This latest installment in the "Encyclopedias of Human Experience" series includes 151 entries pertaining to the study of "language and communication from a cross-cultural perspective." Findlay, a cultural anthropologist, aims to avoid European ethnocentrism by showing how Western and non-Western traditions influence one another. Of the 126 cultures from five continents cited in this encyclopedia, only one is European: British Cockney-speakers. Throughout, Findlay focuses on "communicative competence," the cultural and social rules an individual must know in order to use a language. Each entry is written with great clarity and followed by bibliographic information and cross references. An especially helpful feature is the author's practice of defining technical terms within parentheses following the terms themselves; another is the excellent bibliography. Both the geographical range and the richness of the subject matter are to be applauded. While one might have wished for an explanation of how the cultures discussed were selected, this encyclopedia is a laudable accomplishment and belongs in high school, college, and public libraries.?Joan W. Gartland, Detroit P.L.