Re: Literacy

From: donald_at_...
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 23:20:35 GMT


In message <414F042A.4322.328A63C_at_localhost> "Light Castle" writes:
>On 20 Sep 2004 at 21:05, Jane Williams wrote:
>
>> The "monopoly" may be purely Orlanthi, I'm not sure. I can quite see
>> them having the idea that writing words down in in some way chaining the
>> wind. We know the Sun County Earth temples keep written records, because
>> "Gaumata's Vision" depends on them, and it's far too good to lose!
>>
>> Personally I can see an ancient/medieval society being mainly illiterate
>> very easily, because AFAIK all the RW ones were. Literacy was a monopoly
>> of the Church, mainly because no-one else had the time to waste learning
>> to read.
>
>Oh, I agree. It is absolutely mainly illiterate, I only question the
>absolute monopoly idea. I will probably keep it for Orlanthi, since it
>very much seems to fit there. I'm less sure about it in other cultures.

We also need to be clear what we mean by literacy. At a very basic level of marks on a surface which are commonly recognised to have a particular meaning is a form of literacy and I'm sure the majority of Heortlings would recognise many runes. Certainly the modern concept of literacy where an alphabet of arbitary symbols is assembled into words which can be used for any subject is going to be a LM monopoly. In between you'll have things like Issaries merchants using tally sticks for accounting which show that Sven Longstride of the Falling River clan has agreed to provide seven bushels of wheat after the harvest.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/

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