The Evolution of Communication: From Oral Traditions to the Printing Revolution

Understanding Oral Culture

  • Definition and Characteristics:

    • Oral cultures differ significantly from print, visual, electronic, and digital cultures (Valter Ong).

    • Thought Patterns: People in oral cultures think concretely and practically, not using modern abstract or linear concepts. For example, a plate or the moon might represent the idea of a circle.

    • Self-Perception: Individuals are reluctant to analyze themselves or empathize by putting themselves in another's place (Ong 1982; Lerner 1958).

    • Decision-Making: Decisions are made by consensus within groups, rather than through hierarchy.

    • Worldview: Tend to have polarized worldviews, oriented towards good and evil.

    • Artistic Preference: A strong love for epic sagas and poetry.

  • Information Transmission:

    • Storytellers rely heavily on formulas and themes to recall epics.

    • Utilize improvisation, mnemonic devices, and rote memory.

    • These methods enable accurate transmission of important information across generations.

  • Effectiveness of Oral Cultures:

    • Often underestimated, despite misleading examples like the children's whispered message game.

    • Accuracy: When crucial, oral cultures can transmit information accurately over long distances and through generations.

    • Examples:

      • American author Alex Haley discovered an oral record of his ancestors in Africa, detailed in his 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family.

      • The Odyssey and Iliad were originally heroic oral histories of Greek culture, only written down centuries after their composition.

  • Persistence in Modernity:

    • Oral cultures continued alongside manuscript cultures after the introduction of writing.

    • Messages gained validity through oral delivery, initially considered more reliable.

    • Contemporary Vestiges:

      • Legislative proposals are "read" into the record.

      • Sermons are delivered orally in churches.

      • Lectures are given in classrooms.

      • Decision by consensus in the modern jury system and corporate boardrooms reflects the oral culture's orientation.

  • Human Predisposition for Language:

    • Humans are born with a natural capacity for complex language, with thousands of words and symbols.

    • Most other species have limited capacity beyond basic signals.

    • fMRI studies show human brains have special segments for language (Wolf 2008), indicating we are "pre-wired" to talk and communicate.

    • Throughout almost all human history, songs, folklore, history, and traditions were communicated within oral culture.

    • Storytelling and oral traditions are universal across cultures and ages (Campbell 1949).

    • Role of Storytellers: Troubadours (lyric poets of chivalry) and jongleurs (itinerant singers) memorized long poems using verse and mnemonic devices, able to recall them after only a few hearings (Burke 1982).

Revolutions in Communication: From Oral to Written Language

  • Profound Transformation:

    • The shift to symbols and then written language profoundly reshaped human thinking patterns.

    • The decline of oral cultures over time was accompanied by the emergence of poignant literature.

    • Literary Examples Reflecting Loss:

      • Oliver Goldsmith's 1770 poem The Deserted Village lamented communities lost to Britain's enclosure acts.

      • Chinua Achebe's 1958 book Things Fall Apart described European colonialism's impact on African social structures.

      • Anne Pancake's 2008 book Strange as This Weather Has Been depicted the disintegration of traditional Appalachian communities due to mountaintop mining.

  • Counter-Arguments to the "Idyllic Past":

    • Jacob Bronowski, in The Ascent of Man (1976), challenged the romanticized view of an 18th-century idyllic country, stating it was a "fable" and a place of poverty and darkness where men "worked from dawn to dark."

  • Modern Connections to Oral Culture:

    • Radio's Success: Marshall McLuhan theorized that radio's success as a mass medium stemmed from its ability to revive a sense of community (e.g., "fireside chats," radio drama), fostering a "re-tribalization" of culture that longed for an older, community-oriented communication system.

    • Epic Fantasy Genre: Modern epic fantasy in books, games, and cinema (e.g., Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings) reconnects audiences to the heroic epic tradition once served by oral culture (Drout 2006; Campbell 1949).

Before the Printing Revolution: Symbols, Seals, and Icons

  • Earliest Symbolic Enhancements:

    • Ice Age Carvings: Symbolic carvings from ivory and bone, dating back as far as 45,000 years ago, represent the earliest known enhancements to oral culture (Marshack 2003).

      • These were intentionally carved and painted objects, not tools, worn and polished by handling.

      • They appear unrelated to contemporary Ice Age cave paintings.

      • Hypothesized Roles: May have related to fertility (mother goddess carvings), pre-hunting rituals (horse carvings), or group decision-making (passed around to signify speaking privilege).

  • Seals and Stamps:

    • Used for making impressions on clay, wax, papyrus, or fabrics.

    • Purpose: Decorative or authoritative, such as authenticating documents.

