6,078 articles
Bantu peoples
Bantu peoples are African populations speaking over 500 Bantu languages of the Niger-Congo family, about 350 million people. They descend from an expansion from the Nigeria-Cameroon border region 6,000-4,000 years ago, supported by genetic demic-diffusion evidence.
Banu Ifran
Banu Ifran (بنو إفرن), also Beni Ifren, were a Zenata Berber tribe prominent in North Africa and al-Andalus from the Islamic conquest to the eleventh century.
Banu Qurayza (بنو قريظة)
Banu Qurayza (بنو قريظة), a Jewish tribe of Medina, was besieged after the Battle of the Trench in 5 AH/627 CE; under Sa'd ibn Mu'adh's arbitration, Ibn Ishaq reports 600-900 men executed and hadith sources 400, a figure debated in modern scholarship.
Barbadians
Barbadians, known as Bajans, are the people of Barbados and their descendants abroad, mostly of African descent, in an eastern Caribbean island independent since 1966.
Barbara Amiel
Barbara Amiel, Lady Black of Crossharbour (born 1940, Watford), British-Canadian columnist, first female editor of the Toronto Sun, Sunday Times and Daily Telegraph columnist, and wife of Conrad Black since 1992; author of Friends and Enemies (2020).
Barbara Bush (born 1981)
Barbara Pierce Bush (born 1981), daughter of George W. Bush, is an American social entrepreneur who co-founded Global Health Corps in 2009 and served as its CEO for nine years; author of Sisters First with her twin sister.
Barbara Hutton
Barbara Woolworth Hutton (1912–1979), American Woolworth heiress nicknamed the 'poor little rich girl'; seven marriages, famed jewelry including the Vladimir Tiara, fortune depleted by settlements, taxes, and mismanagement.
Barbara Sinatra
Barbara Sinatra (Barbara Blakeley, later Barbara Marx), American model and Las Vegas showgirl; fourth and final wife of Frank Sinatra from 1976 until his 1998 death; co-founder of the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center for abused children in Rancho Mirage.
Barbarian
Barbarian: from Greek barbaros, 'foreign speaker' (echoic 'bar-bar-bar'), a label for non-Greeks, especially Medes and Persians; hardened after the Persian Wars and later applied across Roman, medieval, and modern usage.
Barboncito
Barboncito (c. 1820–1871) was a Navajo headman and ceremonial singer, first signatory of the 1868 treaty that ended the Bosque Redondo internment and restored the Navajo homeland.
Bareback (sexual act)
Bareback sex, also called barebacking or BB, is condomless anal intercourse; in public health usage, intentional condomless anal intercourse among MSM in HIV-risk contexts. Term arose in mid-1990s gay press among HIV-positive men, later broadened to any condomless sex.
Barefoot
Barefoot: walking or running without footwear, in direct foot-to-ground contact. Key facts: 40,000-year-old footwear history, wider feet and lower hallux valgus in habitual barefoot populations, mixed injury evidence, gradual transition advised.
Barnum effect
Barnum effect, also called Forer effect or fallacy of personal validation: cognitive bias in which people accept vague, general personality statements as uniquely accurate; first demonstrated by Bertram Forer in 1948, named by Paul Meehl.
Barratt Impulsiveness Scale
The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) is a self-report questionnaire measuring impulsiveness, introduced by Ernest Barratt in 1959; the current BIS-11 has 30 items scored 30 to 120.
Barrie Drewitt-Barlow
Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, British businessman known as one of Britain's first gay fathers through US surrogacy (twins Aspen and Saffron, 1999) and co-owner of Maldon & Tiptree FC; charged with husband Scott in 2026 with rape, sexual assault, and trafficking offences, which they deny.
Bart Sibrel
Bart Sibrel (born 1964, Nashville) is an American filmmaker and conspiracy theorist who claims the Apollo Moon landings were faked; known for the 2001 film A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon, the 2002 Aldrin punch, and the book Moon Man.
Basava (ಬಸವ)
Basava (ಬಸವ, Basavanna), twelfth-century Kannada vachana poet and Kalachuri commander at Kalyana, central figure of the Lingayat/Virashaiva tradition; founder-versus-reformer debate and 2018 Karnataka minority-religion politics distinguish him.
Bashkirs (башҡорттар)
The Bashkirs (башҡорттар) are a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim people of the southern Urals and the middle Volga region, the titular population of Bashkortostan in Russia, with 1,571,879 counted in the 2021 census.
Basotho migrant labour
Basotho migrant labour is the system by which men from Lesotho have worked as contract laborers, above all in South Africa's Witwatersrand gold mines, since the late 19th century.
Basques
Basques: people of Euskal Herria across Spain and France, defined by Euskara, a language isolate. Seven territories, Iron Age genetic continuity, fueros, autonomy since 1979, large Latin American diaspora.
Batak
Batak: collective label for the Toba, Karo, Simalungun, Pakpak, Angkola, and Mandailing peoples of North Sumatra's Lake Toba highlands, 8-10 million people, patrilineal marga clans, Dalihan Na Tolu kinship, and a majority-Protestant population shaped by the RMG mission from 1861.
Batawana
The Batawana (BaTawana) are a Tswana people who broke from the BaNgwato and established a state in Ngamiland, northwestern Botswana, around the Okavango Delta in the early nineteenth century.
Bathroom bill
Bathroom bills are US state laws requiring restroom use by sex assigned at birth rather than gender identity; about 21 states have them, from North Carolina's 2016 HB2 to Idaho's 2026 criminal ban, with active litigation and documented health effects.
Battelle Developmental Inventory
The Battelle Developmental Inventory (BDI) is a standardized assessment of developmental skills in children from birth through age 7, used for early intervention and special education eligibility.
Battenberg family
Battenberg family: morganatic branch of the House of Hesse founded by Prince Alexander of Hesse and Julia von Hauke in 1851; anglicized to Mountbatten in 1917; linked to British, Spanish, Bulgarian, and Swedish royalty.
Batya Ungar-Sargon
Batya Ungar-Sargon, American journalist and author, former opinion editor of The Forward and deputy opinion editor of Newsweek; wrote Bad News (2021) and Second Class (2024); hosts NewsNation's Batya!; self-described MAGA lefty.
Bavarians
Bavarians (Bayern, historically Baiuvarii/Bajuwaren): people of the Free State of Bavaria and speakers of the Bavarian (Bairisch) dialect continuum spanning Altbayern, Austria and South Tyrol; over 13 million residents, Wittelsbach rule 1180–1918, Catholic Old Bavaria versus Protestant Franconia.
Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin (1912–1987), American Quaker pacifist, socialist, and openly gay civil rights strategist; co-founder of CORE, advisor to Martin Luther King Jr., and chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.
Bayley Scales of Infant Development
The Bayley Scales of Infant Development are norm-referenced tests measuring cognitive, language, motor, and social-emotional abilities in children aged 1 to 42 months, used to identify developmental delay.
BDSM
BDSM, an acronym for bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism, is an umbrella term for consensual adult practices involving restraint, power exchange, and intense sensation, first recorded 1990–95.