Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Osborn, Henry Fairfield

(Encyclopedia)Osborn, Henry Fairfield, 1857–1935, American paleontologist and geologist, b. Fairfield, Conn. He was professor of comparative anatomy (1883–90) at Princeton, and professor of biology (1891–96) ...

Gans, Herbert

(Encyclopedia)Gans, Herbert găns [key], 1927–, American sociologist and educator, b. Cologne, Germany. He came to the United States in 1940 and became a U.S. citizen. In The Urban Villagers (2d ed. 1982), an imp...

intelligent design

(Encyclopedia)intelligent design, theory that some complex biological structures and other aspects of nature show evidence of having been designed by an intelligence. Such biological structures are said to have int...

Comanche

(Encyclopedia)Comanche kəmănˈchē [key], Native North Americans belonging to the Shoshonean group of the Uto-Aztecan branch of the Aztec-Tanoan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). They originated f...

Pygmy

(Encyclopedia)Pygmy or Pigmy both: pĭgˈmē [key], term used for dark-skinned people who live in equatorial rain forests and average less than 59 in. (150 cm) in height. Some studies make a distinction between Neg...

La Tène

(Encyclopedia)La Tène lä tĕn [key], ancient Celtic site on Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, that gives its name to the second and final period of the European Iron Age. It is characterized by an art style that drew...

ergonomics

(Encyclopedia)ergonomics, the engineering science concerned with the physical and psychological relationship between machines and the people who use them. The ergonomicist takes an empirical approach to the study o...

Hocking, William Ernest

(Encyclopedia)Hocking, William Ernest, 1873–1966, American idealist philosopher, b. Cleveland, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1901; Ph.D., 1904). He was professor of philosophy at Harvard from 1914 until his retirement in ...

anthropomorphism

(Encyclopedia)anthropomorphism ănˌthrəpōmôrˈfĭzəm [key] [Gr.,=having human form], in religion, conception of divinity as being in human form or having human characteristics. Anthropomorphism also applies to...

Deyssel, Lodewijk van

(Encyclopedia)Deyssel, Lodewijk van lōˈdəvĭk vän dēˈsəl [key], pseud. of Karel Joan Lodewijk Alberdingk Thijm, 1864–1952, Dutch novelist, critic, and essayist. He was editor of De Nieuwe Gids [the new gui...