Group C: Courseware, Innis 1& 2

Harold Innis: “Empire and Communication: Introduction”

• The changing character in the British Empire was because of the paper and pulp industry and its influence on public opinion
• The article is concerned with the use of certain tools that have proved effective in the interpretation of the economic history of Canada and the British Empire
• Effective government of large areas depends on the efficiency of communication
• Bias: the bias of each medium either toward space or time helps determine the nature of civilization in which that medium dominates
  

Time-biased media

• Durable in character: parchment, clay, stone
• Suited to the development of architecture and sculpture
• After the breakup of the Roman Empire, parchment was the dominant communication medium used for copying manuscripts in medieval monasteries
• Favors decentralization and is associated with religious control of time
  

Space-biased media

• Less durable in character
• Papyrus enabled Rome to govern a large, centralized empire, it is associated with political and administrative control of space
• Favors centralization and systems of government less hierarchical in character
  

History of West: Writing and Printing periods

• Important media in writing period: clay tablet of Mesopotamia, the papyrus roll in the Egyptian and in the Graeco-Roman world, parchment codex in the late Graeco-Roman world and the early Middle Ages, and paper after its introduction in the Western world from China
• Important media in printing period: paper
• Machinery at beginning of 19th century
• Use of wood as a raw material in second half of 19th century (approximately 1850)
  
• Almost impossible for generations disciplined in the written and printed tradition to appreciate and fully understand an operative oral tradition
• Media biases of one civilization make understanding of another difficult
• Western Civilization: Apt to look over the spoken word

Harold Innis: “The Oral Tradition and Greek Civilization”

Creation of the Alphabet

• During 7th century BC, Greeks took the conventional Phoenician Semitic consonantal alphabet and Cypriote syllabary and adapted it to suit their oral traditions
• With minor alterations, the Greek alphabet became the basis for political organization through efficient control of the empire
• Lead to the facilitation of a Monotheistic religion
• 24 letters in the alphabet
• “The alphabet escaped from the implications of sacred writing. It lent itself to an efficient representation of sounds and enabled the Greeks to preserve intact a rich oral tradition” (Innis 53).
• The heavy favouritism of oral traditions led Greece to adopt a sophisticated alphabet, in turn strengthening the moral fibres of society
  

Emphasis on Dialogue: Socrates and Plato

• Greek civilization was a “reflection of the power of spoken word” (Innis 56).
• Socrates (469-399 BC), a classical Greek philosopher, chose the spoken word as his sole method of communication.
• Being the “last great product and exponent of the oral tradition”, Socrates sought out to reveal the truth through philosophical debate.
• Plato (ca. 428-328 BC), Socrates student, attempted to adopt the new medium of prose with a conversational form of writing that used dialogue in the form of question and answer type responses.
• Used Socrates as narrator of the dialogues, basing stories on his philosophical debates with local citizens.
• In order to preserve the power of spoken word, the work was in between poetry and prose, refusing to succumb to the growing popularity of poetry.
• Preferred dialogues, allegory, and illustrations.

Oral Tradition and Poetry

• Oral tradition called for a form of speech that would suit its needs: Epic poetry was the answer.
• Epic poems included the Iliad and the Odyssey which were two fundamental poems that were generally supposed to be sung.
• Homeric poems served to provide ethical guidelines and morals.
• "Decline of belief in the supernatural led to the explanation of nature in terms of natural causes,"
• Nature was the natural cause of things.
  

Greek Philosophy and Science

• “Without a sacred book and powerful priesthood the ties of religion were weakened and rational philosophy was developed by the ablest minds to answer the demand for generalizations acceptable to everyone”(Innis 66)
• Laws were declared by anyone who could interpret them properly while supervision of the laws were “by the hearing of formal complaints against the judges”
• Universal truths developed through mathematics, geometry and science
• “By abstraction Anaximander drew a line of distinction between supersensible soul substance and sensible embodiments”
• of “the first to write down his thoughts in prose” (Innis 65)

James Burke and Robert Ornstein: “Communication and Faith in the Middle Ages”

• The Christian hierarchy structure worked after the fall of Rome because its members had means to keep in contact and share knowledge
• As travellers visited holy shrines, they would act as messengers for the church
• Literacy and being able to communicate over far distances, “raised the Christian hierarchs to an extremely powerful position over illiterate kings and princes” (73)
• Literacy aided the clergy in obtaining power: landowners, royal council, military organization, helped in affairs of the state and in drafting secular law codes
• Through the education system, the church was able to control the illiterate population- monopoly of knowledge

Literacy’s Influence on Islam

• Nestorian library found by servants of Caliph Al Mansur was then translated
• Greek knowledge was absorbed into Islamic culture with theological acceptability

Eg. Astronomy told the hours of prayer and direction of Mecca

• Innovative thinking was possible while still maintaining tight constraints on individual freedom

• Greek knowledge reached the West and helped to reinforce Christian beliefs

Eg. Aristotle believed animals existed only for the sake of man, reinforced Christian belief that humans are above nature

Thomas F. Carter: “Paper and Block Printing- From China to Europe”

• Up to 256 B.C. writing was done on slips of bamboo (longer writings and books) or wood (short messages)
• Invention of the writing brush of hair during Qin Dynasty (3 century B.C.) transformed the writing and led to a change in language
• Chapter meant roll
• Writing materials “bamboo and wood” become “bamboo and silk”
• A daily task of reading 120 pounds of state documents required the invention of new writing material
• Raw silk was used for the first step in manufacturing paper
• Invention of paper dates to 105 A.D., China during Han dynasty
  
  

Discovery of the oldest piece of paper

• oldest paper discovered by Folke Bergman while exploring the Han ruin on the Edsin-gol which was stuck in a sheath with an iron knife
• Paper dates from the 3 to 8 century A.D.
• materials: the bark of mulberry tree, hemp, raw fibres and those fabricated (ex. fish nets), various plant fibres (especially China grass taken from rags)
• earliest European papers were all made from rag which were invented in China at the beginning of the 2 century
  

Beginning of Block Printing

• Emperors of T’ang dynasty were patrons of literature, art and religion
• Under T’ai Tsung (627-49) a library was built that contained around 54 000 rolls
• Buddhist monasteries started developing different devices for the reduplication of sacred books and texts
• I-ching (635-713) wrote of the priests in India who made images with earth and impressed them on silk or paper
• Discover of rubbings from stone inscriptions , stencils and pounces, printed textiles, seals and seal impressions led the way to block printing
• Small stamped figures of the Buddha changed the use of seal impressions to the woodcut
• Turning the stamps upside down, laying the paper on top and rubbing it with a brush led to making the impressions of any size
• Earliest well defined block print dates from 770, Japan

Conclusion

Rise of the written word led to a more controlled and uniform society