We live in an ever-smaller world, with business and technology connecting people in ways that were inconceivable a few generations ago. But does globalisation come at the cost of losing cultural identity? Travel website JoGuru lists six ethnic groups it feels are becoming history in front of our eyes.

Maasai (Kenya and Tanzania)

The Maasai were at one time one of the most feared warrior tribes in Africa.

The distinctive lion-mane headdresses and red robes were once worn with pride and dignity in the vast wilderness, yet now only exist as a pale imitation of its former glories.

To be a man and warrior of the Maasai, one had to kill a full-grown lion with a short stabbing spear or assegai.

Numbers have drastically dwindled as drought, the onslaught of civilisation, roads, railway lines and so on have cut great swathes through their ancestral land

Is it then so surprising that the colour red is so ingrained in the racial memory of lions as signifying danger?

But the days when one could see the celebrated adumu, or lion dance, performed by a full tribe member are long gone.

The Nenets are an indigenous people of northern Russia.

Nenets (Russia)

The Nenets are a nomad, pastoral people who herded reindeer across some of the world’s most inhospitable and cold regions. For more than a thousand years, these people have thrived in temperatures that often fall to -50C with the aid of knowledge gleaned from generations of survivors and fighters.

The Ural Mountains on the Arctic coast have seen thousands of migrations of these people with their reindeer.

Today there are only approximately 10,000 remaining, with a domestic herd of some 300,000 reindeer.

A Mursi tribeswoman in Ethiopia.

Mursi (Ethiopia)

The Mursi people once populated the Great Rift Valley of southern Ethiopia.

Primarily herders and cultivators, their numbers have drastically dwindled as drought, the onslaught of civilisation, roads, railway lines and so on have cut great swathes through their ancestral land.

A once populous people, they now number fewer than 4,000 and their unique form of face-painting and artistic ornaments made of ivory from warthogs are being lost to today’s expansion of the world into one cohesive whole.

Ladakhi (India)

Their name has been borrowed by the Indian state of “Ladakh”. Ladakhi literally means “people of the high passes” and they well deserve it.

These people live in the extremely high, extremely cold region between the Himalayas and the Karakoram Range in northern India. Much of their territory falls into the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Their traditional goncha cloaks are often made of heavy Chinese silk and well-to-do Ladakhi women are decked out with semi-precious gems such as pearls and turquoise.

Regional troubles have led to these people living a harsh life in an already harsh zone.

Gauchos at a traditional festival in Cafayate, Salta province, Argentina.

Gauchos (Argentina)

These nomadic people were well-known for their equestrian prowess on the rolling grasslands of Argentina.

As early as the late 16th century, these people were roam-ing the cast prairies of South America.

Instrumental in the wars of independence and the civil wars as cavalry, their lot became more difficult at the beginning of the 19th century.

As cattle ranching grew more popular and fences were raised to keep the herds within a designated area, the land the Gauchos used to roam slowly but surely decreased in size until they were forced to move off the grasslands and seek gainful employment as ranch-hands or groomsmen to the ranchers.

Their distinctive leather chaps are still worn today to protect horse riders from thorn and scrub as they go about their farmland duties.

Lopa (Nepal)

These ancient practitioners of Buddhism derive their name from the ancient kingdom of Lo.

Although politically in Nepal (the Mustang region), they share much of their cultural and religious history with nearby Tibet.

Their language is a dialect of Tibetan and they live in the inhospitable Mustang lands, with the mountains and rivers that flow by the only monument to their ancient traditions and culture.