Vocab quiz 2

Unit 6: Art of the Americas

· Colonialism: the practice of dominating a foreign territory and subjugating its people.  It is a form of political control that involves occupying a territory with settlers and economic exploitation. 

· Stepped pyramid: an architectural structure that uses flat platforms, or steps, receding from the ground up, to achieve a completed shape similar to a geometric pyramid (a volume with a square base and four triangular sides that meet at an apex).

· Potlatch: a gift giving ceremony practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States.

· Formline style: A style that uses wavy, continuous, swelling lines and curvilinear shapes to create patterns and designs. It is often seen in indigenous art from the Pacific Northwest Coast.

· Repatriation: the return of a person or thing to its country of origin.

Unit 7: Islamic Art

· Mosque: an Islamic place of worship and a center for education and information. It usually incorporates a prayer hall, a minaret, and a mihrab, and is often domed.

· Centralized plan: an architectural plan describing a structure that is symmetrical around a central point.

· Qibla wall: a wall that indicates the direction of Mecca, towards which Muslims should face when at prayer.

· Mihrab: A niche in the qibla wall of a mosque that indicates the direction of Mecca. It is often ornately decorated and designed to give the impression of an arched doorway.

· Mosaic: The technique of making pictures or patterns from small pieces of individually-colored stone or glass set into cement or plaster. Mosaic tilework has been used as form of architectural decoration for interior walls, ceilings, floors, and exterior facades.

· Kiln: An oven used to bake or fire ceramics.

· Calligraphy: the art of beautiful handwriting, especially important as an art form in parts of East Asia and the Islamic world. 

· Loom: a frame-like apparatus for weaving thread to create a textile. The loom holds the vertical warp threads taught while the horizontal weft threads are drawn over and under the warp.

· Knotted pile carpet: a carpet that consists of raised surfaces, or piles, made from the cut-off ends of knots woven between the warp (vertical threads) and the weft (horizontal threads) of a textile 

Unit 8: Buddhist and Hindu Art:

• Stupa: a hemispherical-shaped Buddhist shrine. The term comes from the Sanskrit word for “heap.”

• Mandala: a sacred diagram of the universe

• Torana: a gateway near a stupa that has two upright posts and three horizontal lintels, which are usually elaborately carved

• Circumambulation: the act of walking around a sacred object

• Mudra: a symbolic hand gesture in Buddhist and Hindu Art

• Darshan: in Hinduism, the ability of a worshipper to see a deity, and the deity to see a worshipper. The term comes from a Sanskrit word meaning “sight.”

• Puja: a Hindu devotional ritual