Gilberto Freyre: The Mansions and the Shanties), Brazil: An Interpretation (1945; rev. and enlarged as New World in the Tropics, 1980), Nordeste (1937; “The Northeast”), and Ordem e progresso (1959; Order and Progress). Sobrados e mucambos traces the processes of urbanization and the decline of the rural…

Sobral, city, northwestern Ceará estado (state), northeastern Brazil, on the Acaraú River. It was given town rank in 1773 and raised to city status in 1841. The city is a commercial, cotton-milling, and agricultural-processing centre; fishing also is important. Railroads and highways link Sobral to

Dukhobor: …the only ceremony being the sobraniye (“meeting”), at which prayers were chanted around a table laid with bread, salt, and water. Their egalitarian and pacifist beliefs, together with their proselytizing activities and refusal to accept conscription, provoked sporadic persecutions from 1773 onward. They were several times deported and resettled in…

Battle of Sobraon, (February 10, 1846), the fourth, last, and decisive battle of the First Sikh War (1845–46). The Sikhs were entrenched on the eastern British-held bank of the Sutlej River, their retreat secured by a bridge of boats. After an intense artillery duel, the Sikh entrenchments were

Judaism: Uriel Acosta: …attested by his Portuguese treatise Sobre a mortalidade da alma (“On the Mortality of the Soul”). He held that the belief in the immortality of the soul has many evil effects and that it impels people to choose an ascetic way of life and even to seek death. According to…

Rosario Castellanos: Her 1950 master’s thesis, Sobre cultura femenina (“On Feminine Culture”), became a turning point for modern Mexican women writers, who found in it a profound call to self-awareness.

Agustín Durán: …criticism was his academy speech, Sobre el influjo que ha tenido la crítica moderna en la decadencia del teatro antiguo español (1828; “On the Influence That Modern Criticism Has Had on the Decadence of the Old Spanish Theatre”), which proposed that Spanish medieval and classical drama was more poetic than…

Ernesto Sábato: …Sobre héroes y tumbas (1961; On Heroes and Tombs), is a penetrating psychological study of man, interwoven with philosophical ideas and observations previously treated in his essays. Tres aproximaciones a la literatura de nuestro tiempo (1968; “Three Approximations to the Literature of Our Time”) are critical literary essays that deal…

nitroglycerin: …1846 by the Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero by adding glycerol to a mixture of concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids. The hazards involved in preparing large quantities of nitroglycerin have been greatly reduced by widespread adoption of continuous nitration processes.

bullfighting: Performers: …and matadors (both are called sobresalientes) are at the ready. Prior to 1974 in Spain, when female bullfighters were not allowed to dismount and kill the bull on foot, a sobresaliente would be called in at the end of the fight to finish off the bull, much to the disappointment…

nickname, an informal name used to replace a formal one, often giving rise to familiar or humorous terms. The word nickname is derived from the Middle English ekename, literally meaning “also-name,” via nekename. Nicknames differ from pseudonyms, which are usually used to conceal one’s identity.

Robert Sobukwe was a South African black nationalist leader. Sobukwe insisted that South Africa be returned to its indigenous inhabitants (“Africa for the Africans”). Charging the African National Congress with being contaminated by non-African influences, he founded the Pan-Africanist Congress in

Robert Sobukwe was a South African black nationalist leader. Sobukwe insisted that South Africa be returned to its indigenous inhabitants (“Africa for the Africans”). Charging the African National Congress with being contaminated by non-African influences, he founded the Pan-Africanist Congress in

soca, Trinidadian popular music that developed in the 1970s and is closely related to calypso. Used for dancing at Carnival and at fetes, soca emphasizes rhythmic energy and studio production—including synthesized sounds and electronically mixed ensemble effects—over storytelling, a quality more

Battle of Caporetto: …an Austro-German offensive on the Isonzo front in northeastern Italy, where the Italian and Austrian forces had been stalemated for two and a half years. In the wake of the successful Austrian and German advance, more than 600,000 war-weary and demoralized Italian soldiers either deserted or surrendered.

