A HISTORY OF RESEARCH INTO CANARIAN ROCK ART: OPENING UP NEW THOUGHTS

Research into the history of Canarian rock art presents major problems, both theoretical and methodological. This paper analyses the evolution of research into Canarian rock art from a historical and diachronic perspective. It also addresses the connection established between the Canary Islands, North Africa and the Atlantic area, focusing on the theoretical models developed to explain these relationships. The analysis therefore covers a period of seven centuries (fourteenth–twentieth centuries).     

ORIGIN,AUTHORSHIP, AND INTERPRETATION OF YONG ZI BA FA (THE EIGHT METHODS OF THE CHARACTER YONG)

永字八法描述了楷書八種筆畫的技法。它自9–11世紀間問世之後，對中國書 法筆法產生了深遠的影響。八法既是對漢字筆畫形態的最早歸納，又體現了 漢字筆順的萌芽意識，在中國文字學史上也起了一定的作用。本文對永字八 法的由來、創作者、含義等問題作出文獻學梳理與全面的思考，以更準確地 討論它在中國書法史上的地位。     

'Democratizing' Consumerism?: Coalescing constructions of subjugation in the consumer landscape

Charges of sexism and the destruction of nature in the social construction of the built environment are not new. But the notion has been sporadically forwarded that the consumer landscape represents a democratizing environment within the traditional social hierarchy premised on class, gender, and ethnicity/race. The consumer landscape is presumed to accomplish this by allowing the individual consumer the freedom to construct self-identity through the process of consumption. It is the premise of this paper that this contention is incorrect. In fact, what is of interest is the way sexism and the subjugation of nature are integrated and commodified in the consumer landscape, and why they coalesce and reinforce each other so effectively. This process can be observed in the social construction of Texas's second most visited tourist attraction located in downtown San Antonio. In the social construction of the Paseo del Rio \[River Walk] it can be seen how the presentation of gender subjugation (closely linked with nature and race) is a necessary component in the construction of a successful and socially stratified consumer landscape. Far from being democratizing, in this landscape the consumer is socialized according to traditional notions of cultural power.