ETEC540: Text, Technologies Community Weblog

I laughed such a deep belly laugh that my sides hurt when it was finished. That was my reaction to the video Medieval Help Desk (Medieval Help Desk, 2007). The similarities between the monk helping his colleague and my job helping colleagues integrate technology into their teaching were undeniable. The encouragement, the patience, the modelling and the scaffolding of learning are all strategies that I use in my practice. Once I finished laughing, I began to reflect on the video and think about the real life transition between the scroll and codex.

I never really thought of that transition as a change in technology. I was born after both the scroll and codex were already old technology. As Prensky in his article Digital Natives, Digital immigrant states, “Kids born into any new culture learn the new language easily, and forcefully resist using the old” (Prensky, 2001). I grew up using mass printed books and never thought there was anything else. I never had to master reading a scroll or a codex. But the more I reflected the more I came to the realization that the change in technology from scroll to codex was a significant change in the way that humans interact with text.

I then began to ask questions. What really is a scroll? What are the characteristics that constitute a scroll? How was it made? How did the scroll change over time? What is a codex? What are the characteristics that constitute a codex? How are they made? How did the codex change over time? What event precipitated the change in technology from scroll to codex? How long did the two technologies exist simultaneously? Was it a short transition of a few years or was it a long transition over centuries? I set out to find the answers.

What is a scroll?

In its simplest form a scroll is a roll of materials used for writing. Although we associate the word scroll with roll, the original is actually derived from the verb scrow and its meaning to write down or inscribe (Agarwal-Hollands & Andrews, 2001).

What are the characteristics of a scroll?

The materials used for scrolls varied from culture to culture throughout the millennia. They included materials such as papyrus, parchment, paper, birch bark, palm leaves and fabric.  Evidence of the earliest scrolls is found in the ancient cultures of China, Japan and Egypt. The scrolls in China and Japan were made from silk fabric and Egyptian scrolls were made from papyrus. Greek and Roman scrolls used parchment in addition to papyrus (Vega, 2011b; Argawal-Hollands & Andrews, 2001).

Many scrolls were wound around rods of bronze, ivory or wood and frequently the rods were decorated at both ends with knobs or ornaments. These rods and knobs were meant to protect the scroll and make them easier to handle (Vega, 2011b). Other accessories contributed to the safe keeping of scrolls. There is evidence that to keep scrolls safe they were sometimes stored horizontally on shelving or in pigeonholes on shelves. Some were stored in upright book-boxes or capsa. There is also evidence that valuable scrolls could be wrapped in a protective sleeve of parchment tied with thongs or placed in a chest (Grout, 2011).

The writing on the scroll again varies from culture to culture. Egyptians used narrow columns of text for horizontal scrolling. Hebrew and Arabic scrolls were read from right to left. In Japan and China the text was written in vertical columns from the top right to the bottom (Argawal-Hollands & Andrews, 2001).

How did the scroll change over time?

The earliest Egyptian, Roman and Greek scrolls were made from papyrus. Papyrus was made from a tall reed like plant that grew exclusively in the swamps of the Nile River. After removing the hard rind, the reed was cut into long strips. These strips were then pressed together into sheets and then pasted together to form scrolls (Vega, 2011b).

Over time parchment scrolls replaced papyrus scrolls. Parchment was made from cleaned, scraped and prepared skins of calves, goats, or sheep (Vega, 2011a). As Roberts and Skeat assert, ”parchment had the advantage over papyrus (in) that it could be manufactured virtually anywhere” (p. 8) However, this change took centuries to complete. (Roberts & Skeat, 1983, p.10)

What is a codex?

The codex can be defined as, “a collection of sheets of any material, folded double and fastened together at the back or spine, and usually protected by covers.” (Roberts & Skeat, p. 1)

What are the characteristics of a codex?

The original materials used for codices were papyrus and parchment. Roberts and Skeat suggest that the papyrus codex and the parchment codex developed at the same time (Roberts & Skeat, 1982, p.29). As discussed earlier, parchment replaced papyrus over a period of hundreds of years. The gigantic scale of the manufacture and distribution of papyrus from Egypt made its replacement a formidable undertaking. (Roberts & Skeat, 1983, p.10)

The physical layout of the codex is directly related to the earlier wooden writing tablet (Roberts & Skeat, 1983, p. 1). The wooden writing tablet was two or more pieces of wood covered in wax and was held together with a clasp or cords threaded through pierced holes (Roberts & Skeat, 1983, p.11). The Greeks and Romans would use an instrument called a stylus to write on the wax tablets. The stylus would have a sharp pointed end for writing and a flat rounded end for smoothing the wax (Vega, 2011a).

