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  • Balto (dog)
    ...conditions and rushed serum to icebound Nome. This heroic action, called the “Great Race of Mercy,” brought renewed international fame to the trail and the dog teams, particularly to Balto, the lead dog of the team that finally reached Nome. In memory of the serum run’s principal musher, Leonhard Seppala, the Iditarod was originally called the Iditarod Trail Seppala Memoria...
  • Balto-Slavic languages
    hypothetical language group comprising the languages of the Baltic and Slavic subgroups of the Indo-European language family. Those scholars who accept the Balto-Slavic hypothesis attribute the large number of close similarities in the vocabulary, grammar, and sound systems of the Baltic and Slavic languages to development from a common ancestral language after the breakup of Proto-Indo-European....
  • Baltoro Glacier (glacier, Asia)
    ...and is one of the most popular routes for the ascent of the mountain. The rate of movement of the Himalayan region glaciers varies considerably; in the neighbouring Karakoram Range, for example, the Baltoro Glacier moves about six feet per day, while others, such as the Khumbu, move only about one foot daily. Most of the Himalayan glaciers are in retreat....
  • Baltra Island (island, Ecuador)
    one of the smaller of the Galápagos Islands, with an area of 8 square miles (21 square km). It lies in the eastern Pacific Ocean, about 600 miles (1,000 km) west of Ecuador. Before volcanic faulting occurred, the island was a part of Santa Cruz (Indefatigable) Island. During World War II, Ecuador granted the United States permission to establish an air base there (defunct...
  • Bałtyckie, Morze (sea, Europe)
    arm of the North Atlantic Ocean, extending northward from the latitude of southern Denmark almost to the Arctic Circle and separating the Scandinavian Peninsula from the rest of continental Europe. The largest expanse of brackish water in the world, the semienclosed and relatively shallow Baltic Sea is of great interest to...
  • Baltzell, Edward Digby (American sociologist)
    U.S. sociologist who popularized the term WASP, an acronym for "white Anglo-Saxon Protestant"; though the term reportedly originated in 1957, not until 1964, when Baltzell used it in the highly influential The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy & Caste in America, did it achieve widespread usage (b. Nov. 14, 1915--d. Aug. 17, 1996)....
  • Baluan Island (island, Papua New Guinea)
    The Matankor produced wood carvings and decorated objects, each island having its own specialties. For example, the people on Baluan made bird-shaped bowls, ladles, and spatulas; on Lou, obsidian was carved into great hemispheric bowls; on Rambutyo figures and anthropomorphic lime spatulas were common; and the people on Pak made beds (used nowhere else in Melanesia) and slit gongs. Although the......
  • Baluba (people)
    a Bantu-speaking cluster of peoples of south-central Congo (Kinshasa). Numbering about 5,594,000 in the late 20th century, they inhabit a wide area extending throughout much of southern Congo. The name Luba applies to a variety of peoples who, though of different origins, speak closely related languages, exhibit many common cultural traits, and share a common political history with past members of...
  • Baluch (people)
    group of tribes speaking the Balochi language and estimated at about 4,800,000 inhabitants in the province of Balochistān in Pakistan and also neighbouring areas of Iran, Afghanistan, Bahrain, and Punjab (India). In Pakistan the Baloch people are divided into two groups, the Sulaimani and the Makrani, separated from each other by a compact block of Brahui tribes....
  • Balūchestān (province, Pakistan)
    westernmost province of Pakistan. It is bordered by Iran (west), by Afghanistan (northwest), by North-West Frontier and Punjab provinces (northeast and east), by Sindh province (southeast), and by the Arabian Sea (south)....
  • Baluchestān, Iranian (region, Iran)
    In ancient times, Iranian Balochistān provided a land route to the Indus River valley and the Babylonian civilizations. The armies of Alexander the Great marched through Balochistān in 326 bc on their way to the Hindu Kush and, on their return march in 325, experienced great hardships in the region’s barren wastes....
