Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

boat people

(Encyclopedia)boat people, term used to describe the Indochinese refugees who fled Communist rule after the Vietnam War (1975) in small boats and the many ethnic Chinese who left Vietnam similarly after China's inv...

revitalization movement

(Encyclopedia)revitalization movement, political-religious movements promising deliverance from deprivation, the elimination of foreign domination, and a new interpretation of the human condition based on tradition...

dasyure

(Encyclopedia)dasyure dăsˈēyo͝orˌ [key], name for several small, predatory marsupials, or pouched mammals, of the family Dasyuridea, found in Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. Typical dasyures, known in Aus...

fruit bat

(Encyclopedia)fruit bat, fruit-eating bat found in tropical regions of the Old World. It is relatively large and differs from other bats in the possession of an independent, clawed second digit; it also depends on ...

cargo cult

(Encyclopedia)cargo cult, native religious movement found in Melanesia and New Guinea, holding that at the millennium the spirits of the dead will return and bring with them cargoes of modern goods for distribution...

Mansa Musa

(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 ...

Slave Coast

(Encyclopedia)Slave Coast, name given by European traders to the coast bordering the Bight of Benin on the Gulf of Guinea, W Africa. It was the principal source of slaves from W Africa from the 16th cent. to the mi...

echidna, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)echidna ĭkĭdˈnə [key] or spiny anteater, animal of the order Monotremata, the egg-laying mammals. A short-legged, grayish brown animal, the echidna is covered with sharp quills and can protect its...

darter, bird

(Encyclopedia)darter or anhinga ănhĭngˈgə [key], common name for a very slender, black water bird very closely related to the cormorant. It frequents the wooded borders of freshwater lakes, rivers, and swamps i...

Halmahera

(Encyclopedia)Halmahera jīlôˈlô [key], island, c.7,000 sq mi (18,100 sq km), E Indonesia, between New G...