This book considers the multiple roles ethnicity plays in fostering territorial conflicts, both violent and non-violent, across the globe. While land disputes relating to nationalism have resulted in the loss of human life in some regions, in others ties between ethnicity and land are asserted more peacefully. Nationalism and challenges to the validity of the links between people and places has caused "ethnic cleansing" and widespread blood-shed in the Balkans and the disputed territory of Palestine, involving competing claims of Arabs and Jews, has led to war. In North America however, indigenous Indians' claims to land are settled in the courts, rather than through violence. This book shows how human behavior is affected by the multiple ways in which people identify with land, topography and natural resources. In doing so, it highlights the growing trend towards defining physical space in specific ethnic contexts, associated with a contemporary world that facilitates global movement.

Author Biography: Michael Saltman is Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Haifa.