Glossary

Definitions of terms used throughout CountryReports.

This glossary contains 1,144 terms used throughout CountryReports — political, economic, cultural, historical, and geographic terminology referenced in country profiles and articles. Terms are drawn from authoritative sources including the Library of Congress.

Adae: Akan sacred day. According to the traditional lunar calendar, an Adae day occurs every fortnight.
Asafo: Traditional Akan men’s association and originally fighting companies.
aymag: Provincial-level or second-level unit of administration in Mongolia since 1921. Aymags are divided into somon (q.v.). Traditionally, an aymag was a tribe.
Brahman(s): From the Sanskrit brahmana, one of four major caste groups (varna) or social classes. Brahmans are the highest caste group, traditionally made up of priests, philosophers, scholars, and religious leaders. Not to be confused with brahman (q.v., the Absolute Reality).
Central America: Here used in a geographic sense. Central America is considered to be the entire isthmus between Mexico and Colombia, including present-day Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. A more traditional political view of the term, most often used in the region itself, is that Central America encompasses only the five successor states to the United Provinces of Central America (1821-38): Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
chungin: The ""middle people""--a small group of technicians and administrators in traditional Korea, subordinate to the yangban (q.v.), that included astronomers, physicians, interpreters, legal; specialists, and artists.
Constituent Assembly: A deliberative body made up of elected delegates who are charged with the responsibility of drafting a new constitution and, in some instances, electing a new president. Traditionally, after it has completed its work a Constituent Assembly reverts to a Legislative Assembly (traditional title of Salvadoran legislatures), which then serves as the country’s legislative body until the next scheduled elections.
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon): Also abbreviated CEMA and CMEA, the organization was established in 1949 to promote economic cooperation among socialist bloc countries and is headquartered in Moscow. Its members as of 1989 included the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Poland, Mongolia, Romania, and Vietnam. Mongolia, the first non-European member, joined Comecon in 1962 and has traditionally been a supplier of raw materials to the Soviet Union.
Durava: Sinhalese lower, minority caste who traditionally worked as toddy tappers.
Goyigama, Govi: Highest Sinhalese (cultivator) caste. Traditional ruling caste and leaders of established order, comprising at least half of the Sinhalese population. Agriculturalists, now challenged for status by Karavas (q.v.).
Inner Mongolia: The southern part of traditional Mongolia; during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), comprised the provinces of Suiyuan, Qahar, and Rehol; the present-day Nei Monggol Autonomous Region of China (Outer Mongolia, q.v.).
Kazakh: Turkic-speaking, traditionally Muslim ethnic group of pastoralists, living in the Soviet Union, northwestern China, and western Mongolia.
Lao Sung: Literally translated as the Laotian of the mountain top--those who traditionally live in the high altitudes in northern Laos. In official use, term denotes a category of ethnic groups that speak Tibeto-Burmese, Miao-Yao languages; chiefly the Hmong (q.v.) (Meo) group of highland or upland minorities but also the Mien (Yao) and Akha. According to the 1985 census, these groups make up approximately 10 percent of the population.
Lao Theung: Literally, Laotian of the mountain slopes; group--including Kammu, Loven, and Lamet--that traditionally lives in medium altitudes, practices swidden, or slash-and-burn-agriculture, and speaks Mon-Khmer languages and dialects. According to the 1985 census, approximately 24 percent of the population. Regarded as original inhabitants of Laos, formally referred to by ethnic Lao as kha, or slave.
latifundios: Large estates held as private property, which may be farmed as plantations, by tenant sharecroppers, or as traditional haciendas. The latifundio system (latifundismo) is a pattern of land ownership based on latifundios owned by local gentry, absentee landlords, and domestic or foreign corporations.
Maghrib: The western Islamic world (northwest Africa); distinguished from the Mashriq, or eastern Islamic world (the Middle East). Literally, ""the time and place of the sunset--the west."" For its Arab conquerors, the region was the ""island of the west"" (jazirat al maghrib), the land between the ""sea of sand"" (the Sahara) and the Mediterranean Sea. Traditionally includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripolitania (in Libya); more recently some sources have treated Mauritania as part of the region. Also transliterated as Maghreb.; Source: Library of Congress
Maghrib (adj. Maghribian): The western Islamic world (northwest Africa); distinguished from the Mashriq or eastern Islamic world (the Middle East). Traditionally includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and what is now Libya. Literally, ""the time or place of the sunset--the west."" For its Arab conquerors, the region was the ""island of the west"" (jazirat al maghrib), the land between the ""sea of sand"" (Sahara) and the Mediterranean Sea. Also translated as Maghreb.
Maronites: The largest Christian sect in Lebanon, the Maronite Church is one of a group of Christian churches known as Uniate, which are in full communion with the Holy See in Rome but are separately organized and adhere to an Eastern rite. Maronites settled in the mountains of northern Lebanon in the mid-seventh century; many continue to live there and in East Beirut. Maronites traditionally have looked to the West for cultural inspiration. Maronites tend to be better educated and wealthier than other segments of Lebanese society. By custom, the president of the republic is a Maronite.
