Archewriting

Abstract

Abstract This chapter proposes a composite answer to two interrelated questions about the origins of symbolic representation among humans. The first of these concerns the relatively recent development of writing systems in human history. Researchers agree that conventional scripts, whether of the alphabetic, syllabic, or ideographic kind, are approximately 5,000–7,000 years old at most, appearing at least 40,000 years after humans began to talk and exchange meanings. Why were scripts such “eleventh hour” latecomers? The second question has to do with the prevalence of narrative as an ancient, cross-cultural discourse universal. Why are narratives such pervasive structures when they are not, prima facie, the most efficient ways of transmitting information? The chapter builds an argument about the birth of forms of linear, recursive, and multimodal representation among humans that I term “archewriting.” Such a conceptualization seeks to capture key commonalities between narrative as a drawn-out, episodic, and interactive cognitive format suited to mnemonically conveying emotion and generating empathy, and line drawings by early humans that capture the idea of spatial, sequential patterning through the rousing abstractions of “art.” The chapter concludes by discussing the impact of both language and literacy policies, and contemporary technological changes, on the uses and cognitive corollaries of literacy.