From Oral to Written

We began our unit on written knowledge this past week discussing various materials and forms of written language. In the Mediterranean region, as well as East Asia, the writing down of language did much to change the face of politics in that particular region.  For the Greeks and Romans this meant carting the conquered nation's library off to your land to hold their knowledge hostage, and assert your authority.

From dwcouch on Flickr. 

Interestingly enough when Europe came to conqueror America they thought to use this same method, to no avail. At the time that Europe came to America most the native peoples did not have written systems, and of those that did reading and writing were not everyday activities.



According to ancientscripts.com the only written languages that pre-date the arrival of Europe are those found in central/south America, the Aztec, Mayan, and other tribes. I noticed that these are also some of the only tribes that formed large, cohesive nations. All others, particularly those found by the French and English in Northern America only spoke their languages and lived in relatively small family based groups.

The Navajo and Cherokee of North America all first had their languages written by a non-native speaker, or several, and did not embrace these forms until forced to by political necessity, as in the case of the Navajo. This observation leads to questions about the changes that medium brings not just to knowledge, but what that knowledge is used for. I won't go into this extensively but would like to make a couple of general observations that seem to direct a path.

• The transition from oral to written knowledge allows bigger kingdoms and empires to form. I think that this is due to the fact that people begin to rely on the written medium for their knowledge, and whoever holds then medium holds the power. Suddenly the collective knowledge of a larger region can be held by one, or a few, men. Even at that they are very special men, because they know what the secret words mean. 
• Written knowledge also allows people at great distances to communicate more authentically with one another, reading the true words. Additionally, in the case of Asia, peoples that did not speak the same language, could read and understand the same set of symbols in the same way, allowing them to form bonds and alliances.
• The transition from written to print, then seems to a slight reversal of this process as power goes back to the people. Printed materials are cheaper to make, and then cheaper to read so that more people can read what has been said.
• However, print still allows people to communicate at great distances so that people that are somewhat geographically separated can share ideas and then form great nations. (Or tell their former king they are leaving.)