[Xmca-l] Re: Prehistoric ‘book keeping’ continued long after invention of writing | University of Cambridge

[David Kellogg]

Mike--I interpreted this rather differently. In ancient Egypt and in
ancient Mesopotamia, literacy was highly restricted, so most people would
have needed less esoteric technologies for daily life. Even people who are
fully literate or numerate today don't use writing or counting for
everything.

When my mother in law visited us from China, she was fully literate and
numerate, but also rather overweight (too much eating and television in her
retirement). We tried taking her to the gym, but it made her dizzy, so I
would go to my lectures and leave her walking around the university
physical education track while I taught. She would use pebbles as counters
to make sure that she could tell me how many laps she'd walked by the time
I got out of class. I still remember watching her stoop to pick up pebbles
from my classroom window while I was fumbling with my class notes--the
activities are not that different, when you think about it.

David Kellogg
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies


On 23 July 2014 07:41, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:

> This is a very interesting example of the way in which the constituents of
> practices that have been replaced remain as part of the expanded cultural
> toolkit. Should make good reading in any course that takes up the history
> of literacy. Thanks David.
> mike
>
>
> On Sat, Jul 19, 2014 at 3:24 PM, David Preiss <daviddpreiss@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/prehistoric-book-keeping-continued-long-after-invention-of-writing
> >
> >
> > Enviado desde mi iPhone
> >
>