A significant characteristic of the codex is that it could be opened at any page due to the bound pages. The reader would be free from winding and rewinding. (Ellenbogen, 2011)

How did the codex change over time?

The codex form of the fourth century of the Common Era remained unaltered for more than a thousand years until the developments of paper and movable type (Roberts and Skeats, 1983, p.76).

However, the priests and monks of the Christian Church developed the skills of writing and bookmaking during that millennium. They separated the words with spaces and developed a system of punctuation to make reading easier. They also developed the use of illustrations, framed decorative borders and decorated initial letters (Ellenbogen, 2011; Vega, 2011a).

How long did the two technologies exist simultaneously?

The two technologies, the scroll and the codex, existed simultaneously over the first five centuries of the Common Era. The scroll was the dominant technology for the first and second centuries. It was not until the third century that the scroll and codex achieved parity. By the sixth century the codex was the dominant technology. (Roberts and Skeat, 1983) “This was no sudden revolution but a slow, irreversible drift from one form to the other which required several centuries for completion.” (Roberts & Skeat, p. 67)

What events or event precipitated the change in technology from scroll to codex?

Roberts and Skeat explore this topic in their book The Birth of the Codex and they discuss and discount multiple hypotheses, “the questions why this change took place when it did, in what circles the codex was first used, and why it eventually supplanted the roll, are more complex and uncertain.” (Roberts & Skeat, p. 1)

One reason scholars suggest that codex overtook the roll is due to economy. Roberts and Skeat discount this idea by suggesting that, “if economy was such a decisive factor, one would expect to find some traces of other attempts to make economical use of the writing material; but such traces are conspicuous in their absence.”(p. 46)

Another reason scholars suggest the codex overtook the roll is due to compactness. Roberts and Skeat assert that this is a “serious and valid argument” (p.47).

Roberts and Skeat discuss a hypothesis for the adoption of the codex. This hypothesis is that Christians wanted to differentiate Christian texts from both Jewish and pagan writings. (p.57)

Finally, Roberts and Skeat do offer two further ideas for consideration. The first idea is that the capacity of the codex is superior to that of the scroll (p.76). This sentiment is echoed by Bolter, “A codex could hold several times as much text as a roll” (p. 78).  The second idea is that the superior construction of the codex, the binding, made it less susceptible to damage (Roberts & Skeat, 1983, p.76). However, they do state that these are only speculations.

Conclusion

This investigation has been an exciting adventure. There were two significant learning moments. The first was my familiarity with the vocabulary of the scroll and codex. This familiarity comes from the subjugation of the vocabulary by today’s technologies. The second was the moment I realized how my interactions with the type of text influence my consciousness. Ong asserts that, “writing has transformed human consciousness” (p.77). I would extend Ong’s statement to include that the type of text technologies for writing we are exposed to transforms our consciousness. An ancient Egyptian’s consciousness is affected and limited by the technologies of their era just as my consciousness is affected and limited by the technologies of today.

References

Agarwal-Hollands, U. & Andrews, R. (2001) From scroll… to codex… and back again. Education, Communication & Information.1(1), 59-73. doi:10.1080/14636310120048056

Bolter, J. (2001) Writing space: Computers, hypertext and the remediation of print. 2^nd Edition Routledge: New York

Ellenbogen, R. (2011) Book. World Book Advanced, World Book, 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.

Grout, J. (2011). Scroll and codex. Encyclopaedia Romana. Retrieved from http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/scroll/scrollcodex.html

Medieval Help Desk (2007). Retrieved from http://youtu.be/pQHX-SjgQvQ

Ong, W. (1982) Orality and literacy. Routledge: London

Prensky, M. (2001) Digital natives, digital immigrants. Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/

Roberts, C & Skeat, T. (1983) The birth of the codex. Oxford University Press: London

Vega, R. (2011a) Manuscript. World Book Advanced, World Book, 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.

Vega, R. (2011b) Scroll. World Book Advanced, World Book, 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2011.

The sentiment, “Literacy is a luxury; fiction is a necessity” (Chesterton, p. 1) is perhaps key to our understanding of why the rise of the paperback novel has had such a significant impact on reading habits in our culture. Storytelling, as we know from studying its history in Orality and Literacy (Ong, 1982), is an integral component of the human experience. Literacy, until relatively recent history, has been a pleasure enjoyed mainly by the aristocracy.