  • Baluchi language
    modern Iranian language of the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language family. Balochi speakers live mainly in an area now composed of parts of southeastern Iran and southwestern Pakistan that was once the historic region of Balochistān. They also live in Central Asia (near Merv, Turkmenistan) and southwestern Afghanistan, and there are colonies in Oman, southern Arabia, and along ...
  • Baluchi rug
    floor covering woven by the Baloch people living in Afghanistan and eastern Iran. The patterns in these rugs are highly varied, many consisting of repeated motifs, diagonally arranged across the field. Some present a maze of intricate latch-hooked forms. Prayer rugs, with a simple rectangular arch-head design at one end (to indicate the direction of the holy city Mecca), are com...
  • Balūchistān (province, Pakistan)
    westernmost province of Pakistan. It is bordered by Iran (west), by Afghanistan (northwest), by North-West Frontier and Punjab provinces (northeast and east), by Sindh province (southeast), and by the Arabian Sea (south)....
  • Baluchistān, Iranian (region, Iran)
    In ancient times, Iranian Balochistān provided a land route to the Indus River valley and the Babylonian civilizations. The armies of Alexander the Great marched through Balochistān in 326 bc on their way to the Hindu Kush and, on their return march in 325, experienced great hardships in the region’s barren wastes....
  • Balūchistān Plateau (plateau, Pakistan)
    The vast tableland of Balochistan contains a great variety of physical features. In the northeast a basin centred on the towns of Zhob and Loralai forms a trellis-patterned lobe that is surrounded on all sides by mountain ranges. To the east and southeast is the Sulaiman Range, which joins the Central Brahui Range near Quetta, and to the north and northwest is the Toba Kakar Range (which......
  • Baluchistan, University of (univ, Quetta, Pakistan)
    The University of Balochistān was established in Quetta in 1970. The Balochi Academy and the Pashto Academy, also in Quetta, promote the preservation of traditional cultures. Area 134,051 square miles (347,190 square km). Pop. (2003 est.) 7,450,000....
  • Baluchitherium (extinct mammal)
    genus of giant browsing perissodactyls found as fossils in Asian deposits of the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene epochs (30 to 16.6 million years ago). The indricotherium, which was related to the modern rhinoceros but was hornless, was the largest land mammal that ever existed. It stood about 5.5 m (18 feet) high at the shoulder, was 8 m (26 feet) long, and weighed an estimated 30 tons, which is...
  • Balue, Jean (French cardinal)
    French cardinal, the treacherous minister of King Louis XI....
  • Balurghat (India)
    town, northern West Bengal state, northeastern India, just east of the Atrai River. Connected by road with English Bāzār (India) and Dinājpur and Rājshāhi (Bangladesh), it is a regional distributing centre, trading mainly in rice, jute, sugarcane, and oilseeds. It was declared a municipality in 1951. Pop. (1981) town, 104,646; (1991) town, 119,796; metropolitan ...
  • baluster jug
    ...Europe were evolving their own special types of vessels for beer and wine, which, with a few modifications, remained standard for centuries. Thus, it is a very simple matter to distinguish between baluster jugs from London and pichets from Paris or between wine flagons from Switzerland and those made in the Low Countries, Burgundy, the Main regions of Franconia, southern Germany, and......
  • balustrade
    low screen formed by railings of stone, wood, metal, glass, or other materials and designed to prevent falls from roofs, balconies, terraces, stairways, and other elevated architectural elements....
  • Baluze, Étienne (French scholar)
    French scholar, notable both as a historian and as the collector and publisher of documents and manuscripts....
  • Balwhidder, Glenalmond, and Glenlyon, John Murray, Viscount of (Scottish noble)
    a leading Scottish supporter of William and Mary and of the Hanoverian succession....
