CS100 Midterm Exam PDF

- Early Prehistoric ancestors (100,000 years ago), had to communicate with non verbal gestures, including hand signs, and facial movements and an evolving system of spoken language - Later prehistoric (50,000 to 10,000 BCE), archaeological evidence suggests the emergence...

- Early Prehistoric ancestors (100,000 years ago), had to communicate with non verbal gestures, including hand signs, and facial movements and an evolving system of spoken language - Later prehistoric (50,000 to 10,000 BCE), archaeological evidence suggests the emergence of a more sophisticated communicate gestures including decorated graves and adorned burial sites, a sign of culture and religion. Venus of Willendorf - Is about 30,000 years old - Found in Germany - Is often interpreted as a symbol of fertility and reproduction due to the emphasis on certain body parts, Hips breast, stomach. Reflecting cultural and spiritual priorities of the time Lascaux cave painting - Found 20,000 years ago - Cave painting of thousands of images most of animals, spices that were significant to early humans, cave painting could be used for story telling and symbols. Early humans communicated before written language - “pre-writing” began tens of thousands of years ago, reflect the use of symbols and images that marked how early humans conveyed messages organize knowledge, evidence that neanderthals had culture - Alexander Marshak o Early humans used early markers of significant periods and passage of time 15,000 BCE - Early humans created notched bones and tusks, using a tally system as a medium of communication, based on one-to-one correspondence - Schmandt-Basserat notes that this leads to the eventual development of numeracy o Animal kills, days for example 8000 – 3200 BCE - Counters or markers used to keep track of goods sold and bought - Preceded the development of full writing systems, but also led to them because…. o Their use immediately precedes the appearance of a writing system in Sumerian in 3200 BCE  o Tokens used as tally system appears in pictographic alphabet developed by Sumerians o A single token could stand for large number of items - 8000 BCE o The appearance of the tokens coincided with the rise of political authorities, as people who had access to the coins could relay any information they want o The rise of writing meant those with control of knowledge had power o Tokens used for taxes, laws, temple economics o The tokens were arbitrary in nature 3200 BCE Writing and Empire Innis - Development of Cuneiform by the Sumerians in ancient Iraq/Syria, which is one of the oldest forms of writing. This system allowed for more complex ideas to expressed. - Consisted of Physical objects, ideas with a mixture of semantic and phonetic sounds, for example h-o-r-s would mean horse and “$” would mean money The Importance of Keeping track - Cuneiform helped with keeping track of hierarchies in politicos - Aids in the development of administration, bureaucracy, and economy, ad you can now write laws, track taxes and payments - Writing led to the concentration and dissemination of power and authority since those with power had access to writing Sumerian Clay Tablets - Used for, Legal contracts, deeds of sale, land transfer, inventories, accounts of temples - These tablets allowed for the collection of knowledge as we can now write it down, and pass it down to the next generation, we can now look back and analyze information Writing contributes to the creation of a new culture - Oral Cultures o Relies on memory and verbal transmission - Literate Culture o Writing allowed for the preservation of culture and accuracy of that culture  - According to Harold Innis the dominant mediums of communications had different uses, Tablets were used for more information in a stationary place, used to mark down laws - Papyrus is more durable light and was used for more day to day communication Innis, Ancient Egypt - Media forms have an influence/impact apart from whatever info is transmit, it depends on the weight, durability, portability of the medium - Heavier mediums might encourage laws and large decisions where lighter ones may be for more trade records and small messages Inca Empire 1400-1500 Ce - Modern day Peru - A form of communication called the Quipu, which was a primary cord with coloured strings attached, each features different sizes and length of knots, for recording data, taxes, inventories Walter Og and Oral Cultures - Sound is spherical, vision is directional - Sound immerses, vision offers a perspective - Sounf comes to us, Vision travel to its object Oral vs literate cultures - In oral cultures knowledge is deeply tied to human memory and had to be embodied in us - It is transmitted from person to person, from storytelling and is open to questions and rebuttal - Sound is ephemeral(lasting for a short time period - Writing transformed human conscious and what can be though can be more complex and be analyzed - In oral cultures speaker can be questioned but writing is context-free and cant be challenged immediately Ong - Patterned forms of though o Patterned forms of oral cultures don’t contain through, the communication is thought itself, as through is what expressed.  o Thinking in a non-mnemonic way is seen as inefficient as we use memory aids to help recover thoughts and ideas Literacy - Makes new ideas and new ways of thinking possible The print Revolution - Dissemination of Knowledge through new media forms has prod found effects on social economic and political and those factors have an influence on new media Greek Alphabet - Havelock describes the alphabet as a major advancement due to its simple, protect language - Craft literacy vs Common readers o Allowed for ordinary people to read and write, instead of special people - The retrieval of massive amounts of information was made possible, allowing for more sophistication and complexity as information can be analyzed o Advancements in science, art technology Havelock on the Greek alphabet - Made reading and writing easier leading to more literacy in Greek society - Aided in critical thinking as there was more space in the brain to critical thinking as information as written down