Sandinista Any member of Nicaragua’s Sandinista National Libera¬ tion Front (FSLN). Named for Cesar Augusto Sandino, a hero of Nica¬ raguan resistance to U.S. occupation (1927-33), the group was founded in 1962 to oppose the Somoza family’s dictatorship. They organized sup¬ port among students, workers, and peasants. From bases in Honduras and Costa Rica, they attacked the Nicaraguan National Guard. They split into factions in the mid-1970s but reunited during the revolution of 1978-79 that finally succeeded in overthrowing Pres. Anastasio Somoza. A junta headed by Daniel Ortega led the Sandinista government (1979-90), which implemented literacy and community health programs. In an effort to topple the government, the U.S. imposed a trade embargo, pressured inter¬ national lending institutions to withhold aid, and trained and supported the contras. The FSLN lost support over time and was voted out of power in 1990. See also Violeta Chamorro.
sandpainting Type of art practiced among the Navajo and Pueblo Indi¬ ans and among Tibetan Buddhists. Sandpaintings are stylized, symbolic pictures (in Tibet, mandalas) prepared by trickling small quantities of crushed, coloured sandstone, charcoal, or pollen on a background of clean smoothed sand. The pictures may include representations of deities, cos¬ mic worlds, animals, lightning, rainbows, plants, and other symbols described in chants that accompany various religious and healing rites.
sandpiper Any of numerous shorebirds (family Scolopacidae) found either breeding or wintering nearly worldwide. Sandpipers, 6-12 in.
(15-30 cm) long, have a moderately long bill and legs, long, narrow wings, and a fairly short tail. Their plumage has a complicated “dead- grass” pattern of browns, buffs, and blacks above, white or cream below.
They run along ocean and inland beaches and mudflats, picking up insects, crustaceans, and worms and uttering thin, piping cries. Many spe¬ cies migrate in great flocks, from the Arctic to South America and New Zealand.
sandstone Sedimentary rock formed from sand-sized grains (0.0025-0.08 in., or 0.06-2 mm, in diam¬ eter). The spaces between grains may be empty or filled with either a chemical cement of silica or calcium carbonate or a fine-grained matrix of silt and clay particles. The principal mineral constituents of the grain framework are quartz, feldspar, and rock fragments. Sandstones are quar¬ ried for use as building stone. Because of their abundance, diversity, and mineralogy, sandstones are also important to geologists as indicators of erosional and depositional processes. See also graywacke.
Sandwich, John Montagu, 4th earl of (b. Nov. 13, 1718—d. April 30, 1792, London, Eng.) British first lord of the Admiralty (1748- 51, 1771-82). He served as secretary of state for the north (1763-65, 1770-71) and led the prosecution of John Wilkes. Appointed first lord of the Admiralty during the American Revolution, he was criticized for keep¬ ing much of the British fleet in European waters to avoid French attack. His promotion of exploration led Capt. James Cook to name the Sandwich Islands (later Hawaii) after him in 1778. The sandwich was named after him in 1762 when he spent 24 hours at a gaming table without other food.
White-rumped sandpiper (Calidris fus- cicollis)
HELEN CRUICKSHANK FROM THE NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY COLLECTION/PHOTO RESEARCHERS
Sangallo the Younger, Antonio da See Antonio da Sangallo the Younger
Sanger, Frederick (b. Aug. 13, 1918, Rendcombe, Gloucestershire, Eng.) British biochemist. Educated at the University of Cambridge, he thereafter worked principally at the Medical Research Council in Cam¬ bridge (1951-83). He spent 10 years elucidating the structure of the insu¬ lin molecule, determining the exact order of all its amino acids by 1955. His techniques for determining the order in which amino acids are linked in proteins made it possible to discover the structure of many other com¬ plex proteins. In 1958 he won a Nobel Prize for his work. In 1980 Sanger became the fourth person ever to be awarded a second Nobel Prize, which he shared with Paul Berg and Walter Gilbert (b. 1932), for determining the sequences of nucleotides in the DNA molecule of a small virus.
Sanger, Margaret orig. Margaret Higgins (b. Sept. 14, 1879,
Corning, N.Y., U.S.—d. Sept. 6,
1966, Tucson, Ariz.) U.S. birth- control pioneer. She practiced obstet¬ rical nursing on New York’s Lower East Side, where she noticed a rela¬ tionship between poverty, uncon¬ trolled fertility, and high rates of infant and maternal deaths. In 1914 she published The Woman Rebel (later Birth Control Reviews), which was banned as obscene. She was arrested in 1916 for mailing birth- control literature and again when she opened the country’s first birth- control clinic. Her legal appeals brought publicity and support to her cause, and the federal courts soon granted physicians the right to pre- .. . c
scribe contraceptives. In 1921 she courtesy of planned parenthood federation of founded the American Birth Control America, inc.
League. She soon took her campaign
worldwide, organizing the first World Population Conference (1927) and becoming the founding president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (1953).
sang ha Vseq-goV Buddhist monastic order, traditionally composed of four groups: monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. Established by the Buddha, it is the world’s oldest body of celibate clerics. Together with the Buddha and the dharma, it makes up the Threefold Refuge, a basic creed of Buddhism. Buddha established the bhiksu sangha for men and later the bhiksuni sangha for women. Members depend on alms from the commu¬ nity, since they are discouraged from engaging in commerce or agricul¬ ture. They live according to the Vinaya Pitaka.
Sangre de Cristo Vsaq-gre-do-'kris-toV Mountains Segment of the southern Rocky Mountains. The mountains extend southeast for about 250 mi (400 km) from south-central Colorado to north-central New Mexico. Many of the peaks exceed 14,000 ft (4,300 m); Blanca Peak, at 14,345 ft (4,372 m), is the highest. Tourism and mining are the main economic activities.
Sanhedrin \san-'he-dron, san-'he-dronV Jewish council that operated in Roman Palestine from the time of the Maccabees (c. 165 bc) to the end of the patriarchate (ad 425). While the term refers to the supreme Jewish court, the Sanhedrin’s exact composition and powers—religious, judicial, and legislative—are reported variously in different sources. It is men¬ tioned in various books of the Bible (Mark, Luke, Acts) as having taken part in or adjudicated the trials of Jesus, St. Peter the Apostle, and St. John the Baptist. According to Talmudic sources, the Great Sanhedrin was a court of 71 sages that met on fixed occasions in the Temple of Jerusalem, acting as a religious legislative body, trial court, and administrator of ritu¬ als.
sankin kotai \ , san-,kin-ko-'tI\ In Japanese history, a system of alter¬ nating residency practiced during the Tokugawa period (1603-1867). The daimyo (domain lords) were required to reside alternately in their HAN (feudal domains) and in Edo (modem Tokyo), the capital of the Tokugawa shogunate. The system, inaugurated in 1635, lasted until 1862. It kept the daimyo from building up power bases in their domains that could threaten the shogunate, and, because of the expense of maintaining two residences, prevented them from building up wealth. It also contributed to the flow-
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1682 I sannyasi ► Santa Fe Trail
ering of an urban culture and a commercial economy and encouraged improvements to roads and communications.