Columbia Encyclopedia

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ratchet and pawl

(Encyclopedia)ratchet and pawl, mechanical device that permits motion in one direction only. The ratchet is usually a wheel with slanting teeth. The pawl is a lever tangential to the wheel with one end resting on t...

Amazon, river, Peru and Brazil

(Encyclopedia)Amazon, Port. Amazonas ämäzōˈnəs [key], world's second longest river, c.3,900 mi (6,280 km) long, formed by the junction in N Peru's Andes Mts. of two major headstreams, the Ucayali and the short...

Bozez and Seneh

(Encyclopedia)Bozez sēˈnə, –nĕ [key], two cliffs at the entrance to the ravine of Michmash (now the Wadi Suweinet); they are mentioned in the First Book of Samuel. ...

Renaissance art and architecture

(Encyclopedia)Renaissance art and architecture, works of art and structures produced in Europe during the Renaissance. In England the Renaissance flowered in the middle of the 16th cent. The Elizabethan style an...

Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College

(Encyclopedia)Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, mainly at Baton Rouge; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1853, opened as a state seminary 1860 near Alexandri...

American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters

(Encyclopedia)American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, honorary academy of notable American artists, writers, and composers. The National Institute of Arts and Letters, founded in 1898, served as the par...

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 ...

drug addiction and drug abuse

(Encyclopedia)drug addiction and drug abuse, chronic or habitual use of any chemical substance to alter states of body or mind for other than medically warranted purposes. Traditional definitions of addiction, with...

Benedict, Ruth Fulton

(Encyclopedia)Benedict, Ruth Fulton, 1887–1948, American anthropologist, b. New York City, grad. Vassar, 1909, Ph.D. Columbia, 1923. She was a student and later a colleague of Franz Boas at Columbia, where she ta...

nativism

(Encyclopedia)nativism, in anthropology, social movement that proclaims the return to power of the natives of a colonized area and the resurgence of native culture, along with the decline of the colonizers. The ter...