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PART THREE BREAKING THE BARRIER OF FACE-TO-FACE ASSOCIATION (6000-2100 B.C.

THE COALESCING OF TENSIONAL FACTORS: PRE-HISTORY


7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9 7.10 Criteria for periodization................................................................................................................36 Pre-urban nomadism.......................................................................................................................36 Nature of primary groups...............................................................................................................37 Incipient sedentarization.................................................................................................................37 Systemization of controls over nature..........................................................................................38 Social structure.................................................................................................................................39 Cultural implications.......................................................................................................................39 The notion of service as social mechanism.................................................................................39 The pivotal role of function ...........................................................................................................40 Political effects: the coalescing of tensional factors..................................................................43

CROWDING THE SPACE, CROWDING THE MIND: THE URBAN REVOLUTION


8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 The urban revolution.......................................................................................................................45 Size as social mass ..........................................................................................................................45 Other characteristics of the city.....................................................................................................46 The birth of the state.......................................................................................................................47 The king as surrogate personal factor..........................................................................................48 The economic counterpart of the state: industrialization..........................................................49 Antecedents of writing....................................................................................................................50 Writing, the hallmark of history....................................................................................................51 Implications of the invention of writing ......................................................................................51

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THE COALESCING OF TENSIONAL FACTORS: PRE-HISTORY

7.1 Criteria for periodization


The main periods of prehistory take their name from the type of material most commonly used in making tools. As the overriding material was stone, the common terms are Old Stone Age (Paleolithic in Greek), Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic), and New Stone Age (Neolithic). The difference between the industries of these three ages consists of increased refinements in the prepar ation of the tools, and also of an increase in the type of tools. The differentiation of periods on the basis of material used for tools seems less satisfactory today than other criteria based on economic and social considerations. (1) Economic: food is secured mainly by gathering wild seeds and fruits and by hunting wild animals. (2) Social: human groups are nomadic, a condition which is partly due to the need to follow wild game and harvests. Evidence for this comes especially from the morphology of animal bones and plant remains, which tell us about the degree of domestication (or lack thereof), about culling practices (specific strategies in butchering imply a concern for reproduction, hence domestication), etc. We will seek to understand in a special way the role that perception played: how did these transformations affect the way in which humans related to each other wi thin the newly established social groups?

7.2 Pre-urban nomadism


By no means, however, does n omadism imply complete d etachment from the soil. We find evidence of dwellings used over a long period of time, though perhaps in a seasonal cycle. Cultural remains are found especially when protected by shelters, which tend to be naturally contained spaces such as caves famous examples of which were found at Mt. Carmel in Palestine and Shanidar in Iraq. Open air sites are less easily identifiable: an important recent example is the Tell Kom and Tell Umm Tlel complex in central Syria. The continuity indicated by the remains of the material culture seems to suggest that the same site was occupied by the same group over a long period of time. Thus ancient nomads, like modern ones, are not vagabonds without fixed points of reference; rather, they identified themselves with different territories at the same time.

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Differently from what it may seem at first, nomadism is not dynamic culturally . Precisely because people are on the move, meaningful contacts and true interrelations are considerably hampered. Nomadic groups tend to live in a state of isolation, there is no real sense of alterity vis--vis other groups. Not that their existence is ignored. But their identity remains fluid, without a real possibility for meaningful, structured contrasts. This may account in part for the very slow pace of progress in the Paleolithic period. Conversely, it may be said that social intercourse is greatly stimulating for cultural progress.

7.3 Nature of primary groups


Prehistoric nomadism is different from its historic counterpart because it does not gravitate around urban centers, and does not interact with urban civilization; also, prehistoric nomadic groups were limited in size to a degree which allowed face recognition among all members of the group. There is, on the other hand, a similarity to historical nomadism in what can be assumed of the structure of human groups, because they were not internally differentiated (at least not to any considerable degree) in terms of economic wealth, social rank or political control. The nomadic group is based largely on kin relationships (which remain paradigmatic even when the reality is different); leadership is circumstantial rather than functional, i.e., it is exercised in response to specific circumstances which affect the group from the outside, rather than a function institutionalized as part of the organic structure of the group.

