Mix, Tom orig. Thomas Hezikiah Mix (b. Jan. 6, 1880, Mix Run, Pa., U.S.—d. Oct. 12, 1940, near Florence, Ariz.) U.S. film actor. He worked as a cowhand and a deputy sheriff and served in the army and in the Texas Rangers before joining a Wild West show in 1906. He made his screen debut as a roughriding hero in 1910 and soon became a star of silent westerns. Over the years his horse, Tony, became almost as famous as Mix himself. Mix appeared in more than 200 one- and two-reelers and feature films, many of which he also produced or directed. His career declined with the coming of sound.
Mixco\'mesh-ko\City (pop., 1994: 209,791), south-central Guatemala. It is a western suburb of Guatemala City and supplies the capital with produce.
Mixtec \mes-'tek\ Indian population in southern Mexico. They attained a high degree of civilization in Aztec and pre-Aztec times, leaving behind written records. Today they practice shifting cultivation and also hunt, fish, herd, and gather wild foods. Their crafts include ceramics and weav¬ ing. Nominally Roman Catholic and active in church brotherhoods (cof- radias), they blend pre-Christian beliefs and practices with Catholic rituals.
Mizoguchi Kenji X.me-zo-'gu-che-'ken-jeV (b. May 16, 1898, Tokyo, Japan—d. Aug. 24, 1956, Kyoto) Japanese film director. After studying painting, he became an actor at the Nikkatsu studio in 1919 and made his debut as a director in 1922. His early films include Street Sketches (1925), Tokyo March (1929), Osaka Elegy (1936), and The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939). His pictorially beautiful films, of which he made more than 80, often dealt with the conflict between modern and traditional values. He won international acclaim for Ugetsu monogatari (1953), an allegorical commentary on postwar Japan. He was also noted for his films about women, including The Love of Actress Sumako (1947), Women of the Night (1948), and Street of Shame (1956).
Mizoram Xmi-'zo-ronA State (pop., 2001 prelim.: 891,058), northeast¬ ern India. Occupying an area of 8,139 sq mi (21,081 sq km), it is bounded by Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh and the states of Tripura, Assam, and Manipur. It is largely mountainous; its capital is Aizawl. The various eth¬ nic groups of Mizoram are known collectively as the Mizo (Lushai), and they speak a variety of Tibeto-Burman dialects. They were in revolt against India for decades, and the establishment of Mizoram as a union territory in 1972 failed to appease them. The conflict was settled in 1987 with the promotion of Mizoram to statehood and the election of a Mizo- led state government. The economy is based on agriculture.
Mizuno Tadakuni \me- , zun-6- I ta-da- , kii-ne\ (b. July 19, 1794, Edo [Tokyo], Japan—d. March 12, 1851, Edo) Chief adviser to the 12th Tokugawa shogun, Tokugawa Ieyoshi (r. 1837-53). In the face of social and economic decline, Mizuno tried to implement a series of reforms that would return late Tokugawa-period Japan to the martial simplicity of the early days of the shogunate. He enacted sumptuary laws, canceled samu¬ rai debts, decreed a price and wage cut, and tried to force unauthorized peasant migrants to leave the cities and return to the countryside. These so-called Tempo Reforms failed, and Mizuno was removed from office.
Mjollnir Vmycel-nir, 'myol-nir\ In Norse myth, the hammer of Thor and the symbol of his power. Forged by dwarfs, the hammer never failed Thor as a weapon or as an instrument of sanctification. It had many magical qualities, including the ability to return to Thor’s hand after it had been thrown. It was stolen by the giant Thrym, who asked as ransom the hand of Freyja. When Freyja refused to go to Thrym, Thor, masquerading as Freyja, managed to seize the hammer, which had been brought out to con¬ secrate Freyja as Thrym’s bride, and slaughtered Thrym and the other giants.
Mjosa Vmce-sa\, Lake Lake, southeastern Norway. It lies north of Oslo, at the southern end of Gudbrands Valley. The country’s largest lake, it serves as a link between the Lagen River to the north and the Vorma-Glama river system to the south. Occupying an area of 142 sq mi (368 sq km), it is 62 mi (100 km) long and 1 to 9 mi (1.6 to 14 km) wide. Lilleham- mer, at its northern end, and Hamar, on its eastern shore, are the largest lakeshore towns.
Mo-tzu See Mozi
moa Any of 13-25 species of extinct ratite of New Zealand constituting the order Dinomithiformes. Species ranged from turkey-sized to 10 ft (3 m) high. Moas were swift runners that defended themselves by kicking. They were hunted for their flesh (eaten as food), bones (used as weapons and ornaments), and eggs (used for water vessels). The larger moas were probably extinct by the late 17th century; a few smaller species may have survived into the 19th century. Moas browsed and grazed on seeds, fruits, leaves, and grasses. They laid a single large egg in a hollow in the ground.
Moab \'mo-,ab\ Kingdom, ancient Palestine. Located east of the Dead Sea in what is now southwestern Jordan, it was bounded by Edom and the land of the Amorites. The Moabites were closely related to the Israelites but were sometimes at war with them and sometimes allied to them. The Moabite Stone, found at Dibon, recorded the 9th-century-BC victories of the Moab king Mesha, especially those over Israel. Moab was conquered by the Babylonians in 582 bc.
l_
M
N
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1272 I Moabites ► mockingbird
L_
N
Moabites Vmo-o-.bltsX Semitic people who lived in the highlands east of the Dead Sea (now in W-central Jordan). The Moabites’ culture dates from the late 14th century bc to 582 bc, when they were conquered by the Babylonians. According to the Old Testament, they were descended from Moab, a son of Lot. Though their language, religion, and culture were closely related to those of the Israelites, the Moabites were not part of the Israelite community. David’s great-grandmother Ruth was a Moabite. The Moabite Stone, a stela discovered in 1868, is the only writ¬ ten document of any length that survives from Moab; it tells of King Omri of Israel’s reconquest of Moabite lands, which the Moabites ascribed to the anger of their god, Chemosh. See also Dibon.
moai Vmo-jV figure Small wooden statue of uncertain religious sig¬ nificance, carved on Easter Island. The figures, thought to represent ances¬ tors who live on in the form of skeletons, are of two types: moai kavakava (male), with a beaklike nose and goatee and occasionally an animal or a human figure incised on the head; and moai paepae (female), which have a flat, relieflike quality and large eyes. They were sometimes used for fer¬ tility rites but more often for harvest celebrations, when the first picking of fruits was heaped around them as offerings.
Mobil Corp. Former name of one of the largest U.S. holding compa¬ nies, primarily engaged in petroleum operations but with major interests in chemical products and retailing. Mobil’s roots are in two 19th-century oil companies, Vacuum Oil Co. (founded 1866) and Standard Oil Co. of New York (or Socony, 1882). Their 1931 merger created Socony-Vacuum Corp., which became Socony Mobil Oil Corp. (1955) and then Mobil Oil Corp. (1966). In 1974 Mobil Corp., the holding company, was created when Mobil Oil Corp. bought Marcor Inc. in an effort to diversify. By 1988 Mobil had sold Marcor’s major non-oil-related portions, including Montgomery Ward, to refocus on petroleum products. Mobil Oil Corp. developed a full range of petroleum operations from exploration to mar¬ keting, with major production in the Gulf of Mexico, California, the Atlan¬ tic coast, Alaska, the North Sea, and Saudi Arabia. It merged with Exxon Corp. to become Exxon Mobil Corp. in 1999.