How the Alphabet May Have Destroyed Goddesses

Once upon a time, goddesses reigned supreme, and ancient humans worshiped the primordial powers of Isis,Aphrodite, Inanna, Nuwa and others – deities with great powers.

但是女神的年龄逐渐减弱。阳刚之神以前沦为神圣儿子或恋人的角色，引起了人们的关注，而高高的女神在各自的万神殿中脱颖而出。

What brought about the change? Some historians and anthropologists have looked to larger cultural shifts in the ancient world, such as the 10,000 B.C.E. agricultural revolution. After all, this was the end of the hunter-gatherer dynamic. A place became something you could own, slavery became profitable and male hunters took to conquest to regain their lost status.

Other commentators have pointed to the growth of civilization itself.人类学家Sherry B. Ortner, for instance, has credited the tendency to align masculinity with culture and femininity with nature. As the former arises through the domination of the latter, the shift impacts femininity in general.

But what if the change were more internal? What if the root cause for a shift from a more egalitarian, goddess-centered culture to one of patriarchy and misogyny stemmed from the acquisition of writtenlanguage?

那是1998年的书中的中心论点“字母与女神：单词和形象之间的冲突" by American surgeon, author and inventor Leonard Shlain (1937-2009). Joe McCormick and I explored the topic in a pair of Stuff to Blow Your Mind episodes and, while the hypothesis might not win you over, it will certainly make you rethink the power of literacy and patriarchy.

One of the key questions Shlain poses is this: What if written language, especially alphabetic language, fosters a patriarchal outlook in the mind?

"The alphabet," wrote Shlain, "through its emphasis on linearity and sequence, caused the left side of the brain of those who learned it to hypertrophy, resulting in a marked cerebral dominance of one lobe over the other. Metaphorically, the mind listed to one side, as one carrying an unevenly distributed load."

Shlain's hypothesis builds off, in some ways, Robert K. Logan's alphabet effect hypothesis, which proposes that a communication medium is an active force in creating new social patterns and perceptual realities. This is also the central idea of Marshall McLuhan's famous expression "the medium is the message." But why exactly would written language lead to the abandonment of goddesses and the subjugation of women?

Shlain在他的书中辩称，无论性别如何，每个人都具有女性和阳刚的前景，但是由于我们的特殊进化和狩猎者的过去，这些观点在男性和女性人类中变得更加整理。每个前景也与人脑的特定叶有关。这是他们崩溃的方式：

这个想法是，由于书面语言本质上是线性的，顺序的和还原的，因此在古代文化文化中促进了左脑的主导地位。兴发登录m xf839 com甚至没有字母的中国写作系统，都取决于线性和抽象记录图。换句话说，书面语言促进了猎人的心态，而不是整体养育者。

Shlain devotes the bulk of "The Alphabet Versus the Goddess" to discussing historical examples from around the world that support his hypothesis. But the oldest, that of ancient Sumer, presents the concept quite well.

苏美尔人是最早已知的历史美索不达米亚文明，并拥有充满强大女神的多神殿万神殿，例如Nammu和Nisba。但是，大约在公元前1700年，马尔杜克神升起，在此过程中杀死了原始女神提亚马特。这个日期恰逢汉穆拉比的一生，他给了我们Code of Hammurabi.

You might remember the Code of Hammurabi as being one of the world's oldest deciphered writings, but it's also notable for its vicious subjugation of women. One-fourth of the law related to the restriction of female rights. It prescribs brutal violence for crimes such as speaking out against one's husband or taking a second husband, which seems to have been an earlier practice.

Shlain's hypothesis is radical and perhaps unprovable, but it forces us to think carefully about the power language holds over our cognitive faculties – and question humanity's largely patriarchal history and belief systems. Why are so few goddesses revered among modern worshipers? Why is the fight for gender equality still happening in an age of unprecedented technology and knowledge?

Pointing to media advancements in audio, video and photography, Shlain expressed his hope for a new golden age of right-hemispheric tolerance, caring and respect for nature.

Just don't get impatient. It takes a while for a species to change its mind.