Alphabets, Graffiti and Blogging

Last night I was watching the above previewed program on The Naked Archaeologist in the History International Channel. I seldom miss The Naked Archaeologist and usually view several its episodes more than once. Regardless of the controversy surrounding the program’s host, Simcha Jacobovici—have you noticed that I really dig (pun intended) controversy—I find his productions enlightening, entertaining, and thought provoking.

Enlightening, entertaining, and thought provoking is how I found the episode I watched Wednesday night, Who Invented the Alphabet? The description of it provided by History International is:

Everyone assumes the Greeks invented the alphabet, but what are its real origins? Archaeological finds tell us that it originated in Egypt where Hebrew slaves began the process of turning hieroglyphics into a series of symbols which convey sounds that can be used to form words. From desert caves to urban graffiti, we trace the origins and evolution of simple shapes that democratized communication as it spread through the ancient world.

Whether I concur with the suggestion that Hebrew slaves began the process of turning hieroglyphics into a series of symbols which convey sounds that can be used to form words, is secondary to two ideas Jacobovici’s presentation aroused in my mind: (1) letters representing sounds have a democratizing affect that hieroglyphics do not have and (2) graffiti is an existential leveling activity.

As I’m sure you are aware, hieroglyphics come into use long before the alphabet. Hieroglyphs, because of the large number of pictures used were difficult to write and usually required a highly educated scribe to write and read them.

Alphabets, where letters represent the phonemic structure of a language, are much easier to learn and use. Consider the difference in learning and using the thirty-two letters of, for example, the Hebrew alphabet versus the thousands of hieroglyphs used in Egyptian hieroglyphics. The former can be mastered by almost anyone (even me!) while the latter takes a lifetime of study and use.

Now I’m going to make a leap from hieroglyphics and alphabets to cultures and political structures. I suggest that learning to read and write is a liberating process. Those is the reason the Nazis in Germany and religious fundamentalists in the United States burn books and do their best to exclude certain manuscripts from library shelves. Reading and writing allows the transmission of knowledge from one person to another and knowledge engenders power and freedom.

"I'm not afraid of anything," said Khrushchev,
"And they know it!
I'm not afraid of anything
Except, perhaps, a poet."

~ E Y Harburg, "Yevtushenko?", from Rhymes for the Irreverent, 1965

Jacobovici suggested that it was the development of alphabetic writing that enabled all people in a society—even slaves—to obtain and transmit thoughts and knowledge. (You remember, of course, that in the pre-Civil War United States, it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write).

Therefore, Jacobovici suggests that the graffiti archeologists have found on the walls of caves worked by Hebrew slaves in ancient Egypt that included one of the names for God—El—were a necessary precursor to freedom and the experience of the Exodus.

I agree!

The second thought that watching Wednesday night’s Who Invented the Alphabet? brought into my mind is related to graffiti and blogging. Unfortunately, I have run out of time and space to discuss that relationship. (heh, heh) I’ll post my ideas on it before the end of this week. OK?