socage, in feudal English property law, form of land tenure in which the tenant lived on his lord’s land and in return rendered to the lord a certain agricultural service or money rent. At the death of a tenant in socage (or socager), the land went to his heir after a payment to the lord of a sum

Chevron Corporation, U.S. petroleum corporation that was founded through the 1906 merger of Pacific Oil Company and Standard Oil Company of Iowa. One of the largest oil companies in the world, it acquired Gulf Oil Corporation in 1984, Texaco Inc. in 2001, and Unocal Corporation in 2005. Chevron

history of flight: General aviation: …de Tourisme et d’Affaires, or Socata. The new company continued to build the proven Rallye, a trim two-passenger monoplane, but achieved notable success with its own range of larger, more powerful single-engine business planes with retractable gear. By the 1990s, the performance and reliability of the Socata Tobago and Trinidad…

chickpea: Uses: …make a flatbread known as socca or mixed with wheat or other flours for baking.

football, game in which two teams of 11 players, using any part of their bodies except their hands and arms, try to maneuver the ball into the opposing team’s goal. Only the goalkeeper is permitted to handle the ball and may do so only within the penalty area surrounding the goal. The team that

football: Equipment and field of play: The ball is spherical, covered with leather or some other suitable material, and inflated to a pressure equal to 0.6–1.1 atmospheres (8.5–15.6 pounds per square inch [600–1,100 grams per square cm]) at sea level; it must be 27–28 inches (68–70 cm) in circumference and 14–16 ounces…

football: Equipment and field of play: The playing field (pitch) should be 100–130 yards (90–120 meters) long and 50–100 yards (45–90 meters) wide; for international matches, it must be 110–120 yards (100–110 meters) long and 70–80 yards (64–75 meters) wide. A goal is located at the center of each short side of the field,…

El Salvador: Military dictatorships: …be known as the “Soccer War” with Honduras. This conflict broke out shortly after the two countries had played three bitterly contested matches in the World Cup competition, but the real causes for the war lay elsewhere.

soccus, soft light low-heeled sock shoe worn in ancient Greece and Rome. The actors in Roman comedies, specifically those of Plautus and Terence, were costumed in ordinary clothes and wore (if they did not go barefoot) the socci. Indoors, Roman women often wore socci, made in a variety of colours

soccus, soft light low-heeled sock shoe worn in ancient Greece and Rome. The actors in Roman comedies, specifically those of Plautus and Terence, were costumed in ordinary clothes and wore (if they did not go barefoot) the socci. Indoors, Roman women often wore socci, made in a variety of colours

Ousmane Socé was a Senegalese writer and politician who was one of the first novelists of his country. After attending Qurʾānic school Socé entered the colonial school system and became one of the first African students to obtain a scholarship to study at a French university. While studying

Ousmane Socé was a Senegalese writer and politician who was one of the first novelists of his country. After attending Qurʾānic school Socé entered the colonial school system and became one of the first African students to obtain a scholarship to study at a French university. While studying

Hŏ Ryŏn was a well-known Korean painter and calligrapher. Immensely popular in his time, Hŏ resisted the nationalizing tendency in Korean art, returning instead to the traditional Chinese academic style. His paintings of flowers and trees have special force and rhythm but are unrelated to their

Sochi, city and resort area of Krasnodar kray (territory), southwestern Russia. The city stretches along the Black Sea coast at the foot of the western part of the main Caucasus mountain range. Sochi was established in 1896 on the site of the former Navaginskoye fort and began developing as a

Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, athletic festival held in Sochi, Russia, that took place February 7–23, 2014. The Sochi Games were the 22nd occurrence of the Olympic Winter Games. The Sochi Games marked the first time that the Winter Olympics were held in Russia. The country had previously been

Sōchō was a Japanese renga (“linked-verse”) poet and chronicler of the late Muromachi period (1338–1573) who, along with two other renga poets, wrote Minase sangin hyakuin (1488; Minase Sangin Hyakuin: A Poem of One Hundred Links Composed by Three Poets at Minase). Little is known of Sōchō’s early

