The Origins of Human Civilization and Egyptian Reverence to Transformative script
One of the things that seperates human civilization from other living beings is the ability and extent to which we can transfer knowledge through time with script. As an anthropologist by training, this is why I am fascinated with the iconography of Seshat in Egyptian art. For early civilizations, she was their icon for not only script, knowledge, & time, but also the tree of life and architecture. It is baffling to me that most people I encounter have never heard or seen her.
HIStory has not taught HERstory. So I must.
The differentiator between humans and other life forms is our ability to transfer knowledge from generation to generation. This is what I learned while in undergrad earning my BA in Anthropology at Vanderbilt. According to Wiki, anthropology "is the academic study of humankind. It deals with all that is characteristic of the human experience, from physiology and the evolutionary origins to the social and cultural organization of human societies as well as individual and collective forms of human experience. Anthropology's basic concerns are the definition of human life and origin, how social relations among humans are organized, who the ancestors of (early man)..."
With defined language abilities, humans are expert at transferring knowledge from generation to generation. The next step into civilization(cities) was the ability to carry this knowledge in written form. The ancients recognized this as a divine process. This divine process was transformative and held special importance for thousands of years among the culture and keepers of the art- those who were scholars and scribes. The Egyptians considered themselves to be the originators of this process of scripting along with divine connections. Considering the importance to humanity script and libraries have played, I want to draw attention to the ways in which they recognized the importance of the ability to write to human high culture. Being in the information age is certainly a proper time to bring this to the forefront of our attention.
One of the things that seperates human civilization from other living beings is the ability and extent to which we can transfer knowledge through time with script. As an anthropologist by training, this is why I am fascinated with the iconography of Seshat in Egyptian art. For early civilizations, she was their icon for not only script, knowledge, & time, but also the tree of life and architecture. It is baffling to me that most people I encounter have never heard or seen her.
HIStory has not taught HERstory. So I must.
The differentiator between humans and other life forms is our ability to transfer knowledge from generation to generation. This is what I learned while in undergrad earning my BA in Anthropology at Vanderbilt. According to Wiki, anthropology "is the academic study of humankind. It deals with all that is characteristic of the human experience, from physiology and the evolutionary origins to the social and cultural organization of human societies as well as individual and collective forms of human experience. Anthropology's basic concerns are the definition of human life and origin, how social relations among humans are organized, who the ancestors of (early man)..."
With defined language abilities, humans are expert at transferring knowledge from generation to generation. The next step into civilization(cities) was the ability to carry this knowledge in written form. The ancients recognized this as a divine process. This divine process was transformative and held special importance for thousands of years among the culture and keepers of the art- those who were scholars and scribes. The Egyptians considered themselves to be the originators of this process of scripting along with divine connections. Considering the importance to humanity script and libraries have played, I want to draw attention to the ways in which they recognized the importance of the ability to write to human high culture. Being in the information age is certainly a proper time to bring this to the forefront of our attention.
It is for this reason that I blog. I hope that you will join me in this fascinating study and share with me your thoughts, ideas, and findings. You are welcome to post in the comment section or email me directly.
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