Well-known Harvard anthropologist Wade Davis makes strides on trying to preserve ancient and tribal cultures and ways that have survived into the 21st century. Much like preserving the ocean, Yellowstone, or ANWR in Alaska, Davis suggests the concept of the "ethnosphere" so that our children might one day actually get to learn about ancient cultures that have survived thousands of years to this day.
Davis team's up with photographer Alex Chadwick in this first part of the project to document the camel caravans of the Sahara along salt trading lines with common cultural heritage running back thousands of years.
Link:
http://www.npr.org/programs/re/archivesdate/2003/may/mali/index.html