Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., 1950–, American scholar and critic, b. Keyser, W.Va., B.A. Yale, 1973, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1979, where he studied with Wole Soyinka. Gates is an expert on African-American lite...

(Encyclopedia) Murray, Albert Lee, 1916–2013, American essayist, novelist, and critic, b. Nokomis, Ala., grad. Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee Univ.; B.S., 1939) and New York Univ. (M.A., 1948). Murray enlisted i...

(Encyclopedia) Huastec wäsˈtĕk [key], indigenous people of the Pánuco River basin, E Mexico. They speak a Mayan language but are isolated from the rest of the Mayan stock, from whom they may have been separated ...

(Encyclopedia) zone [Gr.,=girdle], in geography, area with a certain physical and/or cultural unity that distinguishes it from other areas. The division of the earth into five climatic zones probably originated (5th...

(Encyclopedia) Henry II, 973–1024, Holy Roman emperor (1014–24) and German king (1002–24), last of the Saxon line. He succeeded his father as duke of Bavaria. When Otto III died without an heir, Henry, who was...

(Encyclopedia) Geertz, Clifford James gĭrts [key], 1926–2006, American cultural anthropologist, b. San Francisco. He was a professor of anthropology at the Univ. of Chicago from 1960 to 1970, when he became a pro...

(Encyclopedia) custom, habitual group pattern of behavior that is transmitted from one generation to another and is not biologically determined. Since societies are perpetually changing, no matter how slowly, all cu...

(Encyclopedia) Saint Olaf College, at Northfield, Minn.; Lutheran; coeducational; founded 1874 by Norwegians as a school, became a college 1886, chartered 1889. It offers special programs on Scandinavian culture and...

(Encyclopedia) Tangier, island, E Va., in S Chesapeake Bay. Capt. John Smith first visited the island in 1608, and in 1620 settlers arrived from Cornwall, England. Isolated from the mainland, the people of Tangier d...

(Encyclopedia) White, Leslie Alvin, 1900–1975, American anthropologist, b. Salida, Colo., grad. Columbia, 1923, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1927. He taught at the Univ. of Buffalo and was curator of anthropology at th...