Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

education

(Encyclopedia)education, any process, either formal or informal, that shapes the potential of a maturing organism. Informal education results from the constant effect of environment, and its strength in shaping val...

Salish

(Encyclopedia)Salish, indigenous people of North America, also known as the Flathead, who in the early 19th cent. inhabited the Bitterroot River valley of W Montana. Their language belongs to the Salishan branch of...

Johnson, Eyvind

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Eyvind üˈvĭnt [key], 1900–1976, Swedish novelist and short-story writer. After working as a laborer in the north of Sweden, Johnson moved to Stockholm in 1919 and began to write. He is b...

Ingermanland

(Encyclopedia)Ingermanland ĭngˈgrēə [key], Finnish Ingerinta, historic region, NW European Russia, along the Neva River and on the east bank of the Gulf of Finland. Its name derives from the ancient Finnic inha...

Onetti, Juan Carlos

(Encyclopedia)Onetti, Juan Carlos, 1909–94, Uruguayan novelist and short story writer, b. Montevideo. One of the great 20th-century Latin American novelists, Onetti wrote of the dissipation of modern urban societ...

Kroeber, Alfred Louis

(Encyclopedia)Kroeber, Alfred Louis krōˈbər [key], 1876–1960, American anthropologist, b. Hoboken, N.J., Ph.D. Columbia, 1901. He taught (1901–46) at the Univ. of California and was director (1925–46) of t...

missions

(Encyclopedia)missions, term generally applied to organizations formed for the purpose of extending religious teaching, whether at home or abroad. It also indicates the stations or the fields where such teaching is...

Raynal, Guillaume Thomas François, Abbé

(Encyclopedia)Raynal, Guillaume Thomas François, Abbé gēyōmˈ tômäˈ fräNswäˈ äbāˈ rānälˈ [key], 1713–96, French historian and philosopher. Raynal was a priest, but he was dismissed from his parish...

Muonioälv

(Encyclopedia)Muonioälv or Muoniojoki, river, Sweden and Finland: see Torneälv, river. ...

Manson, Charles Milles

(Encyclopedia)Manson, Charles Milles, 1934–2017, American criminal and cult leader, b. Cincinnati, Ohio, as Charles Milles Maddox. As a youth Manson began a life of crime, mainly burglaries, thefts, and robberies...