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civilization

(Encyclopedia)civilization, culture with a relatively high degree of elaboration and technical development. The term civilization also designates that complex of cultural elements that first appeared in human histo...

Hawksmoor, Nicholas

(Encyclopedia)Hawksmoor, Nicholas, 1661–1736, English architect involved in the development of most of the great buildings of the English baroque. From the age of 21 he assisted Sir Christopher Wren in the design...

Hoopa

(Encyclopedia)Hoopa ho͞oˈpə [key], Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Athabascan branch of the Nadene linguistic stock (see Native American languages). In the 19th cent. they occupied the valle...

Anderson, Laurie

(Encyclopedia)Anderson, Laurie, 1947–, American performance artist, b. Chicago. Originally a sculptor, she was influenced by Philip Glass and other avant-garde composers in the early 1970s and soon turned to the ...

Nag Hammadi

(Encyclopedia)Nag Hammadi näg häˈmädi [key], a town in Egypt near the ancient town of Chenoboskion, where, in 1945, a large cache of gnostic texts in the Coptic language was discovered. The Nag Hammadi manuscri...

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 ...

melody

(Encyclopedia)melody, succession of single tones of varying pitch. Melody is the linear aspect of music, in contrast to harmony, the chordal aspect, which results from the simultaneous sounding of tones. Melody mus...

matrix

(Encyclopedia)matrix, in mathematics, a rectangular array of elements (e.g., numbers) considered as a single entity. A matrix is distinguished by the number of rows and columns it contains. The matrix CE5 is a 2...

Kiefer, Anselm

(Encyclopedia)Kiefer, Anselm kēˈfər [key], 1945–, German painter. One of the major figures of neoexpressionism, he studied (1970) with Joseph Beuys, who heavily influenced his work. His large paintings of the ...

land tax

(Encyclopedia)land tax, impost levied upon real property. It is sometimes called a real estate tax, especially when assessed against both improved and unimproved land. Probably the earliest direct tax and formerly ...