  • Baly (India)
    city, southeastern West Bengal state, northeastern India. Bally lies just west of the Hooghly River. A part of the Howrah urban agglomeration, it is connected by road and rail with Howrah, Kharagpur, and Burdwān and is a steamer station for traffic along the Hooghly. Major industries in the city include jute, paper, and bone milling, iron- and steel-rolling works, and the manufacture of che...
  • Balyā ibn Malkān (Islamic mythology)
    (Arabic, contraction of al-Khaḍir, “the Green One”), a legendary Islāmic figure endowed with immortal life who became a popular saint, especially among sailors and Ṣūfīs (Muslim mystics)....
  • Balykchy (Kyrgyzstan)
    town, capital of Ysyk-Köl oblasty (province), Kyrgyzstan. It is a port located on the western shore of Lake Ysyk (Issyk-Kul) and is linked to Frunze, about 87 miles (140 km) north-northwest. Balykchy’s economy centres on a food industry, including meat-packing and cereal processing, and the town serves as a major transportation centre, wit...
  • Balzac (sculpture by Rodin)
    ...the Claude statue and, in Buenos Aires, the President Sarmiento caused riots. The conflicts over the Victor Hugo and the Balzac were even more serious....
  • Balzac, Honoré de (French author)
    French literary artist who produced a vast number of novels and short stories collectively called La Comédie humaine (The Human Comedy). He helped to establish the traditional form of the novel and is generally considered to be one of the greatest novelists of all time....
  • Balzac, Jean-Louis Guez de (French scholar and author)
    man of letters and critic, one of the original members of the Académie Française; he had a great influence on the development of Classical French prose....
  • Balzary, Michael (American musician)
    ...friends Anthony Kiedis (b. Nov. 1, 1962Grand Rapids, Mich., U.S.), Flea (original name Michael Balzary; b. Oct. 16, 1962Melbourne, Austl.), Hillel......
  • BAM (railway, Russia)
    ...of oil and gas pipelines was built between the new fields and the Urals, and new industries were also established, such as aluminum refining and cellulose pulp making. The construction of the BAM (Baikal-Amur Magistral) railroad between Ust-Kut, on the Lena River, and Komsomolsk-na-Amure, on the Amur, a distance of 2,000 miles (3,200 km), was completed in 1980....
  • Bam (Iran)
    city in eastern Kermān province, Iran. The city, an agricultural centre situated on the Silk Road and long famed for its large fortress, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2004....
  • bama (shrine)
    Israelite or Canaanite open-air shrine usually erected on an elevated site. Prior to the conquest of Canaan (Palestine) by the Israelites in the 12th–11th century bc, the high places served as shrines of the Canaanite fertility deities, the Baals (Lords) and the Asherot (Semitic goddesses). In addition to an altar, matztzevot (stone pillars representing the presence of ...
  • bamah (shrine)
    Israelite or Canaanite open-air shrine usually erected on an elevated site. Prior to the conquest of Canaan (Palestine) by the Israelites in the 12th–11th century bc, the high places served as shrines of the Canaanite fertility deities, the Baals (Lords) and the Asherot (Semitic goddesses). In addition to an altar, matztzevot (stone pillars representing the presence of ...
  • Bamako (Mali)
    capital of Mali, located in the southwestern part of the country on the Niger River. When occupied for the French in 1880 by Captain Joseph-Simon Gallieni, Bamako was a settlement of a few hundred inhabitants, grouped in villages. It became the capital of the former colony of French Sudan in 1908, four years after the Kayes–Bamako seg...
  • Bamako, University of (university, Bamako, Mali)
    ...secondary school, or lycée, provides the last three years of traditional secondary education. Higher education—geared directly to the needs of the government—is offered by the University of Bamako (1993) and state colleges, which include teacher-training colleges, a college of administration, an engineering institute, an agricultural and veterinary science institute, and a....
  • Bamana (people)
    ethnolinguistic group of the upper Niger region of Mali whose language, Bambara (Bamana), belongs to the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The Bambara are to a great extent intermingled with other tribes, and there is no centralized organization. Each small district, made up of a number of villages, is under...
