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Shoshone

(Encyclopedia)Shoshone or Shoshoni shəshōˈnē [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Shoshonean group of the Uto-Aztecan branch of the Aztec-Tanoan linguistic stock (see Native American lang...

Saint-Pierre, Charles Irénée Castel, Abbé de

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Pierre, Charles Irénée Castel, Abbé de shärl ērānāˈ kästĕlˈ äbāˈ də săN-pyĕrˈ [key], 1658–1743, French social philosopher. An advocate of natural religion and toleration, he ...

Pulitzer Prizes

(Encyclopedia)Pulitzer Prizes, annual awards for achievements in American journalism, letters, and music. The prizes are paid from the income of a fund left by Joseph Pulitzer to the trustees of Columbia Univ. They...

Chauncy, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Chauncy, Charles chônˈsē, chänˈ– [key], 1705–87, American Congregational clergyman, b. Boston. He was ordained as a minister of the First Church, Boston, in 1727 and remained in that pulpit f...

Hitchens, Christopher Eric

(Encyclopedia)Hitchens, Christopher Eric, 1949–2011, Anglo-American journalist and critic, b. Portsmouth, England, grad. Bailliol College, Oxford (1970). He wrote for the New Statesman, London Times, Daily Expres...

Hades

(Encyclopedia)Hades hāˈdēz [key], in Greek and Roman religion and mythology. 1 The ruler of the underworld: see Pluto. 2 The world of the dead, ruled by Pluto and Persephone, located either underground or in the...

American Civil Liberties Union

(Encyclopedia)American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), nonpartisan organization devoted to the preservation and extension of the basic rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution. Founded (1920) by such prominent figur...

Neusner, Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Neusner, Jacob, 1932–2016, American scholar and historian of Judaism, b. West Hartford, Conn, B.A. Harvard, 1953, M.A. Jewish Theological Seminary, 1960), Ph.D. Columbia, 1960. Regarded as the world...

Karmathians

(Encyclopedia)Karmathians or Carmathians kärmāˈthēənz [key], a Muslim sect of the 9th and 10th cent., similar to the Assassin sect. They were part of a movement for social reform that spread widely through Isl...

Yoruba

(Encyclopedia)Yoruba yōˈro͞obä [key], people of SW Nigeria and Benin, numbering about 20 million. Today many of the large cities in Nigeria (including Lagos, Ibadan, and Abeokuta) are in Yorubaland. The old Yor...