7.4 Incipient sedentarization


In the Mesolithic period we witness the beginning of sedentarization. This means that the social conditions began to change, though the economic base remained that of a food gathering society. Permanence of occupation is evidenced by the constant rebuilding of the same hamlets, continuous use of very heavy stone objects (some over 100 pounds), large cemeteries or collective graveyards (as different from Palaeolithic isolated graves). The most important culture is the Natufian in Palestine. In contrast with the Palaeolithic period, we notice a strong cultural dynamism, which is created both by centrifugal and centripetal forces. Centrifugal: the human groups tend to break away from each other and to develop more localized or regional cultures. Centripetal: these more diversified human groups tend at the same time to look for one another, and to constitute a network of relationships, enriching themselves through their own diversity. The social alterity that we assumed to be missing in a nomadic setting begins to take shape. Territoriality en-

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hances group identity, within and without the group within because stability adds the familiarity with a certain type of built environment that helps to define the group, and without because physically distinctive clusters of traits can be associated with the other as much as with the self. Some of the results of the quicker pace of cultural progress are: ? invention of the bow, the earliest instrument in which mechanical power was used; ? invention of the trap, the first device which could be set in motion while man was not present (these are the first true machines) ? beginning of basketry. But the most important result was the discovery of means of food production, which marks the beginning of a new phase.

7.5 Systemization of controls over nature


Around 6000 B.C., a cluster of major innovations reveals a whole new dimension in human life the ability to control nature and to manipulate some of its aspect for the apparent benefit of man. The discovery of such new competence extends to the botanical, the biological and the chemical sphere, as represented, respectively, in the introduction of agriculture, the domestication of animals, the production of pottery. The change, occurring as it does over a relatively short period of time, is called the agricultural or Neolithic revolution. It is the marked beginning of man's wholesale manipulation of nature which leads ultimately to present day ecological concerns. An early mythological reflection on the change may be found in a Mesopotamian and a Biblical text the humanization of Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Genesis account of Adam's banishment from a world of innocence, characterized by food-gathering, to a world where the tilling of the soil is conceived as a curse. The change with regard to farming and animal husbandry can be detected on the basis of the following factors: (1) analysis of seeds and bones, which are different depending on whether they belong to wild or domesticated species; (2) existence of tools such as the sickle which are primarily associated with food-producing societies; (3) representation of tame animals in art (statues and figurines, rock e ngravings).. Pottery is of course beginning now to be present in the archaeological record. It is based not only on the realization of the properties of clay, but also on a greater ability to control fire: it takes up to 800 Celsius to produce pottery, and this could be obtained only through the construction of proper kilns. Concomitant with these, we witness several new beginnings, from wholly new

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dietary habits and culinary recipes to the introduction of textiles, which entails a multi-stage manufacturing process, from spinning and dying to weaving.

7.6 Social structure


Industrial food production made it possible to create a food surplus, since a segment of the human group could produce enough food to maintain themselves and the rest of the group. Specialization in food production favored the rise of specialization in other areas, so that next to farmers we have potters, weavers, etc. This in turn favored an increase in economic differentiation and social stratification. Social differences, which must have been very small in Paleolithic nomadic society (as in modern nomadic societies) became greater and greater, as evidenced by difference in the size of dwellings within the same village and differences in the number and quality of burial offerings within the same cemetery.

7.7 Cultural implications


1 Considerable capacity for abstraction, as humans grasp the existence of a causal relationship between seed and plant; 2 also humans learn more about the nature of time, with periodical seasons, and hence learn how to control nature; 3 territoriality, i.e., attachment to the ground becomes symbolized by the existence of local gods i.e., the god of the group becomes the god of a given region; 4 also evolution of more complex forms of worship deriving from the perceived need to propitiate the gods in charge of fertility; this derives from the changing perception of time: one knows cycles and one wants to favor their smooth flow 5 culture as frame of nature, as a refashioning of nature: it leads to a flourishing of artistic sense, especially in pottery and in the incipient architecture.

