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Note: these excerpt threads are
subject to continual revision and updating as opportunity and priority
permits
Leonard Shlain: "Of all the sacred cows allowed to roam unimpeded in our culture, few are as revered as literacy. Its benefits have been so incontestable that in the five millennia since the advent of the written word numerous poets and writers have extolled its virtues. Few paused to consider its costs. Sophocles once warned, nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse. The invention of writing was vast, this book will investigate the curse. There exists ample evidence that any society acquiring the written word experiences explosive changes. For the most part, these changes can be characterized as progress. But one pernicious effect of literacy has gone largely unnoticed: writing subliminally fosters a patriarchal outlook. Writing of any kind, but especially its alphabetic form, diminishes feminine values and with them, women's power in the culture. The reasons for this shift will be elaborated in the coming pages. For now, I propose that a holistic, simultaneous, synthetic, and concrete view of the world are the essential characteristics of the feminine outlook; linear, sequential, reductionist, and abstract thinking defines the masculine. Although these represent opposite perceptual modes, every individual is generously endowed with all the features of both. They coexist as two closely overlapping bell-shaped curves with no feature superior to its reciprocal. These complementary methods of comprehending reality resemble the ancient Taoist circle symbol of integration and symmetry in which the tension between the energy of the feminin yin and the masculine yang is exactly balanced. One side without the other is incomplete; together, they form a unified whole that is stronger than either half. First writing, and the alphabet, upset this balance. Affected cultures, especially in the West, acquired a strong yang thrust... Literacy has promoted the subjugation of women by men throughout all but the very recent history of the West. Misogyny and patriarchy rise and fall with the fortunes of the alphabetic written record. The key to my thesis lies in the unique way the human nervous system developed, which in turn allowed alphabets to profoundly affect gender relations..." [1-3] The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image "What made the alphabet so revolutionary was the ease with which people could learn to use it. Because it was in their interest to keep others ignorant, the scribes of Egypt and Mesopotamia guarded the secrets of the written word. One who was literate had an immense advantage over those who were not, whether they were powerful or poor. The alphabet ended the hegemony of the literate elite. Instead of a complex syllabary of over six hundred cuneiform characters, or six thousand hieroglyphs coupled with rules of grammar that would daunt the most eager student, an alphabet contained a mere twenty-odd letters. Four-year-olds could, did, and do learn to read and write alphabets. Thus an empowering skill that had been guarded by a favored few was now accessible to the multitudes. The religions that henceforth spiraled outward from unwinding reams of written scrolls demanded that acolytes be literate. Until that time, to know the deity one had only to see Her image or observe Her rituals. With the advent of the alphabet, to know the deity demanded that one must first read His written words... As civilization progressed from image-based communication, such as pictographs and hieroglyphs, to non-iconic forms, such as cuneiform, written communication became more left-brain oriented. An alphabet, being the most abstract form of writing, enhances left-brain values the most. Each letter stands only for a singular sound; meaning emerges only when letters are strung together in a row. Unlike icons, which often evolved from images of things, an alphabetic word bears no resemblance to the object or action it symbolizes... Alphabets have long divorced themselves from the images of concrete things... writing dramatically changes the perceptions of those who use it. In cuneiform and hieroglyphic - based cultures, these changes manifested as a slippage of right-brain feminine values below conscious awareness. If the effect of earlier scripts on human development is likened to a significant mudslide, the advent of the alphabet produced a thundering avalance. The sexual orientation of the alphabet can be unmasked by studying the myths of the peoples who used it. Upon learning the alphabet, both women and men turned away from the worship of idols and animal totems that represented the images of nature, and began paying homage to the abstract logos. A God with no face replaces the sacred images that had hitherto transfixed the faithful. The alphabet-people's god became indisputably male and he would become disconnected from the things of the earth. He was abstract, nowhere, and yet everywhere at once..." [65-68] The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image "One can witness in any romantic restaurant the political and economic ramifications of women's gaining veto power over sex but losing iron. Despite the dietary-cholesterol awareness ... widely disseminated in the popular press and the recent shift to vegetarianism, the ritual persists. More often than not, a young man can be observed wooing a young woman over dinner by lavishing her with food purchased with his hard-earned hunting money. The table is often lit by candlelight, just as it was by firelight at the dawn of this exchange. Whether he hopes to gain exclusive, permanent sexual access (marriage) temporary sexual access (an affair) or fleeting sexual access (a one-night-stand) his ultimate goal is to persuade her to say Yes! In most settings (more so in the past than the present), he understands that tofu is not a proper offering; neither is a solitary salad or a bowl of soup. An appetizer or dessert alone will rarely advance his suit. His 'nuptial gift' most often must be red meat, and good red meat at that. Filet mignon is harvested from an animal's psoas major muscle. Positioned alongside the vertebral column, deep in the most inaccessible interior region of the slaughtered animal's abdomen, this muscle is a difficult one to retrieve. But more than its inaccessibility, its high preference value lies in its extremely low collagen content. Collagen is the substance that holds everything in the body together. It is tough stuff. Scar tissue, tendons, joint capsules, and adhesions consist mainly of collagen. The gristle in a steak is collegen. It's relative absence in filet mignon makes this the tenderest cut. The young woman sitting across from him, in her turn, appears to understand the terms of this transaction and will often order her filet medium rare. In the candlelight, one can discern iron's presence glistening on the filet's cut red surface. This is a very old deal." [135] Sex, Time, and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution "Over the course of time, the capacitor, like a lake, fills to the limit. The stored energy must be discharged; otherwise a fuse will blow. Or, as in a full lake, water will burst a dam or flood over the banks. The metaphor of a capacitor can aid in explaining why men and women stay together for so many years even after the intense phase of their joint child-rearing duties is finished. Many sociologists and theologians have weighed in on this issue, but I would like to present what I believe to be the primary reason. Each morning, after a good night's sleep, men and women arise fresh and ready to face the day's tasks and interpersonal contacts. Each small event and interaction generates a charge that incrementally accumulates on their compacitors. By the end of the day, their capacitors are brimming and need to be discharged. The best way to drain a human capacitor is through talking with another. In conversation, the emotional tension ... that has build up gradually leaks away. Women often have one or more women friends who serve as good listeners with whom they share the events of their daily lives. Men do not usually discuss the minor details of their day among themselves. When mates reunite after a busy day, they need each other in order to mutually discharge their respective capacitors. The ensuing small talk serves to maintain the mental health of both partners. Even though a woman may not find the man's discussion of his workday inherently interesting and vice versa, they both pay attention, because each understands that this gossip and small talk about the minor maintenance details of life becomes an increasingly important element that eventually supersedes sex as an attractive force binding the couple together throughout the years. If sexual attraction is the major fugue of romance, small talk is the minor. Couples who are unwilling or unable to engage in seemingly inconsequential conversations will find the music slowly fading away. A healthy relationship begins by building on sexual attraction, common interests, mutual delight, warmth, and support. Chitchat plays an indispensible role in sustaining it. Men discover that running their daily happenings past their mates provides them with access to a feminine point of view. Similarly, a woman who recounts the events of her day will often receive advice steeped in a strong male perspective. Each member of a couple gains access to the opposite side of his or her own personality, enhancing the minor side. A common observation is that couples involved in long relationships begin to look alike. It is no wonder, since a similar process is occurring inside their minds and psyches. Couples attuned to each other begin to converge on both central and periphal matters. The partners, by blending their respective anima and animus with the antipode of the other partner, are, in essence, becoming one person..." [222-223] Sex, Time, and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution |