From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Sat May 24 2003 - 09:24:39 MDT
On Sat, May 24, 2003 at 09:05:51PM +1000, Damien Broderick wrote:
> At 10:27 AM 5/24/03 +0200, Anders wrote:
>
> >to my knowledge no
> >hunter-gatherer societies did use writing until very recently, if at
> >all.
>
> HG Australian aborigines (or Kooris) used what they now call `message
> sticks', or tharunkas. I don't know more than that, but they were engraved
> with what looks like code, but perhaps were sacred iconographic images or
> maps passed along a liturgical `dreaming' track, rather than messages as
> we'd understand them.
Interesting reference. According to
http://apc-online.com/twa/communications.shtml "They used message
sticks carved with illustrations that reminded the carrier of the
content of the message, and showed the recipient that the message
was genuine. " They seem to have acted both as a memory aid,
passport and authentification:
http://www.culturelanguage.com.au/aborigines/signs_signals_and
barter_ch30/
"Message sticks were also very commonly used between tribes.
Every tribe had its messenger, whose life was held sacred by the
neighbouring tribe when in the performance of his duties, which
were the conveyance of messages from the tribe to its neighbours
concerning arrangements for places of meeting, either for fight
or corroboree. And most of these messengers would carry with them
message sticks-carved pieces of wood, flat or round, from four to
six inches long, an inch wide, and a third of an inch thick. The
edges of the flat stick carried by a messenger would be notched,
and the surface covered with indented lines or squares, and
coloured with red ochre. For a long time the whites thought that
the notches and carving themselves formed the message, but it was
subsequently discovered that the sticks were simply passports
ensuring the messenger's safety through territory perhaps of
hostile tribes across which he would have to pass before reaching
the tribes to whom he was carrying the message. The messenger
would generally carry the stick in his head-band, and kept note
of the time occupied by the journey by marking one of his arms
with a stripe of clay for each day, another man in the tribe also
keeping tally in a similar manner. On arriving at his
destination, the messenger would deliver his message to the most
important men of the tribe, who listened with great interest, and
ordered the women to supply the messenger with food, after which
he would return to the quarters occupied by the single men, and
silently await the answer to his message, upon receiving which he
would return.
Messengers were sometimes sent to absent friends bearing a string
saturated with the blood of the sender, as an intimation to come
to him speedily."
Fascinating. Doesn't seem to be writing, but an interesting
social system for message handling.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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