Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Persian art and architecture, works of art and structures produced in the region of Asia traditionally known as Persia and now called Iran. Bounded by fierce mountains and deserts, the high plateau of...

(Encyclopedia) hegemony hĭjĕmˈənē, hē–, hĕjˈəmōˌnē, hĕgˈə– [key], [Gr.,=leadership], dominance, originally of one Greek city-state over others, the term has been extended to refer to the dominance...

(Encyclopedia) herb ûrb, hûrb [key], name for any plant that is used medicinally or as a spice and for the useful product of such a plant. Herbs as condiments and seasonings are still important in culinary art; th...

(Encyclopedia) Mao Tun or Mao Dun shəˈ yĕnˈbĭngˈ [key], 1896–1981, Chinese novelist and Minister of Culture (1949–65). His fiction offers a sympathetic portrayal of working-class life and praise of revolut...

(Encyclopedia) Sierra, Justo ho͞oˈstō syĕˈrä [key], 1848–1912, Mexican educator and historian. He entered the literary life as a romantic poet but later devoted himself wholeheartedly to founding schools, le...

(Encyclopedia) Radin, Paul rāˈdĭn [key], 1883–1959, American anthropologist, b. Poland, grad., College of the City of New York, 1902, Ph.D. Columbia, 1911. He was a student of Franz Boas and studied the Winneba...

(Encyclopedia) postmodernism, term used to designate a multitude of trends—in the arts, philosophy, religion, technology, and many other areas—that come after and deviate from the many 20th-cent. movements that ...

(Encyclopedia) anthropology, classification and analysis of humans and their society, descriptively, culturally, historically, and physically. Its unique contribution to studying the bonds of human social relations ...

(Encyclopedia) Barth, Heinrich hīnˈrĭkh bärt [key], 1821–65, German explorer in British service. After traveling (1845–47) through the Levant and N Africa, he entered the service of the British government. H...

(Encyclopedia) Li Ang shûr sho͞o-dwän [key], 1952–, Taiwanese writer. After graduating from college in Taiwan she studied drama in the United States in the 1970s. Her fiction, which includes the novella The But...