middle belt: Traditionally an ethnic and political zone stretching from east to west across the central section of Nigeria and inhabited by many minor ethnic groups who had been unable to obtain significant political influence because of long-term dominance by the Hausa-Fulani and Kanuri emirates. As used by economists and geographers, the term does not always coincide with ethnic and political divisions but usually designates the area between the characteristic northern and southern economies; in this context the area extends roughly from 7o30’N to 11oN. Since the civil war of 1967-70 and the replacement of the former administrative regions by states, use of the term has diminished among Nigerians who wish to downplay the regional connotation formerly attached to it.
muhafazaat (sing., muhafazat): Governorates into which Libya’s three traditional regions were divided in 1963. Each was headed by a governor (muhafiz). The muhafazat were abolished in 1975.
Nonaligned Movement: Established in September 1961 with the aim of promoting the concept of political and military nonalignment (q.v.) apart from the traditional East and West blocs. India was among the original members. The Nonaligned Movement in 1995 included 107 members plus the Palestine Liberation Organization, twenty-one observer nations and organizations, and twenty-one ""guest"" nations.
Outer Mongolia: The name applied to the northern part of traditional Mongolia during the period of Manchu control (1691-1911) and commonly in Western literature thereafter.
p'a: The lineage, a kinship unit consisting of all descendants of a common male ancestor who, in many cases, was the founder of a village. Some p’a contain thousands of households-- chip (q.v.)--and members conduct ceremonies at the common ancestral gravesite. In some villages or hamlets in traditional Korea, many or most of the people were members of the same p’a.
Primary exports: Peru’s traditional primary goods exports, as opposed to manufactured exports, included cotton, sugar, copper, silver, lead, zinc, and oil.
pukpang chongch'aek: Also seen as Nordpolitik, or northern policy. Reconciling traditional ties with the West with new opportunities in the east; establishing self-reliant global posture; expanding and diversifying trade relations on global scale to cope with trade protectionism from the United States; improving relations with P’yongyang.
sangha: The total community of bhikkus (q.v.), or Buddhist monks, in the broadest and most abstract sense; the sangha is composed of all Buddhist sects and residential communities and is the traditional Buddhist elite.
sharia: Traditional code of Islamic law, both civil and criminal, based in part on the Quran (q.v.). Also drawn from the hadith (q.v.); the consensus of Islamic belief (ijma; i.e., concensus of the authorities on a legal question); and analogy (qiyas; i.e., an elaboration of the intent of law).
Sunni(s): The second largest Muslim sect in Lebanon. After Muhammad’s death, those followers who supported a traditional method of election based on community agreement became known as Sunnis; those who supported Ali as successor became known as Shias (q.v.). Sunnis primarily inhabit parts of West Beirut, the south-central coast, and the north. By custom, the prime minister is a Sunni.
suq: Traditional North African bazaarlike open-air market.
TBA.: Traditional Birth Attendant.
teff (eragrostis abyssinica): A cereal indigenous to Ethiopia, to which its consumption is almost entirely confined. It is the most widely grown grain in the highlands, where its flour is preferred in the making of the unleavened bread injera, the traditional form of cereal intake.
Tonghak (Eastern Learning) Movement: Refers to an indigenous religious movement founded by Ch’oe Che-u in the early 1860s that brought together elements of traditional Korean and Christian religious beliefs and was the antecedent of Ch’ndogyo (q.v.).
Torah: The first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; often called the Pentateuch or the Law of Moses. In a broader sense, the entire body of traditional religious teaching and study.
tumen: Traditional Mongol military unit, roughly equivalent to a modern division, comprising 10,000 troops and their families.
Uighurs: Inner Asian ethnic group of oasis-dwelling, Turkic-speaking, traditionally Muslim agriculturalists resident largely in northwest China’s Xinjiang-Uygur Autonomous Region.
Vellala: Highest Tamil (cultivator) caste, the members of which traditionally dominated local commercial and educational elites and whose values had strong influence on Tamils of other castes. The group comprises more than half of the Tamil population.
yangban: The scholar-official ruling class of traditional Korea, distinguished for its knowledge of neo-Confucianism and its monopoly of high government positions; more broadly, families with lineages descended from scholar-officials, and scholars who had passed the civil service examinations even though they had not secured an official post.
yeshiva (pl., yeshivot): Traditional rabbinical school for the study of Talmud (q.v.).
zemecha: Amharic for ""campaign,"" in the military sense; popular term used to denote the military government’s Development Through Cooperation Campaign, which was launched as part of the initial land reform in 1975. Early implementation included forced mobilization of university and secondary school students to explain the socialist revolution, including land reform, to peasants and to improve their traditionally low literacy rate. The term ""green"" zemecha was used to describe the agricultural aspects of the National Revolutionary Development Campaign in 1979.