Sochi, city and resort area of Krasnodar kray (territory), southwestern Russia. The city stretches along the Black Sea coast at the foot of the western part of the main Caucasus mountain range. Sochi was established in 1896 on the site of the former Navaginskoye fort and began developing as a

Talcott Parsons: …a common systematic theory of social action based on a voluntaristic principle—i.e., the choices between alternative values and actions must be at least partially free. Parsons defined the locus of sociological theory as residing not in the internal field of personality, as postulated by Sigmund Freud and Weber, but in…

Liberal Democrats, British political party founded in 1988 through a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP). In the middle ground between the dominant Labour Party and Conservative Party, the Liberal Democrats occupy a centre-left libertarian position. The Liberals became

Salo Wittmayer Baron: …compiling the multivolume magnum opus A Social and Religious History of the Jews (1937), originally published in three volumes but later revised and expanded into 18 volumes.

anthropology: Social anthropology: The term social anthropology emerged in Britain in the early years of the 20th century and was used to describe a distinctive style of anthropology—comparative, fieldwork-based, and with strong intellectual links to the sociological ideas of Émile Durkheim and the group of French…

social anxiety disorder (SAD), a type of anxiety disorder characterized by a fear of interacting with people, due to worries over the possibility of being negatively scrutinized and judged by them. Social anxiety disorder (SAD) was once referred to as social phobia; however, the label of “phobia,”

bee: Social bees, such as the bumblebee and the honeybee, feed their young progressively. For the life cycle of social bees, see bumblebee; honeybee.

animal social behaviour, the suite of interactions that occur between two or more individual animals, usually of the same species, when they form simple aggregations, cooperate in sexual or parental behaviour, engage in disputes over territory and access to mates, or simply communicate across

mental disorder: Antisocial personality disorder: …of chronic and continuous antisocial behavior that involves violating the rights of others. Job performance is poor or nonexistent. The disorder is associated with actions such as persistent criminality, sexual promiscuity or aggressive sexual behavior, and drug use. There is evidence of conduct disorder in childhood and antisocial behavior in…

eugenics: Eugenics organizations and legislation: …the United States by the American Eugenics Society.

The Social Cancer, novel by Filipino political activist and author José Rizal, published in 1887. The book, written in Spanish, is a sweeping and passionate unmasking of the brutality and corruption of Spanish rule in the Philippines (1565–1898). The story begins at a party to welcome Crisóstomo

social capital, concept in social science that involves the potential of individuals to secure benefits and invent solutions to problems through membership in social networks. Social capital revolves around three dimensions: interconnected networks of relationships between individuals and groups

caste, any of the ranked, hereditary, endogamous social groups, often linked with occupation, that together constitute traditional societies in South Asia, particularly among Hindus in India. Although sometimes used to designate similar groups in other societies, the “caste system” is uniquely

social change, in sociology, the alteration of mechanisms within the social structure, characterized by changes in cultural symbols, rules of behaviour, social organizations, or value systems. Throughout the historical development of their discipline, sociologists have borrowed models of social

social identity theory: Strategies for status improvement: …belief system, known as the social change belief system, holds that changes in social relations depend on groups modifying their positions relative to each other. Status security depends on the perceived stability and legitimacy of existing status differences between groups. Stability and legitimacy tend to mutually influence each other: when…

impossibility theorem: It was first formulated in Social Choice and Individual Values (1951) by Kenneth J. Arrow, who was awarded (with Sir John R. Hicks) the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1972 partially in recognition of his work on the theorem. As a central element of rational choice theory, which attempts to…

rational choice theory, school of thought based on the assumption that individuals choose a course of action that is most in line with their personal preferences. Rational choice theory is used to model human decision making, especially in the context of microeconomics, where it helps economists

Henri, Count Carton de Wiart: …the Catholic Party as the Social Christian Party. Serving as minister without portfolio (1949–50) and minister of justice (1950), he devoted much effort to an unsuccessful attempt to return the exiled Belgian king Leopold III to power.

