Autor: Kathleen Kuiper

There was a time when people assumed that the world was flat. Once an alternate theory was proposed, however, that conceit was challenged and, eventually, disproved. In short, theories and ideas can …

The many followers of Islam are spread around the globe from traditional lands in the Middle East and parts of Africa to metropolitan European cities. This extremely varied group of people neverthele …

Reverberations of China’s diversity and multiethnic heritage are visible in everything from the cuisine and languages to the beliefs and arts of the vast nation. In addition to linking the Chinese to …

Heir to a diverse array of traditions, the Indian subcontinent boasts customs that are distinguished by a constant juxtaposition of the ancient and the modern. The omnibus culture that has resulted f …

Echoes of ancient Roman concepts of governance, law, and society still ring throughout the world today. A stranger to neither war nor wealth, ancient Rome was shaped as much by strife as it was by pr …

Celebrated for numerous developments in the areas of law, writing, religion, and mathematics, Mesopotamia has been immortalized as the cradle of civilization. Its fabled cities, including Babylon and …

From Archaic times to the reign of Alexander the Great, Greek unity was tenuous, yet Ancient Greece was a place where culture flourished and intellectual achievement knew no bounds. Ancient Greek ide …

Home to some of the most remarkable feats of engineering as well as awe-inspiring natural vistas, ancient Egypt was a land of great promise fulfilled. Its pyramids, writing systems, and art all preda …

From the Mayan calendar to the Toltec architecture at Chichen Itza, the bequests of ancient Mesoamerican civilizations have endured long after the societies that created them declined. The intellectu …

Even as contact with European cultures eroded indigenous lifestyles across North America, many Native American groups found ways to preserve the integrity of their communities through the arts, custo …

Verse and drama have provided outlets for emotive expression and the creative impulse for centuries. Poignant, inspiring, and thought-provoking, plays and poems spoken or written in any language help …

Narratives come in many forms, fall into many genres, and tell the stories of an endless assortment of characters. Despite recurring themes and conceits in works from around the world, each story-fro …

The geographically distinct American territories of California, the Great Basin, and the Southwest have long sustained a variety of indigenous peoples, including the Miwok, Comanche, and Navajo, resp …

The indigenous peoples of North America and Greenland have long inhabited and thrived in a variety of terrains and climates. The three different culture areas of the Arctic, American Subarctic, and A …

Sharing a number of traditions and practices, the Native American tribes of the Northeast and Southeast regions of the United States are sometimes considered as a single culture area known as the Eas …

The use of horses has perhaps most dramatically shaped the way of life for Native American tribes in the Plateau and Plains regions of North America, but the practices and traditions of both culture …

The score of Western music was writ large during the Renaissance. Secular music rivaled church music for prominence, harmonic lines intertwined and changed music forever with the emergence of polypho …

Some of the world’s most celebrated works of art-the Mona Lisa and The Birth of Venus, to name just two-were produced during the period of cultural reawakening known as the Renaissance. Painters of t …

Before Shakespeare, few dramatists had used historical figures as characters in a play, or actual historical events as elements of a plot. Likewise, the Bard was a pioneer of the sonnet, which he too …

As with many writers before and since, William Shakespeare was influenced by the events that took shape all around him. Sweeping changes to England’s politics, language, and culture that took place d …

Shakespeare’s gift for writing tragedies was powerful indeed. His ability to create epic tragic characters-think Hamlet, Lear, and the star-crossed Romeo and Juliet-and scenarios is virtually unrival …

In Shakespeare’s time, the term "comedy" did not necessarily denote something funny or amusing. Rather, through such plays such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merchant of Venice, the …

Since ancient times, storytelling has been a valued art form that enables traditions, beliefs, and lessons to be transmitted from one generation to the next. Epics such as Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’ …

Starting at the dawn of the 20th century, writers began experimenting with literary styles as never before. As perhaps the most far-reaching movement, Modernism swept across both the United States an …