from naturalistic and stylized representations of human and animal forms to mythical beings, spirals, circles, and abstract motifs.
Barker, Harley Granville- See Harley Granville-Barker
barking deer See muntjac
Barkley, Alben W(illiam) (b. Nov. 24, 1877, Graves county, Ky., U.S.—d. April 30, 1956, Lexington, Va.) U.S. politician. After graduat¬ ing from college, he studied law and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1901. He was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Represen¬ tatives (1913-27) and the Senate (1927-49), where he served as majority leader (1937-47). He was a prominent spokesman for the domestic and international policies of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt. He served as vice president under Pres. Harry S. Truman (1949-53). He later returned to the Senate (1954-56).
Barkley, Charles (Wade) (b. Feb. 20, 1963, Leeds, Ala., U.S.) U.S. basketball player. He spent his collegiate career as a forward at Auburn University. He played for the Philadelphia 76ers (1984-91), the Phoenix Suns (1992-95), and the Houston Rockets (1996-99). He is known for his bruising play on the court and for his outspokenness off it.
Barlach Vbar-lak\, Ernst (b. Jan. 2, 1870, Wedel, Ger.—d. Oct. 24, 1938, Giistrow) German sculptor, graphic artist, and writer. After study¬ ing in Hamburg, Dresden, and Paris, he became the outstanding sculptor of the Expressionist movement, achieving a rough-hewn quality by pre¬ ferring wood, the material used in late Gothic sculpture. Even when he worked with other, more contemporary materials, he often emulated the raw quality of wood sculpture to achieve a more brutal effect. He achieved fame in the 1920s and ’30s with the execution of several war memorials for the Weimar Republic. Barlach also wrote Expressionist plays, which he illustrated with woodcuts and lithographs. His studio at Giistrow was opened posthumously as a museum.
barley Cereal plant of the genus Hordeum, in the family Poaceae (or Gramineae), and its edible grain. The three cultivated species are H. vul- gare, H. distichum, and H. irregulare. Barley is adaptable to a greater range of climate than any other cereal. About half of the world’s crop is used as livestock feed, the rest for human food and for malting. Most beer is made from malted barley, which is also used in distilled beverages (see malt). Barley has a nutlike flavour and is high in carbohydrates, with moderate quantities of protein, calcium, and phosphorus. Barley flour is used to make unleavened bread and porridge. Pearl barley, the most popu¬ lar form in many parts of the world, is often added to soups.
Barlow, Joel (b. March 24, 1754, Redding, Connecticut Colony [U.S.]—d. Dec. 24, 1812, Zarnowiec, Pol.) U.S. writer and poet. He was a member of the group of young writers known as the Hartford (or Con¬ necticut) Wits, whose patriotism led them to attempt to create a national literature. He became famous for his Vision of Columbus (1787), a poetic paean to America, but is remembered primarily for The Hasty Pudding (1796), a mock-heroic epic poem inspired by homesickness for New England.
Barmakid Vbar-mo-.kidV or Barmecide Vbar-ms-.skB Any member of the priestly family of Persian origin that achieved prominence in the 8th century as scribes and viziers to the caliphs of the ‘Abbasid dynasty. They supported the arts and sciences, tolerated explorations of religion and philosophy, and promoted public works. The first notable Barmakid, Khalid ibn Barmak (d. 781/782), helped establish the 'Abbasid caliphate; he became governor of Tabaristan and later Fars. His son Yahya (d. 805) and grandsons al-Fadl (d. 808) and Ja'far (d. 803) held power as viziers but died in prison or were executed in a reversal of fortune, largely because their excessive power, wealth, and liberalism led the caliphs to see them as threats.
Barmen, Synod of Meeting of German Protestant leaders at Barmen in May 1934 to organize Protestant resistance to Nazism. Representatives came from Lutheran, Reformed, and United churches. Some church lead¬ ers had already chosen to limit their efforts to passive resistance, and oth¬ ers had been co-opted by the Nazi regime. The Pastors’ Emergency League, headed by Martin Niemoller, was the backbone of active resis¬ tance. The Synod was of major importance in the founding of the Con¬ fessing Church by Karl Barth and others.
barn Farm building used for sheltering animals, their feed and other supplies, farm machinery, and farm products. Bams are named according to their purpose (e.g., hog barns, dairy barns, tobacco bams, and tractor
bams). The principal type in the U.S. is the general-purpose barn, used for housing livestock and for storing hay and grain. Most North American and European farms have one or more barns. They usually consist of two stories, though one-story bams gained in popularity in the late 20th cen¬ tury.
barn owl Any of several species of sometimes called monkey-faced owls because of their heart-shaped facial disk and absence of ear tufts.
Barn owls are about 12-16 in.
(30^-0 cm) long, white to gray or yellowish to brownish orange. Their dark eyes are smaller than those of other owls. They hunt mainly small rodents, often on cultivated land, and nest in hollow trees, buildings, tow¬ ers, and old hawk nests. The com¬ mon bam owl is found worldwide except in Antarctica and Micronesia.
Other species occur only in the Old World.
Barnabas \'bar-no-bos \, Saint orig. Joseph the Levite (fi. 1st cen¬ tury; feast day June 11) Apostolic Father and early Christian missionary. Born in Cyprus, he was a Hellenized Jew who joined the church in Jerus¬ alem shortly after its founding. According to the Acts of the Apostles, he helped found the church in Antioch, calling on St. Paul to assist him. A conflict eventually separated them, and Barnabas returned to the island of his birth. One legend holds that he was martyred in Cyprus. His reputed tomb is near the Monastery of St. Barnabas at Salamis, whose Christian community Paul and Barnabas founded.
barnacle Any of a majority of the 1,000 species of the subclass Cir- ripedia of marine crustaceans that, as adults, are covered with a shell made of hai’d calcium-containing plates and are permanently cemented, head down, to rocks, pilings, ships’ hulls, driftwood, or seaweed or to the bod¬ ies of larger sea creatures, from clams to whales. Barnacles trap tiny particles of food with their cirri, feathery retractable organs that emerge from openings between the shell plates. Adult barnacles com¬ monly are hermaphrodites.
barnacle goose Species (. Branta leucopsis) of waterbird that resembles a small Canada goose, with dark back, white face, and black neck and bib. It winters in the north¬ ern British Isles and on the coasts of Denmark, Germany, and the Nether¬ lands. In the Middle Ages, it was thought to hatch from barnacles, and thus was considered “fish” and could be eaten on Fridays.
Barnard \'bar-nord\, Christiaan (Neethling) (b. Nov. 8, 1922, Beaufort West, S.Af.—d. Sept. 2, 2001, Paphos, Cyprus) South African surgeon. He showed that intestinal atresia is caused by deficient fetal blood supply, which led to development of a surgical procedure to cor¬ rect the formerly fatal defect. He introduced open-heart surgery to South Africa, designed a new artificial heart valve, and did animal heart trans¬ plant experiments. In 1967 Barnard’s team performed the first human heart transplant, replacing the heart of Louis Washkansky with one from an accident victim. The transplant was successful, but Washkansky, given immunosuppressant drugs to prevent rejection of the heart, died 18 days later from pneumonia.
Barnard, Henry (b. Jan. 24, 1811, Hartford, Conn., U.S.—d. July 5, 1900, Hartford) U.S. educator. He studied law and entered the state leg¬ islature, where he helped create a state board of education and the first teachers’ institute (1839). With Horace Mann, he undertook to reform the country’s common schools; he was an innovator in instituting school
nocturnal birds of prey (genus Tyto),
Common barn owl (Tyto alba).