    • Historical Reference: Roman historian Marcus Terentius Varro reportedly used an "invention" (likely woodblock printing) to insert images of hundreds of illustrious persons, "saving their features from oblivion" and making them "known over the wide world" (Bawker 1887).

    • Pliny the Elder cryptically praised an "inventor of a benefit which will fill even the gods with jealousy" for clothing persons with immortality through engraving (De Vinne 1877).

  • Visual Communication in Medieval/Renaissance Periods:

    • Symbolic and visual communication was embedded in architecture, sculpture, and painting.

    • These iconic images served as the "news and education vehicles of the day."

    • Example: People of the 12th century visited Chartres Cathedral to learn religious stories, similar to how scholars later flocked to Oxford or the Sorbonne to read books.

Before the Printing Revolution: Writing and Manuscript Cultures

  • Writing as an Invention:

    • Unlike language, writing is not "pre-wired" in the human brain; it had to be invented.

    • Often considered the first communications revolution that extended natural human abilities.

  • Early Forms of Writing:

    • Clay Tokens: The first writing involved clay tokens (spheres, cones, cylinders kept in clay boxes) dating back to 8500 BCE in ancient Mesopotamia, possibly earlier in China (Schmandt-Besserat 1996; Rincon 2003).

      • Purpose: To keep track of resources like grain and animals.

      • Evolution: System transformed from managing 100 clay ox tokens to using a symbol for the number 100 alongside a symbol for an ox.

      • Increased trade spurred further simplification and the development of writing.

    • Hieroglyphic Symbols: Emerged in Egypt around 3500 BCE.

    • Chinese Writing: Formal Chinese writing emerged around 1500 to 1200 BCE, with some primitive forms possibly dating to 6600 BCE.

    • Mesoamerican Writing: Olmec, Zapotec, and Mayan writing systems appeared in Mexico between 1000 BCE and 300 BCE.

  • Types of Written Language Systems:

    • Logographic: Started with direct representations of familiar objects (logos).

      • Examples: Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese, and Mayan written languages.

    • Syllabaric: Written symbols represent syllables that constitute different words.

      • Examples: Japanese is a syllabaric system; Egyptian, Chinese, and Mayan systems were partially syllabaric.

    • Alphabetic: Individual characters represent phonemes (sounds) of the spoken language.

      • Origin: First alphabetic writing dates back to about 1800 BCE from the Sinai Peninsula.

      • Development: Derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs adapted to specific languages.

      • Significance: "Democratization of writing."

      • Legacy: All modern alphabets are derived from this original Semitic script (Conner 2005).

The Printing Revolution

  • Transformative Power:

    • Francis Bacon, in Novum Organum (1620), highlighted printing, gunpowder, and the compass as three inventions that profoundly changed the world in literature, warfare, and navigation, having a greater influence on human affairs than any empire, sect, or star.

    • The printing revolution bridged the medieval and modern worlds with immense force, effect, and consequences.

  • Historical Context and Impact:

    • Began in 1454 and rapidly spread across Europe.

    • Played a central role in major historical movements:

      • The Renaissance

      • The Protestant Reformation

      • The Enlightenment

      • Political, industrial, and scientific revolutions from the 1600s to the 21st century.

  • Evolution from Pre-Printing Eras:

    • Before Printing: Communication occurred through individual and small groups within oral and manuscript cultures in Asian and European civilizations.

    • Inciting Innovation: The need to replicate manuscripts initially led to woodblock printing, then movable type.

    • After Printing: Led to a sudden acceleration of communication with massive social and political impacts, fostering greater acceleration and expanding horizons.

  • Industrialization of Media:

    • The original printing revolution was followed by the industrialization of media technologies in the 19th century, including the telegraph and steam-powered printing.

    • This created opportunities for larger audiences and new institutions to serve them.

    • Chicago publisher Joseph Medill described the resulting newspapers and wire services as "proud steam ships, 'bidding defiance to the tempests, laden with the mails and commerce of the world'" (Brendon 1983).

    • Titanic industrial media institutions continued defying challenges through the 19th and 20th centuries.

  • Recent Decline of Print Media:

    • By the early 21st century, the print media began to decline, losing two-thirds of their income and most of their value, with newsrooms becoming "ghost ships."

    • Historical Question: Historians will question how the cultures and institutions of the printing revolution managed to survive so well for five and a half centuries (from 1455 to the early 21st century) and what cultures and institutions ultimately replaced them, along with their force and effect today.

  • Structure of Media History Chapters:

    • Chapter 1: Covers the early printing revolution up to 1814.

    • Chapter 2: Describes the industrial media revolution in the following century.

    • Chapter 3: Details the central role and rapid fall of print media in the 20th century.

    • Understanding the preceding oral and manuscript cultures is essential to fully appreciate the printing revolution.