7.8 The notion of service as social mechanism


In order to arrive at a fuller understanding of the major transformations that took place in this momentous period of human development, we will pay particular attention to the role of perception in the inner dynamics of human groups. First we will look at the perceptual dimension of manufacturing of goods and the handling of the same manufactured goods. Next, we will look at

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the perceptual dimension of social relationships wi thin these evolving human groups: the role of function is pivotal in this respect. Finally, we will consider at the perceptual dimension of political forces, showing how leadership capitalized on their control of the tensional factors that coalesced into the state. Part of the growth in social complexity was the development of the notion of service. I define this as the systemic mechanism for catering to needs of others within the group. The systemic aspect is fundamental because it implies that a specific service is presupposed as an essential part of the social group, whether or not one knows the person that can provide the service. In other words, one expects the group as such to be endowed with the results of the various types of service; there is in effect a layering of presuppositions, since services come to presuppose other services in a nested sort of progression. Chart 7:1 shows the major moments of this process in outline form.

7.9 The pivotal role of function


Out of this developed a whole new dimension in personal interaction, so new in fact that it came to serve in many ways as a surrogate for the proper personal aspects of human relationships function. I consider this to be a major springboard that catapulted (if over a time span of a few millennia) human social clustering into the domain of the city and the state. This process is shown in outline form in Chart 7:2. The concept of function arose, I submit, within the long time span that bridged the period from the beginning of articulate speech and from the discovery of more complex tools down to the Neolithic revolution. It arose as certain aspects of human interaction acquired an existence of their own, as it were, which can be subsumed, precisely, under the heading of function. Rather than occasional moments or circumstantial services, there developed the perception that human interaction was permanently served by specific functional slots. These existed regardless of who filled them, to some extent even regardless even of whether or not they were filled. For instance, a potters workshop would supply clients with pots out of a stock that was expected to be there, regardless of who the potter was, and for some time regardless of whether any potter was there or not. And functional slots were not perceived in isolation, but as subsets of a larger system that came to regulate more and more the very subsistence of the group and of the individuals within it. This began a marked process of depersonalization in human interaction, of which the whole world is now, for better or for worse, the heir.

manufacturing
intuitive handling:

handling household:
intra-family group limited need for instructions or specialized users stone used as hammer (e wear patterns)

transfer of skills
localized exchange: intragroup transfer

transfer of products

primary manufacturing:

surface modification of whole natural items; inducement of natural development

chipped stone industry;domestication, farming instruction based use:

no evidence for long distance exchange

transformative manufacturing:

workshops
transfer of instructional techniques as static sets of interlocking and sequential steps

structured exchange:
beginning of specialized trade;

transformation of resources, resulting in the production of items that are not present in nature

results cannot be obtained without specific rules and instructions

kilns for pottery production; potters wheel; tools to produce manufactured results (sickle, architectural techniques; potter wheel, spindle whorl); tokens tools made for tools (arrow straighteners, perfume bottles);bricks for architecture (man made

sourcing studies; stylistic analysis

building block)

symbolic manufacturing :

code based use:


tool cannot be used without mastering a complex code; both process and result are symbolic school and scribal curriculum

school

systemic exchange:
long term training as exchange mechanism

Political History of Ancient Mesopotamia and Syria

production of goods that have no analog in nature; (in a sense, no manufacturing)

written tablets

uniformity of writing system across SyroMesopotamia 41

Chart 7:1. Development of manufacturing and handling of goods

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7.10 Political effects: the coalescing of tensional factors


