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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" align="center">=====================================================<br>
<b>L O W L A N D S - L - 01 September 2010 - Volume 04</b><br>
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<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br>
From:<span style="color: rgb(121, 6, 25);"> <span class="gd">Marcus Buck</span></span><span class="gi"> </span><span class="go"><<a href="mailto:list@marcusbuck.org">list@marcusbuck.org</a>></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject:
<span class="gi">LL-L "Culture" 2010.09.01 (02) [EN]</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">From: <span style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">Jonny Meibohm</span> <<a href="mailto:jonny.meibohm@arcor.de" target="_blank">jonny.meibohm@arcor.de</a>></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: navy;"><span style="font-family: courier new,monospace;">The interviewed archeologists postulated a theory that these higher
civilized people may have been in contact with the inhabitants of Northern
Africa, maybe they even were descendants of the old </span>Egypts<span style="font-family: courier new,monospace;">. This caused a discussion in
our family: if they knew the Egyptian hieroglyphs (since ca. 3,200 BC) why
didn't they bring them with them? Or developed anything similar?</span></span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><br>
The "descendants of the old Egypts" part is speculation.
Archeologists know very little about the Bell-Beaker culture. They do not even
agree whether this culture is actually a culture. Perhaps it's just the beakers
that spread, a fashion in pottery-making. There are signs that the origin lies
in the Iberian peninsula but that's not a
settled fact. Any connection to Africa or even Egypt is just hypothetical.<br>
<br>
But there are examples elsewhere in history where cultures did not adopt script
even though they were in close proximity to cultures that had script. What's
the reason? Well, first we should ask: What's the reason to write down
language? Novels, long-distance communication, parking tickets etc. pp. are all
relatively recent inventions. The most ancient uses for written language are
religious and magical purposes (e.g. the Germanic people used their runes on
weapons in the hope to magically enhance them). Another important early use of
written language is administration. If the king has many subjects who have to
provide food to the court you have to keep records for your granaries. So, if
your religion does not know magical spells and your culture does not know kings
or granaries or any other type of institution that requires administration, there's
no reason to write. Trade seems like something where records are useful, but if
you are a single tradesman or a small group of traders, the single traders can
keep all the relevant information in their head. Making records could give away
your secrets. Records only become meaningful if you establish a trading house.
If you send out people on behalf that's the point where you need to keep
records.<br>
<br>
One of the main apects of civilization is division of labour. In a society with
low division of labour (and the Bell-Beaker people certainly had a low division
of labour) people are either their own bosses or they at least know their
bosses. In a society with higher division of labour, there's more hierarchy and
more and more people don't know their bosses. There are supervisors inbetween
and only the supervisor has direct contact to the boss. I'd say that's the
point where records become necessary. When the social complexness of society
becomes so high that you cannot manage it without noting down some things.<br>
<br>
Marcus Buck</p>
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