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Karlin, John Elias

(Encyclopedia)Karlin, John Elias, American industrial psychologist and human-factors engineering pioneer, b. Johannesburg, South Africa, grad. Univ. of Cape Town (B.A., M.A.), Univ. of Chicago (Ph.D., 1942). With a...

Aggrey, James Emman Kwegyir

(Encyclopedia)Aggrey, James Emman Kwegyir ĕmˈən kwĕgˈyĭr ăgˈrē [key], 1875–1927, African educator and missionary, b. Anamabu, Gold Coast (now Ghana). Educated at Livingstone College, he taught there for ...

Bermuda grass

(Encyclopedia)Bermuda grass, perennial pasture, lawn, and hay grass (Cynodon dactylon) of the family Poaceae (grass family), native to Africa and Asia and now common in warm regions of both hemispheres. It is the s...

bird-of-paradise flower

(Encyclopedia)bird-of-paradise flower, large tropical herb (Strelitzia reginae) of the family Musaceae (banana family), native to S Africa. Its large blue and orange blossom resembles an exotic bird; it is cultivat...

Boksburg

(Encyclopedia)Boksburg bŏksˈbûrgˌ [key], city, now part of Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality, Gauteng prov., NE South Africa. It is an important coal-mining center. Some gold mining is still carried on. Manu...

shrew

(Encyclopedia)shrew, common name for the small, insectivorous mammals of the family Soricidae, related to the moles. Shrews include the smallest mammals; the smallest shrews are under 2 in. (5.1 cm) long, excluding...

Stanley, Sir Henry Morton

(Encyclopedia)Stanley, Sir Henry Morton, 1841–1904, Anglo-American journalist, explorer, and empire builder, b. Denbigh, Wales. He grew up in poverty and came to America as a worker on a ship, which he jumped (18...

South African literature

(Encyclopedia)South African literature, literary works written in South Africa or written by South Africans living in other countries. Populated by diverse ethnic and language groups, South Africa has a distinctive...

Lidman, Sara

(Encyclopedia)Lidman, Sara säˈrä lēdˈmän [key], 1923–2004, Swedish writer. Her novels The Tar Still (1953), Cloudberry Land (1955), and The Rain Bird (1958, tr. 1962), treating rural life in N Sweden, estab...

Linton, Ralph

(Encyclopedia)Linton, Ralph, 1893–1953, American anthropologist, b. Philadelphia, B.A. Swarthmore College, 1915, Ph.D. Harvard, 1925. He was (1922–28) assistant curator at the Field Museum, Chicago, then taught...