With the advent of the Gutenburg press, which coincided with the Reformation and Counter Reformation in France, literacy became more widespread in Europe. It has been argued that these movements began the democratization of literacy. Yet this democratization happened largely along class lines and corresponded with the growth of the market economy (Kaestler, p. 25). At the same time, industrialization and child labour practices served to depress any rise of literacy rates, particularly in Britain. Immigration of uneducated workers together with population expansion outstripped the capacity of schools and other social agencies (Kaestler, p. 26). Education reforms beginning in the early 19th century resulted in a growing number of people who were able to read and write. Books, however, were very expensive and the average person could not afford to buy these highly ornate, beautifully bound books that were destined to be passed down through the generations.

It is difficult to place exactly when the first paperback novel was published. There were a few false starts, in both Europe and America. Frederick Melcher, an American publisher, distinguished between “best sellers” (which were not the literary best but what people liked best) and “literary classics” which were important to succeeding generations of readers (Quay, p. 205). That both types of books were produced reflects the interests of the reading public and therefore reflects the cultural backdrop to publishing practices in America and Europe. Thus the upper classes were aligned with “literature” or the contemplation of “ideas,” a “highbrow” activity, while the lower classes were associated with “low brow” action fiction and, more often than not, mysteries, which were looked down upon by those in the upper classes.

There were arguably three stages to the paperback revolution. The first stage took place prior to the 19th century and developed out of the high cost of postage for hardback books sent by American publishers to readers who were behind the ever-expanding frontier. “Brother Jonathon” books, published in the United States, consisted of 24-48 pages in newspaper format and were sent out one chapter at a time. Other publishers wanted in on the action resulting in fierce competition between publishers. Costs had to be lowered to be competitive, which resulted in books becoming smaller and looking more like the traditional hard cover book. There was a large outcry by mainstream publishers as these installments became wildly popular and mainstream publishers appealed to Congress to outlaw these paperback novels. Congress responded by raising the postal rates so that the publishers of paperbacks could not survive. This ended the first chapter of the paperback revolution.

The second stage can be characterized as the meeting between the industrial revolution and public education in the late 1800s. Education reform resulted in a greater demand for reading material. Mail order sales were also becoming more reliable while better papermaking technologies caused the price of paper to plummet. Big mainstream publishers still tended to shy away from committing their “literature” to the paperback format. But railway travel generated a huge demand for throw-away literature. In America, Chicago became the center for publishers issuing “railroad literature” which were mainly cheap romances, joke books and crime stories, as well as almanacs and road maps. The 1860s, heralded the dime novels, and the penny-dreadfuls, which were fast paced stories often based on frontier adventures. The authors were often “foreign,” which meant that the publishers didn’t have to pay royalties. The dime novels declined as the competition mounted. The traditional publishing houses also started to publish paperbound books as “extras” for ten cents and full-length novels in a magazine format, to avoid paying royalties to foreign authors. Congress put an end to this form of publishing by passing an international copyright law requiring publishers to pay royalties. Again, publishers of these novels were put out of business.

It is the third stage of the paperback revolution that is of key interest as far as the growth of acceptance of paperbacks on our society. It took place during the 1930s, which saw the crash of the stock markets with the resulting “Great Depression” and the rise of the Third Reich in Germany. Publishers were feeling the pinch and sales dropped significantly. These events formed the backdrop for the birth of Penguin books under the aegis of Allen Lane, an entrepreneur with vision, and the corresponding growth of the Pocket Book publishing company under the leadership of Kurt Enoch, a successful German publisher who fled to the USA with the rise of the Nazi regime.

It is arguable that this third paperback revolution is where reading became truly democratized. Allen Lane, the publisher of Bodley Head, a London publishing house, was worrying about how to keep his business afloat. It was while travelling between his home and London that he had his “eureka” moment. He was looking for some reading material for his trip home. All he could find was junky pulp fiction or magazines. He thought how wonderful it would be to have quality fiction available at train stations. He took a great gamble and financed the launch of Penguin books. These books carried the Penguin logo and were bound in simple covers.

The key difference between the Penguins and earlier versions of paperbacks is that the paperbacks were reprints of successfully published hardback books. Not only did he publish “classics” in paperback, he made them available outside the venue of the traditional bookstore, in train stations and department stores. His first ten titles were wildly popular. In 1937, Penguin expanded and added the Pelican book, an imprint for non-fiction. During WWII, soldiers were able to easily carry Penguins and Pelicans in their coat pockets as they went to war. In 1938, Penguin was launched in the United States, as were Pocket Book titles. Then in 1940, the Puffin imprint was developed for children’s literature.

