Thursday, 29 September 2011
Turn back time: Turn back time
Turn back time: Turn back time: This artifact was discovered in the Summer of 2006 in a Mexican quarry. It is dramatic evidence that the ancient Olmec people had develop...
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Turn back time
This artifact was discovered in the Summer of 2006 in a Mexican quarry. It is dramatic evidence that the
ancient Olmec people had developed a writing form as early as 900B.C. It is the Olmec civilization which lay the basis for the development of the Aztec and Mayan empires. This early civilation floursihed as a result of their discovery of the processes necessary for the storage and cultivation of seed, they are credited with the earliest sign of maize crop agriculture in the rich alluvial soils of the Gulf of Mexico. It is in socities that are rich in food resources and stable politically, such as the early Olmec people, that we see cultures developing depth and the emergence of written records.
At this stage while the markings on the artifacts may be classified as writing; they form short varied and repeated markings, they are undecipherable.
We need to move a little closer to the present if we are to find evidence of women participating in act of writing and preserving information and knowledge.
As you can imagine if you are going to the trouble of quite literally, recording and preseving your musings in stone then what you have to say is going to be of importance to you, your clansmen and your idea of what should be recorded for future prosperity. And there 's a very big chance that after you've finished a days chisiling you are going to invite the wife and kids and the neighbours around to have a look and explain to them what it is you have written. This would involve all of those participating in reading.
So reading as a general activity would have taken place where there was a recorded message for the public, and this could be on public buildings such as temples, shrines, totems and government offices.
We don't believe that women went about their business in more ancient socities unable to decifer the information on the signs about them, whether it be the citaton on the temple to the last illusterous ruler or postings at the port about ship arrivals. Women would have been able to read at their level of exposure and need to understand the message in the text, this is not of course the full fluid literacy that we associate with a formal education but it is reading. The ability to duplicate these signs consitutes writing and this again would be comenserate with their work and the need to communicate information. It could involve such simple tasks as sending an invoice with their work and a simple discription of goods. And then keeping a record of this transaction. Voila, bookkeeping.
Egyptian writing first emerged, it seems, around 3200 B.C and continued in the same form until 11 A.D making it the longest known countinous form of recorded language. Egyptian hieroglphics are phonetic ideograms, each ideogram representing a sound. For example a styilised representation of a bee stands for the sound of "B". Those who spoke the language did not have the difficulty reading hieroglyphics that was imagined when they were rediscovered in the mid 19th century.These symbols are composed of three lines at right angles and are highly stylised, they are always repeated in the same manner, creating a consistency in style. The Egyptian language form continued for the longest recorded span of any recorded language, unchanged until the Turkish invasions in the 11th century C.E. This long period of uninterrupted cultural stability lead to a deep grounding of the language and traditions of the Egyptian society at every level. Penelope Wilson's Hierolglyphics a very short introduction gives us a view into the formation of these ideas and to the very public nature and equally the expectation of public participation in the reading of hiroglyphics.
While, in Eygpt, a specialised caste of scribes were the recorders, they wrote for those who paid. 3000 years ago, only 200 years after the known emergence of Egyptian hieroglphic system, Queen Hatshepsut, one of Egypt's most powerful and prestegious rulers placed her strong mark on Eygptian culture, and is remembered as one of the most important re-enforces of Eyptian culture. Importantly, she commissioned a rock-cut temple in Middle Egypt dedicated to Pakhet, the cat goddess of the desert. In the citation text inscribed on the walls, Hatshepsut tells how she restored ruined temples throughout Eygpt, under her an extensive construction and restoration program.
Trudie Jacobson has found wide ranging evidence to support the claim that women in Cambodia held extensive power for over two millennia and provides rich sources supporting the view that women held high status right up until the nineteenth century. Jacobsen's sources include historical artifacts such as stone inscriptions, Chinese dynastic histories, court chronicles, court literature, popular folktales, foriegn travel accunts and French colonial records. She then delves into anthropological accounts based on participabnt observation and interviews. Women formed the basis of religious belief as dieties and goddesses and also ruled from the earliest recorded times in their own right.
This is important evidence not just for the women of Cambodia but for all of South-East Asia of the full participation of women in their society at every level, descibing the rule of autonoumous queens from the sixth century. Evidence suggests that these women and their court were educated, in all aspects of their culture, to an elite level.
Anne Wathall has collected a seies of essays and combined them in the volume Servants of the Dynasty: palace women in world history. we are introduced to women who lived their lives at court in a range of times and cultures through history in different social levels from consorts, concubines to royal mistresses. The lives of the working classes or servants art court are exaimined and the range of pursuits in which they
were engaged ranged from court messangers to economic entreneurs or even armed soldiers. We can follow the exploits of Liu and Yang in medieval China, (960-1276) who rose to prominence through their skills for political machination.
In all this women were engaged fully in their society and their stories and exploits are recorded, we can see that they engaged in reading and writing to the level which was consistent with their status and to the level which was accorded to them in them dailiness of their lives.
I aim to next introduce you to some specific authors and documents in this exploration of women's writings through time.
