Nolde Vnol-doX, Emil orig. Emil Hansen (b. Aug. 7, 1867, Nolde, near Bocholt, Ger.—d. April 15,
1956, Seebiill, near Niebull, W.Ger.)
German Expressionist painter, printmaker, and watercolourist. Bom to a peasant family, he carved wood for a living and came late to painting. Though briefly a member of Die BrOcke (1906-07), he was essentially a solitary painter. Fervently religious and racked by a sense of sin, he cre¬ ated such works as Dance Around the Golden Calf { 1910), in which the figures’ erotic frenzy and demonic faces are rendered with deliberately crude draftsmanship and dissonant colours. On an ethnological expedi¬ tion to the East Indies (1913-14), he was impressed by the power of the art he saw there. Back in Europe, he produced brooding landscapes (e.g., Marsh Landscape, 1916) and colourful flowers. As a printmaker he was noted especially for the stark black-and-white effect of his crudely incised woodcuts. Although he was an early advocate of Germany’s National Socialist Party, the party declared his art “degenerate” and forbade him to paint. His late, postwar works reveal his disillusionment.
nomadism Way of life of peoples who do not live continually in the same place but move cyclically or periodically. It is based on temporary centres whose stability depends on the available food supply and the technology for exploiting it. A hunting and gathering society is a type of nomadic group. Pastoral nomads, who depend on domestic livestock, migrate in an established territory to find pasture for their animals. Tinker or trader nomads, such as the Roma (Gypsies; see Rom) and the Irish and Scottish Travellers, are associated with a larger society but maintain their mobile way of life. Nomadism declined in the 20th century as urban cen¬ tres expanded and governments sought to regulate or eliminate it.
Nome Seaport (pop., 2000: 3,505), western Alaska, U.S., on the south¬ ern side of the Seward Peninsula. Founded as a mining camp called Anvil
City after the discovery of gold at nearby Anvil Creek in 1898, it became a centre of the Alaskan gold rush of 1899-1903. Its population, estimated at 20,000 in 1900, had dwindled to 852 by 1920. Gold mining remained the chief occupation until the dredge fields were closed in 1962. The fin¬ ish line for the Iditarod trail sled race, it also serves as a supply centre for northwestern Alaska.
non-Euclidean geometry Any theory of the nature of geometric space differing from the traditional view held since Euclid’s time. These geometries arose in the 19th century when several mathematicians work¬ ing independently explored the possibility of rejecting Euclid’s parallel postulate. Different assumptions about how many lines through a point not on a given line could be parallel to that line resulted in hyperbolic geometry and eluptic geometry. Mathematicians were forced to abandon the idea of a single correct geometry; it became their task not to discover mathematical systems but to create them by selecting consistent axioms and studying the theorems that could be derived from them. The devel¬ opment of these alternative geometries had a profound impact on the notion of space and paved the way for the theory of relativity. See also Nikolay Lobachevsky, Bernhard Riemann.
nonaligned movement In international politics, the group of states sharing the peacetime policy of avoiding political or economic affiliations with major power blocs. At its beginning the nonaligned movement con¬ sisted primarily of Asian and African states that were once colonies of the Western powers and were wary of being drawn into a new form of depen¬ dence by the West or by the communist bloc. Founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and others, the movement held its first offi¬ cial meeting in 1961 in Bandung, Indon.; 25 countries attended. Meetings have since been held on a three-year schedule. While the Soviet Union existed, the movement tended to seek development assistance from both the U.S. and the Soviet Union but to refrain from forming political or military alliances with either country. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the nonaligned movement has been chiefly concerned with debt forgiveness and with development of fairer trade relationships with the West. By the early 21st century the movement had more than 110 members.
noncognitivism Denial of the characteristic cognitivist thesis that moral sentences are used to express factual statements. Noncognitivists have proposed various alternative theories of meaning for moral sen¬ tences. In Language, Truth and Logic (1936), A. J. Ayer stated the emo- tivist thesis that moral sentences are not statements at all (see emotivism). In The Language of Morals (1952), Richard M. Hare (born 1919) agreed that in making moral judgments we are not primarily seeking to describe anything, but claimed that neither are we simply expressing our attitudes; instead, he suggested that moral judgments prescribe—that is, are a form of imperative sentence (see prescriptivism).
Nonconformist Any English Protestant who does not conform to the doctrines or practices of the established Church of England. The term was first used after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 to describe con¬ gregations that had separated from the national church. Such congrega¬ tions, also called Separatists or Dissenters, often rejected Anglican rites and doctrines as being too close to Catholicism. In the late 19th century, Nonconformists of various denominations joined together to form the Free Church Federal Council. In England and Wales the term is generally applied to all Protestant denominations outside Anglicanism, including Baptists, Congregationalists, Unitarians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Quakers, and Churches of Christ.
nondirective psychotherapy or client-centered therapy
Type of psychotherapy in which the counselor refrains from interpretation or explanation but encourages the client to establish a person-to-person relationship with him or her and to talk freely. It originated with Carl R. Rogers and influenced later individual and group therapies. The goal is to enable the client to see him- or herself more clearly and react more openly with the therapist and others. The client determines the course, speed, and duration of treatment.
nongovernmental organization (NGO) Organization that is not part of any government. A key distinction is between not-for-profit groups and for-profit corporations; the vast majority of NGOs are not-for-profit. In some countries, particularly socialist ones, some NGOs are government-organized. The purposes of NGOs cover the entire range of human interests and may be domestic or international in scope. Many NGOs are key sources of information for governments on issues such as
man, 1967
©ARNOLD NEWMAN
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Nonni River ► Norfolk I 1375
human rights abuses and environmental degradation. Some NGOs fulfill quasi-governmental functions for ethnic groups that lack a state of their own. NGOs may be financed by private donations, international organi¬ zations, governments, or a combination of these. In Britain, quasi- autonomous nongovernmental organizations, or “quangos,” are organizations that have nonelected boards and receive public funds which they also disburse. See also Amnesty International; Greenpeace; World Wildlife Fund.
Nonni River See Nen River
Nono, Luigi (b. Jan. 29, 1924, Venice, Italy—d. May 8, 1990, Venice) Italian composer. A law student, he also studied music with Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973), Bruno Maderna (1920-73), and Her¬ mann Scherchen (1891-1966). He came to public attention in 1950 with his work Variazioni Canoniche, orchestral variations on a 12-tone theme of Arnold Schoenberg, whose daughter Nuria he married in 1955. An avowed communist, Nono often produced works of political substance, many of which sparked controversy and reaction. He employed aleatory (chance) techniques and SERIAUSM, sometimes fragmenting language and using electronically manipulated sounds. His best-known work is the opera Intolleranza (1961).