Luis Herrera Campíns: …party, also known as the Christian Democrats, became the second largest political party in Venezuela (after the Democratic Action party) in the decades after World War II. In 1952 Herrera Campíns was arrested and sent into exile as a result of his activities against the dictatorial regime of President Marcos…

Costa Rica: Political process: …often than not, and the Social Christian Unity Party (Partido Unidad Social Cristiana; PUSC). The former, founded by the moderate socialist José Figueres Ferrer in 1948, was largely responsible for establishing the health, education, and welfare reforms for which Costa Rica is noted. The PUSC, a four-party coalition formed in…

social class, a group of people within a society who possess the same socioeconomic status. Besides being important in social theory, the concept of class as a collection of individuals sharing similar economic circumstances has been widely used in censuses and in studies of social mobility. The

psychology: Social cognitive neuroscience: The advances described above led to the development in the early years of the 21st century of a new, highly popular field: social cognitive neuroscience (SCN). This interdisciplinary field asks questions about topics traditionally of interest to social psychologists, such as person…

Albert Bandura: Later life and work: …and through social modeling—thereby originating social cognitive theory (1986), which holds that a person’s environment, cognition, and behaviour all interact to determine how that person functions, as opposed to one of those factors playing a dominant role.

Leon Festinger: Social comparison theory: After Lewin’s death in 1947, the Research Center for Group Dynamics, with most of its remaining faculty, moved to the University of Michigan. In 1951 Festinger moved to a tenure-track position at the University of Minnesota, where Schachter was already on the…

E.O. Wilson: …papers and, at length, in The Social Conquest of Earth (2012). He argued that the evolution of eusociality occurred at the level of the group—regardless of genetic relation—prior to occurring at the kinship and individual levels. By his reasoning, the emergence of eusocial animals such as ants (and, arguably, humans)…

ethnic conflict: Theories of ethnic identity: …school of thought, known as social constructivism, focus on the social nature of ethnic identity. In their view, ethnicity is neither fixed nor entirely open. Ethnic identity is created by social interactions between individuals and groups and remains therefore beyond a person’s choice, but it is subject to change if…

social contract, in political philosophy, an actual or hypothetical compact, or agreement, between the ruled or between the ruled and their rulers, defining the rights and duties of each. In primeval times, according to the theory, individuals were born into an anarchic state of nature, which was

The Social Contract, major work of political philosophy by the Swiss-born French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78). Du Contrat social (1762; The Social Contract) is thematically continuous with two earlier treatises by Rousseau: Discours sur les sciences et les arts (1750; A Discourse on

Edward A. Ross: His best-known work, Social Control (1901), on the reasons for and the means of societal limitation of the individual, was long regarded as a classic. Another widely read book by Ross was Social Psychology (1908), one of the first American works written specifically on that discipline. Sin and…

paternalism: …between individual liberty and authoritative social control. Questions concerning paternalism also may include both the claims of individual rights and social protections and the legal and socially legitimated means of satisfying those claims. The discursive use of the term paternalism is almost exclusively negative, employed to diminish specific policies or…

Clifford Douglas: …originator of the theory of Social Credit.

Social Credit Party (Socred), minor Canadian political party founded in 1935 by William Aberhart in Alberta and based on British economist Clifford Douglas’s Social Credit theory. By the late 1930s the party had virtually abandoned Douglas’s theories; it now advocates such policies as employee

dance: Music: Social dance is nearly always accompanied by music, which not only helps to keep the dancers in time with each other but also increases the power and excitement of the dance, encouraging the dancers to abandon themselves to their movements. Sometimes individual dances have developed…

social Darwinism, the theory that human groups and races are subject to the same laws of natural selection as Charles Darwin perceived in plants and animals in nature. According to the theory, which was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the weak were diminished and their cultures

Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), centre-left Brazilian political party. It is particularly strong among Brazil’s middle classes and nonradical leftist intellectuals. The Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) was formed in 1988 by leftist congressional members of the Party of the

social democracy, political ideology that originally advocated a peaceful evolutionary transition of society from capitalism to socialism using established political processes. In the second half of the 20th century, there emerged a more moderate version of the doctrine, which generally espoused

Romania: The revolution of 1989: …and Iliescu’s supporters formed the Democratic National Salvation Front (DNSF). The party maintained its political dominance, as evidenced by its successes in parliamentary and presidential elections held in September and October 1992, in which Iliescu was reelected and his party emerged as the largest in the parliament. A loose coalition…

Poland: Accommodation with the ruling governments: Opposing such views was the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, the forerunner of Polish communism. Its leading theorist, Rosa Luxemburg, argued that national independence would not promote the interests of the proletariat, who were integrated economically into the three partitioning states.