Earliest known writing artifact yet to be found in Middle America, c900 B.C
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/313/5793/1551/F1.expansion.html
ARCHAEOLOGY Claim of Oldest New World Writing Excites Archaeologists
Bowie, Katherine A. "Lost goddesses: The denial of female power in Cambodian history." Journal of Southeast Asian
ancient Olmec people had developed a writing form as early as 900B.C. It is the Olmec civilization which lay the basis for the development of the Aztec and Mayan empires. This early civilation floursihed as a result of their discovery of the processes necessary for the storage and cultivation of seed, they are credited with the earliest sign of maize crop agriculture in the rich alluvial soils of the Gulf of Mexico. It is in socities that are rich in food resources and stable politically, such as the early Olmec people, that we see cultures developing depth and the emergence of written records.
At this stage while the markings on the artifacts may be classified as writing; they form short varied and repeated markings, they are undecipherable.
However, it is the Indus system that is credited to be the oldest writing sysytem, first believed to have developed in 2000B.C.E. Unfortunately there is debate about the nature of the text and no way has been developed to decypher the text. So we know little about those who lay the writing down.
 |
| Earliest known writing artifact yet to be found in Middle America, c900 B.C |
As you can imagine if you are going to the trouble of quite literally, recording and preseving your musings in stone then what you have to say is going to be of importance to you, your clansmen and your idea of what should be recorded for future prosperity. And there 's a very big chance that after you've finished a days chisiling you are going to invite the wife and kids and the neighbours around to have a look and explain to them what it is you have written. This would involve all of those participating in reading.
So reading as a general activity would have taken place where there was a recorded message for the public, and this could be on public buildings such as temples, shrines, totems and government offices.
We don't believe that women went about their business in more ancient socities unable to decifer the information on the signs about them, whether it be the citaton on the temple to the last illusterous ruler or postings at the port about ship arrivals. Women would have been able to read at their level of exposure and need to understand the message in the text, this is not of course the full fluid literacy that we associate with a formal education but it is reading. The ability to duplicate these signs consitutes writing and this again would be comenserate with their work and the need to communicate information. It could involve such simple tasks as sending an invoice with their work and a simple discription of goods. And then keeping a record of this transaction. Voila, bookkeeping.
Egyptian writing first emerged, it seems, around 3200 B.C and continued in the same form until 11 A.D making it the longest known countinous form of recorded language. Egyptian hieroglphics are phonetic ideograms, each ideogram representing a sound. For example a styilised representation of a bee stands for the sound of "B". Those who spoke the language did not have the difficulty reading hieroglyphics that was imagined when they were rediscovered in the mid 19th century.These symbols are composed of three lines at right angles and are highly stylised, they are always repeated in the same manner, creating a consistency in style. The Egyptian language form continued for the longest recorded span of any recorded language, unchanged until the Turkish invasions in the 11th century C.E. This long period of uninterrupted cultural stability lead to a deep grounding of the language and traditions of the Egyptian society at every level. Penelope Wilson's Hierolglyphics a very short introduction gives us a view into the formation of these ideas and to the very public nature and equally the expectation of public participation in the reading of hiroglyphics.
While, in Eygpt, a specialised caste of scribes were the recorders, they wrote for those who paid. 3000 years ago, only 200 years after the known emergence of Egyptian hieroglphic system, Queen Hatshepsut, one of Egypt's most powerful and prestegious rulers placed her strong mark on Eygptian culture, and is remembered as one of the most important re-enforces of Eyptian culture. Importantly, she commissioned a rock-cut temple in Middle Egypt dedicated to Pakhet, the cat goddess of the desert. In the citation text inscribed on the walls, Hatshepsut tells how she restored ruined temples throughout Eygpt, under her an extensive construction and restoration program.
Trudie Jacobson has found wide ranging evidence to support the claim that women in Cambodia held extensive power for over two millennia and provides rich sources supporting the view that women held high status right up until the nineteenth century. Jacobsen's sources include historical artifacts such as stone inscriptions, Chinese dynastic histories, court chronicles, court literature, popular folktales, foriegn travel accunts and French colonial records. She then delves into anthropological accounts based on participabnt observation and interviews. Women formed the basis of religious belief as dieties and goddesses and also ruled from the earliest recorded times in their own right.
This is important evidence not just for the women of Cambodia but for all of South-East Asia of the full participation of women in their society at every level, descibing the rule of autonoumous queens from the sixth century. Evidence suggests that these women and their court were educated, in all aspects of their culture, to an elite level.
Anne Wathall has collected a seies of essays and combined them in the volume Servants of the Dynasty: palace women in world history. we are introduced to women who lived their lives at court in a range of times and cultures through history in different social levels from consorts, concubines to royal mistresses. The lives of the working classes or servants art court are exaimined and the range of pursuits in which they
were engaged ranged from court messangers to economic entreneurs or even armed soldiers. We can follow the exploits of Liu and Yang in medieval China, (960-1276) who rose to prominence through their skills for political machination.
In all this women were engaged fully in their society and their stories and exploits are recorded, we can see that they engaged in reading and writing to the level which was consistent with their status and to the level which was accorded to them in them dailiness of their lives.
I aim to next introduce you to some specific authors and documents in this exploration of women's writings through time.
Earliest known writing artifact yet to be found in Middle America, c900 B.C
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/313/5793/1551/F1.expansion.html
ARCHAEOLOGY Claim of Oldest New World Writing Excites Archaeologists
Science 15 September 2006: 313 (5793), 1551. [DOI:10.1126/science.313.5793.1551]
http://www.sciencemag.org.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/content/313/5793/1551.fullBowie, Katherine A. "Lost goddesses: The denial of female power in Cambodian history." Journal of Southeast Asian
Penelope Wilson ebrary, Inc.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press c2004
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