wave train:

(aka wave packet)  In physics a short "burst" or envelope of localized wave action that travels as a unit. 

 

physiognomic identification:

assessment of character or personality from a person's outer appearance, especially the face; also used to refer to the general appearance of a person, object, or terrain without reference to its implied characteristics (e.g. the physiognomy of an individual plant or of a plant community).

Aryans:

term used by the Indic people of the Vedic period in India as an ethnic label for themselves & the noble class as well as the region where Indo-Aryan culture was based.  Western scholars in the 19th century draw on references in the Rig Veda where the term "Aryan" was adopted as a racial category.  By the 1880s a number of linguists & anthropologists beleived that the "Aryans" themselves had originated somewhere in northern Europe.

 

Mongols: * see Endnote 6

E-Central Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, bound together by a common heritage, ethnic identity & language. Chinese historical texts trace the Mongolic back to the Donghu, a nomadic confederation occupying eastern Mongolia and Manchuria. They have been linked to the Xiongnu.

​

Germans:  * see Endnote 7

(aka Teutonic, Suebian, or Gothic) an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of N. European origin; identified by their use of Germanic languages.  Emerged as a political force in first century BC, they would eventually encroach on the Roman Empire & finally bring it down.  Along with the Franks they played a major role in early Medieval Europe.

​

Kelts:

see Introduction page 34 see Endnote

​

Parthians:

see Introduction page 34

​

Franks: * see Endnote 8

collection of Germanic peoples, first mentioned in 3rd century BC Roman sources; associated with tribes of the Lower & Middle Rhine, on the edge of the Roman Empire.  The name is also associated with Romanized Germanic dynasties in the collapsing Roman Empire; they would eventually command the region between the Loire & Rhine & come to dominate many other post-Roman kingdoms & Germanic peoples.  The Church recognized them as successors to the Romans of the Western Empire.

 

Carthaginians: * see Endnote 9
civilization established by Phoenicians, whose capital was the city-state of Carthage; between the 7th-3rd centuries BC established the Carthaginian Empire, extending over much of the coast of N. Africa, parts of coastal Iberia & islands of the W. Mediterranean.

​

Berber:

an ethnic group indigenous to N Africa, inhabiting the Maghreb.  Initially (about 2000 BC) they spread westward from the Nile across the northern Sahara into the Maghreb.  By the 1st millennium BC they inhabited this region.  Historically, they spoke Berber languages & were encountered by the Greeks, Carthaginians & Romans.  Eventually they established Berber kingdoms under Carthaginian & later Roman influence.  Two of these, Numidia & Mauretania, were incorporated into the Roman Empire (late 2nd century BC).  Several other such kingdoms rose & fell until they were suppressed by the Arabs in the 7th & 8th centuries AD.  The Arabs enlisted Berber warriors for the conquest of Spain & unified the indigenous groups under Islam.  This provided the ideological stimulus for the rise of fresh Berber dynasties.  Between the 11th-13th centuries, the greatest of those, the Almoravids & Almohads, nomads of the Sahara &villagers of the High Atlas, conquered Muslim Spain & N. Africa as far east as Tripoli (Libya).  Their Berber successors in Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia ruled until the 16th century

​

Bantu:

People originating in Africa, speakers of a common Proto-Bantu language.  Began migrating from W. Africa, travelling in 2 waves, the first about 1500 BC, across the Congo forest region; the 2nd circa 500 BC.  Migration went down 2 pathways, one stream into East Africa, the other going south along the African coast of Gabon or inland along the many south-to-north rivers of the Congo. They reached South Africa, as early as 300 AD.

 

Civilization:

Spengler makes a distinction between Culture and Civilization; following a Culture’s birth, Spring & Summer (becoming), it begins a descent towards death (become), as such it is a civilization.

 

Egypticism:

term used by Nietzsche, in decrying philosophers, their tendency to kill through over-analysis, to suck the life out, turn something living into a corpse, refusing to see it as becoming, alive and organic, but rather dead.

 

Byzantinism:

political system and culture of the Byzantine Empire, the term was coined in the 19th century & has primarily negative associations, implying complexity and autocracy.  This negative reputation stressed the confusing convolutions of the Empire's ministries & the elaborateness of its court ceremonies.   It also suggests a penchant for intrigue, plots & assassinations, an overall unstable political state of affairs.

 

Mandarinism:

A government by mandarins; character or spirit of the mandarins; a Chinese mandarin government; in the Chinese Empire, a mandarin was a member of one of the 9 ranks of high officials, each rank distinguished by a characteristic jeweled button worn on the cap; a member of any elite group; leading intellectual, political figure, sometimes one who is pompous or arbitrary.