Mikhail Bakunin: London and Marx: …his followers in a semisecret Social Democratic Alliance, which he conceived as a revolutionary avant-garde within the International. The First International was unable to contain both of the two powerful and incompatible personalities, and at a congress in 1872 at The Hague, Marx, by an intrigue that had little relation…

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir: …the coalition formally became the Social Democratic Alliance.

Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), nationalist political party in Northern Ireland, distinguished from the province’s other leftist and Republican groups by its commitment to political and nonviolent means of uniting Northern Ireland with the republic of Ireland. The party’s leader from

Turkey: The Kurdish conflict: …of İsmet İnönü, led the Social Democratic and Populist Party (SDPP; founded 1985), which gained one-fourth of the vote. Erbakan’s new Welfare Party (WP; an Islamic party) and Türkeş’s right-wing National Endeavour Party (NEP) also took part, although they failed to obtain at least 10 percent of the vote and…

Hendricus Sneevliet: In 1914 he founded the Social Democratic Association, whose members were socialists of varying degrees of radicalism. After the party split in 1917, Sneevliet led its more revolutionary wing. His party gained a strong hold over the Semarang railway union, and its members worked their way into the Sarekat Islām…

William Morris: Iceland and socialism: Henry Mayers Hyndman’s Democratic (later Social Democratic) Federation and began his tireless tours of industrial areas to spread the gospel of socialism. He was considerately treated by the authorities, even when leading a banned demonstration to London’s Trafalgar Square on “Bloody Sunday” (November 13, 1887), when the police, supported by…

John Hume: …was the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in Northern Ireland from 1979 to 2001. He served in the British Parliament from 1983 to 2005 and the European Parliament from 1979 to 2004; he was a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 to 2000. In…

Pieter Jelles Troelstra: …and poet, who founded the Social Democratic Labour Party and headed the Dutch labour movement from 1894 to 1924.

organized labour: From World War I to 1968: The institutionalization of unions and collective bargaining: …the electoral victory of the Social Democrats in 1932 paved the way for the first successful attempt to achieve full employment by Keynesian means under political democracy and free collective bargaining within a capitalist economy. After intense industrial and social conflict in the 1920s, the Social Democrats were able to…

20th-century international relations: Growing tensions and German isolation: …resentment tended to increase the socialist vote, and the other parties could command a majority only by banding together.

Pieter Jelles Troelstra: …newspaper editor, Troelstra joined the Social Democratic League in 1890. When a split developed in the Socialist ranks between Anarchists and a coalition of moderate Marxists and parliamentarians, he formed the Social Democratic Labour Party in August 1894 to reflect moderate views. By 1900 his party controlled the Socialist labour…

Madagascar: The French Union (1946–58): …Vice-Premier Philibert Tsiranana founded the Social Democratic Party (Parti Social Démocrate; PSD), which, though most of its members were non-Merina from the coastal areas, offered to cooperate with the Merina. In 1958 France agreed to let its overseas territories decide their own fate. In a referendum on September 28, Madagascar…

Romania: New constitution: …PDSR was reorganized as the Social Democratic Party (Partidul Social Democrat; PSD). In 2004 it was ousted from power by another centre-right coalition of parties, including the Democratic Party (Partidul Democrat; PD), whose Traian Băsescu was elected president.

Jiang Kanghu: The Chinese Socialist Party developed in 1912 in Shanghai from a study society he had started, and under his leadership the party quickly established 250 branches in other Chinese cities, with a membership of perhaps 20,000. However, in 1913 Pres. Yuan Shikai suppressed the party, and…

Estonia: Political process: …includes many former communists; the Social Democratic Party; and the Estonian Greens.