The perceptual dimension of the inner dynamics of these rapidly evolving human groups is the progressive definition of strong tensional factors that establish the solidarity within the groups. Our question can be: how did these groups view themselves as groups when the sum total of individuals began to transcend the horizons of personal familiarity? How did the individual perceive the group as the group began to grow vastly beyond the level of acquaintanceship? On the one hand, there is leadership, i.e., the focusing on a single individual at the top of a pyramid. The greater complexity and the demographic increase in the new settled societies made it necessary to have a stricter system of government, with efficient central leadership in control of the general planning for the community. This is reflected in large housing conglomerates which appear early in the Neolithic period; the most famous are Jericho in Palestine and Catal Huyuk in Turkey. The overriding factor in political integration is the irreversible growth of tensional factors which hold the human group together. In other words, there are non-physical factors which are explicitly articulated (e.g., the recognition of abstract patterns in agricultural or astronomical cycles; expectation of professional specialization; compliance with functional leadership) which are accepted as conditioning the rhythm of the life of the group, and which therefore hold the group together by providing an intangible, centripetal tensionality. This is the beginning of a trend which will continue to develop in historical times into ever more encompassing political and administrative structures. In outline form, here are some of the moments that led to the establishment of what we call Mesopotamian civilization. The major steps are outlined in Chart 7:3.

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Date 10000

Innovation
1 circumstantial leadership (i.e. limited to specific circumstances) long term planning, identification of agricultural cycles, animal husbandry (control of reproduction), weaving (multi-stage manufacturing), astronomy (recognition of recurrent patterns) creation of surplus (cause and consequence) specialization of man/product relationship, creativity and technical skill of producer, service to recipients sedentarization religious crystallization consolidation of settlements demographic expansion administrative crystallization

Evidence
bullae as ad hoc organization, grave goods marking role of individuals botanical identification of seed changes; sickles, zoological identification of bone changes, impressions on clay, representations on seals storage facilities agriculture artifacts (esp. pottery)

6000

4000 3000

6 7

delegation of power

10 industrial type production

11 crystallization of functional role of leadership (i.e., permanent function within group)

housing conglomerates, irrigation long term investment in temple architecture monumental architecture, city walls (Uruk, Habuba, Terqa), surface surveys writing (Uruk, Jemdat Nasr; Fara, Salabikh, Ebla, Nippur, Lagash) hierarchy of titles in bureaucratic system bevelled rim bowls, industrial slavery (humans viewed purely as functional items) luxury goods, royal cemeteries (Ur)

Chart 7:3. Factors in the development of tensional factors

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CROWDING THE SPACE, CROWDING THE MIND: THE URBAN REVOLUTION

8.1 The urban revolution


Large scale urban settlements, characterized by vast housing conglomerates and monumental public architecture, begin around 3200 B.C.: the most typical such settlement is Uruk in Southern Iraq, but several more are found throughout Mesopotamia. This phenomenon is so conspicuous in the archaeological record, and so many are the other transformations which accompany it, that it has been called the urban revolution. One of the fundamental events which took place at this time was the systematization of a writing system. A working definition of city, such that it would subsume both ancient and modern entities, is one that stresses group solidarity based on systemic presuppositions of broadly tensional, territorially contiguous, impersonal human functions . We are dealing with a network of functions which are not found in any single human being, but are rather the result of cultural growth (not every human being is a potter see above, 7.9); they are systemic because they are presupposed as part of the system (seeing the skyline of a city tells a visitor that he will find there a potter); they are tensional in the sense that they hold together in balance a widely scattered human group (I may not know the person who is the potter, but I know that within this group there will be sufficient potters to justify competition, though not so many to make their indivi dual survival impossible); they are contiguous to the extent that they are to be found side by side within the same physical settlement (the potter's workshop is part of the mental map of any inhabitant of the city); and they are impersonal because they are not based on the personality of their carriers (the potter will sell his wares to customers he does not even know).

8.2 Size as social mass


The origin of cities is important for more than the simple quantitative observation of increase in the size of human settlements. Or rather, such an increase in size has to be understood for what it implies in terms of the sociopolitical structure. The increase in size is clearly documented in the archaeological record; it is not an amorphous, but rather an organic growth which shows a coordination of the available space according to a hierarchy of architectural, and functional, levels, with non-random clustering of types of buildings. Very meaningful is the explicit demarcation of the human settlement by