Certainly, Penguin books were far more accessible than the traditional hard cover book. Not only were they sold in a variety of locations from bookstores to department stores to railway stations, they made it possible for people with a lower income to have access to the great works of literature. While reading material may still be characterized as “high brow” and “low brow,” these distinctions are no longer necessarily tied to the “class” of the reader. Rather, it is tied to the interests, the education and intelligence of the reader. Therefore, this last phase of the paperback revolution served to democratize reading beyond the boundaries of class and be truly available to those in all walks of life.

Paperback novels are a form of remediation because they connect new technology or a new concept with an old idea. The old idea is that of the codex book, but now in the form of a paperback. Paperbacks are here to stay. In 1960 paperback sales surpassed hardcover sales for the first time. Now, paperbacks are sold through book clubs, including Scholastic, making cheaper literature available to students and schools. The impact of the paperback on our society cannot be under-estimated. Literacy is no longer a luxury; and storytelling, that is such an important part of the human experience, has made the shift from a purely oral culture to print, accessible to most people rather than merely to the elite classes of society.

References

Chesterton, G. (1999). A defence of penny dreadfuls. Retrieved October 24, 2011, from http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/penny-dreadfuls.html

French, W. (1964). The first year of the paperback revolution. College English, 25(4), 255-256, 257, 258, 259, 260. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/373571

Hyde Park Books. Paperback books. Retrieved October 27, 2011, from http://paperbarn.www1.50megs.com/Paperbacks/

Kaestle, C. (1985). The history of literacy and the history of readers. Review of Research in Education, 12, 11– 53. Retrieved from http:www.jstor.org/stable/1167145

Morpurgo, H. (2008). Lady chatterley’s defendant – allen lane and the paperback revolution. Retrieved October 24, 2011, from http://www.threemonkeysonline.com/als/allen_lane_lady_chatterley.html

Ogle, M. (2003). The paperback revolution. Retrieved October 24, 2011, 2011, from http://www.crcstudio.org/paperbacks/

Ong, W. (2002). Orality and literacy. Routlege, Taylor & Francis Group. New York, U.S.A.

Penguin Books. About penguin: Company history. Retrieved October 24, 2011, from http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/aboutus/aboutpenguin_companyhistory.html

Quay, S. (Ed.). (2009). Cultural history of reading, volume 2 american literature (1st ed.). Westport, CT, U.S.A.: Greenwood Press.

Stanford University Project Team. Dime novels and penny dreadfuls. Retrieved October 25, 2011, from http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/dp/pennies/home.html

Trubek, A. (2010). How the paperback novel changed popular literature. Retrieved October 24, 2011, from http://www.smithsonian.com

Walsh, J. (2005, Friday, 29th April). Paperback revolution. The Independent, pp. Arts & Entertainment.

Watling, G. (Ed.). (2009). Cultural history of reading (1st ed.). Westport, CT, U.S.A.: Greenwood Press.

Wikipedia. (2011). History of education in england. Retrieved October 27, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_education_in_England

The shift from oral to silent reading and the addition of punctuation influenced reading, writing and education in profound ways.

Please find our joint research project on this blog!

Lynette Manton and Leonora Zefi

The advent of the audio-visual technology system (AVTS) was introduced into a predominantly print society near the turn of the 20th century and had a profound historical, social and educational impact on the way we communicated. Bolter (2001, pp. 23-26) sees advancement of medium or communication technology as remediation. The remediation of print technology affected the way we communicated in society in terms of its social-political, economic and educational effects, not for the purpose of replacement or eradication of it. Before examining the effects AVTS had on society in the aforementioned ways, an examination of the history of AVTS will allow some vital background.

History of AVTS (National Library of Australia, 2011)

The phonograph was the first machine for recording and reproducing audio, which came into use about 120 years ago. Cinematography was the first method of recording and reproducing images in movement and this came into use approximately 100 years ago. Methods of both audio (sound) and audio-visual (sight and sound) were constantly improved during the first half of the twentieth century as a period of rapid change and improvement in the technology of sound recording and reproduction began shortly after the end of the Second World War. Movie pictures intended to be shown as images only (“silent movies”) with music often being played as an accompaniment during the screening. “Talking pictures” were introduced in the 1920s with images being recorded on a cinecamera using 35mm film and sound being recorded on a separate machine. The finished moving picture had the recorded sound added to it in photographic form in a strip along one side of the film. Within a period of less the 50 years, AVTS changed our society from a predominantly print society to an electronic mass media. Mchuhan (1967) noted that AVTS constituted a shift away from the cultural conditioning of print with its epochal features and the use of satellite broadcasting system which made the globalized flow of information possible. This new media allowed information to be transmitted faster, farther and broader than any print network could achieve. This revolution of information distribution equalled the significance of the development of the print society which according to Briggs and Burke (2005, p. 13) dates it origins back to approximately the year 1450 when the first printing press was invented by Johann Gutenberg. The printing press technology brought about a dramatic change in our communications with its epochal features that hadn’t been previously seen in western cultures until the development of AVTS. Like the print society that preceded it, the AVTS society involved more and more people and expanded the boundaries of cultural, political and economic domains.

