Minorities At Risk (MAR) is a university-based research project that monitors and analyzes the status and conflicts of 283 politically-active communal groups in many countries throughout the world from 1945 to 2006.
The project is designed to provide information in a standardized format that aids comparative research and contributes to the understanding of conflicts involving relevant groups.
The MAR project was initiated by Ted Robert Gurr in 1986 and has been based at the University of Maryland's Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM) since 1988.
Indigenous: conquered descendants of earlier inhabitants of a region who live primarily in conformity with traditional social, economic, and cultural customs that are sharply distinct from those of dominant groups.
Communal Contender: culturally distinct peoples, tribes, or clans in heterogeneous societies who hold or seek a share in state power.
The information is culled from a variety of sources; journalistic accounts, government reports, group orgs, scholarly material.
The variables range from descriptive traits referring to their population and location in the world, to their active protests and rebellions, to the discriminatory practices that affect them.