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means of a highly marked perimeter in the form of city-walls: they define the edge of solidarity of a well defined human group. The implications of this are twofold. (1) The city as an organism is larger than the sum total of individuals belonging to it . The total number of people who are tied together by the common links of solidarity within the city is larger than the sum total of individuals known to every single individual through face-to-face association; the threshold at which this phenomenon becomes true may be placed at between 3000 and 5000 individuals. That such a social organism could come into existence is indicative of a real quantum jump in the evolution of social groups. (2) What is more, such an organism implies the new functional definition of who (or rather what) its constituent members are. Their role within the group is derived from the function they serve within the organism, not from personal interaction or kinship ties among each other. There is, as it were, knowing without knowing. A given individual is recognized as having a given functional relevance for the functioning of the organism, i.e., as a potter, a soldier, a bureaucrat. The impersonal qualification through a function takes the place of personal qualification through direct contact. This functionalization of human beings, for the purposes of the social organism which they constitute, is another major alteration of the primary (and preexisting) natural order. Its extreme manifestation is the institution of slavery, which implies, at least in theory, a total depersonalization of the subject and slavery too, may be traced back to incipient urbanism.

8.3 Other characteristics of the city


Managerial coordination: planning based on presupposition of available functions delegation of authority and lack of personal touch between hierarchical steps (which are presupposed) functional rather than biological or personal solidarity writing as mechanism to both implement and record coordination Impersonal legal entity: solidarity emerges as functional entity tensional bond within group relies on functioning of urban system leadership as point of reference for legal entity (greater distance from base as greater power) introduction of distinction between public and private sphere Social stratification : evidence from wealth differentiation differentiation based on ability to depend less on personal ties of benevolence

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Professional differentiation : evidence from presupposed skills cumulation of culture humans viewed as (predictable) function holders standing professional classes (administrative, priestly, military, etc.) Boundaries: the physical outline of the city as a built environment is highlighted by the contrast with the fields around the presence of monumental architecture in general emphasizes the same perception, but in particular two types of construction: city walls are massive and provide a sharp definition to the boundary the ziggurat at the center of the settlement serves as a unifying pinnacle of social solidarity, visible from miles away

8.4 The birth of the state


There is a strong political correlative to the phenomenon of urbanization in Mesopotamia, for the beginning of cities may be considered coterminous with the beginning of the state (see also below, 9.1-2). For our purposes, a working definition of the early state may be (1) the systemic articulation of power throughout the social group, (2) supported by a capillary system of public administration, and (3) resting on institutional permanence . By this I mean that the city is viewed as the social group, not just as a physical settlement; and that power is exercised within it through a complex system which articulates degrees of control through permanently recognized mechanisms. For example, the king knows he can count on a specified number of individuals to perform an assigned task (say, dredging a canal) even though he does not know personally any of these individuals, nor does he have do apply any particular pressure for them to do so, nor does he have to initiate any personal contact with them. The potential of coercive force is implicit, but needs to be used only as an exception, which is why power is truly articulated through institutions, not necessarily enforced through physical constraint. Such a coordination of factors is presupposed as a permanent set of conditions, which is not altered by the specific personal destiny affecting the individuals who make it work. The significance that the term ekallu Palace comes to have in the language is indicative. Analogously to the use of English the Crown, ekallu comes to refer to the Palace as a legal person. It acts as much any he whether the king himself or otherwise. The coordination of the new social and technological dimensions which had come to characterize the human group favored the growth of a determined leadership which would provide a sense of direction for the needs of the group

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and exploit the presuppositions present in the phenomenon. Such leadership would articulate the practical and ideological themes which were to serve as goals for the activity of the group, it would devise the managerial procedures which were to implement them, it would take responsibility (i.e., credit) for the outcome. Leadership is synonymous with kingship, which also dates back to the urban revolution: the king was the apex of the social group, symbolizing its solidarity and providing the thrust which kept the momentum going. The other aspect which characterizes the birth of the state in Mesopotamia is the development of a bureaucratic apparatus which provided the backbone for the implementation of the royal directives. A key factor for an efficient exercise of power in the new urban context was the ability to communicate across functional boundaries within the social organism; the functional slots within the state were to be in functional contact with each other to allow for an effective operation of the system. This meant in practice two thingsbureaucracy and writing. (1) Delegation of authority was developed to a formal degree, so that rank could both correspond to an explicit, specific and recognizable level of manpower, and prevent personal presumptions beyond the assigned leve l. (2) Development of an impersonal communication system which would keep the flow of information unhampered from personal intervention or limitations. Such was the humus from which writing originated. As a tool in the workings of the social organism, writing is essentially an impersonal link among functional slots; only as a byproduct did written texts come to embody truly personal utterances of the human spirit, all the way up to poetry, and thus to mold eventually the channels for human self-expression. Because of its importance, more detail should be given on the antecedents and the nature of the first writing system of mankind.