AVTS’s ability to transmit both sound and images simultaneously was also a historical and significant development. Ong (1982, p. 32) described that oral sound exists in a dynamic flow of communication and cannot be stopped for its existence but visual images can. The simultaneous features offer by AVTS meant that sound was no longer fleeting but could remain for an extended period of time, an ability that was not prevalent in an oral culture.

AVTS Effects 

With its ability to convey information over a large distance spanning the entire globe affected the social-political, economic and education spectrums.

For social-political use, campaigning and propaganda was now available on a national level; televised speeches such as Hitler’s “Address to the Reichstag” or Roosevelt’s “Pearl Harbour Address to Nation” reached entire nations from north to south, east to west, coast to coast. These speeches galvanized nations with not only the text being spoken by the orators but rather the actions and emotions of the individual could be displayed for the audience; something that would not be as prevalent in a print or an oral society. On 26 September 1960, 70 million U.S. viewers tuned in to watch Senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts and Vice President Richard Nixon in the first-ever televised presidential debate. Some historians have concluded that in this close presidential race, the election was won by Kennedy because of this new format. ” The first televised debates in the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon campaign were viewed as important, maybe even decisive, in Kennedy’s victory being that Kennedy’s success has often been attributed to his impressive appearance on television” (Kraus, 1988).

Economically, national corporations now had the advantage over smaller local entrepreneurs in advertising their goods and services. Postman notes that the average American will have seen close to 2 million television commercials by the age of sixty-five (Postman, 1982, p.8). Due to the high cost of advertising on television and a higher cost for advertisements on the most popular programs, the corporation now has an economic advantage over the local vendor in terms of its advertisement power due to the advent of AVTS. So companies were growing and growing throughout this period whilst the entrepreneur was either getting bought out by larger firms or closing altogether.

Academically the use of visual aids is not a new concept for educators. Plato himself took care to set the scenery of his dialogues, and he used concrete words and concrete comparisons (for example, the cave) as foundations for his most abstract ideas. In France, the Très riches heures du duc de Berry brings out the importance which ‘illustration’ can take in a work which would have otherwise sunk into oblivion. Xylographic images preceded the printing press by three-quarters of a century and the first illustrated book by nearly a century (Lestage, 1959). The AVTS advancement in the classroom revealed that early studies by educators tended to show that student achievement from classroom television was as successful as from traditional face-to-face instruction. A study by Parsons (1957) showed only borderline differences in achievement, and Lapore and Wilson (1958) offered research showing that learning by television compared favourably with conventional instruction. So not only was AVTS being used in the classroom as an aid, it was also being experimented as an alternative delivery system. As well in education, animated images combined with instructional sound conveyed a meaning of information that allowed students to go beyond the language barrier. Furthermore, printed materials do not offer the dynamic visual representation that AVTS offers. The AVTS allowed students to see and record dynamic images of events or phenomenon that previously were hard, if not impossible, for them to see or realize using print media.

AVTS technology was significant technological invention in the 20th century. It revolutionized society in several ways and it is still predominant in the 21st century. It didn’t necessarily eradicate the print society but complimented it to allow people to have a more dynamic representation of information. Where will this lead us in the upcoming century? Only time will tell.

References

Bolter, J.D. (2001). Writing Space: Computer, hypertext, and the remediation of Print [2nd edition]. Mahwah, NJ:

Briggs, A. & Bruke, P. (2005). A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet. Cambridge (MA): Policy Press.

Kraus, S. Televised Presidential Debates and Public Policy. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Erlbaum, 1988.

LePore, A.R., and Wilson, J.D. (1958). Instructional television research project number two. An experimental study of college instruction using broadcast television. San Francisco: San Francisco State College. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EM 000 523).

Lestage, A.. (November 1959). UNESCO Chronicle. In THE USE OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS IN EDUCATION . Retrieved October 28, 2011, from http://www.unesco.org/education/nfsunesco/pdf/LESTAG_E.PDF.

McLuhan, M. (1972). The Gutenberg galaxy: The making of typographic man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press

Ong, W. J. (1982). Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. London: Methuen.

Parsons, T.S. (1957). A comparison of instruction by kinescope, correspondence study and customary classroom procedures. Journal of Educational Psychology, 48, 27–4

Postman, N. (1992). Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. New York: Knoph.

