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Angelou, Maya

(Encyclopedia)Angelou, Maya m´ n´jloo [key], 1928–2014, African-American writer and performer, b. St. Louis, Mo., as Marguerite Johnson. She toured Europe and Africa in the musical Porgy and Bess (195...

Maya

(Encyclopedia)Maya m´, Span. mä´yä [key], indigenous people of S Mexico and Central America, occupying an area comprising the Yucatán peninsula and much of the present state of Chiapas in Mexico, Guatemala...

maya

(Encyclopedia)maya mä´yä [key], in Hinduism, term used in the Veda to mean magic or supernatural power. In Mahayana Buddhism it acquires the meaning of illusion or unreality. The term is pivotal in the Vedanta s...

Plisetskaya, Maya

(Encyclopedia)Plisetskaya, Maya mä´yä plsts´käyä [key], 1925–2015, Russian dancer. Pliesetskaya became a soloist with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on graduating from its school in 1943. She soon gained...

Lin, Maya Ying

(Encyclopedia)Lin, Maya Ying m´ [key], 1959–, American architect and sculptor, b. Athens, Ohio. Lin's work is known for its visual poetry and sensitive mingling of highly abstract form with meaning. From an ...

Cancún

(Encyclopedia)Cancún känkoon [key], city (1990 pop. 167,730), Quintana Roo state, SE Mexico. An international resort, Cancún is known for its beaches, agreeable climate, and luxurious hotels and facilities. Bu...

Coe, Michael Douglas

(Encyclopedia)Coe, Michael Douglas, 1929–2019, American anthropologist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Harvard, 1959. Coe taught at Yale from 1960, becoming Charles J. MacCurdy Professor of Anthropology in 1963 (emeritu...

Copán

(Encyclopedia)Copán kpän´ [key], ruined city of the Maya, W Honduras, in a small river valley of the same name. Copán is noted for its fine sculptured stele and majestic architecture. The ruins were the site ...

Bonampak

(Encyclopedia)Bonampak bnämpäk´ [key], ruined city of the Late Classic period of the Maya, close to Tuxtla, in Chiapas, S Mexico. Discovered in 1946, it consists of a group of temples, one of which is remarkab...

Itzamna

(Encyclopedia)Itzamna tsäm´nä [key], chief deity of the Maya. Son of Hunab Ku, the creator, he was believed to be lord of the heavens, day, and night. Thought by the Maya to have been the inventor of writing a...

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