Segal Yse-golV, George (b. Nov. 26, 1924, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. June 9, 2000, South Brunswick, N.J.) U.S. sculptor. Segal began his artis¬ tic career as an abstract painter. In 1958 he started creating sculptures from chicken wire and plaster and two years later turned to plaster casts, often using family members and friends as models. Though he was associated with members of the burgeoning Pop art movement in the late 1950s, Segal’s sculptures, which were frequently outfitted with the bland com¬ mercial props of the Pop idiom, are distinguished from that characteris¬ tically ironic movement by a mute, ghostly anguish. His casting technique, in which the live model is wrapped in strips of plaster-soaked cheese¬ cloth, imparts a rough texture and a minimum of surface detail to the fig¬ ures, thus heightening the sense of anonymity and isolation.
Segesta \se-'jes-t9\ Ancient city, northwestern Sicily. Located near modern Calatafimi, it was the chief city of the Elymi, a people of sup¬ posedly Trojan origin (see Troy). Culturally, the city was Greek, but it generally took the Carthaginian side against its Greek neighbours, and boundary disputes with Selinus were frequent. Early in the First Punic War, Segesta was allied with Rome. Its ruins include a well-preserved 3rd- century-BC theatre and a 5th-century-BC temple to Artemis.
segoni-kun \se-'go-ne-'kun\ Highly sculptural mask of the Tyiwara society of the western African Bambara tribe. Derived from the antelope’s form and emphasizing its head, neck, and horns, the masks were worn at cultivation ceremonies by dancers imitating the antelope’s graceful move¬ ments. It was believed that the spirit of the tyi-wara (work animal), which held great power over agricultural fertility, was embodied in the masks.
Segovia, Andres (b. Feb. 21, 1893, Linares, Spain—d. June 2, 1987, Madrid) Spanish guitarist. Almost entirely self-taught, he made his debut in Grenada in 1909 and by the 1920s was touring internationally; he con¬ tinued to perform into his 90s. He was by far the most important force in making the guitar a concert instrument. He commissioned works by Man¬ uel de Falla, Albert Roussel, and Heitor Villa-Lobos, and he arranged music ranging from the Renaissance to the 19th century for solo guitar. See pho¬ tograph opposite.
Segre \so-'gra\, Emilio (Gino) (b. Feb. 1, 1905, Tivoli, Italy—d. April 22, 1989, Lafayette, Calif., U.S.) Italian-born U.S. physicist. He worked
under Enrico Fermi before becoming director of the physics laboratory at the University of Palermo in 1936. In 1937 he discovered technetium, the first man-made element not found in nature. While visiting California in 1938, he was dismissed from the university by the fascist government. He continued his research at the University of California at Berkeley, where he and his associates discovered the element astatine and the isotope plutonium-239, which he found to be fissionable. In 1955, using the new Bevatron particle accelerator, Segre and Owen Chamberlain (b. 1920) produced and identified antiprotons, antiparticles having the same mass as protons but opposite electrical charge, setting the stage for the discov¬ ery of many additional antiparticles. The two men shared a 1959 Nobel Prize.
segregation, racial Practice of restricting people to certain circum¬ scribed areas of residence or to separate institutions and facilities on the basis of race or alleged race. Racial segregation provides a means of main¬ taining the economic advantages and higher social status of politically dominant races. Historically, various conquerors—among them Asian Mongols, African Bantu, and American Aztecs—have practiced discrimi¬ nation involving the segregation of subject races. Racial segregation has appeared in all multiracial communities, except where racial amalgamation has occurred on a large scale, as in Hawaii and Brazil. In such places there has been occasional social discrimination but not legal segregation. In the Southern states of the U.S., public facilities were segregated from the late 19th century into the 1950s (see Jim Crow law), and in South Africa a sys¬ tem of apartheid sanctioned discrimination against nonwhites until it was abolished in the 1990s. The U.S. civil rights movement and Civil Rights Act of 1 964 helped end racial segregation in education and public facilities, though other forms of racial discrimination continued.
sei whale \'sa\ or Rudolphi's rorqual Vror-kwoA Swift species (Balaenoptera borealis ) of baleen whale in the rorqual family. It is 40-50 ft (13-15 m) long and is bluish gray or blackish above and paler below. It has small flippers, about 50 short lengthwise grooves on its chest, and dark baleen with pale, silky, inner fringes. It inhabits oceans from the Arctic to the Antarctic, migrating between cold and temperate summer waters and winter breeding grounds in warmer regions.
Seifert Vsa-fert\, Jaroslav (b. Sept. 23, 1901, Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary—d. Jan. 10, 1986, Prague, Czech.) Czech poet. He made a living as a journalist until 1950. Though his early works reflect youth¬ ful expectations for the future of communism in the Soviet Union, he broke with the Communist Party in 1929. More lyrical elements were evi¬ dent in his later poems, and the history and current events of Czechoslo¬ vakia were the most common subjects in his approximately 30 volumes. In the 1980s and ’90s many of his works were translated, including Hon¬ eymoon Ride (1938), Bozena Nemcova’s Fan (1940), and Halley’s Comet (1967). He also contributed to journals and wrote children’s literature and memoirs. In 1984 he became the first Czech to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
seigniorage Ysan-ya-rij\ Charge over and above the expenses of coin¬ age that is deducted from the bullion brought to a mint to be coined. From early times, coinage was the prerogative of kings, who prescribed the amount they were to receive as seigniorage. This was sometimes com¬ pensated for by replacing part of the gold or silver with base metal, result¬ ing in debased coinage. In England all such charges were abolished in 1666. Because coins are now issued only as token money, they no longer need to possess a high intrinsic value, and low-standard silver or base-metal alloys are sufficient. The margin between the cost of produc¬ ing a coin and its currency value is known as seigniorage.
seignorialism See manorialism
Seine Vsen\ River ancient Sequana Second longest river in France. It rises on the Langres pla¬ teau, 18 mi (30 km) northwest of Dijon, and flows through Paris before emptying into the English Channel at Le Havre after a course of 485 mi (780
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1716 I Seinfeld ► Seleucid dynasty
km). Its tributaries include the Marne and Oise rivers. It drains an area of about 30,400 sq mi (78,700 sq km) in northern France; its network carries most of France’s inland waterway traffic.
Seinfeld, Jerry (b. April 29, 1954, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. come¬ dian and television actor. He initially worked as a stand-up comic in nightclubs and on television. He cocreated and starred in the hit televi¬ sion series Seinfeld (1990-98), which was inspired by his stand-up rou¬ tines about life in New York City. One of the most successful situation comedies, it featured a collection of selfish and neurotic characters obsessed with the fear of commitment and the minutiae of everyday life. He also starred in and was executive producer of Comedian (2002), a documentary about his return to the comedy circuit.
seismic sea wave See tsunami