Waters, J. (May 6, 2004). Guidelines for Audio and Audio-visual Recording in the South Pacific. In National Library of Australia. Retrieved October 25, 2011, from http://www.nla.gov.au/oh/waters1a.html.

From Oral Tradition to the Printing Press in Jamaica: Shaping Literacy and Education

Introduction

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines literacy as the “ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society.” In order for any society to meet the above requirements, members must be empowered and exposed to the supporting tools and contexts. This paper seeks to shed light on how education and literacy were impacted with the advent of the printing press in Jamaica.

Context: Before the Printing Press

Jamaica was colonized by the Spanish, who were later defeated and booted off the island by the English in 1655. As the English settled, they began setting up large sugar plantations but never had the manpower to facilitate cultivation. To solve this problem, the indigenous people; the Tainos, were enslaved and later died out because of the hard work and European diseases. This led the English to seek replacements and they headed to West Africa where they imported great numbers of black Africans. As a result, there was a strong presence of Africans and Europeans on the island; with the former treated as the minority group even though they outnumbered the latter.

With a high level of marginalization and neglect, it was up to the Africans to maintain the spirit of community through the way they know best; oral conversations. Therefore, oral tradition or story telling were used to reflect the culture, history and identity of the population. It should be noted that in Jamaica, the concept of learning about culture through written communication was historically foreign (Beecher, 2010). Therefore, storytelling exercises were used to get cultural aspects across to various generations. A character classified as Anancy; which is the spider-god from the Ashanti tribe in Africa was popular among these settings. This wasn’t incidental as most of the slaves were from that tribe and region. Anancy was a trickster who was always trying to outsmart the other animal-gods (Senior, 2003). So popular were these stories that they have made their way into the books of many story-writers and poets literature for students at all level of the education sector.

The Transition: Change on the horizon

Even though some members of the oral community were skeptical about making the total crossover to print, quite a number of them were cognizant that both orality and the growth of literacy out of orality are necessary for the evolution of consciousness (Ong, 2002). The latter notion was to be realized with the advent of the printing press. Printing began in Jamaica in 1718 where the weekly Jamaica Courant was used to spread colonization in the British colonies. Even though this was seen as an advancement, it never resonated with the oppressed as this newspaper was being used to suppress their rights and not to advance their literacy skills. At this particular time printing was seen as of great use and benefit for public intelligence, advertisements and many other things (Cave, 1975, p. 12). In addition, The Courant contained information common to many English colonial newspapers: prices of goods, slave auctions, and shipping news as well as advertisements. Any form of information of interest to the plantation owners and the merchants, the main audience, was deemed worthy of print (Cameron, 2000). This changed the landscape of communication to a great extent as plantation owners were now able to form a community among themselves and would be able to keep abreast of interests unique to them. However, this notion catered to the elite even though it was made to look as if the entire public was involved. The mass of the population was not permitted to attend school and they were also forced to abandon the language they know (Patois) and speak that of the elite (English). As a result, they were not given the basics of literacy and were clueless to what was happening around them. Even though this was inhumane, it created an opening for the launching of literacy on a wide scale across the island. The presence of print could never stay hidden for any long period as soon after there was an influx of printed materials as newspapers accumulated with the passage of time. There was now an obvious connection being made among reading, writing and orality. It was was now obvious that whatever could be said could be written and that written work could be read. Despite the integration of printing at that particular time, it was done in a way to retard progress toward mass literacy. The focus was not to uplift the society and get them educated; rather it was more of a method employed to exhibit control and apply pressure to existing and future slaves. Even though the situation was sad and unfortunate, it was obvious why they were doing it. Keeping the slaves uneducated and illiterate was ideal in getting them to be deprived of information and develop self-consciousness. Also, their cultures and human rights were being trampled upon leading them to refashion their culture. This resulted in them staying quiet even though they existed in what could be termed an oral culture.