  • Bamana language
    Many scholars divide Mande into western and eastern groups. The larger western group of 27 languages includes several estimated as having more than a million speakers: Bambara (which has four million), Malinke, Maninka, Mende, Dyula (which is used as a trade language by four million people in northern Côte d’Ivoire and western Burkina Faso), Soninke, and Susu. The smaller eastern gro...
  • Bamangwato (people)
    The Ngwato of east-central Botswana constitute the largest traditional “tribal” state but are probably less than one-fifth ethnic Tswana by origin. The major incorporated ethnic groups are Khalagari, Tswapong and Birwa (both Northern Sotho), and Kalanga (Western Shona). With larger numbers to the east in Zimbabwe, some Kalanga have resisted full incorporation....
  • bamba (dance)
    ...zarabanda of Guatemala. Sometimes the theme of flirtation or female coyness blossoms forth in humorous interludes. Contests of improvisations to la bamba, widely danced in the Mexican Gulf Coast area, also contribute to the merriment of the Veracruz huapango....
  • Bamba M’backe, Amadou (Senegalese poet)
    ...where French continues to be the chief literary language for most writers, especially in Morocco and Algeria. Yet there is no hard and fast rule: a leading member of the Senegal community, Amadou Bamba, who founded the politically important group of the Murīdīs, wrote (quite apart from practical words of wisdom in his mother tongue) some 20,000 mystically tinged verses in......
  • Bambara (people)
    ethnolinguistic group of the upper Niger region of Mali whose language, Bambara (Bamana), belongs to the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The Bambara are to a great extent intermingled with other tribes, and there is no centralized organization. Each small district, made up of a number of villages, is under...
  • Bambara groundnut (plant)
    Notable among the locally useful plants of the legume family is Vigna subterranea (Bambara groundnut), a leguminous plant that develops underground fruits in the arid lands of Africa. Important too are the seeds of Bauhinia esculenta; they are gathered for the high-protein tubers and seeds. Vigna aconitifolia (moth bean) and V. umbellata (rice bean) are......
  • Bambara language
    Many scholars divide Mande into western and eastern groups. The larger western group of 27 languages includes several estimated as having more than a million speakers: Bambara (which has four million), Malinke, Maninka, Mende, Dyula (which is used as a trade language by four million people in northern Côte d’Ivoire and western Burkina Faso), Soninke, and Susu. The smaller eastern gro...
  • Bambara states (historical states, Africa)
    two separate West African states, one of which was based on the town of Ségou, between the Sénégal and Niger rivers, and the other on Kaarta, along the middle Niger (both in present-day Mali). According to tradition, the Segu kingdom was founded by two brothers, Barama Ngolo and Nia Ngolo. Initially little more than marauding robber baron...
  • Bambara, Toni Cade (American author and civil-rights activist)
    American writer, civil-rights activist, and teacher who wrote about the concerns of the African-American community....
  • Bambatana language
    ...languages of note are Motu, in the form of Police Motu (a pidgin), used widely as a lingua franca in Papua New Guinea; Roviana, the language of the Methodist Mission in the Solomon Islands; Bambatana, a literary language used by the Methodists on Choiseul Island; Bugotu, a lingua franca on Santa Isabel (Ysabel Island); Tolai, a widely used missionary language in New Britain and New......
  • Bambatha (African chief)
    ...protest occurred through the new middle-class organizations, however. Some black farmers from Natal refused to pay a poll tax in 1906, and their resistance developed into an armed rising led by Bambatha, a Zulu chief. At the end of this “reluctant rebellion,” between 3,000 and 4,000 blacks had been killed and many thousands imprisoned....
  • Bamberg (Germany)
    city, Bavaria Land (state), south-central Germany. It lies along the canalized Regnitz River, 2 miles (3 km) above the latter’s confluence with the Main River, north of Nürnberg. First mentioned in 902 as the seat of the ancestral castle of the Babenberg family, Bamberg ...
