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In recent years aesthetics has grown into a rich and varied discipline. Its scope has widened to embrace ethical, social, religious, environmental, and cultural concerns. As international communication increases through more frequent congresses and electronic communication, varied traditions have joined with its historically interdisciplinary character, making aesthetics a focal center of diverse and multiple interests. These need a forum that is universal and inclusive, easy to access, and unhampered by financial, political, and institutional barriers. An on-line publication offers an ideal opportunity for advancing these purposes and Contemporary Aesthetics endeavors to provide that forum.
Contemporary Aesthetics is an international open-access journal that is free to all readers and authors. While CA is mostly volunteer-driven and is partially supported by the Rhode Island School of Design, significant costs are involved in making this journal available to the scholarly community, and we welcome contributions large and small. Your support helps Contemporary Aesthetics continue to offer a high quality online scholarly journal. As a non-profit organization, we are dedicated to staying an independent publication free from the costs and compromises of for-profit publishing operations. The full amount of your contribution will go directly to support the journal. If you would like to help support this effort, please click on the button below. Thank you for your generous support.
A note on our home page image: Rapa are dance paddles in the form of highly stylized human figures from the Pacific island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The inhabitants use them, often in pairs, in ceremonial dances. Mourners reportedly carried rapa in the funerary rites of slain warriors. This rapa can remind viewers of the resilience of the long-colonized Rapa Nui people. Watch a traditional ceremonial dance by the Rapanui band, Matato’a, here: MangroveNoumea.