=?windows-1252?Q?=93Literacy_Makes_You_Lazy=94_?=: Saving En d angered Lan guages (fwd link )

Wed Jul 4 01:15:40 UTC 2012

Hello ILAT,

Here is K. David Harrison' s reply to the ILAT thread on the NatGeo News
article. Below, he discusses the "literacy makes you lazy" debate, his
thoughts on embedded cognition, literacy, orality, etc. It is clear to me
that our current reliance on technology for data retrieval is relatively
new compared to oral traditions, which have existed for many thousands of
years. The fact that they are disappearing is all the more reason to
celebrate them and conserve the knowledge embedded in them.             -
Anna Luisa D.

>From Dr. Harrison:

Thank you to ILAT readers for the attention and thoughtful comments to
the NGNews
blog post by Brian Howard. To put things a bit in context, this post was
based on a co-presentation I made with National Geographic photographer
Lynn Johnson at the recent Aspen Environmental Forum, on the the subject
of language revitalization in Tuva, and among the Seri, Koro Aka and Hruso
Aka peoples.

The headline "Literacy makes you lazy" (somewhat provocative, and since
changed) arose out of a comment I made during the Q & A, in response to a
question about the role of missionary-introduced literacy. I mentioned that
I think people in oral cultures may have cognitive advantages/capacities
that people in literate cultures lack (or have lost, or failed to develop).
As a specific example, I mentioned the case of Mr. Shoydak-ool
Khovalyg<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha1dFpiVe58>,
a Tuvan epic tale teller who had memorized thousands of lines of a tale
strictly from oral transmission, never seeing the tale in print, and whom I
worked closely with in 1997-2002. (Though professional actors also memorize
many lines of plays, I think those actors rely on seeing printed text in
order to memorize it.) So, the Tuvan case is a feat of memory that I don't
think people in literate cultures possess (except perhaps some exceptional
savants with photographic memories). Alexander King pointed out that there
are extra cognitive skills one acquires by using literacy, and I fully
agree. I did not address the possible advantages of literacy, because I was
making the point to my audience of environmental conservationists that in
our literate cultures we tend automatically to think of literacy as
superior, and fail to see any advantages of orality (I've called this our
"literacy bias").

The idea that we outsource many cognitive tasks (like memorization) onto
the environment (including written text, recording devices, etc.) comes
from Andy Clark's excellent work on embedded cognition. Once we have
outsourced these tasks, our ability to do them declines/atrophies, and we
come to rely on the external technology (hence my example of myself no
longer memorizing phone numbers, now that I can store them in my cell
phone's memory).

Little did I know this Q & A comment would be blogged (though I think the
article is good) or that the writer would choose to frame it with a
sensationalistic headline. I've discussed this with the journalist, Brian
Howard, and he was very thorough and professional in making some factual
edits. He also changed the headline to a much more fitting one, a quote
from Karuk elder Mr. Charlie Thom. I would like to commend Brian on both
the original article, and his willingness to make edits after posting.

I wrote a chapter about orality and literacy in my 2007 book When Languages
Die, in which I considered the unheralded cognitive advantages of orality.
Now that I've been introduced to the term "technological determinism", I
can go back and look at these ideas with a fresh lens. I would very much
welcome any further thoughts, suggestions, or discussion, on the balance
and interplay between orality, literacy, cognition and culture, especially
as it relates to endangered languages.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

K. David Harrison
Associate Professor & Chair
Linguistics Department
Swarthmore College

Fellow, National Geographic Society

Director of Research,
Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages

On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 2:03 PM, Evan Gardner <evan at whereareyourkeys.org>wrote:

> You just missed it! It was last weekend!
>
> Every Wednesday night at the health clinic they play a huge game. 30
> people come!
> On Jun 26, 2012 10:57 AM, "Maya Tracy Borhani" <gmcmaya at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> he-he! Evan from Where are your keys?
>>
>> Hesasaka, Maya from Mtn. Maidu country!
>>
>> good to know we're both on the list: will try to get Farrell CUnningham
>> to come to the upcoming WHere Are YOur Keys workshop
>>  would you actually mind re-sending me that info?
>> WITH THANK!
>>
>> Maya
>>
>> On Jun 26, 2012, at 10:44 AM, Evan Gardner wrote:
>>
>> > Hello All,
>> >
>> > Evan from "Where Are Your Keys?"
>> >
>> > We have a technique called "speak to remember, write to forget".
>> >
>> > It is a pretty general way of saying your language will live if it is
>> spoken... so speak it.
>> >
>> > If the same amount of time were spent creating speakers then we
>> wouldn't have to write anything down. We would just speak and live.
>> Knowledge would just live within individuals and communities.
>> >
>> > I am in no way against writing. I have just seen that writing is not
>> the easiest point of entry for two year olds. If adults learn by writing
>> then they will try to teach by writing. Why not teach in the same way you
>> would want the adults teaching the children. Train the adults to teach
>> children by teaching the adults to speak.
>> >
>> > It does seam like a bit of work to get speaking but with clever
>> curriculum organization speaking can happen in minutes. Then no one has to
>> memorize anything. Language flows through the mind and into the community.
>> >
>> > My 2 cents
>> >
>> > I am enjoying the conversation as usual.
>> >
>> > Thanks
>>
>

-- 
Anna Luisa Daigneault, M.Sc
Latin America Projects Coordinator & Organizational Fellow
Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages<http://www.livingtongues.org>
Enduring Voices
Project<http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/enduring-voices/>
<http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/enduring-voices/>@livingtongues<http://twitter.com/#%21/livingtongues>

The Yanesha Oral History Archives
Arr Añño'tena Poeñotenaxhno Yanesha
www.yanesha.com
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