  • Bamberg (county, South Carolina, United States)
    county, south-central South Carolina, U.S. Bordered to the northeast by the South Fork Edisto River and to the southwest by the Salkehatchie River, it is also drained by the Little Salkehatchie River. The county is largely agricultural, with wetlands in the Coastal Plain. The Cathedral Bay Heritage Preserve, a Carolina bay (isolated swampy area), is located there....
  • Bamberg cathedral (cathedral, Bamberg, Germany)
    ...book printed in the German language was published in Bamberg. The city passed to Bavaria in 1802 after the secularization of the see. An archbishopric was established in 1817. Bamberg’s imperial cathedral (1004–1237) contains many notable statues, the tombs of Henry II, his wife, Cunegund, and Pope Clement II, and a wooden altar carved by Veit Stoss. There are two bishops’ ...
  • Bamberger, Ludwig (German economist)
    economist and publicist, a leading authority on currency problems in Germany. Originally a radical, he became a moderate liberal in Bismarck’s Germany....
  • Bambi (work by Salten)
    Austrian novelist and journalist, author of the children’s classic and adult allegory Bambi, a sensitively told subjective story of the life of a wild deer....
  • Bambi (motion picture)
    ...the many lakes and streams afford opportunities for fishing. The picturesque scenery of the area, designated as a national park (1934), inspired the setting for Walt Disney’s film Bambi. Tourism is the main economic activity. Bariloche was the scene of a meeting in 1960 between Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States and Pres. Arturo Frondizi of Argentina...
  • Bambino, Il (Roman statue)
    The church of Sta. Maria d’Aracoeli, built before the 6th century, remade in its present form in the 13th, is lined with columns rifled from Classical buildings. It is the home of “Il Bambino,” a much loved miracle-performing wooden Christ child who is called to save desperately ill children. At Christmas, adorned in jewels given by the grateful, he can be seen in the church...
  • Bambino Mexicano, El (Mexican baseball player)
    professional baseball player with the Mexican League (an affiliate with U.S. Minor League Baseball). Although virtually unknown in the United States, Espino is considered by many in Mexico to be the greatest native-born hitter of all time and is a national hero in that country....
  • Bamboccianti (painting)
    group of painters working in Rome in the mid-17th century who were known for their relatively small, often anecdotal paintings of everyday life. The word derives from the nickname “Il Bamboccio” (“Large Baby”), applied to the physically malformed Dutch painter Pieter van Laer (1592/95–1642). Generally regarded as the originator of the style and...
  • Bamboccio (Dutch artist)
    ...small, often anecdotal paintings of everyday life. The word derives from the nickname “Il Bamboccio” (“Large Baby”), applied to the physically malformed Dutch painter Pieter van Laer (1592/95–1642). Generally regarded as the originator of the style and its most important exponent, van Laer arrived in Rome from Haarlem about 1625 and was soon well known for......
  • bamboo (plant)
    any of the tall, treelike grasses comprising the subfamily Bambusoideae of the family Poaceae. More than 75 genera and 1,000 species of bamboos have been proposed in botanical literature, but many names are synonymous and thus not considered legitimate....
  • Bamboo Annals (Chinese literature)
    set of Chinese court records written on bamboo slips, from the state of Wei, one of the many small states into which China was divided during the Dong (Eastern) Zhou dynasty (770–256 bce). The state records were hidden in a tomb uncovered some 6 miles (10 km) southwest of the present-day city of Weihui in Henan province about 279 ...
  • bamboo bat (genus of mammals)
    ...crevices. The vampire bats may also leap from roost to roost. The disk-winged bats (family Thyropteridae) and sucker-footed bat (one species, family Myzopodidae), as well as the bamboo bats (Tylonycteris), have specialized wrist and sole pads for moving along and roosting on the smooth surface of leaves or bamboo stalks. Bats are not known to swim in nature except, perhaps, by......