Time for real change

The deCardova brothers

As the 1830’s dawned, the Jamaican newspaper continue to evolve with the launching of the Daily Gleaner by the deCardova brothers (Cameron, 2000). At this stage, slaves were now more accomplished and exposed to books and print even though they were not designed for them. Established at an integral time when the slaves were about to be emancipated, a real door was now being opened to satisfy the literacy appetite of the oppressed. Unlike its predecessor, the Daily Gleaner moved from being an advertising sheet and was used to publicize foods for sale. In addition, it was now on sale in rural and urban areas where all parties involved would have equal chance to source information. This shift in print revolutionized the way literacy was now seen and absorbed. With this change, the Gleaner was now seen as a family newspaper devoted literature, morality, arts, science and amusements (Cameron, 2000). This new development affected the social fabric and structure of the society. Civilians were now able to develop a sense of pride, consciousness and identity as they get a taste of what morality entails and how they can go about strengthening their self-esteem. In addition, they were also able to confront print and make the connection with their oral speech. This led to a shift in cultural practices, beliefs and behaviour in general. As a result, political and religious institutions started to pay keen attention to this liberation of literacy. They were now cognizant of the fact that with literacy, persons mindset will be changed and will affect how they view the world. These institutions therefore never had the tight grip they once had on the population and their days of indoctrination was now limited and diminishing at a rapid pace. Persons were now able to make their personal decisions and critically analyze situations as a result of the now frequent interactions with various forms of print. Also, they were able to rise to top positions in politics and religions; hence bridging that wide gap of marginalization and discrimination.

Front page of the first Gleaner published on September 13, 1834.

As the printing industry establishes itself, the education sector was now being impacted. The company was now public and they were now involved in charitable causes, and in book publishing, having started to print the “Gleaner Geography and History of Jamaica” in the1920s for use in schools islandwide (Cameron, 2000). This action basically revolutionized the education sector as there was now a direct connection between the printing press and the schools. Through this initiative, the transition was being made from the foundation to get students to get a better understanding of the country’s culture and history. This changed education practices on the island ever since as for the first time on the island, teachers were free to use materials that weren’t controlled by the elite. There was a sense of freedom in instructions and pupils now had control over their own learning. This later enabled them to be more aware of who they were as persons and later got the chance to appreciate their freedom by looking at what their fore-parents went through. Literacy at this phase never only represented reading and writing; but catered to understanding, interpreting, creating, communicating, self-awareness, the ability to think critically, and proper decision making.

Harbour Street in Kingston, Jamaica 1844, a decade after the Gleaner began.

Of equal importance, the Gleaner widened its scope in the schools by launching the publication of a school newspaper called the “Children’s Own” in 1950. This was significant as it clearly facilitated reading and writing on a scale that wasn’t seen before. Here students were given the chance to express themselves using a source that was unique to them. Through this medium, they developed as writers and editors and were able function as fully rounded students in the classroom. They finally recognized that what could be said could be written and that written work could be read. In addition, there was now an awareness that reading was a representation of the text in oral form. Even though print was becoming dominant, oral tradition never died as many of the poems, songs and stories that are told to children have not been translated into books or other forms of written media but have been passed on through oral traditions such as storytelling, poetry-reading and drama (Beecher, 2010). Orality was now being transferred to print and the voices of the once voiceless were now at high pitch. There was now a space for the integration of orality and literacy. From such integration, orality-literacy dynamics enter integrally into the modern evolution of consciousness toward both greater interior and greater openness (Ong, 2000). Classrooms were now rich in print and schools started turning out great numbers of successful individuals who later elevated to leadership positions on the island and impacted its growth and development significantly. Also they were able to achieve their goals, develop their knowledge and potential, and participate fully in their community and wider society (UNESCO, 2004).

References

Beecher, M. B. (2010). Oral traditions: A view from Jamaica. Retrieved October 24, 2011 from http://www.tigweb.org/youth-media/panorama/article.html?ContentID=29709&start=

Cameron, L. D. (2000). The Story of the Gleaner ­ Memoirs and Reminiscences. Kingston: The Gleaner Company Ltd.,

Cave, R. (1975). Printing comes to Jamaica. The Jamaica Journal, 9, (2), 11-17,

Ong, W,. (2002). Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. London: Methuen.

Tanna, L. (2009). Tales and Oral Histories: J’can folk tales at their best. Kingston: The Daily Gleaner Company Limited.

The Plurality of Literacy and its implications for Policies and Programs. UNESCO Education Sector Position Paper: 13. 2004. Retrieved October 25 2011 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001362/136246e.pdf

Richards, J. (1969). Early Jamaican printing. The Jamaica Journal, 3, (4), 7-11, http://www.sephardim.org/ jamaica/1700/laguna.html

Senior, O.(2003). The Encyclopedia of the Jamaican Heritage. Kingston:Twin Guinep Publishers,

Sherlock, P., Bennett, H. (1998). The Story of the Jamaican people. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers.

            Over 100,000 years ago, Home sapiens were an iconic culture (Barham, 2002). For this paper, an iconic culture is one that uses conventional interpretations for images. For example, a picture of the sun can only represent the sun, and a statue of a man can only represent the man in the statue. Due to a change in social and cognitive development of human beings, the need for a symbolic culture grew and allowed for modern language to develop (Rossano, 2010). Those cognitive and social changes will be looked at to get an idea of why symbols developed and why language evolved as it did.

