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what is history of civilization?
- Thread starter ArtistG
- Start date
G
gorkbarque
Guest
History of civilization is the history of civilization.
Check out the books by Will and Ariel Durant, a husband and wife team who wrote a massive History of Civilization over a span of about 6 decades.
Check out the books by Will and Ariel Durant, a husband and wife team who wrote a massive History of Civilization over a span of about 6 decades.
G
guanotwozero
Guest
Ah, you don't ask for much, do you?
Well, I really can't add much after Tarragon's excellent and comprehensive answer, except maybe to throw in a little of the New World, where the officials of the Inca Empire (Tawantinsuyo) would communicate by sending runners between way stations (tambos).
Some of these were logistics specialists, and carried bundles of 'quipus', knotted ropes. These were recording devices where the type, number and positions of knots on each rope signified some quantity, time, or instruction. They used these in lieu of writing.
Using teams of runners and quipu-bearers, messages could be spread quickly as a new runner was always available at each tambo to take over the message from the exhausted arrival.
Thus the empire stretching over 1,000 miles could be efficiently controlled from the capital, Cusco.
Well, I really can't add much after Tarragon's excellent and comprehensive answer, except maybe to throw in a little of the New World, where the officials of the Inca Empire (Tawantinsuyo) would communicate by sending runners between way stations (tambos).
Some of these were logistics specialists, and carried bundles of 'quipus', knotted ropes. These were recording devices where the type, number and positions of knots on each rope signified some quantity, time, or instruction. They used these in lieu of writing.
Using teams of runners and quipu-bearers, messages could be spread quickly as a new runner was always available at each tambo to take over the message from the exhausted arrival.
Thus the empire stretching over 1,000 miles could be efficiently controlled from the capital, Cusco.
Hi Artist G,
How's the Bachelor of Communication Design going? Whereabouts in India are you studying this?
The entire history of civilisation is a "bit" hard to compress into one of these answers. Also hard to know how such a detailed answer would help you, especially in terms of communication design.
Anyway, here's a potted ("short") history of communications in civilisation in the hope that it is some help.
We start with The Flood. The great majority of world cultures contain an ancestral story of a Great Flood. The Bible does and, because that book grew from Jewish tradition, the Jews believe it. The Babylonians, who help the Jew as slaves for generations also believe it. But then, they would, because most of their civilisation was built in a flood plain ("the house that was built on sand").
These stories were communicated by word of mouth until they could be recorded.
The Sumerians and Hittites kept written records, in clay, while the Egyptians chose papyrus, which later proved very good for Roman emperors who simply took these precious scrolls and burned them to heat their bath.
All these civilisations, and others, recorded aspects of their history or belief in stone. Many of these were placed, like traffic signs, in the civilisation despite the fact that few could read them -- it was symbolic power.
The Greeks may well have had several "glorious civilisations" before the Golden Age of Pericles, but the other were lost in famine or flood and the knowledge of these preserved only in Egypt (the Greeks were too busy surviving to record events). The explosion of Thera and the possible destruction of an Atlantean "superculture" is still unknown.
Communication is still word of mouth, or rare letters or kingly commands.
This continues until we have the first books, probably in Greece, because the Greeks loved plays, literature, poetry, etc. Books become a more durable way to store knowledge. The Chinese discover moveable type, but it is useless to them with their pictographic language. But is the west, with its limited alphabet -- ideal! By 1450, books are being mechanically printed rather than copied by hand.
But books have another effect -- more self reading prompts more free thought and Martin Luther ends up ripping the Catholic church in two, and then that protestant half itself shatters into multiple flavours of religion (Lutherans, Calvinists, Church of England) and the murderous Wars of Religion begin.
I did skip the Crusades. In terms of communications bungles, this was akin to ripping the covers off opposing PABXs from rival telephony companies and trying to hotwire them together to achieve a "peaceful" solution -- pointless really.
Communications are limited to ship, horse and safe hand courier. Until the invention of the telegraph. The telegraph was a masterful tool of capitalist oppression, which connected the world so economic news could be flashed around the world, creating despair, panic and a global financial crisis.
From there it was all downhill -- telephony, radio, television and, most recently, computers and the internet. And because we let computers talk to each other over the internet, we can spread panic and despair even faster than with telegraphy.
What all of these communication media have tended to do is isolate us in smaller boxes, so we avoid the fundamental communication -- going and having tea or a drink with someone rather than averting contact with an SMS, email or phone message. All these are substitutes for communication.
And now we stand on the brink of... what? Can we "communicate" any more without really talking and sharing any less?
How's the Bachelor of Communication Design going? Whereabouts in India are you studying this?
The entire history of civilisation is a "bit" hard to compress into one of these answers. Also hard to know how such a detailed answer would help you, especially in terms of communication design.
Anyway, here's a potted ("short") history of communications in civilisation in the hope that it is some help.
We start with The Flood. The great majority of world cultures contain an ancestral story of a Great Flood. The Bible does and, because that book grew from Jewish tradition, the Jews believe it. The Babylonians, who help the Jew as slaves for generations also believe it. But then, they would, because most of their civilisation was built in a flood plain ("the house that was built on sand").
These stories were communicated by word of mouth until they could be recorded.
The Sumerians and Hittites kept written records, in clay, while the Egyptians chose papyrus, which later proved very good for Roman emperors who simply took these precious scrolls and burned them to heat their bath.
All these civilisations, and others, recorded aspects of their history or belief in stone. Many of these were placed, like traffic signs, in the civilisation despite the fact that few could read them -- it was symbolic power.
The Greeks may well have had several "glorious civilisations" before the Golden Age of Pericles, but the other were lost in famine or flood and the knowledge of these preserved only in Egypt (the Greeks were too busy surviving to record events). The explosion of Thera and the possible destruction of an Atlantean "superculture" is still unknown.
Communication is still word of mouth, or rare letters or kingly commands.
This continues until we have the first books, probably in Greece, because the Greeks loved plays, literature, poetry, etc. Books become a more durable way to store knowledge. The Chinese discover moveable type, but it is useless to them with their pictographic language. But is the west, with its limited alphabet -- ideal! By 1450, books are being mechanically printed rather than copied by hand.
But books have another effect -- more self reading prompts more free thought and Martin Luther ends up ripping the Catholic church in two, and then that protestant half itself shatters into multiple flavours of religion (Lutherans, Calvinists, Church of England) and the murderous Wars of Religion begin.
I did skip the Crusades. In terms of communications bungles, this was akin to ripping the covers off opposing PABXs from rival telephony companies and trying to hotwire them together to achieve a "peaceful" solution -- pointless really.
Communications are limited to ship, horse and safe hand courier. Until the invention of the telegraph. The telegraph was a masterful tool of capitalist oppression, which connected the world so economic news could be flashed around the world, creating despair, panic and a global financial crisis.
From there it was all downhill -- telephony, radio, television and, most recently, computers and the internet. And because we let computers talk to each other over the internet, we can spread panic and despair even faster than with telegraphy.
What all of these communication media have tended to do is isolate us in smaller boxes, so we avoid the fundamental communication -- going and having tea or a drink with someone rather than averting contact with an SMS, email or phone message. All these are substitutes for communication.
And now we stand on the brink of... what? Can we "communicate" any more without really talking and sharing any less?