  • bamboo palm (plant)
    ...Best known of the feather palms is the paradise palm (Howea, or Kentia), which combines grace with sturdiness; its thick, leathery leaves can stand much abuse. The parlour palms and bamboo palms of the genus Chamaedorea have dainty fronds on slender stalks; they keep well even in fairly dark places. Similar in appearance is the areca palm (Chrysalidocarpus) with......
  • bamboo rat (rodent)
    any of four Asiatic species of burrowing, slow-moving, nocturnal rodents. Bamboo rats have a robust, cylindrical body, small ears and eyes, and short, stout legs. The three species of Rhizomys are 23 to 50 cm (9.1 to 19.7 inches) long with a short and bald or sparsely haired tail (5 to 20 cm). Fur on the upperparts is soft and dense or harsh and scan...
  • bamboo worm (polychaete genus)
    ...biramous; setae all simple; size, 1 to 20 or more cm; examples of genera: Capitella, Notomastus, Arenicola, Maldane, Axiothella.Order FlabelligeridaSedentary; setae of anterior segments directed forward to form a cephalic (head) cage; prostomi...
  • bambuco (dance)
    ...mingle indigenous and African features. The Colombian fandango derives more from Spanish diversions. The national dance, the bambuco, originated in the Andean zone. Male and female partners, waving kerchiefs, enact a courtship mime of pursuing and flirting, combining dignity with sensuousness....
  • Bamburgh (England, United Kingdom)
    coastal village, Berwick-upon-Tweed borough, administrative and historic county of Northumberland, England. The site is dominated by Bamburgh Castle, which stands on a cliff 150 feet (45 metres) above the North Sea. The fortress was founded in the 6th century by Ida, first monarch of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia, and subsequently rema...
  • Bamburgh Castle (castle, Bamburgh, England, United Kingdom)
    coastal village, Berwick-upon-Tweed borough, administrative and historic county of Northumberland, England. The site is dominated by Bamburgh Castle, which stands on a cliff 150 feet (45 metres) above the North Sea. The fortress was founded in the 6th century by Ida, first monarch of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia, and subsequently remained the principal stronghold of the kings of......
  • Bambusa arundinacea (plant)
    ...Chinese cuisines. The raw leaves are a useful fodder for livestock. The pulped fibres of several bamboo species, especially Dendrocalamus strictus and Bambusa arundinacea, are used to make fine-quality paper. The jointed stems of bamboo have perhaps the most numerous uses; the largest stems supply planks for houses and rafts, while both......
  • Bambusoideae (plant)
    any of the tall, treelike grasses comprising the subfamily Bambusoideae of the family Poaceae. More than 75 genera and 1,000 species of bamboos have been proposed in botanical literature, but many names are synonymous and thus not considered legitimate....
  • Bambuti (Pygmy groups)
    a group of Pygmies of the Ituri Forest of eastern Congo (Kinshasa). They are the shortest group of Pygmies in Africa, averaging under 4 feet 6 inches (137 cm) in height, and are perhaps the most famous. In addition to their stature, they also differ in blood type from their Bantu- and Sudanic-speaking agriculturalist neighbours, and they are probably the earli...
  • Bambyce (ancient city, Syria)
    ancient Syrian city, now partly occupied by Manbij (Membij), about 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Aleppo. The place first appears in Greek as Bambyce, but its Syrian name was probably Mabbog. The Seleucids made it the chief station on their main road between Antioch and Seleucia-on-Tigris. As a centre of the worship of the Syrian nature goddess Atargatis, it became known to the Greeks as the Holy ...
  • Bamenda (Cameroon)
    town, northwestern Cameroon. It is situated in the volcanic Bamenda highlands. Although communications are difficult because of heavy rainfall and rugged relief, the town serves as a trade and export centre for local agricultural products such as hides, coffee, and tobacco....
