Faces of Culture

S01E26

The Future of Humanity

The final program addresses the compelling problem of preserving the diversity of human cultures in a world that often appears to be rushing toward a one-world culture. The program includes several examples of how indigenous peoples are making the future their own by taking back the past. A Kwakiutl woman describes how her people negotiated the return of masks and other artifacts from Canadas National Museum of Man and built a Box of Treasures to house the items and serve as a center for preserving and renewing their cultural traditions, The Yanomamo are featured in another segment, which show how they are learning to defend their lands against outsiders and includes comments by Napoleon Chagnon on his concerns for the Yanomamos survival and on the Venezuelan governments experiment with a biosphere reserve encompassing the Yanomamo territory. Throughout the program, many representatives of indigenous people express their concerns and desire for protecting their societies.