Iceland: Political developments: …Party and the more leftist Social Democratic Party that ruled from 1959 to 1971 and the other a partnership between the Independence Party and the agrarian-liberal Progressive Party that governed from 1995 until 2007.

Hungary: Postwar confusion and reconstruction: …resentment extended also to the Social Democrats and even to Liberal democracy.

Kenya: Political process: …1997 a woman, representing the Social Democratic Party, ran for president—a first for Kenya—and received almost 8 percent of the vote. However, at the legislative level, women constituted less than 10 percent of the National Assembly in the early 21st century. That changed after the 2010 constitution came into effect,…

Thorvald Stauning: After leading the Social Democratic Party to its greatest electoral victory in 1935, Stauning benefitted from improving economic conditions in the late 1930s. He failed in 1939, however, to gain a constitutional reform to create a unicameral parliamentary system. Although his government signed a nonaggression treaty with Germany…

Social Democratic Party (SDP), short-lived British political party that was formed in 1981 by a faction of the Labour Party in reaction to Labour’s domination by leftists and trade-union representatives. The Social Democrats claimed a central position within the British political spectrum, hoping

Switzerland: Political process: >Social Democratic Party, the Christian Democratic People’s Party, and the Swiss People’s Party (Centre Democratic Union). These parties have combined to retain comfortable majorities in the National Council (often winning more than four-fifths of the seats) and generally have contributed all the members of the…

Norway: Political process: The Norwegian Labour Party (Det Norske Arbeiderparti; DNA), the ruling party from before World War II until the mid-1960s, advocates a moderate form of socialism. In its many years of governing Norway, however, it nationalized only a few large industrial companies. The Conservative Party (Høyre), which…

José Manuel Barroso: Barroso joined Portugal’s centre-right Social Democratic Party (Partido Social Democrata; PSD) in 1980. When the party’s Aníbal Cavaco Silva was elected prime minister in 1985, he appointed Barroso undersecretary of state for the home affairs ministry. Two years later Barroso moved to secretary of state for the ministry of…

Austria: Political process: The centre-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs; SPÖ; until 1991 the Socialist Party) was founded in 1945. It is a successor of the original Social Democratic Party (founded in 1889), which was a driving force in the establishment of the First Austrian Republic in…

Schutzbund: …workers’ guards by the Austrian Social Democratic Party, of which the Schutzbund remained an adjunct. It was also descended from the People’s Guard of 1918, a Social Democratic weapon against the Communists; it considered as its main objective the protection of a social reform program hated by Austria’s conservative bourgeois…

Finland: Domestic affairs: …the main opposition parties—either the Social Democrats, who finished second with 42 seats, or the anti-immigrant, Euroskeptic True Finn Party, which proved to be the election’s biggest surprise as it vaulted from the five seats it won in the 2007 election to 39 seats and third place in 2011.

Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Germany’s oldest political party and one of the country’s two main parties (the other being the Christian Democratic Union). It advocates the modernization of the economy to meet the demands of globalization, but it also stresses the need to address the

Social Democratic Party of Japan (SDPJ), leftist party in Japan that supports an evolving socialized economy and a neutralist foreign policy. Japan’s first socialist parties appeared in the mid-1920s; moderate factions of the country’s labour movement combined to form the Social Mass Party (Shakai

Social Democratic Party of Switzerland, Swiss political party of the centre-left that supports an extensive government role in the economy. With the Christian Democratic People’s Party, FDP. The Liberals, and the Swiss People’s Party, the Social Democratic Party has governed Switzerland as part of

Chile: Government: …of Chile’s strongest parties; the Social Democratic Radical Party (Partido Radical Social Demócrata; PRSD), which was formerly known as the Radical Party (the centrist PRSD drifted to the left after 1965, was repressed in 1973, but made a comeback in the mid-1990s under its new name); the Socialist Party of…

Social Democratic Party of Germany: History: …by Ferdinand Lassalle, and the Social Democratic Workers’ Party, headed by August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht. In 1890 it adopted its current name, the Social Democratic Party of Germany. The party’s early history was characterized by frequent and intense internal conflicts between so-called revisionists and orthodox Marxists and by persecution…