This work of Dr. Aziza Braithwaite Bey is evidence of her life long insistence that the contributions of ancient and global cultures be represented in every possible discourse where issues of human development and human contribution are discussed. First, as an internationally trained fashion designer; second, as a master of museology and costume curating and; third as a doctor of diversity in cultural education teaching in the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences at Lesley University, Dr. Bey’s work now gives instructors a manual that introduces a plethora of comparative cultural material and evidence into the classroom-and into our thinking. Through well researched examples, her book carefully insists that both instructor and student begin to think of humanity outside of their own parochial setting. Through lessons on food, clothing and ritual, this manual purposefully underscores a deep appreciation of world-wide culture. In this era of globalization, it becomes particularly important that we manage to identify distinctions, still, in ethnic form and culture-so that no modern effort toward homogeneity obscures those particular ways and means that varieties of cultures have solved similar problems. This manual gently helps the user to create an understanding that the diverse range of human genius is the greatest contribution to civilization, world-wide. In this manual Bey celebrates that genius…of humanity to demonstrate how similar problems can be solved in acutely distinct ways while maintaining similarities of import across of the range of possibility. To this end Dr. Bey’s work and her insistence on cultural inclusion demand both our respect and applause. Renee Kemp-Rotan Contributing Editor with Paul Oliver in The International Encyclopedia of World Vernacular Architecture Cambridge University Press, 1997
