Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Cahokia Mounds, approximately 85 surviving Native American earthworks, most in Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, SW Ill., near East St. Louis; largest group of mounds N of Mexico. Monks' Mound, a re...

(Encyclopedia) Gozzi, Carlo, Conte kärˈlō kônˈtā gôtˈtsē [key], 1720–1806, Italian dramatist. A defender of traditional Italian culture, he wrote comedies based on the old commedia dell'arte. To show the ...

(Encyclopedia) Acadia əkāˈdēə [key], Fr. Acadie, region and former French colony, E Canada, encompassing modern Nova Scotia but also New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and coastal areas of E Maine. After an a...

(Encyclopedia) Oyono, Ferdinand Léopold ōyōˈnō, ōˌyōnōˈ [key], 1929–2010, Cameroonian statesman and novelist writing in French. After studying in Africa and in Paris at the Law School and the National Sc...

(Encyclopedia) Lucian lo͞oˈshən [key], b. c.120, d. after 180, Greek writer, also called Lucianus, b. Samosata, Syria. In late life he held a government position in Egypt. Lucian wrote an easy, masterly Attic pro...

(Encyclopedia) classicism, a term that, when applied generally, means clearness, elegance, symmetry, and repose produced by attention to traditional forms. It is sometimes synonymous with excellence or artistic qual...

(Encyclopedia) family, a basic unit of social structure, the exact definition of which can vary greatly from time to time and from culture to culture. How a society defines family as a primary group, and the functio...

(Encyclopedia) Mansa Musa (Musa I) mänˈsä mo͞oˈsä [key], c.1280–1337, ruler of the Mali empire (1312–37). A devout Muslim, he brought the Mali empire to its greatest height, encompassing what is now Niger ...

(Encyclopedia) Marshall, Kerry James, 1955–, American painter, b. Birmingham, Ala., B.F.A. Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design), Los Angeles, 1978. A figurative and narrative artist whose subjec...

(Encyclopedia) Staunton stănˈtən [key], city (1990 pop. 24,461), seat of Augusta co., W central Va., in the Shenandoah Valley; settled 1732, inc. as a city 1871. It is a trade and industrial center in a fertile f...