  • Bamford, Samuel (English social reformer and author)
    English radical reformer who was the author of several widely popular poems (principally in the Lancashire dialect) showing sympathy with the condition of the working class. He became a working weaver and earned great respect in northern radical circles as a reformer....
  • Bāmīān (Afghanistan)
    town located in central Afghanistan. It lies about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of Kabul, the country’s capital, in the Bamiyan valley, at an elevation of 8,495 feet (2,590 metres)....
  • Bamileke (people)
    any of about 90 West African peoples in the Bamileke region of Cameroon. They speak a language of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. They do not refer to themselves as Bamileke but instead use the names of the individual kingdoms to which they belong or else refer to themselves as “grasslanders.” Their origin is uncertain, but it appears that under pressure from Fulan...
  • Bamiyan (Afghanistan)
    town located in central Afghanistan. It lies about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of Kabul, the country’s capital, in the Bamiyan valley, at an elevation of 8,495 feet (2,590 metres)....
  • Bammera Pōtana (Indian poet and mystic)
    ...life in Warangal; and Palanāṭi Vīra Caritra, a popular ballad on a fratricidal war. Many erotic cāṭus, or stray epigrams, are also attributed to him. Bammera Pōtana, a great Śaiva devotee in life and poetry, unschooled yet a scholar, is widely known for his Bhāgavatam, a masterpiece that is said to excel the original.....
  • bamot (shrine)
    Israelite or Canaanite open-air shrine usually erected on an elevated site. Prior to the conquest of Canaan (Palestine) by the Israelites in the 12th–11th century bc, the high places served as shrines of the Canaanite fertility deities, the Baals (Lords) and the Asherot (Semitic goddesses). In addition to an altar, matztzevot (stone pillars representing the presence of ...
  • Bamoun (people)
    a West African people speaking a language that is often used as a lingua franca and belongs to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. Their kingdom, with its capital at Foumban in the high western grasslands of Cameroon, is ruled over by a king (mfon) whose position is hereditary within one of the exogamous patrilineal lineages. The mfon rules with the h...
  • Bamoun language
    a West African people speaking a language that is often used as a lingua franca and belongs to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. Their kingdom, with its capital at Foumban (q.v.) in the high western grasslands of Cameroon, is ruled over by a king (mfon) whose position is hereditary within one of the exogamous patrilineal lineages. The mfon rules with the......
  • Bampton (England, United Kingdom)
    a West African people speaking a language that is often used as a lingua franca and belongs to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. Their kingdom, with its capital at Foumban (q.v.) in the high western grasslands of Cameroon, is ruled over by a king (mfon) whose position is hereditary within one of the exogamous patrilineal lineages. The mfon rules with the.........
  • Bampton, John (English clergyman)
    English clergyman who gave his name to one of Protestant Christendom’s most distinguished lectureships, the Bampton lectures at Oxford University....
  • Bampton lectures (lectureship, Oxford University)
    English clergyman who gave his name to one of Protestant Christendom’s most distinguished lectureships, the Bampton lectures at Oxford University....
  • Bamum (people)
    a West African people speaking a language that is often used as a lingua franca and belongs to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. Their kingdom, with its capital at Foumban in the high western grasslands of Cameroon, is ruled over by a king (mfon) whose position is hereditary within one of the exogamous patrilineal lineages. The mfon rules with the h...
  • Bamum language
    a West African people speaking a language that is often used as a lingua franca and belongs to the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family. Their kingdom, with its capital at Foumban (q.v.) in the high western grasslands of Cameroon, is ruled over by a king (mfon) whose position is hereditary within one of the exogamous patrilineal lineages. The mfon rules with the......
  • Bāmyān (Afghanistan)
    town located in central Afghanistan. It lies about 80 miles (130 km) northwest of Kabul, the country’s capital, in the Bamiyan valley, at an elevation of 8,495 feet (2,590 metres)....
