Contents
Section 1
Palaeoanthropology
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Photogallery Outline of Human Phylogeny Evolutionary Trees and DNA Brain Evolution Hand and Bipedality |
Section 2
Social and socio-
cultural systems
Section 3
Ontogeny and symbolism
Section 4
Language systems
Links
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Links Policy Relevant Links |
Social and cognitive factors in the historical elaboration of writing
David Barton and Mary Hamilton
Abstract
Writing originated separately in Mesopotamia and Egypt, China, pre-Columbian America, and, possibly, the Indus Valley. The earliest evidence of writing is cuneiform script from Mesopotamia at c.3500 BC. Six earlier classes of visual representation contributed to the development of writing-systems: the expressive and ritualistic markings found in cave art; tallying devices; property markings and totems; tokens; mnemonic devices; and pictographic/ideographic narrative forms. Early writing-systems were used for political and economic, religious, and historical-literary functions. There is no single order of functional development that applies to all cultures.
Writing-systems are classified into three types: logographic
systems, which represent morphemes; syllabic systems, which
represent syllables; and alphabetic systems, which represent
units more closely related to phonemes than to syllables.
Writing-systems tend to develop from the logographic to the
syllabic, though this is not always the case. As syllabic
systems interact with the structure of the spoken language
they are trying to capture they adapt themselves through a
variety of devices. This historical elaboration is not well
served by considering it to be an evolutionary sequence, as
has often been claimed.
Strong claims that literacy per se qualitatively
affects cognitive abilities are not well supported by
evidence. Literacy is better seen as a communicative
technology involved in the production and reproduction of
shared meaning or knowledge. It is the social practices
sustaining these meanings that determine the consequent skills
associated with literacy. Arguments that credit literacy as a
prime causal factor underlying social change are thus
oversimplistic. Rather, literacy is just one factor in a
nexus which includes social and political institutions.
Printing led to a restructuring of literate activities through
the incorporation of a technical invention into the social
organization and production of knowledge. Printing assists in
the cultural diffusion of ideas, and in the standardization of
knowledge and linguistic forms. However, social factors again
play a role in determining access to literacy, and thus the
extent to which printing can act as an agent in the diffusion
of literacy [Eds].