Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

acculturation

(Encyclopedia)acculturation, culture changes resulting from contact among various societies over time. Contact may have distinct results, such as the borrowing of certain traits by one culture from another, or the ...

Kiefer, Anselm

(Encyclopedia)Kiefer, Anselm kēˈfər [key], 1945–, German painter. One of the major figures of neoexpressionism, he studied (1970) with Joseph Beuys, who heavily influenced his work. His large paintings of the ...

Nag Hammadi

(Encyclopedia)Nag Hammadi näg häˈmädi [key], a town in Egypt near the ancient town of Chenoboskion, where, in 1945, a large cache of gnostic texts in the Coptic language was discovered. The Nag Hammadi manuscri...

Hawksmoor, Nicholas

(Encyclopedia)Hawksmoor, Nicholas, 1661–1736, English architect involved in the development of most of the great buildings of the English baroque. From the age of 21 he assisted Sir Christopher Wren in the design...

Hoopa

(Encyclopedia)Hoopa ho͞oˈpə [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Athabascan branch of the Nadene linguistic stock (see Native American languages). In the 19th cent. they occupied the valle...

Anderson, Laurie

(Encyclopedia)Anderson, Laurie, 1947–, American performance artist, b. Chicago. Originally a sculptor, she was influenced by Philip Glass and other avant-garde composers in the early 1970s and soon turned to the ...

Dinesen, Isak

(Encyclopedia)Dinesen, Isak ēˈsäk dēˈnəsən [key], pseud. of Baroness Karen Blixen, 1885–1962, Danish author, who wrote primarily in English. In 1914 she married Baron Blixen and went to live in British Eas...

Dresser, Christopher

(Encyclopedia)Dresser, Christopher, 1834–1904, British designer, pioneer of modern industrial design, b. Scotland, He moved (1847) to London, where he studied (1847–54) at the Government School of Design. He be...

Cooper, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Cooper, Thomas, 1759–1839, American scientist, educator, and political philosopher, b. London, educated at Oxford. His important works include Political Essays (1799); the appendixes to the Memoirs ...

civilization

(Encyclopedia)civilization, culture with a relatively high degree of elaboration and technical development. The term civilization also designates that complex of cultural elements that first appeared in human histo...