  • ban (church discipline)
    ...means of church discipline than could their magisterial counterparts. Social control was more feasible in these smaller and well-defined groups than in the established churches, and “the ban,” a form of excommunication, was used to enforce discipline by expelling members from the congregation of believers and the broader community. The ban was not merely punitive; brotherly......
  • ban (musical instrument)
    ...xiaoluo (small gong without a boss, beaten with a stick or a thin plate), ling (handbells), and ban (woodblock) are sometimes added. Whatever the ensemble’s composition, the drummer is usually the leader....
  • ban (Hungarian official)
    former Hungarian title denoting a governor of a military district (banat) and later designating a local representative of the Hungarian king in outlying possessions, e.g., Bosnia and Croatia. Originally a Persian word, ban was introduced into Europe by the Avars. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia, divided into banovine, or provinces, revived the title and office of ban in October 1929 and u...
  • Ban Biao (Chinese official)
    eminent Chinese official of the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce) who is reported to have begun the famous Han shu (“Book of Han”), considered the Confucian historiographic model on which all later dynastic histories were patterned....
  • Ban Chao (Chinese general)
    Chinese general and colonial administrator of the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce) who reestablished Chinese control over Central Asia....
  • Ban Dainagon ekotoba (Japanese art)
    The Ban Dainagon ekotoba (“Story of the Courtier Ban Dainagon”) narrates the incidents surrounding the arson of a gate at the imperial palace in the mid-9th century. This work of the later 12th century is a masterful blend of technical styles. Movements of tension, suspense, thunderous action, and quiet intrigue are variously expressed by a combination of careful pictorial......
  • Ban Don (Thailand)
    city, southern Thailand, on the Malay Peninsula. Locally the city is called Ban Don. It is a port at the head of the Ta Pi River delta near the Gulf of Thailand and a station on the Bangkok-Singapore railway. The surrounding area is important for its production of tin, fish, rice, and coconuts. The city is an access point to resort islands in the gulf and other nearby tourist attractions. Pop. (20...
  • Ban Gu (Chinese historian)
    Chinese scholar-official of the Dong (Eastern), or Hou (Later), Han dynasty and one of China’s most noteworthy historians. His Han shu (translated as The History of the Former Han Dynasty) became the model most frequently used by later Chinese historians....
  • Ban Ki-moon (South Korean statesman and secretary-general of the United Nations)
    South Korean diplomat and politician, who became the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations (UN) in 2007....
  • Ban Me Thuot (Vietnam)
    largest city in the central highlands, west-central Vietnam. At an elevation of 1,759 feet (536 metres), it lies at the southern end of the Dac Lac Plateau, 55 miles (89 km) north-northwest of Da Lat. It has teacher-training and vocational schools, hospitals, and a commercial airport. There are coffee, tea, and rubber plantations in the surrounding area. Rice is grown in the Kro...
  • Ban on Love, The (opera by Wagner)
    ...one of the actresses of the troupe, Wilhelmine (Minna) Planer, whom he married in 1836. The single performance of his second opera, Das Liebesverbot (The Ban on Love), after Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, was a disaster....
  • Ban Shigeru (Japanese architect)
    Before a catastrophic earthquake devastated the Kobe area in Japan on Jan. 17, 1995, Shigeru Ban was recognized as a rising Japanese architect. He therefore felt he had to help the afflicted people and went to the city in February. By the end of the summer, his relief work had brought to a section of Kobe what was popularly called a paper dome to temporarily replace a ruined Roman Catholic church...
  • ban sith (Celtic folklore)
    (“woman of the fairies”) supernatural being in Irish and other Celtic folklore whose mournful “keening,” or wailing screaming or lamentation, at night was believed to foretell the death of a member of the family of the person who heard the spirit. In Ireland banshees were believed to warn only families of pure Irish descent. The Welsh counterpart, the gwrach y Rhibyn...
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