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

[mike cole]

That seems a plausible alternative, David. Thanks.

I wrote a longish note re your informative message on LSV and Halliday but
it got trashed by accident. I will try to recoup it when life allows.
mike


On Tue, Jul 22, 2014 at 5:20 PM, David Kellogg <dkellogg60@gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>> >
>>
>
>