Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society

Name: Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780521339629

ISBN-10: 0521339626

ISBN-13: 9780521339629

Edition: 1986

Authors: Jack Goody

List price: $34.99

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Description:

This book assesses the impact of writing on human societies, both in the Ancient Near East and in contemporary Africa, and highlights some general features of social systems that have been influenced by this major change in the mode of communication. Such features are central to any attempt at the theoretical definition of human society and such constituent phenomena as religious and legal systems, and in this study Professor Goody explores the role of a specific mechanism, the introduction of writing and the development of a written tradition, in the explanation of some important social differences and similarities. Goody argues that a shift of emphasis from productive to certain…

Book details

List price: $34.99
Copyright year: 1986
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication date: 12/18/1986
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 232
Size: 5.43" wide x 8.43" long x 0.75" tall
Weight: 0.550
Language: English



Studies in Literacy, Family, Culture and the State: an introduction


Preface



The word of God


The concept of 'a'/'the' religion


Boundaries


Change


Obsolescence


Incorporation or conversion


Universalism and particularism


Cognitive contradictions in the general and the specific


Specialization: priests and intellectuals


Endowment and alienation


The twin bureaucracies


Organizational and structural autonomony


The Great and Little Traditions: spirit cults and world religions


Writing and religion in Ancient Egypt


Writing and religion in other early civilizations


Ritual and writing



The word of mammon


The origin of writing and the ancient economy


Writing and the temple economy


Writing and the palace economy


Writing and the mercantile economy


Writing and individual transactions


Writing and the economy in Africa



The state, the bureau and the file


Bureaucracies


The administration of early states with writing


Internal administration


External administration


The administration of states without writing


External administration


Internal administration


Writing in the colonial and national administrations


Writing and the political process



The letter of the law


The definition of law


Courts, constables and codes


Sources of law and changes of rule


Legal reasoning


Court organization


Legal forms


The expansion of writing and law in medieval England


The letter and the spirit of the law



Ruptures and continuities


Notes


Bibliography


Index