Zapotec

The Zapotec culture varies according to habitat - mountain, valley, or coastal - and according to economy - subsistence, cash crop, or urban; and the language varies from pueblo to pueblo, existing in several mutually unintelligible dialects, better called distinct languages.

Anthropological Linguistics

Study of the relationship between language and culture; it usually refers to work on languages that have no written records. In the United States a close relationship between anthropology and linguistics developed as a result of research by anthropologists into the American Indian cultures and languages. Early students in this field discovered what they felt

Recurvirostridae

Bird family (order Charadriiformes) composed of seven species of moderately large (29 - 48 cm [11 - 19 inches] ) wading birds characterized by extremely long legs, a relatively small head, and a long, slender bill. Better-known members of the family include the avocet, ibisbill, and stilt (qq.v.).

Wankel, Felix

German engineer and inventor of the Wankel rotary engine. The Wankel engine is distinguished by the presence of an orbiting rotor in the shape of a curved equilateral triangle that does the work done by the moving pistons in other internal-combustion engines. Advantages of the Wankel engine include light weight, few moving parts, compactness,

Coherence

A fixed relationship between the phase of waves in a beam of radiation of a single frequency. Two beams of light are coherent when the phase difference between their waves is constant; they are noncoherent if there is a random or changing phase relationship. Stable interference patterns are formed only by radiation emitted by coherent sources, ordinarily produced

Giraldus Cambrensis

Of noble

Integral Equation

National Museum Of Western Art

The basis of the collection was a group of more than 400 French paintings, sculptures, and drawings that had been collected by Matsukata Kojiro but held by the French government during World War II.

Shamanism, Drums, sticks, and other objects

An important device of the shaman is the drum, which always has only one membrane. It is usually oval but sometimes round. The outer side of the membrane, and the inside as well among some peoples, is decorated with drawings; e.g., the Turks, or Tatars, of Abakan mark the Upper and Lower World. The handle is usually in the shape of a cross (see photograph), but sometimes there is only

Planet X

At the time its existence was proposed (1972), Planet X was stated to be located in the direction of the constellation Cassiopeia. The planet was calculated to have a mass approximately

Reginald Of Ch�tillon

Reginald left for the Holy Land in 1147 and put

Essex

Town (township), Chittenden county, northwestern Vermont, U.S., on the Winooski River just east of Burlington. Chartered in 1763 and settled in 1783, it consists of the villages of Essex Junction and Essex Center. Essex Junction is a busy industrial and residential site where the Central Vermont Railroad and several highways converge; its railway depot serves as the depot for

Celaya, Battle Of

(April 1915), decisive military engagement in the wars between revolutionary factions following the Mexican Revolution of 1911. One of the bloodiest battles in Mexican history, it was fought at Celaya, Gua najuato state, between the forces of �lvaro Obreg�n and Pancho Villa. In the course of the civil wars, Venustiano Carranza and Villa had eclipsed the other revolutionary

Puerto Cabello

Port city, northern Carabobo state, north-central Venezuela, situated on the Caribbean Sea. In colonial times, the waters of its well-protected harbour were said to be so smooth that a single hair (Spanish cabello) could moor a vessel to the dock, hence the name. The settlement has played a prominent part in Venezuelan history as a target of pirate attacks, a smuggling centre,

Dorgon

Dorgon was the 14th of the 16 sons of Nurhachi, founder of the Manchu state, who

Porirua

City, Wellington local government region, southern North Island, New Zealand. It is located about 13 miles (21 km) north of Wellington city, at the head of Porirua Harbour. The earliest inhabitants were aboriginal moa hunters in the 12th century. European whalers and traders occupied nearby Mana Island from 1832 to 1834, and in 1836 a permanent whaling station was built near Porirua. The city

Hindi Literature

The writings of the western Braj Bhasa and Khari Boli and of the eastern Awadhi and Bundeli dialects of the Indian subcontinent and also the writings of parts of Rajasthan in the west and of Bihar in the east that, strictly speaking, are not Hindi at all. Hindi literature also conventionally includes those works of Muslim writers (such as Jayasi) in the Persian script

Saarland

The coal seams stretch for a distance of about

Automata Theory, Classification by semi-groups

A mathematically significant classification of transducers may be obtained in terms of the theory of semi-groups. In outline, if the transducer T is reduced, the functions fs given in terms of M, for fixed input, as maps from and to the space of states Q constitute a semi-group termed the semi-group of T (see 14). By a certain procedure these semi-groups and their associated transducers

K�rner, Theodor

A colonel in the Austro-Hungarian Army at the outbreak of World War I, K�rner was subsequently appointed chief of staff (May 1915) and successfully helped to stem Italian offensives along the Italian-Slovenian border.

Animikie Series

The Animikie Series was named for exposures along the north shore of Lake Superior, in the Thunder Bay area (animiki is the Chippewa word for �thunder

Ethiopic Alphabet

Writing system used to write the Ge'ez literary and ecclesiastical language and the Amharic, Tigre, and Tigrinya languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Apparently derived from Sabaean, a South Semitic script, the Ethiopic script probably originated in the early 4th century AD; it is unclear whether Ethiopic resulted from a gradual evolution of the Sabaean script or whether

Discoverer

Any of a series of unmanned experimental satellites launched by the United States Air Force. Although the Discoverer satellites had several apparent applications - such as testing orbital maneuvering and reentry techniques - they often are regarded as a forerunner of the military reconnaissance satellite. Discoverer 1 (launched Feb. 28, 1959) was equipped with a camera

Venini, Paolo

Italian glassmaker and designer and manufacturer of glassware, whose works are outstanding for their combination of traditional technique and modern form. His glass factory in Murano contributed to a revival of art-glass manufacture in the 1930s and '40s and employed some of the finest designers of the period, among them Gio Ponti and Tyra

Ploidy

In genetics, the number of chromosomes occurring in the nucleus of a cell. In normal somatic (body) cells, the chromosomes exist in pairs. The condition is called diploidy. During meiosis the cell produces gametes, or germ cells, each containing half the normal or somatic number of chromosomes. This condition is called haploidy. When two germ cells (e.g., egg and sperm) unite,

Bomu River

Also called �Mbomou, � in the Central African Republic, headstream of the Ubangi River. The Bomu River rises 30 miles (50 km) northwest of Doruma, Congo (Kinshasa), and flows 450 miles (725 km) west, forming, together with the Ubangi, the frontier between Congo and the Central African Republic. Its course takes it in a wide curve through savannas, past Bangassou, to join the Uele River at Yakoma, where it forms the

Lebanon, The state of the arts

Lebanon's antiquities and ruins have provided not only inspiration for artists but also magnificent backdrops for annual music festivals, most notably the Baalbek International Festival. At one time, international opera, ballet, symphony, and drama companies, of nearly all nationalities, competed to enrich the cultural life of Beirut. Lebanon has produced a number

Visscher, Anna (roemersdochter)

Anna Visscher's poetry is rather stiff and impersonal; she wrote for the most part sonnets and lofliederen, cleverly devised odes to important personages.