A pictogram or pictograph is a symbol representing an object or concept
by illustration. Pictography is a form of writing whereby ideas are
transmitted through drawing. It is the basis of cuneiform and
hieroglyphs.
Early written symbols were based on pictograms,
pictures which resemble what they signify, and ideograms, pictures which
represent ideas; it is commonly believed that pictograms appeared before
ideograms (source).
The bushmen and many other cultures used pictograms in the form of cave paintings. It is very interesting to compare the similarities of different pictograms from different continents.
From pictograms, we can learn the value a culture puts on different things or ideas. The Kalahari bushmen drew many pictures of animals and men, along with men with animal qualities, thought to be the shamans. They made these paintings by grinding up different colored rock, mainly red, and mixed this powder with animal fat before rubbing the mixture on a wall (source).
Since the missionaries came to the bushmen, there has also been a move, much like there was with the Native Americans here in the United States, to have them be more like the white civilization. According to Dr. Crandall in my interview last Friday, the young children of the bushmen go to school today and learn English and, because of this, the language and culture of the bushmen has been lost slowly. However, this is not unusual at all. How many of us speak the same way as our ancestors or do the same things in our daily lives? There are resurgences, both in the bushmen culture and in our own, to understand their heritage by learning the language or participating in the activities of their ancestors.
I agree with you, Jenna, when you talk about different societies losing important aspects of their culture, such as characteristics of a language, because of an outside influence that brings about change. Even in America, regional accents are being lost because of the effects of television and the radio. (It's really hard to find someone living in Boston who speaks like JFK.) Additionally, certain words or phrases are lost over time. (When was the last time you heard someone our age use a word like whippersnapper or gee willikers?) The loss of unique aspects of language is even more significant in non-Western societies who are being introduced to Western civilization. Jenna, do you think the same thing is happening in India and other parts of Asia like it is in the Kalahari? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI think it's very cool how civilizations feel the need to record some forms of knowledge even before they have an actual language. In fact, I heard a theory that some people believed writing originated because ancient tribes decided they needed to remember specific ways to hunt or kill certain animals, and so they began to create systems to record that knowledge in a more concrete way than orality.
ReplyDeleteMarc, I've also heard that tv and radio actually has not had that much of an effect on regional dialects...that would be something interesting to look into. I have definitely heard some strong accents, even from middle-aged people (who tend to have the least extreme speaking style because they are in the stage of life where it counts the most).
ReplyDeleteI also am interested in how watching television and radio has an effect on regional dialects, possible future blog post?!? But yes Sam I do think that the coolest thing about written knowledge is that it is not synonymous with language, as you mentioned earlier it is possible to record knowledge without language for conventional uses. An example of this that we still use today is our use of numbers, characters, symbols, etc.
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