8.5 The king as surrogate personal factor


Leadership as described above was a factor that played in the hands of the few, so that rapidly the divergence between powerful and powerless, wealthy and poor, became a veritable chasm amply documented in the archaeological record (from monument al architecture to grave goods) and later in the literary record, with idealized figures like Gilgamesh (composed presumably for the benefit of the king in the first place, but possibly known and enjoyed beyond the circle of the royal court as well). On the other hand, the king emerged also as an alternative to the progressive and inexorable process of functionalization of human relationships. It became a clich of political propaganda that the king should be the father, the shepherd, the advocate of the poor, etc. But all clichs are a window onto the reality that gives rise to the very clich. A father figure was needed, whether

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or not any individual king could, or would wish to, fulfill that role. Functionalization was perceived as a harsh reality, even if the perception was not articulated in our terms. And the king, at the same time that he was profiting from that reality, needed to make it not so much tolerable as desirable. Loyalty to him as a person was a benefit even though hardly any one among his subjects ever even saw him personally. Vicariously, his subjects related to him as a person. So, ironically, the very device that aims at compensating the impersonal dimension of the royal function and of the entire system on which it rests, became a function! The symbolic view of the king as father, shepherd, advocate was just that, a symbol, resting on a function projected and assumed, whether or not fulfilled.

8.6 The economic counterpart of the state: industrialization


The process which we have seen here is referred to as state formation in anthropological literature. It is, in effect, the political dimension of the urban revolution. (Interestingly, the etymology of urbanism and politics are equivalent, the first coming from the Latin, and the second from the Greek, term for city.) The economic equivalent is industrialization. Industrialization may be understood as the segmentation of procurement, production and marketing of goods. Four major side effects are in evidence. (1) No single segment can control the entire process. Hence effective control over the process is in the hands of the few who do have an overview and who control the flow from one segment to the other. These are individuals who have technical and/or coercive skills and mechanisms at their disposal merchants and/or political leaders. Clearly, this was a major springboard for the accumulation of individual power and wealth. (2) Any individual within any given segment can be replaced with relative ease, as the skills are limited to that segment, and can be taught though repetition. This, too, makes the personal role less and less unique, and the overarching system correlatively more important. (3) The concept of long term investment develops. This presupposes a market for goods produced over a longer period of time or obtained from greater distances, and the ability to assess its needs and anticipate its response. (4) Analogously, the concept of interest develops. This presupposes the understanding that timely availability of goods is in itself a good to be paid for. This is another very abstract perception that rests ultimately on the ability to segment time sequences. Rich evidence for these stages are found in the archaeological record. A particularly significant one is provided by the diffusion of a type of vessels, the beveled rim bowls, associated with the sites of the protoliterate period.

