JOY HENDRY is Professor of Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University, UK. She is the author of Other People's Worlds: An Introduction to Cultural and Social Anthropology (NYU Press 1999), The Orient Strikes Back: A Global View of Cultural Display (Berg 2000), and Understanding Japanese Society (Routledge, 1995).

This book focuses on the renewal (or rekindling) of cultural identity, especially in populations previously considered 'extinct'. At the same time, Hendry sets out to explain the importance of ensuring the survival of these cultures. By drawing a fine and textured picture of these cultures, Hendry illuminates extraordinary diversity that was, at one point, seriously endangered, and explains why it should matter in today's world.