            Neanderthals’ social development took a much different path than Homo sapiens’ (Rossano, 2010) and these social differences were large factors in Homo sapiens dominance and eventual symbolic development. Both male and female Neanderthals were typically the same physical stature as each other where as male Homo sapiens were typically physically larger than females. Since hunting was the most important aspect for survival, naturally the strongest individuals were the hunters. Hunting was dangerous, and as such, male and female Neanderthals were responsible for it. Male Homo sapiens were strictly responsible for their societies hunting based on their physical size and therefore females were able to create a home environment where they could safely interact with each other and raise their children. According to Rossano, this interaction was integral in the development of symbols and language. They were now able to hold their babies more often and were safe to interact with them in ways that Neanderthals were not.

Bar-Yosef (2002) suggests that the more complex social life of Homo sapiens led to their development of symbols, and language, while the Neanderthals were not able to. The biggest reason being that the extra interaction Homo sapiens women had with their infants, allowed the infants’ brains to develop more. Symbol creation is hard for a fully developed, adult brain to conceive of because of the relationships a fully developed brain has made with icons (Elman, 1993). However, the immature brain of a child can make symbolic connections easier because they do not have the hindrance of knowing that symbols do not exactly represent what they are symbolizing.  For example, it is easier for a child to accept that the image of a plant sprouting of the ground represents life if they have never seen a plant sprouting out of the ground before. Whereas a developed adult brain would have a harder time making that connection because a sprouting plant to them represents a sprouting plant. The extra socialization that infants were being introduced to allowed for more advanced brain development and a propensity to fathom symbols.

With this understanding, it can be said that birth of symbols came from a new, safer social structure where infants and children could interact with adults like no other children had before. This interaction allowed their brains to develop faster which, in turn, allowed for the creation of symbols, and language. Language and writing are obviously important social aspects in our lives, but a social culture appears to have been equally important in language’s and writing’s development.

The use of symbols drastically changed the way humans think, but in order for symbols to become common use, humans had to drastically change their way of thinking. Because of this, symbols did not develop overnight. Humans developed indexical signs after iconic ones, but before symbolic ones (Peirce, 1931). An indexical sign does not exactly signify what they are indicating like an icon does, but there is a very close connection. For example, smoke would be an indexical signal for fire. While it is not fire itself, you would have had to have seen fire in order to make the connection between smoke and fire. Symbolic signs have no connection to the object they are representing. The letters ‘f-i-r-e’ represent fire to us, but only because we have accepted that they do.

Indexical signs are a not as complicated as symbolic ones. However, the thought process for understanding them is similar. It might be necessary to understand icons first before understanding indexes, and then understand indexes before understanding symbols (Peirce, 1931; Nelson, 1973). Reading symbols is hierarchical then. In order for a symbolic culture to emerge from an iconic one there had to be increased social interaction first of all, and then an increased capacity to comprehend a complex symbolic communication system. The increased social interaction just happened to be the catalyst for this increased capacity.

Understanding how we developed as a species gives a glimpse as to how we developed a symbol based communication system. Humans are a social species. Language and writing allow us to be social, but our need to be social is what created a need for language and writing in the first place. Transportation has allowed us to travel hundreds or thousands of kilometres from people that we care about and communicate with. Our desire to be social, as demonstrated by Homo sapiens, has created ways to continue to communicate with each other over those long distances. Telegraph, radio, telephone, and now internet are all ways of using language to communicate with each other. This social desire today, and therefore language, can be traced back to early humans emerging social culture.

References

Barham, L. (2002). Systemic pigment use in the Middle Pleistocene of south-central Africa. Current Anthropology 43. 181-190. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/ca.2002.43.issue-1

Bar-Yosef, O. (2002). The Upper Palaeolithic revolution. Annual Review of Anthropology 31. 363-393. doi: 10.1146

Elman, J. (1993). Learning and development in neural networks: the importance of starting small. Cognition 48.: 71-99. doi: 10.1016/0010-0277(93)90058-4

Nelson, K. (1973). Structure and strategy in learning to talk. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 38. Chicago: University of Chicago Press for the Society for Research in Child Development

Peirce, C.S. (1978). The collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, vol. 2. C. Hartshorne, P. Weiss, and A. W. Burks, eds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Rossano, M. J. (2010). Making Friends, Making Tools, and Making Symbols. Current Anthropology, 51(1). 89-98. doi: 10.1086/650481