Unit Three: Written Knowledge

Cuneiform tablet (creative commons licensed
by Unhindered by Talent)

Writing was an invention that didn't just change civilization; it became one of its foundational institutions. For the next few weeks we will be focusing on the effects of writing on the history of civilization.

Of course, from studying oral knowledge, we have already seen that language and the power of speech has been central to society -- to art, religion, politics, etc. The question now is, how do societies change with the advent of writing?

For one thing, new institutions emerge that depend upon the things that writing can provide that a merely oral-based society could not.

Amenhotep as Scribe
(creative commons licensed by wallyg)

We intend to explore these writing-dependent institutions, starting first with the origins of writing systems throughout world history. This will include looking at the physical materials, formats, and processes of creating and preserving writing: the clay tablet, papyrus, the codex, inscriptions, paper, manuscripts (illuminated and otherwise) made of vellum or paper, and finally books (though we will hold off on studying printed books until our next unit).

Our time periods will span earliest written records (as far back as 3500 BCE), but we will also try to focus in on specific civilizations at moments of transition into the written medium -- especially ancient Greece, upon whose alphabet and writing systems Western culture is built. But we will also look at three general periods of literacy: late antiquity (from about 100 CE to 700 CE); the early middle ages (700 - 1100 CE); and the late middle ages to early Renaissance (1100 - 1500 CE). We will see that distinct kinds of literary practices corresponded to those periods.

These are the writing-based institutions of knowledge that we will focus on in our coming class periods:

• Writing and Schooling in Antiquity (Thurs., Oct 13)
• The Library (Tues., Oct 18)
• The Monastery (Thurs., Oct 20)
• The University (Tues., Oct 25)
• The Occult (Thurs., Oct 27)
• The Mystical Tradition (Tues., Nov 1)
• Scholarship (Thurs., Nov 3)

A number of associated concepts complement this direction of study, and we list them here as starting points for individual research and blogging:

• Writing systems (physical format; linguistic and symbolic aspects)
• Graphical symbol systems
• The lecture
• The written curriculum
• Letters, missives, and the notarial arts
• The scroll
• The codex
• The manuscript book
• Paper-making; papyrus preparation; vellum
• Patronage
• Apprenticeship
• Guilds
• Medicine
• Astrology
• Architecture
• Runes
• Inscriptions, monuments, graves
• Cartography
• Clocks and Calendars
• Measurement

Blogging assignment

We have two assigned topics for blogging:

1. Writing systems or schooling within a specific civilization
   During the next week, please create a blog post in which you discuss the writing systems of the civilization assigned to you from our prior unit (or in which you discuss the transition from an oral to a written culture within that civilization). Many of you have already hinted about writing systems or record keeping. Now is the time to explore that more explicitly. Alternatively, create a blog post in which you describe schooling or education within your assigned culture (with an emphasis on the role of writing).
2. Knowledge institutions analysis
   Using either of the lists above, analyze the use or development of any of these within a specific culture or civilization. Stay within the time periods indicated (prior to the Renaissance), but you can go beyond your assigned civilization if you wish. What are the dominant writing-based institutions of knowledge within a given culture?

Self-directed learning

It will be interesting to see which students merely complete the blogging assignment and which show some initiative in connecting with past topics and blog posts; in connecting and collaborating with other students' subjects within or beyond their groups; in bringing forward folk knowledge and oral knowledge both as subjects or as activities to help them explore written knowledge; and in doing activities that involve others and themselves in understanding methods of writing or culturally-specific kinds of writing. I wonder if any students will request to conduct an activity inside or outside of class, or put together a field trip, or do a mini-lecture in class. I wonder what Honors students will do to be active learners, not passively awaiting micromanagement of their learning....