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8.7 Antecedents of writing


The first regular cuneiform tablets come from Uruk and are dated around 3000 B.C. (A group of three tablets found in Tartaria, Rumania, may be older, but they are questionable, and in any case, out of context.) Two major antecedents have been brought to light in the recent literature. These are real antecedents of writing as a specific semiotic form (and as distinct from other visual means of communications, such as wall paintings or figurines), because their component parts have an intrinsic syntax of their own, quite unlike the natural sequence which is typical of representational arts. (1) The first antecedent has been identified by A. Marshak: it consists of calendrical markings which were incised on rocks or bones as far back as 40,000 years ago, and represent the phases of the moon. (2) The second antecedent, discussed at length by D. SchmandtBesserat, consists of three-dimensional clay tokens which were symbolic representations of either items being counted or numerical notations for the count itself; these tokens were enclosed inside hollow clay spheres (called bullae), which came to be marked on the outside with impressions of the tokens contained inside; consistent use of the impressions on the outside eliminated eve ntually the need to physically place the tokens inside the clay bullae, and finally the clay bullae were flattened in the shape of a pillow-like tablet, much like the typical tablets of later historical times. Use of the tokens is attested from about 10,000 B.C. down into historic times, over a large area centered around Mesopotamia. (3) A third antecedent (proposed in a UCLA doctoral dissertation by S. M. Hughey) is surveying. Requirements for horizontal and vertical controls were of major importance both for monumental architecture and for large scale irrigation. The system of notations used for recording such measurements may indeed have left a trace in what became event ually the cuneiform writing system, and especially the application of complex geometrical and arithmetical principles from the very early stages of the cuneiform tradition. The fundamental steps that distinguish writing from all these antecedents are two. (1) The syntactical ordering of the components, i.e., of the signs. Each of the antecedents indicated above has this principle embedded in it, but in an embryonic form. In this they differ from other signs (e.g., potters marks) which are graphically distinctive, but can be linked with writing proper only more remotely. The sequencing rules of the signs are then as important as the individual signs in themselves, and this adds a very considerable level of intellectual complexity to the whole mechanism. (2) The semiotic opposition of individual traits, whereby the recognition of minimal pairs attributes the proper meaning to each member of the pair more than the individual shape of any given single sign. This, too, implies a higher level of abstraction than sim-

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ply the correlation between a representational rendering of a gi ven item and the item itself.

8.8 Writing, the hallmark of history


A persistent tradition makes the beginning of history coincide with the beginning of writing. Given the amount of information which written texts provide, this major periodization may seem we ll justified on the historiographic level, that is. But what does writing introduce which is unique on the historical level? (1) The first element of our answer deals with the intellectual dime nsion of this invention, and this in turn hinges on the definition of writing, which may be given as follows: writing is the extrasomatic extension of passive, logical brain functions. In this, writing is parallel to manual tools, which are the extrasomatic extension of muscular power: just as tools identify humans as humans from the earliest time in prehistory, so writing identifies civilized humans as such from the beginning of urbanization. The extension of memory into an extrasomatic medium permitted humans to develop his reliance on memory beyond biological limits, without a physical intervention upon their biological system. It appears then that writing marks truly a quantum leap in human history: in its nature and origin it marks a major transformation in the man-to-nature relationship in that it transforms radically the reliance on memory. (2) In its social import, writing emerges as an impersonal carrier of information among humans conceived as functional slots in the social organism. Hence, it serves as a major catalysts in the process of functionalization described above in 7.9 (3) In its documentary value, writing provides a funnel of more highly compacted and differentiated information than with any other means. It is only with writing, for example, that we first have a record of proper names and of individual events linked with them.

8.9 Implications of the invention of writing


Intellectual dimensions : complexity of symbolic expression syntax of non-contiguous steps perspective and distancing from the process (with correlative ability for focusing or centering) window unto human psyche

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uniformity of writing techniques and underlying codes (note the parallel with the development of computer programming today) Socio-political implications: maximization of energy vs. cumulation (1000 joggers/car) crystallization of behavioral routines (lists as constraints on grouping) organization as a visible entity with a life of its own; thus for instance, census taking projects a quantifiable view of the population) impersonal accountability (receipts/contracts as replacing personal commitment and the role of witnesses) segmenting of reality into finite, controllable units (tallies as projecting given scheme) professionalization of secondary services: scribes and bureaucracy (lexical lists) From history to post-history: the introduction of the computer in our own age is perhaps the only true parallel in the whole course of human development to the introduction of writing for this reason, we may think that we are gliding into post-history in terms of our definition, the computer provides an extrasomatic extensions of active brain functions: the manipulation of record takes place outside our brain rigidity of format, alienation

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