practice A useful dictionary on Buddhism, included here for its coverage Buddhist and Tibetan culture.

Turkic Republics and Communities A links site to Turkic communities and republics in Azerbaijan, Bashkiria (in Russia), Chuvashya (in Russia), the Crimea, Daghestan (in Russia), Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang Uygur Region in China), Gagauzia (in Moldova), Kabardino-Balkaria (in Russia), Karachai-Cherkessiya (in Russia), Kazakstan, and so on.

UCI Southeast Asian Archive The Southeast Asian Archive of the University of California at Irvine. Has back issues of their quarterly newsletter and some images of Hmong pa ndau textiles.

Value and Meaning--The Korean Family A short/medium length essay on value and meaning in the Korean family.

* Vietnam: A Teacher's Guide A long essay/teacher's tool on Vietnam's history and culture.

Virtual Bangladesh A nice little site on Bangladesh; user-friendly and relatively content-rich.

Miscellaneous & Links

This includes not just current but past, historical cultures.
 

Concierge.com Traveler What used to be Epicurious. A pseudo-Lonely Planet web site.

* Country Profiles Good, basic information on every country on Earth.

Cultures of the Andes, Quechua, Songs, Poems, Stories, Photos Pictures, songs, jokes, etc.

Cultures.com A site "devoted to cultures, living and ancient, and the promotion of world communication."

* Index of Resources for History A WWW Virtual Library site for world history, this has a vast number of links to world cultures, too.

* Library of Congress - Country Studies Whoever is doing work for the Library of Congress certainly earned their pay with this site. Long and extremely informative & thorough studies of 85 countries.

Lonely Planet - Destinations The central web site for all of Lonely Planet's information.

National Pages Links to 10 national pages.

Resources for the Study of World Cultures A set of links to various cultures.

UNESCO World Heritage List A list of UNESCO World Heritage sites, complete with links to pictures and text (much of it not in English) on those sites.

* Unreached People Group Information This is a list of "unreached peoples" compiled by some...person...who couldn't bear the thought of all these peoples and cultures existing without being Christian. (oh, heavens, anything but that) I have a great deal of contempt for that mindset--but this is nonetheless a great compilation of material on a number of obscure cultures.

* The Unreached Peoples Prayer Profiles Like the preceding site, this is from some group of shites that thinks that everyone should be Christian. There's no way I'd include anything from a bunch of wankers like them...except that their information is damned useful. Nobody else that I've found has information like this on, for example, the Socotran of Yemen or the Bisaya of Malaysia.

* World Cultures I write more about these site below, in the Links section of History sites, but this site also has an incredible wealth of information on culture as well as history.

* World Fact Book Hey, it's the World Fact Book - do I really need to say anything more?