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This article examines episodes from three novels by Guy de Maupassant, Notre Coeur (1890), Bel-Ami (1885), and Pierre et Jean (1888), and analyses how mantelpieces and ornaments become a privileged [...]

Ornament, reviled in avant-garde circles since Adolf Loos associated it with crime, remains an important force in artistic production in many cultures. The Academy Forum invited artist Tom Phillips to [...]

Grass-tempered bowls made by the forbears of historical Karoo Bushmen between ca. A.D. 1500 and 1800 were decorated with many different stamp-impressed motifs. Five of the seven observed motif groups appear to be distributed randomly across the 2,000 [km.sup.2] study area in the upper Seacow River valley, South Africa. When their percentage frequencies per site cluster were mapped, however, localized concentrations appeared. The validity of the percentage concentrations is tested here by unconstrained cluster analysis, which is not subject to the closure effect. Also, several other tests, all avoiding the use of percentage frequency maps, are introduced as alternative ways to deal with unevenly distributed sites and scarce artifacts or traits unevenly distributed among the sites themselves. The results demonstrate that percentage-frequency mapping can produce occasionally spurious and misleading patterns. Because stratigraphic evidence is scarce and inconclusive, and direct dating of sherds has not yet been conducted, a test also is proposed for determining contemporaneity of motif groups. Los cuencos con desgrasante de paja hechos por los antepasados del grupo historico Karoo Bushman durante 1500 a 1800 D.C., fueron decorados con diferentes motivos impresos con sellos. Cinco de los siete grupos de motivos observados parecen estar distribuidos al azar a traves del area de estudio que comprende 2.000 [km.sup.2] de la parte alta del valle del Rio Seacow en Africa del Sur. Sin embargo, cuando sus frecuencias de porcentajes fueron mapeadas para cada grupo de sitios, aparecieron concentraciones localizadas. Este articulo examina la validez de dichas concentraciones de porcentajes a traves de un analisis de grupos no restringidos, el cual no esta sujeto a un efecto terminal ("closure effect"). Ademas, se introducen varias pruebas que evitan el uso de mapas de frequencias de porcentajes y que constituyen alternativas para tratar con sitios distribuidos de manera desigual y con escasos artefactos o rasgos desigualmente distribuidos entre los sitios mismos. Los resultados demuestran que los mapas de frecuencias de porcentajes pueden producir ocasionalmente patrones erroneos. Debido a que la evidencia estratigrafica es escasa e inconclusa, y que la datacion directa de tiestos ceramicos aun no se ha producido, se propone una prueba para determinar la contemporaneidad de los motivos.