geisha Yga-shsN Member of a professional class of women in Japan whose traditional occupation is to entertain men. A geisha must be adept at singing, dancing, and playing traditional musical instruments (e.g., the samisen) in addition to being skilled at making conversation. The geisha system is thought to have emerged in the 17th century to provide a class of well-trained entertainers set apart from courtesans and prostitutes: though geisha sometimes had sexual relationships with their clients, they were supposed to entertain primarily through their accomplishments. The numbers of geisha have declined from some 80,000 in the 1920s to a few thousand at present, almost all in the Tokyo and Kyoto areas, where they are patronized by only the wealthiest businessmen and most influential politicians. Ordinary businessmen seek out bar hostesses, who, though not trained in traditional singing or dance, like geisha excel at supportive conversation.
Gelasius \j9-'la-she-3s\ \, Saint (b. probably Africa—d. Nov. 19, 496, feast day November 21) Pope (492—496). He combated the Acacian Schism in the East, which advocated the Monophysite heresy. He main¬ tained papal authority and established Roman primacy in ecclesiastical affairs. He is known for his theory of the two powers of world gover¬ nance in which he asserted that both sacred and civil power are of divine origin and independent. In 494 he changed the pagan Lupercalia festival into the feast of the Purification.
gelatin Vje-l9-t 9 n\ Animal protein substance having gel-forming prop¬ erties, used primarily in food products. Derived from collagen, it is extracted by boiling animal skin and bones. It is commonly produced as granules or as a mix with added sugars, flavours, and colours. Immersed in a liquid, gelatin takes up moisture and swells, causing the mixture to solidify. It is used to make such foods as molded desserts, jellied meats, soups, candies, and aspics and to stabilize such emulsion and foam food products as ice cream and marshmallows. It is nutritionally an incomplete protein. It is also used in various pharmaceutical products.
Gelibolu See Gallipoli
Gell-Mann Vgel-.manV Murray (b. Sept. 15, 1929, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. physicist. He entered Yale University at 15 and earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1951. From 1955 he taught at the California Institute of Technology, becoming Millikan professor of theoretical physics in 1967. In 1953 he introduced the con¬ cept of “strangeness,” a quantum property that accounted for decay pat¬ terns of certain mesons. In 1961 he and Yuval Ne’eman (b. 1925) proposed a scheme (the “Eightfold Way”) that grouped mesons and baryons into multiplets of 1, 8, 10, or 27 members on the basis of various properties. He speculated that it was possible to explain certain properties of known particles in terms of even more fundamental particles, or building blocks, which he later called quarks. He was awarded a 1969 Nobel Prize.
Geltzer Vgyelt-syir\, Yekaterina (Vasilyevna) (b. Nov. 14, 1876, Moscow, Russia—d. Dec. 12, 1962, Moscow) Russian prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet. She graduated from the Bolshoi Theatre’s ballet school in 1894 and joined the company, becoming prima ballerina in 1901. She was known for dramatic roles, including that of the heroine of The Red Poppy (1927), in a career that lasted more than 40 years. After the 1917 Revolution, she and her husband, Vasily Tikhomirov, helped preserve the classical technique and repertoire of the Imperial Russian ballet.
Gelukpa See Dge-lugs-pa
Gemara \g9-'mar-3, g9-ma-'ra\ Commentary on the collection of Jew¬ ish law known as the Mishna. Written by Jewish scholars in Palestine and Babylonia c. ad 200-500, it is printed around the relevant passage of the Mishna. See also Talmud.
Gemini \'jem-3- 1 nI\ (Latin: “Twins”) In astronomy, the constellation lying between Cancer and Taurus; in ASTROLOGY, the third sign of the zodiac, governing approximately the period May 21-June 21. It is repre¬ sented by a set of twins. The twins are most often identified as the mythological Castor and Pollux (Dioscuri), but have also been equated with other famous pairs such as Romulus and Remus.
Gemini Vje-mo-.nl, 'je-m3-,ne\
Series of 12 two-person spacecraft launched into Earth orbit by the U.S. between 1964 and 1967, following the one-person Mercury program and before the three-person Apollo pro¬ gram. Designed to test astronauts’ ability to maneuver spacecraft manu¬ ally, the Gemini series helped develop techniques for orbital ren¬ dezvous and docking, procedures that were required later in the Apollo Moon-landing missions. It also gave NASA engineers a chance to improve spacecraft environmental control and electrical power systems.
Gemistus Plethon Vjo-'mis-tos-'ple-.thanV George (b. c. 1355, Constantinople—d. 1450/52, Mistra, Morea) Byzantine philosopher and humanist scholar. He served as lay theologian with the Byzantine delega¬ tion to the 1438-45 general council of Ferrara-Florence. His treatise On the Difference Between Aristotle and Plato revived interest in Plato and led to founding of the Platonic Academy of Florence by Cosimo I. His clarification of the distinction between Platonic and Aristotelian thought proved seminal in determining the philosophic orientation of the Italian Renaissance.
Gemma Augustea Xjem-o-.o-gos-'te-oV Latin "Gem of Augus¬ tus" Sardonyx cameo depicting the glorification of Caesar Augustus. He is sitting next to the goddess Roma, and both are trampling the armour of defeated enemies. Now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, it was probably carved during the reign of Caligula (ad 37-41). It is one of the most impressive carved cameos of a series of Roman gems represent¬ ing imperial personages.
Gempei War \'gem-,pa\ (1180-85) Final struggle between two Japa¬ nese warrior clans, the Minamoto (Genji) and the Taira (Heike), for supremacy in Japan, resulting in the Minamoto’s victory and the estab¬ lishment of the Kamakura shogunate (see Kamakura period). Stories of the rise and fall of the two families, with their Buddhist overtones of eva¬ nescence and their sense of heroic tragedy, have a popularity in Japan akin to that of Arthurian legends in English-speaking countries.
gemstone Any of various minerals prized for beauty, durability, and rarity. A few noncrystalline materials of organic origin (e.g., pearl, red coral, and amber) also are classified as gemstones. Of the more than 3,500 identified natural minerals, fewer than 100 are used as gemstones and only 16 have achieved importance: beryl, chrysoberyl, corundum, diamond, feldspar, garnet, jade, lazurite, olivine, opal, quartz, spinel, topaz, tour¬ maline, turquoise, and zircon. Some of these (e.g., beryl and corundum) provide more than one type of gem. In virtually all cases, the minerals have to be cut and polished for use in jewelry. See illustration on oppo¬ site page.
gender In language, a grammatical category contrasting distinctions of sex or animateness. Gender marking may be natural, with linguistic mark¬ ers of gender corresponding to real-world gender, or purely grammatical, with markers of gender in part semantically based and in part semanti¬ cally arbitrary. In languages with grammatical gender, nouns are parti¬ tioned into sets. Membership of a noun in a set may be expressed by its form and/or by the forms of other parts of speech controlled by the noun. Closely related to gender systems in language are class systems, as in Bantu languages, in which the number of sets into which nouns are par-
Gemini, illumination from a Book of Hours, Italian, c. 1475; in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City.